Her hero, her king.

I know of a man, who wasn't quite the boyfriend material.

He doesn't know the art of gifting.

In fact, he doesn't understand the importance of birthday gifts and celebrations.

Drove the girl nuts.

Having a glib tongue and whispering sweet nothings are not his specialty.

"Why say them if you don't mean it?"

Made the girl sigh at the lack of verbal affection.

Cuddles and hugs are never in public because there isn't a need to display these affections in public.

The girl just looked on with envy. Sometimes.

Fast forward a few years, this man became another man in front of another girl.

He still did not believe in giving presents, but he gifted her time and presence.

He gifted her the love of reading.

He gives her new experiences, and the opportunity to widen her horizons.

He made her feel safe each time she embarks on a little adventure or exploration.

He was always there when she needed him.

And he wasn't stingy with hugs and kisses.

He is her hero. 

He is her king.

What this girl doesn't know is that for her, he would do anything to make sure he becomes a better man.

For her, he was willing to make changes and work on whatever was lacking.

Made his old girl cry secret tears of gratitude.

To this not-so-wonderful-boyfriend but extremely-wonderful-daddy, 

Happy Daddy's Day.

The things I wished someone told me about making photobooks

So, I mentioned that I made a few blunders when I was creating my photo books.
They are probably not stupid, I hope.

I also, somehow, lost the first project I worked on.
I had been working on it for weeks, sacrificing sleep, so you can imagine how devastating that was. (I could have deleted it accidentally while doing housekeeping. Bummer.)
But it was a blessing in disguise and I learnt a thing or two.
I worked a lot faster for the subsequent books once I figured out where I went wrong, and started on a simple system. (If, you can call that a system.)

I was very new to creating photo books. I still am.
I stumbled.
I made mistakes.
I'm learning.

But there were some things I did wish I knew before I started on my photo books.
This is for the photo book newbies like I am.

It's actually quite easy!
While the use of a software sounds daunting, it actually isn't!
Really. I was afraid to start and spent a long time fumbling about.

Turned out, what's more challenging would be the organisation of photographs.
The software isn't too bad once you are used to how it works.
Which brings me to...


Spend time to save time.
If you are a visual learner, read the user manual/ user guide.
If you are a tactile learner, explore the software.
The software is rather intuitive but make sure you know it really well.
At least for the functions you'd like to use.

I spent hours complaining about why I couldn't add a simple shape when I can add scrapbook elements.  Well, the option was there. Right there on the menu bar.

I spent hours figuring out why I had to stick to that shade of yellow if I wanted a particular cover layout. Or why I had to go with brown if I wanted to choose a particular page layout.
Guess what? The colours of the pages can be changed. Of course they can!

I spent a long time adjusting the photos on the first page (which was the same for all my three books) of my second book.
Just a recap, it looks like this.

10 tiny photos + masks + the places we traveled to.
Too time consuming. And trying to align the photo was such a pain.
When I was struggling with alignment, I suddenly realised, hey! I could save that page as a template! Saves a ton of time!

So, yup. Know the software well.
Spend time to save time.
Here is the user manual for Photobook Singapore if you need it.

Organise the photos BEFORE starting the project. 

In the digital age, we take more photos than we'd like to admit. I usually come back with thousands of photos from a two-week trip. I even had 25 shots of the same scene once. Multiply that n times. It's crazy.

For the first project (that one I lost), I added in all the photos into the software and tried to select the photos I wanted only then. That, really isn't a smart move.
There was just too many photos, I was overwhelmed.
(And then I wasted more time, sitting there feeling overwhelmed

Select the photos BEFORE starting on the book.
Select the photos you would like to include in your photo book.
You may need to go through a few rounds of selection.
After my first round of selection, I still had too many photos. Just the honeymoon trip alone took close to 130 pages so you can imagine. And that was after three rounds of deleting photos.

I had some I couldn't bear to chuck so I kept them, in case I had extra space,
Name them so that you know which are the ones that can be eliminated from the photo book should you really run out of space.

Name the photos as clearly as you can.
Instead of leaving them as IMG 1560.jpg.

While some prefer to do their photo book according to scenes or locations, I did my mine in chronological order so that I can relive each day of the trip as I flip through the book.

