My Monday making: Preparing for Father's Day! part 1

Father´s day is just around the corner, and I am looking for some cute gifts...  I already started to prepare all the little gifts that we´ll be giving daddy this year!I like to offer gifts that are really personal, and if I can make it, craft it or bake it, even better!
So basically this is what I am thinking about offering: Coupon booklets,
cupcakes and chocolaty treats and a Photobook from Snapfish!

1. Coupon Booklets

I have been searching for some inexpensive ideas for this years gift. I found that some of the most popular ideas are coupons booklets, and as I was searching for a cute one, and couldn´t really find one that I really liked... I decided that I should actually create one! So, I made several coupons pre-filled and a set to be filled later ... as a bonus I made a small envelope to put the coupons on. I will be sharing these with you today:

Here are the coupons to be filled later ....:

I never knew of precious some me time, or having a peaceful breakfast could be after having kids... I am sure that daddy will appreciate this! I know I would...
I left some unfilled, so daddy could reclaim something later on...
And finally the envelope to keep them:

These coupons are matching the photobook and the cupcake toppers below!

2. Cupcake toppers for chocolaty treats!

 If you  wish to, you can use these too....!As daddy reallyyyyyy loves his chocolate, so I always try to bake something chocolaty... This time around I will be baking soft-centred chocolate cupcakes!
I will show you later once I bake, how these turned out... If they look anything to show off...!
I also thought about serving strawberries with some chocolate topping.... I might do both, as daddy deserves all the chocolate treats I can think off....


3. Our  special gift, a Photobook!

And as for the special gift for this year....
....will be a photobook that I made in Snapfish...!
I wanted daddy to have a personal gift, and since we haven't been printing any photos that we have been capturing, I thought that this would be the perfect gift, a Photobook with all the little adventures of daddy and our little one from this past year!
I also ordered two more photobooks to later offer both granddads. It's father's day, and granddads are twice time fathers! They need something extra special too!

I had lots of fun creating all photobooks, Snapfish website is user friendly and is fairly quick upload the photos... But  most fun I had selecting themes and using all the embellishments available ...!
They have a large variety of photobooks available, you can select from different book sizes and book cover types. After you created your account at Snapfish, creating a photobook is simple. You have a main menu with the different stages of your photobook creation:

1. First you start to upload photos to a "photo album". This photo album will be stored on your account, and you can always use the photos from this photo album on other projects. 
2. Secondly you then select the photobook you want to create: For daddy, I created a 8''x8'' photobook with a custom cover. For granddads I selected a smaller size, 7''x5'' with a paper cover.
3. Then, you have to select a theme, I selected my favourite theme for Daddy "Tiny boy". The pages will be different through the book...
4. Now my favourite step, personalize, which does take a while if you like to personalize your book intensively, and explore all the embellishments available! This is the part where you place the photos and the embellishments available, which are a lot...!
5. Fifth and final step, review the book as it will be before ordering! 

If you prefer not to have any work, you can select a feature where Snapfish creates the photobook automatically, but then it wont have "your stamp" on. I never select this option... I really enjoy playing with all themes and embellishments and my photos.

If you are thinking about making a photobook  with Snapfish for father´s Day, your order has to placed until the 15th June.

I had a little glitch with my larger photobook though, as one page was not printed properly. However, I contacted Snapfish costumer service and I am waiting for a reprint! I used the online chat costumer service and they were quite helpful, and immediately resubmited my order without any extra costs.

I already wrapped the granddads photobook. I am on a recycling/upcycling phase, so I used some regular brown paper that I had around and added a cute bow!

For daddy I made a special gift envelope, using the same model I made for the coupons, but at a larger scale:

I used a blue card paper... I draw the lines to cut and to fold, using the photobook as a model. Then punched some holes to add the little bow... And here´s the final result:

And a little example of my cupcake toppers too:

Sorry about the low quality of my pics... I always end up taking some pictures at night...
Now, do picture the strawberry with a chocolate cover!
I will later post some pictures of all finished gifts! I just hope daddy likes his little gifts!

