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

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'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...

1. Beach Hut Tub Chair £160
2. Dog/Duck/Dinosaur/Rabbit Chair £79.99
3. Tissington, Poppy £625
4. Fred Fisher Chair £158
5. Retro Heart Chair £30
6. Rocking Chair £60
7. Pied Piper Stacking Toddler Chair £28
8. Folding Chair Bed £85
9. Child's Animal Chair £29
10. Charles Eames Style Child's Elephant Chair £49.95

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

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! 

Falling into Autumn...

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! 

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'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

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!

Friday's fun fact - Voles venturing out

Rearrange their name and you find 'love'. But did you know that some species of vole will trek huge distances in their quest to find a mate? Despite being only the size of a hamster, water voles in Scotland have been found to travel up to 15km (9 miles), crossing unsuitable habitats and dodging predators along the way. When they reach a suitable patch, they sometimes spend three or four days there looking and waiting for a partner. If they're unlucky in love in that patch they will set off again on their journey. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen who tracked the journeys of these furry little creatures over 13 years were astounded when they discovered the distances they will travel. Their findings could not only prove valuable for the conservation of the charismatic water vole, but other species with similar population structures as well, from small insects to tigers.

Water vole (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19503827)

Happy Friday all! x

Friday's fun fact - Rhino's nose

Did you know rhinoceroses get their name from their horns. The word rhinoceros comes from the Greek rhino (nose) and ceros (horn). Rhino horns are made of keratin, like our fingernails and hair!

Happy Friday all! x