Handmade with love

With so many birthdays fast approaching and trying to keep within my family budget. I have decided to hand make my gifts, I'm not really sure if a handmade present can compete with a store-bought present and am extremely nervous in giving a handmade present in today's society. So I decided that I would only give something that I would be happy to receive. Now I haven't sewn since school and to be honest the thought scared me as I am a bit of a perfectionist and tend to procrastinate about things if I don't think I will be able to do it. I eventually gave it a go and am actually quite excited at the results. So I thought I would share with you my latest creations.

10 activities to do, for when you hear...."I'm bored"

I was searching some websites today looking for some Easter activities we could do with Miss EJ. I know I'm a little early on the Easter department, but I am trying to find something which we will be able to do together as a family and hopefully turn into a tradition. While looking for ideas I came across this article written by Lauren Rowland, "10 boredom-busting activities that beat TV" which I thought may come in handy for those rainy days ahead. You can read the full article at http://www.kidspot.com.au/MySpot-home-10-boredom-busting-activities-that-beat-TV+4862+173+article.htm which includes lots of different ideas for each activity.

10 boredom-busting activities that beat TV

“Mum, I’m soooo bored! Bored! BORED! Can we watch TV?” Regardless of how many toys and games kids have, the lure of TV is strong – and the temptation for us to hand over the remote to get some quiet-time is even stronger.
But while TV is great as an occasional treat, it’s by no means an actual activity and won’t do a whole lot for your child’s development. Get your kids off the couch and into one of these 10 fab kids’ games and activities that will not only help them learn, but will be so distracting they’ll totally forget about the TV!

1. Get crafty - Kids love craft. Not only will some glue, paper and crayons ban your littlie’s boredom and silence the call of the TV, craft encourages creativity and co-ordination too.

2. Read a book - Don’t forget the age-old activity of reading as a TV alternative. Not only does story-time support further reading down the track, it will ignite your little’s imagination and creative thinking too.

3. Have an indoor picnic - The perfect TV alternative for a rainy afternoon is an indoor picnic. Simply pop down a blanket, get out the plastic cups and plates, serve up some yummy treats and use teddies as stand ins for extra guests.

4. Make play dough - Play dough is nothing but unrestrained creative squishiness – far more appealing than a repeated episode of Dora! (See our February blog for a great play dough recipe)

5. Go on a Treasure hunt - Want to perk up your bored bunch? Excite them with a treasure hunt! It’s super easy and best of all, kids will be nowhere near the television. Remember any Easter egg hunt idea can easily be modified for any time of the year.

6. Book a playdate - When kids are among kids the drive to watch TV dramatically lessons – and they certainly won’t be bored! Plus, play dates improve social skills and help your child make lifelong friendships.

7. Help out with chores - “Ha!” you say! But in all seriousness, getting the kids to help out around the house can be achieved – especially if you turn housework into a game.

8. Get into cooking - Kids love getting their fingers dirty in the kitchen which makes cooking one of the greatest television diversions ever! Check out these easy recipes your mini masterchef will love to make.

9. Throw a tea party - A fancy tea party is a bit more upscale than going on an indoors picnic, and sure to delight any bored little princesses. Set up a table fit for her guests (which can be siblings, friends, you, dolls - or even imaginary friends!) and serve up some juice as ‘tea’ and some yummies. What TV?

10. Hold a puppet show - Banish boredom by acting out stories with a puppet show. Your kids can even re-enact their favourite TV shows or movies if they like – but there’s little chance they’ll want to.

Miss EJ's favourite activity this week is to build a cubby using the dining chairs and a few blankets, and to sit in there and read books with her dollies and teddies.
What is your little one's favourite activity this week? We would love for you to share it with us.

PS. If your in Perth this weekend, don't forget the teddy's bear picnic at the Zoo on Sunday! http://www.perthzoo.wa.gov.au/Whats-On/Events/Teddy-Bears-Picnic/

Children grow so fast, but keeping them well dressed does not need to be expensive.

With winter fast approaching, have you started looking at your little one's winter wardrobe and found they have outgrown all of last years clothes, but they are still in excellent condition and are too good to throw away. Would you like to make some extra cash or perhaps exchange your children's clothes for items in there current size?

From 1 Mum 2 Another - Children's clothing Exchange is your answer, we offer a friendly professional service for selling great quality maternity and children's wear online. It is super easy to use and doesn't require you to pay pricey memberships, item listing or payment processing. All you need to do is clean out your closets and set aside your gently used maternity and/or children's clothing and post them to From 1 Mum 2 Another and we will take care of the rest.

