Some of you may have seen my tweets recently, or have volunteered to guest-write for us, so will already be aware that this morning we launched our new-look blog. As our posts are going to increase in frequency, and we want to make the blog more interactive, it was decided at DCB HQ that something more functional than what we currently have was required. Our new style blog, which can be accessed by clicking the WeeMee on the right hand side of the site, will pop up in a new window, but don’t worry, it’s still us! You will be able to see our upcoming events, view archived posts, leave comments and check out our mentions in the press and other blogs.

To mark the launch of the blog, we’re welcoming our very first guest writer, Claire Willis from SnugBaby and Get Your Hands Back. Come back from 9am on Thursday morning to read her post about the benefits of babywearing! Also this week, we have our fab competition running on Cafe Bebe. With not one, not two, but THREE ways of winning a gorgeous DaisychainBaby giftbox, you really do have to be in it to win it!! If you’d like to come and say hello and in and around the London area, our fab stall is going to be at the Angel Canal Festival in Islington on Sunday 6th September from 11am to 5pm - we’d love to see you! You can also become a fan of DaisychainBaby on Facebook and keep in touch that way.

So having called time on “Latest News” in it’s current guise, it’s time to sit back with a nice glass of wine - for the next half an hour or so anyway!

We are so excited to announce our FIRST ever competition in conjunction with the wonderful Cafe Bebe, running from today until Saturday 5th September. Up for grabs is a fantastic DaisychainBaby giftbox - winners to be announced on Sunday 6th September!

Cafe Bebe is a resource for Mums everywhere, providing product reviews, highlighting must-have items, and showcasing personal trials, tribulations and triumphs in the Cafe Bebe blog. The site runs great competitions and features amazing “Mumpreneurs” who are running their own businesses and making a difference. We came to know of their great competitions via our (wisely spent!) time on Twitter, and Karin who runs Cafe Bebe has been so helpful in coming up with ideas for the competition as well as helping to spread the word.

The winner will receive a Green Eyed Monster Baby Vest, a Milk and Cereal Bib, Pure Potions Lavender Nappy Salve and Pure Potions Arnica Rescue Salve. All will be beautifully wrapped in a lovely gifbox and comes complete with one of our fab organic cotton Bags For Life. To find out how to enter, check out the competition over at Cafe Bebe. GOOD LUCK!

It’s the last public holiday before Christmas and the schools are soon re-opening - it would be easy to feel despondent that summer is over! Yet this week for DaisychainBaby is going to be one of our busiest and action-packed yet.

The fun all starts tomorrow as we take our stall to the Harrow in Leaf horticultural show, which runs on Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. Located at Harrow Heritage Museum, there will be lots of stalls (including our friends Mad Moo Toys), as well as bouncy castles, fairground rides and archery. The event runs from noon until 6pm both days, and there is free parking adjacent to the museum.

Also happening on Bank Holiday Monday is the launch of our very FIRST competition in conjunction with the wonderful Cafe Bebe. I met Cafe Bebe founder Karin through Twitter and when she mentioned that she was looking for competitions for her new look site, I jumped at the chance. Up for grabs is a gorgeous DaisychainBaby gift box featuring a babygrow, bib and lovely organic baby skincare. Our competition will run for one week until September 5th with the winner being announced on September 6th. Look out for another blog entry on Monday with full details!!

Most exciting of all (that we can mention right now anyway!) is the launch of our new-look blog. This will be in place on September 1st and replace our “Latest News”, looking and feeling more like the blog styles we’re used to seeing. It will allow readers to leave comments, see archived articles and link to sites we like. We’re also thrilled to have a wonderful line-up of guest-writers in place (including Karin from Cafe Bebe) who will be writing about everything from life as a new mummy to why they go green. We’re sure you’ll find these new articles informative and chatty!

There are a couple more surprises in store for this week and there will be almost daily updates to our latest news - be sure to check back and be part of DaisychainBaby’s exciting week ahead!

Since launching DaisychainBaby last year, I’ve always been on the lookout for cost effective yet non-intrusive ways to promote the business. That might sound almost like an oxymoron, because the very nature of self-promotion normally means an awful lot of trumpet blowing but I always like to ensure I can offer something back whether that be by way of advice, support, or a link exchange. I’ve found social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to be invaluable and have made some really wonderful contacts.

One such contact appears on Twitter under the name @MumsLikeYou, and on seeing a message posted on Twitter a couple of weeks ago asking if anyone would like to promote their business on http://www.mumslikeyou.com, it seemed like a great opportunity. I’ve had somewhat mixed experience so far of networking sites for parents, finding some quite cliquey and some comments on really rather unpleasant, so it’s been a breath of fresh air to find a site that although still in it’s infancy, has some very helpful and friendly people signed up.

