Something I have enjoyed during night feeds (apart from staring into his gorgeous eyes) is the maze of small businesses selling gorgeous baby and mummy stuff on Instagram… Whilst I am the first to admit most of his clothes come from Tesco or H&M, I have found some shop small gems in my 2am scrolling… So much so I can now recite my credit card numbers off by heart…
With Christmas round the corner I thought I would share what I’ve found:
Pebbles and Lace
Really pretty teething necklaces. We haven’t hit teething yet but my baby loves to play with them when he’s feeding. They look great and it’s a novelty for me to be able to wear jewellery again.
Hettie and Moon
Gorgeous personalised ball balls for the tree. We have three with our names on as this years tree additions and they are elegant and simple in cream and silver.
2 Spots Ceramics
Everywhere seems to do hand and foot prints, but clay imprints aren’t so common. What we didn’t know at one week old when we went painting was that there was no chance of getting baby to open his hand, so we just got the feet! So then I took him along to Sarah and we now have clay prints of his hands that look excellent!
Oli & Carol
A tad on the pricey side for a bath toy… However every baby boy that will be a sailor needs an origami boat. So I am wrapping it up for Christmas (and hoping he’s more fond of bath time by then)!
My 1st Photos
A super cute fabric photo book of baby’s first pictures. We have pictures of us all as well as him and his grandparents and his very first smile. It captures a babies need to touch, feel, maul and suck whilst staring at themselves! It’s a great addition to the formal baby book as it is something he can enjoy now, as its washable.
Munks & Me
I really wanted a cute boat print for the nursery. Easier to find than I thought! Trawling the ‘Gram I eventually found these guys and a simple boat design that isn’t too childish either!
Smith Webb
Their T-shirt’s and sweaters are all for a good cause. As logo tops go they are the first I have found that are really good quality. The ‘hope’ design supports Teddy’s Legacy which is an incredibly important cause.
Sketchy Muma
I am yet to order… Because I need so many of Anna’s prints. There’s real heart behind the drawings she does and I believe that she even does a little token drawing on the envelopes before putting them in the post.
Totter & Tumble
I have to thank Jaime from Angloyankophile for finding these playmats. One now fills the empty space in our dining room for all of Baby P’s playing! It’s the right amount of soft and sturdy and as comfy for an adult as a child! And it’s a nice neutral grey (thank goodness) which makes a change!!
Lasting impressions by Lucy
I think we were both cynical about having professional photos… Then a friend did, I saw the output and we had to. Mr P came round to the idea when we were there and treasures the photos. Lucy takes gorgeous shots and is led by you as to what you want to capture – natural or staged. She also taught us a lot about baby – he was only a week old when we were there and we learnt all we know about burping and white noise! We’ll be back when he’s a little older for cute toddler snaps.
Organic Zoo
As soon as he arrived I wanted the ‘milk’ jumper that seems to pop up here and there on instagram. Since I had to pay pricey postage he got a squeaky milk bottle too! Great quality, reassuringly priced!
Mutha.Hood
I suspect many of the girls in the strong girls club have one of these already, there’s truly a rainbow of colours. And plenty of other options to buy from here too.
Little N & the Lion
We have a matching dribble bib and trousers with a unique narwhal whale print on them. When he was newborn he looked beyond cute and smart wearing both and a white too. I love the patterns especially.
Some friends doing it for themselves
My friend Sophie does the best Dubarry and Hunter wellie family tree drawings around. We still need to order ours. What I particularly like is that as a sailing girl she’s nailed the Dubarry boot image which is far more appropriate to me even though I now wear my Hunters day in day out!
My friend Els is a dab hand at bespoke silver jewellery. I always admire the pieces she’s made that she wears herself (no better advert really). There’s some lovely creations over on her instagram too.
A few other ideas but no Instagram accounts to link to
Arrnew manicure set: we battled for months with adult nail clippers and filed! But then I found this cute looking bear that holds child sized bits. So much safer and easier and baby loves the safety container it comes in!
Room sign: from Little Hootie Designs on Etsy. I really wanted a nautical one to fix to the door with his name and a boat. The nicest was by far from here and looks perfect on the nursery door.
A letter from Father Christmas
The NSPCC accept a donation to arrange a letter from the great man himself. It takes a few minutes to do and supports charity as well as being something cute for the memory box.
Whilst the following aren’t small… They’re great nonetheless!
Gro – we have the room thermometer, a night light adapter for a normal light, Ollie the Owl, sleeping bags, blackout blind… Everything they sell does what it says on the box and is good quality.
Plan uk – their toys are really great quality. We are still a little young for them, but being boat lovers we were given cute little boat toys when he was born. I have added a few other things to his Christmas list!
Great little trading co – Mr P’s go to for book shelves of which we now have three! They are easy to put together, not overly childish to look at and sensibly priced.
Ordnance Survey – no photo as I am not about to give out my address… But OS sell full size maps in pine frames with the centre point being home map coordinates. You can also add personal words to one corner. We love ours, it captures the date we moved in and the date Baby P joined us!
Neal’s Yard massage oil – it is my go to for bubble bath so it was my only choice when we started baby massage. It smells lovely and definitely relaxes him well! His skin seems to appreciate the extra pennies spent on oil too!
Scandi – it’s impossible to write about baby things without mentioning some cool Scandi brands. I’m not sure how small they are but such good quality and beautiful things. Konges sloejd make stunning items – I particularly love our cloud mobile. Design Letters alphabet melamine crockery is gorgeous and we can learn our letters at the table. His Maileg monkey exudes cuteness. Newbie clothes are truly gorgeous.
Also on his list for Christmas this year are gifts from Sarah & Bendrix and Bamboobamboo. The former makes stunning wooden toys that remind me of the ones from my childhood. The latter make lovely weaning plates and bowls that will make messy eating look civilised (to start with)!
And what do I wish I had known about on day 1. Something called KidStart. Baby would be minted by now! It’s cashback for baby’s bank account from pretty much everywhere large retailed you use for household purchases! Go sign up, crazy not to!!
So I’d say me regularly diving head first into an Instagram rabbit hole at 2am is a pretty good use of time and supports small business at the same time!
That’s us all shopped out for now… But send me your ideas of small businesses that I’ve missed! Hurry, night feeds are running out far too fast…
