Baby Boy's fashion bargain of the week!

Hi guys,
Yesterday I popped to the city to pick up a few bits and bobs, and whilst I was there I just couldn't resist a little shopping for the baby. This cute (slightly hipster, but I like that!) T-shirt is from Peacocks for just £3. Bargain! I especially loved the bowtie embellishment. Wilbur will be wearing this with his grey chinos and Converse for a very simple and easy but cool Spring look.
Peacocks might not necessarily be a place you'd think to look for baby clothes, but they have a really nice range that they're promoting quite heavily at the moment: lots of lovely romper suits, and a couple of lovely raincoats that would be perfect for the approaching April showers! Definitely worth checking out if there's a Peacocks store near you.

Their baby range covers sizes from newborn to 18 months.

Love Tor x

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The misery of Mastitis

Hi guys,
Wilbur had spent the past couple of days with a cold, so when I started feeling tired and achey, I assumed I'd caught his sniffle. Very quickly I started to feel worse and worse: shivers, chills, aching all over, the worst headache. So I took us both to bed. Then when I woke up my right breast was swollen and sore: it felt like I'd been punched in the boob! That's when I realised I had mastitis.

Two hours later (my doctor is amazingly efficient and always fits us in) I had been given antibiotics and sent home to rest. I couldn't believe how quickly it had come on. Thankfully, today I am starting to feel a lot better, but it's been a pretty miserable 48 hours!

Here are a few of the tricks I tried to ease the pain (thanks to my mum and Doctor Google) that seemed to help me feel better faster, and at the very least make me feel like I was doing something proactive to help myself:

1. A long hot bath with hot compresses. I jumped in the bath and placed a roasting hot flannel over my boob. The heat helped to ease the pain, but also encouraged let down, meaning some of the milk the baby wasn't drinking was released: hopefully helping to unclog everything!

2. Keep feeding. This is the most painful of all the tips, but apparently the most essential. If you don't keep feeding from the affected boob then the blockage will only get worse, you will get more engorged, and the pain will keep getting worse. So yes. Grit your teeth and feed your baby! But as my doctor said, still feed from the other boob too, or you'll end up with mastitis in that boob as well!

3. If you can bear to touch it, massage the sore part of the breast gently.

4. Take something to ease the pain. Ibuprofen and paracetamol are both safe to take whilst breastfeeding (Aspirin is NOT) so take something to help with the other symptoms: if you can get rid of that headache, then you're one step closer to feeling human again!

Have you suffered with the horrible pain of mastitis? How long did it take until you felt back to normal again? And do you have any other tips to have to help with the pain? They'll all be gratefully received!

Love Tor x

Limited edition Peter Rabbit collection at babyGap

Hi guys,
To celebrate the 110th anniversary of Peter Rabbit, babyGap have brought out a limited edition collection inspired by the stories. I love every single piece of the collection, both for boys and girls: great colours, lovely prints, and a quintessentially English feel characterise the whole collection. Once you see it, I defy anyone not to want it!

As soon as I saw the collection in my local Gap store I picked up the knitted Peter Rabbit hat for the little man: he's worn it every day since, and it is officially my new favourite hat for him! I then thought about it and went back for the Peter Rabbit face knitted jumper and the rabbit printed polo shirt.

My favourite piece from the whole collection though is the knitted Jemima Puddleduck hat: it's almost enough to make me wish I had a little girl! I also really like the vibrant blue boys shawl collared cardigan: this could well be my next purchase for Wilbur!

Have you seen the Peter Rabbit collection yet? Any purchases? I'd love to know what you think of it!

Love Tor x

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Baby brand lust: Little Marc Jacobs

Hi guys,
I love buying little designer clothes for Wilbur: much like my own wardrobe, his is mostly high street, but with a smattering of designer sprinkled on top! So far, he has a velour Armani babygro, Dior fur lined boots, a Stella McCartney checked shirt and bunny print top. And last week when I was in Westfield London, I picked him up a long sleeved Tshirt, and a fully lined romper suit and matching hat by Little Marc Jacobs:
Marc Jacobs is one of my favourite designers and I didn't even know he made chidren's clothes, so you can imagine how excited I was! I was even more excited to pick these up for half price: I paid £17 for the Tshirt and £37.50 for the gift set.

You can buy Little Marc Jacobs online here.

Do you buy designer clothes you your little ones? Or do you think they're a waste of money? My logically brain knows that they are, but when I see them all small and cute I just can't resist!