For information about how to become a member and start selling today, please contact us via our online contact form. www.from1mum2another.com/contact.htm

Recipe for playdough

Today we decided to make playdough together for the first time. Playdough is fun, easy and excellent for creativity. It can also be very cost effective if you make your own. All you need is a few simple ingredients.

Basic playdough recipe

Ingredients
1 cup salt
2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons oil
3 teaspoons cream of tartar (secret to longer lasting playdough)
2 cups of boiling water
food colouring as required (I used wiltons icing colour)

Method
Mix ingredients together and enjoy!

Why not try adding something extra to make it a different experience for your little one. I added some edible glitter for some extra sparkle, but you could try some macaroni or rice to make it bumpy, even vanilla or peppermint essence to make it smell yummy.

Do you have any ideas of different things you could add to playdough? We would love for you to share them with us.

Cost Free Ways to Give Baby's Brain a Work Out

It's an unseasonably wet day today, which means if you are anything like us you will be stuck indoors and looking for lots of different activities to keep your baby occupied.  Belinda Butler, in her 'Brainy Baby' Practical Parenting magazine article shares the following cost free activities that use everyday things found around the home to not only keep baby entertained but also help boost their cognitive skills!

Keep a lid on it!
Raid the kitchen cupboards to find plastic containers of varying size, shape and colour.  Pop some interesting things - such as egg rings, measuring cups and pegs - into the containers and put the lids on, but not too tightly.  Show your baby how the lids can be removed and put back on.  Allow her time to explore the containers on her own.
What are the benefits?

• Develops problem-solving skills as she matches lids to containers and works out how to remove contents.
• Helps her understand cause and effect as she opens different containers, takes out the contents, puts them back in, then repeats the task.

Chit-chat
Your voice is one of the most powerful learning tools your baby will have access to.  Talk as much and as often as you can about: Body parts, pointing to your baby's nose, ears, eyes, mouth and toes; What you are doing that day; Family and friends you visit; What's for lunch or dinner; Animals and the different noises they make; Toys he likes to play with.
What are the benefits?

• Language and listening skills are practised
• Develops knowledge of the world, what things are called and how they work
• Fosters feelings of being valuable and loved as you take the time to interact with him.

You've got mail
Before you throw the junk mail into the recycling, stop!  Sit your baby on your lap and look through the catalogues toether.  Point to pictures of familiar things such as people, home items, toys or food.  Say, "Look, there's some bread.  We eat bread, don't we? What else can you see?" Encourage her to point to items she recognises and name them for her.
If she doesn't point to anything, she may just be enjoying the sound of your voice and cuddle time, so keep talking and try again later.
What are the benefits?

• Develops memory as she recalls things she has seen before
• Builds knowledge of the world as she discovers new items
• Works on language skills as she puts labels to what she sees
• Increases self-esteem as she spends some close, quality time with you

Bits and bobs in a box
In a shoebox or a large plastic bowl, place items your baby sees every day - shoes, a toothbrush, a soft hairbrush.  Take each item out one by one, saying, "What is this? It's your brush, isn't it? What do you do with your brush?" Hand it to him and let him do something with the brush.  If he hasn't started to brush his hair himself you could say, "Here you go, you brush your hair." Then, put all the items back into the box and allow him to explore them without any prompting.
What are the benefits?

• Develops memory skills as he recalls each item's use
• Problem solving skills are needed to work out how to use each item
• Develops coordination as he manipulates the objects
• Builds on his knowledge of the world as he learns about objects he sees everyday
• Increases self-esteem as he practices and masters new tasks. 

If you have some thrifty game ideas too, we would love to hear from you! Please feel free to comment below.

DIY Swimming Lessons

We have just came home from an amazing week away in sunny Lakes Entrance.  Relaxing in and around the heated indoor pool at the resort was one of the highlights of the holiday.  Jordan proved to be a vertiable water baby.  Whether it was splashing around in our arms or floating alone relaxed in his inflatable swim ring, he was very happy in the pool.  Which has got me thinking about the best way to continue his love affair with water now that we are home.

When I first attended a mother's group last year, many of the Mum's talked about enrolling their babies in swim classes.  At the time I didn't want to take on another weekly commitment so signing up to a term of professional lessons was not for me.  But now that Jordy is a bit older I think some sort of water familiarisation program would be a fun activity we could share together on the warm days ahead and great a first step in building water awareness and safety.

In a recent Nurture magazine article, Aquatics and Recreation Victoria chief executive Ian Swan says giving children a good introduction to water safety is a vital area of parenting.  Ian's organisation runs the VICSWIM program.  "You can do water familiarisation with babies but formal programs begin with VICSWIM at age 4," Ian says.  "By that age children have more spatial awareness and are more physically able and better able to follow simple instructions so you can communicate with them effectively."

