We were very happy to find the Make Jewellery eco friendly craft kit by Creative Charlie got a fantastic review in Making Jewellery magazine this October! “This fun and bijoux kit… includes 35 colourful recycled paper beads that have been made in the Philippines from old fashion magazines… Ideal for children learning jewellery making or about being green…. Geared at the children’s market but we don’t think you will be able to keep your hands off them, they are so pretty!”. We’re glad the magazine writers love this kit as much as we do, at £5.99 including shipping it’s a perfect stocking filler for Christmas!

View PDF of review

We hope you enjoyed the festive season as much as we did! As promised, we have some products on sale and hope to have more shortly. Creative Charlie is offering an amazing 20% off on all of her fabulous craft kits until the 25th of January, so we wanted you to be the first to know!

Creative Charlie kits on sale

We’re also offering a big discount on Arabella Miller’s Soil Association certified 100% organic cotton rompers which are reduced from £18.00 to £12.99 and would make a lovely present for a newborn, especially combined with a beanie hat or nightgown in a matching design.

Arabella Miller organic romper suits

Other news: we have signed up to Twitter, so please follow us on twitter.com/mimimyne if you’re a Twitter user, or join our Facebook Fan Page if you use Facebook at www.new.facebook.com/pages/City-Of-London-United-Kingdom/Mimimyne/25717259841

I love the East London Design Show for many reasons: it’s friendly, it’s a manageable size, it represents some of the best designers, crafts-people and independent retailers around in East London (which is the epicentre of all things cool, naturally) and it has a fantastic play area for children – run by Creative Charlie! – where you can entertain the kiddies with some creative workshops when not shopping till you drop. All of this in time for Christmas, so if you’re organised you can get your purchasing done in one hit (don’t forget, you’ll save on all those pesky shipping costs and retail markups, so it’s a bargain hunters paradise). And this year, Mimimyne will be making its debut appearance at the show. Need I say more? Oh yes, it’s only £4 to get in, and children under 16 are free. Dates are the 4th to the 7th December and there’s late night shopping on the Friday, perfect for a quick visit after work.

The weather gods were clearly smiling on Mimimyne yesterday and we had glorious sunshine the whole day. The bags and T-shirts in particular did well and there was a new product for us to exhibit, a stool made of reclaimed wood by Mark Nunn from Greenheart Creations, which is based on the old tailor’s stools that you used to see being used in Spitalfields in the garment factories. Mark’s working title for it is the ‘schmutter stool’ or perhaps the ‘Schtool’! We are going to sell it as a family product in normal size and perhaps a little one for kids: they’re very sturdy and comfortable, as a tailor’s stool should be. You will see a photograph on the website shortly.

We also had visits from several suppliers: Kerri from Creative Charlie dropped by with her children to tell us she has just won a Gold Award at the Practical Pre-school Awards 2008 with her Rainy Day Box! A Gold Award means that a product has scored above 85% with their testers, who work in pre-school education and know more about entertaining (and teaching) small children than anyone else.

Here’s what some of them said: “The children loved following the work sheets and began to implement ideas of their own into their creations. It’s value as a creative resource is immense and it incorporates flexible and and enjoyable activities, as well as helping to teach children about the environment. Everything in the box was great. The instructions were easy to understand and follow. The Rainy Day Box had a charming sense of simplicity, and my five-year-old was able to use it independently, as well as being encouraged to play co-operatively and share. It has fantastic educational value and appealed to children throughout the trial. Adaptable, original and a lot of fun!”. This is is fantastic news for Kerri and her wonderful product.

Naomi Dean also dropped by to tell us about her plans (she is going to be showing at Tent next week from the 18th to the 21st September) as did Samuel Morgan from Spinifex who is going to be showing his OTA Chalkboard and his new Splatt Chair at Designer’s Block from the 18th to the 21st September. September is clearly going to be a busy month for our designers! And of course Jaya and Annthalina from 3 Lotus Media were there to help us sell the beautiful Mimi and Myne T shirts they created for Mimimyne.