Nursery - paper animals

More nursery inspiration I found whilst browsing chicmotherandbaby.com/au - these cute collages of animals are so cute and would be so easy to recreate yourself on a budget. I personally would put the paper images directly onto the wall - however if you wanted a room that could be changed easier then it would still look great if the images were painted/pasted onto canvases. You can pick up plain canvases pretty cheaply online and in big stores such as TK Maxx or Etc... 

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Nursery - Birds

As usual I have been scouring the web for inspiring ideas for our little one's nursery, and, thankfully, haven't been disappointed by today's finds. Went through some nursery pictures on 'Rate my Space' (ratemyspace.com) and found this absolutely adorable and completely Diy-friendly nursery. 

The nursery had a loose bird/woodland theme and this had been achieved in the colours aswell as all of the cute little details. 

The birds themselves were cut out of scrap-booking paper found on craft websites and in their local stationers and were glued onto the wall before being varnished over - i think they are a really nice idea, particularly as they are a neutral and long-lasting design so the parents won't need to remove them any time soon. Of course you can get lots of murals and stickers online but I like these better because of their individuality and fun... not to mention how budget friendly they are! 

xxx

Weaning

Many parents delay the start of weaning until their baby is at least six months old - however this tends to be because of the fact that the processed jars of food tend to be aged at 6+ months. Most doctors, health advisors and nutritionists agree that a baby is able to be weaned from the age of four months. 

During the first year of a baby's life most of the nutrition that they receive will be gained from their breast or formula milk intake - so as long as they are still receiving the right amounts of milk the baby loses no nutrition from being weaned at four months than they would later on. According to Annabel Karmel, a leading child nutritionist, it isn't a good idea to delay introducing solids any later than six months as a baby needs to learn to chew and swallow food. Also chewing encourages the development of muscles that are essential for speech. 

From four months the types of foods that are suitable for a baby are:

baby rice mixed with breast or formula milk, avocado, bananas, cooked apple and pear, parsnip, potato, carrot, squash and sweet potato. 

Image: babyccinoblog.com

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Recipe One

Ok so all the equipment you need to produce your own nutritional baby purees is a hand blender (or a normal blender although this is harder to clean) and some plastic ice cube trays. 

Making your own baby food is not only a hundred times healthier for them but is also one of the most effective ways of saving money - particularly if you use ingredients that you are also using for your own dinners. 

All you really need to do is blend the vegetables or cooked meat that you are using into a smooth puree, mixing with a little bit of the cooking water if you need to thin it out. You can then pour this puree into an ice cube tray and put it in the freezer. Once its frozen you can empty the cubes into a plastic freezer bag (labelled with the date) and this way you can reuse the ice cube trays too. Cooking in bulk and freezing in batches couldn't be easier - all you need to do is defrost your puree in the microwave or on the hob when its to be used. 

First vegetable puree - carrots

Steam or boil (in a small amount of water) 350g/12oz of carrots that have been peeled or chopped. 

Drain and puree with some of the cooking liquid until very smooth. 

This makes 8 portions and is ideal for freezing.

Baby Food

Unfortunately these days people are eating more and more heavily processed food - sales of microwave ready meals are on average twenty percent higher than sales of fresh produce and meals seem to revolve around spending as little time in the kitchen/eating as possible. 

This has also led to a rise in the use of processed jars of baby food that you see in the shops nowadays, and which most mothers use for their babies. Many of these baby food companies, including the big names such as Hipp Organics and Heinz replace real food products with water and thickening agents in their baby food - of course this food is then going to be nutritionally inferior to products made with fresh food. So according to testing by the CSPI the baby foods are nutritionally defunct, and not only that but they cost a lot more than similar regular foods that aren't marketed at parents.

For me this is a really important thing to understand - I don't like putting junk food into my body and i'm certainly not planning on putting junk food into our baby either! So when it comes to weaning Scott and I are planning to make all of our baby's food ourselves - this way we know exactly what the baby is eating and that the food doesn't have added fillers and sugar. 

It isn't actually particularly time consuming to make your own babyfood - particularly today when most people have a blender (or hand blender) and you can easily produce a big batch of food and freeze it ready to be used throughout the month. 

Because of the importance of this to me i'll be adding a new regular post - each week i'll be putting up a little bit of nutritional information or advice on baby feeding and a quick, easy and nutritional recipe for baby food. 

Hope you like it 

xxx

ps: have a look at the link for more information about the different findings concerning baby foods and their nutritional (and purse friendly) values: 

http://www.cspinet.org/reports/cheat1.html

Nursery Inspiration

How cute is this nursery? I love the tree on the wall and the cute leaves cut out of scrap-booking paper. This is the sort of design that we want to incorporate into the nursery for our little one. We will be going for a wildlife theme mixed with neutral colours for the base and brighter accessories. I'm going fabric hunting this week for some lovely patterned fabrics to turn into bunting and cushion covers. 

Scott and I were talking about painting a tree design onto the wall and turning it into a 'family tree' by attaching pictures of the baby's family and painting their names onto it.

xxx

Ice cream and Cakes

How about this for a cute, fun and retro wedding?

This cake and ice-cream board evokes the 1950s - bridesmaids in taffeta prom dresses and the groomsmen in bow ties.

Cakes, cherry pies and lemonade cocktails on the back lawn.

Sorbet colours, pastels and sunshine...

xxx