What about your? Are you getting ready for father´s day?

*Disclaimer*

Snapfish team gave me some credit to spent in their products, however, all  opinions stated on this post are my own.

I am linking up with:

 

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

 

 

 I am linking up with:

Saturday @ Bournemouth

We had a lovely Saturday during the past bank holiday weekend... The weather was simply amazing so we went to Bournemouth and enjoyed the sun properly by the seaside...

Nana gave cute baby boy a little set, with a little red shovel, salmon rake and a cupcake mould. We had lots of fun playing with those...trying to mould cupcake sand forms...!

He had lots of fun, just playing with the set and the sand.... I do believe though that the shovel and the rake were not necessary at all for some sand fun,...  as  the sand was more that enough....! He still loves just to feel it trough his little fingers...

We also went for a walk by the sea...

Not too long now until he is able to walk all by himself... he is becoming more confident each day.
I love these days...

How about you, did you have much fun this past weekend?

  

I linked up with:

 

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

 

 I am linking up with:

Baby & Me: Indoor fun, Lego Time!

This past couple days my baby has been under the weather.

He was running a bit of fever during this weekend, and only today I feel he got better. 

So, we couldn´t have our regular walk, play at the playground or hit the park. This past weekend was all about indoor play... And try to survive ... an entertain a not very happy toddler.

So we had to keep him entertained when he was feeling better and wanting to play. He has tons of toys, I am so astonished at how many toys he has in just less than 1 and half years!

He has some favourites, and I have to admit that I have lots of fun with him and.... Lego!

Some months ago we bought him a small table so that he could play there...
I think he feels a bit more grown up when sitting on his little chair and playing over the table.

I am a big fan of Lego play, really. Besides being very fun to play with, babies are also training his skills, fine motor skills and cognitive skills as they are also developing eye-hand coordination.

So I play Lego with him every time possible... And that would keep him entertained for a couple of hours.

I could be looking at him playing a whole day and would never grow bored. I watch him learning new skills all the time... The way he mixes the blocks, or used the little animals... Or you know just throwing the blocks out the box and spreading those on the carpet...its such an imaginative play either way!

Yes, I know. We have a big fan of Lego play here!

What do you do play with for some indoor fun? 

Let me know all about it so I can try it with my lo too!

I am linking up with:

My Monday Making: Reversible baby leggins

I don´t think that this little project of mine was listed on my future projects to do list... But my other half had some old t-shirts that was about to give away... and you know that babies are always needing some leggings, so I decided to clean the dust from my sewing machine and make some reversible leggings. Its a way to save money, and upcycle some old t-shirts!

I wont be sharing a full tutorial, first because I am in no position to give any advice in how to better do this, as there are pretty good tutorials out there, I will however share some links of some tutorials that I read and partially followed. I will also explain some steps that I changed, either to make it easier or because well, simply I had no idea what that tutorial was trying to explain!

So this will involve sewing (you would never guess that would you?), 2 old t-shirts, a pair of leggings that your baby uses (so you can copy the template) and lots of time (if you are a beginner sewer as I am)...! I think that overall  this took me at least 6-8 hours altogether. Even though the tutorials that I used are indeed offering a pdf template, you better use a model of leggings that you have at home, mostly because you know that that model fits your baby. I found myself printing and cutting some templates to later on realize that that would never fit my baby!

Basically,  I copied a model of leggings onto some newspaper and cut it. I then cut the t-shirts and the pieces for both leggings following my template. To make the leggings I read this tutorial from made by Rae,  that pretty much explains the basics of how to sew a pair. I wanted to make reversible ones, so I also read this one  and this other one. I made mine a bit simpler I guess, I ended up by having two independent pair of leggings, and sew them together by using a simple hem (wrong sides together). I thought about using a French hem too, but then I decided that a simple hem would work, as it would save some fabric.

