London | Little Button Diaries

On Friday we waved bye-bye to our Buttons for the night (secret high-five) and hopped on a train to London for the MAD Blog Awards. These awards honour parent bloggers in the UK and we were finalists in their best craft blog category. We had a really lovely evening and totally weren’t expecting to win anything (our competition were all established and awesome blogs) so when they called our name out as winners… Well it was all a bit of a shock. We have no idea what we said when we picked up our award but will probably cringe when we see the video.

We’d like to say a massive thank you to all of you for your support, votes, comments and general niceness! We really couldn’t have done this without you.

It was also great to meet new blogging friends at the awards and to chat to some lovely people who have been an inspiration to us in the last year: particularly Verily Victoria Vocalises, who was the first person to nominate us and showed has us constant support and encouragement since we started blogging. (Also the lovely Mummy Daddy Me Makes Three, Hurrah For Gin, Gammon and Chips, Along Came Cherry, But Why Mummy Why and Just A Normal Mummy to name a few.)

After the excitement of the awards we went to Hampton Court Palace on Saturday to attend The Handmade Fair. The fair was a collection of crafters and makers and it was great to see so much crafting talent in one magnificent setting. There were lots of bunting, tea and pom-poms to be seen and talks and demonstrations galore. We particularly liked the giant knitting skills of Wool and the Gang!

But rather than tell you about it, why not take a look? Yes, we’ve finally gotten around to doing one of our New Year’s Resolutions – we’ve made a video! (We’d love your feedback. It is our first attempt though, so please be gentle…)

~ Laura & Tia xx ~

With Christmas fast (too fast!) approaching, we are starting to think about what to get our Little Buttons. Books are a great gift for kids, but it’s not always easy to know which ones are really good. So we decided to ask some of our favourite parent bloggers to tell us their top children’s book, to give us – and you – a little inspiration.

We’ll start with our own favourite books, before passing over to our inspiring blogging friends for their recommendations, to create a compilation of our Top Ten children’s books.

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1) The Yoga Ogre by Peter Bentley & Simon Rickerty
This book was given to me as a newborn present by a yoga-loving friend. It’s colourful, funny and is written in rhyme. What’s not to love about an overweight ogre who takes up yoga?
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2) A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton
This lovely book tells the tale of a baby owl who gets lost when he falls off his branch. It’s endearing, and has beautiful pictures and easy-to-follow themes.
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Our first recommendation is from a fellow Brighton blogger, Lauren. She writes Belle Du Brighton, a lovely parenting blog with great fashion and beauty posts too.

3) Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfield
“My favourite children’s book of all time is Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. Written over 75 years ago this book is a timeless story about three sisters (who aren’t really sisters at all!) who fall in love with dancing purely by chance. I read this book countless times because I secretly wanted to go to ballet school! I can’t wait to read it to my daughter when she’s old enough.”
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Jennifer Jain is author of two lovely little blogs, Jennifers Little World and Toddler Things which focus on crafting, travel and entertaining your little ones.

4) The Paper Dolls – Julia Donaldson
“My favourite children’s book is The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson. The book follows the adventures of a girl and the string of paper dolls that she makes with her mother, as well as touching upon the poignant issues of loss and the passing of time.”
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Playing by the Book is an excellent blog about reading to kids. The author, Zoe, writes lots of reviews of children’s books and offers inspirational activities for children. Zoe couldn’t decide between two children’s book so here are her top two:

5) Waffle Hearts by Maria Parr, translated by Guy Puzey
“Full of giggles, thoughtfulness, compassion, joy, this is a dream book; fans of Pippi Longstocking will love it. Anyone who wants to experience a bit of joie-de-vivre will revel in it, and yet it doesn’t shy away from big and important issues like telling friends how much they mean to you, and the grief that comes from the death of loved ones.”

6) Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
“My favourite book for babies is probably Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. The perfect text, gently rhyming and soothing to say, with images so soft and warm you want to cuddle the book as well as your baby! It makes me cry with happiness every time I read it.”
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Life and Times of Mummy Morkus is a London-based parenting blog written by Rhiannon.

7) Iris and Isaac by Catherine Rayner
“A wonderfully illustrated story of two friends who fall out and walk in opposite directions until they realise something is missing. This touching story is perfect for wintery nights and is about how the best things in life are even better for being shared with those we love. The illustrations could easily be works of art for your wall.”
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My Poppet is an excellent and inspiring craft blog run by Cintia.

8) The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
“I was alway fascinated by the holes in the pages and the wonderfully colourful illustrations. It’s a great way to introduce counting to children and talk about healthy food, as well as the life-cycle of butterflies.”
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Creature comforts is another excellent source of craft inspiration. Author Ez asked her daughter what her favourite book was and it happened to be the same as hers.

9) The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
“The Giving Tree is an exceptional story about love, sacrifice, and the journey of life, and is as enjoyable to read today, as it was to have it read to me by my Mom years and years ago.”
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Rebecca’s blog, Here Comes The Girls, is all about life with her three girls. She’s also an aspiring writer.

10) Dogger by Shirley Hughes
“Delightful illustrations and a sweet story which is relevant for little ones. My daughters listen to it every night at bedtime on the CD player.”

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Thanks so much to all the parent bloggers who have contributed to our list. It’s been such a nice way to link up with you and discover new books for our Little Buttons. What’s your favourite children’s book? We’d love you to add yours as a comment below.

~ Laura & Tia xx ~