Have you too many Christmas gifts (bought from KiddieBase ) just hanging around, do you know where you are going to store them? Storage is an issue in our house and we’re sure in some of yours as well, however we have a few ideas that could de-clutter those gifts or just tidy up a child’s bedroom or playroom.

Our Children love books, however like many kids they read them and discard, this idea from bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox can help you tidy the home and keep those books in great condition and easily accessible – a great baby & toddler book case.  You can even personalise it too by decorating it.

How about a classic storage bench with baskets from Guidecraft its a hardwood bench with three storage compartments includes three hand-woven wicker baskets with removable cotton liners.

A step always comes in handy as the little ones grow up; a step with storage is twice as good.  With a choice of styles and storage under the top step you get two great solutions in one.

This is a lovely padded and quilted nursery tidy or storage bag from French design range Natalys. In pale green with a cute slumbering bear applique on the front. Perfect for storing babies toys, clothes and generally keeping the nursery tidy. 100% Cotton outer.

We hope you find some of these ideas useful.

Originally at http://blog.kiddiebase.co.uk/

Do you have a storage dilemma?

Hello, please welcome three of our new stores, we are really pleased to have them on our website.

Welcome Chic Marie, Girls Dress-up/Costume Shoes.  These shoes are ideal for dressing up and accessorising with girls fancy dress costumes, wearing to parties, and for special occasions

Welcome Smart Tots, the shop for baby and kids designer clothing online. We stock Baby and Children’s designer clothes from top European and International brands. Smart-Tots is known for style, quality and value for money for baby clothes and children’s clothes whether you are looking for funky kids designer wear or everyday wear for discerning boys and girls from 2-10 years or something for a new-born born baby or toddler to wear for a special occasion.

We are a fun and stylish children’s quality clothing and craft retailer we sell quality every day and occasion wear for children from ages 0-8

Originally at http://blog.kiddiebase.co.uk/

Welcome to three new stores

Here’s a post from our very own Guest Blogger – Nutritionist Victoria Greaves Dip ION, mBANT.  This might not be for everyone but if you are looking to make your children’s lunchbox a little healthier there are some very useful tips in the below.

Healthy Lunch Box Ideas

Lunch should supply approximately one third of the daily energy requirements your child needs, as well as a third of protein, carbohydrate, fats, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

Try to include:

• One protein-rich food such as fish, meat, eggs, poultry, tofu, pulses/beans or houmous.
• One carbohydrate food such as wholemeal or granary bread, pasta, oatcakes or rice. Try wholemeal/brown ‘complex’ carbohydrates as they release sugar much slower to help give children sustained energy.
• One or preferably two portions of fresh fruit or dried fruit.
• One dairy food or calcium rich food such as cheese, yogurt, milk.
• One portion of salad or vegetables such as carrot sticks, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, or a good amount of salad in a sandwich.
• 200-300ml of water or unsweetened fruit juice.

Here are some more specific examples of what you can include.

Choose one from this list:

• Wholemeal pittas with grated cheese and tomato or soft cheese and cucumber.
• Wholemeal sandwiches with tuna, mayo and cucumber.
• Wholemeal or white pasta twirls with tomato and vegetable sauce.
• Brown/white rice salad with tinned salmon, tomatoes, cucumber & spring onion.
• Homemadesoup in flask and wholemeal or granary roll.
• Small pot of houmous with wholemeal/white pitta, oatcakes or breadsticks and chopped cucumber, peppers, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes.
• Tinned tuna/salmon or chicken or egg salad with lots of crunchy vegetables.
• Tortilla wraps with avocado and chicken salad or any of the above fillings.
• Chicken drumstick with crunchy salad (peppers, carrots, lettuce, cherry tomatoes).

Choose two from this list (preferably one or two fruit and one vegetable):

• Fresh fruit salad (minimum 3 different pieces)
• Two pieces of whole fruit – try smaller sized
• One portion of dried fruit and one fresh fruit
• Cherry tomatoes
• Raw carrot sticks
• Cucumber sticks
• Celery sticks

Calcium rich foods:

• Cheese cubes
• Natural yoghurt with fresh fruit to add in
• Fruit yoghurt
• Small carton of milk

Healthier Extras/Snacks:

• Flapjack with seeds and dried fruit
• Small pack of dried fruit
• Plain popcorn
• Rice cakes (plain or flavoured)
• Blueberry or fruit muffin
• Mini oatcakes with houmous
• Boiled egg (children like to shell them themselves)
• Seed mix – pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds with raisins

Drinks:

• Include a bottle of still water in your child’s packed lunch or unsweetened fruit juice as a drink. Soft/fizzy drinks are not a good idea as they are packed  with sugar and often colourings, additives, preservatives and aspartame (a sugar substitute), which can become addictive and affect moods.