Founder Iveta Tancheva is a mum-of-one who on being made redundant at the start of this year, took the opportunity to do something she’d been thinking about for quite some time and launch an interactive social network for mums. The site has only been live for 2 months but in that time has grown to a small community of mums, mumpreneurs and companies (like DaisychainBaby!) that interact in ways unavailable on other sites.

I asked Iveta how she felt Mums Like You is different from other sites: “As you have probably seen Mums Like You is based on interactivity. This is at the core if the website - its purpose is to enable mums to share their knowledge and advice and help make each other’s lives easier. We are not relying on expert advice as some other sites do. We believe mums know best when it comes to practical parenting tips. The site has a forum but there are many other ways mums can exchange useful info - posting local events in the Activities area, rating products in the Reviews or placing a small ad on the Marketplace. And the best part of it - it is all free”.

Another benefit from a member point of view, is the decision Iveta has taken to provide two classes of registration, one for businesses (which we have registered under) and one for mums. Mums can still see all the details of those companies which add their information to the site, but it prevents the forums being blitzed by people who are simply interested in advertising and nothing else. We recommend Mums Like You as a great social network for mums and businesses alike and look forward to seeing it flourish over the coming months.

Raw Gaia are one of our wonderful brands, who have produced the world’s first full range of living, organic and vegan skin care products. I’m a particular devotee of their Raw Chocolate Face Pack and love their wonderful range of baby skincare goodies which are all stocked at DaisychainBaby. Here is their guide to the benefits of baby massage and how to perform it correctly.

Being a new mum or dad can sometimes seem an endless cycle of feeding and changing nappies. Massaging your baby gives you a time when you can relax and be together, and also has lots of wonderful benefits. Did you know for example, that baby massage can help your baby if it is suffering from colic, constipation or trapped wind?

• Massage is an excellent way of connecting with your baby if you are a working mum. A short massage each night before bath time can help your baby feel loved
• Massage can alleviate trapped wind, soothe colic or alleviate constipation
• Massaging the jaw can relax a baby who has just begun to take solids
• Massaging the gums through the skin may ease the pain of teething
• A face massage can unblock baby’s blocked nose
• Massage can alleviate the effects of postnatal depression and help mothers have a more positive interaction with their baby

Baby massage should never be probing, but should also not be so light as to tickle the baby. Of course you need to be most gentle with tiny babies: a standard recommendation is to place your finger on your closed eyelid and press lightly, stopping before it feels uncomfortable. Use this as a gauge for how much strength to use on a new baby. For older babies, be quite firm as babies prefer confident handling. Think about what you would enjoy and then watch your baby for reactions.

On the trunk, always massage from your left to right (that’s from your baby’s right to left). This follows the direction of flow in the digestive system, so that you are working with the baby’s organs, not against them. Use your “main” hand - that is your writing hand - for the major part of the strokes.

Rub a little bit of Raw Gaia’s Baby Massage Oil on your hands and you’re ready to start!

Open Book (used on chest, back and forehead)
Place your hands together palm to palm, in a “praying” gesture, with your fingertips pointing towards the baby’s head, your thumbs uppermost. Now imagine that your hands are a closed book, and your thumbs are the spine. Place your little fingers - they are the edges of the pages - against the baby’s skin, and “open” the book by spreading your hands, until your thumbs - still touching each other - reach the baby’s flesh. Separate your hands and continue to move them outward across your baby in one smooth motion.

Squeezing Down (used on arms and legs)
Starting at the top of the limb and squeezing gently, move your hand down to the wrist or ankle. Imagine that you are gently squeezing out any tension in the arm. As one hand reaches the wrist or ankle, start at the top with the other hand so that there is a continuous stroking effect.

Rolling (used on arms and legs)
This is a classic massage stroke - you have probably seen it even if you’ve never done it. Place your non-writing hand under the limb and your main hand above. Roll the limb between the hands - you’ll probably find you do this by moving your main hand rapidly and your other hand hardly moves at all. Then move gradually down the limb.

Chest and Stomach

• Open book on the baby’s chest, spreading out around the baby’s ribcage and under the arms
• Repeat the above action on the collar bone and shoulders
• Stroking neck - place your hand diagonally on the centre of your baby’s chest, so that your fingertips point to one shoulder. Push your hand up and over the shoulder so that your fingers go under the chin and into the crease against your baby’s neck. Do the same with the other hand on the opposite shoulder
• Arched window - place two fingers of your main hand at the very top of your baby’s right thigh and run them up, under the curve of the ribcage, and down to the same point on the left side. You should have drawn the shape of an arched window, or an upside down ‘U’
• Scooping in the sand - now place the side of your curved hand in the arch under the ribcage, and bring it down towards the groin, as if you were scooping a hole in the sand. Do this 5 times with each hand and then again with your main hand, holding the baby’s legs up with the other

Arms and Hands

• Squeeze down the arm gently, making sure you get into all the creases, especially behind the elbow
• Roll the arm
• Stroke the back of the hand, starting at the wrist and going down over the top of each finger in turn
• Do the same on the palm of the hand. As you reach the tip of each finger, give it a little roll between your fingers.

