Tuesday 11 December 2012

Bubble London 2013!

We have had a busy end to the year with lots of lovely festive fairs and orders to send off to customers in the run up to Christmas, and it doesn't look like the start of 2013 is going to be any less busy. We are very excited to announce that we are going to be exhibiting at Bubble London, the U.K.'s only standalone children's trade event, which is taking place at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London on the 28th and 29th of January. This will be our first ever trade show so we are very excited, albeit a little nervous too! So alongside finishing off our Christmas shopping and putting up the tree we are busy preparing how our stand is going to look and finalising the products we are planning to take. With lots to do we'll be keeping ourselves well fuelled with a mince pie or two!



We thought this photo of our initial planning stage might make you smile - this is John Butler being a very good 'shelf'!

Friday 7 December 2012

Friday's Fabulous Finds - Children's stocking fillers

With Christmas fast approaching, we thought we would share with you some of our favourite stocking fillers for little ones...


1. Wooden Pull Back Racing Car - £2.50 each
3. Mini Rabbit Light - £5.95
4. Animal Crayons - £6.50
6. Alice Bands - £8
8. Bike Airplane - £4.99
10. Duck Family - £14.50

Happy Friday everyone! x



Thursday 15 November 2012

Friday's fabulous finds - Children's rugs

Not only can you decorate your baby's nursery or child's bedroom by painting or wallpapering with beautiful colours and designs, and then adding Little Blue Zebra prints (of course!). You can also decorate the floors with stunning rugs. They are a lovely way to inject more colour and fun into your  little one's room. Here are a few of our favourites...

1. Fish, Amy Kent - Made to order
9. Rug, Vertbaudet - £59

Happy Friday everyone x

Baby London and Families magazine features

We are thrilled to be getting some pre-Christmas exposure courtesy of Baby London magazine and Families Hereford and Worcester magazine. A big thank you to both publications for featuring us...






Friday 9 November 2012

Friday's fabulous finds - Children's Wallpaper & Paint

For today's 'Friday's fabulous finds' we bring you.... children's wallpaper and paint ideas! Decorating a baby's nursery or a child's bedroom or playroom is great fun, but it can be difficult to know which colours and patterns to go for - bold, pastels, modern, vintage... so many options! Here are a few ideas which we hope will provide a little inspiration if you're thinking of getting handy with a paintbrush or some wallpaper paste. Luckily our children's animal wall art prints will go perfectly with any chosen scheme!

Original image above by The Nursery Paint Company, adapted by Little Blue Zebra.

1. Purdy's Pink - Nursery Paint Company £33 for 2.5l
2. Wood Wall Mural - Mr Perswall  £27/m2
3. Distant Shores Wallpaper - Harlequin £29
4. Designers Guild - Daisy Patch £30
5. Family Tree Wallpaper €67.50

Happy Friday everyone! x


Friday 2 November 2012

Friday's Fabulous Finds - Bonfire Night Food Ideas

Hope you had a great Halloween with more treats than tricks! From one fun night to another - Bonfire Night is nearly upon us. We love wrapping everyone up warm for a crisp autumn evening filled with colourful fireworks and a crackling bonfire. Great food is also important, so for this week's 'Friday's Fabulous Finds' we thought we'd share some fun food ideas...

Little ones will love these rocket sausages...


And it wouldn't be Bonfire Night without a warm and hearty jacket potato by the fire...


We love the idea of using twigs for the sticks of toffee apples...


And how about some flaming cupcakes...


Or some edible sparklers...


 Happy Friday everyone  x


Monday 29 October 2012

Where have all the leaves gone?

It is fascinating to see the world through the eyes of children. This is the first year that my eldest son Oliver, who is 3 and a half has really noticed and commented on the seasons changing. We have a small tree in our garden that much to Oliver's horror has lost all its leaves. He was so concerned by its bare appearance that he called me over exclaiming "Mummy I don't want the leaves to fall off". After I explained that the leaves will return in spring he quickly saw the benefits of the fallen leaves. Not only were they fun to play in with his younger brother, they also provided a nice soft landing while learning to ride a bike without stabilisers on a recent trip to Bedgebury Pinetum





Friday 26 October 2012

Friday's Fabulous Finds - Children's Chairs

Back in January this year we began our quest to bring you interesting and sometimes bizarre facts about our A-Z of animals in the form of our 'Friday's fun facts'.  I am pleased to announce that we have completed the list of animals. We know that your Fridays will never be the same again but don't despair, we will attempt to fill the void with our 'Friday's fabulous finds'! 'Hurrah' we hear you say!

