Tips from a local: Emily in Notting Hill

Emily Dyson Paley is a mum of two and the co-founder of Couverture & The Garbstore, a beautiful boutique in Notting Hill offering an eclectic edit of womenswear, menswear, accessories and homewares. Her boutique is one of our very favourites in London where you can always be sure to find a carefully curated selection of cool, emerging labels. We trust her taste and recommendations explicitly:

1. Best date night restaurant: Six Portland Rd in Notting Hill is a very small, low key place with a delicious seasonal offering. I know they will have some lovely fresh fish and a vegetarian option.

2. Favourite family-friendly dinner spot: Grangers on Westbourne Grove always makes everyone happy — for ambiance and un fussy great tasting suppers. Just have to avoid the weekend queues!

3. Cosiest local cafe (or best place to grab a take-away!): 202 on Westbourne Grove has always been a hit for weekend brunch. We can take the dog and the staff always remember us and are so friendly. It is in a big light airy space with windows at the back that give glimpses of greenery.

4. Trusted children’s shop: In the past we have always been very spoilt with kids clothes to hand from Couverture! But I have always loved Caramel Baby and Child on Ledbury Rd for special pieces.

5. Favourite women’s shop: Couverture of course! We have a great selection of independent and lesser well known brands which I love and am proud to showcase.

6. Coolest local playground: Now that my kids are older I would have to say BaySixty6 skate park which is apparently one of the best in Europe right on our doorstep. When they were little, they loved the adventure playground in Holland Park and the Pirate Ship park in Kensington Gardens.

7. Favourite food shop: This has to be Planet Organic which has the best selection of everything good for you. I am a regular to their Westbourne Grove location.

8. Best shop for homewares, fun finds, or special gifts: I rarely look further than Couverture &The Garbstore as we cover so many areas – for men, women, children’s gifts and home pieces. I love finding all the things for the store and seeing how they all sit together.

9. Local activity center or museum: We are so lucky to be near some fantastic museums – Science, Natural History and the V&A, all within walking distance of each other in Kensington. We can walk through the park to get there, passing by The Serpentine art gallery which is the perfect small size with little ones in tow.

10. Favourite park or outdoor space: Hyde Park is a wonderful mix of wild and groomed, with lakes, ancient trees, boat pond, playground, cycle paths, horse riding paths, tennis courts, the venue for summer outdoor concerts and Winter Wonderland come Christmas. We are very spoilt!

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Cloth nappies | one mother’s personal experience

After my post about environmentally friendly fem-care products, of course next up are nappies. Another rabbit hole! Amazing amounts of non-compostable waste is created by all of our lovely, sweet babies. Looking into eco-friendly disposable nappy brands, or even cloth nappies, is so relevant. One of our readers, Ilja Roomans, a mum of three here in Amsterdam, kindly agreed to share her experiences with cloth nappies. Such an interesting read! I really like how she explains the practicalities of dealing with cloth nappies.

After the birth of my eldest son in 2005 I instinctively felt I had to breastfeed him as long as I could, and after that it felt natural to feed him biological food. I became more conscious of my ecological footprint. I felt very bad about every nappy I threw in the garbage, even though I only used ecologically friendly nappies. There were so many of them… what a waste!

My daughter was born almost 3 years later, and the thought crossed my mind to look for an alternative to disposable nappies. I knew that cloth nappies existed but I was full of prejudices. I thought that it would be a lot of work and I didn’t even know anyone who had even thought about cloth nappying. With two small kids, my life was very busy, and I started using the ecological friendly disposable nappies again. I found out that even the most ecological friendly nappies are max 60% biodegradable. There was no 100% biodegradable alternative.

And then, when my kids were 7 and 10, I fell pregnant again! This last baby made me even more aware of the environmental problems we face and I decided that even though I can only do a  little, I wanted to live as substainable as I could in the choices I make. I did not want this baby to start his life with a footprint of 22 kilos of garbage per month (!) and I searched for information on cloth nappies again. A whole new world opened up to me and in the beginning it was very confusing. All these types and brands, I had no idea what to choose!

I consulted an advisor of Kaatje Katoen, a Dutch website which is the cloth diaper leader in the Netherlands. Based on that visit I chose a system called Totsbots Peenut. Peenut is an ‘All in One nappy system’ (also called ‘Snap in One’), with wraps made of PUL material (water resistant yet breathable) in which you click a bamboo pad or two. Each nappy consists of one size S and one size M that you can choose, or combine, depending on the age of your baby. In the nights I used Totsbots Bamboozle, which is a double system — a bamboo nappy that you cover with a PUL wrap. It offers the least chance of leakage and is very absorbent.
With a newborn baby the washing is easy. Breastfeeding poo is completely soluble. When they start eating solids this changes, then you use nappy liners that hold the poo and which you just throw away.

When I started, it turned out to be very easy! With 20 double pads, 4 Bamboozles and 8 wraps I have enough products to wash once every 2/3 days. I use a washable baby wipes system called ‘Billies Box’, which works perfectly. I have a bin with a laundry bag for the filthy diapers, and a small bin for the liners. Two laundry bags are handy, so you can use a new one when the other one is being washed. I use a normal 60 degrees program. (An eco program doesn’t work since it uses less water, and with absorbent nappies, you want enough water to rinse them properly.) I use an eco-friendly washing detergent which is recommended to use on nappies.