Legs and Feet

• Start with the left leg - squeeze down the leg, making sure you get into all the creases, especially behind the knee, then roll the leg
• Squeeze and twist the leg, in the style of a ‘Chinese burn’ - but gently and with plenty of oil! Work your way down the leg
• Stroke the top of the foot, going down over the top of each toe in turn
• Do the same on the base of the foot, starting at the heel. As you reach each toe, give it a little roll between your fingers - this can be quite difficult if your fingers are slippery. If your baby has their toes curled over, try putting your thumb at the base of the toes and pushing gently and repeatedly, until they relax

The Back

Turn your baby until they lie on their front. Some babies love this, while some hate it - it may depend on their age and upper body strength. If your baby won’t happily lie on their front, try holding them to your chest with their head lying on, or over, your shoulder, or, if they are old enough, sitting up, perhaps in the crook of your leg to hold them steady.

• Use the open book technique, down below their arms onto their ribs, and up over their shoulders
• Lay both palms perpendicular to the baby’s spine and move your hands back and forth, working your way gradually down to the small of the back
• Use the tips of two fingers to draw small circles all over the back, working roughly from top to bottom. Try to draw the circles by shifting the skin, rather than moving your fingers over the skin

Face and Head

This is perhaps the section that most babies like least. If your baby doesn’t want it, simply miss it out. If your baby likes it, try doing it earlier on into the massage, when the baby is still lying on its back. Most of the following strokes use the tips of the first two fingers of each hand, working symmetrically on both sides of the face at the same time

• Use the open book technique on the forehead, but using just the upper half of your fingers
• Use your thumbs to stretch the forehead gently, pulling outwards from the centre
• Draw the tips of your forefingers down the jawbone from the front of the ear until your fingers meet on the chin
• Draw small circles on the skin above the hinge of the jaw in front of the ears
• Stroke from the bridge of the nose, down the sides of the nose and across the cheekbones
• Stroke from the bridge of the nose along the eyebrows

Thanks so much to Raw Gaia for their guide to baby massage - we’re currently having a summer sale on our skincare range and Raw Gaia products (including massage oil) are a massive 50% off. Grab a bargain and get some quality time with baby!

If there ever comes a time when you look around and wish you were anywhere but here, yet family/finances/mortgage/jobs/relationships/every excuse under the sun mean that you’ve long since given up living the dream, then STOP what you’re doing. And think again. It’s never to late to climb Mount Everest, set up a donkey sanctuary or, in the case of Melissa Talago, compete in the first leg of the Clipper Round the World Race by sailing from the UK to Brazil.

I recently saw Melissa’s tweets (little messages posted on Twitter by @melissatalago) looking for items that she could use in an online auction to help raise funds for her expedition. Intrigued by the 140 characters, I decided to check out her website http://www.moretolifethanlaundry.com and was thrilled by what I read. As well as being a mum of two young boys, Melissa has her own business and of course has to find time for all those things that I’m sure most of us hate: domestic chores. Yet despite what she describes as “insurmountable obstacles”, Melissa has been determined to do something for herself and on seeing an ad in the Sunday Times back in January, applied to be a crew member.

An undertaking of this nature requires a huge amount of dedication and a fair amount of funding. One of the ways Melissa hopes to raise finance is by an online auction which finishes this Sunday, July 26th at 10pm. There is a fantastic range of items which can be bid on, including our gorgeous hooded cardigans from Green Eyed Monster. The cardigans are made in Peru by artisans using a fairly-traded luxury alpaca blend, on handlooms to create a beautifully soft garment that doesn’t irritate baby skin. Suitable for little ones between 1 and 2 years old, the cardigans come in either blue or lilac and you can bid on one at the online auction and hopefully be a happy winner!

I have complete admiration for Melissa and know that she’s going to have an amazing adventure. We’re nearly all guilty of putting everything else first and ourselves last, so I hope that by reading about her plans, more of you are motivated to follow your dreams and do something life-changing!

Earlier this year, Mr DCB and I booked a day off work and headed off to kids trade show Bubble London at its new home in Islington. We’ve hit a few shows this year but hadn’t attended Bubble before and had to do a little homework before visiting to ensure we covered all the organic ranges. One of the companies which jumped out at us was Fozia, a brand new collection from mum of two Fozia Hill - I loved the bright colours and fun polka dot patterns, and Fozia’s ethical approach to manufacturing as well as her use of 100% organic cotton was exactly what we were looking for.

