In 1969 Eric Carle produced a book which would become a huge hit worldwide. Even today "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" sells one copy every 30 seconds worldwide. Now, our friendly caterpillar is 41 and it's still just as popular, if not more so. It's a great children's book with fantastic illustrations and imagination taught throughout.

Eric Carle was born in the United States and then moved to Germany at the age of six. Eric's father would take him on walks through woods and across meadows. His father would lift a stone and underneath it Eric would see an amazing world of creatures and things that lived underneath. As a child Eric found these adventures with his Father to be quite magical and inspiring. He then went on to re-live these happy and fond memories in his illustrated books. Eric started off his career as a graphic designer. He then later become art director of an advertising agency before then moving into publishing. Great for children The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a great book for children because it has full page, brightly coloured illustrations to accompany the text. The text within the book is also easy to follow making it ideal for children that are learning to read. The book contains 225 words which are in large text accompanied by colourful illustrations. It can sometimes be difficult to get children to read books because they might have no interest in reading. Many children's books don't come with that many pictures or the pictures are a bit dull. Children need images and colours that are inspiring and magical. If you give a child a book that's bursting with full-page, bright and vibrant colours they'll want to look through it again and again. Pictures really help children to explore their imagination. The Very Hungry Caterpillar uses images that are perfect for children's imagination. The images are very artistic and slightly child-like. Not just your normal every-day caterpillar! The book The book itself follows the story of a caterpillar that munches his way through a variety of things such as ice cream, salami, watermelon, one slice of Swiss cheese, and a lollipop. The caterpillar then finally emerges as a beautiful butterfly towards the end of the story. The story teaches children to count to 5, the names of the days of the week and also about some types of food the caterpillar eats. Although the caterpillar's choice of foods in the book is fictional, it does teach children the basic concept of the metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to butterfly. The book is widely regarded worldwide as one of the best children's books ever written. It's easy to see why when your child becomes fascinated by its colours, words and humour. If your child is learning to read and you want to find a suitable book that's not going to intimidate them; this is the perfect choice. We do love what is possibly the world's oldest caterpillar and butterfly, and are delighted to stock a whole host of Hungry Caterpillar goodies – click on the pictures throughout this blog to find out more!

We love our products, but we love them even more when there's a 'story' behind them, and Sock-ons have a great story! Proud mother of 5 children Kezi Levin desperately needed to find a solution for her baby son's irritating sock obsession. He obviously didn't like wearing socks, and despite the cold, he would always remove them! When Kezi had to attend a family wedding that year she knew she needed to find a solution that didn't involve dressing him in tights! Whilst trying to sleep one night Kezi came up with an idea that might just solve the problem. Being unable to knit, she frantically cut up a pair of tights and glued them together to create what would be the first prototype for her new invention. To Kezi's delight, the idea worked! Kezi used her graphic design business to fund Sock-ons and was able to raise enough money over 3 years to get the product launched. Despite being strongly advised against producing the product herself by many business advisers, Kezi wanted to do this herself. Her sheer determination and wanting to prove people wrong became a successful combination. What are Sock-ons? Sock-ons are an ingenious design that prevents your child from removing their socks. The softly woven elastic material locks the babies' socks gently into position. Your baby is then unable to pull their socks off from the toe because the Sock-ons gently lock around the heel of the foot. A simple solution to such a tiresome problem! Kezi's background at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design helped her to come up with the funky design of the sock-ons. Whilst studying for her education Kezi learnt the hard way how to manage her time effectively whilst going through pregnancy. The time management skills now allow her to run her own graphic design business whilst looking after her five boys. Award winning design Kezi's Sock-ons invention was short listed as a finalist in the "Mom Invented" competition. This then encouraged Kezi to work even harder to get her invention produced and on the market. She spent, in total, 5 years getting sock-ons completely off the ground. It was a challenging project which has bought her many new skills and experiences. In 2008 Kezi's greatest achievement since starting Sock-ons came through winning the baby industry's most prestigious award. Sock-ons won the "Kind Und Jugend Award for innovation 2008". This helped take Kezi and her product into the international market and provides her with continued success. Simple solution turns into award winning product For Kezi, all she wanted to do was attend her family wedding without embarrassment! She knew her baby son would throw or drop his sock somewhere completely inappropriate! It's bad enough when your child tries to shout when the vicar asks "Does anyone here know why these two people here cannot get married", but to have to go running into the aisle to retrieve a thrown away sock; well that's more than a little embarrassing! Having found the perfect solution for her son’s irritating sock relief problem, Kezi was able to use her ambition to push her right to the top. So, she proved people wrong, worked hard at her business, and found a way of staying at home with her children whilst solving a problem many parents share! How inspiring is that?

