Oh.

My.

Yes.

After the day I’ve had, this one’s ALL MINE.

But there are others in the shop, I’ll let you get your own one if you want.

Which of course you do.

The Brain Whirring notebook is just seven and half pounds from those fably people over at the Literary Gift Company. Beware – once you step inside, it’s VERY tricky to leave.

It’s half term.

And we’re… erm… Half-Term-ing.

Which we should probably apologise for… but actually, it’s a holiday, and we’re spending it with the children, having fun and doing STUFF.

We’ve been blown off a windy hill fort, played cricket on a hill top as the sun went down, explored a castle, got fabulously soaked on a blustery beach, gone bug hunting in hedgerows, been ten pin bowling…

So – s’all Good.

Normal service shall resume next week.

Honest.

*big sticky kiss on cheek by way of apology*

Our competition to give away a charming, personalised, handpainted photo frame from Anne Taylor Designs to one lucky winner ends tomorrow. The winner will be able to choose a frame style and personalised name.

Come on, hands up who has a tin of Green Giant sweet corn in the cupboard? *raises hand in air*
Yes, I’m betting we all do.
It’s one of the few vegetables I can absolutely guarantee will be cleared from all six plates if I serve it.

So I was a bit jealous when I heard that the Green Giant is going to be at the Trafford Centre this weekend. And I’m down t’other end of the country
*sulky face*
(oh, did I mention Colin Jackson will be there too? Yes. He will.)
But more importantly – you get to attempt to High Five an animated Green Giant!
Oh yes! Ho ho ho!

So get thee over to the Trafford Centre this Saturday (29th October), where Green Giant  are bringing their interactive roadshow. The Green Giant team will be giving away height charts, great recipes and coupons.

Don’t forget in the meantime to come and share your tips on how to get children to eat more veg here, and be in with a chance to win an Abel & Cole veg box.

GREEN GIANT AMBASSADOR (AND OLYMPIC LEGEND) COLIN JACKSON CHALLENGES MANCHESTER FAMILIES TO JUMP TO IT
Green Giant sweet corn launch ‘Giant High 5′ event for five a day.
WHERE:    Orient Way, The Trafford Centre, Manchester
WHEN:    10.30am, Saturday 29 October 2011

*sponsored post*

LOVE the whole Sate Of the Obvious range – particularly want the notebook. Naturally.

Available from Mash Creatives’s Not On The High Street Shop for £10 berzackly.

As parents it’s our job to make sure our kids are happy, healthy and thriving. Getting your kids to eat their fruit and vegetables every day can be one of the more challenging aspects of our parenting job. How do your kids do with their veggie eating? Do you have any never-fail strategies that other parents could try?

Personally, with my two (8 and 5 years old), I’m a bit of an old-fashioned-meanie (their words) because I inisit that they have as many mouthfuls of the hateful vegetable as their age. The 8 year old has been telling me since he was 6 that he will NOT be having 10 mouthfuls when he’s 10! However, I’ve noticed more and more often he will just eat the entire portion of vegetables on his plate without thinking about it – and (shock!) he even likes some of them! I guess all the years of me being a veggie-meanie have paid off….

Green Giant wants to help families enjoy their 5-a-day, every day.  So they have asked us to ask you for your favourite hints, tips and clever ways to encourage children to eat and enjoy their fruit and vegetables!  Our favourite comment will win a delicious Able & Cole vegetable box including Green Giant products. You can find  Green Giant’s Facebook page for veggie-goodness info and other fun stuff.

For a chance to win an Abel & Cole vegetable box, write your best tips, hints and/or advice in the comment box below before 14th November 2011.

Entrants must be over 18 and residents of the UK or ROI. The prize is one Abel & Cole vegetable box (no cash alternative). There will be one winner and the winning post will be decided based on the following criteria: uniqueness/creativity/originality. By entering the competition, you agree that your hint/tip may be shared on Green Giant’s Facebook page and used by Green Giant in any other media.

*Sponsored Post*

What?

My feet are cold.

It’s an owl.

It’s a hottie.

Why WOULDN’T I want it?

A hoot under £25 from Graham & Green.

Our competition to give away two of the fantastic Prince Lionheart bébéPOD® Flex Plus Infant Seats to two lucky winners ends tomorrow!

