Thank you for being an Itsy Bitsy customer, joining the mailing list and twitter and facebook groups. I have gotten to know many of you personally, swapped stories about our little ones and had a brilliant time! As a small business, your patronage and support has been amazingly kind.
When I started Itsy Bitsy, I thought it would be a great part-time job to earn some extra cash, introduce (what was then) a new concept to the children’s market and get to do what I love most – shop! Itsy Bitsy though is a full time job and it needs more hands than me and a handful of (brilliant) interns.
As I have another full time job + being a mother to JAS, I have decided for now, to wind up Itsy Bitsy Bargains.
Itsy Bitsy Clearance Sale!
I still have so much lovely stock, many not-yet-seen deals and it seems a shame to let them go to waste. So over the coming weeks I will post their details and email you periodically about some of the major items.
To start off, there are further reductions on items from Olive and Moss, Funky Monkey and Crocodile Creek.
Plus, we have a new shipment of Banz UV50+ Swimwear in additional styles and sizes!
Click here for more details.
… Plus, Interested in Running the Itsy Bitsy Site?
If you would like to take over the Itsy Bitsy website, I am thinking of putting it up for sale. I am unsure of the exact approach at the moment. But if you are interested – email your name, phone number and email to Stefanie@itsybitsybargains.com – and I will keep you posted about what I decide.
This morning I was doing some work for a consulting client while you slept upstairs and I meandered onto one of my favourite blogs; and for some reason in particular it made me cry.
We all have dreams. Some minor. Some major. Some impossible.
JAS you were an impossible dream that I really never ever thought possible because of some complex issues. The last 5 years have been an incredibly painful journey with some horrible heartbeak and yet, none of that is important anymore because you are here. I don’t think I realised how over the last eight months I have been healing and being rebuilt because of your little miraculous spirit.
You are such a little bundle of joy and happiness that it is mind-boggling. You laugh and laugh and laugh and know how to whip out the most beautiful smile to tug at heart-strings young and old. You need no introduction to make friends and even though you are just a wee baby, are the life and soul of the party at the childminders. Children much older want to give you hugs, bring you toys and get a giggle and if swamped by people, you are in your element.
Yet you also like your quiet time and to be cuddled. You are especially partial to my hair – to play with, comb or pull out in fistfuls (sigh). In the mornings you are very content to spend an hour plus in your playpen working out how the square piece does indeed fit into the round whole if its big enough, talking to your stuff animal entourage and playing with your toes. At some point though a light bulb goes off in your head and you want to be hugged and entertained.
Oh and you so desperately want to crawl and spend a lot of time on your belly with your arms and legs outstretched as if you could fly and crying in frustration. One day soon you are going to toy across the room and just speed crawl to it. For both of our sanity – I hope that happens soon!
Then there is the food. I don’t think you are a budding Jamie Oliver as food time seems quite a hit or miss adventure. You do have a thing for things I think are relatively sour – tomatoes, plan Greek yogurt, parsnips.
I am though thankful that you sleep … most of the time. You have though sussed that if you scream at 2 am I am likely to put you in the big bed. Don’t think I don’t see the ‘Happy Dance Wiggles’ in the dark! You will learn that Mama’s know all the tricks (and we have eyes at the back of our heads), but sometimes we also like to cuddle.
It is especially at such moments when I can feel your little heart beating that it reminds me of when I was pregnant and could feel your heart beating inside of me when sitting still. What a journey this has been.
Now its time to wake you up, go for a coffee with a friend and head to business meetings.
Happy Eight Months JAS
I love you!
Mum
Freshen up your little ones room with Itsy Bitsy’s first ever Interiors Week. To celebrate we’ve teamed up with Mimi & Mae and are offering one lucky winner the chance to own a personalised Mimi & Mae print.
With your loved one’s favourite things listed in a beautifully designed poster, this adorable design is a must have for all parents.
To enter simply follow Itsy Bitsy on twitter and retweet the competition, the more times you share the more times you’re entered! We’ll announce the winner on April 1st (no joke!) and don’t forget to visit Itsy Bitsy for more fantastic bargains.
Happy Interiors Week and enjoy sharing!
From Itsy Bitsy xx
A bit over a month ago, we asked our fans to recommend charities that they thought Itsy Bitsy should support and we are thankful for all of the ideas put forward.
Now we would like your help in choosing a charity that we can support throughout the year with events and donations. We have shortlisted 3 really lovely small and medium-sized charities that all have a strong children focus, but are all very different.
Each has provided some brief answers to a few questions we asked and their answers are below to give you some insight of what they do and how they operate. We are putting the charities to a vote. The charity that receives the most ‘likes’ to their link on our facebook page and comments on their respective blog post below(for those supporters who do not have a facebook profile) will become the charity that Itsy Bitsy Bargains will look to support.
Thank you for all of your input!
