Okay, to kick off our annual ‘Bestest Christmas Gift Ideas’ to aid you in your perfect gift search, we’re running our very own competition. Oh yes we are.

It’s a Twitter thing – follow us, RT the message, and you’re in-to-win! It’s that simple, it really truly is.

Oh, the prize?

Did I not say?

We thought one of these would make you quite happy…

It’s the Fortnum & Masons children’s hamper, and we think it’s very extremely adorable.

“As if Christmas weren’t exciting enough, this hamper will send its young recipients into an upward spiral of happiness. Filled with Fortnum’s chocolates, sweets and biscuits, and a child-size tea set, it is just the thing for boys and girls who have been very, very good all year. Presented in a Fortnum’s wicker hamper basket.”

So – Follow us on Twitter (@LittleStuff) and RT the comp message to be In to Win – that’s it!

RT @Littlestuff Be In to Win – Gorgeous Fortnums hamper, just for a follow & RT (or an RT if you love us already) http://bit.ly/4qESEC.

Closing date is Monday 7th December,  to make sure we can get you that most pretty of hampers in time for Christmas. First name picked out of a Christmas Hat on Tuesday 8th morning (after we’ve had coffee, clearly) wins. How special would that be? Go on, follow us, you know you want to…

Let’s all say “Hey There Chiggs!” to welcome them aboard the good ship LittleStuff.

Chiggs Wheels are very useful things indeed. Patented parenting products, cards and gifts with numbered dials to keep track of baby’s feed and everyone’s medicine times.

I bought one of their Baby Feed Wheels for my cousin when her daughter was born and she was over the moon with it. Enormously helpful is what she said.

If you are looking for a really useful card to send to someone who’s feeling poorly or who’s lives have recently been blessed with a new baby – send them a Chiggs!

Needed to get a new pair of good wellies for Big Son – searched the net – couldn’t find what I wanted at the right price ’til I found Giant Strides!

Big Son now has a shiny new pair of decent wellies WITH soft, warm wellie socks and I have a new place to go when I’m looking for Crocs at a decent price for the Summer.

Oh, mustn’t also forget to mention that Giant Strides are also a very decent business who donate a percentage of their annual sales revenue to children’s charities.  They aim to support 3 charities per year: 2 will be assisting children in the UK and 1 will be focused on assisting children overseas.  When making your purchase you can select which of these worthwhile causes you would like them to support from your transaction.

Big thumbs up from us!

We’ve had this machine for a year now. It has, in that time, performed in excess of 350 washes, and kept control of a family of 6′s clean clothes, bed linen and towels.

A year ago I wrote a (loo-o-ng) and glowing review of this washing machine, the LG F1479FD56 Steam Direct 9kg. So, as we do for the ‘bigger stuff’ we review, I’m revisiting it after a years heavy use. What do I think of it now?

Well.

I love it.

More than I ever did.

I no longer marvel at it every time I walk past – it’s part of the furniture now. What I DO do is trust it. Whatever I cram into it (and I usually cram in a LOT) I know it will handle it. A full double bed change when a stomach-bug-ridden child chooses  MY bed to be sick in. The dog’s bed mid-moult. 6 pairs of jeans thick with mud after a spring walk in the floods. No problem.

We’ve never yet beaten the 9kg capacity, and it has never gone wrong (though it DID get clogged and stop draining. But that was to do with the ‘washing balls’ we were trialling which spilled the 249,742 little balls into my beautiful machine….).

Does the 9kg Steam Direct work for a large family? Oh yes.

Was It Any Good? Oh yes, yes, yes.

Have I mentioned it’s the prettiest washing machine I’ve ever seen too? :)

Yet another fine on-line boutique to welcome into the LittleStuff fold.

Baby Duck Shop offers a wide range of products from gorgeous organic clothing to special gifts and toys for little people from 0-2 years.

I am particularly loving this, if only it was in my size….

Our lovely reviewer Claire and her 5 week old daughter have reviewed the Bebe au Lait nursing cover for Coochie Coo.

