dawniebrown

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Posts by dawniebrown

Canvas Dezign Review

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Reviews, Zara

I was recently offered the opportunity to receive and review a canvas from Canvas Dezign and of course with my obsession with photos I had to say yes

Canvas Dezign are one of the UK’s leading printers of bespoke Canvas Prints at an affordable price. They operate out of a design studio based in Darwen, Lancashire with an in line canvas printing and framing production facility. All their canvas printing and framing is done in Darwen and no part of the manufacturing process is outsourced.

I opted to get a canvas made up of this photograph that I took of Zara on my Iphone on our first trip to the beach

Am I brave enough to go in?

I was a bit concerned that the quality of the photograph might not be good enough for a 20″x20″ canvas but I was assured that it would be and I wasn’t disappointed.

The canvas is beautiful, the quality is fantastic and the colours are amazing. Considering the photo was just taken on an Iphone, it has come out brilliantly on a 20″x20″ canvas and it will have pride of place in our house

A 20″x20″ canvas would have cost just £40 which I think is great value, with prices starting at just £10.99 for a 6″x6″ canvas and it being £22 for a 12″x16″. There is even an option to turn your photos into Banksy style works of art! Pop across and check out their website to see how your photos would look on their virtual wall

photo canvas

4 Years Ago Today

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Family Life

On 3rd August 2007 I was lucky enough to get married to my wonderful husband. 4 years ago! Since then we’ve had 2 house moves, 2 new jobs, 2 children and 2 cats We don’t like to let the grass grow under our feet

Our wedding day

I thought I’d share with you the music from my wedding day, we didn’t go for any bog standard music for our wedding, we wanted something that reflected us and our relationship and there are 4 tracks which we chose:

1) Imagine sitting in the wedding room waiting for the bride and groom to arrive and this is the music that is playing

2) The song I walked down the aisle to was of course by Morrissey, although the instrumental version (our first dance was to the version with vocals

3) The song we signed the register to (my husband is a Hibs fan, but the lyrics are so meaningful we decided we loved the song in it’s own right )

4) Finally the song we left to, before heading back to the hotel for our wedding reception, again the lyrics are so beautiful we just had to “slide away” to this

Everytime I hear one of these songs I get instant goose bumps! They still send a shiver down my spine every time I hear them. They may not be the most traditional songs to play at a wedding but to us they were perfect

wedding music

Our Day at Build a Bear Workshop in Sunderland

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Family Life, Oscar, Parenting, Reviews, Zara

We were very kindly invited to the opening of the Build-A-Bear Workshop at the Bridges Shopping Centre in Sunderland last week and as I was feeling very brave I decided to accept and take Zara and Oscar along. Now I don’t often do trips out alone with the 2 children as I don’t like being outnumbered but as we weren’t going to be out for long and we weren’t far from home I decided to risk it and I’m glad I did now as we had a lovely time

Having arrived at the store, we felt rather important to be allowed in before the grand opening and to be some of the first people to build-a-bear at the store. Zara was a little overwhelmed by the choice of bears that she could choose from (try telling a 19 month old to choose just one!) but we settled on a Doggy (no surprise there then ) which she fell instantly in love with. She was a bit reluctant to hand it over to have it stuffed and I don’t think she quite understood all the “putting a heart in it” part but we did put a bark inside his hand. Once stuffed we then moved onto the grooming part of the store, this was hands down Zara’s favourite part, I think she could have spent all day going back to brush her doggy, in fact I had trouble dragging her away to choose some clothes for him.

Now I don’t think Zara quite grasped the concept of dressing her doggy and choosing him some clothes so I chose his outfit myself and on the insistance of Zara we didn’t dress him, instead we packed his clothes in his going home box for him for later When it came to creating a birth certificate for doggy well Zara opted to call him “Big Doggy”, we already have “Little Dog” at home so Big Doggy was born :rolleyes:

: Zara had to choose a Doggy

We were kindly allowed to build a bear for Oscar aswell and Zara decided we were going to make Oscar an owl (with a little help from me ) By this time, Oscar was getting a little bit impatient for his next bottle and I could see a meltdown occuring at some point soon so we decided that Owlie (as named by Zara – got to give my girl 10/10 for originality ) didn’t need any clothes as he was super cute without them.

