Christmas Love with Myer Giftorium

Last week I got to do something pretty fun.

Kids Business invited me to a special bloggers event the launch of the Myer #Giftorium!Now I LOVE Christmas, it is one of the happiest times of the year for me, the decorations, the gift wrapping, the gift buying, the shopping, the making, the cooking, the relaxing, THE FOOD, the family and friends getting together, the shared meals and festivities, the events and outings, the Christmas lights, the Santa photo's, the decorations ( I said that already didn't I...?Well they are pretty wonderful, maybe I am just ornament obsessed ;) 

My favourite ornaments for our tree this year, personalised baubles for my girls, what a wonderful idea Myer!
These are available through all Myer stores after November 8th

A beautiful princess carriage - sigh - and an event calender that is timeless, classic and has no sugar filled treats that the kids would want to eat at 6 in the morning #winner

I caught a train, by myself,  from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane for the event and it felt really odd at first as I always do everything with my kids, like everything. My kids are my world and I love spending time with them so when anything special or fun comes up I find it hard to think of the experience without them.
But, since making looking after me a priority in my life too, doing things just for me and getting to know me time all by myself all over again I am making the effort to take adventures on my own too.
At first I felt a little guilty, then peaceful, then exhilarated and when I saw all the amazing fun for kids at the new Myer Giftorium I felt guilt all over again, ok, maybe only briefly I was enjoying myself too much!

I even got an AWESOME arm workout striding through the city to my train carrying all my goodies! And PS a soda stream PLAY is an awesome idea for a Christmas present for the kiddos!! Watch my BLOG for some very exciting refined sugar FREE recipes coming soon or look up my PINK LEMONADE recipe in the search button.

I was very impressed with the whole event organised by Kidsbusiness it was beautifully set out, the shopping was incredible and there was magicians, face painters, balloon twisters, personal shoppers called gifticians and so much helpful staff to make Christmas shopping relaxed and stress free.
Yes, I am all for anything that helps us bring more CALM and JOY into our lives.
From November 8th all 67 Myer stores will have their own Giftorium, personal shopper experiences, gift wrapping, Santa, Vista print (I am SO excited about that!!) and staff in funky Christmas themed outfits and weekend entertainment for the kids.
Really I think Myer is going all out to bring the magic back to Christmas and as a big fan (or the child inside maybe) I was in awe and cannot wait to take my kids to both the Brisbane Myer and our local Sunshine Coast Myer store this Christmas and do some Christmas shopping in amongst all the fun.
Some of the themed sections of the Giftorium which features over 2.2 million products include:
Miracle Mum
Glamour Gran
Dapper Dad
Trendy Young Things
Kids Cubby
Paws Corner (yes, the pets have a gift section!)
Globe Trotter
Techno Freak
Food Fanatic (Oh I saw all sorts of lovely kitchen things here!!)
Hop, Skip, Juice (for health & Fitness fans - oh yeah, this section rocked)
and all the Christmas ornaments, decorations and pieces - sigh...so beautiful!

Check out the hashtag #GIFTORIUM across social media to see pictures from right around Australia!Plus in store they will have a huge digital screen showcasing all photos from Instagram with that hashtag!Why not check it out and then join the fun :)

You can see my instagram snaps at @Bekmugridge


Bek XXX

Note: Opinions are my own,  I have received goods in payment.

Presents in the post - Red Balloon

I have always loved the post.
Maybe it is in my heritage as my great, great grandfather was a postman in France...
Getting letters, cards and things in the mail has always filled me with delight, yet as times turn more and more digital you just don't get the same amount of mail like we once did, we even get e-cards and digital Christmas cards now.
So you can imagine my delight when to be able to review a RedBalloon experience!

My RedBalloon  experience was all about organic, fair trade  coffee, and yes it was just wonderful!
AND look at how stunning it comes to your door! The packaging and styling was faultless and it really did make my day extra special when I received it.

I truly treasured the moment and waited for my toddler to have her nap before brewing up a pot of one of the beautiful, organic coffee of the month and sitting down to enjoy it with a great biscuit, chocolate maca ball or macadamia bliss ball. Giving myself a treasured 10 minutes of quiet, cool breeze and delcious hot coffee - bliss!

