Small businesses and self employed benefit most from social media

I have found an interesting report from April this year about small businesses benefiting the most from social media.

Small business owners are seeing the greatest results from social media marketing. Social media has allowed these businesses to stand out in the market place and get more exposure.
I wanted to share it with you all as it has some really good statistics and figures to look at.

Go and have a read, tell me what you think

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/small-businesses-benefit-most-from-social-media-study-reveals/

Buy from Mumpreuners / Independent suppliers this Christmas

There are lots of fabulous women and mums I have met over the last few months on twitter, facebook, and mumsclub etc who have set up their own businesses. They sell or make excellent products and are definitely worth checking out for Christmas presents and Christmas ideas this year.

You can support the independent online retailers and buy a totally unique product for friends and family this Christmas.

I thought it would be nice to recommend all the lovely people I have come across over the last few months…go check them out!!!

Babipur – Ethical and environmentally friendly Christmas shopping for children and babies. Everything you need from clothes, cloth nappies and toys. (Have ordered from Babipur, great service :) )
http://www.babipur.co.uk/shop/index.html

SilverBirch Bags - Creating Hand-Crafted Bags and Personalised Gifts Just For You!!!
http://www.silverbirchcrafts.co.uk/

Little Lilypad Co - The Little Lilypad Co is home of beautiful and unusual gifts for all the family, without the designer price tags and plastic packaging.
http://www.littlelilypad.co.uk/

Shellybobbins – homemade crafts http://www.shellybobbins.blogspot.com/

Chloes Mummy - Personalised board books for babies and toddlers, perfect Christmas present!
http://www.chloesmummy.co.uk/

Socklings – gorgeous and carefully handcrafted sock toys, created in the U.K. by Michelle, who sews each of us by hand from a new pair of socks. Each Sockling is a one of a kind unique design. (Have ordered from Socklings, lovely work :) )
http://www.socklings.com/

Piddleypix – wonderful Friends in Frames and a whole lot more!
Family run business that gets much of our inspiration from their son, daughter and nephews!
Each and every one of Piddley Pix's pictures is hand drawn and then digitally painted, using a Wacom graphics tablet and pen. Most of our prints are Limited Edition and will only be printed a specified number of times before being removed from sale, never to be reproduced again.
http://www.piddleypix.co.uk/

Kiddiebase - This Christmas when you’re shopping for babies and children definitely visit http://www.kiddiebase.co.uk/. There are gifts, toys, clothes and much more for every age group from baby to 12 and even some ideas for Mums, Dads and grandparents in the handy KiddieBase gift guides! KiddieBase only select quality innovative retailers, most of them run by parents, to sell on their site – just add your choices from the different shops to one shopping basket and then pay securely via Paypal when you’re done.

Hippotree - Producing high quality, unique gifts for babies, children, around the home and any special occasion you can think of, we enjoy making personalised products. (Have ordered from Hippotree - plaque was beautiful :) )
http://hippotree.co.uk/default.aspx

Poppy sparkles - handcrafted jewellery, including my innovative range of jewellery featuring charms that can be removed, as well as gorgeous knitwear handknit from luxurious yarns.
http://www.poppysparkles.folksy.com/

ToyJeanius - Toyjeanius is the top toy shop for smart kids of ALL ages - from babies to toddlers, pre-school to teens! We have great fun with the toys we sell and hope that you will too! They sell lovely wooden toys. (Have ordered from Toyeanius, wonderful products, my girls love them :) )
http://www.toyjeanius.co.uk/

Minor Edition – Beautiful dresses for little girls (2-6yrs). A passion for colour, imagination and creativity. Dresses are designed by Ipshita and totally unique and affordable – a dress for any occasion! http://www.minoredition.co.uk/

Red Ted Art – Maggy Woodly has an inspiring website of all things crafts to do with your children, ideal for Christmas. She also sells art work and paintings, handcrafted cards and books.
http://www.redtedart.com/

Silvertouches - Subtle and beautiful, Louise’s range of fine silver handprint, footprint and fingerprint jewellery is a lovely way to keep a reminder of your little ones with you at all times. http://www.littlesilvertouches.co.uk/

Kenzo crafts - Personalised handmade keepsakes for all those special occasions & plaques for the home. Personalised Santa stop here signs.
http://www.kenzocrafts.co.uk/

Babysigning mum - I sell baby signing accessories that help to encourage babies and parents to keep up the signs when they are not in classes.
http://www.babysigningmummy.com/

Littlehathi - Distributors of Fair Trade, beautiful hand made crochet and knitted toys, gifts and clothing for babies and children.
http://www.littlehathi.co.uk/

Charlie Moos – get the party moving! Award Winning Party Supplies business specialising in handmade fabric party bags.
Check out the Christmas Moo wrapping paper! Love it!
http://www.charliemoos.co.uk/

Chicunique uk - Chic Unique is handmade jewellery inspired by life, love and everything else.
Ideal for Christmas presents or stocking fillers. http://mychicunique.etsy.com/

Fairyprincessshop - We sell gorgeous fairy dresses, princess dresses, fairy sets and fairy princess accessories - everything a little fairy or princess could dream of!
http://www.fairyprincessshop.com/

And Last but not least

Robinson Designs - Personalised letters from Santa / Father Christmas and personalised Christmas photocards - a perfect way to share a photo of the children as a Christmas card
http://www.robinsondesigns.co.uk/

49 days until Christmas......

