review this + giveaway : stuck on you drink bottle

in my few years of parenting i have been through a ridiculous amount of sippy cups and drink bottles. recently i have test driven the stuck on you drink bottle with my 4yo daughter, and to be really honest, my 18mo daughter too!

i need my children's drink bottles to fit a bit of a criteria. might sound silly, might sound a bit o.t.t., and well that's just part of my makeup! the low down on this drink bottle... it fits in the drink holder on miss 4's carseat. check. and in the front of the car too. check. i've had a couple that have been too big around the base to fit in snuggly, so i love this point. second win is that i have ditched the nappy bag and am now on handbag status again. this drink bottle is a 500ml capacity, so it fits standing up in my handbag, so is easy to keep organised and can be grabbed straight out with no fumbling around. love that. the pop cap is still quite firm for miss 4 to open and close herself, which i like because it means i know that a certain 1yo can't sneak it away and tip water all over, well, everything! the designs are so pretty, love it personalised with a name, means it's easily recognisable at daycare, or anywhere we go that involves other drink bottles. it's stainless steel and bpa free. check, check and check.

 

miss 18-months-going-on-4-years {sheesh}, has proven her ability to drink from this drink bottle also. which is great. big girl status! so a frankie design will be hiding under our christmas tree for her this year.

 

i've teamed up with stuck on you and we are going to give away one personalised drink bottle, valued at $24.95 and posted free to you. wanna know how you can go in the draw to win one? firstly, go visit the stuck on you website :: www.stuckonyou.com.au :: find the drink bottles and choose your favourite. come back here to this blog post and leave a comment below {if you are leaving a comment as anonymous, please leave me an email address, or even email it to me, so that if you win i can contact you} with what design you will choose if you win one. pretty easy, and well worth the effort if you do win!

 

i will randomly draw out a winner on monday morning {december 10}.

 

good luck!

3 ingredient pancake recipe

it's saturday 6am. the mini me's are up and at em'. there's no weetbix in the house. there's no banana's or fruit. the pre-schooler is hungry and doesn't "like" toast. of course. mummy's tired. sigh. mummy sucks it up, takes a breath, puts her happy face on and makes a coffee. actually, the coffee came first. "who wants pancakes" she suggests in a loud fun filled voice. "meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"...

the easiest thing to make with the biggest satisfaction ever. 1 cup of self raising flour, 1 cup of milk and 1 egg. combine well and away you cook. get your cookie cutters out and shape them into love hearts. add mayple syrup. and what the heck - add ice-cream too. serve on adorable love mae melamine. eat.

happy kids. happy mummy. happy start to the weekend!

loving : beaneasy {dream hug hide}

iphone italk : little crew

you may have seen this cute little bird flapping his wings around the place lately. he is the mascot for a cute iphone app called little crew. i don't know about you, but i am a sucker for anything that looks gorgeous, is fun, and has anything to do with kid's shopping. if you're the same, you're going to love little crew. at the moment the app is free, so grab out your phone and look it up, or click on the image above and grab it from itunes.

peta is a mum of 3 and the woman behind little crew. she has created an app that is "the luxe guide to children's shopping", and that it is. there are 5 categories in the app : clothes, travel, toys, accessories and featured. each product that is reviewed has been road tested personally by peta and her children.

a while ago, peta road tested our new kids tea's : the tea party and superhero juice by she-tea {and he-tea}. you can find peta's article on our tea's here.

if you're on facebook, the little crew app also has a facebook page which gives us snippets of bits and pieces that have been featured on the app. the app and page are both worth a download and a like. we recommend.

zzzoolights

have you seen the new zzzoolight lamps? i got to check them out on the weekend while i was down in sydney for the kids in style trade show. these are so super cool and will really set a statement for any room, be it a nursery, the kids room or the play room. now i am not a cat lover, but ever since my daughter met one of our friends cats, it's all meow meow meow in our house! so while we were sitting here, deciding which photo to put up with the post, she pointed at the screen to the cat lamp and said (and it's said really fast with no breath) "meow meow meow meow meow". now how can i refuse that?!

but more about the lamps... my gorgeous sponsor, bubba bling, is a stockist for these funky animal lamps. they are made from polypropylene sheet (so they are pretty much unbreakable), they're low voltage and they don't get hot to the touch. plus, they look cool and the kids will love having their favourite animal with them for bed time! they are $129.95 and you can find out more about them here.

some more of my daughter's favourites are the 'raffe' (giraffe) and the 'foof foof' (the cow which she thought looked like a dog). she also like the 'monking' (monkey), however there was no monkey lamp on the screen...?!

say it with momiji

it's coming up to valentines day and i love all the wonderful newsletters that come out at this time of year. momiji has thus far been my favourite, full of cute, cute and more cute! momiji dolls are small message dolls that only stand about 3 inches tall. inside each doll there is a tiny folded card for your own secret message. turn the doll upside down to find the message hidden underneath. in 2009 momiji produced a limited edition, set of 3, love dolls by malaysian artist kong soo (only 1000 sets worldwide to be precise), and although you can't purchase the set, you can purchase a single love doll from the momiji website. how bout that for a super cute valentines gift!

i gave my daughter a momiji doll for her 1st birthday. her momiji is dancedancedance, very appropriate at the time, as summer had just found her groove, so it always reminds me of summer dancing. i put a special little love note in it for her, and hopefully when she's old enough to read she will keep it somewhere safe and always have a read of my message every now and then to remind her of how much i love her.

the nursery fairy

when i was home for christmas, i just had to pop in and check out this divine little shop that i had seen online and heard so much about. the nursery fairy is a family owned and operated business, in my home town of wagga wagga. it came about when the owners designed a nursery for their friends as a gift back in 2002. from there, a service for designing themed nurseries and rooms in the country area had evolved. and so the nursery fairy was born.

the gorgeous little shop, aka the nursery fairy headquarters, has got all of the newest and latest nursery goodies, things for babies, things for big kids and things for the mum-to-be (i spied a cute little pregnancy journal in the shop when i called in). the nursery fairy continue to offer their decorating services, and also host baby showers either in store or out. you can even create your own baby registry and share it around with your family and friends so once baby is here, he or she can be spoiled from head to toe in nursery fairy goodies!

this was my favourite from the store, an orange fish pouf. i tried really hard to think of a way to attach it to our car so we could bring it back home, but my plan had no chance of surviving, our car was jam packed on the way back, i'm suprised we even fit ourselves in!

photo credit: skye rocket studio

along with the store, the nursery fairy has a gorgeous little blog and online store. make yourself known and say hi to jen and all of the nursery fairies.

found the perfect height chart

as my little poppet slowly approaches the 2 year old mark (and although i can hardly believe that), i'm a little excited to test out this double the height theory on her (i know, the small things in life excite me the most), to see if she's gonna be a shorty like her mum or six foot like her dad! so this has started a search in finding a groovy height chart for her. it didn't take me long at all, i'm totally smitten with the cocoon couture wood land height chart from bubba bling. it's exactly the style i had in mind, and much to my delight, it's even on sale! loving that! also loving that it comes with three acorn shaped pegs that you can write the kiddies names on. it comes packaged in the cutest cylinder, i'm thinking these would also make a pretty cool and different kind of birthday gift. i love it when you find what you're looking for!