Owlie The Owl

Both Doggy and Owlie were then packed in their little houses and I made a hasty exit back home before we had any meltdowns lol. I always like to leave before I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown

Zara decided that Doggy’s little house makes a rather nice little house for her as well

Build-A-Zara

I’d like to say a BIG thank you to Build-A-Bear Sunderland for making us feel very welcome and inviting us to your pre-opening event. We had a lovely time and Zara and Oscar both love their bears (Sorry if we rushed off before we had chance to do any face painting etc but trust me it was best for all of us that we got out of there when we did )

Build A Bear Sunderland

Our first family holiday

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Family Life, Oscar, Parenting, Zara

Well ok, so it wasn’t so much a holiday, more a case of gatecrashing my parents holiday for a couple of nights BUT it was our first couple of nights away with both children!

Last weekend we drove down to Scarborough where my parents were staying in a caravan and we stayed a couple of nights with them. Now just imagine the fun of trying to fit 2 travel cots, a double pushchair, a portable highchair, bedding for 4 and clothes etc into one car. Thank goodness we have the new 4×4 or we would never have managed it. The car was packed with military precision and by 10am on Saturday morning we had everything and 2 children loaded into the car and ready to go!

The Brown Family are on their way!

If we thought fitting everything into the car was a squash, well fitting everything into a caravan was even more fun but luckily we managed to fit one travel cot in each of the twin rooms in the caravan and me and my hubby slept in the lounge. It was chaotic but nice to have a change of scene!

Zara started off the holiday by marching straight into the caravan door and almost splitting her head open. Luckily the skin held together just so it just meant a rather nasty bruise. We went swimming straight afterwards in the pool which was freezing which I think actually helped as the bump didn’t swell much thank goodness!

The great thing about having my parents around was that they kept an eye on Oscar whilst we could take Zara swimming which she loved, I haven’t taken her since before Oscar arrived and she was so excited to be back in the water, even though the pool was absolutely freezing so we couldn’t spent too long in there.

The site had a lovely play area so we spent lots of time on the swings and on the seesaw (I think I was having more fun than Zara on it )

Wheeee

Double Wheeeee

And of course there was also a mini-arcade where I managed to get Zara addicted to the 2 penny push machine (more, more, more she kept shouting holding her hand out for more coins to feed into the slots!) and of course we had to try the dance machine (and I think Zara did better at it than me!)

More, More, More...

No mummy, it's left foot, forward, right foot, right foot, back

Once the kids were in bed, my parents babysat for an hour each night so that me and Alex could nip out for a quick drink alone which was lovely and something which we don’t get to do very often

Cheers!

It was lovely to spend some time with my parents and have a change of scenery but oh my goodness it’s exhausting being away with 2 young children and away from their usual routines. I think I need a holiday now to recover from it lol

holiday

Galt Playnest Review

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Oscar, Parenting, Reviews

The very kind people at Galt Toys have sent Oscar one of their Jungle Playnests to review

The triangular shaped Playnest has various activities to explore including a furry mane, squeaky elephant ear and crinkly leaves, hiding monkeys and snakes and furry tiger tummy. The triangular shape offers baby additional sideways support when sitting. The fabric cover has a quilted centre for baby’s comfort and is machine washable. Now Oscar is at the stage where he isn’t quite able to sit up unsupported at the moment, but he is wanting to see more of the world and gets very frustrated lying down on his playmat all the time so I was eager to see whether he would like the playnest.

He definitely seems to like it, here is a video of him just chilling out in it

We even have a little video of me sitting him up in it and helping him to explore (PS you have to excuse my husband commenting in the middle of it (he was of course referring to Rupert Murdoch’s wife lol) and you’ll have to excuse the rather large burp Oscar does at the end of the video lol ) My motto is never work with husbands or babies

Now as with anything in this house, it will also need to be approved by Zara as well and I think she’s found herself a pretty comfy seat for watching TV whilst she’s having her evening bottle lol

The playnest sells for £25.99 which I think is a pretty good price as I can see us getting months of use out of it and both Oscar and Zara are enjoying it

Baby toys Galt Playnest

Oscar at 5 Months!