Unhealthy Lunchbox

Avoid processed foods in your child’s lunch box as they are high in sugar, saturated fats, salt and often have chemical additives, preservatives, colourings and sugar substitutes that can change children’s behaviour and can prevent them from concentrating.

Things to avoid are:

• Crisps – high in fat, salt and often contains monosodium glutamate MSG
• Sweets – high in sugar and colourings
• Soft/fizzy Drinks – high in sugar, colourings and or aspartame (a sugar substitute)
• Chocolate – high in fat and sugar

Substitute:

• Oat cakes, Rice cakes – instead of – Sweets (mints, chewing gum, fruit pastels, liquorice, toffees, marsh mallows)
• Dried Fruits, raisins, mangos, apricots, etc – instead of Crisps or Chocolate
• Unsweetened  fruit juice – instead of Fizzy/Soft Drinks
• Cereal bars without any Hydrogenated Fats. Oat bars are best. Other alternative are fruit muffins, carrot cakes, flapjacks that don’t contain Colourings, Hydrogenated Fats, Monosodium Glutamate MSG, Aspartame

IMPORTANT: It is best not to send any nuts or peanut butter in to schools as some children are highly allergic to them.

Victoria runs a Womens’ Health Clinic and a ‘Nutrition and Cookery School’ for 5-11 year old children in Beaconsfield, Bucks. For more information, you can contact her at victoria.greaves01@btinternet.com

Guest Blog Post: Healthy Lunch Box Ideas

KiddieBase are delighted to offer a complimentary personal shopping / gift finding service – just email us at personalshopper@kiddiebase.co.uk with the ages of the  babies or children you’re buying for, their likes / dislikes and your budget and we will send you a great selection of gift ideas.

If you prefer to do your own research use our handy gift links.  In many cases, the items come in multiple colours, e.g. if you see pink, we probably also have blue, most things come in various patterns, sizes, types, varieties – so if you like something but it’s not exactly what you are looking for, please click the store name under the picture to see their full range!

Baby & Children’s Gift Guide

Take a look at the unique personalised paintings from Millieviolet, created when nothing else was quite right, so Millieviolet was formed.  Hand painted using high quality acrylic paint on to a chunky style canvas.

Originally at http://blog.kiddiebase.co.uk/

Welcome to Millieviolet–personalised paintings for children

We are delighted to bring you a spotlight on WIK WAK, one of our newest stores and another totally innovative product.  Read about Annie, how WIK WAK came about and have a look at her wonderful frames – a truly gorgeous present.

Welcoming WIK WAK….

Tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Annie and I live in Battersea, London with my husband Richard and my 1 year old daughter Beatrice (Bea). I spend my time attempting to be a good mother, alongside working part time as a Landscape Architect. I have always enjoyed being creative and so I recently set up my small business – Wik Wak – which sells a range of personalised family tree prints, limited edition prints, and greetings cards all designed and illustrated by myself.

Tell us about the products you make / sell?

The main emphasis of Wik Wak are the my  illustrated, framed family tree photograph frames, although I have also designed a range of limited edition art prints and greetings cards.
My family trees are essentially a quirky illustrated print, designed by myself. The tree is brought to life with a range of characterful birds, insects and other fun objects. Within the trees’ branches hang 12 little frames, perfect for displaying photos of your family, friends and pets. Each is supplied at A3 size and in a lovely simple white frame.

How did you get the idea for your business?

I have always been creative and enjoy selling my artworks at fairs, in galleries and at markets. When my daughter was a few months old I begun missing the creative process and started to think about how I could liven up her bedroom walls. Alongside creating an artwork, I wanted her to familiarise herself with her family. So, I began illustrating a number of quirky family trees, each of which included a number of small frames to display photographs of family and pets. At the current time I am marketing just one family tree photograph frame (in 3 different colourways), but I am keen to extend my range.

How long have you been running your business?

Wik Wak launched in November this year. So I have only been going a couple of months! I’m just hoping to get the company name out there a bit more and our lovely family tree photograph frames a bit more in the spotlight. If you like our products please do spread the word by email or facebook. Trying to get a small voice heard in today’s high street led world is hard!

How did you come up with your business name?

To be honest, I don’t really know. I wanted something catchy and simple, but a name which did not restrict the products I could produce within my business. I also wanted a name which hinted at something arty, which for some reason I thing Wik Wak does!

What resources have you found most useful in building your business?

