If you hadn’t already cottoned on – I absolutely love twitter! As a work at home mum, living in the middle of nowhere, I love nattering away to people all over the world, especially about things I love like toys, kids, clothes, pretty stuff, green issues, cooking, my pets……get the picture! My latest twitterfriend is @friendlysoap who makes and sells some super smelly stuff !

Rachel sells beautiful organic soap for adults & kids, with no SLS/SLES/Parabens as she believes that everyday washing should be free from these chemicals. I agree so when a box of lovely soaps turned up on my doorstep to review, I relished the challenge!

Rachel donated several soaps to the Yummy Mummy market I organised for our school PTFA & CLIC Sargent, which took place last Saturday (thanks Rachel) and she also suggested I give a couple to my own kids to use and review. I don’t know about you – but sometimes we get through so much soap – I think the children are eating the stuff !!

Funnily enough Rachel’s soaps smell so good you could eat them – but as they’re aimed at kids there is a very helpful safety warning on the back saying they are not to be eaten!!

My daughter Natasha – an extremely discerning eight year old young lady used the round rosy heart  soap with the heart above and loved that it was girly and pretty. It made a nice lather and was soft on her skin, and mine….as i couldn’t resist using some during my lazy sunday soak!

My little boy Aleck who is four is a typical pre-schooler loving anything new in the bath so was quite excited with his new alien spaceship soap below! The great thing about this range of kids soaps is that they are perfectly created for little hands. I’m quite sure you will find your children rushing to wash their hands…and no more battles at bathtime either!

If like me, you are concerned about putting nasty chemicals on your little ones skin – check out the information page on the Friendly Soaps website – many of the ‘normal’ soaps we all use contain chemicals which can cause irritation, skin corrosion, eye irritations and other problems in children and hormone inbalance.

http://www.friendlysoap.co.uk

Blogging this for a twitter friend of mine James.

“Last year, I presented a seminar explaining the benefits of social
media for charities.  As part of that, I wanted to show how powerful
social media was in terms of getting a message out.  I sent out a
tweet and asked for it to be re-tweeted – sending it as far as
possible.  A couple of hours, four continents, hundreds of retweets
and dozens of countries later, it appeared in Australia.

This year, I will again be presenting some free seminars for charities
on social media and I wanted something new to show the power of social
media.  So I set up a social media charity experiment.

The idea was to raise enough money for one Shelterbox
(www.shelterbox.org) in one year by spreading the word using social
media.  Within a month, almost 75% of the target had been donated with
some amazing donations.

Now, we have set up Team2Quid.  Team2Quid is part of the experiment.
Donate £2 to the experiment and you become part of this amazing social
media club – and Shelterbox gets £2.

This is all about showing how powerful social media is and how
wonderful, kind and generous random groups of people can be.

When I present the seminars again and show what we have achieved – and
continue to achieve – I hope it will also inspire other charities to
engage online and, hopefully, for them to find new supporters and
income streams.

Please consider joining Team2Quid.  To join, go to
http://bit.ly/team2quid and look the campaign up on Twitter at
twitter.com/team2quid

Thank you for being part of something truly amazing.

Best wishes

James”

Thank you to Luscombe Drinks of Devon for their extremely kind donation of some of their delightful drinks for our Yummy Mummy market which takes place in Upottery near Honiton tomorrow – Sat 20th March.

LUSCOMBE drinks are made with purely the finest quality fresh ingredients,  without…concentrates; additives; preservatives; colourants; flavourings; enhancers; acidity regulators; artificial sweeteners; animal by-products; artificial pesticide residues; GMO`s & without  big, harsh, rasping bubbles the size of toads` eyes. All the LUSCOMBE drinks are made in Devon, within the historic setting of the Domesday farm.

River Cottage stock Luscomble drinks, as do Lyme Bay Winery & The Old Inn at Kilmington.

See http://www.luscombe.co.uk for more info.

We have lots of new Tish Tash Toys agent joining us this time of year and each one gets a fabulous starter pack including catalogues, flyers, toys etc.

We have for some time now invited other businesses like our own to send us their lovely flyers and gifts (eg pens, keyrings, t-shirts etc) to be included to promote THEIR businesses to our agents too. Most of our agents are mums so anything geared towards mums/women is best.

If you would like to send us your flyers and some (promotional) treats for our agents – simply drop us a line at info@tishtashtoys.com

You probably need to send 50 – 100.

Mood Foods is my new favourite online food store! Since my local Tesco in Honiton stopped selling my favourite Lizi’s Granola breakfast cereal, I had to search online for it and found and ordered some from Mood Foods.

As my daughter’s school here in Devon is having a Yummy Mummy Market on Saturday 20th March – I thought I’d drop Mood Foods a line to see if they could donate anything for our raffle.

To my surprise a massive box arrived the other day full of lovely things like sample packs of Lizi’s Belgian Chocolate Granola (above) and Nairn’s Oatcakes.

I love the idea behind the Mood Foods website – that the food you eat can have a big effect on your mood and how you feel.

Do you need to roll yourself out of bed in the morning, stumbling around till you’ve fuelled up on coffee to get your engine revving? Does your concentration desert you mid morning till you’ve had a sugar fix then you’re back on track?

Caffeine is probably the most widely used behaviour modifying drug in the world. We reach for a cup if we are feeling tired and irritable to give us a boost and help us concentrate. Too much caffeine though and we can get symptoms such as anxiety and nervousness.