When I first finished the first pair, my little human tried it on, so I would know that the finished model would actually fit! Once I knew it would, I made the second one.

And here it is, a pair of reversible leggings ready and at use!

You can see from these pictures that I top-stitched every seam for a more "professional" look.

I also added a back pocket to this side of the leggings. The other one is much simpler... and has lots of mistakes too!

The leggings are not perfect, far from it, but they work perfectly for what I intended... They are wearable for a day out at the park and also to be left at the nursery in case a replacement is needed. And its a great way to upcycle an old  t-shirt!

 What do you think about my reversible leggings?

...Feel free to ask some questions, I would be more than happy if I can be of any help!

I am linking up with:

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

 

I am linking up with:

Blogging: A new structure for my posts!

I have been thinking about structuring my blog for a while now, and organize my posts on daily categories. This way, you, my lovely readers, would know what to expect from each day! 

Even though I do think that structuring is a really good idea, and I would have a more organized blog,... at the same time it really scares me as I would have to follow a plan.... And to be honest I am terrible at following plans!

But, starting from next week hopefully I will be posting following these categories:

Monday: My Monday Making 

On Monday I will write posts about all things DIY, as tutorials or project ideas. So here you´ll find news about how my sewing is (not) improving, as my sewing machine is enjoying her stay in my closet, or upcycling or recycling ideas, more reupholstering projects..., drawings, paintings... basically everything crafty.

Tuesday: Tuesday's Style

This day will be dedicated to my ramblings about interior design, fashion and style, or how I adjust to a new body shape. My post-pregnancy shape is still the same as I left the hospital, after 17 months (with no virtual exercise, even though I bought a magazine with some useful exercises, that I am not following...at all!), meaning, big tummy....

I might just post about a wish list (like this post) either for mummy, baby, or our home...

To be quite honest, I don´t usually post on Tuesdays. And I am completely out of either fashion and style.... And starting to exercise and follow the recommended exercises of my old magazine?? Dream on! But it is really easy to write and grow my wish list!

Wednesday: Day off blogging!

Sorry, I definitely won’t be blogging on Wednesdays. That is usually my fieldwork day!

Thursday: Baby and me!

I will write about my adventures as a mummy on Thursday...! This is as topic that I have never-ending stories to share... This would be the category where you would find my comics too (remember this post? And this? And this other one?)... Would be really nice to draw some more comics, but again... it has been so difficult to find the needed time!

I usually link up with Honest Mum.

Friday: Friday's thoughts

On Friday I shall ramble about current news, old news, and intimate thoughts, whatever my mind muses about...!

Basically it will work as an open category. I might even gather some courage and invite other bloggers to write a guest post! Or maybe feature an interview? I would love that... I do however need to gather some courage to do it!

On Fridays I link up with Verily Victorial Vocalizes.

Saturday: Baby and me, our day out!

On Saturdays we always go for an outing. I will be posting about our little adventures, and if we find a really cool outdoor place that is baby friendly I will blog about it, so that you can visit it too!

You can find me linking it at Coombe Mill!

Sunday: My Sunday Photo || The ordinary moments

I have been posting every Sunday a photo that describes an ordinary moment for a time now, and it´s something that I quite enjoy and have been quite consistent too!

I love this category, as by looking back, it´s so easy to remember this little moments that are so ordinary, but amazing at the same time! This is what our life is truly about, and these little moments are so worth remembering! Our life’s are only meaningful because of this little ordinary moments...

So I will continue to do this, and I always link this moment with Onedad3girls and mummydaddyme.

I will do my best to always post on Mondays and Sundays. And if I post on a daily basis (minus wednesdays)...Good for me, but that’s not a sure thing...! 

I am juggling so much at the moment that having two posts per week is quite an achievement!

Quite ambitious, right?

 

I am linking up:

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

 

 

 I am linking up with: