Well it seems that party season is well & truly upon us judging by the amount of customers coming in for party bag fillers...not to mention what seems like hundreds of invites my children have had recently.

It got me thinking about how much parents must spend on presents for our little socialite's friends. So I've put together a list of recommendations from our fine array of toys that should help ease the pain as all suggestions are under £7!

1yr old:

• a firm favourite is the set of maracas. These come in an array of colours and are the perfect present for the first boy or girl!  £4.50 for a pair

2yr old:

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  let's get prehistoric with these great wooden dinosaurs- there's even a pink one for the girls!

 

• let them measure how big they are getting with these lovely height charts. available in pirate and princess designs. Matching accessories also available.

3yr olds:

• get their imagination going with this lovely wooden cooked breakfast set. At only £5.50, you can throw in a couple of play juice cartons as well.
• have a budding gardener on your hands? Set them up with a set of gardening tools (£5.50) or a fantastic bug box (£4.99)- just make sure someone else is on duty to empty it out!   

4 yr olds:

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  get prepared for school with these funky insulated lunch boxes (£4.49). Made from recycled bottles, this one scores marks for being kind to the environment as well as your pocket! 

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   The sock monster has been in the cupboard! Who can find in this chaos the matching pairs of socks? Quickly and simultaneously the children rummage in the heap of socks. Darn, the socks look so alike! Who will find the most matching pairs? A monstrously quick searching game for 2-6 players (£5.49)
  

  

  Tin L 8.5 in. x W 8.5 in. x H 2 in. 
  
  

a new supplier added to the mix....

If you know Ollie's Closet, you know we have a vendetta against plastic- if it's not wood or paper, it's not coming in (wellies exempted!)...but we are eating our words as we've stumbled across a great supplier who sell the most fantastic plastic bags.

Made from recycled bottles, the range includes kid's lunch bags, toy tidies and jumbo storage bags to name a few. Oliver has his eye on the insulated pirate lunch bag whilst Millie has already nabbed the Charlie and Lola storage bag- well at least it may encourage them to tidy up the mountain of toys (wooden of course!!) that have taken over their bedroom!

See the whole range here: http://www.olliescloset.co.uk/store/d28-furniture-and-storage/

what a busy old time.....

It's been an interesting few weeks since the last post- we've been to look at a potential second premises, have invested blood, sweat & tears into researching a new business and have been nominated for a business award.

Mmmmm, whilst we're on the subject of the new business, please feel free to fill out our survey (well if you're a parent with a child age 0-5!). http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XPRFPMN

Right, now all I've got left to do this week (well, before wednesday anyway) is convince somebody to write a 1500 word synopsis on why I should be named Business Woman of the Year & make a 3 minute video showcasing my life....not much to do eh!! Any volunteers??

Well, after being in business for almost 2 years, we have embraced another little piece of technology and finally writing this blog!

For those of you who don't know what Ollie's Closet is (and I'm sure there are quite a few!!) let me give you a brief history.....

When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, I did the inevitable and went mad-he had a full wardrobe before he was born..and I didn't even know what sex he was!


I soon realised that most outfits stayed in the wardrobe as he had outgrown them before he had a chance to wear them. So, the idea for Ollie's Closet came literally from my son Oliver's closet. If I've got piles of hardly used, lovely little bits from my son-then there must be lots of other mums with the same.

And so Ollie's Closet was born- we opened our doors on the 10th May 2008 and haven't looked back since! We sell pre-loved clothing from Next and M&S to Ralph Lauren and Oilily- and be assured, only the best will do. If it looks like it's been worn, it doesn't get through the door!

We moved to a bigger premises at the end of last year-there just wasn't enough room for all of our lovely bits. And now we have a full range of wooden toys- you can view them all on our website created by the talented Martin at http://www.fullphatdesign.co.uk/.

Well, that's where we are so far- Cardigan Road, Winton, Bournemouth to be exact!! Maybe we'll see you there.....