Pili Pala Blog
Saturday 04 September 2010We’re
celebrating Organic Fortnight at Pili Pala Childrenswear. The two week campaign organised by the Soil
Association runs from the 3rd to the 17th of September
and aims to highlight the benefits of going organic. Being a company which produces organic
childrenswear we’re ready to party!
When
we set up Pili Pala we were keen to ensure that our environmental impact as
clothing manufacturers was kept to a minimum.
We’ve therefore been very careful to select organic cotton and recycled
fabrics for our clothing ranges – all of which are produced in the UK. We believe that fashionable clothes shouldn’t
be produced in sweatshops or compromise the health of the people or the places
involved in producing them. If you’d
like to learn a little more about the benefits of organic cotton take a look at
this
page.
If,
like us, you fancy marking the fortnight with a bit of a celebration, the Soil
Association has a few handy
ideas about how you can turn a deeper shade of green! We’re going to town and baking a cake made
from organic ingredients (not that we need an excuse to bake mind you!).
Now,
pass me another organic chocolate to go with the organic wine!
0 Comments | Tags: organic, childrenswear, organic fortnight,
Friday 27 August 2010We love the summer holidays! We also love having the opportunity to dust
off our camera and snap away - capturing the essence of summer from sunbathing
and sandcastles to puddle stomping and soggy sandwiches.
We’ve been lucky this summer and have been
sent a few of our customers’ favourite holiday photos. From far flung places to
the back garden, they’re full of fun!
Receiving photos from our Pili Pals and customers really cheers up our
days so please keep up the good work and send over your pics (email us at
news@pilipalachildrenswear.com)!
If you’re stuck for inspiration, there are
numerous blogs online which feature fantastic photographs. One such blog is Emma Bradshaw’s. Emma is a mother, photographer and regular
blogger. Sneak a peek at her blog here
– we guarantee you’ll love it.
Another blog which highlights the best
photos from other blogs is this is not my
work. We’ve lost hours gazing at her
photos and those from other blogs and have been truly inspired to get snap
happy.
We’ll shortly be holding our next photo
shoot for our Spring/Summer 2011 collection - something we’re particularly
excited about! With a bit of luck, the
sun will shine and our little ones will be bouncing around in the samples from
our next collection. Keep your eyes
peeled for the photos on our blog in September!
All together now, say “CHEESE”!
0 Comments | Tags: photos, organic, childrenswear, emma bradshaw,
Wednesday 18 August 2010Do
you rough it with not much more than a toothbrush and a sleeping bag? Or do you
pack the duvet, air bed, wide screen telly, toaster and fill every possible
space in the car with ‘essentials’?
Whatever your style, we love camping!
We
have a few favourite camp sites around the country and frequently check out the
pages of Cool Camping - Kids for
destination ideas. One of our favourite
camp sites is Naturesbase in Cilcennin, West Wales. Imagine a field with thigh high grass and
wild flowers, then imagine a great big patch of cut grass and a path cut out
just for you and your tent – that’s Naturesbase! A warm welcome awaits and they even provide
you with a fire pit to encourage you to build your own camp-fire for the all
important marshmallow toasting session!
Check out www.naturesbaseholidays.co.uk
and tell them we say hello – we’ll be back soon!
We
also love drooling over the pages of the Happy Campers book which
if full of fantastic ideas about how your camping holiday can be turned into a
brilliant adventure. From tips on what
to take to recipes and games, it’ll have you searching for your torch and
packing your wellies before you reach the second chapter. Take a look here
for their tips on how to cope with little ones and camping!
Pili
Pala has some seriously cool wardrobe ideas for your camping trip too – our velour harem
style trousers are great with wellies as you don’t have to tuck anything
in! For sunnier days, our stripy shorts
are firm favourites – wellies or barefoot!
Now,
where did we put that air bed....?
0 Comments | Tags: Pili Pala, organic, clothing, camping, glamping,
Thursday 12 August 2010
We’re picky about our bananas. We like them on the greener side of
yellow. When the black spots appear they tend to be the last thing left
in the fruit bowl.