Love Tor x

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Boys like fashion too: Polarn O Pyret

Hi guys,
I love fashion, and when I found out I was pregnant I immediately envisaged buying frilly tutus and little pink shoes. Then I found out I was having a boy. Now I love my boy very much (and wouldn't swap him for the world) but it is hard to find cool outfits for tiny chaps. In any kids clothes shops the girls section is twice as big as the boys section. A lot of the big fashion designers have girls and baby collections but don't make clothes for boys at all. Basically boys are limited to a restrictive diet or jeans or cords and comedy logo T shirts. Not exciting at all!

So I thought I would share my journey into dressing my baby boy fashionably and whenever I find a shop I like, an outfit he looks particularly dapper in, or a really good baby boys clothing sale I would post it up here! First up is Polarn O Pyret.

Simple, stylish, Swedish designs. Great colours, great patterns, great prices. Basically I am completely addicted to Polarn O Pyret for all of Wilbur's basics. Here are my picks of the very best baby boys clothes they have to offer:
mini sports bodysuit, £14.50
moose print trousers, £14.50
moose print beanie hat, £4
P.O.P champs baby sweater, £16.50
Classic leather moccasins, £12
Striped newborn all in one, £22

Any tips for dressing a baby boy to share? Any cool shops you think I should check out? I'd love to hear what you think!

Love Tor x

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Tips: How to take great photos of your baby

Hi guys,
Since we had Wilbur I have become obsessed with taking pictures of him. I use my camera to document his every move. Now I've only been doing this motherhood thing for six weeks, so I definitely can't claim to be an expert at that (can anyone?) but what I do know a thing or two about, since taking them for blogs for several years, is taking a good (amateur) photo. So that's going to be the first of my monthly tips posts: how to take great photos of your baby:

- Find a good angle
Because they can't sit up/support their own heads it can be hard to find a flattering angle when photographing your baby. Try lying them on their sides, capturing them when they're asleep (so much easier as they won't move!) or lying them on the ground so you can snap them from above. Another tip is to take their photo whilst they're lying in someone's arms: that way your assistant can use their arms to prop your baby up and angle them in the most flattering way.

- Don't forget the parts that make up the whole
Struggling to take a good whole-body shot of your baby? Focus instead on the adorable details: take photos of their tiny hands, feet, a close up of their face. You'll find it much easier than trying to fit all of them into your frame, and you'll be glad you documented those details when your baby gets bigger.

- Black and white is your flattering friend
Blotches, bruises, odd lumps and bumps. Childbirth is hard on babies, and the legacy of that often shows on their bodies for the first few weeks: and it doesn't photograph well! If you take a lovely photo but it shows your baby's blotchy skin or red marks then just remove the colour. A black and white photo is always so much more flattering.

- Snap, snap, snap!
Always have your camera to hand and don't stop taking photos. To get that one photo where your baby is smiling/staring straight at you/not drooling you might have to take 100 bad photos in the same three minute period. Just keep clicking and your more likely to find the perfect photo in your set.

- Pick your moment
You will very quickly learn your baby's routine: the hours where they want to play, the minutes where they want to sleep, the long stretches where all they want to do is cry. So pick your moment. Don't try to get a good snap of your little one when they're screaming or being fussy: it's not likely to happen. Instead incorporate your photoshoot into play time. Make it part of the game and you're guaranteed to get some really great shots!

Do you have any extra tips on how to take great photos of your baby? I'd love if you could share them, I want my pictures to be as good as possible!

Love Tor x

My home: Creating the perfect nursery

Hi guys,
I've already posted about Wilbur's nursery over on the Fabfrocks at home site, but I'm cross-posting it here, because this post focuses more on the practicalities of his nursery, rather than the 'oooh doesn't it look pretty' stuff!



The shelving unit, cot, and wardrobe are all from good ol' Ikea. We just changed the knobs on the wardrobe door to make it look a little more unique. I heartily recommend the Ikea furniture: it's affordable, multifunctional, and because it's slightly smaller than standard-sized nursery furniture, it's perfect if you're short on space.


I chose a circus theme for the nursery. I wanted something child-friendly, but the practical forward thinker in me also wanted something that would grow with the baby so I wouldn't be redecorating the room every year.

The vintage circus posters (which we talked about here) are all from eBay. The cushions on the sofa are from Cath Kidston, Etsy, and Little Joules. Cath Kidston does a vintage circus print fabric that I absolutely fell in love with. So I made some bunting using it, and then enlisted my much craftier mum to make all the other soft furnishings in the room using the fabric: She made the cotton bags hanging from the wardrobe doors, the huge sofa throw, and the quilt on the end of the baby's cot. She even used the circus print fabric to trim his little towels: now that's attention to detail!



Do you have a theme in your nursery? How did you decorate, and do you have any decorating tips to share?

Love Tor xx