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Oscar, Parenting

Has it really been 5 months since Oscar arrived? I can’t believe how fast it has flown by!

This last month I think I’m starting to see a lot of developments with Oscar, until recently he really has been pretty boring bless him and I was getting a little concerned that he didn’t really seem to be developing. I know he was 6 weeks early but I still can’t help comparing him to his sister who first rolled over at 4 months and 1 day old (Yes I know I’m going to be a nightmare when they get older lol).

Anyway at 5 months I can now say:

1. Oscar weighs 18lbs! Now if you go by his corrected age this puts him on the 95th percentile for a baby born 6 weeks early, if I ignore the fact he was early he is still on the 75th percentile so he has pretty much overtaken most babies born 6 weeks later than him Despite all that sick, something obviously seems to be working

2. Oscar rolled over for the first time about 2 weeks ago (so not too far behind his sister at all ), this took me by surprise to be honest as I really wasn’t expecting it – but I did manage to catch it on video amazingly

3. Oscar has finally learnt to BURP! Probably a strange achievement in most people’s eyes but I haven’t been able to wind him after any bottle before now as he would just bring up the entire bottle rather than burp. Now he can burp without actually being sick!

4. Oscar now sleeps, and when I say sleep I mean it, I put him down to bed at around 7:30-8pm and that’s it (most nights) until 8am in the morning. When both O&Z sleep through (again which is most nights now!) I actually feel like a human being again.

It’s been a very long 5 months but I finally think we are getting somewhere I can’t wait to see what the next month brings

5 month old baby Oscar

Introducing secret agent Oobicoo Orla

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Reviews, Zara

Hello, my name is Orla, Oobicoo Orla. I’m a secret agent on a mission to make a little girl named Zara very happy. My mission began when the kind people from Totseat asked Zara’s mummy if she would like to review me for them.

On arrival at Zara’s house, I was embarrassed because I was naked except for my fabric pod!

The great thing about me is that I’m about the size of a six month old baby and so I can wear all of Zara’s old clothes, her mummy had great fun digging me out a whole new wardrobe, she even found me a suitcase! With my drawer full of clothes and my suitcase I finally felt like I belonged here

Zara’s mummy got me all dressed and ready to meet Zara when she got home from nursery, I think I looked pretty good don’t you?

Zara’s mummy even recorded our first meeting, I thought it was ever so nice that Zara offered me a drink after my long journey

After meeting Zara, we became best of friends and she showed me all her other toys! (she has lots!)

Then Zara introduced me to her little brother Oscar (now I think Zara’s mummy is hoping that instead of trying to pick Oscar up all the time, she will carry me around instead )

The other day Zara decided my current outfit wasn’t girly enough so we decided to have a change of clothes (I think Zara’s mummy enjoys playing with all my outfits as much as Zara does!). I think I look pretty nice in pink, though I’m not wearing a nappy so Zara keeps insisting on sitting me on the potty in case I do a wee wee! She even tried to put a nappy on me the other day whilst her mummy was changing Oscar’s nappy!

Right I’d better hand over to Zara’s mummy as she wants to let you know a bit more about me

Right it’s Dawnie here with the more detailed information for you Firstly I’d like to thank the guys at Totseat for sending us Orla, Zara absolutely loves her! It’s her first ever doll and is already her best friend!

The adorable, cuddly, soft toy tot Oobicoo is made from gorgeous soft plush and, at 60cm tall, is the perfect size to be an instant baby brother, sister or best friend. Designed to be dressed in hand-me-down-baby clothes, this simple idea encourages the reuse of outgrown baby clothes, providing Oobicoo with an instant wardrobe – all ready for imaginative play!

Oobicoo comes as a girl, Orla, with gorgeous bunches, or a boy, Ollie, with short brown hair.

Manufactured from recycled and recyclable materials, Oobicoo is raising money, with every sale, for the Children’s Immunology Fund (Registered charity number SC041239).

