Makes A Change

'Vintage' Frugi and new spring summer organic collection

2012-02-27T14:07:00.002-08:00

Fans of the organic baby clothing brand Frugi may recognise these trousers as modelled by daughter. It is testament to their quality that they are nearly 7 years old, have been worn by three children (my two boys and a friend's son) and now are being worn by my daughter! The little bee top is also Frugi from a past season and will be worn by a friend's children once my daughter grows out of it.

At Makes A Change we are very excited to be waiting for our latest delivery of gorgeous and fabulous quality Frugi organic baby clothes which we know will be worn and then passed on to be enjoyed many times over

Cornish Daisy Organic Cotton Romper

Organic Cotton Toddler Dungarees

Organic Baby Vest

Organic Towelling Shorts

These are just some of the new collection that we are waiting for. In order to make room, we have lots of gorgeous organic baby clothes on sale so now would be an excellent time to grab a bargain!

Fairtrade Leather Baby Shoes Available in New Styles

2012-02-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

We have just updated the Makes A Change website with some lovely new styles of our shoo shoo soft soled leather leather baby shoes. Here are just some of our adorable shoes.

The shoes are made in a community owned factory in South Africa which has extremely strict ethical policies, they are made by small teams of women from local disadvantage communities. The shoes are eco friendly and made to strict safety standards and individually checked for quality and contruction.

The soft leather means that these baby shoes are so gentle and supportive on your baby's feet, allowing complete freedom and growth of the foot.
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 fairtrade shoes keep your baby's feet warmer than just socks, so great when carrying them in a sling or wrap.
Thes shoes are quite a wide fitting so are very comfortable for babies with chubbier ankles!
Fair Trade Soft Leather Baby Shoes - Ethical as well as Gorgeous! By buying these baby shoes you are really helping a community in Africa.
These shoes aren't just for babies! They are for toddlers too! 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.

Makes A Change £15 gift voucher giveaway

2011-10-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

Makes A Change is featuring on Smiling like sunshine's blog this week. Head over for a chance to win a £15 gift voucher to spend on whatever you like. While you're there, have a look around, its a lovely blog by a mum of 2 about natural family living,arts and crafts, child education, learning and growing naturally and contains lots of ideas for activities for young children.

The competition closes on 7th October, so be quick! and good luck!

Makes A Change Is Proud To Support the UK Association of Milk Banks (UKAMB)

2011-09-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

UKAMB, The UK Association of Milk Banking, is the only organisation in the UK fighting for the provision of milk banks across the country, and supporting the existing milk banks that we have.

UKAMB is a tiny charity existing on donations from the public. Without UKAMB there would be no milk banks, and without milk banks babies who would have survived and thrived, won't. Funds are desperately needed, so Makes a Change has offered to match fund donations up to a total of £1,000.

UKAMB works with NICE to develop safe guidelines for the provision of donor breast milk, and is a repository for information about the importance of breastmilk to the health of premature and sick babies. UKAMB is working to raise awareness of milk banking, to assist mothers who want to donate milk and to encourage hospitals to open milk banks. Premature babies who are given formula instead of breastmilk are 5 times more likely to contract the deadly disease necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). Together with other protective effects that breastmilk gives, premature babies who are fed breastmilk are more likely to survive and thrive. Becoming a breastmilk donor means that you are very likely to save the life of a baby whose mother is unable to provide her own milk, perhaps due to the stress of a premature birth. But without the milk banks we can't be breastmilk donors and we can't save those babies.
-So here's the challenge. Will you help to ensure the survival of milk banking in the UK? Will you help raise the desperately needed funds - and we'll double it?!

Maybe you'd consider:

- A sponsored buggy push/sling stroll
- Sponsored milk donation (eg amount per litre?)
- A cake sale
- Family fun day at your local children's centre
- A personal donation that can be gift aided?

Or something totally different? Every penny counts so let's get fundraising and lets help milk banking!
http://www.justgiving.com/makesachange-ukamb

Cleaning Up Fashion

2011-09-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Labour behind the label has just produced its annual report which scores some of the big name brands on their efforts (or lack of) to improve working conditions for workers.

http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/itemlist/category/220-clean-up-fashion

If you click on each one, the details show what the company is doing to ensure their workers receive a living wage - enough to meet their basic needs and those of their families. Its sad reading that what a lot of companies claim to be a fair wage is far less then it has been independantly assessed to be. This means that companies can claim they are paying a fair wage (because they believe they are), even when they are not. It is very hard to determine who is just paying lip service to these matters.

