When Ellie needs new clothes I try and shop small as much as I can but it isn’t always easy to do. Shopping small means you are giving someone else a paycheck but with that usually means products are sometimes more expensive BUT they are handmade, take more time than mass-produced clothing and have so much love poured in to them.
I was recently approached by Kirsty from Cookie Dough Kids via my Instagram page who wanted to send Ellie a t-shirt of our choice for an honest review. Of cause with Ellie just turning 3 and her clothes are no longer fitting I jumped at the chance! While browsing the website I found myself struggling to choose a t-shirt…there were so many wonderful designs I could have picked all of them! I decided to go for a personalised tee that shouted out Ellie from the minute I saw it. Not only were there lots of designs to decide on, I then had the task of choosing the colour of the tee and the colour of the text! I’m such an indecisive person that I messaged Kirsty and asked her to send us a surprise, I do love surprises when our happy post arrives and fully trusted Kirsty to make the decision for me. She knows her products and her customers so well that it made sense to me.
Daddy and Ellie #besties
Our t-shirt arrived in great time which considering the prints are all handmade and needed to be personalised I was really surprised! It was packaged well, wrapped in beautiful tissue paper. The t-shirt itself is great quality, slightly big on Ellie but as she’s only just sized up gives her plenty of room to grow and means she’ll get lots of wear out of it. It’s machine washable, which considering as soon as Ellie got dressed she had her chocolate from the advent calendar and got chocolate on it (ARGH!!) was a life-saver. I’ve washed it and the chocolate has come out and the print hasn’t faded or cracked either!
You can get your own custom design or one of their many designs over on their website www.cookiedoughkids.co.uk or you can check out their instagram where you could DM Kirsty and have a chat with her about what you’re looking for.
Disclosure: I was gifted the t-shirt by Cookie Dough Kids in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own.
There are certain things I look for when choosing clothes for Ellie, especially now she is getting bigger and the clothes need to last much longer and here is my top 5 things I look out for when I need to buy her new clothes:
1. Durable – Does it wash well? Do any stains remove easily? This is a huge one for me as Ellie is a messy child; she spills her tea most nights and always wants to drink the milk from her cereal bowl in a morning. I am always looking for clothes that wash well, retain their shape and dont shrink when tumble dried 🙈 Now Ellie is in 2-3 clothes I want them to last her as long as possible.
2. Appropriateness – This one for me only seems to be an issue with girls clothes. I find girls clothes (even at age 2) are far too “grown up” for their age. Crop tops, thin material, see-through, spaghetti straps, I could go on. Boys clothes are so much more appropriate for their age, I went through a time when Ellie was a baby where I would only buy boys clothes because they weren’t so stupid looking but now Ellie is older it’s silly but I want her to look like a girl, pretty in pink with a frilly tutu. Clothes I would have hated being put in and I’m sure one day she will hate me for too!
3. Quality – I have already touched on this but the quality of girls clothes in particular is usually quite shocking. The generally use a thinner material which can sometimes look see-through and therefore end up not lasting very long at all. I always look for the quality of the clothes which is why I usually opt to buying Ellie’s clothes in person rather than online.
4. Price – This isn’t a reflection on the product itself but I do find the price of clothing has a huge impact on whether I buy it or not. I am a teaching assistant and so is my husband so our income isn’t much, especially as I currently only work part time. I believe that Ellie is still young and has no concept of how much clothes can cost or that she would need to look after them so I try to spend as little as possible.
5. Usability from Ellie’s perspective – Can she remove it herself? Ellie is just beginning to remove her own clothes confidently and occasionally put them on, I am now more conscious of whether she is able to do these herself. If it has buttons I know she’s not going to be able to do these herself and I want to build her confidence while she is learning.
I was approached by Lavender SUN Co who I have worked with previously (see old review here) to review their toddler range. I was so impressed with the baby items I received that I knew I wanted to collaborate again. This time I opted to review an outfit, which I loved from the second I saw it. I found a lot of the choices for toddlers didn’t fit in to my liking (mainly because they were quite girly and I am not) but the outfit I chose suited us perfectly.
Click to visit shop!
