Nicole (the person I refer to as my neighbour all the time here on the blog) and I have been walking our dogs together for close to a year. Alfie simply hates Penelope aka Nelly, (she’s half chihuahua and half weiner dog) and any time he sees Nelly he barks at her for a good 2 minutes straight, then completely avoids her when we walk together. Poor thing! All Nelly wants is another buddy!

We used to walk only in the evenings, but now that Nicole is on maternity leave with her first child we have been walking upwards to 3 and 4 times a day. Yes, Alfie still has terrible behaviour even if I simply mention Nelly or Nicole’s name. After almost a year of daily walking, you think my dog would get used to them. He can be a saucy bugger when he wants to especially if I give any attention to Nelly.

Since I’ve known Nicole for a while, we’ve grown close talking about all sorts of hilarious, girly things and telling each other stories about our day, on our daily walks. I wanted to do something extra special for her when her newborn arrived. With the obvious of bringing over home cooked meals to their home, I also wanted to put together a special basket just for her. Everyone spoils a baby when it first arrives, but I wanted to spoil Nicole a little bit. So I put together a small basket for her to enjoy! I reached out to a couple of companies (as I knew she loved bareMinerals mascara) and they also donated 4 items. For the most part, everything was purchased by me. I’m not a Mom yet, so I have no idea if this is the kinda stuff new Mom’s would like, but it’s a couple of necessities, and other fun things for her to enjoy.

The baby is now a week old, and I can finally blog about my secret I’ve been holding out from my neighbour. She wasn’t sure if she was going to delivery early, so I put this basket together for her in late March. I’ve been dyin’ to give it to her ever since. But I wanted to wait until I knew she really needed it— after the baby was home with her!

So here it is, the New Mom Basket:

So much fun stuff! A couple of things for the baby too, can’t forget the little one! I picked up the basket from TJ Maxx not too long ago, perfect size for all I wanted to put in it. Most of the items I picked up from Target and luckily so much of it was on sale.

Then a couple of things for the baby. The free hugs onesie and the newborn leggings were on sale. Rachel is the designer and creator behind Lucy & Leo  (the company named after her two little cousins) so she graciously sent over a little tub of Tender Tush for the baby in case he ever has a sore little butt and needs some extra TLC. Lucy & Leo is a company based out of New York who also sell the most adorable organic baby clothing, along with the Mommy and Baby skincare items.

Inside the basket:

Lucy & Leo Tender Tush, 2 pens from $1 section at Target, Altoids mints, Wet ones, Vitamin Water (lemonade flavour), mini Dove deodorant, eos lip balm, 2 packs of extra gum (for fresh breath!), 2 sticky notes from $1 section at Target, eos hand cream in cucumber, a box of tissues, a bottle of water, cucumber scented hand sanitizer, 2 clothing items for baby, Lash Domination by bareMinerals (Nicole’s favourite mascara!) along with a bareMinerals marvelous Moxie lip gloss, and bareMinerals Well-Rested face & eye brightener, a bottle of diet coke (one of her drinks of choice), and a bit of chocolate.

I thought a couple of these things would be handy to have in the main living area when she’s with her newborn. I know when my friend had her first baby last year she gave me this great idea to have a station set up where she would be for most of the day, which included a lot of baby stuff, but even pens, notebooks, hand cream in case she needed access to it. 

It had been sitting like this for a number of weeks. So I had some time to add a couple of more goodies to her basket once she delivered. Added: Lindt white chocolate balls, a fun light magazine to read, a tide-to-go pen, and a little arrow necklace.

I can imagine no one wants to cook after having a newborn. So I decided to spoil them a little bit with some the chicken stir fry I LOVE, blueberry muffins, fresh flowers from Trader Joe’s put in a $1 store glass cylinder vase, and this gift basket I put together for my friend. It doesn’t have to be expensive, most of the basket game from Target and even then most was on sale as I already stated above. The cellophane + blue ribbon was just from the $1 store! Plus, home-made food — what’s better than a nice hearty meal? Since she’s my neighbour, she gets it fresh from the oven, and delivered right to her door. :)

Disclaimer: bareMinerals products and the Lucy & Leo product were sent for the basket. I did not purchase those items, but I did ask the company if I could have them for this basket!