The pros of cloth nappying include a smaller chance for irritation/rash. Also, babies tend to be potty trained a year younger than with disposable nappies. Unfortunately my baby has a skin that irritates easily if wet, and he got red marks from the elastic. This is the only setback I’ve had to deal with. Changing nappies more often helped reducing the rash, but the marks remained. Then I discovered the Petit Lulu system in which the edges are lined with fleece. For my baby, this worked. So I sold my stash of Peenuts (there is a good second hand market for cloth nappies!) and bought a new stash of Petit Lulu snap in one. My son is almost 2 years old now, and I still use them every day.

Our childcare also uses them. I was surprised to learn that my son is the first baby in cloth diapers there (it’s a green child care in Amsterdam). We simply bring him with 3 extra diapers and a laundry bag.

The advantages of cloth diapers:
– It’s environmental friendly
– It’s cheaper. (My new stash and accessories costed around 500 euro in total; disposables cost around 1300 euro from birth until potty trained.)
– No nasties on your baby’s skin. Many disposables are made using chemicals. Cloth diapers are made of cotton, or bamboo, or microfibre.
– It looks cute! There are so many sweet designs around. It looks so much nicer, especially in summer!
– Children in cloth diapers tend to be potty trained a year earlier.

My advice to people who would like to start would be to start renting nappies first. Every child is different, everything depends on your baby’s posture, how much he or she wees, your personal preferences. You can rent a combination of nappies for a month, and then decide which system suits you best.

Thank you Ilja! This was super interesting to read.

Do you have any experience with cloth nappies? Would you try them?

xxx Esther

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A Treasury of Short Stories Series written by Angela McAllister

We have recently discovered two books by Angela McAllister, which are worth sharing with you: A Year Full of Stories and A World Full of Stories. Both collections of short stories, A Year Full of Stories covers every continent and comprises of myths from around the world for each month of the year. Each story celebrates the changing seasons, cultural events and international festivals throughout the year. The illustrations by Christoper Corr are bright and energetic making the book perfect for the whole family to enjoy.

Likewise, A World Full of Stories, is again gorgeously illustrated and is a collection of fifty timeless tales allowing the reader to travel around the world through rich anthologies of animal-themed myths, fables and legends.

These two books are ones to treasure and equally make great gifts. Available from all good bookstores and online on Amazon UK here and here.

Vanessa x

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Celebrating 10 years — a BIG Babyccino Giveaway!

Big news! To continue our 10th birthday celebration, we’ve lined up a giant ten-day giveaway, with one prize to win every day for the next ten days! We’ve rounded up ten of our favourite shops and each of them will be offering a gift vouchers of £100 or more to spend in store (plus free international shipping!). The giveaways will be run on our Instagram, so head over to our feed for more details and make sure you’re following.

Here’s a list of the shops and daily prizes:

DAY 1: Coco and Wolf (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 2: Mabel Child (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 3: Goose Grease (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 4: CLOTH (£120 gift voucher)
DAY 5: Mr Boddington (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 6: Lil Bellies (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 7: Sisi & Seb (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 8: Pehr Designs ($500 gift voucher)
DAY 9: Sisters Guild (£100 gift voucher)
DAY 10: Merci Maman (£100 gift voucher)

We’ll be sharing one giveaway each day, asking you to follow the shop and leave a comment tagging a friend. That’s it! Too easy. Winners will be chosen at random and announced at the end of each day. Please pop over to our Instagram feed to join in and enter to win these great gift vouchers.

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A tour of Paris in a retro VW van | with Combi Paris Tours

Even though I love exploring neighbourhoods by foot, one of the best way to get an instant overview of a city is by a car or bus tour. In a few hours time, you have a basic understanding of the lay-out of the city. Plus, you have already had a first view of some of the key sights. After which a more in-depth visit of neighbourhoods or attractions can take place, of course! Most cities offer the well-known ‘hop-on, hop-off bus’, which are great, but Paris now presents a more original alternative: a tour of Paris in a retro VW van!

Last weekend we were in Paris with the children, and tried out Combi Paris Tours. Fabrice, the owner and driver, took us around a 2-hour tour of Paris in his super cool, retro VW van from the ’70s . Our big family fitted easily — the van has place for 7 guests!

First stop was the hill of Montmartre, where Fabrice opened the back door and revealed a lovely surprise breakfast. With arguably the tastiest croissant in all of Paris! Drinking coffee and munching a croissant at the foot of the Sacre Coeur and overlooking Paris — what a way to start a day!

The tour consequently took us to the Eiffel Tower, where we stopped for the obligatory carroussel ride. Further along the Seine we crossed Pont Neuf to Isle de la Cité. We saw the beautiful Notre Dame church, the Opéra, the Louvre, and so much more! Fabrice pointed out many relevant buildings and parks and offered historical explanation along the way. Pit stops were made for an in-depth view or for a photo opportunity, so fun!

