Sunday 16 December 2012

Last Minute Christmas Gifts for Baby

There's still time left to have your gifts for the new baby or Mum to Be delivered before Christmas and with up to 75% off the original prices, Christmas gifts don't get much better than this!

To save 50% off the marked price for all of the Christmas themed items in our Christmas category, simply use the code XMAS50 in the discount box at checkout at The Baby Shower Shop.
The discount is available on all Christmas products in this category, even if they are already reduced - that's a saving of up to 75% !

We wish you a very happy, safe and Merry Christmas!


Christmas gifts on sale at The Baby Shower Shop


Offer ends 25 December 2012 unless stock sold out before.
Discount only available to products in our Christmas category, shown in the image above.
To redeem this offer, you must enter XMAS50 in the discount box at checkout at www.thebabyshowershop.com.au
Discount can not be applied to orders prior to 16 December 2012. No rain checks.

Sunday 2 December 2012

How to make your own glitter and scented play dough

Playing with play dough is an all time favourite activity for children (even some grown-up ones!)
Home made play dough is wonderful. You get to choose the colours and the ingredients you need are most likely in your cupboard so you can make it anytime you want.

I like to play around with the 'standard' version of play dough and sometimes add glitter and food essence to make it smell nice - cinnamon essence is great around Christmas time!
Also, instead of cooking oil I often use Baby Oil (scented or regular). It feels great on your hands when playing with the finished play dough.




Ingredients


This recipe makes enough play dough to fill 2 x 500ml and 1 x 100ml containers
(although I tend not to be too precise with my measurements so if you followed the instructions exactly you would probably get enough for the two 500ml containers).

2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of cooking salt
4 tablespoons of Cream of Tartar
750ml of hot boiled water
2 tablespoons of oil (vegetable, olive or baby oil)
Food colouring
Craft glitter
Essence (strawberry, banana, cinnamon or whatever you choose)
Air tight container for storage.


Quick Directions (detailed directions and photos are below)


  1. Mix the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, cream of tartar, glitter) in a bowl and set aside.
  2. Pour 750ml of boiling water into a heat proof/resistant measuring jug. Add food colouring and essence to the water.
  3. Add the oil to your pan and set over low heat on your stove for about a minute.
  4. Once the oil is ready then add your dry ingredients to the pan and then follow immediately with adding the water to the pan.
  5. Stir the play dough continually as it cooks to ensure the colour is mixed through. This should take about 30 seconds to one minute.
  6. Turn the cooked play dough on to a suitable surface and let cool before kneading (don't try to knead it straight away or you will burn your hands).
  7. Once the play dough has cooled enough, knead it with your hands until the texture becomes smooth.

Your play dough is ready!
If you are not planning on using it straight away, store it in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out and going hard.


Detailed Directions


In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, cream of tartar and glitter) and set aside.

dry ingredients for play dough


Boil water then pour 750ml into a heat proof/resistant measuring jug. Then add food colouring and essence to the water (I used pillar box red colouring and strawberry essence for the play dough in the photos). Vary the amount of colouring depending on the shade you want to achieve.

Add the oil to your pan and set over low heat for about a minute or until you are able to swirl the oil around, coating the pan easily.

Once the oil is ready, add your dry ingredients to the pan and follow immediately with adding the water to the pan.



Stir the play dough continually as it cooks to ensure the colour is mixed through. The play dough is ready when the play dough has no visible water and the consistency can often look like lumpy mashed potato. This should take about 30 seconds to one minute.









Turn the cooked play dough on to your bench or wooden chopping board. Keep in mind the play dough is extremely hot so make sure the surface you are using is suitable for heat. (*HINT: if you are using food colouring in your play dough and putting the cooked play dough directly on to a laminex bench, the colour often seeps in to the laminex. To remove the stain after you have cleaned up, just wet the area and sprinkle bicarb soda on the stained area. Rub it around and remove it with a cloth. It will come straight out. You can also use baking paper on your bench to prevent the colour staining).




Let the play dough cool until it's warm to touch before kneading it. If you try to knead it immediately it will most likely burn your hands. Spreading the play dough out a bit using the wooden spoon and flipping it over a couple of times will help it cool down quicker.



Once the play dough has cooled enough, knead it with your hands until the texture becomes smooth.


Your play dough is ready!

home made glitter and scented red play dough after being kneaded


If you plan on storing the finished play dough, let it cool completely before placing in an air tight container. You may have to knead the play dough a couple of times as it cools to prevent a 'crust' forming.

play dough packaged in air tight tubs


Due to the high salt content in the play dough, you may find your hands dry out after kneading it, especially if making a few batches. Wash your hands thoroughly when finished and use some moisturising hand cream.

Enjoy!

Saturday 2 October 2010

Mel shares her baby shower story with photos!

We often receive absolutely beautiful emails from customers and Mel's was one of them. Her first email was in reply to her 'Order Recieved' email. She explained that she lived in a small town in Australia, in fact, it was the town furthest from the sea and the entire population was 35! Out of those 35 two of the women were pregnant and she was organising the baby shower. I replied to Mel's email saying we would love to see pictures of the big day. Yesterday afternoon, Mel sent through an email that made our week (it has been a long, hard week!). I have copied Mel's email so everyone can enjoy what was obviously a fun-filled baby shower! Thank you Mel! If I make it to Eromanga, you pull out the barbie, I will bring the cruisers!