Most disappointing to me was that some companies were given high grades in the last report due to some promises that they made..and have now been downgraded for discarding their plans.

As the report states, the best way is to buy from respected brands that are truly ethical (and you will only see truly ethical brands stocked at Makes A Change) or to shop for second hand - or as many now prefer to call it, pre-loved clothing.

Ethical Wooden Toys Galore

2011-07-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

After a marathon effort, I've finally finished updating our wooden toy section (for now - I have some more lovely stuff in the works for October).

Here is just a small snapshot

Pocket Money/ ethical party bag toys

Puzzles

...and wooden toys and games

These toys are all ethically produced under fairtrade conditions. They are solid and made to last and could be passed on from generation to generation and provide great educational and play value - unlike a lot of the throwaway toys and games that are available today.

See our full selection of fairtrade wooden toys here

Its been a bit like Christmas here today

2011-07-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

We had a rather large delivery of wooden toys today - all bright, colourful and best of all ethically produced.
Our children were so excited (as was I!) to unpack it all and check it over.

Since I work around the children - usually the work on the website happens on an evening when my husband can take over for a while or on the rare occassions they all go to bed at a reasonable time, it is going to take me a fair few days to get it all listed. I'm so excited though, its going to bring such a splash of colour to the website.

Lets see... we have some lovely really chunky farm and jungle animals in natural wood, some skittles, lots of rainbow coloured puzzles (the cat is my favourite), castle and farm play buildings, spinning tops, skipping ropes and loads more. (you can click on the pictures to make them bigger)

Our Competition....

2011-07-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

We have a winner - and they have been notified by email. Thankyou to everyone who entered and for your kind comments and suggestions on how to make Makes A Change even better :)

Win a Makes A Change Gift Voucher Worth £9.99

2011-07-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

Competition details here

BabyWearing

2011-06-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a penchant for carrying my children around in cloth carriers, on my front when they are tiny and then on my back. I discovered slings when my eldest son was born. He was a little bundle of frustration who cried almost constantly it seemed. those early months were a far cry from what I had imagined motherhood to be like. I'd thought I'd be a real yummy mummy, sauntering around in high heels with our silver cross pram and a baby gurgling contentedy in it while people snuck a glance in to admire how lovely he was. Of course I thought he was lovely (some of the time) but a lot of the time he was a red faced, screaming little person who seemed quite cross about being on the planet.

He was born around Christmas time and our first trip out he started screaming, that heartbreaking cry that newborns do...and I've vowed that I would never let one of my babies cry on their own without cuddles so I picked him up. I couldn't figure out how to carry a floppy screaming, distressed newborn and push his pram and I was getting stressed because being Christmas time it was madly busy and we were getting in everyones way. I dived into mothercare and the shop assistant showed me how to put on one of their front pack carriers. Instantly he settle in there and was asleep. Amazing!...and what a revelation. I put the pram back in the car and carried on my shopping with a baby snuggled contentedly on my chest.

We only gave that pram one more outing before giving up on it in favour of the sling and it was then relegated to my grandmothers spare room where 2 more children later, we realised we weren't going to use it - ever..and it was passed on to someone in need.

The trouble with the sling I bought on the highstreet was that as soon as my son got to about 10lb in weight it started to hurt my shoulders, plus all those buckles were so complicated, getting him in and out again was not easy- so I turned to the internet for more comfortable, easy to use options. I was pointed toward a wrap sling made from jersey material that you could pop the baby in and out of easily, that held them close and which distributed their weight so well accross my back that I could carry my son the way he needed all day in comfort...and my sling obsession grew from there. I've carried all three children in lovely slings that are easily available over the internet but sadly don't often appear in highstreet stores.

I was thrilled when a friend returned from her travels in Africa with a traditional baby carrier - a beautiful rectangle of material called a kanga. It has an inscription on it that says something like 'a happy house is a happy family'. My friend said she saw them being worn all over on one shoulder - like this .

and here is my version of that carry - apparently they wouldn't spread it out at the shoulder like I have done, no idea why not as it distributes the weight so much better and is so much more comfy. My daughter is 21 months old and just starting to want to walk, or rather to run lots of places. It will be really handy to keep this carrier at the bottom of my bag - I can keep up with her while she explores, without having to maneuvre a puschair as well and then when her legs get tired I can pull out the carrier and she can be carried while I have my arms free to continure doing what I'm doing. She can safely watch the world from this great vantage point she has or even have a little snooze.