Click here to find out how Claire got on and why she liked it so much.

We have the welcome banners and party bunting out again as we give a greet our latest addition to the LittleStuff directory; Madison Browne!

Madisonbrowne.com is a luxury children’s wear store, offering the latest collections from the best European designers, including Ralph Lauren, Diesel and Tartine et Chocolat.

They also offer a super superb gift collection, with perfect presents to celebrate new arrivals, birthdays or seasonal greetings.

All purchases are elegantly wrapped and packaged in beautiful gift boxes. They offer same day delivery by uniformed driver and express delivery for Europe and World Wide.

Join us in a toasty warm welcome to SonnyandAlfie.co.uk! They have joined us in the Party Bags section of our oh-so-helpful shopping directory.

Raise a glass (or mug) to SonnyandAlfie.co.uk!

We were invited to take the whole family to LaplandUK on Saturday. It’s a 3hr drive each way for us, but it looked so special, we thought it would be worth the drive + 4 children (well, okay, ‘I’ thought it would be, Mr Laura was dubious but not unwilling). The review is coming on the main site later today, but here’s some pics from the visit. Was it worth the money (£405)? Well. Tough question, and depends which of the six of us you ask… (see the full review HERE)

A little Gingham might have been handy to hide these Elves Shelves...

Meeting the Sami - he was brilliant, the snow was effective, the green-tree background slightly incongruous.

'Santas Workshop' - where we were to help build the toys...

'Building' the toys...

The very best Elf in LaplandUK, comparing gingerbread notes with Ella and Cam.

Ho ho ho.

There’s been not-a-little discussion on the whole review thing around the Mummy Blogging community recently. Now, of course, things are slightly different for us: we are, in fact, a business, and a commercial enterprise. Lovely people though we are, we do actually get paid moolah (small bits of) to feature people on our site (well, 10,000 people visit us every month, so we have to show them something.)

BUT.

(note that it was quite a big ‘but’…)

Wa-a-a-y way back – a few years ago – when we began doing reviews, we decided we needed ground rules. Any product we reviewed HAD to be used. Properly. And that meant in our own families, lived with, driven with, washed and tumbled, dribbled on or wee-ed in – whatever it took to make sure it did what it said it would.

That way we not only admired it from afar, but we also got to know all about its good bits, its bad bits, its quirky bits and its inadvertant hey-its-fab-at-that-too bits.

We have no intention of reviewing every pushchair on the planet to say which is best – we are not interested in comparisons, just in whether one product does its job well for one family. If we like the look of a product, we’ll agree to try it. If we use it and still like it – we’ll say so.  If we don’t – well, we used to run it past the company and ask if they still want it published. These days, we put the good ones on the site – but the duff ones (which are so much more fun to write) stay here on the blog, under the ‘secret reviews’ category.  There’s not many so far, but more will come…

So. there y’go. That’s what we do with our reviews. And anyone who reads one should be able to see that a) we really have seen the product, b) we really have used it over a decent length of time and c) we’re saying what we really think. To be fair, never yet has a PR ever tried to tell us what to say… Oh, how I wish one would try!

Soft, sweet, and just plain wonderful. When Bronte Mary Jane arrived in her gorgeous box, it was a soft ooh-ing sigh of love at first sight. But I had to put her away for Pink of course.

Sadly, Pink loves her even more than I do, which means I rarely get a look in. The loveliest of Victorian costumes (removable so that we can play dress up, and wash-the-clothes too), the cutest of button noses, silly wayward hair much like another little girl we know, just her simple elegant prettiness…

She is the perfect guest at tea parties, never falling into the milk the way Bear does, she listens politely to as many stories as you would like to tell her, and she’s also particularly skilled at whispering secrets at bedtime.

Mary Jane is here for life. Fact.

If you have a small person with a fondness for soft pretty things, may I suggest you offer a Bronte a home yourself? I promise she will brighten her small corner of any room she finds herself in.