The soft and cushiony bébéPOD® Flex Plus, is the first and only, dual-strap, 2-in-1 version of the award-winning, Paediatrician-approved bébéPOD – Baby’s first seat. The bébéPOD® Flex Plus combines the ultimate in comfort, practicality, and beautiful design with the flexibility of converting from a FLOOR seat to a CHAIR MOUNTED seat in a snap – the very first of its kind! This all-purpose seat is perfect for parents who may be on a budget or need to save space and time at home.

*sigh*

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a Kokeshi Doll.

Considered in their native Japan to be gifts of love and affection. First made about 150 years ago as a toy for children of farmers, Kokeshi are made by skilled craftsmen, and each is named.

This little one’s name?

Oh, did I not say?

She’s called “Happiness”.

*beam*

Available for less than £15 of your pounds from my swish new find Sorella. I’d really like one for my desk very eversomuch thankyouplease.

Last week a very big purple box arrived in the house.

It was stuffed to the gills with all sorts of weird stuff (and chocolate) – and last Saturday the children and I decided to make use of it.

We spent one of the most fun afternoons we’ve had in a very long time.

The Oreo challenge - place it on your forehead, and get it into your mouth without using your hands. Involved hilarious facial twitchings. No.1 the only person to actually achieve this.

Coat nose in vaseline. Using said nose, transfer cotton wool balls from bowl A to bowl B. (I won this one. Big Time. *smug big-nosed face*)

No.1 got seriously cross at that particular refusing-to-leave cotton ball. It was cheating apparently.

Set up a line of cups, hold a large bunch of rubber-ended pencils. Bounce pencil on table top and make it vault into a glass. TOP game of the afternoon - three rounds hotly contested, ending in a tie between No.1 and Boy. I lost. Abysmally. Beaten even by the 4yr old.

Bounce a ping pong ball on ALL three dinner plates and into the bowl. Stupid game. Impossible. Much crossness and lobbing of ping pong balls (and subsequent hunting of said ping pong balls). Jolly DID hit all three plates as I took this though - we gave him bonus points.

Ah, yes. the old pick-an-orange-up-in-your-knees-and-waddle game. I declined to partake. No.1 tried, failed dreadfully to even lift the orange off the ground once in the 60 seconds and swore it couldn't be done. Boy and Jolly took 15 secs each to complete the task. *eyeroll*

Obviously, to celebrate the final scores there must be silly dancing ('Roman Dancer' off-the-shoulder look optional. Mmm-hmmm).

Minute To Win It is a new eight-part series on ITV2, presented by Cadbury Spots v Stripes, which sees contestants compete in equally bonkers 60-second challenges using everyday household objects. To find out more and play Minute To Win It games yourself (totally recommended – we’re keeping the set for rainy days, birthdays and Christmas) , visit the Spots v Stripes website.

So yesterday Katy and I schlepped into London for the Baby Trade show at Olympia (thanks to the incredibly talented,  and just plain gorgeously lovely people at AzariaPR who footed our train bill. Was that nice enough, d’you think? They are genuinely brilliant people to work with, actually). This isn’t an open-to-the-public event – this is where all the businesses in the nursery industry go to talk to each other.

It also happened to be the first time in three years Katy and I managed to actually meet – she’s always 100 miles away from me (we run LittleStuff via iChat y’see), so meet ups are rare and exciting things. After a noisy squealy-huggy-I-forgot-how-tall/short-you-are meet under the clock at Waterloo, we headed off to Olympia.

We spent the day wandering the halls, talking to some truly fabulous people, and seeing some really exciting products coming out in 2012.

Top insider secrets of the day? Read on…

Coverdry – Just a small basic web site at the moment, but this product is fab, needs to be seen really. Softier than soft snuggle rug – which is entirely waterproof. Loved it – and LOVED Tracey more, she’s gorgeous. Though we did rather disconcert Katy by shrieking “I Kill YOU!” at each other and sniggering for more than a few minutes…

Liz and Brenda from Ruby and Ginger were just lovely – and we rather enjoyed their stand too (and no, not just for the fudge). Danni Minogue LOVES their nappy purse, we LOVED their fabric (*swoon*) and we just know we’ll be talking a lot more about them soon.

Katie at Mama Jeanius (totally Katy’s fave brand name at the show) seriously knew her stuff – we learned a LOT about maternity jeans in a short time, and were both nodding furiously with “YES! That was always an issue when I was pregnant!”. Go – look at her jeans. They’re lush – and properly designed too.