At the moment I am very new to all of this, but I would say encouragement from my husband and friends has to be pretty high. Also, organisations such as Craft Central and Met Works have been very helpful in helping me to get to grips with setting up a small designer-maker business and also advice on where to sell your products.

What’s your best advice for someone starting up?

It is harder work than you are imagine trying to not only design your product, get it manufactured, marketing it, selling it and doing all the day to day tasks that are involved with running a small business. However, if it is always something you have dreamt of doing you are never going to feel complete until you give it a go! There is no harm in trying and if it does not succeed, at least you can say you have given it your best shot!

What do you like to do besides business?

We have a lovely cottage in Tintagel, Cornwall that we visit as often as we can. We bought the house at auction and have spent a lot of time making design changes and almost rebuilding it! The cottage is only 200m from the south west coastpath and also has a glorious garden and large vegetable patch. I am in the process of building some large raised beds so I can take my veggie growing that bit more seriously.  I also have a very large, close family, so I enjoy spending time with them and of course going for day trips with my immediate family.

What is your favourite way to unwind?

A warm bath at the end of a tiring day, G & T in hand!

WIK WAK in the Spotlight

Perfect timing for Christmas, any special occasion or just because you have to have one of these absolutely amazing innovative products from our new store Ginger Ghost,  Ginger Ghost provide an extensive range of luxury children’s soft toys, choose from a Puppy, Monkey, Duck, Bunny, Elephant, Pony, Bear, Mouse, Cat, Giraffe, Panda or a Lion.

We’ve shown you just three of the twelve products Ginger Ghost are offering so please take a look at their Store page to see the full range today.

All products are suitable from birth upwards, every one is hand-assembled and no two pieces are identical.

This is a unique range of collectable and aspirational lifestyle soft toys bespoke designed to fit aesthetically into the palm of the hand.

Originally at http://blog.kiddiebase.co.uk/

Welcome Ginger Ghost our latest store selling amazing soft toys

Now we have some ideas for the Dad’s, sometimes the hardest person to buy for at Christmas, or is that just me that thinks that?  Here are just 10 ideas to get you started,

Daddy and me keepsake Life size print, It features baby’s handprint inside the handprint of daddy

A perfect present for Daddy, your child’s fingerprint and name engraved on these cufflinks.

A perfect mug, for the Dad in your life, black china with “I’m a dishy Dad” logo.

Silver double handprint key ring, perfect for any Dad, you can choose two hands, footprints or a combination then add a name.

Make Daddy a true Knight in shinning armour this Christmas, this beautiful image is created from your own photo

To go with the Dishy Daddy mug, you’ll also want a Dishy Daddy T-Shirt for your child to wear!

Have you ever wondered what your Dad was like when he was a child? Were there questions you always wanted to know the answers to??

The original Moby Wrap is the one of the most recognised wraparound baby carriers available. Made from beautiful, soft stretch cotton and available in a variety of colours, the Moby Wrap is an ideal carrier for new-born, premature and younger babies.  In man suitable black!

Unique personalised silver cufflinks with miniature handprint / footprint and initials (or design of your choice).

Every dad loves a gadget, these are hands free drink bottles which are great for using during sports and on many other occasions.

Originally at http://blog.kiddiebase.co.uk/

Gift ideas for Dads

Some would call this a cheat’s recipe – we just call it great for fast entertaining over the festive season   So here we go, our quick millionaire shortbread recipe:

Base

50g butter
200g ready bought shortbread – crushed

Caramel

175g butter
175g caster sugar
5 tbsp golden syrup
1x 397g can of condensed milk

Topping

1x 200g large block of chocolate – I used milk chocolate

Recipe

For the base, melt the butter gently and mix in the crushed shortbread – line a (approx) 330mm x 200mm tin with greaseproof paper and then add the base mixture. Press mixture down firm and then place in fridge for an hour.

For the caramel place all ingredients into a pan and melt gently until all mixed nicely together. Allow mixture to heat gently for 10 minutes stirring all the time. Pour mixture over shortbread and place back into the fridge for another hour.

Take chocolate and break into pieces and then melt gently in a bowl over some boiling water or in the microwave until a runny consistency. Pour
chocolate over set caramel and place back into fridge.