This is how I organised my photos.
(I've deleted the honeymoon ones from the computer so these are the photos for my New Zealand Trip.)

I grouped the photos according to location.

Then within each folder, I renamed the photos according to activities.

This way, I could see how many photos I have of each sight/scene and it would help me when I'm doing the layout of the photos. This is useful when it comes to using the layouts/ spread already available in the software.

It's okay to use their layout. And it's okay to crop the photos.
I was adamant about creating my own layout because I wanted all the photos in its entirety. No cropping! Silly thought.

Who am I kidding, really? I'm not someone who is very good at layouts so halfway through the book, I noticed that I have ended up on 4 x 4 for every. single. page.
BORING!
That was the project that disappeared. I think it was meant to be.

I convinced myself that it was okay to use the layouts available in the software. I had to crop some photos but it didn't turn out so bad after all. In fact, it turned out better.

Way more interesting than 4 x 4s right?

When pressed for time, using the available layouts/ spreads is a huge time-saver.
Remember how I organised my photos? I had 31 photos for the whale watch.
That means I can do three two-page spread of ten photos each. I'll just have to scroll though the spread available on the software that has about 10 pictures or so, then drop my photos into the picture boxes.

If you are not picky about layouts, this can really speed up the process. Since most of the layouts make the photo book look good anyway.

Your monitor could be too bright!
Disclaimer: This is for newbies like me so I'm assuming we don't really post-process our photos.

We ordered some prints from Photobook Singapore and found that the photos turned out really dark.
When I turned to Facebook for help, some friends also mentioned that they had the same problem too, even after they checked "Auto Enhance". Turns out, our screen is the problem.
It's too bright!
I had to adjust the brightness on The Husband's Mac to about 10%.

For most of my photos, I had to increase the brightness level even after they have been auto-enhanced. To save time, finish up the layouts first, then work on editing the colours of the photos from the program.

If you already have done post-processing of the photos then good for you!


Order a test copy first.
If you can, please do it.
At least if you can check if you are satisfied with the colours before you commit to more purchases.


The rest of these applies to Photobook Singapore, because they have heavily discounted vouchers.
And I haven't used other photo book companies. Yet.


Don't procrastinate.
Duh. Everyone knows it right?
But really, don't procrastinate.
I had to rush through four books just before the vouchers expire.
That is not fun at all.
Thank goodness for me, Photobook Singapore allows an extension of 21 days. This can only be activated 7 days prior to the expiration of the vouchers.
I've only used Photobook Singapore so far so I can't comment on the others. Yet.

This leads us to...


Don't fall into the vouchers trap!
Well, this is I set for myself.
I was confident that I could finish four books in six months.
But somehow as toddler-hood came about and bedtimes get wacky, I couldn't.
I'm not sure about other companies but Photobook Singapore pretty much have deals every month.
And if you are planning on doing up photo books in a popular size like the Medium Landscape, these goes on sale quite a few times each year.

I'm not sure if they allow projects to be saved on external hard drives. Still trying to figure that out.
If they do, that'll be great because you can start on a project first, when you feel inspired, then purchase the books at a later date when they are on sale!


So there you go!
This is long but I hope it is helpful!

Saying 'Hello!' to my first photo books (From Photobook Singapore)

I'm very new to photo books.

So, let's hear a little bit about my story, shall we?

I've heard about them from friends, seen them on promotion at fairs, and saw quite a few photo books my cousin-in-law made. They are lovely, I must admit. And space-saving.

But I was not a photo book kind of person. Well, at least until I came to accept the fact that I probably would not have enough space in my house to store all the photo albums with 4R prints. Much as I love 4R prints (mainly due to my fears of photo books being ruined by little hands. Or clumsy hands. Just sayin'.) one has got to be practical.

So I puckered up my courage and went ahead to purchase 4 vouchers on Photobook Singapore because they were on sale. 

A whopping 75% discount!

That meant that instead of the usual $100+ per book of 40 pages, it's now $30 + $10 shipping for one book. What a great deal!

And what a bad idea to purchase 4 vouchers at one shot. We'll come to that later. 

Probably in another post.

After all the blunders I've made, and I wished someone had told me about them earlier (but no one did because either I didn't tell them about me making photo books, or those are some really stupid mistakes probably no one makes), I finally created three photo books for my honeymoon that I'm pretty pleased about. My fourth book is on the way!

