New Mommy welcome home basket!

My friend Leslie just had her first baby a few weeks ago and I wanted to put together something to bring to her when I met baby Leo.  I scoured Pinterest for good ideas but for the first time ever, I wasn't very impressed with the new mommy baskets that people had put together.  Most of pictures on Pinterest had dollar store baskets and didn't give a good description of what they put in the basket. (side note: there is nothing wrong with a dollar store basket, but I wanted to give her something a little more functional to use for the long haul in Leo's room)  I knew I wanted to spend around $40 and came in a little over budget  after I found everything I wanted.  I sort of splurged on an Etsy purchase for Leo's room. :)  It definitely wasn't necessary for the new mommy basket, but I couldn't resist.  Look at sweet Leo!  He is such a good baby and was so calm when I was there...very different from Keaton!

I hadn't seen the nursery yet, but Leslie told me that she used teal and mustard as the main colors.  I was browsing the basket section at Target to try and find something that would be a good size to use for future toys...(we have 4 baskets in our living room full of toys for Keaton so the size was key!).  I stumbled across this basket and it was perfect!  I mean really...teal, mustard and gorgeous!  I wanted to buy one for myself too, but I was good and only got one for Leslie.  To top it off, I scanned the item in my Cartwheel app (Do you know of the Target Cartwheel app?  It is a must download if you love Target as much as I do, but that is a post for a whole other day).  The "Threshold" brand items scanned an additional 15% off for that day only so what I though was a $20 basket really came in around $15!  Oh yeah, I also have Target Red debit card tied directly to my checking account which gives me an additional 5% off everything I buy. I was looking at an additional 20% off all Threshold brand items that day. Whoohoo!

I was also lucky in the frame section of Target!  I found this Threshold frame in the clearance section and I got an additional 20% off of that.  This buy came in at about $6! Again, I wish they would have had more because I wanted some for my house.

As soon as Leslie and Ed announced Leo's name and stats I searched Etsy for something fun to buy his with his name on it.   I thought she may have something with his stats, but thought she could use this in another room if she already had something in his nursery.  I found this Etsy shop and put in an order with the right colors and this is what we got.  So adorable!  The shop also gave me the 2nd picture below and it fit in perfect.  (I just wish I had a second frame!)  The birth stats cost $16, but since I got the 2nd pictures as well I'll say it was $8 for each.  They key for me was not having to print them.  We don't have a great printer so I wanted a shop that printed and mailed me the items.

Now on to the dollar store to get some items to put into the basket.  I must say that I love the dollar store, especially to pick up cheap crafting items.   I spent $13 collecting a few things that will be helpful in those first few months with a new baby.  Yummy smelling body wash, and bath salts, hand sanitizer, face wipes for Leo, disinfect wipes for toys, batteries for all of those wonderfully LOUD baby toys, comfy socks, wet wipes travel size and a huge bunch of hair ties.  Why is it that all hair ties mysteriously disappear throughout the day.   I think there are hair tie eating monsters that live in our house because I start the week with 10 hair ties in my bathroom and end the week with 2.   So strange!  Another item I found while browsing Pinterest is the "SHHHH baby is sleeping" door hanger.  I really wish that I would have had this at my house for those first few months or even now when we put Keaton down for a nap.  I won't admit that in the beginning days I was rude to someone that came to our door when Keaton was sleeping...I also won't admit that I told that person to SHHHH in the middle of our conversation.  I blame the remaining pregnancy hormones after giving birth!   I can't find/remember the source of the blog that I printed the sign from. Shoot! 

I had to add this picture below because it pretty much sums up the stage Keaton is in...blurry guy running all throughout the house.

I put all the items in the basket, but it didn't look that good because everything was sort of floating around at the bottom of the basket.  I came up with a great solution!  Plastic bags and some brown paper strips to cover them up.

All the goodies organized in the basket!

Finished product ready to be delivered!  I think Leslie really like everything and the picture and basket worked great in Leo's nursery.  Overall, spent around $50, but well worth it to give a nice gift to a new mom and great friend!