Some questions for you...

How much do you usually spend on a gift (for someone you like)?

How much does packaging influence your purchase?

Would you rather buy something cheap that has good packaging, or something more expensive and have to package it yourself?

Why would you choose to purchase something handmade instead of store bought/mass manafactured?

If you buy something handmade, do you want it to look similar to something you would buy in a shop but with handmade qualities, or do you want something totally different that you can't buy in stores?

What have you wished you could buy that is for kids/families that you've not been able to find? (eg: certain style of clothing, certain kind of soft furnishing)

I've had some feedback today that my quilts are not looking "different" enough to make people want to buy them - that I should add more embelishment of some kind. I intend to package them nicely in a hand sewn tulle gift bag with ribbon trim and they're made with quality product (proper quilt batting etc) so they are actually useful for using for a baby or maybe for an older person as a lap quilt. They are fully washable without falling apart as they're well sewn and quilted, and I've not used any dangerous items on them (clear thread, buttons, ribbons etc). They are not totally perfectly made, but they look nice and bright and I'm not intending to charge as if they're a bespoke product. If I add embellishment like ribbon trim etc. I would have to charge more for them and they might not be as appealing to buy as a gift, but maybe I'm out of touch with what people want. Any feedback is appreciated! I've made 12 quilt tops and I've finished quilting two of them. 6 of them are red/ aqua combination and 6 of them are pink/green combination.

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Seth is coming along amazingly with the solid food - he cries at the end of the bowl even after a full breast feed, and I definitely have a full milk supply. I think he's just a guts like his mums! So far he's had rice cereal with breast milk, pureed apple and pureed carrots. He swallows like a champion and we're going to start giving him some whole steamed pieces of soft vegie soon to gnaw on as you do with baby led weaning. I just wanted to make sure he could swallow well before commencing that style of solid.

We took him to Kindyroo today for the first time and it was great. He loved looking at all the other babies and even though he is the youngest one there and can't sit up on his own it won't be long until he catches up. We lay him in a big padded tube thing and rolled him around which he loved, and he also really enjoyed lying on a trampoline and being bounced quite vigorously. I felt like a bit of a dickhead doing the dancing and singing parts, but that's mainly because LM was carrying Seth for it so I was just dancing around on my own like a goose! There was one other couple there, a straight couple and the man seemed like a very nice hands-on type of daddy. All the other mums were quite a mix and everyone was friendly enough to us. It's very focused on the babies rather than socialising and I think Seth will really enjoy going every week.

ETA: And my mother is coming to visit in November. Fuck.