We were thrilled to get a lovely write-up from thegreenfamilia, the light green shopping blog for families, with her suggestions for the best gifts from Mimimyne! Check it out below:

Christmas Gifts from Mimimyne.

The Ginlady (Green, Independent and Natural) blog also mentioned two of our fabulous products in her round ups of the best gifts for boys and girls:

The Ginlady’s Eco friendly gift guide for little boys

The Ginlady’s Eco friendly gift guide for little girls.

Finally, we also made Greenmystyle‘s Christmas list with a mention on their Top 10 Eco Board Games: Family Christmas Fun!

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Sarah from Boogles, a book keeping firm for businesses that Mimimyne has been working with, just sent me some copies of her fabulous maths game (on CD, suitable for PC only) for young people aged 5-11. There are a choice of questions – addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And 3 levels – easy, medium and hard. Players need to answer as many questions as possible before the time runs out. In addition there are over 150 worksheet excercises which cover various math concepts – including shapes, ratios, fractions, weights and measures. This normally retails at £4.97 so you’ll be getting yourself a bargain, as shoppers on Mimimyne will get a free copy of this game with their next 5 orders! So come on, do the maths and get your Christmas shopping sorted out at the same time

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The Everywoman Conference was a very inspiring day for me. I was speaking on a panel, “Build Your Online Presence for Business Success” with two entrepreneurs I really admire, Paula Wynne of Remote Employment, Carol Savage of MyDish. Judith Lewis of i-Level was the panel moderator.

Paula Wynne talked about her business Remote Employment, which helps remote workers find jobs, how it is important for businesses to ‘punch above their weight’ (making sure your website is professional and attractive, for example) and making sure your search engine optimisation works right from the start. She also talked about how important it is to work hard at PR.

Carol Savage gave a fantastic account of the tough time she had facing the Dragon’s Den with her MyDish concept (helping people share recipes with each other) but showed how it was worth it in terms of publicity and increased visits to her site. I am planning to get on it straight away and share some of our family recipes: I’m lucky enough to have some of my mother’s already printed in her Pauper’s Cookbook but as most of my family are good cooks there are lots of family standbys I’d like to share with others.

Judith gave a very useful analysis of how important it is to build a good online presence on the web, pointing out that if you don’t put yourself on the web, someone else will, and talked of the importance of monitoring what other people say about you online. My talk was about how I have built up a presence online using Twitter, BTTradespace and Facebook and I mentioned some of the tools I have used to make it easier and quicker.

We also listened to some great talks, including Allegra McEvedy’s sometimes hilarious story of her life and adventures as a chef. Her main points were that you should build a great team, that hard times define you, that respect is important (never treat people badly) and that you should enjoy what you do. There were also some fascinating panel discussions and workshops, I didn’t have time to attend everything but all-in-all it was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking day. I will be back next year!

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Today I was lucky enough to have a visit from LCRN who help small businesses like mine audit their energy use and environmental policy. They went through my gas and electricity bills and had a look around my home office to assess my energy consumption. It was a bit shaming to admit I didn’t realise my boiler had a timer function but I was proud of the fact that I recycle absolutely everything I can (garden waste, food waste, plastic, tins, cardboard and paper) and have a low energy computer and low energy lightbulbs. They will tell me my carbon footprint and then I will be working on my environmental policy with them and building up a list of targets (which will also count towards Mimimyne’s 10:10 commitment as a business) on which my progress will be assessed in a year’s time.

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Mimimyne is proud to announce that we are now stocking the beautiful, hand made organic cotton baby clothes made by designer Maggie Gibbs from Daisy Dumpling.

I particularly recommend her newborn baby gift sets (there’s an organic cotton baby boy gift set in blue and an organic cotton baby girl gift set in pink as well as a neutral organic cotton baby gift set in white) as a tremendous bargain at £30 plus free delivery! These would make great gifts for a christening, a new born baby girl or boy or for a special occasion. Other treats for young babies in her range include beautiful organic cotton baby bootees, organic baby shoes, hats and organic baby mittens, all in a complementary range of colours so you can mix and match. Daisy Dumpling is a really exceptional addition to Mimimyne’s range of organic baby products and I think you will be delighted with your purchases!

