I had been looking around for some coat hooks for all of the kids’ coats and raingear and I cam across the Happy Hangers Hook set. I was immediately ‘hooked’ (sorry, couldn’t resist!) and ordered a set from www.stylishlife.co.uk where they are currently on sale for £18.72.

These hooks are so gorgeous that its almost a shame to cover them up with coats and scarves, hung on the wall in a row they look like a funky art installation. But they are as much about function as they are about form, they are really sturdy and because each limb can be used, each individual hook can hold lots of items. They come with the wall plugs and screws that you will need to install them.

If my five colourful men aren’t up your street then Stylish Life have a few other funky and unusual hook sets to chose from:

We now have the perfect space to put it, the den. We can make a place for it in there that we won’t paint in the future so all our little height marks can remain intact. Now all that remains is for me to choose the perfect one…..easier said than done, the range available is staggering. Here are a few of my personal favourites (click on the images to go to the relevant sites):

PS: I think these would make really great Christmas gifts for any children/families on your Christmas list.

I would really love to have one of these silhouettes to capture Mr Moo and Lollipop in this unique way – in fact the only thing stopping me from getting one right now is that I feel that I should hang one for my little on-board tenant (i.e. baba number three who is due to arrive on 18 July) to arrive so that he or she can be part of this family masterpiece too. I reckon that this is a really  interesting way of preserving a memory. There are a couple of different options to chose from, including a version that incorporates the whole family. I particularly like these two:

All you need to do is email a photo of your baba’s profile to Happy Thought (they give you hints on how to take this photo) and then chose the silhouette that you want. You can either receive a print of your chosen image or, for a lower price, you can opt to have a high quality PDF of your image emailed to you so that you can print it yourself or bring it to your local print shop. Happy Thoughts will send you a proof of your image before it is finalised so you can be sure that you are happy with how it looks.  Prices start at $27 for the emailed PDF.

Ferm Living do some fab duvet sets for children, both in cot bed and single bed sizes. They are made from organic cotton, have zips rather than buttons (buttons, in my experience, inevitably open due to constant tossing and turning in the night) and they start at €53.50 for the cot bed size.:

The Little Baby Company has a lovely range of children’s bed linen. These clouds really caught my eye, the sets start at £35Stg for cot size and you can also get matching curtains:

I also really liked these sets by ISAK, Graziela Preiser and Lulu & Nat (price range £40Stg+) :

Last, but not least, I have to mention the remarkably good value range of children’s bed linen available at IKEA, this lot starts at €16.99 for single duvet sets:

Given my owl fetish, I couldn’t resist also showing you these strigine treats:

I’m not normally a fan of wallpaper (perhaps its a throwback to all those ugly flock prints from my youth) but a couple of the designs out there have really caught my eye and have made me reconsider  my views. I’m still not ready to commit to all four walls of wallpaper but I think I’m ready for a feature wall. Here are a few that that are tempting me…..

This gorgeous Blue Penguin design is by Isak and costs £35 per roll.

The Owl feature wall-paper  is also by Isak For this one, you upload the dimensions of your wall and they resize, print and send you out a set of sequential rolls of paper (perfectly sized for your room) along with hanging instructions. Your own bespoke feature wall will cost you £35 per roll. There are a several different designs to chose from.

The Animal Farm and Owls designs are by Ferm Living and both are €67 per roll

For all those young Noah’s out there check out the  Two by Two design from Wallpaper Space which costs £45 per roll.

Lastly, I think that the Frames print by Graham & Brown is a very clever idea: The black and white pattern of this wallpaper is designed to be personalised by the insertion of pictures into the frames and the addition of colour to the frames themselves. It costs around £16.50 per roll and is perfect if you have a budding Picasso or Michelangelo on your hands or it you have a a baba who has a penchant for using their crayons or markers on your walls.

Get out that wallpaper paste !

Every child has a ton of small stuff that needs to be tidied away and stored – matchbox cars, dolls clothes, building blocks, train set pieces the list could go on and on. The obvious answer to this issue is a storage container of one kind or another. For the most part such containers are wicker, canvas or some kind of very plain plastic – not terribly inspiring. Well, here’s something to change all of that – check out these funky alternatives to the usual drab storage solutions:

These giant Lego storage boxes come in four different sizes: large (with 8 Lego knobs on), medium (with 4 Lego knobs on), small (with 2 Lego knobs on) and the smallest version with a single Lego knob. They come in lots of colours and can be stacked together just like real Lego. They look so great that they would be a funky addition to any playroom or baba’s bedroom. I’m going to get a few for Mr Moo’s bedroom, my only problem is deciding which size and colour combination to get.

Amusingly, you can also get a storage box in the shape of the celebrated Lego head – I’m not sure if I fancy the idea of a big yellow head sitting on a shelf in my house (those eyebrows have always kind of freaked me out…) but it is a design classic and a bit of fun. The boxes range from £22.99 for the largest box to £6.99 for the smallest. Say good bye to wicker baskets and canvas boxes for ever !

Helen Gordon is a designer based in the UK who designs and manufactures the most gorgeous things – Her range includes clean and classic designs, everything from pinafores to wallpaper, children’s aprons to tote bags and all in fantastic retro prints. According to Helen’s website, all of the products are made from the highest quality fabrics using ethical manufacturers.

