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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My Little Ballerina – Christmas gift guide

Inspired by those gorgeous little girls who love to dress up and dance and twirl in their tutus all day long. This one is for you!

My Little Ballerina GG 2014 KGT

1. Studio Escargot Ballerina Doll. Ages 3+

2. Tiger Tribe Ballerina musical jewellery box. Age 3 years+

3. Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle. Ages 3-6 years.

4. Hubble and Duke Gold ballet moccasins. Ages 0+

5. thepoppytree “Little Dancer Ballet Girl” print. Age 0+

6. Manuala De Juan Charlotte T-bar pink patent leopard shoes,  Ages 2+

7.  Hubble and Duke Plie Jete Pirouette t-shirt, denim bloomers and knee high socks. Ages 0+ to 6 years.

8. Tiger Tribe Magna Carry Ballet Concert playbook. Ages 3+

9.  Tutu Du Monde Swan Queen Tutu Dress. Ages 2+

10. Tutu Du Monde  Blushing Violet headband- Fraise. Ages 2+

NB:- as the prices for all the products are across different currencies, I have not included these in the gift guide.

What is this blog about?

I realised that  as I rebuild my site, I need to provide some explanation to you, my readers, as to why I started to write this blog and why I decided to come back for round no 2!

My main aim on this site is to provide you with some of the most awesome toy finds, brilliant gift inspirations and stunning fashion labels that are on the market today. I may also occasionally write about mama things, life in general, travel and more.

Some are well established and with good reason, others are new, upcoming and seriously exciting and you need to know about them!

Others still are handmade and I think at the moment, it is this area that is the most impressive to me. I am in awe at the creativity, detail, passion and dedication people are putting in to their products. They are mainly mothers usually stay at home who are rediscovering their inner talents and creating some seriously incredible products.

Most of all I adore giving gifts. I love seeing the faces of my children, friend’s children and family light up when they open up a present. I am known by my friends for always remembering birthdays, even when I lived overseas. I just like giving and hence I LOVE finding the BEST gifts that are suited to the individual.

However, I also like to know a little about the gift before buying especially if it is expensive, so this is why I started this site. I want to provide meaningful reviews to help you decide on a gorgeous and unique gift for your little one.

The fact that I have started this blog again from scratch, just shows how much I love and adore what I do. It gives me an outlet as well as letting me take care of my kids. I can’t believe that I have lost the last 9 months and actually even more, as I started the blog in September last year with my first post. So I have lost a year of my life all zip, gone, whoosh in a spam bomb attack! But I love what I do, I want to keep doing it and it is something that for the first time in my life, makes me happy. I am finally after 34 years following my original dream of becoming a writer and realising that the inner voice inside has finally been awakened and has a platform.

If you are thinking of starting a blog, I would say that it takes up a lot of time. I never realised or appreciated how much time blogging takes up when I first started out. I thought it would be oh so easy! My nights from 8pm- 11pm or later are spent on this blog, researching, reviewing, writing, editing and posting content pretty much 5-6 nights a week. I also spend my son’s nap time blogging and 2 days as of October, are now dedicated to blogging whilst my youngest goes to day care. I want to make this blog a reality, a life changing experience, a career that I love and want to continue with for a long time.

If you want to start a blog, I would say write about something you love as you will have to write about it and spend time away from your bed, your hubby, your family and it takes dedication if you really want to make it something. But if you love something enough, you will be happy to do this! Dream Big is my motto! And if you are reading this, then it can be yours too.

My Little Explorer – Christmas gift guide

Inspired by children who love  “The Great Outdoors”, check out these gorgeous gift ideas for your “Little Explorer” this Christmas!