First Look

Within a week after I placed my order, a very nice DHL uncle knocked on my door and I received a slim little package.
This.

He asked, "You only ordered one? I had people who ordered fifteen at one shot!"

That was my test copy. More will come later, uncle! :)

I assume that each book will come in a separate box since we have to order the books separately unless they are copies of the same book.
I haven't figured out how to save on shipping yet.

I love how the book is wrapped.
Simple. Clean, Neat.

The print and quality

After we figure out that we should toggle the brightness setting on our computer and not blame Photobook Singapore for it, our photos actually came out pretty vibrant.

I did wish that the photos turn out a little sharper, but it could be my choice of papers.
Or my camera settings.

But the print quality isn't bad!
I just wished I had taken better photos.

The software. And some ideas.
To be honest, the software is quite intuitive and pretty easy to use.
I love that you can add scrapbooking elements into your photo book and spruce the book up a little.
Or, better still, import your own .png images or vectors.
I found some free ones from Angie Makes, and they are gorgeous.

No complaints about the software, really. Unless, you make silly mistakes like I did initially and boy, I got quite frustrated.
Then again, my fault for not reading the user guide carefully.
More on that later too.
Maybe I should really write a separate post on it.

Now a little tip.
It was near the voucher's expiry date, so I was rushing and pulling my hair, going
"You mean I can't even draw a rectangle? Or a line? Seriously?"
Nope, I found out later that, well, you can!

There is an "insert shape box" option on the menu bar.

This is really useful for masking photos that I want to show, but not focus.

We can adjust the transparency of the shape box too.

For instance, I really wanted this photo because it shows "Stadt /City".

I like little details like this from travel.

But other than the sign, there was nothing much about this photo I want to keep. And I needed space on the page to indicate that this is Füssen.

So, I added a shape box over the photo and adjusted it's transparency, and there!
The photo is included in the book but it is subtle.

I used the same technique for the first page of my photo book, which is the same throughout all the three books, because I have no idea what photos should be on a prominent page like this. It indicates the places we 'visited' in each book.

The Husband will probably not understand the waste of space. Perhaps like he always says, it's just me. But this does give the three books a little continuity and flow, no?


Something sweet.
Photobook Singapore allows an extension of 21 days, which is great for people like me who buys vouchers but are unable to complete the projects in time. This can be only activated 7 days prior to the expiration of the vouchers.

I don't know if other companies does it too but I think this was really a sweet gesture on their part.
They didn't have to!



Now a quick summary.

• My maiden experience creating photo books was with Photobook Singapore.
• I made a few blunders but it was overall, a wonderful experience.
• Photobook Singapore is fast. (Less than 7 days!) They are printed in Malaysia so I guessed that helped too.
• The quality is pretty good.
• The software, easy to use. Somehow even easier on the Mac.
• I somehow ended up with a trilogy. Well, sort of.

Edited:

When I uploaded my photobooks for printing at night, (usually after midnight), it took me about 1.5 hours. Dreary when I really needed sleep. For one of the books, I uploaded it in the morning and it was done within 20 minutes! Not sure if that made a difference but for my next books, I'm going to attempt uploading them in the morning.

Under The Nile - Sleeping Doll and Banana Toy

So, we have been pretty determined to build a more natural home and I went all crazy-gaga about getting natural toys for J. After pulling all-nighters for weeks, researching on the best natural toys, I got these from Under The Nile.

Why I love them?

They are made of 100% organic Egyptian cotton. Yes, even the filling! And that's probably why it is incredibly soft and smells really good. Not kidding. I had a good sniff of the toys right after it was done in the dryer.

Oh, And it can be machine washed and tumbled dry, so double yay!

What makes me love it more?
This is why.

How we feel about the toys

Animal print sleeping doll ("Lovie" as on Amazon)

I love how soft and cuddly it is. It screams "Baby!!!" all over. Just look at the colours.

I wish it was bigger though. This doll measures around 20 cm from the tip of the hat to the base. In fact, it is so little I think it didn't even catch J's attention. Its neutral colours didn't help either. (I specially picked this print because it resembles the one on our pillows which J loves.) She can't really hug it because the cotton-filled area is too small so she just flings it around. Like a handkerchief.