A friend in the States shared this really interesting article on the Time Magazine website about over-parenting; ‘Can These Parents Be Saved?‘

Some really good points are made that we parents should note;

“[children] need that space not to be entertained or distracted. What boredom does is take away the noise … and leave them with space to think deeply, invent their own game, create their own distraction. It’s a useful trampoline for children to learn how to get by.”

I’m not a fan of in-car DVD systems and digital game playing, mostly because of the car sickness factor, ick. Also because I think it can be a Very Good Thing to allow a child (or grown-up!) the opportunity of sitting all relaxed in the back of the car, staring out the window, watching the scenery go by whilst meandering through their own thoughts….

Okay, as we always do, when we get a product we don’t like, we go back to the PR company and give them the choice – pull it? Or publish anyway? I’ve been avoiding writing the Dazzle review, simply because I kept waiting to fall in love with it. In the end, I wrote what I thought, and pushed it off to the lovely Silver Cross PR’s, expecting them to snatch it and run to the hills with it.

But no.

D’you know what they said?

“Thanks so much for sending over the Dazzle review for us to look at – do go ahead and post it on the blog.”

Well. Muchos big and shiny points to Silver Cross, eh? So we won’t give it space on the main site – but here it is. What we REALLY think of the Dazzle pushchair (this may take some time – I rather enjoyed writing it!

Silver Cross’ Dazzle is a bit of an ‘oooh’ pushchair. The first day I used it on the school run I gathered a very distinct ’oooh’ from my fellow circle of mums, and the colour and style were much admired. I was of course humble and shrugged it off, but couldn’t help but feel a sneaky happy thought at the admiration it induced.

But – and it’s quite a big ‘but’ here. I did as I always do, and used it. A lot. School runs, short shopping trips, park walks and the like – nothing strenuous, just your average ho-hum everyday pushchair tasks.

And here I am – 5 months later, and really liking it rather a lot less than when I started.

Yes – it looks lovely, and the handles are nice and high for me (I’m 6’, all but a tiny bit, so that one’s an important one for me). It is suitable from birth – yet roomy for a toddler, the fold works beautifully one handed, it feels solid and substantially built as you would expect from Silver Cross, the ride is smooth and rock-steady when walking, and the material is gorgeous – soft yet practical.

But… (and there are quite a few buts): [...]

Mail me on laura at littlestuff dot co dot uk if you’re interested. Please?

Thank you!

Research released today reveals that the lives of today’s tots are deemed more stressful than that of their mums and dads in their own childhoods.  Almost 40% of parents in the survey, commissioned by hit preschool show, Waybuloo, claimed that their preschooler was experiencing stress, a massive two thirds of them attributing this to the increased breakdown of family units.  Parents aren’t taking this lying down though, results also indicated a major trend among parents to seek out non traditional activities such as yoga to help their little ones unwind.
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Have you seen our review of MiniLineLights gorgeous pirate ship ceiling light?

Ooooo, if you have small children that are into all things Pirate then this could be the perfect accessory for their bedroom. Go and read about Toby’s reaction when he first set eyes on it!

We’ve got two sets of two sweet Christmas trinket keepsake boxes from Freya Design to be won in our latest competition.

Full details to be found here.

An interesting article in Monday’s Times; ‘Is lack of sleeping taking it’s toll on children?‘.

Got me thinking about the children I know with rather-challenging behaviour who are often ones that aren’t so good at sleeping….

Come on, you KNOW you want to… click on the birdie, or find us at @Littlestuff

Sarah commented on another post – but we do love to share these things, so here it is in a post all its own:

“Hi Just thought I would let you know that the Magazine subscription I won with you for NG Kids magazine has arrived, It looks great, My little boy Ryan is reading it and he loves looking at all the wildlife pictures and doing all the games, It is right up his street, Can’t thank you enough, we are now looking forward to the next one coming, Thank you very much, Sarah.”

Our pleasure Sarah – I have a 10 year old who waits impatiently for every issue – NG Kids really is an excellent magazine, and one we’re really happy to wave a banner for!

If you’ve been one of our lucky winners, please do get in touch and let us know what you think of your prize – and a picture is always hugely appreciated too!