Affordable, fun 'toys'

As we approach Christmas, with stores going all out on the marketing of toys and people buying far too much for the children in their lives, I thought it was a good time to read The 5 Best Toys of All Time on GeekDad. It was posted at the beginning of this year and is a nice reminder of the simple pleasures children enjoy and fun sources of imaginative play.

I would add to his list, tape. Masking tape is especially good. Easy for little fingers to rip off and can be played with on its roll, pulling long stretches of it, tearing small bits off, sticking stuff together, and if an adult sticks a long wide strip to the floor and adds a black line down the middle, it becomes the perfect road for your child to drive their cars along.

What would you add to his list?
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Giving Christmas presents a personal touch

After last Christmas I told myself I would try to do mostly homemade presents for people next year. There are so many lovely things you can make to give people and presented in the right way, they can look great, as well as being all the more special for the time and thought that has gone into creating them. Here we are around Christmas time again and I completely forgot about that plan and have mostly done all my Christmas shopping!

For those of you looking for homemade gift ideas, I thought I would share a few of my own and also some links to suggestions I've seen and liked online:

FOOD: We made a couple of our favourite Italian nibbles and sent to family this year. One is the savoury taralli and the other is the twice-baked biscotti or cantuccini (almond biscuits). Both are quick to make and keep well for a few days in an airtight container.

Christmas cookies are a nice food item to make with chidren. If you have Christmas themed cookie cutters and some writing icing tubes, it's easy for them to help cut out and decorate the cookies.

Have a look at Stonesoup's 9 Christmas gifts to make at home for some original food gift ideas.

TREE ORNAMENTS: These are fun for children to make and the sort of thing that grandparents would really appreciate. For younger children, you could get some green felt and cut out Christmas tree shapes. With some glue, mini pompoms, glitter, sequins etc, your child can decorate it to their heart's content! Punch a hole in the top and tie some ribbon so they can be hung on the tree.

Paper plate angels are another decorative tree ornament that can be created simply with a bit of adult assistance.

These tree ornaments on The Simple Dollar are another good option and look pretty sturdy and long-lasting.

I love this cute pompom robin over at Nurture Store.

BEAUTY PRODUCTS: I bought some pretty glass bottles earlier this year that I planned to fill with homemade bath or massage oil and give as gifts. You can find simple recipes very easily, such as these.

Lip balm is another great beauty gift that you could make at home. Try this recipe from FIMBY.

STATIONERY: Photo printing websites offer easy ways to create personalised stationary which can be a lovely present for family members. Calendars with a different photo of your children each month, a notebook with a meaningful image on the front cover and diaries with various photos throughout can all easily put together. I use Photobox but everywhere seems to offer these same products.

For more hands-on creativity that gets your children involved too, this calendar using their drawings is a really nice idea, posted last year at Fab Mums.

Have you got any plans to make any Christmas presents for people this year? Are there things you have made in previous years that have been particularly successful? Do share any other ideas in the comments too.

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Business Mama - 8 Tips for Starting Your Own Business

This is a guest post by Kat Vitou, mother to a one-year old and a very inspiring business-woman. Since becoming a Mum, she left her career in magazine publishing to pursue her own ventures. She has set up a successful events business, writes regular magazine features and has another business set to launch next month!

Outlooks on motherhood and career differ for us all and depend on our own personal priorities. Whilst some of us are flying up the career ladder and keen to get back to it after a baby, others find their priorities have changed and decide to be a stay-at-home mum. There are a whole host of successful businesses set up by entrepreneurial mums who have used motherhood as a kickstart to launching a business that matters to them or who have taken an opportunity to pursue something they enjoy with the benefit of flexible working hours.

If you have made the decision not to go back to work, but you want to work for yourself now - here are 8 tips from a mummy who runs businesses without a nanny!