I introduced it as the "Lovie" to J once I got it washed and dried. I asked J couple of times, "Where's the Lovie?" and she behaved as though the doll is not there. I told the husband that night that I should have gotten the Scrappy Dog instead because it is bigger. This is so small that it seems barely noticeable to J and he went "Where's the doll doll?"
J immediately bent over to pick up the lovie which was left lying among the other toys in the playpen and passed it to him. 

!!!

So J actually noticed the doll, prefers to call it "doll doll" and choose to not play with it so much because it is too small?

J still doesn't seem to enjoy the sleeping doll as much as the banana so I think I'm gonna make it mine. Heh... :)

Under The Nile banana toy

Ah. This, is bigger than what I expected so it's good. I was searching for natural teethers and this popped up. I was actually looking for wooden rings but the ones I like don't ship to Singapore for free. I guess organic cotton isn't so bad either. Especially when the filling is organic as well. I said that already? Right.

J seems to prefer the banana, perhaps due to the bright colour. I've spotted her hugging it a few times. And of course, it's long and easy to bite on, and so, is serving its purpose well as a teether.

I'm looking at getting more Under The Nile toys in future (if the $$$ permits. It's a spurge-item after all.) You know the fruit tote (or if anyone can help, the veggies in a crate) would be great kitchen-play toys.

Two Weeks of Happy (09 and 10)

1. Happy mail
Our first order from Amazon.
Filled with my craft stuff in an attempt to make up to USD125.
These two packages arrived within minutes of each other and it make 'Happy Mail Day' even more special - almost like Christmas Day.

2. Some progress in cloth diapering/nappies

J developed rashes shortly after the our discussion on going natural for her.

The conversation was between the husband and I so I'm not sure how she heard of it.

But in any case, she decided that she doesn't want to deal with wet diapers anymore so I had to change her every two hours. (She tugs at the diapers.)

My mum taught me to take J to the potty every 30-45 minutes - the same way I was trained, and the same way she did with J during my confinement. (I later realised this is known as "Elimination Communication.") It was crazy. I couldn't remember the times so I resorted to this.

I was hoping the frame would make this process a little easier. J did make some progress in terms of "potty training" but I think I want to talk about that in a separate post. In any case, we are pretty happy with the progress. 

3. Happy National Day!

I'd wanted to get J to do some crafts for National Day but I got too caught up with the search for the right diapers and organic toys that I forgot.

Then on the actual day, I wanted to watch the parade with the husband. I heard the jets fly past when I was cooking dinner. When I was finally done, we realised we haven't got the Mio Box plugged in.

The rest of the night was spent cuddling J on the couch.

I missed the parade but it wasn't too bad. At least I saw the jets on their way back. And I have a happy baby.

4. Fun clouds

How can I end this without a cloud post? 

Saw this funny looking cloud that looked like the bobble-head Einstein from "Night at the Museum".

Went to get my phone and it changed.

But if you look closely, you can still see bobble-head Einstein.

Dr Bronner's (Magic) Castile Soap

Our little 'quest' to cut down on chemicals in the house...

I get food poisoning a lot more easily than the people around me.

I don't get why. We'd be eating the same food off the same plate and I'll be down with food poisoning while the others are fine.

One day, after my nth episode of food poisoning, I decided that I've had enough and told the husband that I didn't want to use the antibacterial hand soaps anymore.

(I am not sure if that is the reason but I have this bad habit of constantly washing my hands that I picked up after I started cooking. Didn't use to get food poisoning in the past before I did that, so...)

I'm pretty sure the husband was more than delighted to hear that because he took the chance to introduce castile soap to me - something he has been wanting to get for quite a while.

So we dropped by Brown Rice Paradise the next day and got ourselves this.

Not quite sure if it works this way but we got the one with tea tree oil due to its disinfecting properties.

I love it!

Let's talk about the packaging.

Doesn't it look like it's could have been from an apothecary many years back?

Rather vintage looking, eh?

I've read in some reviews that they don't fancy the messy labels with messages splashed across it, yet none that states the directions of use.

That's exactly why I love it.

Never mind that most of the messages sound pretty religious.

It's really entertaining, especially when you are taking a little too long on the potty.

