It won’t be me if I didn’t go crazy shopping when I was expecting. Although I always do my research and try to avoid impulse buying, things happened. Impulse buy is unavoidable especially when I was desperate and sleep-deprived, I would give anything to get more sleep or time for myself, thus buying stuffs I could probably live without.

This list hopefully helps other expecting/new moms to make better judgement (which isn’t always easy when you don’t have enough sleep) and avoid spending funds that could have been spent for something else more useful.

The things I list here by no means a low quality useless products. It’s the other way around, they’re expensive and very high quality products. It’s just that I could have used something else better without spending so much money.

1. Baby Bjorn Carrier

I wish I knew about better baby carrier when I first needed one. Actually, I had a traditional Indonesian sling (selendang) but didn’t know how to use it comfortably. I wished I had researched more and use that instead of buying an expensive Baby Bjorn Carrier. Now I have Manduca, which I love, and a couple of woven wraps. I wish I bought Manduca, or even Ergo, instead of the uncomfortable Baby Bjorn. But I was desperate then, I needed to be hands free and bub was very unsettle. It was the best thing I could find in the shop. It was very expensive and uncomfortable. A soft structured carrier like Manduca and Ergo last longer, better ergonomically for both mom and bub.

2. Baby Swing

It was cute, and I loved swing as a little girl, so I couldn’t resist. I also thought, maybe my newborn would sleep in it instead of needing me to hold him all the time. I was so wrong. He was mesmerised by it for a little while (especially the handle!) but didn’t keep him happy long enough. He did sleep in it a couple of time, but it’s really something I could do without. Or at least buy it second hand. He grew out of it in 4 months. The swing was pretty expensive to buy. Not worth it for the amount of time he spent in it.

3.Portable Cot

I bought a portacot thinking my baby would happily stay in there while I do thing around the house. Of course he didn’t like it. He rather be on the floor. Then as he grew mobile, I thought it will confine him while I go to the bathroom, etc. But he would scream when I put him in there. I ended up toddler-proofing my house instead. Now the portacot isn’t used anymore. I could have gone by without one.

4. Way too many newborn nappies

I ended up giving away a box of them. We were gifted a bit too many, and bought a bit too many, and bub grew out of it a bit too quickly.

5. Way too many breastpads

Seeing firsthand my sister’s explosive breastfeeding experience, I thought I would be the same. So I stocked up plenty of breastpads. Little did I know my supply settled down and I don’t need them. I’m left with a box of unused breastpads now. Well, I guess I can use them when bub starts weaning.

Products: Harvest Box weekly snack box subscription
Price: $6.95/week
Shop: Harvest Box
Rating:  *****

Comments

I just received my first Harvest Box! Sum up in one word: YUM.

Harvest Box is a subscription to a weekly snack box which consits mainly nuts and dried fruit. It may sound ordinary but trust me, it’s not.

They mix nuts, dried fruit, seeds, and sometimes little bits of chocolates and spices to create a whole new experience of eating them. I love nuts and dried fruit but when you buy them from supermarket, they’re either too salty or too sweet. Harvest Box products are nothing like that. It’s perfect. It leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth. They make use of the natural flavour of the ingredients to create different feels and flavours.

When you subscribe, you get to rate their mixes, so be sure to do this to avoid disspointment! They have everything ranging from conventional mixes to adventureous (there’s one with coffee beans in it!). Everyone has individual taste, there’s no way they can guess what you like/dislike unless you tell them.

For my first box I get HB Power Mix, Mont Blanc, Spiced Up, and Souk. Honestly, when I first received it, I didn’t expect much. The box actually was smaller than I imagined (it fits into my mailbox easily) but I was probably excan’t even pick which ones are my favourites! They’re all so different yet equally good.

You know the sick feeling after you eat too much of something? I usually get that after I eat a lot of nuts or dried fruit. But Harvest Box contains just right amount to eat in one go, leaving you satisfied, not sick, and looking forward to the next box next week.

On top of all of these, it’s actually healthy and full of nourishments!

If you’re interested to try, they’re offering first box free using this code: 42BSE8LL. You have nothing to loose by trying. You do need to provide credit card details, although, it looks like it’s simple enough to cancel. You can even pause your subscription whenever you like and resume at later date.