However, we’ve now found a solution which not only solves our banana
problem (and doesn’t involve throwing them out!) and is a great activity for
all involved. So, grab your bananas and get to the kitchen to make our
fantastic banana pili pala cakes!
Banana Butterfly Cakes – makes around 24
Ingredients
4 large over-ripe bananas, mashed
285g/10 oz wholemeal (or plain) flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
110g/4oz butter at room temperature
225g/8oz golden caster sugar
2 organic free range eggs
85 ml/3fl oz of buttermilk (or normal milk mixed with 1 ½ tsp lemon
juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g/3 ½oz dark chocolate broken up into small chips
For the chocolate butter icing
30 ml/2 tbsp cocoa powder
15 ml/1 tbsp boiling water
100 g/4 oz butter or margarine, softened
225 g/8 oz icing sugar, sifted
15 ml/1 tbsp milk
You will also need 24 paper cases and two, 12 hole tartlet trays (or use
the same one twice).
Method
- Aprons on? Hands clean? Everybody happy? Let's go!
- Preheat the oven to
180C/350F/Gas 4.
- In a clean bowl, cream
the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, mashed
bananas, chocolate chips, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar
mixture and mix well.
- Sift the flour and
baking powder into the bowl and fold in.
- Place the paper cases in
the 12 hole tartlet tray(s). Spoon out the mixture into the 24 paper cases.
- Transfer to the oven and
bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until well-risen and golden-brown.
- Remove from the oven and
cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool
completely before icing.
- Whilst the cakes are in
the oven, or cooling, mix the cocoa to a paste with the boiling water, then
leave to cool. Beat the butter or margarine until soft. Gradually beat in the
icing sugar, milk and cocoa mixture until well blended.
- To make the pili pala
(butterfly) part of the cake, take a sharp knife and cut off the tops of the
cakes. Spread a thin layer of the chocolate icing over each cake.
Cut the ‘top’ part of the cake in half and place on top of the cake to
make a butterfly as shown in the photo.
- Put your feet up and
enjoy a cake with a cup of tea, glass of milk or whatever takes your fancy!
We’d love to see your cakes – send in any photos to us at
news@pilipalachildrenswear.com
0 Comments | Tags: organic, banana cake, pili pala, butterfly,
Wednesday 04 August 2010
Music, stripy marquees, ice cream, beer tents, bunting, strawberries and cream, flip-flops and wellies - hooray for festival season! Have you been grooving at Glastonbury or are you planning on entering your prize onions at the local village fête? Whatever you fancy, festivals are a fantastic part of the summer. So pack up a picnic, grab your tent, invite your friends and go and find yourself a festival!
Fancy a festival of culture? Then head off to the National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale this week. From poetry recitals to disco dancing, there’s plenty to entertain all members of the family.
Heading north? Look out for the world-renowned Edinburgh Festival! Want to bop till you drop? Brecon Jazz is a fab festival which brings music and dance to the streets of Brecon.
Fancy yourself as a bit of a foodie? There are numerous food festivals across the UK – check in with your local tourist information centre for local ones or for food festivals in Wales visit www.walesthetruetaste.com
Planning next year’s holiday already? If you love big music festivals but don’t feel that they cater for young children you obviously haven’t been to Camp Bestival! Held at the end of July at Lulworth Castle it’s like Glastonbury with pushchairs and the line-up this year included big name bands from across the decades in addition to the ever popular Mr Tumble!
One of the festival essentials for many Pili Pals is the green and brown jumpsuit. Roomy enough for it to be worn over day clothes, it makes sure that your little ones are kept warm when the sun goes down.
0 Comments | Tags: Pili Pala, organic jumpsuit, organic clothes,
Tuesday 27 July 2010 Six weeks holiday can seem like an eternity when you’re faced with entertaining small children. We hope you’ll find our top tips useful for keeping little ones busy and prevent the inevitable cry of ‘I’m bored’ from them and ‘help’ from you!
