SHOPPING: 15 Smaller Businesses to support in 2019

I absolutely love shopping from smaller brands and businesses for many reasons, but mainly because it means supporting someone's hopes and dreams. There is a lot of love and time poured into each and every business, especially the smaller ones that offer such a personal service. A lot of parents are turning to setting up a business to allow them to stay at home with their children, which is incredibly inspiring and I absolutely love supporting those brands. The more challenging part of shopping small is finding the businesses to support in the first place, which is why I thought I'd put together some of my current favourites for you to discover too. I write a similar post back in 2017, which is again filled with lots of inspiring smaller businesses, if you want more inspiration.

PARENTHOOD: 10 Reasons why toddlers are actually pretty incredible!

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Toddlers can get a bit of bad press with their infamous 'terrible twos' label and seemingly endless tantrums. But having had one toddler (who is now a much bigger three-year-old) and now at the beginning of toddlerhood again I am determined to focus on actually how pretty incredible this age really is. When toddlers start to develop their own personality traits they come alive as a little person. The things that make them giggle that ever so infectious giggle, the ways they approach different challenges and their sheer determination is seriously admirable. I think there is a lot we can learn from this incredible age, so instead of anticipating challenging behaviour during the toddler phase why not focus on the often funny, impressive and strong-willed strengths of this age. 

FAMILY: Adventures around Copenhagen with Blunts Shoes

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Exploring new places and going on adventures as a family is how we would choose to spend every weekend if we could. The excitement of stumbling across somewhere beautiful, with plenty of space for the children to run around, is a big part of our quality family time together. Ensuring we all have appropriate footwear is really important, especially for Isabella and Poppy as they need that extra support for growing feet. Blunts Shoes was established in 1865 and have been selling footwear ever since, so it's fair to say they are experts in the area. They have 17 stores across the Midlands, but also have an impressive range of shoes, boots and sandals on their website too. As a parent it is very convenient to have the option to either buy online or in-store, as shopping with children in tow isn't always the easiest task.

CHILDREN: Num Noms Brand New Launch - Sparkle Smoothies

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Num Noms are the very popular scented collectable characters, which have branched out into Mystery Make-Up Packs, Party Hair Mystery Packs, Smooshcakes, Surprise in a Jar, Art and Activity Sets, Watches, Posters, Clothing and now the all new Sparkle Smoothies (£4.99 each). This exciting brand new launch have scented, liquid lip gloss inside a smoothie cup shape with a scented Num topping. When you unscrew the straw top to reveal the all new sparkly liquid lip gloss with a wand applicator. There are fifteen Num Toppings to collect in the range, which are detachable from the straw lid, as well as four glitter lip glosses and six pearl lip glosses. It's really fun that the toppings and lip glosses can be mix and matched to create unique looking lip glosses. Isabella absolutely loves swapping them between each other, as well as 'delicately' applying the lip gloss in the mirror.

MOTHERHOOD: How will I know when to stop combination feeding?

Combination feeding has been a big part of my life for the past three years or so and still is to be honest. Back in 2015, when Isabella was born, we were hoping to be able to establish breastfeeding over the first few weeks and then move to combination feeding from around six weeks. I was incredibly lucky with my breastfeeding journey and only 20 minutes after being born Isabella was latched on and feeding away. Other than the usual aches and pains of those early weeks of breastfeeding, I had a very positive experience. That was until Isabella was three weeks old and going through a growth spurt; I simply felt like I couldn't keep up with breastfeeding alone. I was barely sleeping, feeding what felt like constantly and still Isabella wasn't satisfied. Seeing my struggles and anguish over the situation my husband suggested we gave her a small bottle of formula milk as a 'top up'. 

WEDDING: Preparations, Flower Girls and How to Create a Sweet Table

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This year marks five years since my husband and I got married, which I can barely believe. Where does the time go? It's been a busy five years with buying houses, having two children and job changes, all of which with my husband by my side. We absolutely loved planning our wedding and because we did a lot of it ourselves it really was a long journey. Although the world of weddings seems a distant memory, it has recently been brought back to the forefront of my mind with the exciting announcement that my sister and brother-in-law are getting married this year! I am beyond excited to watch, help and support them on their journey towards their wedding at the end of this year.