Dollhouse makeovers

This week we decided to embark up on a little renovation mission with our Lille Huset dollhouse from Wild and Whimsical Things. We met Adrian who runs this brilliant online store via the utterly brilliant small biz course we are doing with Business School for Mums.

What I love about Adrian is the way she has selected toys in her store which are based around a child’s development. For each toy on her website she then has a list of skills the child will grow and develop from, when the child plays with the toy. Similar to how I write my “Toy of the month” where I look at the skills and development in terms of gross and fine motor skills etc for a toy, Adrian does the same and I love it! As a parent it is so helpful to be armed with this knowledge when choosing a toy or gift for a child, friend or niece/nephew.  She has definitely set herself apart from other online toy stores with this fab information and not to mention her toy selection is the bomb! Rock and Pebble, Maileg, Milton Ashby, Omy Design and Play, Lille Huset, Numero 74, ahh need i say more…

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Myer’s Christmas Giftorium arrives

I have to say last Saturday was a pretty exciting day in the life of Hudson! We both had the utmost pleasure to attend Myer’s Christmas Giftorium, on behalf of Kids Business, an event showcasing their exciting range of gifts for all ages for the upcoming festive season.

H was so excited as he knew he was going to see Santa. Now this is rather amusing fact in itself, as for the past few years, he has cried his eyes out or refused to look at the camera or both!

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Follow your dreams

It was back in July 2013 that I decided to embark on writing a kids blog whilst we were living in Germany and I was becoming quite lonely. Admittedly I was also becoming a little bored being a full time mother, and needed something more to occupy my mind but it wasn’t until January 2014 that I began my Kids Gifts and Toys Instagram adventure.

I couldn’t have imagined so long ago, the amazing people I would meet along the way, the sheer creative geniuses that exist in the world and in particular on Instagram, and how thankful I feel at the beautiful friendships I have made in nearly 2 years. It is those friendships which kept the loneliness at bay and gave me something to look forward to each day as I battled learning German, albeit very badly!

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The boy’s room tour

Pax and Hart edit

I thought I would do a little room tour of the boy’s room before we end up changing it all with our move to our little townhouse. I wanted it blogged for posterity and also as an archive to look back on in case I replicate a few things which I will likely do.

Their room is super tiny and they share it. I haven’t added in photos of the bunk beds yet as they need a respray back to white but they will be up soon. Stay tuned…

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Toy of the month – September 2014

This month I am reviewing the ever amazing “Make a doll” by Naked Lunge.  As you may know from my IG account, I am a HUGE fan of the fabulous Roxy from Naked Lunge. Firstly she is one lovely lady and secondly an amazing artist!!

Make a doll” are personalised, hand painted dolls that are created by the gorgeous Roxy. She uses photos and details that you send to her via email about your child. She paints your beautiful son or daughter using black non-toxic paint onto cotton, then she hand washes the cotton fabric, dries it, irons them and sews them up with stuffing. You get to choose your own backing from a selection of gorgeous liberty prints, chevron, triangle, plain black and more.

I had one of the “Make a Doll’s” made by Roxy  for my youngest son’s 2nd Birthday. Firstly, I love that they are handmade in England with so much love and devotion. You have in your hand a gorgeous mini-me doll of your beloved child. It is like a little piece of art wrapped in cotton. These dolls are timeless.

I love that our doll is a little snapshot of my son when he was a toddler, holding his favourite toys and in his favourite clothes at the time. He loved recognising his favourite fire engine toy and “Dig Dig Digging” book on the doll and enjoys sleeping with it at nap and bedtime. I loved that I have a mini me of him in doll form to treasure always ( I am a bit sentimental like that !)

Naked Lunge is an English company that began in 2013, producing the most divine prints, postcards, dolls, pillows, homewares and clothing. Roxy is always surprising me with her seemingly endless creative talent. Whatever she touches turns to gold! Roxy collaborates with retailers and clothing companies to produce unique designs and bespoke pieces that are exclusive to these shops.

The dolls are machine washable at 30 degrees on a short spin cycle.

Age: 0+ months

Each doll stands approximately 25 cm tall and approximately 8cm wide.

RRP: £30.00

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What happened…

Hi and welcome! You may have been here before but it all looks a little different this time around? Well have no fear, it is still Kids Gifts and Toys but in a new and improved site.

So where to begin…my name is Liz and I started blogging in earnest back in January 2014. I had a great little blog at this same site that I had built up over the past 9 months filled with brilliant ideas for Kids birthday gifts, Kids fashion, Kids rooms and more. But about 3 weeks ago, I killed my site. All completely accidental but through a hapless and stupid mistake by me, as a result of my site being hit by a Spambomb attack,  I lost everything.  It was the second time I was hacked in a matter of weeks, bad luck some might say, or I may have been specifically targeted for no apparent reason or it may just be and this is the likeliest of cases that my site was just so weak in terms of security that it made it an easy target for hackers. So I did some research and I hope that my new site is much stronger and more hack proof than before. Only time will tell… So first things first if you ever think of starting a wordpress blog, make sure it is secure in terms of random passwords, and updated/backed up regularly!

Why? Because I thought I had backed up my blog but I can’t seem to find the back ups anywhere. So secondly, if you are thinking of starting a blog, always back up, back up, back up, back up,  your content and site!!

This all happened less than 48 hours before the removalists were due to arrive to pack up our lives to ship it back from Germany to Australia. Great timing huh! But they say that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…

To be honest, I don’t think I have had time yet to process the fact that I have lost hours and days that I have dedicated to my blog this year, that I will never get back. I am beyond gutted but I don’t want to just give up and give in. I could just stop blogging and be done with it. Move on and get a real job you say?! But I honestly love what I do too much and for the first time in my life, I am enjoying my work and following a teenage dream of being a writer.  I don’t want to be defeated as it is certainly not a philosophy I would teach my 2 boys so instead I am going to come back better, sleeker and more hack proof than ever before.

Stay tuned for a new website launching very soon and I hope you will join me for Kids, Gifts and Toys, take 2!