Covering the ages from birth to one, every Fozia product is designed to last beyond the season in which it is sold, to remain as a staple in a baby’s wardrobe and be passed down to new brothers and sisters. The clothing has a wonderfully luxurious feel to it, benefitting from the use of 100% organic cotton which is not only more hard-wearing than standard cotton but also incredibly soft next to baby skin.

The range starts from 10.00 for a short-sleeved t-shirt up to 20.00 for a gorgeous dress with cute front pockets. We’re currently stocking babygrows, dresses, t-shirts and leggings, and will be adding some other pieces throughout the year - to see the items we have in stock, click here!

As always, if there’s something you would like DaisychainBaby to stock, please drop us a line - we always love new suggestions!

With most of our spare time being taken up with markets, fairs and fetes for DaisychainBaby, it was really lovely to take a break from it all this weekend and pack up the car for a journey to Barmouth in North Wales for my Godson’s Christening. Mr DCB can verify that I did actually cry when my friend Karen asked me to be Godmother to her second son (a little bit overwhelmed by it all!) and as the weekend approached I felt very excited mixed with a little bit of apprehension in case I upset him!

We last found ourselves in Wales for Karen’s wedding back in January 2007, a bit of a nightmare journey which took 9 hours (twice what it should have been!) so I planned for all eventualities but we couldn’t believe our luck when having left West London at 11am, we arrived in Barmouth just before 4pm. It’s already a stunning part of the world but with the sun shining it really did look picture perfect - an idyllic place to raise a family. After a quick cup of tea and catch up with Karen’s parents, we strolled along the beach front to Karen & Sean’s home and were introduced to my gorgeous 4 month old Godson.

I still find it strange that one of my friends has children. Since when did raucous nights out at Uni and holidays to Ibiza become a thing of the past and domestic family life that of the present? It all seems to have happened in the blink of an eye, with Karen’s oldest son arriving in June 2007 and the littlest born in February. We’ve been through a lot together in the nearly 10 years we’ve known each other, and one thing I’ve always loved about her is her complete and utter honesty. Not for her the pretence of trying to make it seem as though raising a family is a walk in the park. She shared every detail of her older son’s birth with me at the time, which made me laugh and shriek in equal measure, and doesn’t hide the emotion and exhaustion that comes hand in hand with two children.

Needless to say, my Godson is gorgeous. He made it all the way through the Christening without a murmur, and didn’t even object to being waltzed around the congegration. I’m so proud of Karen & her husband Sean. Both their boys are adorable and happy, comfortable with strangers and all the ensuing chaos a change of routine brings. I can’t wait to get to know my Godson as he grows older, and hopefully not only guide him wisely through life but to have many years of fun ahead together.

At the end of May, we ordered some gorgeous bandana bibs from the very talented Channa Mills, having spotted them on Misi. We at DaisychainBaby knew they were gorgeous and would do brilliantly but weren’t quite prepared for the overwhelming demand, and sold every last bib at the three events we attended in June. It was lovely seeing our happy customers putting the bibs straight onto their little ones, definitely the trendiest babies in town!

Thankfully Channa is a dab hand with her sewing machine and we’ve restocked ready for a very busy July. The bibs are stylish, fun and excellent value for money - a must-have for babies who are going through teething as all the extra dribble can cause nasty rashes. See the latest additions to the range here.

As always, if there’s something you would like DaisychainBaby to stock, please drop us a line - we always love new suggestions!

We’ve had a really hectic couple of weeks at DaisychainBaby HQ and it feels like June has flown by! Three consecutive Sunday outings with all our wares have left us craving some escape time and so this weekend we’ve purposefully scheduled no events. The first thing I will do when I get home tonight is turn off that alarm clock…bliss!

Behind the scenes, we’ve been working on our summer sale, which will last until August 31st. Starting today, there are fantastic offers on Green Eyed Monster, Bamboo Baby, Raw Gaia and Pure Potions available online, in some cases up to 50% off. We hope you’ll be able to bag a bargain or two…

In July we’ll be off to our usual markets in Harrow on July 12th and Ruislip on July 26th. DCB also has a stall at the Highfield Park Fete in St Albans on July 25th and I’m sure a couple more events might find their way into the schedule too. Please keep an eye on our Events page, or become a fan of our Facebook page which we regularly update with news of DCB outings.

July will also see some lovely new goodies added to the site. Two new brands will be joining those already stocked, as well as new items from Bamboo Baby, Aden & Anais and C&C Bandana Bibs - when a box of new stock arrives it’s much better than Christmas! We’re sure the new products will be just as successful as those we already have.

Last but by no means least, a brand new blog will hopefully be unveiled very shortly. It will be much more of an all-singing, all-dancing one that what we currently have in place, allowing people to read and leave comments. Finding one that can be integrated into the site and yet still have full blog functionality has been a little challenging but fingers crossed we’re very nearly there!

Phew, that’s about all the DaisychainBaby news for now, don’t forget to check out our sale items!