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Sisters in Partnership- The Toy Barn at Millstones
Rachel Fallows originally worked within Finance and Admin at a Children’s Centre based in Millom, Cumbria. Whilst having a cup of coffee at Millstones Barn Cafe, Rachel and her sister noticed a ‘For Rent’ sign within part of the Millstones Barn Establishment and began to ponder upon future possibilities within the retail sector. Soon enough Rachel’s pipedreams became reality and ‘The Toy Barn’ began early development stages.
Rachel and her sisters Andrea Fleming and Karen Stewart came together as a partnership to run the business, each taking a significant role within The Toy Barn. The Toy Barn was officially opened in October 2010 and has since had an excellent trade record, being popular with local residents and tourists within the Lakes.
Originally a Bakery, The Toy Barn occupies a large section of the Millstones Barn Buildings. Millstones Barn also houses two other businesses: ‘The Millstones Barn Cafe’ which focuses primarily upon healthy, nutritious foods which are homemade, locally sourced and served within a beautiful restored barn house setting, and ‘The Millstones Barn Food and Gifts Shop’ which sell an eclectic range of locally sourced goods. Together, under one roof these three businesses compliment each other through their common goals of retailing unique, locally sourced, natural products.
Open Tuesdays- Sundays (also open on Mondays during the school holidays and on bank holidays), The Toy Barn at Millstones sells a wide range of quality wooden toys and gifts for babies from manufacturers such as
Big Jigs - Moulin Roty
- Lanka Kade (a Fair-Trade company that deals with products made in Sri Lanka)
- East of India Baby Gifts
- The Puppet Company
Rachel actively encourages local residents to put forward products to sell which they may specialise within such as fine arts, jewellery and woodcraft. The Toy Barn currently stock a range of locally sourced products which are original and beautifully designed, making the ideal gifts for special occasions.
Wooden toys are not only traditional but far more robust and reusable, as wood tends to last therefore can be handed down from generation to generation.
The Toy Barn sell a wide range of wooden toys and gifts including personalised name plaques, jigsaws, dolls houses, train sets, rocking horses, puppets, soft toys, children’s jewellery, hobby horses, traditional books, and baby gifts to name a few.
The Toy Barn supports local charities such as ‘Haverigg Nursery’, by 
providing retail parties in order to raise funds for the nursery and to enable local residents to access the Toy Barn’s products. The Toy Barn also attended the local Millom Christmas Market, The Haverigg Kite Festival and have recently joined Egremont Fair-Trade Markets which take place once a month (usually on the first Friday of each month). Rachel and her sisters plan to continue holding local parties and events within the future which you can access information upon through The Toy Barns Facebook page.
Although The Toy Barn is currently based within The Lakes (Bootle, Millom), there are future plans to open an online shop (during Summer 2011) which Mums Baby Magazine will keep you posted upon!
Mums Baby Magazine would like to wish Rachel, Andrea and Karen all the best for the future of The Toy Barn and we look forward to hearing more upon it’s development and progress.
Picture This! A Reusable, Refillable Board Book Photo Album.
Little ones love to sit and look at pictures of family, friends , pets, places and and anything which visually and emotionally stimulates them. Whilst little ones love looking at images and photos, it can often be stressful for parents who are trying to protect photo albums, frames and laptop screens from any damage. Rather than preventing and discouraging your little one from handling photos which may be of personal value, eliminate the worry by introducing your child to a ‘Board Book’ Album from Board Book Albums, LLC.
These sturdy and robust ‘Take Your Pix’ thick cardboard albums are available in a wide range of colours and designs. Each album has ten pages and twenty slots for 4” x 6” photos. The cover features a separate slot for a cover shot, each photo is protected within thick cardboard pages and plastic covering. Each page has a ridge to enable little hands to flick from page to page with ease.
Photos can easily be put in and taken out by adults using a slot in the top of the page. Measuring 7” x 7”, the Board Book Albums LLC ‘Take Your Pix’ album is similar in size, look and feel to a children’s story board book. All the Board Book Albums are free standing and ideal for display, thus this may be an ideal gift for special occasions.
Mums Baby Magazine filled a Board Book Albums LLC ‘Take Your Pix’ album with twenty photographs and left it in the ‘safe’ hands of a toddler, the fact that the child was able to look at photographs without assistance boosted their confidence and built skills in independence. They greatly enjoyed having the freedom to flick through photos without a concerned parent looming over their shoulder to help turn pages carefully.
Board Book Albums, LLC ‘Take Your Pix’ album’s can be kept within children’s reach to allow little eyes to explore pictures and images to their hearts content without the worry of tearing or damage.
Ideal for scrapbooking, keeping special memories safely together and photo books for children, Board Book Albums LLC ‘Take Your Pix’ albums are available from http://www.boardbookalbums.com for only $19.95 (£12.08).