This fairytale 2 piece outfit is absolutely gorgeous!! The skirt is such a great quality and as it is elasticated I know it will fit Ellie for quite some time. I ordered this outfit in age 3-4 and there is plenty of growing room in the grey skirt yet it fits nicely now too (just a tad long as Ellie is quite short for her age).
#OOTD
The top is fairly thin but as I wanted this for the summer I know it won’t be too warm for her. It fits well and the pattern is so cute. Ellie loves finding the butterflies and counting the flowers she can see. I must admit, the top already fits fairly well and I am unsure of how long she will fit in it but again it is true to size and Ellie is just a short, dumpy girl like her Mama is so tops are already getting slightly small in age 2-3years.
I love that she is able to put the skirt on and remove it herself effortlessly and that the top has no buttons and as her confidence in dressing herself grows she will be able to put it on herself in no time at all. There are no buttons or fastenings to deal with which is great!
In regards to it being durable, the first time Ellie wore her new outfit we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at my grandparents house and she managed to get spaghetti bolognese sauce, chocolate and grass stains on the WHITE top and I was sure there would be stains. I removed the top as soon as I could and used some Oxy Action stain remover spray from Tesco and a quick 15 minute wash on its own and it has come amazingly clean, no stains or slight discolouring, it still looks brand new.
I couldn’t fault the customer service of Lavender Sun Co and the website was so easy to use, changing from. British Pounds to US Dollars was quick and meant I didnt need to figure out the difference in price myself.
If you want to have a look at the fantastic outfits available then head on over to Lavender Sun Co or to their instagram page.
Disclosure: I was gifted The Golden Key in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own. #gifted #AD
With just a few days before Ellie is 17 months old it appears that she has had a huge growth spurt. Clothing is starting to get tight and hard to put on, t-shirts and tops in particular but due to her being short like her mama her leggings all still fit.
That being said we’ve managed to keep all her bottoms for a bit longer however the 12-18 month tops have had to go in the charity sorting pile, this makes me feel so sad as I feel she barely wore most of her clothes. She just wasn’t in them for long enough!
However, its not all gloomy as it means I have been able to have a bit of a shopping spree and get her she new 18-24 month clothes. I’ve had so much fun going through the supermarkets mainly and Primark of cause. I absolutely hate clothes shopping but get so excited at the thought of shopping for Ellie that I actually enjoy. I have tried to be extra good and shop small too. The businesses on IG especially and have found some amazing websites for when I’m not as poor as right now.
I felt so lucky to have been approached by LavenderSun to collaborate with them and while looking on their site found I was spoilt for choice. It is obvious that from the day Ellie was born I’ve loved having geeky clothes to put her in; Batman/Batgirl, Spongebob, TMNT, Wonder Woman, Star Wars etc and Lavender Sun have a great range of clothing Including some geeky bits like this onesie I have ordered. (Click photo to view item in shop!)
How adorable is this Gameboy onesie which is actually made up to 24 months!
I also found myself looking at the more girly items, I realise that I should probably have ordered some summery clothes however this is England and I am pretty sure its going to rain more than have sunshine this summer and always think onesies are a great way of keeping Ellie warm. This Avocado onesie literally jumped at me, I love the design and the subtle girlieness, it is perfect for us as I’m not a huge fan of the really girly clothes you can find.
The last thing I ordered spoke out to the Disney lover in me, more specifically the Jack Skeleton lover in me. For as long as I can remember I have loved Nightmare Before Christmas, the music, the characters, the whole film in fact so when I spotted their Nightmare Before Nap Time 2 piece set my heart screamed to buy it.
Its no surprise to anyone who knows us or follows !e on here or IG that Ellie is an awful sleeper, she doesn’t sleep for long on her own and rarely self settles. From around 14 months she dropped a second nap so is pretty cranky most of the evening too…a true nightmare before nap time and I can’t wait to get these on her and snap a pic of the grumpy face I have grown to laugh at 😂.
I will definitely keep you updated when they arrive and I’m so excited to see the quality and how they look too.
If anyone has any other sites or instashops they’d like to give a shout out too please let me know!
Mothering A Rainbow 