I really enjoyed this review, and not just because I love a great coffee or because I love receiving things in the mail, or even because I absolutely loved the gorgeous presentation, I really enjoyed this review because it felt like a special reason to take some time out in my day for me and that is why I would not hesitate to do more Red Balloon experiences and give them as a gift.

AND even better you receive $20 off when you spend $79 or more on any RedBalloon experience or gift box!!! Visit www.redballoon.com.au and enter the promotional code REDBLOG14 at the checkout to receive your discount.
(Offer valid until 30/06/2014. Promotional Code can only be used once per person. All purchases are subject to RedBalloon T&Cs, for full details read here: http://www.redballoon.com.au/help/terms-conditions)

What a sensational gift idea for any member of the family or even yourself!

We all need that special reason to be delighted in our day, to take some time out to #experiencehappy !

Bek XX




*This was a sponsored review. Opinions are my own*

Living and loving a little ECO

When I was a teenager I was full of such passion and I was sure I was going to be an environmentalist out there changing the world, saving the world.

The older I became the more I despaired at the state of our planet and felt it was all too big a problem.
The forests disappearing at lightening speeds, whole species disappearing off the planet forever, children starving, people living in terror, rubbish islands in the ocean, polluted rivers, climate change, wild, majestic animals being treated like they were worthless, rubbish tips growing beyond imagination.
You can feel so helpless when you look at all that has, and is going wrong, you can feel overwhelmed with sadness and that the problems are just too big...
OR
You can decided that you as one person do matter.
That you can do things in your everyday life that make a difference.
That even a small difference is a positive step.
That even the most budget conscious homes can help the planet.
That there is always hope and the more of us who do care the more we can all do together.

I chose to vote with my $ as much as I can, when I can, for a better future for all.
This is why I am so passionate about shopping local, buying local and supporting your local businesses.
And why I chose to make at least some of my purchases and the gifts I give each year ethical ones.
Your not only helping the planet you are supporting businesses doing the right thing as well.
These are some of my current favourite Eco buys

 My absolute favourite chopping board
Fab Slabs Chopping Boards
These beautiful boards are natural and ethical. They are made from the camphor laurel tree which while beautiful is a pest species here in Qld that does some real damage.
These boards are fantastic, they don't blunt your knives, they don't stain, they are naturally anti bacterial and they are wood. Beautiful, natural material.
I just cannot bare the thought of plastic chopping boards myself, I always picture tiny particles of plastic ending up in all your food - all those grooves from all the chopping! 

Fab Slabs

Re-usable food covers

Now how clever is this Sunshine Coast business too,  4MyEarth

They also come in different sizes and patterns.
They are ECO, washable and re-usable so after your initial outlay they will save you so much money!

4MyEarth ECO sandwich wrappers
These are perfect for the real push for kids to have clean, rubbish-free lunchboxes at school now.
They are easy to use, easy to wash, best of all easy for the kids to open and use and nice and safe.
I have bought a few eco lunch alternatives and would have to say these have impressed me the most.
There is also little bags of various sizes and they have a waterproof smooth inner coating.

 I was so excited to come across the If You Care range.
From gorgeous recycled aluminium foil to FSC certified unbleached greaseproof paper.
Did you know that most baking paper is coated with something called Quilon which contains heavy metals? And they use chlorine in production which often ends up dumped in streams and lakes.

I have baked with this baking paper many times now and just love it.
I even love the earthy look of it. It really makes those healthy baked goodies look so much more at home as they cook compared to the unatural looking bright white!
You can get it and all the If You Care range from Organics on a Budget

 How cool is this notepad!
After filling my last booklet for my newsletters from all the Edible Sunshine Coast events, festivals and shows I have been doing I found this one and fell in love with it right away!
It is by Collected & Co

My absolute favourite gift idea for kids at the moment are these sensational Planet ECO gardening kits for kids! There is vege and flower and they are just so super cute and a really exciting way to get kids into the wonderful world of organic gardening!