Unusual Gifts from Galia Durant.
Mumpreneur Galia Durant creates bespoke books for children. Galia’s prints are a mixture of digital and screenprints, mainly black and white animal and monster prints many of which can be hand finished in pen and ink with a child’s name. These prints make unusual gifts and are a fresh alternative to the fluffy cute pastel prints and baby gifts which are available in the masses online and in shops Worldwide.
Galia is currently one half of the due Psapp who put Toytronica firmly on the map when they landed the award winning theme tune to Grey’s Anatomy, they also released three critically acclaimed albums for Domino Records.
Not content with his Musical prowess, Galia began to explore her artistic side whilst working for Psapp, crayoning monochromatic cats, imaginary keyboards and friendly monsters that led onto album covers, T-shirt designs and animations. These designs led to a host of illustrative commisions ranging from condom boxes, postcards, limited edition clothing for design agency Airside, comic strips for magazines and newspapers and even some illustrated jewellery.
Galia has created murals and art installations featured in France for Agnes B, Being artist in residence for day the ICA as part of ‘Little Pencil’, a drawing workshop for children, followed by ‘Heavy Pencil’, a live drawing event. Galia has also exhibited her drawings in a variety of London based galleries.
Galia’s achievements don’t stop there, she was also the brains behind Craft Night at Nottinghill Arts Club which was featured on the BBC Culture Show, The Guardian and other media outlets. Galia masterminded unlikely crafts for heavy drinkers and curated Music and comedy for the scissorati.
Most recently Galia has completed a range of illustrations for a children’s poetry book ‘The Roaring Rainbow’ and has created a shop front design for Stoke Newington’s all new toy shop ‘Olive loves Alfie’, featuring a host of friendly monsters riding upon scooters. She also sells her work at the Jealous Gallery alongside the likes of Peter Blake and Gavin Turk.
Galia currently sells her products through Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/galiadurant and two London Stockists. Galias’s prints range in price from £15.00 to £100, Galia also takes special commissions on. Check out Galia’s Prints at www.galiadurant.com
Bringing together the essential information for the early days: The Baby Book (Colchester and Tendring)
For the past twelve years Sharon has worked as a health visitor. Her job is to support, advise and guide soon to be parents and carer through the rollercoaster that is parenthood. Sharon was previously a children’s nurse where she found that many parents didn’t feel supported by their health visitor, this spurred Sharon to make a difference and become a health visitor herself.
Sharon soon realised that parenthood can be a very stressful job, often parents have feelings such as guilt, anxiety, and distress. Having undertaken the life changing step of becoming a Mother herself, Sharon had a good understanding and knowledge of how many other parents were feeling. For many parents the change from working full time to being on maternity leave and having to care for a new born for the first time can be daunting.
Sharon lacked the time and motivation to search the internet for advice upon parenting in the early stages, she wished that there could be a booklet available for parents, a simple guide to follow in the early days of parenting. As a health visitor Sharon found that many other parents also wished that there could be a book given to parents rather than having to listen to endless information which often was unheard due to information overload.
Weeks and months after Sharon and many other parents had experienced feelings of loneliness or isolation they would be told of local groups or activities to support parents, often these recommendations came all too late. Due to the lack of information and support often given to new parents, Sharon decided to launch ‘The Baby Book’.
The Baby Book was designed to be easily read, small in size and not too overwhelming. The Baby Book is split into sections featuring local information (such as baby clinics, mother and toddler groups etc) and advertisements for relevant businesses which readers may be interested in.
The Baby Book has become a popular source of information for parents and is now available three times per year, you can now access information and extracts from the baby book at www.thebabybook.co.uk, they also have a monthly newsletter and are featured upon facebook and twitter.
March’s Top Tester, Phillipa Ashfield reviews Peppa Pig’s Super Noisy Sound Book.
Phillipa Ashfield, 38 from the West Midlands is Mum to five children: Eleanor (3 months), Chloe (21 months), Ben (11 years), Shannon (16 years) and Sasha (20 years).
Phillipa purchased the Peppa’s Super Noisy Sound Book from Asda at Christmas time for only £5.00.
This book is colourful, eye catching and has buttons on each page which match the images so that the child can select what they see! The buttons are easy to press and allow the child to play a matching game between images and sounds, over time building sound recognition skills.
The Peppa’s Super Noisy Sound Book is based upon episodes from the number one pre-school children’s TV show. The book has eighteen sounds in total to choose from and is the ideal gift for any Peppa Pig fan. Chloe( 21 months) is particularly fond of this book. However, Phillipa suggests that is could be improved by having volume control!
Peppa Pig’s Super Noisy Sound Book is currently available for only £8.19 from www.amazon.co.uk or alternatively you can source this book for even less using the amazon marketplace (currently retailing this book at £6.48).
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