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Mimimyne is very excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with Funky Little Darlings to sell their gorgeous eco friendly, funky kids wallpaper and wall stickers. These bright, modern designs are perfect for personalising your kids’ bedroom, nursery or playroom, and some of them work very well for grown ups too… We will have some more products from them coming soon, watch this space!

Who are you?
We are Mandy Colliss and David Quinton and we established Funky Little Darlings in 2006 as a high-end luxury interiors brand… exclusively for children.

Tell us more about your design background
Having designed for children for most of our careers, we are passionate about creating environments and products that encourage children’s creative development. Our expertise is in interior design, graphics, 3D and packaging design. Working in the children’s toys and computer games industry, we have designed for the BBC, Disney, Hasbro and Endemol and on global brands such as Monopoly, Teletubbies, In The Night Garden, Playskool, Action Man, Big Brother, Purple Ronnie and Sindy.

What’s your environmental policy?
As parents ourselves, we want our children to inherit a cleaner and less exploited planet. We strive to be as eco-friendly as possible and work with suppliers who share our ethos.

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The Green Web Awards run by Nigel’s Eco Store, the grandaddy of ethical shopping sites, are back and they are open for the public to vote this year! If you have a favourite sustainable brand, charity, business or person you would like to vote for (you can also nominate companies for the Wooden Spoon: Worst Greenwash award!) then go ahead and visit.

Mimimyne has been nominated in the Green Fashion category, we’d love your votes if you’re a fan!

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Christmas is getting closer! I know a lot of you won’t be hearing jingle bells yet but as it is now November I thought I’d pass on some of Mimimyne’s ethical gift ideas for Christmas and I’ll keep this up over November with festive ideas you might like for your family and friends.

Firstly, if you want some Christmas decorations, Mimimyne has a beautiful eco friendly Christmas tree made from recycled cardboard from award-winning designers kidsonroof. It’s an alternative Christmas tree which makes a great talking point for guests – and it won’t drop pine needles on your floor! This is not sent by Royal Mail.

The Merry Mache Nativity Set and the Merry Mache Christmas Decoration kit are fun for the whole family to decorate. These are both made using recycled and recyclable materials and come in a reusable wooden box. These are sent direct to you by courier, so no need to worry about the postal strikes.

Eco friendly board games (made from recycled materials, fully recyclable and using non-toxic inks) from Bioviva including Operation Survival, the Mission Range and Bioviva as well as wooden games like Hot Cocot from the Lil’wood range for younger children (made from certified wood) are great for involving the whole family, boys, girls and parents! Again, these are all sent by courier and will not cause any difficulties during the strikes. These board games make great gifts for families.

Creative Charlie is an eco friendly craft design company operating from East London. Again, every component of a Creative Charlie craft kit is either recycled, recyclable or reusable. Kerri Sellers, the company director, decided early on that she wanted to use materials that were
eco-friendly to create her craft kits, to introduce environmental
awareness to young children in a fun and creative way. We recommend her eco friendly Make Jewellery Kit,using beads from recycled magazines, as a fun stocking filler for a little girl.

The Twisted Twee Pine Tree and Cone tee shirt set for dad and baby in organic cotton is a sure fire winner for a new dad. It has a Christmassy image but the T-shirt will continue to delight until long after the festive season is over. These T-shirt sets for dad and baby are best sellers on Mimimyne and make great gifts!

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The National everywoman Conference 2009
Wednesday, 18th November 2009

Business success comes from creating winning ideas, learning new techniques, sharing experiences and making them work for you. Join us on Wednesday 18th November at this year’s National Everywoman Conference and you will be giving yourself the space and time to do just that.

You will hear winning ideas from inspirational speakers, as well as attend Masterclasses that will teach you how to be a more creative thinker, work on your leadership style and plans to promote your business and raise your online profile. And of course you will be able to network and share ideas with over 300 like-minded business owners. If you’re a woman running or interested in running your own business, you can’t afford to miss this! I will be presenting on the topic of online networking and marketing, can’t wait…

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