After so much contemplation, I finally decided to subscribe to Glossy Box. I heard about these beauty boxes for awhile and has been trying to stop myself from subscribing. I failed obviously. I don’t put make up much, I don’t do my nails, I barely even have time to put lotion on my hands, I must be crazy to subscribe to this. But I love getting packages and trying different stuffs, I used to have a day where I wash my hair and pamper myself with nice smellng stuffs.

I thought, what the heck, I think I deserve to spoil myself with this, it will ‘force’ me to pay attention to myself and take care of my skin. So after checking all the different boxes, I went for glossy box for the sole reason that they have clinique in their brand list. The only thing that I’ve been using religiously in the past, at present, and still going strong is my clinique products. I’d love to try their other products but they’re always so expensive which put me off so I stick with the basics.

To my delight, the first box I receive contains just what I need from clinique! I’ve be searching for a night cream, my usually oily skin gets really dry with the heater on at night! My clinique day moisturizer just doesn’t help because it’s designed for oily skin. My wish came true.

The box contains sample of Clinique Turnaround Radiant moisturizer, or in a simpler term, cream that you use at night aka night cream. I tried it on tonight and loving it already. If this works I will definitely get the full product. Here’s hoping it won’t be too expensive but chance is it will be. It’s Clinique

Anyway, the rest of the contents didn’t really register in my brain (I’m beauty products challenged!) so I’m not even going to attempt to talk about them. I don’t even know how to use them so I’ll be giving them away to my more beauty product aware friends, There’s this nail thing, hair thing, lip pencil thing, and oh a candy cane! I know what to do with that last one.

And oh, I love the box, it’s so pretty!

Products: Conair Professional Garment Steamer (CGS18A)
Price: $149
Shop: The Good Guys Warrawong
Rating: ****

Comments:

I bought this product as an impulse buy. I didn’t do much research on it but I have heard about how you can use garment steamer instead of iron. I dislike ironing so when I saw this in the shop I bought one straightaway. When I got home I tried it immediately and I must say I was disappointed at first. I was ready to ditch my iron but the steamer didn’t do anything to my husband’s work clothes. After more experimenting, I realise the steamer works great on materials which are not easily ironed using normal iron such as stretchy t-shirts and delicate materials like polyester that will burn when ironed.

Now I’m very happy with it because all my clothes that I don’t usually dare to iron can look neat and straight again. So garment steamer will not replace your normal iron, but it will allow you to steam clothes that you usually wouldn’t iron. The rule of thumb is, if you’re afraid your iron will burn the material, use the steamer.

I have a lot of scarves made from delicate materials which I thought I had to give up because it looks ugly after a wash but they’re impossible to iron. Now with the steamer, they look brand new after being steamed.

This particular steamer is neither the most compact nor the cheapest out there but it serves its purpose. The advantage of being big is it comes with the hanger which can rotate which I find really handy. The water container is also pretty big so it can hold a lot of water so I don’t have to refill all the time. So consider these aspects before buying a compact one.

The wattage is also very important. If it’s too low it’s probably useless. This model’s wattage is 1300 watt. It works well so I wouldn’t get anything less than that.

Products: DealsDirect Value Pack 12 Space Saving Vacuum Bags
Price: $29.95
Shop: Deals Direct
Rating:  ****

Comments:

I think this is a good value for money. For the same amount of money, you’ll get less number of bags. It comes in three different sizes which I find really handy for different purposes. It also come with an instruction sheet (not that you really need it, it’s pretty straightforward to use).

These bags are really good to store spare quilts, pillows, blanket, and bulky winter clothes when the season’s over. It prevents them from collecting dust and when you vacuum the bag, it removes the air so the contents become flatter. It saves so much space!

To get the bag to seal properly, you’ll probably better off using hands rather than the zip that comes with it. I find the zip doesn’t seal the bag tightly, so use your fingers to press on the seal to make it tight.

The pretty useless zip

The valve where you suck the air from has several components. One of them is this little plastic thing. I think it’s meant to make it more air tight but it’s so small, it’s easy to lose. I vacuumed one of mine : P It will still work without the plastic thing though. Just screw it tightly. When you don’t use the little plastic seal on the valve, you can let out a bit of air when need be by opening the top part of the valve cover. The let-out won’t work if you have the plastic seal over the hole.

