Dream products....

Anna and I are always searching for beautiful, handmade, unique gifts made from natural & sustainable products that can be enjoyed by children for years to come. No small task I assure you, as there are many people out there who make beautiful creations but not all are suitable for children.

We were approached by a jewellery maker who made lovely sparkly pieces of jewellery aimed at younger people. However these beaded creations provided us with a conundrum - would they survive the onslaught of a toddler? would they still be around for the next generation to cherish? Since the answer to both these questions was - probably not... we had to inform the jewellery maker that although her pieces were beautiful they weren't quite within the ethos of u-ni-k.

Not to sound too fussy but we try to keep to our word. Our gifts should be unique, responsible (made from natural or sustainable material), and able to be treasured by this generation and the next. In addition to this we demand the highest quality for our customers, which with our makers is easy as they believe passionately in their products and always produce pieces that are of outstanding quality. I'm happy to say we still have 100% customer satisfaction after 18months of business!

However, sometimes there are products we'd love to sell to you all but we haven't as yet found them! Here are my top 5 dream products:

1. Husband / Baby Remote Control
    Just give me the ability to pause my family once in a while. Just for a little while, 5mins or so.

2. Mind Controlled Coffee Machine
    Please I need to be able to make a cup of coffee just via my mind. OK I only need to be able to think, coffee machine on when I hear baby shout 'MuuuummmmmmAAAAA!' at 6am in the morning.

3. Traffic Budger
   When we're stuck on the road to the grandparents and everyone has had enough of being in the car. People are starting to pick on each other, kick the back of the car seat in front of them.... Like the Night Bus in Harry Potter I need to be able to squeeze through traffic safely.

4. InstaFine
  Some kind of ticketing machine that allows all Mums searching for a Mother&Baby parking space the ability to fine all those men in big cars with no kids that have parked in the last Mother&Baby parking space because they don't have the skill to park their big cars in a normal parking spot! Multiple Mother's with baby's trying to do the weekly shop will be allowed to fine the same car. One Mother&Baby one ticket - several Mother & Baby's later and that fella with the big car would have a minimum of £180 to pay for parking there! Soon we'd have the Mother & Baby spots to park in!!

5. Dinner-A-Matic
 A machine that could produce a healthy, balanced, delicious meal within minutes. We could restrict it to just once a week, but give Mum a break by producing a dinner for those days when she's just had enough but wants to lose the baby belly and eat healthy (sometimes that take away does us no favours).

I'd set up a "Especially for Mums" part of the website for products like these! In the meantime we'll just keep selling our lovely baby gifts... go and take a look at www.unikgfits.co.uk

Family treasures?

Anna recently helped her Mum move house, which meant that she found a host of family treasures in the attic. Like most people, Anna has lived in one family home for her childhood and her family have probably lived in the area for a generation or two. So her family have been able to treasure and store items for each generation and the next to enjoy! What a wonderful treasure hunting day it must have been discovering things in the family loft.

My childhood couldn't have been more different. We moved every 18 months or so, packing up our treasures in paper and placing them into boxes hoping that they would survive the journey to the next house. Many didn't, moving men in those days being of the 'throw it in the back of the truck' kind. This 'gypsy' lifestyle meant that we couldn't afford to carry around precious momentos that our parents had enjoyed as children. Since HM Forces didn't usually provide an attic or basement with their accommodation, we had very small storage and really had to be selective with our 'treasures'.

Now that I'm settled in a permanent family home [no more moving for me!], I'm keen to start a collection of family treasures – things that both Kathryn and I love and treasure. When she's grown out of them I'll put them up in our attic and save them for her children. I'm looking forward to the day when I send my Daughter upstairs to find treasures that we loved and that her children can play with!

It's this thought I use when selecting items to suggest to Anna that we sell through u-ni-k gifts. Some gifts for children should be investments in this generation and the next... a supersoft blanket to wrap baby in, a wooden car for them to brrrrm [or for future generation to laugh at the fact vehicles used to roll along the ground!], a memory quilt made from great granny's baby clothes with her name and birth date in, granny's name and birth date in, Mummy's name and birth date in..squares to add each generations name and date of birth. A true Mother to Daughter gift that will last generations!

The very talented Susan of Fat Hen and Flo famed put a lot of love and work into the Davies Family quilt and Kathryn has already sneaked a play in it before it was whisked off to be wrapped up for Christmas** . Here's a few photos of our family quilt:

 The quilt laid out on a king sized bed!

 The aplique details!

 Hand quilted with flowers, birds and hearts!

 A surprise detail...

 detailing around the side!

 Name square

 peekaboo! Bunny rabbits are big in our house

Memory quilts and lots of other lovely Fat Hen and Flo creations– coming soon to u-ni-k gifts.
Contact us for more information!

**yes Kathryn found and was delighted with the bunny when she sneaked a play in her quilt!