1. Plan a beach treasure hunt. If you’re on the beach and fancy five minutes to yourself create a treasure hunt for your kids. Write a list of items that can be found on a beach e.g. shells, seaweed, bird feathers, driftwood... and send your kids searching. If you’re in need of some real quiet time, add a few items that will be hard to find! Keep an eye on them whilst they comb the beach for goodies and reward them when they return with their bounty.
2. Raining outside? Close the curtains. Turn off the lights. Turn up the music. Dance! It’ll make you and your kids feel great and with the curtains closed your neighbours won’t be any the wiser!
3. Camp out in the back garden. Pack up a picnic and pitch up your tent in the back garden. You don’t need to go far to have fun!
4. Bake! Everyone loves cake. Adult t-shirts make great ‘cover all’ aprons on small kids. Cover them up and get out the baking ingredients. Cupcakes are easy to make, quick to cook and you can spend ages decorating them with icing, raisins, chocolate buttons and even edible glitter.
5. Pili Pala's personal favorite! Snail races. Cut out a large circle of cardboard and either paint or mark concentric circles on it. Send the kids searching around the garden for snails and once everyone has a snail each place them in the centre of the cardboard and watch to see which snail makes it to the outside of the circle. Make sure you play this outside or you’ll be searching high and low for the snails!
6. Get together with other mums and hire the village hall. Play party games such as musical chairs, sleeping lions, stick in the mud... A cheap way of having a party with no need for presents. Your kids will have a great time and you’ll have a chance to catch up with other mums!
7. Have a weekly theme! You can devise your own little projects to occupy little minds. Go for bugs one week and go bug hunting; read the Hungry Caterpillar; hire ‘Bug’s Life’ and create model bugs using egg cartons and pipe cleaners! Other themes could include monsters, fairies, countries, super heroes or magic – try thinking of themes which have books or films associated so that you have some quiet time whilst they read or watch a film!
8. Build a castle! Visit a castle for some inspiration or ‘Google’ some images of castles. Make a plan and then raid the supermarket for cardboard. Construct a castle using the cardboard and some masking tape, painting it and cutting out windows. The bigger the better!
9. Make spoon people. Buy wooden spoons from supermarkets’ value range and dress them up using felt, left over fabric and wool. Paint or draw faces on and host your own spoon ‘puppet show’!
10. Be a local tourist. Visit your local Tourist Information Centre and rediscover what’s great about your area. Take your camera, write a postcard to the grandparents and treat your day out as if you’re visiting the area for the first time – even better if you can find the time and money for an ice cream!
Enjoy! Let us know how you get on and send in some photos – we love hearing from you.
0 Comments | Tags: organic kids clothes, pili pala,
Tuesday 20 July 2010 The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show is a pretty big thing in Wales. Imagine a village fete with ‘best in show’ competitions including everything from ducks to jam and prize bulls to giant onions. Now multiply what you have by about a hundred and you may be somewhere in the region of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. Held in July every year in Builth Wells, Powys it draws people from all over the UK and further afield. Whatever the weather, thousands flock to the showground for the highlight of the agricultural calendar. We’re hoping to pop along this week to see all the animals, savour some fantastic food and meet old friends. It’s a fantastic trip for all the family and is bound to be a big hit with our little kids. If you’re heading that way and you’re wondering what to wear we don’t think you’ll go far wrong with our stripy organic leggings tucked into your wellie boots. Funky and fashionable, they’re quick drying if you manage to jump in one too many puddles but cool enough if the sun manages to make an appearance!
See you there!
0 Comments | Tags: organic leggings
Friday 09 July 2010With summer now in full swing, here at Pili Pala, we thought it was about time we treated our lovely customers to a bit of summer saving! You can now save 30% on selected items from our sunny yellow organic bamboo range and the loveable 100% organic yellow and brown stripe range! Happy days!
0 Comments | Tags: Pili Pala, organic jumpsuit, organic clothes,
Monday 14 June 2010
Pili Pala Childrenswear is set to
launch their third collection at Bubble London June 20-21, 2010 (Stand
VB8).
