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The Perfect Gift For New Mums!

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If somebody you know has just had a baby and you’re planning to visit, you won’t want to go empty handed. Grab a gift that your friend will love and they just may swap your bundle for theirs and let you have a cuddle! When someone has their first baby they are showered with presents such as baby-grows, toys and flowers. Get them something a bit different and they will always remember it.

The very best thing you can get for any new mum and their fresh little bundle of joy is a hamper, thoughtfully packed out with everything that they’ll ever need in those precious first few weeks. We’ll show you how to build a baby hamper that will make your friend’s life a lot easier in the early days.

Step One – The Hamper

Choose a box that can be reused – a plastic square box is ideal as it can be used for storing toys or baby toiletries in the early days. Line it with some beautiful tissue paper and tie a ribbon around the sides to make it look extra special. Add a tag and write something meaningful on it.

Step Two – For the Baby

When filling the hamper, think ‘practicality’ first. Choose items like baby wipes, nappy bags, a packet of newborn-sized nappies, a packet of muslins, some talcum powder and some baby bubble bath. These are all the things that your friend and her newborn will need in the first few weeks but that they might not have stocked up on already. Add one toy – she will probably already be inundated with baby toys but one more won’t harm! Another great thing to throw in is a formula dispenser. She probably won’t need it straight away as she may be breastfeeding, but once the baby switches to formula she’ll be using it every day! If you buy a baby-grow, then choose one that is for 6+ months. Loads of people buy newborn clothes so she’ll have lots already, and they grow so fast she’ll appreciate having clothes for when they get a bit bigger.

Step Three – For the Mum

In the excitement of a new baby arriving, a lot of people forget that the mum has been through something pretty big herself. She’ll be feeling tired, sore and emotional after the birth. Spoil her rotten by adding a few luxuries to the hamper. Body lotion and moisturiser are a great idea, perhaps a facemask and some gorgeous-smelling soap and definitely a lush box of chocolates! A few sachets of hot chocolate and perhaps a bottle of her favourite perfume will go down a treat too.

By giving your friend some practical things for her baby and some luxury items for herself, you’re giving a gift that is the best of both worlds. She will be especially grateful that you have thought of her as well as the baby and she’ll find herself dipping into the hamper daily for useful bits as well as the odd treat. Finally, when she’s ready, take her out for a well-earned glass of wine!

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Today’s guest post author is James Wilson. He works at Gift Wrapped Up, providers of <a href=”http://www.giftwrappedup.com.au/“>christmas hampers</a>, baby gift baskets, chocolate hampers, corporate gift hampers and more. He believes that writing is a great way to share his work and experience with readers.

Almost done cleaning the basement clutter!

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I think I’ve mentioned a few times now that I’ve been busy trying to clean the massive mess that is my basement over the last month or so. Actually I’ve been trying to clean it since the end of December if you want to know the truth so I guess that means I’ve been at it on and off for three months or so! Well .. I think the job is getting closer to being done.

No .. not finished .. I think I’ll have to sort through things at least one more time, but the first major round is almost done. My husband and I spent 8 hours in the basement last Saturday and we went through about half of the basement – the worst part of the clutter. There’s only a small area of unsorted clutter left! Did you know I still had some boxes of unpacked stuff from when we moved from our Apartment in 2001 to the house? I knew there were some small boxes of nick knacks and stuff that were unpacked but one of the boxes had cosmetic and about 7 bottles of womens perfume that I had totally forgotten about. You see I had stopped wearing perfume some time ago because I’m very scent sensitive so I had put my perfumes aside and when we moved to the house I guess I meant to unpack that box and at least put the cosmetics and perfumes in an upstairs closet but that never happened.

The perfumes were nice ones too … like Channel number 5 and so on but the bottles were probably more than 15 years old – packed away in the basement for 11 years and as I said it had been an additional 4 or more years since I’d last wore any of the perfumes so I decided to through them out. That was probably a couple hundred dollars worth of perfume that I threw in the trash!

However, throw out things I must do if I’m ever going to clear out the basement. Did you know that we have a sectional couch downstairs that I hadn’t been able to see (see the seats anyway) for several years? Well as of last Saturday we could actually sit on most of it! So yeah … progress is being made. I think within a month the basement will be pretty clear and we’ll be finishing the renovations upstairs.

My cellphone company messed up and changed my number!

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Earlier today, when my husband called me from a store using our cellphone I got a big shock … instead of seeing our normal cellphone number I saw a number with my husbands name above it but the number was from Ottawa Ontario instead of Toronto.

I didn’t know what was going on .. I immediately told my husband to hang up because I thought we’d either be charged long distance or roaming charges and I also suspected that maybe our cellphone number had been changed. But how … why?

I immediately called our cellphone provider – Rogers – and asked for the department of major screw ups. Yes I said that. LOL It seems they don’t know what happened. I was asked – are you moving to Calgary and then they asked if I was moving from PEI? and I said no … I’ve lived in Toronto for 20 years … I’m not moving and I didn’t ask for my number to change, get my old cellphone number back. I was so upset- I swear I just about needed an ekg especially when she told me that there was also a $400 charge on my bill!

Lucky for me the Rogers person I was talking with was calm and helpful and after talking with her for about 30 minutes we got everything straightened out and I got my old cellphone number back. I’d had that cellphone number for about 15 years so it would have been terrible to lose it. I still don’t know how or why they gave it away and I want some explanations.

I’m seriously thinking of leaving my cellphone provider … if you have any suggestions as to who might be better in the Toronto area .. please let me know.

More HD With Direct TV

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I’ve been wanting to get away from Comcast basic cable for a long time. The problem is they give you a good deal with their packages that include telepone, high speed internet, and TV service. When customers try to disconnect one, you lose the savings of the bundle.

But the cable TV service just needs to go, as the channel selection and quality is well below average. There is so much discussion these days about HD, there isn’t much choice with Charter Cable. So I started doing a little research on who else was available in my neck of the woods.

I am fortunate to be one of the folks who have a couple of choices. Unlike many subscribers who can only pick from either the cable company or Direct TV satellite TV, I have another option in my area. The old telephone company in this area has been altering the telephone network. So I have an additional player with AT&T and their U-Verse service.

That doesn’t mean of course I won’t have similar issues. It would put me in the same boat as with the cable TV company, as the phone guys want me to bundle their television setup with internet and voice service. If the service works out well, I’ll be pleased. Then again if the service is poor you are in the same circumstance that I’m in now with the cable operator.  So I’m doing a side by side comparison, cable TV vs Direct TV so I make the right decision.

Some reviews I found on the internet are pretty good on telecom TV service. Of course it is brand new, there is always a learning curve with a new technology like this, and some customers share their poor reviews. Some of those reviews are the funny, because people decide to write a dissertation on their poor experience and share it on the internet. They badmouth the company like it is some giant conspiracy to make the customer unhappy, like the company does not want to make money!

Another option I’m looking into is of course satellite television. Since we have four television watchers in our house, we usually buy a high end TV package. The satellite TV choices are fairly even, as the Premier DirecTV package and the America’s Everything Pak by Dish Network are both right around $100 per month. Sure that’s pretty high for pay television, but when you compare that to treating your family to supper and a trip to the movies, it really isn’t all that much. Some in my family speak Spanish, so the Direct TV Mas bundle looks pretty good. The great thing is that there are plenty of DirecTV pros and cons to help me decide which direction to take.






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