Reuse and Recycle

2011-06-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

Its national recycle week this week (as well as breastfeeding awareness week), busy week! We try to do our bit for the environment by using biodegradable envelopes that have extra sticky bits so that you can easily reuse them too! We also try to reuse packaging wherever possible - and any donations of used packaging are always welcome.
I've just posted out an order in a box that we've reused and the store that sent it to me had also had something delivered to them in it. So that box has been used at least 3 times!! Fantastic!! I wonder if our customer will reuse it and where it will go next and what it will hold?!

Hard Working Saturday

2011-06-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

Our car packed in 2 weeks ago, we were stranded half an hour from our destination at the Lake District. It wasn't a bad place to be stranded, which is a good job, since it took 5 hours for the RAC to find a truck that could bring both our car and caravan home with us. But I was impressed that my husband had had the foresight to join the RAC and that the RAC were willing to transport our caravan home too.

Still it meant that we were back home 10 hours after setting off on a holiday that we'd all been really excited about (though a ride home in a tow truck seemed to more than make up for the children's disappointment, the adults were rather more grumpy about it).

We didn't think the car was worth fixing, it was a definite heart ruling head decision when we bought it in the first place as we bought it based on the lovely seat layout of 3 in the front, 3 in the back, rather than on reputation. We reluctantly let it go to the scrap heap and so we've all been grounded at home for the last three weekends.
The public transport links from our town are pretty dire so its been ~~hard~~ impossible to get anywhere. My husband had a meeting in London last week and it took an extra 2 hours on the train each way - a total of 4 more hours on his already long train journey, just because he couldn't drive to the nearest mainline station. So he and the boys went off in search of a family car that we can all fit into while I stayed at home with the baby.

Inbetween playing with duplo, reading stories and trying to encourage drawing on paper, rather than the TV, bodyparts or the wall I managed to get a bit of work done. Having given up my computing work 6 years ago to stay home my eldest, I never expected my IT skills to be used again, so its nice that I get to dabble a bit with the Makes A Change Website. Its good to know that its not all been forgotten, even after 6 years, I am however pretty rusty. Hence its taken quite a few hours to figure out how to put on a shiny new facebook button but finally its there, in the right place and working!...and while I was at it, I got really carried away - and I put on a button so that people can join our mailing list more easily too.

...and the best news from today is that my husband found a car that he's happy with and we can soon enjoy days out as a family again. Not bad for a drizzly Saturday.

Natural Cradle Cap Remedy

2011-06-13T09:16:00.000-07:00

They say that our bodies absorb up to 80% of what we put on our skin. It pays to be extra careful with the products that we use our children's skin, not just because their skin is delicate, but also because their bodies will have to deal with any toxins that they absorb.

Thankfully there are lots of natural, gentle and organic products out there to help us out, but sometimes its easiest to make our own so that we know exactly what goes into them.

All three of my children have had cradle cap as babies and whilst it is harmless, it is also unsightly too. Many of the cradle cap treatments you can buy in the shops contain harsh chemicals such as SLS. I've experimented on all three with lots of natural solutions to cradle cap and finally found a recipe that works really well.
The recipe was in Valerie Ann Worwood's book 'fragrant pharmacy'. It calls for 2 tablespoons of almond oil, then 1 drop of eucalyptus lemon and 1 drop of geranium essential oils added to it. Then you spread that over the area and leave for a while - preferably overnight, then brush with a gentle brush, wash and repeat if necessary. I've found 2 treatments to be sufficient for completely clearing quite severe cradle cap.

Almond oil is an incredibly light oil that doesn't stay too oily for long (if left on overnight, I couldn't see any sign of it by morning), unlike heavier oils such as olive oil. Olive oil is the oil more traditionally recomended but it is a very heavy thick oil and I haven't found it to be half as efficient as almond. If you wanted to use another light oil that is not nut based then apricot is a good alternative.

One of my biggest failures was in trying lavender essential oil. It is not recommended as lavender is known for promoting the growth of skin cells, which is exactly oposite of what we want here. While lavender is fabulous for burns, including sunburn, it will make cradle cap worse if used on that.

Real World Learning...