We *may* have initially stopped at the Charlotte Keating stand purely because there happened to be a 3 week old baby there snoozing… But we stayed to talk with his oh-so-lovely mum Charlotte, and were so incredibly impressed with her clothes. Designed by an experienced designer who was also an experienced breastfeeding mum, these clothes are stylish – and they work. Beautiful quality, Charlotte Keating’s breastfeeding tops will be in stores near you very very soon, we’re certain of it.

Talking to the bigger brands, two really stood out for us - Silver Cross have a FABULOUS launch coming in 2012 – we’re really excited about working with them.

And Chicco (pronounced Keeko – who knew?!) have totally turned their look around, and we seriously like what they have done. We seriously liked the Chicco Mime Artist too. Another really exciting partnership for us, and we can’t wait to tell you AAaalllll about it :)

A couple of the stands got it very wrong (one of the big brand ones too), with all the employees sitting around a table talking to each other, making themselves unapproachable.

Big big *tut* at them.

But on the whole we had a fabulous day, talking to passionate & inspiring people – we can’t possibly list them all here, and we’re really looking forward to working with many of them, and showing you what they do.

Little Patch is a small website business selling high quality printed cards, invitations and prints from Kelly Martin’s original watercolour and textile designs. Kelly’s designs are truly beautiful, you really do need to have a browse and see for yourself….

Little Patch have so much to offer; handmade cards for birthday, weddings and more, limited edition prints to frame and cherish, personalised party invitations, party, wedding and christmas decorations and even gorgeous children’s clothing….

And one with an owl too! :-)

I;m not a big fan of mobiles, generally – but oh, how I LOVE this!

Sweet little woodland characters – but with a classy touch of quirk about them. Bright and funky, there;s a distinct lack of twee.

Look.

Love it.

Bestie best of all – it’s currently reduced on the Mamas and Papas site, down from £28 to just £15. Bargain!

Spotted in an oh-so-casual around DaWanda (*swoon*).

How much do I want THESE little cuties sitting on my desk?

And convert the Euros, it’s under FOUR POUNDS to nab them!

€3.99 From Enna’s shop on Dawanda.

Smafolk Hedgehogs & Flowers Bodysuit - £15.20 (was £19.00) at Tootsie & Fudge

I love Smafolk fabric designs, they are so funky, quirky AND it has little hedgehogs on it! :-)

How brilliant is that?

The bag is perfectly sized for small helpers to carry, and the price includes the blue trowel and fork set, the matching blue bucket, the gardening gloves – and hedgehog (HURRAY!)  and tortoise plant markers.

£16 from our rather awesome new find the Spotty Green Frog.

The lovely folk at Raspberry Red have given us a special 10% discount code for our  wonderful LittleStuff readers!

Raspberry Red have some GORGEOUS childrens clothing and following on with our current hedgehog theme I just gotta show you this!

Blue Hedgehog Sleep Gown - £15.00 - available in pink too.

I was a massive fan of baby sleep gowns when my boys were small. SO much easier for those middle-of-the-night nappy changes then dozens of poppers…

OFFER: 10% discount

CODE: LITTLESTUFF

EXPIRES: midnight Fri 21st October 2011

The cherry stone pillow – my (better) alternative to a wheatbag. You just warm it briefly in the microwave and give it  a shake – the round cherry stones are lovely to cuddle, and give off a faint cherry smell which is gorgeous. After the conserved heat has been given out, the pillow stays at body temperature, and is still very soothing.

And just look at his face – who wouldn’t feel better snugged up to HIM when they’re feeling rough?

By Kaethe Kruse, the Hedgehog Cherry Stone Pillow is a mere hudgepig under £20 on Amazon.

The only question that remains is why they don’t do a grown-up-sized version.

I want one for ME, dammit *stamps foot*

I am in love – and with M&P’s build quality, it’s an heirloom in the making.

Was £70, but now the Babyplay Hedgehog is reduced on the Mamas & Papas site to an incredible £60.

To celebrate the release of Spooky Buddies on Disney DVD from 10th October 2011, we’re giving away three copies of this great film to 3 lucky winners!

The quintet of irresistible talking puppies, Disney’s lovable “Buddies,” are back for a ghoulish good time in a fantastic all-new Halloween-themed adventure, Spooky Buddies. Overflowing with trick-or-treat action, the ‘Buddies’ films are favourites of families and kids of all ages.