Following is Mel's email to us...

Ok Ladies,

First of all thank you so very much for the order. It was EXACTLY as described and I could not have been happier with all of the products that arrived in mint condition due to the fabulous packaging. I will be recommending you to all and have already let everyone know the online address. Thank you Thank you Thank you

Let me tell you about the day...

Started with a baby quiz followed by a little game I called the Mama Marathon. Women were split into teams and it worked as a relay. My husband (god bless supplied all the extras). The teams had to dress a baby doll, put it in the pram, weave in and out of witches hats, hang wet washing on the line, weave back in and out and stop to pick up scattered toys along the way, then make a bed and return to the start. All blindfolded with the direction of one of their team mates. Tag the next team member and start all over again. (due to me organizing, I excluded myself haha, I am the smart one) We had women hugging trees, swearing at each other, vowing never to let each other look after children due to their filthy mouths, mum's to be nearly having their babes from laughing so hard and a whole lot of chaos with screaming, I said right not left!!! I made sure the washing was wet so when they picked it up they got covered in water!

The next game was a word game which i deleted the words of a story I had written about them and gave the teams a list of words with out seeing the story.

Example: type of housing
A noun (object)
body part
mans name
body part

It started ......Once upon a time their were two ladies named Rikki and Casey who lived in a ___________ and desired to have a __________. To get the show on the road they started rubbing their__________ against _______ followed quickly by touching his________________.

Well you get the idea. I would just like to say that more poor friends are having everything from shoes, dresses, forks, vibrators etc and the most disgusting team was the older ladies from the CWA!

We had 8 teams of 4 and 30 children. Our town tripled in size for the day and we all laughed so hard. I have attached another thing I did. I got the women to supply baby photos and put them on paper with a lovely mother/baby quote and then laminated them all and had them swinging around the pergola. (See Picture 1)

I also got all of the ladies to paint their hands and we did a canvas for the girls with all our handprints with a little saying I had printed in the middle.......OK you asked so I will tell you what it said....

Sometimes in life we struggle
And we cannot do it all
But with these hands you see before you
All you have to do is call

(I have no idea why I did so many degrees at uni, I think I should just go into full time baby shower planning consultancy!!!!!) oh and maybe writing blurbs for greeting cards.

This was the first baby shower I had thrown and thought other women may want some ideas showers that are not all tea and cake.

Well thank you so very much again and if you are ever near our little town (Eromanga ) please know you are always welcome.

Warmest regards
Mel Everitt

By the way, the women were all aware I would be sending you an email with the photos of the day.

 
 
(click on the photos to enlarge)

 



I asked the women to supply two small gifts exactly the same
and yes that is a vodka cruiser on the table (western women can drink)


                   A crash


Casey and Rikki


Mel with the camera directing operations

Casey and her mum



 
 

Cutting of the cake

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Adorable Baby Gifts with *WOW* Factor Presentation.

I have been eagerly waiting these gorgeous new gifts since I ordered them last month. They arrived today and the girls are still unpacking them but I couldn't wait to blog about them and share these absolutely gorgeous new baby gifts.  They are simply perfect for baby showers or upon the arrival or a new bub.

I have always been a sucker for baby girl bloomers. When I saw Baby Aspen announce their new products release I was so excited to see the range included the “Bunch O’Bloomers” Three Bloomers for Blooming Bums.

The adorably designed "flower box" contains three pairs of bloomers, each with a colourful, fun flower on the bum. The bloomers are 100% cotton and machine washable!

          



Another new arrival that elicited a big *Awwww* from everyone when we opened the boxes today is the “Lollipop Loungewear” Three-Piece Gift Set.  Packaged like a big lollipop, this gorgeous gift set includes a multi-hued polka-dot T-shirt with colour-coordinated striped pants and hat.




    



To see our other yummy new arrivals, please click on the What's New link!

Monday 27 September 2010

Introducing Mummy Silhouette! Our latest neutral themed baby shower range.


If you are looking for a simple and elegant baby shower theme in neutral colours, then our new Mummy Silhouette range could be just perfect for you.

In tones of green and brown, featuring a pregnant mum-to-be silhouette, this range is great for those who don't know the gender of their bub.

The tableware range includes, invitations, thank you cards, plates, napkins and cups. You can also purchase matching personalised favours and gifts including personalised body butter, personalised lip balm, personalised candle tins, return address labels and even personalised gift tags. A matching mummy corsage is also part of this super cute range.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Congratulations to Sonia, our Monkey Magoo blog entry winner!

Congratulations Sonia Deakin Schelberg! You are the winner of a gorgeous Monkey Magoo gift for your entry in our recent blog competion. You were the first entry to suggest blogging about what our customers have done with products they have purchased from The Baby Shower Shop.




We also decided to add three runner up prizes, each receiving a $25 gift voucher to spend at The Baby Shower Shop. Runners up are:

1) Shane (baby shower games);
2) Katrocks (baby shower help and ideas for those without children); and
3) Kezzant (baby shower planning).

If the winners could please send me a private email through the blog letting me know their email address we will be in contact to deliver your prizes.

All of the suggestions were wonderful and we will try to incorporate them in both our blog and our products that we offer.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their suggestions (I have a LOT of blogging to do!) and once again congratulations to Sonia.