If you have a little unallocated Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket, here are a few things I bought this year that I can recommend.

Nursing cover

I nurse in public relatively frequently, so this has been wonderful. I don’t have an actual picture of mine, so here’s Hannah pretending to nurse her baby. When she saw mine, she said she wanted one, too, so I easily sewed this one in a similar fabric to mine. I ordered mine from Deborah & Co. They have many fabrics to choose from, and I have been very happy with it. They are handmade and are good quality. I think they’re a good size because they cover what needs to be covered but don’t have so much material that you feel attacked by a tent. $25 plus shipping

iPad
No picture for this one, but I’m typing this post on it. :) A long time ago, when we’d go to the Kansas History Museum about once a year, my favorite thing was the touch-screen TV in the “diner” that ran clips about Kansas agriculture products. Now I do almost everything on my very own touch screen, and it is wonderful. $450

Initial necklace

These are very popular right now, and I was pleased to find this company The Vintage Pearl because they had a lot of options and high-quality chains. I ordered H and V initials as well as a heart for the baby we miscarried last year. There are a lot of really cute designs, and they’re very customizable. I also ordered a necklace inscribed with “b+d” with an engraved heart. Start around $30

Vanity plate

At preschool drop-off, it seems like 30% of the parking lot is comprised of silver Honda Odyssey minivans. And now we have one as well. But we’ve got something to make us stand out a little bit and help this fuzzy-brained momma remember where we parked. The fee goes to organizations that promote adoption, and if adoption isn’t your particular passion, there are a lot of other neat organizations you can support i.e. Big Brothers Big Sisters, CASA, reading, special olympics, and parks and wildlife conservation. And bonus – the specialty tags only have 5 characters for you to memorize instead of 15 or whatever is on the regular plates now. So look into it (out-of-staters, too)! $30

Flexi clips
Stylish hair accessories – no pic of this either since they literally just arrived in the mail today, so I’m still messing around with them. But I can tell already they’re going to be great! Flexi clips are from Lilla Rose and can be used with all hair types, but I think they will work especially well with long curly hair like mine. I got two different sizes; it was hard to pick with so many cute styles. $11+

Sewing class/Personal enrichment

This was my mom’s idea – for Christmas last year they got me a gift certificate for classes at a sewing specialty store. There were a ton to choose from, but I picked an appliqué class and an embroidery class. Above is the sampler we made in the embroidery class with 10 different stitches! This idea could be broadened to whatever you feel like – cooking classes, Spanish, pole-dancing lessons, art classes… Spend a little for a few hours to learn something you can use for a long time.

So those are a few suggestions for spending some of your Christmas cash. What are some of the favorite products you’ve come across this year to recommend?

My goal is to not go more than a month without blogging. I realized I’m getting close to my deadline, but I have other things on my to-do list. So here is a gratuitous cute baby picture. :)