 

My little Explorer Christmas gift guide 2014

 

 

1. Perfect for the little explorer, “The Outdoor Explorer Kit” from Seedling has a LED headlamp, canvas carry bag, magnifying glass, sketchpad, pencils and bug checklist. Age 5+

2. All little explorers need to stay warm with Roxy Marj heirloom bear blanket . Age 0+

3.  The perfect indoor or outdoor swing from Peachy Baby which is what all little explorer’s need!Age 4+

4. All little explorer’s need a best friend to take on their adventures and Petit Pippin’s handmade Luca Fox softie is the perfect companion. Age 0+

5. For the little explorer’s bedroom, this would make the perfect match “Live for Adventure” mountain wooden plaque from Zilvi. Age 0+

6. The perfect cushion to rest their tired heads on or to decorate their room, is this soft alpaca mountain cushion from Homely Creatures. Age 0+

7. For daily inspiration for all intrepid explorers, this Blacklist “Choose your own adventure” print is a must. Age 0+

8. The perfect tee for any avid adventurer, Modern Burlap’s “Free to Roam” tee . Age 3-6 months to 10 years.

9. The sweetest of toy camera’s for all those pictures of their explorations by Handmade by Suussies. Age 3+

10. All explorer’s need time to rest with a Such Great Heights Bear Wonder tent. Age 2+

11. Flatout Frankie cardboard aeroplane can help to transport the little explorer to all places and times! Age 3+

12. A little explorer can remember all the bugs they discovered on their adventures using this Bug Finger Paint set by NPW. Ages 3+

My little Christmas gift guide series

For this year’s “Kids Gifts and Toys” Christmas gift guides I have decided to focus on children’s  personalities and what they love and enjoy doing. I hope these create meaningful and fun gift guides and enable you to find those unique and fun presents for your children this Christmas.

I have tried to focus on supporting small business and independent labels where possible this Christmas as its nice to know where our money is going and knowing we are helping out other mothers and their families.

So stay tuned for the Kids Gifts and Toys ” My Little” gift guide series….I hope you will find some of the best toys and gift ideas for your children this Christmas right here.

Toy of the month – August 2014

Quut toys – Alto and Cuppi

One of the toys that I was excited to discover at this year’s Spielwarenmesse in Nuremberg was by young Belgian design company Quut. These young designers and parents had re-designed the way that sand toys should look and work -finally!

My kids absolutely adore playing in the sand, both at playgrounds and at the beach. They can be there for hours on end, which is an impressive feat given children’s short attention spans.

However, all the sand toys that I have bought so far to make sand castles has usually resulted in a sandy mess! What impressed me most about the Quut Beach toys were the ingenious designs that they had come up with which were relatively compact in size, brightly coloured and made of durable hard plastic which meant they were not just another throw away sand toy designated for the rubbish bin after a summer holiday.

As we were living in Nuremberg at the time I originally wrote this review, there were no beaches close by, however, we had a summer holiday planned to Turkey in late May and I wanted to buy some of these toys to test out on our trip.  I chose the Alto and Cuppi as I thought they were best suited to our needs of wanting to build sand castles and my kids love a good marble run which you can create with the Cuppi. They also both fit in our suitcases!

We had a lot of fun playing around with these toys to make the perfect sand castles on our trip away. I have to admit though my husband was a much better sand castle builder than me, but shhh don’t tell him!

In playing and creating sand castles with both the Alto and the Cuppi ( it is good to use as a scoop if you don’t have a shovel), I would say a few things… you need good clean sand, it can’t have pebbles in it as they can create air bubbles which don’t allow the sand castle to stand up. Also it can’t be too wet as then the castle just collapses. I think these toys would be perfect in sand pits as well as at the beach. There is definitely some trial and error in building a castle with these toys but you have a lot of fun in the process!

We have even used the Cuppi in the bath which the boys loved as they could tip and pour water to their hearts content. Not as much fun for Mama who had to clean up the floor afterwards.

We have also used the Quut beach toys  a fair few times at our local playground. I have to say all the kids in the playground where quickly attracted to the brightly coloured designs and they wanted to have a go at building a sand castle straight away. We have had crowds of kids each time we have brought the Quut toys with us and they have all had an absolute ball with them!

I am looking forward the fun we can have with our Quut over the Summer now we are living back in Australia!

Designed in Belgium and made in China

Ages: 12 months

RRP: Alto £14.99 and Cuppi £7.99.

Great for: construction, fine motor skills and fun in the sun! 

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