We have winners

Thank you so much to everyone that entered our competition, it has been a lot of fun. We didn't quite make it to that extra 50 likes, but we were close and everyone was so kind in sharing our little giveaway that we decided to draw a runner up prize anyway.


My daughter drew the winning entries.



We will be contacting you both via email

The winner chose some lion shoes, which we will get in the post ASAP

Our runner up will be receiving a £10 Gift voucher to spend on anything that she likes.





Soft Shoes Giveaway

This weekend we would like to giveaway a pair of our fabulous soft soled baby shoes of your choice.  Just some of our great selection are below and our full range is on the Makes A Change website.  

A little more about our shoes

• These shoes are made in community-run factories in South Africa to strict ethical standards
• The soles are completely flexible, allowing your child's foot the full range of movement - the next best thing to bare feet!
• Chrome-free and completely safe to suck - if your baby is so inclined!
• Suede soles help little toddlers avoid slipping.
• These baby shoes will actually stay on your baby's feet! They keep socks on, too - so they're brilliant for wearing in the pushchair, or around the house when babies try to pull off their socks.
• These little fair trade shoes keep your baby's feet warmer than just socks, so great when carrying them in a sling or wrap.
• These shoes are quite a wide fitting so are very comfortable for babies with chubbier ankles!


• These shoes aren't just for babies! They are for toddlers too and go up to 24 months size. All of my children have worn these in dry weather until we could no longer get them in their size! They allow their feet plenty of room to grow and breathe and feel light and comfortable of their feet.

To be in with a chance of winning 

 There are two ways to enter, either comment below to let us know which shoes you would like and which size or email us at yvonne@makesachange.co.uk 

We will announce the winner on the blog on Monday 14th May and will post a link from our facebook page to here once the winner has been announced too

*We regret that although we'd really love to be able to open this competition up to people living in America and Canada, our insurance does not permit us too. 

We'd love it if you would like and share our facebook page and will offer a runners up prize if we get another 50 likers.

Nappy changing for colicky babies

Two out of my 3 babies were colicky.  One of the things that helped them a lot was a few trips to a cranial osteopath.  I wish I'd known about this additional tip for nappy changes.  In the video clip below, a chiropractor explains why how you handle your baby is important for their delicate digestive system and shows a way of changing a nappy that protects your baby.

This short video clip is well worth a watch

Introducing.........

..........our organic baby gift sets. 

To make finding the perfect gift for a new baby, christening or special day easy, we are putting together a gift selection from our range of organic baby clothes, blankets, comforters and fairtrade toys.

Gifts are carefully wrapped in eco friendly packaging and tissue paper, with a handmade paper gift tag for your message and we can send it direct to the lucky recipient. 

We already have a selection on the Makes A Change website, with more to be added over the coming days and weeks.

As ever, we still offer our giftwrapping service and will gift wrap anything that you like from our store. 

Real Nappy Week Offers

We've used cloth nappies with all of our babies, though now that my daughter is 2 1/2 that chapter of our life is coming to an end.  I used to love it on that first day towards the end of Winter, when it was bright and warm enough to hang the nappies out on the line for the first time.  It was a signal to me that Spring was well on its way and I'm sure I hope that I'm not the only cloth nappy fan that has celebrated this event with a photo!

Anyone who is not familiar with cloth nappies may be imagining the terry squares which were the only option, long before even disposibles were available.  Things have moved on a lot since then, with nappies being shaped like.....well.....nappies and coming in much funkier patterns, colours and fabrics and fastening with velcro, poppers or nippas rather than nappy pins.  They are easy to use too..no need for soaking in special solutions and can be washed in the washing machine. 

We started using them with my eldest, because of my concern about the many many nappies going in to landfill and also my worries about the gel, plastic and chemicals that would be close to my new baby's delicate skin.  Our first set lasted through all three children (although I have to admit to adding one or two more to it when a fancy pattern caught my eye) and so we've saved many pounds on buying disposible nappies and hopefully done our little bit to reduce some of the environmental impact that comes with family living.

To celebrate Real Nappy Week we have put together a page of our fabulous Frugi range of organic toddler and children's clothing that has been cut to accommodate cloth  nappies (that can be a little bulkier than disposibles).  We have babygrows and vests which are made slightly longer in the body so that they popper properly over a real nappy (no need for vest extenders or to size up - just buy the size that you need!)  and trousers and dungarees which will comfortably accommodate a cloth nappy.  All clothing on our cut for cloth page is discounted until the end of Real Nappy Week (22nd April).

Additionally, we have some lovely 'Cloth Nappied Baby on Board' car window stickers to give away with any orders that are placed.  Simply find them on our Real Nappy Clothing Sale page and add up to 3 to your basket. 

Finally if you want to find our more about cloth nappies, there is some fantastic information at http://www.goreal.org.uk/why about the how, what and why of cloth nappies

An Easter hunt with a difference

We are doing an Easter hunt with a difference with our usual home ed group.  We have so many children with different dietry needs that a chocolate egg hunt would have excluded too many children, so a wise friend came up with the idea of doing some spring themed crafty things for the children to find.  The idea is that we each bring something home made and the older children can hide it in the woods for the little ones to find.

Here are our offerings - we had quite a little factory going and made 18 in total

Painted Pebble Bees

Painted Pebble Ladybirds

We collected some stones from a wonderful and tiny beach that has tons of large flat stones.  We also found many other treasures while collecting our stones, including a crab shell, a large piece of rock with lots of glittery crystals in it and also what we think is a fossilised plant. 

We then painted each stone with a base of white acrylic paint, followed by two coats of black for the ladybirds and 2 coats of yellow for the bees.  Next we used a piece of chalk to draw on the outline for the red wings for the ladybirds and all of the other details.  We then filled these in with paint - the wings also required two coats to make the red bright enough.  Finally, we added the other details.  Unfortuately my bees antennae look more like eyebrows but all in all I'm happy with  result and I think the children will enjoy them.  We plan to make some bigger ones to live in our garden. 

Makes A Change Makes it to Pinterest

I find Pinterest very useful for pinning ideas for activities that I can do with the children.  We recently made a lovely little easter themed herb garden from an idea that I'd found on Pinterest.  That lovely blue egg at the front came from a friend's flock of chickens (as were the lovely white ones too).  We get most of our eggs from her and its lovely knowing that her eggs are definitely organic and hens are indeed incredibly happy.  My children find the blue eggs particularly exciting and there is always a fight for a blue one!     

On browsing Pinterest for some more Easter activities for the children, I was very excited to come across one of the products that we stock and on looking, the link was indeed to Makes A Change!

I discovered that I can see everything that people have linked to on one page here  (bookmarked here as I know I'll never be able to figure out how to find it again!)..very exciting!  Its so lovely to see that people like and appreciate what we do.