Shoe Love

Made by Wiebke from Line+liv.

Clippy

MANY MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED THE CLIPPY GIVEAWAY. . 

THE WINNER IS :    KELLY - PIDDLEYPIX


I love, love, love this bag!  Such a simple idea and totally brilliant !  A stylish, modern design, you can update as often as you wish.  Available from the super girly Clippy London  I have a 12 pocket tote to giveaway complete with 2 packs of stickers and a clippy postcard to get you started.  All you have to do is leave a comment and follow this blog . SIMPLE !

Fill each pocket with your own personalised photo's, cards, lip gloss, stickers you name it ! Tie ribbons on the handles, you can even buy pretty liners if you wish.  Pop over to the Clippy gallery for inspiration on how to fill your pockets !


Several sizes and styles to choose from including Makup bags and brollies.


LITTLE GIRL'S PARTY IDEA !
If you are looking for something a bit different for a girl's party idea why not try Clippy Parties. For £15 you can choose from a make-up bag, pencil case or file and they will provide you with stickers and fabrics, all the bits you need.  It is ideal for children 9 - 11 years. They really love it. Mums can take photos at the party and print them straight off, so the girls get a very special reminder of the party and a take home pressie.


If you are not lucky enough to win this giveaway, the lovely Clippy has very generously given readers of my blog 20% of her products.  Just pop over to her site and enter code  AATB20 . 

Winner will be picked at random on Wednesday night.  Please ensure you leave a comment and follow this blog to qualify.  Will also post on Facebook, so if you like us there too you will have an additional entry.

Thank you xxx

The Novotel Hotel, ToysRus Tea Party & a game of snakes and Ladders

The ToysRus Tea party invite came on a weekend when we were supposed to be in Cheshire with Grandma.  After some juggling we sorted it so that we could go to the party and then up to Cheshire. A 600 mile round trip in 2 days ! 

Not knowing the area we booked ourselves a cheap overnight stay on Friday in a the Novotel in Reading.  Not as close to Bucklebury Park as we would have liked and a nightmare of a stay!  Reading town centre noise on a Friday night has to be experienced to be believed !  The hotel was stiffling hot with noisy airconditioning, no pillows for the pull out bed for the boys and a grubby itchy blanket, I spent the night balancing on the end of the pull out because of the heat and finally fell asleep at 3.30 am ! There were extortionate prices for food and a £14 parking charge! Never again! You live and learn.

Happily the day at Bucklebury Farm Park with ToysRus soon made our overnight stay fade away.  We arrived early and the boys set to work exploring the park, making new friends and bonding for life with Mum_Themadhouse gorgeous boys .

Jarvis and Maxi (mum_themadhouse son) on the zip

The food was something else, plenty on offer all day long !  Face painting, VIP Tour of the park by the lovely Bucklebury Park staff and as for the deer experience! WoW! 

The Toyologists on their way to the Tractor ride in the deer park .

The day was well planned and the ToysRus staff amazing, friendly people.  Soon it was time to pack the kids and dads off to play with the go carts, bouncy thingy and all the other lovely attactions, while the mummies got down to business with the Team.  Lots of great chat and ideas about the toyology programme a ToysRus Sealed letter containing a list of  the toys we were each to receive, and then the families came in to open the first of their boxes!!  The boys were thrilled with their contents especially the Battle Strikers Metal XS Tournament set and the Ben 10 Alien Swarm Action Cycle (Reviews on my Toyology page later).

 

Afterwards there was time for MORE food and play and then time for home.  We were all exhausted, we had a lovely, lovely day. Met some great people, made new friends and above all are so, so thrilled to have been asked to be part of such a great project.  ToysRus truly are a PEOPLE company xx Thank you xx

Much Later, home at Grandma's (and after one or two glasses of wine for mummy) we got out another of our toys from ToysRus - The classic Snakes and Ladders game ......

The RL Gang

I love the new Autumn /Winter collection for boys from Ralph Lauren 

also loving the The Ralph Lauren Gang Narrated by Harry Connick Junior

The Ralph Lauren Gang Story

To invest or not to invest ?

Like a lot of small businesses trying to decide what items I should risk investing in, takes up a lot of my time.  I have the best sellers : Ralph Lauren, Levi's and Ted Baker - all guaranteed to sell well.
I have my own small range Milly by the Sea  - which ticks over and then there are the ohhh! the lovely items that I would buy myself but am not sure if they would sell. 
Times are hard at the moment for many retailers.  I would love your thoughts on how you decide what to and what not to buy for your shop.

What do you think about these ....  I am seriously considering investing in them, but is the time ever right ?

Beautiful hand knitted buggy blanket & hat for babies & toddlers