2011-06-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

One of the brilliant things about running Makes A Change is how many opportunities it gives the children to help out and learn new skills and practise old ones. What motivates my son best (and probably the majority of people) to learn and to practise any skills (reading, writing, maths, spelling and so on) is when he sees a reason to it. Earlier today he asked to help out and here he is changing prices for our summer sale. It brought in so much everyday maths for him and he was excited to see the changes he was making appearing on the screen. Plus he had to do a lot of reading to figure out which bits to change. Then I needed to write some new product descriptions, so there were lots of new words for him to type. I think he'll be able to type 'fairtrade', organic', 'cotton', 'baby' and 'clothes' in his sleep now having done it so many times!

If I sit him in front of a workbook, he doesn't engage half as much for half as long or get to practise so many different skills at the same time, so its not an approach we take as a rule as it just doesn't suit him. Give him an opportunity to help out and feel that he's being useful and doing something real and he will sit for ages until he wanders off to potter at something else.

Of course I get to learn patience as it takes ten or maybe twenty times longer to do the bit of work that I was wanting to do, but I love that it gives him the chance to learn in such a low pressure way. No ticks and crosses - if its not right we just delete it and do it over and over and over and over again - and he doesn't mind this as he knows that it has to be right.

This also means that we don't follow a timetable and don't have holidays from home education like you would from school - here he is at 6pm on a Saturday doing a ton of learning in the course of just living life :)

Makes A Change is on Facebook

2011-06-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

...and when I find out how to do a proper button, I'll make one, but until then you can find us here and like us if you like us (which I hope you will!)

Gorgeous New Fairtrade Handmade Soft Toys Just Arrived

2011-06-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have been very excited to rediscover these beautifully crafted handmade fairtrade soft toys. In the earlier days Makes A Change used to stock this brand, made in Bangladesh by women who are taught to sew, knit and crochet and are then able to feed and provide for their family without having to leave their villages and families to seek work in the cities and slums. The range has been hugely expanded since we last stocked them, which is great because as well as making some lovely unique, cute and quirky things - it also means that more than 5,000 women are now in fair employment, which makes a huge change to their lives.

We have some fabulous cute and quirky little characters, such as this octopus and these birds with their cute wonky faces. The birds make lovely little balls for children and have a rattle in, they are beautifully soft and squidgy, just perfect for a baby to hold.

My absolute favourites are these brightly crocheted steiner style dolls and doll rattles.

The business is currently working on obtaining organic accreditation for all of the toys that they manufacture, though at present they are still made from eco friendly oeko-tex certified yarn. They also make a small range of organic baby goodies too - and we have these beautiful booties and matching baby rattles from their organic range.

See the range of fairtrade and organic soft toys and booties at Makes A Change

Typical Home Ed Day

2011-05-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to home educate, home education is a bit of a misnomer for us as a relatively small proportion happens in the home, we love to get out and about making use of all nearby resources. There's also no such thing as a typical day - as we love the spontaneity of doing anything that we find interesting and fun. Everybody learns best when they are interested and engaged and so we follow the children's interests....and days out like this can be a great source of inspiration and spark many new ideas. Today our 'home education' happened at a children's book centre.

Shopping for new books (and riding on the train)

Eating lunch with a friend

Creating

and making music

Retiring Our Old Blog

2011-05-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Our old blog was written by Emma, who started Makes A Change 6 years ago and built it up to what it is now. I've archived off her blog into a link on the right hand side, so if anyone has been following it and wonders where it has gone, it is still here! There are lots of great articles about fairtrade and eco issues as well as her own personal journey in planning her beautiful and ethical wedding, so it is well worth having a read :)

We Love Our Soft Soled Shoes!

2011-05-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

I snapped this lovely picture of my daughter playing out in the garden this week. She's 19 months old and still lives in her soft soled shoes. They're the next best thing to being barefoot while keeping her feet warm and protected. They allow her feet the room to grow and breathe and the flexibility to move. They are quite a wide design so accommodate chubby little ankles very well. For younger babies they are very difficult to pull off, so they ensure that socks stay on and little toes stay warm.
My daughter's shoes are a design from last season but we have plenty of new designs in stock at Makes A Change

Our lovely soft soled leather shoes are Fairtrade are manufactured in a community-run factory in South Africa which was set up to provide well-paid work for a poverty-stricken area. By buying Makes a Change's Fairtrade Soft Leather Baby Shoes you are not only buying adorable and safe (chrome-free) shoes for your baby, but you are supporting an important community development project.