BabaBooty.comFab finds for funky tots

Someone in your office has had a baby and you’ve been volunteered to buy the gift; you’ve pulled your pregnant sister in law’s name out of the hat for Kris Kindle; your best pal who lives at the opposite end of the country has had twins……there are lots of circumstances where you need to buy a gift for a new mum or a mum-to-be and either don’t know what to buy or need to buy something that can be delivered.

In some of these situations, the staple-gift is a bunch of flowers. While I like a couple of peonies as much as the next girl, sometimes it’s really lovely to give something that is a little more personal and a little less transient. I’ve recently found an Irish site which may just provide the answer to these buying dilemas.

Baby Elephant is a lovely site which sells gorgeous gift hampers for mums-to-be, new babies and their new mums. There are lots of different hampers to chose from but they all contain fab organic goodies.

The mama-to-be hampers contain things like Lisbeth Dahl hand knitted ballerina slippers, Mama Mio skincare products and Vital Touch prenatal aromatherapy oils.

The hampers for new babies contain things like Cowshed organic baby skincare products, Organics For Kids playsuits and matching hats and JJ Cole nappy bags.

You can get hampers of skincare products just for new mums or you can treat both mammy and her bundle of joy with one of the combination hampers.

You can also create a bespoke hamper, just give the guys at Baby Elephant a call.

All hampers come in lovely gift boxes and can be sent along with a personalised card. The shipping options are great - you can arrange for next day delivery, have your gifts sent by registered post or even have same day delivery to the Dublin maternity hospitals. They also ship internationally.

With such a lovely range of products to chose from and options to suit every budget, Baby Elephant means that now there’s never any reason to resort to a bunch of  yellow carnations !

My birthday is looming and so I’ve been indulging myself slightly by thinking about lovely presents for myself  - I don’t feel too guilty since most of my spare time is spent seeking out great things for the babas.

One thing that I have previously bought to give as presents is FingerPrint jewellry by Button and Bean. Their jewellry makes a really lovely gift for any parent and is available from a fab site called Not On The High Street. The unique feature of this jewellry (the clue is in the name!) is that each piece includes one or more of your baba(s)’ fingerprints cast in polished silver. You may be tired of wiping those pesky little prints off your walls, windows and any other available surfaces but you will never tire of these tiny silver impressions.

There are several different pieces to chose from necklaces, bracelets, cufflinks and even keyrings. Last year, I got Mr McSpendy a pair of cufflinks for Father’s Day. One has Lollipop’s name and fingerprint on it, the other has Mr Moo’s. Both of them have the words ‘Love you, Daddy’ on the back. They are really cute and are such a lovely keepsake (Lollipop was only a couple of weeks old when we took her print)….plus they are functional!  I was so happy with the cufflinks that for Christmas, I bought my sister a silver bangle with a charm that has my gorgeous Godson’s name and fingerprint on it. Both pieces are really good quality and very well made.

So how do they get your baba’s print on the jewellry? Well it does require some hands on make-and-do type effort on your part but its worth it. When you order the jewellry, Button and Bean send you out a fingerprint impression kit. This little kit contains special moulding clay and easy to follow instructions. You simply mix the two types of moulding clay that are inlcuded in the kit, take the print and  then post it back in the pre-paid envelope. You get enough clay to take two impressions of each print and Button and Bean will use the best one. I needed the second attempt for the cufflinks because the clay dries really quickly and I didn’t move swiftly enough first time but I got two really great prints second time round.

A few weeks later you get your beautiful jewellry in the post. This jewellry is truly unique and as your baba grows, it will be lovely to remember how small those little fingers once were. If you are going to give some of this jewellry as a gift, check out the website to find out delivery times (they get pretty busy around Christmas time and other holidays like Father’s and Mother’s day) so you can decide whether you will be able to order the kit, take the print and give the finished jewellry as the gift. If you don’t have enough time to get the finished gift, you can just give the impression kit to your lucky recipient (an explanation of what your finished gift comes with the kit) who will then have the added fun of being able to make the prints themselves.

Prices range from £75stg for keyrings and pendants to £150stg for double sided cufflinks.

PS: Mr McSpendy, if you are reading this, I really like the heart shaped necklace….conveniently it comes in a two heart design too……