Wow, now Halloween and Bonfire night are out of the way, its time to put all of your efforts into Christmas, planning the Christmas lunch, the parties, which presents to buy who, the Christmas card list etc etc.

But most importantly its time to sort out a letter from Father Christmas to your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or friends children.

Picture the scene: It’s the week before Christmas and the morning post arrives with a personalised letter from Santa/Father Christmas to your child! Imagine their face as they open their very own letter from Santa/Father Christmas!

To send a surprise personalised letter is easy! Simply add your name here

http://www.facebook.com/robinsondesigns?v=app_2373072738#!/topic.php?uid=131302770227489&topic=214

and I will be in touch to ask for all the details to personalise the letter with your child’s name, town, achievement and what present they have asked for and we’ll post a beautiful, personalised letter to your child.

If it’s your baby’s first Christmas why not get Father Christmas to send them a keepsake letter?
All this for only £3.50 - with £1 going to Claire House Charity, a local children's hospice.
To ensure you receive your letter in time for Christmas, please put your names down as soon as possible as I will be contacting everyone at the start of December for their details and will be sending the letters out of 10th December.

Our letters are printed on high quality paper with a fantastic design.


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Personalised Christmas Photocards - on special offer £1 each

Why not send something a bit different this year to a normal Christmas card? A personalised Christmas photocard with the children or family on the front with a beautiful Christmas design?

Go to http://www.robinsondesigns.co.uk/christmas.htm to view designs.

Wow Check out this competition!! Win your Christmas Shopping at Babi Pur! £200

I love Babipur, a very friendly bunch with fantastic and competitively priced products!!

I have had the privilege to write a review for them on Ecobubs nappy and in return I got to keep the nappy, cant ask for better than that?

One lucky winner will receive £200 in vouchers to spend at Babi Pur or your Christmas shopping with us refunded. (up to the value of £200 and any excess made up with vouchers)

Babipur have some fantastic advice if you want to switch from disposables to cloth!

A few of my fave nappies, good old BumGenius V3, Flips with both stay dry and organic inserts and the ecobubs :)

Here are the competition rules:




How to enter

All you need to do is comment below with the answer to the following... Which 3 items from the Babi Pur website would make it on to the top of your Christmas shopping list?

BONUS ENTRIES: For bonus entries please leave a separate comment for each of the following you have done :



LIKEBabiPur on Facebook

ADD fan pictures to BabiPur on Facebook

FOLLOW BabiPur on Twitter

BLOG Blog about this competition - mention us on your own blog

TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this competition on any UK forum (separate entry for each one)

CREATE AN ACCOUNT & tick to receive our newsletters here

COMMENT leave a comment on any posts on this blog

RETWEET this post

SUBSCRIBE to our new Youtube channel BabipurTV & comment on a video for another entry

It is important that you leave separate comments as each comment number is counted as an entry!



All entries need to be with us before midnight on the 9 of December. The winner will be chosen at random on the 10th December 2010. If you have already bought your Christmas gifts we will refund your order up to the value of £200 and if your order was less than £200 we will pay you the excess in vouchers.

PHOTO ENHANCEMENTS

Do you have some lovely photos of your children or from your wedding day and think that it would look fab in black and white with a hint of colour coming through, such as your bouquet?

Well now you can get this done for a very low price of just £3.50

Robinson Designs offers photo enhancements.

Black and white photos, or black and white with a hint of colour. Photo's cropped, red eye reduction, wrinkles smoothed etc

Contact us today on enquiries@robinsondesigns.co.uk

Claire House gives Robinson Designs authority to raise money.

We have been given a letter of authority from Claire House - so we can now get on with raising money for Claire House.

Who are Claire House?

“The aim of Claire House Children’s Hospice is to enhance the quality of life for the child with a life-limiting condition, offering a high quality service with both personal and professional support. In partnership with the child and family, each child’s individual needs will be met; those of their family and significant carers will be recognised and respected in a safe ‘home from home’ environment.”



Located in Bebington on the Wirral, Claire House is a bright, vibrant place of hope. In addition to caring for our children and young adults, we also focus on the needs of the whole family, providing bereavement and other support for as long as it is needed. With no guaranteed government funding we need to raise in excess of £2.5 million each year to maintain our present levels of service.

For more info visit Claire House

So what are Robinson Designs doing to help raise some money?

We have decided to give £1 from every sale of the letter from Father Christmas to Claire House, and also all Christmas photocards sold will also give 10% of sales to Claire House.
We really would like to try and raise £100, but can only do this with your help.

If you know anyone who has young children and would like to receive a letter from Father Christmas tell them about Robinson Designs.
We also sell personalised photo Christmas cards click here to view http://www.robinsondesigns.co.uk/christmas.htm

Since having children myself, this charity has become closer to my heart, as its all something we hope will never happen to our children, but it does, and Claire House are there to help, if the unthinkable ever happens.

Competition Time.....win a letter from Father Christmas

Win a letter from Father Christmas!.


Its easy to enter….all you have to do is:

• LIKE Robinson Designs on Facebook and make a comment about our designs

• INVITE YOUR FRIENDS to our facebook group

• TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this competition on any UK forum

• FOLLOW Robinson Designs on Twitter , make a comment and retweet this post

Leave a comment on either this blog or my facebook page that you have done at least the above two points and tell me who you have invited.

Winner to be announced on 1st November