Have a look at these delightful things:

I’m finding that owl print cushion very hard to resist……

The individual pieces of laundry measure approximately 3.5 x 3inches each, the pegs are 1 inch long and the clothes line is 1 metre long so, sizewise, the finished product is not too unwieldy and could be hung on a bedroom door or on the wall over your baba’s bed. Each letter costs just €2.70 so unless you’ve given your baba a ridiculously long name (like Christabella-Evangeline or Massimiliano-Bartholomew) then this is a very cost effective piece of personalised decor! If you did name your baba Christabella-Evangeline and don’t have a wall or wallet big enough, don’t worry, you could just go for “My Room” instead.

There are three colour schemes to chose from (Jungle, Party and Pastel – in the order shown above) and although it doesn’t say so in the listing, I would expect that you can specify the clothing type and colour for each letter that you need.

The name garlands come in lovely gift boxes:

Given the presentation, personalisation and sheer novelty factor, I think that this would make a really special gift for any baba.

It’s almost been a year since Mr Moo wore his last nappy and even now, when I say the phrase ‘potty training’ a shudder still goes down my spine as I recall the number of times I tried to make the phrase “no, mammy isn’t cross, it was just an accident…” sound convincing. I’m gonna be honest with you, potty training is a really stressful time for parents (though hopefully it shouldn’t be for your baba!). As you put on the twelfth clean pair of little boxers in one day and read the back of the Milton spray to see if you can use it on car upholstery you wonder if this potty training lark really is worth it. How bad would it be if your baba is still wearing nappies as he or she heads off to university??

Well, I can’t tell you where you can buy more of the patience that you need to successfully train your baba nor am I really in a position to give counsel on the best way to go about the training itself (after all, one boxer short wearing son doesn’t exactly qualify me to dole out advice.), but what I can do is tell you where to buy the things that I found really helpful during the transition from nappy to potty!

Obviously, the most important thing that you need is a potty. You might think that one potty is pretty much the same as another but, believe me, they are not all the same. I know this because on one outing to my local supermarket, I popped a €4.99 potty into the trolley thinking that it would be a useful thing to have upstairs in Mr Moo’s bedroom  (our main potty lived downstairs and I didn’t fancy having to run up and down the stairs with it everyday). I was delighted at the bargain basement price and skipped upstairs to install Mr Moo’s new ‘en-suite’ in his room. Later that night, after bargain-potty’s first use, I discovered the pitfalls of poor potty purchasing! I brought the ‘full’ potty into the bathroom and nonchalantly attempted to empty it’s contents into the toilet…… I’m not going to go into too much detail but suffice to say a spillage ensued and the anti-bacterial spray, wipes and handwash all got an unexpectedly lengthy outing that night!! It turned out that the poor design of bargain-potty meant that it was impossible to empty with any accuracy.

So what potty would I recommend? The best potty we found was the Babybjorn Potty Chair:

This potty has a number of things going for it:

1. It is comfortable to use. The potty chair has a high back and arm rests which allow your baba to sit very comfortably. The potty itself is also at an ideal height. You wouldn’t want to tinkle with your knees banging into your ears and neither would your baba so avoid all those very low potties. In the early days of training your baba is likely to spend prolonged periods just sitting on their potty and they won’t be encouraged to do this if it isn’t a comfortable place to be.
2. It’s easy to clean. The white section of the potty chair, which is what we might describe as the ‘business end’ of the whole thing can be lifted out easily to be emptied and cleaned.
3. It’s sturdy. You don’t need me to tell you that a steady potty is a good idea!
4. It’s simple to use. There are lots of potties out there with an array of  bells and whistles but I steered clear of them, I didn’t want Mr Moo growing up thinking that every toilet in the world would give him a round of applause or toot a horn every time he performed!

A few other things that I found really helpful for potty training are:

The BabyBjorn Safe Step is a really useful thing to have around the house. During potty training, it is perfect to raise your baba up high enough to reach the sink for handwashing. As things progress, it can also be used to help your baba reach the ‘big toilet’. More recently, Mr Moo has used his to reach all kinds of things like light switches, the fridge, things on the kitchen counter etc. There are lots of different types of step available but I like this one because it is very sturdy,  has an anti-slip rubber mat and (don’t underestimate the importance of this!) is easy to clean.

Once your baba is a proficient potty user, you will want them to move to the big toilet and the BabyBjorn Toilet Trainer makes this transition really easy. The really clever feature of this seat which differentiates it from other models is the fact that it can be fitted to the toilet seat so that it doesn’t wobble about or slip when your baba uses it. You put it onto the main toilet seat and turn a wheel until the fins on the underside of the seat are flush (excuse the pun!) with the side of the toilet thereby securing it in place. I can’t think of anything scarier for a child than feeling like they are going to fall into the toilet. We bought a different type of seat for Mr Moo to use when he was in my parent’s house (the local shop didn’t have the BabyBjorn one) and after he almost fell off a couple of times  he soon became afraid to use it…..let me tell you, fear of the toilet is not ideal during potty training!

The last thing I’m going to recommend is the Potette Plus Travel Potty:

This really is a must have if you ever plan on leaving your house after your baba stops wearing nappies. It’s a small but usable plastic travel potty which folds down into an easily transportable size.  You line the Potette  with special liners (which are, effectively, nappy bags with an absorbent lining) which you can then remove, seal by tying and throw in the nearest bin. A clean and easy way for your baba to go to the toilet when you are out and about.  I keep ours in the car and it gets used all the time, particularly on the motorway when Mr Moo (despite having told me fifteen times before we left the house that he didn’t need to go) suddenly shouts out “Mammy, I need a wee!” when there isn’t a toilet anywhere within a 10 mile radius. You could also keep it under your pram or in your changing bag. A pack of 10 liners is really reasonable and the potty and the liners are all stored in a handy drawstring carrier bag.

Well, now you are physically equipped for potty training…..you just have to get mentally ready!