Accessories Race

I have found myself in arms race with another mum here in Wiesbaden. This race is quite one-sided, as The Other Mum does not know about it. To tell you the truth, I think she hasn't even noticed me...

This all began about a year ago. In several occasions, when I was walking with my baby in the pram to the city, I saw The Other Mum sharing the same route and pushing a pram. She also had a Bugaboo Cameleon, although her pram was off-white, where as mine was dark brown.

Besides the Bugaboo and similar route to the city, we had nothing else in common. The biggest difference was in our appearances. We both had often jeans and a jacket on, and our hair in ponytail. But where my look was created in less than 5 minutes, The Other Mum always looked like a personal shopper had chosen her outfit and she had spent about two hours at hairdresser.

And The Other Mum had a cup-holder in her Bugaboo.

And The Other Mum had a Longchamp diaper bag (Le pliage Hobo bag, in off-white to match the pram).

The Other Mum looked always so fresh and stylish, so I wanted to steal some of her look. First, I bought the cup-holder. It was cheapest at o-baby.de, for 19€. Quite much for a cup-holder, but I reasoned that there would be a lot of use for it in summer with water bottle (there has!) and I saved with the delivery costs, when I ordered the footmuff at the same time.

You can also use the cup-holder for jumbo-size take-away drinks!

I guess I had talked about this quite a lot at home, because on Mothers Day, I got the Longchamp diaper bag from Herr Welle! But to reduce my happiness, he told me he had seen The Other Mum in the Kurhaus parking garage, and she had had a Porsche Cayenne as her shopping bag! And according to Herr Welle, I was not going to get similar for my birthday...

Both the cup-holder and the Longchamp bag came handy last summer in Italy.

I was quite happy for the situation and my paths did not cross that often with The Other Mum anymore.

But this week I saw her again.

And The Other Mum had a new Luis Vuitton bag!

I hope it is not too late to write to Santa Claus...

Hausfrau's Favourite Hobby: Online Shopping

The world of online shopping has opened up for me since we moved to Germany and had a baby. First of all, the selection in German online stores is so much larger than in Finland. Secondly, shopping is so much cheaper here. The sales are better, plus the delivery is usually free! DHL brings the shopping to your door possibly as fast as the next day.

I'm not a real fan of shopping clothes for myself online, as I'd like to try them on. But for baby clothes as well as other accessories, online shopping is a great option.

I must admit that I have even become a bit of a maniac in finding the cheapest offer. In choosing a product I might visit several 'real' stores, but after that I take the shopping online. For example, after choosing the pushchair I wanted, I spent quite a while online searching where I could get it the cheapest (one year ago Bugaboo Cameleon was cheapest in Dutch Mutti und Ich store, even with the delivery costs).

Another nice thing in online shopping are the Gutscheins (discount coupons). Every time you order something, you are provided with several coupons to other stores. And you would be a fool not to use them, right? ;)

I won't even start to list the online stores, which I visit regularly, but I think there are a couple worth mentioning:

• Baby Markt: for anything baby-related. Very reliable and the delivery is free in Germany for orders over 20€. And if you'd like to order something that costs under 20€, add a Pampers packet to your Warenkorb ('Baby Markt macht den besten Preis!') and your order will be delivered free of charge!
• Buch.de: Good selection of books in English and always free delivery
• myToys.de: good selection of toys always in sale
• There are several nice online stores for baby clothes, but one that I have used a couple of times is Ellerhop. I had thought I'd need to wait until January to get winter clothes with good price, but they already had the lovely Cupcake snowsuit in sale. 

If you still aren't convinced or if you need to explain your hobby to someone, please remember that online shopping is a great way to learn a language!