A dream fairy house in a tree...

We loved the sweet little hidden fairy doors in Chris Beardshaw's Furzey garden when we visited the Chelsea Flower show...

 

With a little pottering around the web, we've realised that with a few natural materials, a little bit of ingenuity you can make a house for the little folk like these brilliant examples - we love the pumpkin house! And if you're lucky enough to be on the East Coast of the USA this summer, why not visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens? There's a Fairy House Festival there in August.

There's even a calendar of these beautiful tiny houses - if you can't get to Maine, this might be the next best thing!

Fairy House calendar on Amazon

And this book may provide just the inspiration you need to create your own fairy des-res in your back garden!

Fairy Houses on Amazon

Gorgeously Girly ways to celebrate with the Queen

picture credit: Mail online

The Diamond Jubilee is upon us and the nation has decorated itself in red, white and blue!

We thought we'd ask some of our staff to share how they'd celebrate the Jubilee with their gorgeous girls - daughters, sisters, nieces...

Clare Sheen, (Sales) suggested: 

   - A bit of baking, of course!   

     - Duck racing  

     - Make a crown for their jubilee party

     - Fancy dress

     - Face Painting

   Anna Porter-Wright, (E-Commerce) came up with:

     - Do 'Miss United Kingdom' nails - Paint a union jack on every nail!
- Dust golden glitter across cheeks and forehead for a touch of essential regal glitz
- Play Queenie and write a speech together about what you intend to do for the rest of the  summer
- Get Daddy to teach her to Waltz - essential knowledge for all princesses in training.
- Pour fresh orange juice and lemonade in wine glasses for instant child friendly Bucks Fizz!
- Play potato Hula Hoop royal ring stacking. The first one to sneak a nibble is out!

  

   Jane Clucas, (Press & PR) suggests:

- Make some paper doily bunting to decorate your Jubilee party [pic attached]

- Make some REAL lemonade, there's nothing quite like it, all you need are lemons, sugar and water: delicious!

• 3 unwaxed lemons , roughly chopped
• 140g caster sugar
• 1l cold water

1. Tip the lemons, sugar and half the water into a food processor and blend until the lemon is finely chopped.
2. Pour the mixture into a sieve over a bowl, then press through as much juice as you can. Top up with the remaining water and serve with plain ice or frozen with slices of lemon and lime.

- Sing Land of Hope and Glory at the top of your voices whilst waving a Union Jack!

   Louisa Riggs, (our Admin Angel!) adds:

   - Make cupcakes and decorate in red white and blue icing or with a crown on, or make crown shaped biscuits

   And why not take a look at our 'Jubilee Inspiration' Pinterest board? We've added our favourite pins from the recent competition entries - there are plenty of great ideas, 'how-to' pins and tutorials on there too, so enjoy your Jubilee!

 

 

Congratulations to notsobig!

As mentioned in our last post, our Highgate stockist, notsobig, won a Junior Design Award too - for Best Independent Retailer. Well deserved! Their Jubilee window display is looking extremely pretty at the moment, featuring our Jubilee Dress, accessorised with some particularly regal pearls and, of course, a tiara ...

Some exciting news!

We are delighted to share with you that ilovegorgeous has been awarded the Junior Design Award for Girl's Designer Fashion.

The Junior Design Awards recognise excellence in the whole arena of children's fashion, interiors and lifestyle, toys, books, food and dining and travel.

We're thrilled to receive our award and congratulate our Highate stockist notsobig on their award for Best Independent Retailer.

Girls will be... Tomboys, and a Jubilee competition

What an odd time we're having at the moment here in England! It's spring but we've still got cold and rainy weather, but summer is on its way - we promise! - and, wow, will we be pleased when we can wear our sandals and bare our shoulders to the sun! In these yet-to-be-warm times we're all turning to plimsolls, cotton knitted dresses and cardigans to keep off the chill while we wait.

Lucky Dress and Gold Sparkly Plimsolls from ilovegorgeous...

This season Sophie and Lucy have designed more playsuits than ever for the tomboys among our gorgeous girls. We've always been renowned for our fabulous party dresses and gorgeously girly separates but we know from our own children that even the girliest girl has days when climbing and clambering are on the agenda, and some girls simply refuse to wear a dress or skirt at all! So we've come up with a range of playsuits and jumpsuits that come in a long and short-legged, and in a range of fabrics; tiny floral prints, cool silver spot cotton, simple knitted cottons or bright and funky cotton crepe. Twill shorts and graphic knitwear such as our Marley or Palm jumper complete the offering for even the fussiest customers!

Jubilee Dress in shell pink from ilovegorgeous...

 Are you getting ready for the Jubilee? We're running a competition on Pinterest to offer you the chance to win one of our fabulous Jubilee dresses, Crown Necklaces and signed copies of one of our favourite books, Nicholas Allen's hilarious 'The Queen's Knickers'. We'd love to see your inspirational ideas for celebrating the Jubilee - so why not join in? Find details here... happy pinning!

Dreaming of blue skies and bucket-and-spade days...

We had a rare glimpse of blue sky this week, and the sun shone for a while... making us dream of hot summer days, picnics on the beach, ice cream, sandcastles and swimsuits. We've created a new Pinterest board to give us all something lovely to look at while the skies are grey. Find it here.

Take a look at our beachwear collection for your gorgeous girls, this year we've added a capacious sequinned beach bag to our range, and for the first time we're offering bikinis and sunglasses too. Protect delicate skin from the sun with a soft cotton voile beach cover and pop a cute playsuit in your beach bag for trips to the cafe!

All orders in May will receive a free handbag-size sample of our favourite sun cream for little ones from Green People. And as an added bonus - all orders will benefit from free delivery (worldwide) until midnight (GMT) on Saturday 12th May! Just use the code FREEPOST at checkout.

Photo credit: Porthcurno Beach in Cornwall - this is available as a print on art.co.uk

English Fairy Tales in the Spellbound Forest

 

You may remember last summer we told you about the Just So Festival, now Wild Rumpus, the company behind the super-successful festival, has come up with a magical event to share traditional English fairy tales with a new audience in a mystical woodland setting.

Spellbound Forest takes place on 19/20 May in Delamere Forest, Cheshire. Take a look at the website to discover more.

There are also some great downloads - how to make an origami bird to take along and help create an installation - and each fairy tale is available to listen to or read on screen. If you travel to the event by train there is a special goody bag available too.

It's just the start of the festival season - we'll keep you posted on the best child-friendly events in the UK this summer!

Click here to view the website