After approx 10mins scribe a knife through the chocolate layer into “big” bite size squares and then put back into the fridge. Try and wait another hour to set completely – then sit back and indulge yum yum

Quick Millionaire Shortbread Recipe

We love Christmas here at KiddieBase – to spread some good cheer and help you along with your Christmas shopping we are delighted to bring you our Mega Sunday and Monday Promotion.  For 2 days only – December 4th and 5th – 35 of our stores are offering discounts on over 800 products!  Here is a summary of the fantastic offers:

Toys, Games, Puzzles and Books

Kidz Klobber – an amazing 20% off nearly 140 clothes, toys and gifts for babies and children!
DiscoverMe Toys – Educational toys for babies and pre-school children. 15% off and free delivery!
Party Creations – Craft Kits for Children to make, paint and decorate. Ideal for presents 25% off!
inceywinceyKids – Interactive books for children 0-9 years – 15% off
Kangarinos – 15% off Heimess wooden clip on toys and Lucet kits
Kiddiewinkles – Creating a World of Make Believe – 10% off Wonderful Playhouses for Boys & Girls
Kidz Klobber – 3 very special toys with a very special 50% discount
Little Chic Boutique – 25% off their range of Lamaze baby toys
Kids Learn Languages – Entertaining & engaging bilingual DVDs/Gifts for 0-6 year olds – 20% off

Gifts for Babies & Children

Cheekee Monkee – Organic Baby & Childrenswear, Gifts & Accessories for 0-5 – 50% off
Booby and the Beads – Breastfeeding & Children’s Jewellery & accessories – 10% off
Scribble Art – 10% off these 2 gorgeous handprint wall art sets – lovely gift
Casting Impressions – 3D Life Casting for Babies and Toddlers – 25% off
Lil-Munchkins – Unique Babywear and Gifts – 15% off
JenniferClare – Gorgeous, handcrafted bunting & personalised tooth fairy cushions – 20% off
Kids Learn Languages – Entertaining & engaging bilingual DVDs/Gifts for 0-6 year olds – 20% off
Party Creations – Craft Kits for Children to make, paint and decorate. Ideal for presents – 25% off!
Funky Keepsake – Contemporary gifts for all occasions specialising in personalised items – 15% off
Bigbooklittlebook – green, affordable children’s bookcase, encourage an early love of reading – 25% off

Gifts for Mums

GUMIGEM – Necklace for mum to wear, baby to enjoy – teething in style loved by celebs! 10% off
Poppy Sparkles – jewellery orders over £30 will receive a complimentary Poppy Sparkles Giftbox!
Wik Wak – Uniqe Printed Framed Family Tree Photograph Frame – reduced from £39.99 to £29.99
Booby and the Beads – Breastfeeding & Children’s Jewellery & accessories – 10% off

Baby and Children’s Clothes & Accessories

Annamarie – Baby Clothes, Accessories, Kids Clothes, Fancy Dress – 20% off, free wrap, free gift
Babatude – refreshing concept in children’s wear, fusion of style, vibrancy, luxury & attitude 25% off
Bibisili – 100% Fun and funky silicone baby bibs. From age 6 months plus! An amazing 50% off
Bump to Bundle – £5 off their absolutely gorgeous Shoo Shoo Baby Shoes – they are so cute!
Cheekee Monkee – Organic Baby & Childrenswear, Gifts & Accessories from 0-5 – 50% off
CCKB – Online baby shop selling designer baby and childrens clothes & gifts – 10% off
Dressing Up Chest – Hand Made Fancy Dress Costumes - just £18 for handmade tutus and capes
Hats my Baby – An online boutique for cute and funky baby hats – a fab 20% off
Not Pink – breaking the rules for kids’ stuff! 15% off all their clothes, gifts and more
Ruby Rani – Indian inspired baby/toddler clothes. Beautifully embellished, lovingly created -20% off
Lil-Munchkins – Unique Babywear and Gifts – 15% off
Kidz Klobber – an amazing 20% off nearly 140 clothes, toys and gifts for babies and children!

Nursery Art / Children’s Art

Craft on Canvas – Beautiful Handmade Pictures – discounts on 4 fab pieces of art
Frame the Name – Hand embroidered, personalised name frames – 15% off
Little House – an amazing 50% off these gorgeous handpulled screenprints for children
Scribble Art – 10% off these 2 gorgeous handprint wall art sets – lovely gift

Maternity & Nursing

Bras4mums – Maternity & Nursing Bra Specialists supporting in pregnancy & beyond – 15% off
BoobieMilk – Nursing bras, breastpads and nipple cream – a fab 10% off
Breastvest – quite simply makes any top a breastfeeding top – 10% off
Lafeenoire Maternity – Maternity Designer Clothing and Pregnancy Accessories – 10% off
Booby and the Beads – Breastfeeding & Children’s Jewellery & accessories – 10% off

In conjunction with MSMP we’re also running a fantastic competition to win £50 to spend on the KiddieBase website.  Enter this week and find out you’ve won just in time to finish your Christmas Shopping!  Details can be found here.

Mega Sunday and Monday Promotion