I read every single one of it.

Directions of use (and dilution proportions) can be found here.

I'm pretty sold on the product after I saw some slides on harmful chemicals that a friend sent me.

This doesn't contain tricloson.

No parabens.

No Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS).

No alcohols.

Very natural.

Bye bye toxic chemicals!

This liquid soap has tonnes of uses (18 they say!) but we've only used it as a hand wash so far.

We have been using it for a month now and I love it.

I still wash my hands excessively but never found my hands dry.

(Unlike when I was using Bath and Body Works, which I love too, but gave me dry hands at the rate I wash them.)

The tea tree oil smells good too and that's a bonus.

It's important to dilute the soap because it comes concentrated.

For the hand wash, we mix 1 part soap with 4 parts water (20% soap, 80% water).

It helps to put it in a foaming bottle too.

Because we loved it so much, we purchased more of Dr Bronner's Castile Liquid Soap.

I'm thinking of trying it out as a shower foam and shampoo partly because now I'm starting to get more concerned about what I put on my skin and hair.

We got all of these from Qoo10 - The Good Earth.

I like that they have small bottles available so that we can try out the different scents.

I chose all the scents except almond because it doesn't seem to have fantastic reviews online.

We got ourselves the baby mild soap to try it out on Lil' J as well.

Sidenote: The seller was really prompt in his reply and fast in delivery. We received these on the same day! 

We have been reusing the Kirei Kirei foaming bottle for the hand wash for quite some time now so we thought we should get ourselves a proper foaming bottle.

Isn't it cute?

Now I can't wait to try them all!

{Baby's Day Out} Takashimaya Baby Fair 2014 , ION (Part 1)

It's the Taka(shimya) Baby Fair again! :)

Baby fairs excite me. We have been more prudent in our spending ever since we became a one-income family so I see baby fairs as a legitimate reason to shop. Just saying.   ;)

I made a list of things to buy so that my goldfish memory won't fail me and I won't end up buying anything I do not need.

How disciplined, right?

Wet wipes
There were no Johnson and Johnson products at the fair. At least I didn't see any.


Pigeon hand and mouth wipes, $5.50 for 4 packs of 20s, and $6.60 for 2 packs of 60s


Teething Toy
I decided to wait for the husband to make the purchase. I'm not good with all the BPA-free stuff and all.

Stroller/ Diaper bag: OkieDog, $62.93

So, I mentioned earlier on that "Hey! I need no diaper bag!"
Then we went on a rather long shopping trip over the weekend and our shoulders couldn't take the weight of the existing 'diaper' bag. I tried hanging the Longchamp on the stroller but it blocks the way and retrieving stuff from the bag became a challenge.

We decided that we need to get a bag that fit the stroller.
Any bag.

I was eyeing Skip Hop's Dash because it's so cute. But the price tag is not too friendly to our wallets.
This OkieDog one is on sale and at $62.93, we thought it is a rather reasonable price to pay.

I didn't really pay attention to the inside of the bag because all I wanted was one that could attach to the stroller and allow me to retrieve things easily. So, I am pleasantly surprised when I saw that it has a bottle warmer and a wet bag included. (Yes. I realised it only after I paid.)

It also comes with a diaper changing mat. Love that it's tucked nicely at the back of the bag and is easy to retrieve. We used it shortly after and the mat is quite padded so I'd think it should be rather comfortable.

The inside of the bag. I require more compartments than the existing ones so I put my diaper bag organiser in it as well.

The front compartment of the bag is just nice for Momma-stuff like the wallet, and iPhone.

It hangs on the stroller! I can almost hear our shoulders rejoicing.

I've just used it for a couple of hours but I think that this is the best purchase of the day.

Diapers
I learnt from the husband that we should compare the price of the diapers (per piece) to know if it's a good deal.

Huggies (M size) are going at about $0.295 per piece.
Should have gotten it at the BabyCare Festival when it was going at $0.23.
I wanted to wait till the Taka fair to try my luck. I'm a sucker for freebies so I wanted to see if they give away free toys this time round. They do, but Lil' J already has the same toy so I didn't see a point in trying to spend $150 for the free toy.
(Dang.. Why no Cupcake Kitchen?)

I ended up not stocking up on the diapers.