Strengthening their ethos of ethically
produced clothes that are made to last, the new collection again contains
pieces which are both unisex and trans-seasonal with funky design-led garments using the
softest organic cotton, velour and recycled fabric.
Underwear
The most
exciting aspect of the new collection is the launch of an underwear range in
soft organic cotton which includes boy’s briefs, girl’s briefs and a
multi-purpose unisex vest.
Pili Pala’s
founder, Berith Lochery, explains: “Following the success of our first two
collections I wanted to increase our offer to both our retailers and consumers.
Our ethos of producing funky, practical clothes in the softest organic cotton
should be applied to underwear too. More and more parents appreciate the
quality of our organic garments and it seemed natural to introduce underwear
into the collection.”
The briefs and
vest are available in both red and navy stripes as well as block color and will
be available as sets in specially commissioned gift boxes made from recycled
materials, naturally. The new underwear collection is available in
sizes 2 – 12 years.
Babywear
Hot on the
heels of the successful introduction of Pili Pala babywear during AW10, the new
babywear range includes babygros, hats and bibs all available in red or red and
navy stripes – equally stylish for baby girls or boys. Created in
soft organic cotton, the babywear range is sure to be a big hit with babies and
their parents. Available in sizes from birth to 12 months.
Clothing
Pili Pala’s third collection continues
its signature identity of stylish, clean lines which emphasise comfort along
with strong playful stripes and an increased colour palette of bold colour
blocks in red, red and navy stripes with highlights of yellow embroidery.
New garment styles include the addition
of a sundress in red, red and navy stripes. Wide, comfortable,
play-proof straps stylishly crossover at the back with popper fastenings for
easy dressing. These comfortable popper fastenings are also seen on
the red velour unisex dungarees, with long trousers they are the perfect
trans-seasonal wardrobe solution for chilly, grey days whether it’s spring,
summer or indeed autumn.
All of Pili Pala’s clothes are produced
using organic fabric and ethical processes. Designed and
manufactured in the UK, the garments are a fantastic combination of sensational
style and comfortable clothing which are produced without compromising on
ethical or environmental standards.
0 Comments | Tags: Bubble, SS11, organic, babywear,
Wednesday 09 June 2010Here at Pili Pala head quarters we are gearing for up Bubble, London, June 20th& 21st June. This will be our second appearance at this amazing trade show and we can't wait! Pili Pala will be showing our new SS11 collection. Key new pieces include unisex overalls and underwear! Our stand number is VB8, located on the Village Green. So all you childreswear buyers out there..we look forward to seeing you there!
0 Comments | Tags: Pili Pala, organic childrenswear collection,
Monday 07 June 2010Our playdough was a big hit with young and old at the Eisteddfod
so we thought we’d share our recipe with you!
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar
food colouring
Put all the ingredients in a heavy base
saucepan and place on the hob. On a low
heat, mix all of the ingredients together, and continue to stir until the dough
thickens and resembles mashed potatoes.
When the dough pulls away from the sides of the
saucepan and forms one big lump, remove the pan from heat and allow the dough
to cool enough so that you can handle it.
If your playdough is still sticky, put it back on the heat until it
forms one big lump.
Once cool, divide the playdough into
smaller lumps and place on a surface covered with cling film or baking
parchment. Make a small well in each
lump and add the food colouring of your choice. Knead vigorously to mix the
colour into the dough.
Your playdough is now ready for you to play
with. Enjoy!
To store, keep in an airtight
container. If the dough starts to dry
out slightly, just add a little water and knead through.
0 Comments | Tags: Pili Pals, playdough, Eisteddfod,
Monday 07 June 2010For some time now, Pili Pala has been shouting about our organic jumpsuit and what a perfect beach companion they make. We are pleased to say that Junior Magazine agrees! Featured in their July issue, Junior Magazine describes Pili Pala our childrens clothes as "laid -back casuals with a quirky twist"- We couldn't agree more!
0 Comments | Tags: Pili Pala, organic jumpsuit, organic clothes,