CHEEKY WIPES

So those of you following my blog for a while know I'm a big fan of re-useable nappies as well as most things eco. I already purchased a mini set of Cheeky Wipes way back when I first decided to cloth nappy to go alongside them. Heck, if you are going to be washing nappies, you might as well save money, time and the environment and wash wipes too? Anyway I loved them straight away - they are a great size, have the texture of a flannel and remove all sorts of delights much better than a disposable wipe, which as I'm sure you know has sometimes the tendency to smear.... (Sorry to those of you eating lunch.) Anyway, as I loved them so much I decided to make my own wipes for clearing up faces (sometimes my own) and the high chair at mealtimes. I didn't want to use the same ones we used alongside the nappies and mix them all up. I'm sure it is totally fine, but you know, I just felt weird doing it! So my make shift muslin cloths did the job ok but weren't great like the Cheeky Wipes. So when the lovely people at Cheeky Wipes asked if I'd like a second complete set I jumped at the chance!

The set up is oh so simple, and I must have saved myself an absolute fortune as well by not using disposable wipes. It doesn't matter if you are not using cloth nappies, you can use these wipes and wash them alongside your/their clothes.

So you have yourself two boxes, a clean one and a mucky one and two essential oil blends. 25 lovely soft baby wipes. Two waterproof bags for out and about and a mesh bag for the 'mucky' box. All you do is put about 2-3cm of water in the Fresh Wipes container with a few drops of the essential oil blend then pop your wipes in to soak up the water.

Put some water in the Mucky Wipes container and some drops of the other essential oil. Hook the clever little mesh bag over the green hooks and Voila! Away you go!

They can be washed anywhere from 30-70 degrees and then you just chuck them back in the box and carry on. I mainly wash mine with Stanley's clothes on a 30-40 wash and they seem fine to me! Every now and then I might throw them in with my towels or bed linen on a higher heat just to keep them hygenic.

Seriously though they are that easy. It's the sort of thing I'm surprised I don't see more people doing. I don't know about you but as a Mum there isn't a lot of spare cash floating around and I'd much rather be buying myself a nice coffee when some little thing ::ahem, that's you Stanley:: has woken me up at 5 am than waste my money on another pack of disposable wipes! So please check out their website and put it on yours or your child's Christmas list! Hohoho!

see, this is us enjoying cake instead of wasting money of disposable wipes....

hmmmm, messy business this cake eating

phew! all clean and back to playing thanks to cheeky wipes 

This IS a sponsored post, but I hope you know me well enough to know I only review products I have, or like, and that fit in with the ethos of my blog. All opinions are my own. I'm real clever like that :)

GREEN PEOPLE

Which is us really most of the time, but also them. I hope you have all heard of the lovely Green People. If not I'm about to sing their praises! We have been using Green People for years. My husband first introduced me to them (being the secret eco warrior that he is!) and we have been fans of their body wash, shampoo and suncream for a while now. So of course it made sense that when little Stanley came along we only wanted to use organic, non chemical products on him too. Ben ordered me a selection of trial products for Stanley when he was first born - similar to this one. We still use them as his travel kit for when we stay over at people's houses. Recently I've been needing to wash Stanley's hair more. Not only is it quite long but it gets messier with his activities, being outside etc and I wanted to use a specific hair shampoo not just his body wash. Green people were kind enough to send me their Lavender Shampoo as well their Sticky Hand Sanitiser. Well the shampoo smells GREAT, and not at all old lady lavender. It always nice to have some relaxing lavender action before bedtime, even if washing hair isn't a relaxing experience for everyone....please turn away now if you don't want to see Stanley cry.

no idea what is about to come

distracting him with the mirror worked wonders last time

this time, not so much

all clean! what a cruel mother i am...

So Stanley may hate his hair being washed but I can tell you it has nothing to do with the product and I'm sure he'd be crying a lot more if he had chemicals seeping into his eyes. Funnily when I tried to explain this he just shot me a 'whatever' look. How can they already do this at such an early age? A sign of things to come I'm sure.... Anyway I'm very happy with it and I didn't need conditioner (thank goodness, can you imagine trying to that next!). Stanley's hair is fine and the product is so good it rinses out easily and combs through well. A little goes a looooooooong way too people. I used smaller than a pea size and got a great lather up. Oh my it is great - so yes maybe it is more money than other brands but I can tell you now you won't need to buy another for ages. Good for us, maybe not so much for Green People!