Teething Pad, Ergo Organic Teething pad, $19.90

I never knew teething pads are this soft.


Rain cover for stroller, Peg-Pérego Rain Cover, $59.90
Splurge item.
Why did I buy a piece of plastic for close to 60 bucks?
I think I just wanted to play it safe.

And....

THE IMPULSE PURCHASE OF THE DAY

Tiny Love Rattle , $10

  

I really didn't want to get any toy for Lil' J, but she saw this and got really excited.

And the level of excitement was hilarious.

With eyes looking intently at it, her arms were just flailing everywhere in attempt to get hold of the toy.

There is also a red version of the rattle but she didn't want it.

We tried giving her other toys but she didn't display the same level of interest.

I got so excited about her being excited about toys, I went ahead and got her one.

I paid for the toy while my mum fed her milk. And once Lil' J was done feeding, I gave her the toy.

She wasn't interested in it anymore.

That's when we realised....

She might have mistaken this for her milk bottle!

Oh gosh!

I tried giving the toy again back at home.

She only tried to grab it when she was hungry.

(|||-_-)

*I wanted to write about ION but this post is already so long so I'm just going to separate it into two posts.

Our Latest Addition

Here, meet Xiao Bai.

Our place is now so dusty (thank you nearby constructions...) that even the Honeywells (yes I have three at home. THREE...) can't help in keeping out the dust anymore. 

Poor Lil' J sleeps by these millions of tiny floaty dust bunnies every afternoon. And her papa says it's bad for Baby. I agree too. My feet is black just by walking in the house.

So we headed out, wanting to get a Roomba because Momma has no time to clean. Met a young man who knows the products very well and though we set out to buy the Roomba, we were sold by Kärcher RC 4000's self cleaning function.

We put the machine to test last night. It took about 10-15 minutes in each room but boy, when it left the room, the room is clean!

Happy feet!

I like that it cleans carpet and rugs too. This means we can now get carpets for the living room! 

It's rather quiet while at work, softer than a hair dryer. The only time it gets a little loud is while it's emptying the dust. But that is just probably the sound of regular vacuum cleaners and lasts for about a minute.

Aaannddd... it moves gently and slowly. Not intrusive at all. Best of all, I can just let it run around the house every other hour so that I have 'not-too-dusty' floors the whole day long!

Xiao Bai self cleans so that means we'll only have to maintain it once it a while (remove hair from brush, change the filter bag when it's full...) Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Being sleek and white is a bonus even though I don't mind yellow like the previous models.

At $1588 (was $1788), it'll probably draw a few disapproving looks from our parents but all for baby, ok? 

We think it's going to be a good investment especially since the constructions will last another two years or so. 

So, hello Xiao Bai!

Welcome to your new home! 

A day of temptation and we succumbed.

Aden + Anais.
I swooned at the pretty packaging when I first came across it in one of the baby stores in May.
That lovely brown box.
But $70 for 4 pieces of swaddle cloths was way out of my league.
I searched online hoping to find a better rate at the official website.
Still way out of my league.

Come the Taka Baby fair and these things were waving at me with their very attractive price tag - $39.00 for a pack of 4 muslin swaddles.
But my then-very-rational-brain told me that I could probably swaddle my baby in nappy cloths.
I ran my fingers through one of the sample, imagined stroking my face with the very soft fabric, sighed, and walked away.
Just like that.

But you know, that longing feeling of wanting the oh-so-soft swaddle cloth doesn't disappear so easily. The next few days, I consulted mummies on swaddle cloths and they all highly recommend Aden + Anais.
"$39.00 for four is a very good buy!", they say.
Of course, there were also a few who finds it unnecessary to waste money on "branded" swaddle cloths.

After a long mental struggle, and a short discussion with the hubby, I decided that I should just leave it to fate. I'll get it if I can pop by the fair again before it ends, or if I can decide on what I want (a couple of friends offered to pop by the fair and get it for me.)

Destiny.
Saturday morning, we woke up miraculously early.
We were both up by 6.30am.
It was a sign! Perhaps we should pop by the fair after all!
Alas, by the time we were done with the car wash, we had time to only pop by one place - Giant for the plastic chest of drawers, or the Taka Baby Fair. (we can't cope with crowds, remember? Saturday afternoons = crowds)
Then, we were given another sign. It started to rain.
Carrying a not-too-small carton box in the rain is a huge turn-off.
Taka Baby fair it is!