Orla or her friend Ollie can be bought from the Totseat website for £34.99 which I think is a great price, it really is a great toy and we love dressing her up in all Zara’s old clothes

Now it does say on the label that Orla is suitable for ages 3+ and as you are aware Zara is only 20 months old, the only reason for this age recommendation is because Orla’s hair is long and there is a risk that little fingers could get trapped in it, but as with all recommendations it is up to you to judge whether your child is old enough to play with the toy. We think Zara is, however we only play with her when I’m around to keep an eye on them both

Oobicoo toddler toys

Silent Sunday

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Parenting, Silent Sunday, Zara

beach photo gallery Silent Sunday

Until The Light of Morning Review

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Oscar, Parenting, Reviews

I’ve been asked to review a copy of Until The Light of Morning. This is a CD of lullabies for babies but with a difference. Until the Light of Morning is a new project by Essie Jain (an acclaimed NYC based English singer-songwriter), it’s an album of beautiful lullabies for babies that unlike many children’s music cd’s isn’t excruciating to listen to after the 500th play. In fact it’s actually a pleasure to listen to and helps me to relax as well.

Essie says “I always felt very clear on how I wanted this album to unfold. Having been lucky enough to spend so much time with my friends and families’ kids, I came to understand that there were three parts to putting a baby to bed, and that they were all as essential to each other. The winding down time, where they are soothed and comforted, then the moment they are just about to fall asleep, and then the time that follows when their dreams are emerging with deep sleep. I wanted to give all those elements in the album, so it unfolds, settles and effortlessly follows that natural rhythm.”

The album contains 8 tracks as follows:
1. What a Big Wide World (my personal favourite)
2. Lay Down
3. Falling Asleep
4. I’m Not Afraid of the Dark
5. O, I Love You (another favourite)
6. The Magic Star
7. Tip Toes
8. Midnight Starship

As with all these types of product, the proof of the pudding is whether it helps or not and I think this one does! I’ve downloaded the CD to my Iphone so that I can play it wherever I am and I have to say it does have a very calming effect on Oscar when he is fighting sleep. I can’t say that it is guaranteed to get him to sleep every time I play it but he does find the music relaxing and that is often enough to send him off to the land of nod. I’ve started playing it when I put him in his cot at night (if he isn’t already asleep) and I often find myself falling asleep whilst I lie there listening to it myself.

You can have a listen to a few of the tracks yourself and find out more information about the album over at their website HERE it’s definitely worth checking out if the sound of usual lullaby music is starting to drive you slowly insane as it was me There is also a link on the website where you can purchase the album through ITunes!

essie jain lullabies until the light of morning

Sadie and Frank Review

14 years ago

by dawniebrown in Oscar, Parenting, Reviews

I’ve been asked to do a review for Sadie and Frank, who specialise in funky baby clothes made from organic cotton or bamboo – soft, baby-friendly fabrics that don’t contain nasty chemicals that could irritate baby’s delicate skin. All their baby clothes have bright colours and funky designs so they’re perfect for cool, trendy babies! They also make sure their suppliers are responsible manufacturers so nothing is made in a sweatshop.

Now I love bright and funky baby clothes so when I was asked which item I would like to review I chose this Elephant Playsuit

And I wasn’t disappointed, firstly the playsuit arrived packaged in a box and beautifully wrapped which would be great for a gift and the playsuit itself is super cute. I ordered size 6-12 months as Oscar is fast approaching 20lbs in weight (not bad for a 4.5 month old premature baby!) and this fits him really well with a fair bit of room for him to grow into it.

The quality of the playsuit is really good and it has washed and dried really well which is essential! The price is a little more than I’d pay for Oscar’s usual playsuits at £20 but it’s lovely to have a few really nice outfits of good quality in amongst the cheaper ones that make up his staple wardrobe.

Anyway the proof of how gorgeous it is, is in the photos so here are a few photos of Oscar modelling his elephant playsuit

In fact the playsuit is so nice that I ordered another one in 0-6 months to send to a friend who recently had a baby boy! It was so nice and packaged so beautifully that I just couldn’t help myself

Definitely check out Sadie and Frank’s website for more of their gorgeous clothes, I particularly love this dinosaur one,