This really is such a fun and practical way to explore Paris. With children or without! Retro VW vans are always fun, but to drive around Paris with one is just the best!

xxx Esther

PS Tips on Getting around in Paris

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Kid & Coe – the perfect place to stay

We love traveling as a family! Ever since the kids were small, getting out of our daily environment, spending time together and discovering new things has been our favourite thing to do. Some of our best memories have been made while we’ve been on the road. Sometimes things don’t even go to plan, but that can be a good thing!

We have spent time in hotels, hostels and tents. But our favourite way of travelling will always be homestays. There is something so comforting about staying in a real home. I feel like you are much more easily familiarised with the city you are visiting.

I also find that we get into the groove of the country we are discovering much more quickly if we are staying in a lived-in home. It is subtle, but even the way a home is set up is different in every country. The spices on the spice shelf and the utensils that are used always vary and I love it! You really get the sense that you’re experiencing what it’s really like to live there.

If we do not have friends to stay with, my back-up solution is Kid & Coe, who we have been working with for a few years now. Kid & Coe specialises in family homestays all over the world.  Their amazing houses are in some of the best locations I have visited. I love the fact that each house or flat has a family living in it, so everything is there. New toys are discovered and silly things like having enough pans to cook with or plates to eat from are not an issue.

During the London ShopUp back in December, the whole Babyccino team were lucky enough to stay at a beautiful, large house in West London. It was so great to be able to make ourselves a cup of tea when we wanted, chat while sitting around the big sofa and gather together around a dining table. It was so relaxed and cozy and everyone got to hang out together in one place.

Kid & Coe is a wonderful place to find beautiful family-friendly homes in more than 50 different locations. It’s also a perfect place to list your own family home if you’re interested in renting it out.  Esther’s Amsterdam home is listed here, and Courtney’s London flat is listed here!

Emilie

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Periods and eco-friendly menstrual products

It might be a bit of a strange subject for me to talk about periods and eco friendly menstrual products at the moment, given the fact that I haven’t menstruated for over 7 months now. However, I’ve recently been talking with friends about menstrual cups (there’s the MoonCup, the OrganiCup and the DivaCup, for example), and heard very enthusiastic feedback. Once you get the hang of using and inserting them (which apparently can take a bit of fiddling around) the cups are a total game changer! I have also seen regular pop-ups on my social media for Thinx period underwear, which I thought looked really cool and interesting. Then, there are some fabulous environmentally and socially conscious brands now, like MyFreda in the UK and My Lola in the US, offering handy subscription services. They simply send a fun box to your doorstep, filled with your monthly need of disposable yet eco-friendly, certified organic menstrual products.

There’s an insane amount of waste ending up in landfill. If you think about the fact that every woman will have her period for around 40 years, you won’t be surprised to hear that an average woman in her reproductive lifetime uses well over 11.000 menstrual products. Over 30,000 kg per woman! All those tampons, sanitary pads and pantyliners generate more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per year, much of it ending up in landfill. Or worse, in the ocean, sea and rivers!

All of the conventional (non-organic) menstrual products contain synthetic fibre and plastic. In fact, I’ve read that conventional sanitary pads can contain up to 90% plastic, or the equivalent of about four plastic bags! Non-organic tampons, especially super absorbent ones, contain synthetic fibre like viscose rayon (which is added to increase absorbency).

All of that plastic and synthetic waste sitting in landfills can take hundreds and hundreds of years to bio-degrade. For example, a regular tampon can take around 500 years to decompose; as apposed to an organic cotton tampon taking around 5 years. And then I’m not even talking about the plastic applicators! (I personally do not use applicators… I find applicator-free tampons easy to use and they take up much less space in my handbag. Plus, they create 58% less waste!)

Knowing this, it is so important to use re-usable menstrual products, or disposable products made of organic cotton. But there’s more.

• The tissue of the vulva and vagina is highly permeable and super vulnerable to chemicals. The vagina’s mucous membranes and all of its blood and lymphatic vessels provide a direct entryway for nasty chemicals to circulate through the woman’s body.
• Conventional sanitary products are partly made from non-organic cotton. Being the most heavily pesticide sprayed crop, that cotton is likely to be genetically modified and sprayed with nasty chemical pesticides and herbicides. This destroys biodiversity and can cause pesticide poisoning in cotton workers. Plus, could still be present in the tampons we use!
• Conventional disposable menstrual products are bleached white using chlorine, producing the chemical dioxin (linked to immune system suppression, hormone disruption and cancer).
• Tampons can leave microfibres (the before mentioned viscose rayon) behind in the vagina, causing tiny cuts in the vaginal tissue and creating a breeding ground for bacteria (which can cause Toxic Shock Syndrome).

So! Lesson learned. Once I get my period back again, I am going to be solely using eco friendly menstrual products. I am going to try a menstrual cup and am going to be extremely religious about using just organic tampons and pads. (I can’t believe I’m only realising now how bad the conventional products are!)

What are your thoughts and experiences? Have you tried a menstrual cup or period underwear? Please share!

xxx Esther

(Photo by Thinx)

PS A First Period Box, to prepare teenage girls for their first menstruation.

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