We often come across lovely things for little ones so we thought we would share with you some of our favourite finds. Every Friday (give or take a few!!) we will bring you a selection of stylish, fun and inspiring ideas, including nursery decor, children's parties, clothes, toys and fun food ideas.

Every now and then children like to take a break from all the running around that they do, so we thought we would begin with some of our favourite children's chairs...


We think the Charles Eames elephant chair would make a great addition to a safari themed nursery alongside some of our safari themed animals prints...
We love this cute video below of the Charles Eames elephant chair on safari...


Happy Friday all x


Thursday 18 October 2012

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012

The winners of the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 were announced today. As ever, a collection of truly amazing photographs, from bubble-jetting emperors to leaping lemurs and squabbling jays. The photographs are being exhibited at the Natural History Museum in London from tomorrow. They will then be going on tour around the country and the world from November. 

The overall winner was this stunning image...


And this impressive photo won the overall young wildlife photographer of the year...


Here are a few other amazing photographs which caught our eye...











 This last one was taken by Liina Heikkinen in the '10 years and under' category - pretty impressive! 

Sunday 14 October 2012

Falling into Autumn...







Friday 12 October 2012

Hooray hooray we're 1 today!!!

How time flies! This time last year we had just put the finishing touches to our website and, with the click of a mouse, our website went live and Little Blue Zebra was launched! It's been a fantastic fun-filled year. We have particularly enjoyed meeting lots of lovely customers at the many fairs we have been to. 

We'd love you to join us in our celebrations so we are offering all UK customers free postage and packaging from today until midnight this Sunday 14th October. If you like to get your Christmas shopping done nice and early it's a perfect opportunity to buy some of our ABC, 123, letter and animal prints as unique and special gifts.

As well as looking back to all we have achieved over the past year, we are looking forward to what the next year brings. We are very excited about some new print designs and product launches in the new year. We will be sure to share some sneak peeks with you very soon. Watch this space...!



Happy Birthday Little Blue Zebra and happy Friday everyone! 

Sunday 7 October 2012

Little Blue Zebra homepage makeover...

We're loving our new and updated homepage showcasing more of our alphabet, number, letter, and baby animal pictures for little ones (as well as a couple of our own little ones!). Hope you like it too...






Friday 5 October 2012

Friday's fun fact - Have we got newts for you!

At this time of year the leaves outside burst with colour. Beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange signal that autumn is well and truly here. I (Joanna, not Lucy who usually writes our blog) am currently enjoying this fantastically colourful view from my kitchen window - it certainly makes doing the washing up a little more enjoyable! 


The subject of leaves brings me onto this week's fun fact! Did you know that some species of newt, including the red-spotted newt featured in our Letter N Print, wrap each of the 250 eggs they can lay in a season individually in its own underwater leaf? Using their hind legs and feet, the females fully enclose each egg so that they are protected by the leaves.


The Woodland Trust has 25 leafy autumnal activity sheets for children all in one place to download. Turns out there are lots of activities little ones can do with leaves aside from just running through them, kicking and throwing them in the air - something I think us adults secretly still enjoy doing too! 


Happy Friday all! x

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Fun in the sun at the Weald of Kent craft show

We recently exhibited again at the Weald of Kent Craft Show in Penshurst and thankfully the weather was a vast improvement from the weather we experienced in May. Gone were the wellies and umbrellas and out came the sun hats! It was a great weekend where we got to meet lots of lovely new customers. John demonstrated how he creates his artwork by working on one of his spreads for his latest book. Unfortunately the sun was a bit too strong, which meant that the paint was drying too quickly so he was only able to do it for a couple of hours! Not that we were complaining though as it was so nice to see some glorious sunshine after the washout that was summer!