 My mum loves a clean house. She always has. I do not have a single childhood memory of even once the house being 'out of sorts'' not even one! Along with a passion for cooking, food and interior design she has always had a passion for being house proud and making her home feel like a magazine, spotlessly clean and yet homely all at the same time - usually with baking smells!
She only recently tried Enjo and fell in love with it, and all inspired, bought my a kitchen set as a gift!
I have to say I had it for a whole week before I even tried it! Yes, yes, I love a beautiful clean, styled house but I do not share her energy levels there! I try. So I carried on with my usual things before getting around to trying it. I loved that it means you use no chemicals at all - not even natural cleaners so no buying products - just water and it is actually cleaner then all the commercial cleaners, so yes, it now has pride of place in my kitchen ( but oh, if only it was in blue and white - sigh- hehe) (the green alas does not go with my kitchen! But it works so awesomely I will make an exception!) You can find out more about Enjo products and how they work and the whole range HERE

And finally I have to say one of the easiest and most practical things we can ALL do is remember those green bags!! Yes, I have been guilty on more than one occasion of forgetting them myself so how thrilled was I to get this free magnet by the very clever IGA supermarket from inside the Real Food Festival show bag!

Are you in love with a living a little eco too? Or want to find some inspiring ideas?
Check out Natural New Age Mum - NZ EcoChick - Healthy Interiors

These are just some of the fantastic products and ideas I have come across, I am always looking for more ways and great products to live a little bit more eco and I always will.

I bring my two girls up with a wonder for the natural world and I take them every weekend into forests, to

waterfalls, the ocean, lakes, rivers, up mountains so they can truly fall in love with the beautiful natural world around them.

As the great legend Steve Irwin said, "If they love it they will want to save it." Such a powerful and positive message.

We grow food together and have organic gardens, compost, we look for organic foods, ethical foods and local foods as much as our budget will allow and we do interesting things together like take a trip occasionally to a recycling plant and even a rubbish tip to remind ourselves that everything that goes into those handy bins we wheel out each fortnight doesn't just magically disappear.

We have visited many times local town water supply lakes and dams to make it more real and also seen the devastation of dry creek beds and parched farmland, to understand more how important and fragile it all can really be...

I love that I have had the opportunity in my life to teach composting and edible gardening workshops, to do eat local inspire taste testing events and when I ran a large Bunnings nursery I ran it organically with no chemical use at all very successfully and encourage the thousands of customers to do the same.
The 300 newsletters I wrote each month for the garden club were packed full of organic gardening inspiration.
I think we often don't realise how much difference we can all make, in our own ways, wherever we live and the chain reactions what we do can have.

We are not perfect in the eco stakes but we are conscious of trying to live more eco as a family, conscious of the environment and always striving to live more eco and I think that is a powerful thing.

Bek XX

Edible Christmas Gift Baskets

Are you Christmas ready?

Looking for an idea?
I LOVE a food gift basket!
Food gift baskets are such an exciting present to give at this time of year.

Everybody eats, so food gifts are practical and a delight. Plus they can be so very thoughtful and personal by tailor making to the giftee. There really is something you can buy for everyone. From a gourmet delight style, to a healthy life goodness pack, to a nutty delight, a gorgeous gluten free, a fresh fruit splendour, a bakers basket of ingredients, organic delights, a nut free/dairy free or a tasty cheese platter. So many varieties! Make your own style and make it personal to the person you are giving it too.

Here is some I did up for friends and family.

Healthy Life -Chocolate Love

Gourmet Goodies - great as a packed basket or as individual gifts

Healthy Life

Gorgeous Gluten free

These are just some of the products my family have bought for gifts and put together, we have also done:

• Choccies and Nuts
• Local Product Love
• Olives and Cheese
• Wine, cheese and crackers
• Home Staples - lovely free range eggs, raw organic honey, beautiful sourdough bread, lovely tea and coffee, jams, chutneys
• Baking Bounty - full of wonderful types of flours like spelt, rice, amaranth and baking bits and pieces like coconut sugar, stevia, honey, agave, cacao, cocoa, nuts, seeds and dried fruits, a tea towel or two, maybe some cookie cutters - this also looks gorgeous in a beautiful baking tin.
• Kids Baking Baskets - these are so much fun to put together for kids, including all the usual ingredients with some baking tools and cookie cutters and even a little apron and cookbook, makes them a real hit.
• Juicing sensations. What could be better for someone that likes a juice that a basket full of fresh, organic juicing goodies and maybe even a new juice jar, metal straw or two as well?