Itsy Bitsy Bargains
What is the Youth Group’s charitable mission and goals?
Our aim is to keep the level of anti social behaviour, from youths, at a low rate in our area, by way of providing on and off site activities for children and young people aged 4-16 years. We give young people a place to go, where they meet friends in a safe environment.
How does it achieve these goals? Or specifically what does it do?
We offer virtually every day, an array of activies.
On Mondays from 10am-12pm we run a family and toddler group. Tuesdays 6-7pm is Phoenix football training provided by coaches from Brighton and Hove Albion (10-19s). Tuesday’s 7-9pm drop in youth group 12-16s. Wednesday Phoenix dance 5.30-6.30 (4-8s) 6.45-8pm (9-16s). Thursdays drop in youth groups 4.30-5.40pm (4-7s) 6-8pm (7-12s).
We provide drop in youth groups, with arts and crafts toys, computer consoles and much much more. We run through out term time, with additional trips, activities and residential during the holidays.
We subsidise EVERYTHING we do so that ALL children our given equal opportunity to attend, no matter what financial back ground they are from. ALL of our staff are volunteers, who are CRB checked before they join our group.
We also run a group called ‘The Phoenix Dream Scheme’; this is for young people age 12-16 years. We arrange community projects for them to be apart of e.g street clean ups and volunteering at our younger youth clubs. For every hour they help, they receive a point, this point is equivalent to £1, they are never given cash at any point, but can use their points to pay for a trip or sporting activity of their choice.
This group’s aim is for young people to become apart of the solution to the shared problems on disadvantaged housing estates. It raises self confidence in the young people and gives them a chance to help themselves and the community they live in.
What was your income last year and how are you funded? Can you attribute how much of this income is directly linked to delivering your services and support vs. overhead costs?
Our income last year was £21,000. All money is from weekly subs and memberships, plus grant funding and donations. All money that com es into our clubs is directly used on the children by way of trips, equipment and activities.
Do you measure how you impact people? If so, can you give some details? If not, how do you know you are achieving your charity’s goals?
We have over 190 children and young people on our books with an average of 100 children attending each week. This in it self proves that we are achieving our goals. We work closely with local police, pcso’s and the housing associations in our area, they are greatly supportive of what we do, as they can see the positive impact of the work we do with the children and young people.
How do you want your charity to evolve over the next two – three years? Where do you need assistance?
We are currently working out of a temporary building. Our main aim is to get a brick built building, so that we can continue the work that we do and open it up to even more children and young people.
Where can we get more details?
Currently our website and face book page are being re modelled. For further information please contact Laura Scott (Secretary) on 07889855573 or email to super.mum@hotmail.co.uk
What is The Little Princess Trust’s charitable mission and goals?
The Little Princess Trust provides real-hair wigs to boys and girls throughout the UK and Ireland that have sadly lost their own hair through cancer treatment.
How does it achieve these goals? Or specifically what does it do?
Following either a referral from a treatment centre (hospital) or self-referral, the Trust puts families in touch with an independent wig supplier who will discuss requirements, supply, fit and style the wig according to their wishes. The wig supplier then invoices the Little Princess Trust directly.
What was your income last year and how are you funded? Can you attribute how much of this income is directly linked to delivering your services and support vs. overhead costs?
Details of income can be found on the Charity Commission website. We rely solely on the kind efforts of community fundraisers and receive no formal funding. 78% of income is spent on wigs/wig products – an amazing achievement of which we are extremely proud.
Do you measure how you impact people? If so, can you give some details? If not, how do you know you are achieve your charity’s goals?
We know that we achieve our goals following the receipt of many, many grateful letters, cards and emails from children/families whom we have been able to help. We reached a huge milestone on 23 December when we gave away the 1,000th wig.
How do you want your charity to evolve over the next two – three years? Where do you need assistance?
We would like to reach even more families. Our data shows that potentially we reach around 30% of children with a cancer diagnosis. Whilst this is incredible, we would like to help even more families if it is appropriate to do so, depending on their individual circumstances.
The assistance we need is two-fold: to raise awareness of the charity to make sure as many families/hospitals as possible know of the charity’s existence & for the general public to fundraise for the Trust.
Where can we get more details?
Further details can be found at www.littleprincesses.org.uk or by contacting Monica Glass on monica@littleprincesses.org.uk.
What is The Children’s Trust charitable mission and goals?
To provide care, education and therapy to children with multiple disabilities, complex health needs and acquired brain injury.
How does it achieve these goals? Or specifically what does it do?
Every parent hopes that his or child will be born healthy and will progress throughout childhood without serious injury or illness. Unfortunately sometimes these expectations are shattered; children are born with disabilities or become suddenly disabled as a result of an accident or illness. The Children’s Trust is there to help these children and their families.