The valve and its many components

Overall, I think it’s a really good value for money. It’s a bit tricky to use, but you’ll figure it out soon.

I used to have the more expensive bags and I can say the only difference is the valve. The more expensive one has a simpler valve which is easier to use but I think doesn’t seal as well as this one. So I will definitely buy this one again.

Before

After

Products: 2.6kW Panasonic Inverter Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner (CS/CU-E9LKR)
Price: $940 + $550 installation
Shop: The Good Guys Warrawong. Installed by a local installer called Tim Rogers.
Rating:  *****

Comments:

We have this air conditioner for our main bedroom and although I haven’t had it for long, I love it. I haven’t had chance to use the heating feature so this review is about the cooling feature.

We took a gamble with choosing this model because Panasonic has good reputation and it seems to have the highest energy rating among similar models from other brand. In addition, it also has most features.

I have not had any complain so far, except maybe the price suddenly went down! We got ours a month ago for $940 but now it has dropped to $849 from the same shop. Ah well. I still love it all the same.

2.6kW is the smallest model in the range. I initially worry it won’t be strong enough. Although it was just for a bedroom, our bedroom is really hot! When I get back from work on a hot day, it’s like an oven. The bedroom is upstairs and our whole second level has low ceiling so we really feel the heat there. Today was quite warm, although not the warmest day of the year yet, I came home and turned it on. It cools the room really quickly so I’m very happy about it.

The first thing I notice about it is how quiet it is! You can hardly hear it. It has a lot of feature, you can see them here. All the features work as expected. I don’t really know exactly how the ‘Mild Dry Cooling’ works exactly but by reading a manual I have the impression that it’s simply about having the flap pointed in an angle that it’s not on your face which makes it feels like a sales pitch since you can adjust the flap manually anyway.

The remote is pretty easy to use and understand. It looks really neat, too. Only the main buttons are outside, the rest is hidden under a flip that you can slide.  So you don’t feel overwhelmed with unnecessary buttons you don’t really need.

Overall I love my aircon, it works well so far and serves its purpose. The unit looks simple and modern and not a sore in the eyes.

Products: LG 42″ LCD TV 42LD560
Price: $1160
Shop: The Good Guys Warrawong
Rating:  * * * *
Comments:

It’s a bit hard to write a fair review about this TV because I have never owned an LCD TV before.

When we were researching which TV to buy, LG seems to have the best value for money compared to other brands.

So far this TV serves us well. It may not have the best picture quality compared to pricier brand but the difference is barely noticeable. The refresh rate is 100Hz which is much better than the cheaper model (50Hz)  so it’s worth paying the difference.

I was initially excited about the netcast feature which allow you to connect to youtube that we also bought a wi-fi dongle. I’m a bit disappointed with netcast now. Searching youtube using the remote is a pain and eventhough I can log in to my youtube account, it doesn’t display list of videos from my subscribed channels. It only shows the videos I favourited which is rather useless because I want to watch new videos, not old ones. I hope this will improve overtime. I notice everytime I go to netcast, it checks for software update so fingers cross for some improvement.

You can plug external harddrive to the TV’s USB and it will play music, pictures, and video. The format of video it can play is limited though. It doesn’t play flv or vob or ts which is pretty annoying and there’s no way to update the codecs. It displays avi best. When the video is high quality, it looks really good. It almost feels like the scene is alive in front of you. We still use our media player to play videos that the TV can’t play directly and I must admit playing it directly through USB gives better quality picture eventhough we connect the media player using HDMI cable.

You can also plug your computer and it will work like a giant monitor.

The sound system is pretty standard. But I guess that’s to be expected. We plan to get separate speaker systems for better sound in the future.

Overall I’m very happy with this TV for the price we pay. There’s room for improvement but I’m not sure if any other model or brands would do it any better.

This is playing avi video directly from my external HD. The picture taken with my phone so the quality doesn’t do the TV justice. The colour is vibrant and picture is very clear.

Product: Maternity Pillow
Price: AU$89
Shop: https://www.bellybean.com.au/
Rating:  * * * * *
Comments:

Since the beginning of my pregnancy I started to feel some strain on my back when I sleep on my side. It’s like my stomach is pulling my back so I had to put a plushie behind my back to lean on. It became annoying after awhile because I have to move the pillow when I swap side.  So I started looking for a pregnancy pillow.