What I have decided to do is have a go at teaching Jordan water familiarisation myself and look into getting professional swim classes as he gets a little bit older.  Since I have no idea where to start teaching a baby how to swim I turned to the Internet and found a fantastic online resource called uSwim Australia. 

uSwim is a free community service which shows you how to teach children of all ages to swim. "The program works by watching instructional videos at home, printing our free lesson plans and then heading to the pool to teach," says uSwim Founder Ben Douglas. "uSwim is provided by Aquatic Achievers, a swim school organisation that has been operating for over 40 years and currently conducts over 300,000 lessons per year."

Armed with the same techniques used by the professionals - if not the patience, I feel ready to attempt some DIY baby swim lessons. Wish us luck!

Mortgage Zappers

Paying off a mortgage can sometimes seem like an impossible task.  Ashley Ormond, author of 101 Ways to Get Out of Debt and on the Road to Wealth, tells us that with a few savvy tricks - and a little discipline - we could be sitting in our own, debt-free home faster than you can say, well, bye-bye mortgage.

I don't have to tell you that having no debts means less stress and less worry, and that can mean a healthier, more enjoyable life.  To help make the whole mortgage experience a lot less daunting, I've included an extract below from an article by Helen Hawkes in the Australia Today magazine which shares some of Ashley's pointers:

Pay $1 more a day
Most people get a shock when they find out how much they still owe on their mortgage even though they have been paying it off for years.  That's because at the start of the loan you are mainly paying interest, not reducing the principle.  But pay off more than you have to and you can beat the banks at their own game.  Even if you increase your repayments by just $1 a day, you could save around $15,000 in interest and cut almost a year off the average mortgage (of $300,000).

Don't use your mortgage to go on a holiday
Regdraw mortgages sound very attractive but if you want to get out of debt, don't do it!  You'll be paying fo that holiday in Hawaii into your retirement.  As Ashley puts it: "Paying off the mortgage once is hard enough.  Why would you ant to repay money you have already repaid once?"

Make payments more often, without any pain
You probably won't notice if you pay fortnightly rather than monthly, but your mortgage will.  In fact, you'll end up paying the equivalent of an extra month's payment each year and save around $70,000 in interest and cut more than four years off the loan term.

Weigh up the cost of instant gratification
A new television or an expensive dinner is one of life's treats.  But add up the cost of those few indulgences; that money could have been used to pay out your loan faster, saving you thousands.  Then think about all the guilt-free treats you'll be able to enjoy when you're out of debt.  Motivated? Keep a money jar and funnel all that cash into it that would have been used for treats.  You'll soon have a mortgage windfall.

If you have a money saving tip to share we would love to hear from you! Please comment below or contact us using the form at our website: http://www.from1mum2another.com/

This is general information only and is not intended to be used as financial advice.

October is Buy Nothing New Month

This October the Salvos Stores' are having their very first 'Buy Nothing New Month'.  Obviously I am a huge fan of secondhand shopping - it saves you money and reduces the impact on our environment all at the same time!  But is it also the path to a life less stressful?

According to Clive Hamilton, author of Affluenza, When too much is never enough “The Western world is in the grip of a consumption binge that is unique in human history. We aspire to the lifestyles of the rich and famous at the cost of family, friends and personal fulfillment. Rates of stress, depression and obesity are up as we wrestle with the emptiness and endless disappointments of the consumer life.”

Hamilton says that while it takes some conscious effort, more and more Australians are choosing to ignore advertisers, stop wasting money on consumer products, and taking back the time to spend on things that really matter.

There’s never been a more perfect time to start shopping more sustainably and save some money in the process too. The Salvos have dedicated October as Nothing New Month . Their challenge is simple: don’t buy anything new in October. Nothing (apart from the essentials like food of course).This initiative aims to show that going green doesn’t have to be expensive, but that by adapting our attitudes, we can start on a money saving path to socially responsible consumption.

As busy parents it is not always easy to find the time to drive around searching for goodies at the different op shops, that is one of the reasons behind our online store. At From 1 Mum 2 Another you can browse, from the comfort of your own home, our everchanging range of preloved baby and kids wear. Our store is all about allowing customers to spend their time and money more thoughtfully.

So this October, think about where stuff comes from, where it is going and what the alternatives are.

Get into op shops, markets, garage sales, and online second-hand selling sites like http://www.from1mum2another.com/ to experience the joys of a life less wasteful!

For more information about the Salvos Stores' Buy Nothing New Month Initiative see their website http://www.nothingnew.com.au/  If you choose to participate in their challenge I would love to hear about it - share your comments with us here!