1. See this as the best opportunity - you are at home already so you have no complications


2. Have a really good think about what you are interested in to make sure you will continue with it


3. Do some research. Speak to other mums about your ideal casually and see what they think - mums are intelligent creatures so the feedback generally will be priceless


4. Develop a business plan. It doesn't have to be difficult but get your ideas written down, look at your spending, check out your market, think about your goal - do you want this to be your bread and butter?


5. Save some cash - not lots, but enough for you to not get in debt, this could be just £20 a month if that's all you can afford


6. Manage your time - with a little one this can be a struggle but if you really want it, it's possible. Instead of watching pointless TV when they have gone to bed, write a plan, build a website, get excited and do something with your brain


7. Find a mentor - someone who has done it and can help guide you - it also helps motivate you


8. Finally, take the plunge and stick through the hard times. If you want it you will achieve it!

How many of you work from home or have a business idea brewing?

Gift-giving

My son and I are going to a 1st birthday party today. There are quite a number of first birthdays around this time, due to the friends I've made with similarly aged babies to my son. Then there's Christmas not so far away......  Choosing gifts for children can be difficult or maybe it's just my own inexperience. With such a bewildering array of toys for children, it can be hard to pick out something.

I recently read an article called 'Economically Shopping for Christmas Toys' and have provided the link at the end of this post for you to read. A couple of points stood out for me:

- Kids can only soak in so much fun before it gets overwhelming and you are wasting your money. It seems many parents want their children to have lots of gifts to open so the fun never ends but maybe the parents/grandparents are the ones having more fun watching the gifts being opened, rather than the child appreciating all the new toys.

- Resist the urge to wrap a bunch of cheap toys just for the impact. Buying a few quality toys that will last for years is much more economical. Quality, not quantity is definitely a good adage to follow and it's nice to have toys that siblings or other friends and family can continue to enjoy.

When I think of some of the best presents given for our son, the hand-made gifts certainly stand out. Some of our family and friends gave us hand-made blankets, a rug, hand-knitted jumpers and a mix CD for the baby and us to enjoy. Every time we use these things we think of the people who gave them to us. There's a great deal of value in the kindness and thought behind these gifts.

Are there particular gifts that you and your children have really appreciated and enjoyed? I'd also be interested to hear how do you do gift-giving in your family.

Read the article, 'Economically Shopping for Christmas Toys' here.
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Mummy Zen's Money-Saving Tips

Children can be expensive little treasures. You don’t need me to tell you about the wealth of temptations out there which encourage you to spend. Then there’s the small day-to-day things that all add up, like the lattes for your walks around the park.....

I therefore present to you some Mummy Zen tips for saving money and still having fun:

• Babysitting swap: for evenings out, but also take it in turns to leave your child with a couple of mums during the day. They can look after their own children plus yours while you go out shopping or to get a haircut etc.


• Coffee mornings and playdates at home: rotate with your friends to share the hosting.


• Creative play: make some toys at home. Cleaned, empty plastic bottles or containers can be filled with beans/rice/pasta to make rattling toys; fill a bottle with water and add some glitter; older children can use things like empty cereal boxes, egg boxes and kitchen towel rolls to make all kinds of spaceships, robots etc.….


• Lend, borrow, swap: if you have mum friends with children a few months behind or ahead of you, you can lend and borrow clothes, toys and baby equipment or organise a toy/clothes swap party.


• Local library: many host free baby/toddler activities like singing and storytime sessions and you can check out all the parenting/weaning/fiction books you want and rent dvds at low cost. Register your baby with their own library card and they get no late fees! Ideal for borrowing story books so you're not re-reading the same old books at home.


• Shop on-line: free or discounted prices, both new and second-hand, here are some websites I like to use which sell all kinds of baby and child items:

www.ilovefreegle.org – get stuff for free & help keep landfills empty

www.beansprog.com

www.ebay.co.uk

www.netmums.com – check out the ‘Nearly New’ board

Do you have any money-saving tips to share?