BATHTIME: Soap-a-licious

by Jenny Dalton

EVERY NOW AND AGAIN bathtime loses its appeal. And then out come the big guns - or rather little guns - in the form of new colour changing plastic ducks (or Hot Wheels cars!), or a new PlayMobil water park.

Another sure fire way to get them wanting to clean themselves again are the Yorkshire Soap Company’s good-enough-to-eat soaps. Shaped like delicious slices of cake or wee little cup cakes with sparkly icing on top, they’ve become a kind of cult hit in our house (and are so incredibly convincing thanks to the layers of ‘butter cream’, ‘jam’ and ‘biscuit base’, they have even had a couple of bites taken out of them by an over-enthusiastic wee one, as well as a big one who just wanted to see what the fuss was about).

Hand-made in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, over the top of a super-cute ‘cake’ store, the soaps are exquisitely put together in the kind of packaging you’d expect from the best cake shop in the world, and feature the likes of real rose buds on the top of a slice.

They don’t just look good. I’m not usually a soap person, but these are super-gentle, don’t seem to dry out the skin, and smell heavenly too, filled as they are with the best essential oils… The tricky bit is choosing which slice to try…

*Yorkshire Soap Company, www.theyorkshiresoapcompany.co.uk. £5 a slice.

Cake slice

Icing a cake

The shop interior

Posted 10 February 2012 in Products

TRENDS: Bubble Review

By Jo Middleton

LITTLEBIG VERY selflessly spent the day last Sunday going all the way to Bubble London to check out the latest trends for kids for Autumn and Winter. We traipsed around all day looking at gorgeous dresses, cooing over tiny shoes, and gasping with delight at hand-sewn cushion covers. The things we do for you…

The whole show was fantastic, and we’ll be bringing you more in-depth features on some of the individual brands over the course of the next few months, but in the meantime we wanted to whet your appetites with a few of our favourites.

Following the success of the Muffin Pouffe, a luxurious leather cushioned stool with a playful elegance [pictured left], Matteo Bianchi has been baking mini muffins! Yes that’s right, they’re stools that look like muffins - what’s not to love? You can create your own unique design by selecting your muffin ‘ingredients’ from a range of beautifully handcrafted solid wooden bases, buttons, and soft leathers and fabrics. So gorgeous you won’t know whether to sit on it or eat it. www.muffinpouffe.co.uk Read the rest of this article

Posted 2 February 2012 in Products, Textiles

STUFF: Things we really should have designed but didn’t

YOU KNOW IT. ALL those things you’ve bought for your wee one and all along you’re thinking “I invented this. I just didn’t manufacture it.”

Like the black out blinds with suction cups from The Gro Store (my homemade version was blackout fabric and map pins). The new ‘lead’ Scoot ‘n’ Pull for scooters below (my homemade version? child hanging onto my jacket tails). The Koodi Stroller Sun and Sleep Shade cover (well it’s an extension of the sweater perched atop your child’s buggy, isn’t it?).

Here are a few of our favourites we wished we’d designed. Because they’re all just really good….

1. Totseat. In my mother’s day this was a scarf tied around your tummy, tied around your chair. These days it’s the Totseat, a considerably safer portable fabric version, designed by Rachel Jones of Edinburgh-based Totseat, that fastens securely around any chair, and has won numerous accolades. £24 from www.totseat.com. Enter LITTLEBIG at checkout for a 15% discount. Read the rest of this article

Posted 5 September 2011 in Products

THE BOOKEND: Susan Bradley

HAVING TRAWLED the bookend market for something new and thrilling in recent years - to add to our resident collection of James The Bookend, and ENO’s bookstops - we were delighted to stumble across young Brit designer Susan Bradley’s icon collection.

These powder coated metal laser-cutouts of icons of international transport and architecture are made in the UK and are irresistible. Our only dilemma is which to choose. Eiffel Tower? London Black Cab? Statue of Liberty? La Sagrada Familia? Best let the kids decide…

*Icon bookends, £18, from Utility Design, www.utilitydesign.co.uk and direct from Susan Bradley, www.susanbradley.co.uk

Posted 18 January 2011 in Design + Decoration, Products

TRIED & TESTED: Method Laundry Detergent

IT IS SELDOM THERE’S innovation enough in washing powders / liquids for anyone to get excited, let alone to write about it.

But Method’s new Laundry Detergent has already won a design award. Not just for the liquid’s successful functioning - it doubles as a stain remover, washes equally well at 30 degrees (or even cold) as it does at hotter temperatures, and is made from 95 per cent natural ingredients and is fully biodegradable - but for the design of the bottle itself.

Super-concentrated (x 8 times) so you only need four squirts of the liquid for a complete wash, this compact pump-action bottle is designed to be used single-handedly - so you don’t have to put the baby down to get the housework done. It also eliminates the need for big cupboards to store a mega-huge box of washing powder (nor, as a knock-on effect, large trucks to transport it from the manufacturers to the supermarket, or super-strong arms to carry it from shop to car). Top marks. Read the rest of this article

Posted 10 November 2010 in Products