I wanted to be at the fair to take a closer look at the bamboo swaddle cloth. And check out if they are selling the sleep bags as well. It turned out that the sample I checked out in the earlier visit was the bamboo swaddle cloth. The hubby agreed that it is really very soft.

So, even though the muslin swaddles ($39.00/4pcs) are supposed to get softer with each wash, they didn't have the designs I wanted (Jungle Jam and Super Star Scout).

And the bamboo ones with pretty artsy designs looked like that could double up as my shawl in future. (Such feeble attempt to rationalise my purchase...)

I succumbed, and we came home with this:

And $55.90 less rich.
(We were so early that we managed to get the early bird goodie bag again with this purchase.)


Lodge.
The hubby has been eyeing cast iron pans since March (shortly after getting the WMF stainless steel pans) -.-'
The 12-inch Lodge cast iron skillet is selling at $20+ on Amazon and if we could get it with free shipping, it's a pretty good deal. Only, 12-inch cast iron skillets are not light at all.

We checked out Razorsharp some time back. The 10-inch Lodge skillet will cost us around $90. It'd probably be ok if we hadn't purchased the WMF pans earlier on.

So while we were in town on Saturday, we decided to check out Crate and Barrel at Ion Orchard.
The hubby was like a little kid in Candyland. All the things he loved.
So we wandered around, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the selection of kitchenware and couches, and pretending that we can afford everything for our pretend home.
Then I saw a burger press, pointed it out to the hubby, only to see his eyes gleaming at what was below the burger press ----  the 10-inch Lodge cast iron skillet.

For $59.95.

It wasn't on impulse. It was with much consideration.
He succumbed and we came home with this:

And yet another $60 less rich.
But oh-so-happy.


*That said, I didn't know I was so near MT Expo Singapore. I walked into Print thinking that was the one. I only remembered MT tapes, it didn't occur to me that an expo should be of a larger scale. Turned out the MT Expo was just beside Print. Impossible how I could have missed it. Especially since I'm such a fan of washi tapes and have been eyeing MT Casa tapes for as long as it launched. Gee.. those fuzzy pregnancy brains...

Preparing for Baby - Takashimaya Baby Fair 2013 (Jul)

THE Taka(shimaya) Baby Fair.

I've heard colleagues talking about it way before I got married.
And once I found out I was expecting, most advice from friends were
"Buy the big-ticket items at the Taka Baby fair. They've got pretty good deals. And freebies."
It's like the go-to fair.

The Takashimaya Baby Fair* (Jul) is currently ongoing (24 Jul - 11 Aug).
Being people who can't deal with crowds (I will feel sick, literally), we decided to hit the fair on the very first day, at 10am when it starts.

There was practically no crowd at 10 in the morning so it was a lot easier for us me to do our my shopping for baby essentials. I learnt my lesson from the Motherhood Exhibition and reminded myself that I will not fall for the freebies trap again. I prepared a list to things to buy and tried to stay focus. It's so much easier to do that without a crowd.
There were 4 "must-buys" on my list : cot bed, car seat, breast pumps, steriliser.
The big-ticket items.
I managed to see how the breast pumps work and find out more about the cot we were interested in getting while the hubby went on to search for car seats. This is the first time in 13 years we walked separately while shopping.

We came home with these.

 

 The cute daddy-to-be lugged 4 bags and still smiled so happily.

So we bought...

Baby cot bed: Bon bebe Vermont 4-in-1 (White), $419

There were 3 packages available. We took the cheapest one which included
- a 3" fibrelux (coconut husk) mattress
- 5 piece bedding set (full bumper, fitted sheet, 2 bolsters, 1 pillow)
and freebies like the
- Munchkin diaper change organiser
- Munchkin diaper change kit

The $469 package comes with a plushier bedding set (half bumper) and the above-mentioned freebies.
The $519 package comes with a 12 pc bedding set with removable covers, the above freebies and an additional freebie of a nightlight.
Packages for the cots in natural colour all cost $20 less.

