Category Archives: Scamp loves …

Poppy’s beloved pram

This Silver Cross Pram was mine when I was a little girl. I was quite a  girly girl, loving dolls and playing with my little sister four years my junior which somehow seemed to make it more acceptable to continue on the playing with dolls till I was probably too old for them! The pram was kept in mum and dad’s attic for 25 years waiting for grandchildren to pass it on to. Unfortunately, it rusted in the attic but was  lovingly restored by Gran and Grampa last year for Poppy’s third birthday. She too absolutley loves her dolls and playing ‘the baby game’  so getting this almost real life pram was like winning the lottery for her. We often take Baby Dawn for a walk round the block or to the park and she receives so many comments and admiring glances from people young and old. We don’t tend to encourage Mia being pushed around in the pram but she does look quite cute!!

Blue Daisy

When my children were a little bit younger my favourite shop for buying essentials (and a few ‘just because I like them’) kind of things was Blue Daisy.  My more local shop is in South End Green, Hampstead so perfect to have such a well thought out shop to drop into as you also manage to fit a bit of exercise in some wanders around the heath.  A more recently opened shop is in West Hampstead.

My main reason for loving the shop is that I always felt it stocked a brilliantly edited selection of what you need for wee ones and I trusted if there was a particular item in the shop I didn’t need to go elsewhere to search for other alternatives.   As someone who gets a bit overwhelmed by too much choice this is my perfect way of shopping … go visit if you can!

Oh the glamour

I headed off this morning for an exciting couple of hours as I set up a Scamp stall inside My Sugarland (a beautiful vintage clothes shop near Angel tube in London).

Scamp items galore in My Sugarland

Scamp items galore in My Sugarland

They host a monthly My Sugarmummy morning on a Monday where mums and babes can come and peruse the rails of clothing, have guest visitors (me on this occasion!) and Hotsquash (a clothing company who make women’s clothings to keep you warm in winter and cool in the summer – using the latest in fabric technology … clever eh?!) and have a few pampering moments with beauty therapists.  Nice to have some glamour on a Monday morning … and I needed it – my two year old is one week into potty training and having more misses than hits so daytimes feel anything but glamorous just now!

the great news for Scamp having been at this event is that My Sugarland will be stocking some of our limited edition blankets, cards, tote bags and bibs … yeah!

Sugarmummy morning

Beautiful Fabrics

Nelly the elephant blue/green colourwayWell as you can probably tell my sister and I have a ‘thing’ about fabrics. In my case, the brighter the better. I love rainbow colours and bold patterns but also little florals and polka dots. Polka dots go with everything as long as you can tone in the shade of fabric so I have found these to work really well in a lot of our products.

I have struggled to find good fabric shops in and around Leeds. Don’t get me wrong there are some around but not always with what we are looking for. Samuel Taylors is a great source of simple ginghams, plain cottons, felt and haberdashery galore but has not hit the mark with the slightly more unusal fabrics which we tend to go after here at the Scamp headquarters. One of my very favourite online fabric shops is www.fabricrehab.co.uk which sells pretty much everything we are looking for. Not only do they sell fabric by the fat quarter and multiples of,  they make up gorgeous fabric bundles which make it easy for everyone, from beginners to professionals, to get a really lovely project off the ground. Go on, I dare you!! It can sometimes be difficult to get the colour tones right when mixing and matching fabrics that you are buying online so these little bundles are great to ensure you get it spot on.

Our Nelly the Elephant mobile was made with such a bundle and it is one of my favourite products on the website. My little daughter Mia, who is now 21 months has one above her cot in her room. She adores it and can now say Nelly. Being from Scotland, we regularly travel up and down the A1 but Mia always knows she is back in her own bed when she sees her Nelly dangling above it.

Well, I think that is enough blethering (‘bleth-er’ – 1. idle chat. 2 yackety-yak. 3. prattle) for tonight. Get yourself some beautiful fabrics and create something brilliant.