The ones in the market look really bulky. With me getting bulkier by the day, my poor husband will have no space to sleep on. I searched pregnancy forums for recommendation and came across Bellybean. It’s very pricey and the only place you can get it from is this website. I really like the look of the pillow and it seems to have glowing reviews. So I decided to go for it for the sole reason that it has the same support on both sides (tummy and back) which eliminate the need of swapping the pillow around when I sleep.

When I first received it, I loved the colour and the feel of it. It feels soft and cuddly. Like a good quality plushie. When I first tried it on, I wished the cushions were a little bigger because I was used to my fat plushie to lean on and they’re not so further apart (I had to fold the middle part so they’re closer together). But as my tummy grow bigger, I started to appreciate the size and the distance between the two cushion. I guess at the beginning I didn’t have much tummy to ‘fill’ the gap between the cushions but now, it’s perfect.

I cannot live without it now. It’s so simple yet so effective. Even my husband loves it! He even suggested getting another one to support other parts of my body which are also getting bigger : P And once  I caught him hugging it to sleep  ; )

I also love the portability of it. I can easily take it with me when I decide to lie down somewhere else (like the recliner or the couch)

I recommend going to the website to read more about it. It does everything it claims to do.

Postage takes several days for within Australia because it comes from a regional area in WA.

It will make an excellent gift for someone who’s pregnant or something to spoil yourself with if you’re pregnant.

I’ve recently went on a plushie spree on strapya-world. I mean, who can resist faces like these

From left to right: Wasabi-chan, Mt Fuji-kun, Apple-chan, Kurotamago-chan, Momo-chan
The little ones in front are phone straps.

Now I can’t live without them!

Products: Plushies
Price: from US$10 – US$23
Shop: Strapya World
Rating:  * * * * *
Comments:

The outside of the plushies are made of soft materials like the one used for baby’s soft toys. They don’t itch or make you sneeze. The stuffing is very bouncy! When I receive them, they’re squished inside bubble wraps and as soon as I open it, they grow bigger and stay like that.

My only complain would be, they look bigger in pictures, so don’t be surprised if they’re a little smaller than you expected. But believe me, you’ll still love them!

The pink and red one are about the size of human head and they’re a handful to hug. They’re so bouncy and soft. I’m so addicted to them I can’t sleep without hugging one of them. If you can’t decide between the two, pick the colour you like. The pink colour is really soft and pretty but if you prefer bolder colour, get the red one. They’re both equally cute. Even my husband loves them!

I think the black one has the most convenient shape and size. It’s oval-shaped and not too thick but thick enough to be a pillow. It’s not too small but not too big to carry around. I carry it when I’m travelling long distance. The colour is perfect, too because it doesn’t get dirty easily. My only complain about this one is every now and then I can see strains shinny fibre coming out from the inside. Because it’s black, you can see it easily. So I usually just brush it with my hands.

The blue one is a lot smaller than it looks in the picture. But it’s really fat for its size that it looks like it’s about to burst from its fatness. Its thickness is as long as its height which is about the size of my palm. The colour is really pretty and it’s perfect as a companion to watch DVD on bed. Its chubbiness gives a high support for your head. If you want something chubby and cuddly but don’t want to spend too much money on the big plushies, this is the next best thing.

The stuffing of the green one is not as bouncy as the others (but still pretty soft) and it’s not as big as it looks in the picture. The height is about 1.25 of my palm and the width is exactly one palm. It has a really cute face that makes you smile when you look at it. It’s not as huggable as the others but it looks really cute as decoration and I’m sure any little kids will love it! Also, for the price (about US$10), it’s totally worth it!

Owning five of their plushies, I’m confident to recommend strapya-world’s plushies. They’re not expensive for the quality you’re getting:  great materials, beautiful colours My only advice will be to check the measurement stated on the site carefully to avoid dissapointments (which will go away as soon as you look at their faces or hug them).

I bought two more plushies!

The mini pink mt fuji plushie is tiny but oh so cute. It’s so easy to cuddle. It reminds me of a little puppy because of its shape and softness.

The pink wasabi is somehow fatter than my green one. It’s probably just coincidence but I love it. I like my plushie fat it’s as cute as the green one. So if you have to pick, pick the colour you prefer.