We went ahead with the most basic bedding because I thought I might want to splurge a little on another set of bedding for Baby. Can't possibly have only one! :)

They had some purchase-with-purchase options. The baby mobile at $39 (usual $59) was really attractive. It took quite a bit of self-control to stop myself from buying that on impulse.
I haven't quite figured out the purpose of a baby mobile yet. After all, we grew up without one!


Breast pump: Ameda Lactaline Personal, $420

I managed to get the demo on the breast pumps at both the Philips Avent booth and the Ameda booth. I was still pretty sold on the Philips Avent Double Electric Pump ($550 bundle) because of the 'oh-so-soft' petal cushion. I decided on the Ameda because it is cheaper, and so much quieter.

 

This bundle comes with milk storage bags, breast pads and a cooler bag.
The $399 bundle comes with a manual attachment (for manual pumping) and 3 Gumdrop milk bottles (which I don't really fancy).
I later remembered that Isetan had an almost similar bundle to the one I bought for $399.


Steriliser: Philips Avent 3-in-1 steriliser bundle, $135

 

This comes with:
- the 3-in-1 steriliser
- one 4-oz Natural bottle
- one 9-oz Natural bottle
- bottle brush

They have another bundle that come with the Single electric pump going for $388. Really attractive bundle but I have been advised by many to get a double electric breast pump.
Again, I recall a seemingly better deal at Isetan's baby fair. I think that bundle ($199) consists of the above items, bottle warmer and a cute Moo Moo Kow diaper (in cow print!!).
But, then again, let's not splurge on items we do not really need. Especially when a friend offered to lend me her bottle warmer. (Bye, cute cow print...)


Laundry Detergent: Pigeon, $6.90
Wash cloth: Alex, $4.90

 That was the only laundry detergent we spotted and we were not picky about the wash cloths.


The other little things...
We were short of a couple of dollars to hit $600 for the freebie so we bought these as well, since we will need them anyway.

Nail clipper: Safety First, $6.32
Brush and comb: The First Years, $5.52
Nappy Changing mat (not in picture): Pigeon printed nappy changing mat, $18.50

and the impulse buy of the day: Pink cap and bootie set, $4.90

 

And we got more freebies!

With purchase of $350,
the Little Tikes 'Tap-a-Tune Xylophone' (pillows not included)

 

We didn't quite know how the fair works. The breast pump was our first purchase so we naturally went to pay for it first (so that we can collect out product). We later had that receipt that allowed us to collect this freebie.
I love xylophones so this was really one of the best thing we brought home yesterday.

And because we so happened to be the first 50 customers to spend $50, we received this goodie bag too!

The pink socks are a sweet surprise and the toilet bowl lock, who knew there's such a product?

With purchases of $600 (max 3 same-day receipt), this is the freebie

Our later purchases totalled up to $600.somecents and we got this adorable giraffe too.

Also with $30 spent, we could redeem a Mustela travel set  at the cashier on the 4th level (Baby section).
We had two separate receipts so, were given two sets.

Good for Baby to try out various products so that I know what suits her skin / what she likes.

I like getting freebies like this. It's like shopping for comestics and facial products in Korea. :)

And for the first time, we took part in lucky draws.
Both of us had never had luck in lucky draws so we hope Baby can bring us some luck. :)

 

This is the crowd at around 1 pm.
It's still not exactly crowded but I know I wont be able to handle this.
I'm glad we were done by 12.30pm.

We went home $1000+ less rich, arms full of bags, and legs that were about to give way.
But quoting the hubby,
"As long as Baby is happy, everything is worth it." :)





*Motherhood has opened my eyes to many fairs and sales.

I learnt that there are two Takashimaya Baby Fairs each year. One in March, the other in July. Because I had nothing better to do, I noticed that the Baby Fair in July usually starts on a Wednesday. At least it has been so for the past few years. I took special notice because fairs and sales at the Singapore Expo usually start on a Thursday.

Other than the go-to Taka Baby Fair, a dear friend also recommended that I should go to baby fairs organised by magazines and/or TV stations "because they are more worth going than other smaller fairs." There's the Motherhood Exhibition (usually in May) and the Parenthood Fair (usually in November).

** Car seat update: We figured it's probably not worth getting a brand new infant car seat (that probably lasts less than a year) especially if we don't go out so often. We contemplated getting a second-hand one but a dear friend offered to lend us hers.