The combination of services that the Trust offers children with multiple disabilities is unique. There are around 75 children at the residential centre at any one time and The Children’s Trust helps hundreds of families each year in many ways:
- Residential care
- Short breaks
- Rehabilitation for children with acquired brain injuries
- Transitional care between hospital and home
- Outreach – caring for children in their own home
- The Children’s Trust school, the School for Profound Education.
What was your income last year and how are you funded? Can you attribute how much of this income is directly linked to delivering your services and support vs. overhead costs?
£21.5 million in 2010/11. Of this, £16m comes from fee income from services for children and £5.5million comes from voluntary donations and charity shops. We spent £19m on delivering and developing care and services to the children, the rest was spent on governance, costs of generating income and the costs associated with running charity shops.
Do you measure how you impact people? If so, can you give some details? If not, how do you know you are achieve your charity’s goals?
Children who are cared for by The Children’s Trust are continuously assessed as part of their care programmes to see how they are progressing during their time with us. The clinicians use a variety of tools for assessing impact and outcomes and produce regular reports. These assessments cut across all of the teams involved in each child’s care: social workers, nursing staff, therapists, psychologists and teachers. In our annual report we state how many children we help, how many hours of therapy we provide and how we’ve met our key goals. A copy is available online, as is the ‘Impact & Outcomes’ document.
How do you want your charity to evolve over the next two – three years? Where do you need assistance?
The Children’s Trust wants to reach out to more children with an acquired brain injury. Each year an estimated 8000 children acquire a brain injury that will impact on them for the rest of their lives. We want to invest in our Brain Injury Community Team to work with children who may not need residential rehabilitation at our centre in Tadworth but who may still need support at school, with family and with their peers as a result of their brain injury. We would also like to partner with more hospitals with paediatric neurology units to support children and their families that have had a brain injury. We are also launching a new online ‘Information and Education’ service to provide advice to clinicians, parents and carers on brain injury.
Where can we get more details?
Please go to our website to find out more about what we do and to meet some of the amazing children that we work with. www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk
Sigh …
It seems like I have lived a few lifetimes since I last posted. Things are going at warp speed and JAS you are in the centre of it and having fun riding the waves.
I almost don’t recognise the pictures I last posted as you have changed so much. Today when I tried to put on your 6-9 month snowsuit to ferry you to the childminders, you protested so much that I had to agree … it no longer fit. It was huge when I bought for you just six week ago.
Then there are the other milestones, definitely teething and starting weaning that make it undeniable that you are no longer a newborn and I find that exceptionally sad. We are spiralling into a dynamic that will repeat over and over. I now fully understand why women have more babies quickly (regardless off 5 days of labour) as this growing up thing is kind of overwhelming.
And you already have life sussed. Your biggest weapon is your smile and you use it with everyone. Then there is the fully belly laugh and gurgling that can melt even the most hard to win hearts. You are still not sure if you are ticklish. Some days yes, some days it just annoys you.
If you could, you would be a fish. Bath time will soothe even the most extreme meltdowns, which happily are few and far between. So in January you will start swimming lessons. Your grandmother taught me before I could walk and being happy in the water is a legacy I want to pass along. Plus, its something your father is passionate about.
And your ability to hold things and move them around is impressive. I won’t post the picture of you hanging half in your cot as you somehow rolled in your sleep and got your bum stuck in the rails. Oddly you only whimpered in protest and so by the time I awoke and realised something was amiss, you had likely been there for a while.
You still don’t like my singing, but you do appreciate my jumping around and generally making a fool of myself to keep you entertained. Luckily you are pretty gullible at the moment and so my cooking cups, a piece of wrapping paper or even tape is an unparallel excitement factor.
Mostly you are just a happy and patient soul. Trying to build and run Itsy Bitsy Bargains at the same time has been really hard work. At times I have been a bit inundated by everything it involves and felt like a horrible Mom as we aren’t always on ‘Baby Time.’ Luckily you just seem to go with the flow and not take it personally. I know that I have so little influence on your personality, but I thank God that you are so easy going. I don’t know how else we could have coped.
So JAS Merry Christmas …
Much love,
Your Mother
We know that busy family like means that there are times checking emails, twitter or facebook is an impossible task. Our deals though come and go quickly and so due to popular demand, this weekend we are offering a ‘Repeat Weekend.’
To make it easier to take part and not miss out again on something you wanted – below is the schedule. Just in time for the holidays, baby and children gifts galore. Enjoy!
Friday
- Funky Monkey ‘This Child is Unique’ T-Shirt – Morning
- Orange Tree Toys Animal and Monster Pens – Afternoon
Saturday
- Minene Changing Bags – Morning
- Olive and Moss Lois the Lamb – Afternoon
Sunday
- Anna Lou of London Bow Necklace – Morning
- Olive and Moss Newborn Gift Set – Afternoon
If you still miss out that you wanted … please do email us at info@itsybitsybargains.com and if we still have stock, we wll do our best to assist you.
Next up … Eco Week!