It really is a wonderful present giving idea and you can really use your creative flair and knowledge of the person you are buying for to create a gorgeous gift that will be sure to impress.



Rebecca x

Note:
All the pictured ideas you see here were gift baskets we designed ourselves and bought from the Maleny Supa IGA ( I was not sponsored to do this post in any way) 

Beatiful Planet Eco Gardening Kits for Kids

As a horticulturalist and a mum I just love seeing kids in the garden, growing things, eating freshly picked veggies, smelling flowers, picking and cooking with herbs, discovering amazing insects, exploring and learning, unleashing their imagination in the natural world.

As parents we can help to inspire and nurture the love of the outdoors that children just overflow naturally with by giving them spaces in our own backyards or on our patios where they can grow things.

I have worked in the nursery industry for many years and one of the greatest joys is seeing children get excited about a gardening project.

The kits by Planet Eco  are amazing, they are beautifully presented and packaged and full of things for the children to get excited about. The fact that they are also environmentally friendly means they tick all the right boxes.
They would make an ideal Christmas Gift or Birthday Present.
I know they are going to be on our families Christmas shopping list!

This kits are so beautiful and give children a present that not only unleashes their imagination but gives them the opportunity to experience all the benefits of their own garden, to get excited about getting outside and seeing things grow.
Gardening has so many benefits to children including building a sense of accomplishment, responsibility and best of all a real sense of wonder as they nurture and then see their tiny seeds grow into plants and then into beautiful flowers, useful and fragrant herbs or delicious, healthy food they can eat!
The garden is a live science lesson as they learn about plants, what plants needs are, the insect world and how things grow and work together in the garden.

These would have to be the most beautiful and also practical children's gardening kits I have seen - I was very impressed.
And what better way to inspire a fussy eater to eat their vegetables - than to grow their very own!!

You can buy your very own Planet Eco Kits at http://planet-eco.com.au/

Active Gifts and the Pram Diet book

I am extremely excited that the Pram Diet book will be in one of the truly inspiring gift baskets you can order through Active Gifts!

In one of their new Active Mums packs!

Active Gifts has been delivering top quality sports gift packs across Australia and is now offering Active Mum packs. Active Gifts started as a good luck gift for a friend's fun run when no other product could be found. Tired of sending the cliched flowers or chocolates, I created a unique sports gift pack and Active Gifts was born. Recently we had a beautiful addition to the family and as a result I met many mums looking to lose that baby weight; a lot of mums told me they just needed a bit of a boost and permission to do something for themselves without the guilt. The Active Mum gift packs are the perfect way of providing some motivation and permission for new mums (or experienced mums!) to get active. Simply order online and we take care of the rest, delivering via Express post across Australia, it's that simple. Finally a healthy alternative to chocolates!

This is such a positive and empowering business and gift giving idea and I am so excited to have my uplifting healthy living book for mum's coming up in one of their packs-what an amazing present to give a new mum!!
A gift she can actually use, a gift that will make her feel good, a gift that will inspire and nurture.

You can find out more about Active Gifts and buy one of these fantastic packs HERE

If you love to live your life with health and inspiration now you can give that as a present too!

Mothers Day & Fabulous Female Authors

This coming Mothers Day, so many of us will be looking for gifts for our mothers, step mothers, mothers in law, grandmothers and so on-so why not buy a gift that also supports the great female Authors out there and also therefore women in the publishing industry, many of whom are mothers!

Head over to the Facebook event HERE
Mothers Day gift ideas-books by female authors and join in the fun!
Be sure to share some great ideas/reviews for others and add your own books if your a female author!
And wishing all a wonderful upcoming Mothers Day! x