Happy To Help

I thought I would share this as my heart melted when I received this unusual request from a returning customer.
Kerry, a lovely customer of mine is the Aunt of a special little girl we'll call A who suffers from Spinabifida. Earlier this month A was admitted into hospital, intensive care to be precise very very poorly

As you can see A already has a Angel rag doll (hopefully to watch over her x ) and Aunt Kerry has also bought her our popular Nurse dolly but Kerry wanted to know if we could make a Surgeons outfit for A (as she spends so much time in and out of hospital) so I got together with my fabulously talented mother in law (who was a theatre nurse until retirement) to see what we could come up with....and this is the result!

As you can see A is now on the mend and we are so happy she loves her Surgeon Rag Doll.

Wishing you love of Love A x x x

School Holidays love 'em or hate 'em ?

For 90% of the time I am in the 'love 'em ' camp of school holidays, I am down to only having one child left at school (insert sad face) and can honestly say he is lovely company and I enjoy being with him the majority of the time although there has been the very odd occasion when I could throttle him! (joke)
I am a little concerned that we are now nearly half way through the school holidays and we haven't done any of the things on my carefully researched 'things to do in the school holidays' list!
We have been lucky enough to have stayed to my lovely friends caravan at North Yorkshire for 9 of those days and the weather was very kind to us so we spent most of the time on the beach, in the swimming pool, up trees (him not me), on the park and walking. I love caravanning, for me it removes you from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we had no Internet connection and very poor phone signal so found ourselves going back to basics for evening entertainment. We played pick up sticks, jacks and card games, reminds me of when I was a kid (a long long time ago ....) traditional games were the best and only form of entertainment!

No Batteries Required...

Today I read an article in Toy News that said that 44% of children play outside, this is an increase over the last 2 years. Whilst this is promising, in my opinion its still not enough!
Gone are the times when we as children used to disappear all day on our bikes with a bottle of pop and some sandwiches and only come home for tea. I know that society doesn't feel safe enough to let our children do that but I do feel as responsible parents we should encourage our children to play out doors whenever and weather permitting as much as possible.
After school this afternoon I commented to my hubby that whilst my son loves to play on his DS or Wii when its wet in the nice weather he actually needs nothing more than a stick and a stone as he will play outside making up games and digging, climbing and generally running around the garden, the cost of this ...nil, no initial cost, no electricity and no batteries required.

Product Review: Wooden Transporter Lorry

We thought we would share this fabulous review of our ever popular transporter lorry with you,

This amazing lorry keeps my son (aged 2.5) amused for hours, he loves brumming his cars up and down the ramp and using his small vehicles to load up on the transporter too. His brother who is 5 also loves playing with it so I can see we will get loads of play value out of it. We are always stuck as to what to get Jake as his older brother has lots of things and most things that he likes are too old but this lorry is suitable for younger children whilst still fun for older ones. Great value for money, great quality and really sturdy which is a must for my boys!

Wooden Transporter Lorry £20.99

Thanks Sarah, really glad your boys like the wooden transporter lorry, we bought this my son for his 2nd Birthday and was still playing with it at 6 ! its now passed down to my Grandson and is still played with daily and going strong 5 years later, now that's what I call value for money!

Sewing, my passion re-kindled

I started sewing at the tender age of 11 on my Mum's old Jones sewing machine, I think even back then I must have had a little glint of entrepreneurial skills. I can remember making slash neck tops (it was the 80's!) ironing, folding, bagging and labelling them and taking them into school and selling them for £2 !
I went on to make all sorts of clothing, I hasten to add I was very "way out and quirky" back then so a lot of it didn't require much dressmaking skills. This came later on in my 20's when I did dressmaking at evening class. I also did a a course at a factory using their huge industrial over- locker, now that was an experience!
I made all my maternity outfits, the childen's clothes and lots of homey stuff and did alterations but it slowed down (and eventually came to a stand still) when I started my business www.knotjustjigs.co.uk selling traditional toys and rag dolls.
I spent most of my time learning how to update my website, PR, marketing and selling at events, I had no time for sewing.
My passion was re-kindled a couple of years ago when I started making fabric party bags and reached it peak again early this year when a fellow business mum asked if I could make bunting!

I started a textile course in January 2010 and you haven't been able to stop me since!
I am well and truly hooked again, making such pretties as personalised bunting, fabric party bags, padded hearts, cushions and aprons. I plan to extend the range at the beginning of next year but at the moment these are going sew well (see what I did there) that I can just about keep up with demand.
We take custom orders, if there is something you would like, or a current design you would like in a different fabric/shape please get in touch!