The Hand Sanitiser is lovely too. I was so pleased to be able to try this. It has a great scent and comes out in a very satisfying action from the pump! Stanley likes it, he of course wants to do it himself, which is fine, but not to be left alone with or else they'd be none left, even with a mighty 200 squirts per bottle! He's a pretty clean child really and does love to wash his hands. He is not a messy with food, but other children are so it is nice to have this on hand to wipe down high chairs etc when we are out. I'm all for a bit of germ action, but perhaps the only place where it makes me nervous is the tube, and seeing as we visit London a fair old bit it is good to have this on us. It is also good to squirt on to cloth wipes when nappy changing as occasionally I find they dry out in my bag. I use it on my hands too as Stanley is scared of the hand dryers, so washing my hands can often leave us traumatised! (In a similar way to hair washing...) An all round great product, safe enough to use on bottoms but attacks those nasty germs. At the moment too it is a special price so snap some up while you can!

footnote: yes we still bath Stanley in a baby bath. We have a large normal bath and are on a water meter so filling it would be expensive and wasteful. We like to save money and water where we can, and in the Summer it meant Ben could re-use the water over our garden plants as we have used safe organic products, another good reason for bathing Stanley in Green People stuff. He doesn't seem to mind and can't slip over as easily.

THE GARAGE

Ben picked up this book for Stanley from the Tate Modern bookshop the other day. It's so nice I almost didn't let Stanley touch it, but that is mean. And he does love anything to do with cars, trucks, books and flaps! It is a really beautifully produced book, printed on thick cream card stock with a textured jacket cover - it feels lovely to read. The flaps are unusual - they open at different angles, there are even flaps under flaps - who'd have thought it! Although there are only six double page spreads there is a lot going on. The illustrations are wonderfully retro and there is much humour to discover when lifting the flaps. Cheeky stuff to say the least! I think we will BOTH get much pleasure out of looking at this book again and again. Good find Daddy! Written and illustrated by French illustrator Christophe Merlin it is a truly special book. You can buy it here, but always if you can you should buy from your local independent bookstore if you have one ;)

 

 

BOOK LOVE.

a lovely new book purchase i made recently is "Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling" by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles. if you are into children's books, an illustrator, author, student or trying to get into the industry i'd definitely recommend it.

 

The Book is spilt into seven chapters which cover various aspects of creating children's books. there are also case studies on illustrators as well as publishing houses. there is a really good international outlook on picture books which is very exciting to see. lots of lovely images to pour over...hugely inspiring!

 

i have another book by Martin Salisbury called "Play Pen" which is also brilliant.

BOOK LOVE.

Continuing my book review series without the lovely Stanley... i have a few books on type about the house. i mainly use them for reference for my work. When i have a minute they are great to flick through...i find it really helps with giving my usual way of laying out type with images a boost. i can get really stuck in a rut if I don't regularly look outside my little illustration world, and these are the books i often turn to first if i can't get out the house for inspiration.

do you have any 'must have' books for inspiration or when you're stuck in a creative rut? i'd love to add to my collection....

picture 2, 3 & 4 from 'hand job'
picture 5 & 6 from 'new vintage type'
picture 7, 8 & 9 from 'handwritten'

ON TUESDAY WE READ...

......"Envelopes" by Harriet Russell
I'm continuing my series with another one of MY books rather than Stanley's. He's a bit poorly and didn't want to participate this week. This book is a collection of decorated envelopes all of which have been sent through the UK royal mail system.
Harriet has a lovely take on communicating an address - mazes, join the dots, anagrams, illustrations, puns, puzzles, and literary word play.

 

 

Amazingly the majority of the envelopes arrived at their intended destinations, postmarks to prove it! I love the fact that the postal employees obviously rose to the challenge to work out and deliver these envelopes!

Fun little book. Her blog is pretty darn lovely too...

Armadillo Review

Mrs Muffly's Monster has made Editor's choice over at Armadillo magazine. You can take a look here. And very pleased about it I am too. Always lovely to hear nice words about a book I'm proud of!
Lots of other great books feature, I love Ed Vere's Bedtime for Monsters book.