Many people are also worried about food additives and their impact on health, the dangers of some food additives and preservatives and the benefits of organic food.

Obesity and depression are at an all time high. The statistics make pretty grim reading.

There’s growing interest, and research, in how food and nutrition can affect your emotional and mental health and we’ve only just begun to understand the powerful links between nutrition, mood and mental health.

More and more people today are shunning pills and potions and looking for self help and natural approaches to help them feel happy and healthy. One self-help strategy is to change what we eat.

Take a look at the Mood Food website and be inspired by all these wonderful healthy foods & thanks again guys. Really appreciate the donation.

www.moodfoodcompany.co.uk

We are absolutely thrilled to have made it into the Tots100 index of the UK’s Top 100 parent blogs and bloggers this January!

Our two and a half year old Tish Tash Toys blog debuts at number 85 in this index of parents’ blogs put together by Sally Whittle of Who’s The Mummy – the true story of the life of Lancashire mum Sally Whittle and her 4 year old daughter Flea. Sally is a freelance journalist, blogger and trainer and works out the scores of hundreds of mummy and daddy blogs based on three basic things: links, comments and readership.

You can view the list of top 100 blogs here at Who’s The Mummy.

I’ve flicked down the list myself and here are some of my favourites…

No. 64 A Place of my own – Kelly loves the summer but can’t cope with the sun. She’s loud and silly with friends but painfully shy around strangers and she likes penguins, singing loudly alone in the car, and Cornwall. I like Kelly because like her, I don’t like people who think the world owes them something!

No. 45 The homeschooling blog Patch of Puddles debuts really high on the list and is great for me with two children off school for days due to the weather. I’ll be using this blog next week to find some activities for my two to do should school still be closed.

We are just in the process of designing our new catalogue and looking at pricing. Many of our suppliers have put their prices up, due to manufacturers doing the same, so we will probably have to do this as well. I was reading an article yesterday about rounding up prices, from 99p to £1. Here’s the article – it’s an interesting read for anyone in retail http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8159072.stm

Be great to get a few comments whether you think sticking to our current prices eg £4.99 or £9.99 is best, or should we go for £5 and £10. Do you feel it really makes any difference at all. Please add your comments at the end.

Be-Fabulous is a lifestyle networking site, giving women a place where they can share, support, inspire, motivate and feel empowered.

The site offers:

TALK: forums that cover everything from business advice, top tips for networking to recommendations on books, films and restaurants, plus you can share your take on the recent celebrity gossip or tell your own life-story and inspire others – we’ve also recently created member-run sections where you can discuss certain lifestyle and health issues.

MEET: our event calendar is free for all members to promote their own events, plus we post interesting events that we’ve discovered.  So if you’re looking to join a business networking group, looking for courses or workshops or maybe just want to try something new or spend a day/evening at a pamper event then you can find it here.

INSPIRE: each month we publish articles that have been written by members and other inspirational women.  Our articles cover a whole host of topics and our main criteria is that they get you thinking, get you motivated and inspire you to think differently.  We’ve had everything from how to drink gin and how to use NLP techniques in business, right through to what style tribe you fit into and how to find your perfect man – so a real mix!

INVITE: we’ve produced 4 e-cards, with gorgeous images, that you can use to either tell your friends about the website or simply send to let someone know that you’re thinking of them.

BOOK OF GEMS:  the sites directory is a place to discover real hidden gems of business that you might never have discovered, members can promote themselves and we’re now starting to talk to companies and businesses to build up a great directory that will be your first port of call when you’re looking for beauty treatments, gifts, coaching, restaurants, hotels and fashion etc.

Oh and we’re also in the process of introducing a real-time chat room plus a way to find new friends within your area so you can meet other like-minded fabulous women!

Be whoever you are, whenever you want…Be Fabulous! www.be-fabulous.co.uk

A national search is on to find the UK’s most deserving individual who can show how studying new skills could change their life. Could that be you or someone you know???

This person might have overcome challenges to advance their career, they might be out to gain new career prospects and self-enlightenment or could simply have always dreamed of studying a particular course and for some reason was never able to.

With this in mind, The Remote Worker Awards and The Open University invite you to enter The Open University Skills Award to win a brand new career!

The Open University Skills Award is one of the highlights of The Remote Worker Awards in association with BT Business, which aims to raise awareness for remote and home working as an alternative solution to redundancy and the traditional nine to five office routine.

The Remote Worker Awards has been organised by Remote Employment, a job site specialising in flexible, remote and home working, offers nine categories. Award-winners will walk away with a prestigious trophy and will enjoy up to £50k in prizes, including a Penthouse Garden Office worth £10k, a Home Franchise worth £15k, interior design, business starter kits, a mobile laptop and a fabulous luxury weekend at a von Essen Hotel. And a brand new career!

Improving skills is an ideal way to increase job security in these uncertain employment times so this is a great way to receive a brand new career.

The Open University is giving one deserving winner a £2000 first prize and two £500 runners up prizes, all of which can be used by students to develop themselves in their existing role, or with a complete change of career in mind.

For more information or any other enquiry about The Open University Skills Award, call Paula on 020 8133 6329 or browse www.remoteworkerawards.com

PS: We are also on the hunt for the best home business! Is that you? Look at the BT Home Business Award to see the fab prizes you could win! Pass this on!