In France there is a toy which is given to nearly every baby. Since 25th May 1961 Sophie la Girafe has been the traditional toy to give to a new born baby. She's a small teething toy that's ideal for children to hold on to. Her legs are just the right size for babies to grasp with their fingers. But what's interesting is that until 4 years ago you couldn't buy Sophie in the UK at all. In fact it was only 5 years ago that the French manufacturer Vulli decided babies worldwide should start chomping on Sophie. This year it's predicted that over 50,000 babies will use Sophie la Giraffe as their toy to chomp, drool, chew and squeak on. With more and more parents giving Sophie the thumb of approval, it might not be too long before she's a tradition in this country too! What's so special about Sophie? One of Sophie's most fascinating features is that she simply hasn't changed at all in 49 years. With a very retro look to her, Sophie's seen as safe. She's made from natural rubber and food grade paint. There's no PVC, BPA, Phthalates or other nasty chemicals hiding around to harm your child. Indeed it's probably her safe features that make her so popular amongst so many parents and babies too. There's no need to worry that the toy may wear down or become unsafe for your child. In some cases other teething toys can cause allergic reactions or skin conditions to children, but not Sophie. What's even more special about Sophie is her price. You might not see the value in spending a fortune on the latest designer baby wear. You might even be annoyed at how most chew toys need replacing after a few days. But with Sophie you'll be able to join the luxury club. Celebrity mums such as Isla Fisher, Naomi Watts, Nicole Richie and Sofia Coppola are amongst just some of the parents that use Sophie. All this luxury sounds like it's going to cost more than the designer baby wear right? Well, you're looking at just £12 to get your hands on this exclusive club. Is she a gimmick? The strangest thing about Sophie is that she's genuinely not a gimmick. What's even more surprising is that her massive success over the past 49 years hasn't been backed by a huge marketing campaign. Nearly every new-born in France is given one yet Sophie isn’t main-stream marketed. She's simply a very effective toy that does the job perfectly. Mums and Dads have been passing their recommendations on for the past 49 years. That's how Sophie got where she is today; a sign of a genuine product that actually works. No advertising required. So if your child's going through the teething phase, consider Sophie la Giraffe. After all, it is her Birthday!

Enjoy 15% off when you spend £40 or more until midnight on Sunday - just enter SPRING when checking out to receive your discount. You might have spotted that we've introduced reviews. All reviews will be entered into a draw where we'll give away £50 of gift vouchers to spend on our site each month. The lucky winner will be announced on our Facebook page and all reviews submitted so far have been entered into the May draw. See here for the reviews we've had so far: http://www.littlesunflowers.com/reviews.php We look forward to serving you soon! With our best wishes Bev & Andy http://www.littlesunflowers.com

Here at Little Sunflowers, we've always been proud of our customer service as well as our great children's clothes, so we're delighted to bring you our latest news.

If you're a Fan of our Facebook Fan Page or you follow us on Twitter, you'll know that we were hoping to be listed on the verygoodservice.com website.

verygoodservice.com is a new website aimed at bringing together companies that have won awards for their products and services to make it easy to find the very best companies.

They usually feature award winning companies, many of which are large businesses that are very well known and enter lots of awards. But then there's a smaller part of the website, a part which we love.

Severine's corner is for companies that haven't necessarily applied for awards, may not spend thousands on advertising, and possibly aren't well known. But they DO give great customer service, and are vouched for by their customers.

In order to be listed on the site, we had to get our customers to vouch for us, and we're thrilled that you came in droves!

"have ordered a couple of things from this site and check it all the time - service is quick and fast and only have to spend £12 for free delivery "

"Great clothes, great service, great people :)"

"Lovely people with fab service and gorgeous products. What more could you want!"

"Fantastic service - nothing is too much trouble - thank you x"

"super service i love to buy stuff from you "

And because you said such nice things about us, Severine now has us listed in her corner - so a huge thank you to you all! We'll continue to try and provide great customer service, and look forward to dealing with every one of you in the future!

Before we opened our doors for the first time in 2004 we aspired to stock only childrenswear made from organic cotton. It became obvious very quickly however that, even such a relatively short time ago, this would be difficult to achieve if we wanted bright, bold colours, fabulous styling and all at the right price. However we have come a long way in 6 years, and so has the market. Since babies and infants have much more sensitive skin, sometimes they can react more to certain chemicals so the Oeko-Tex label offers additional protection for them. The Oeko-Tex label is also a sign of care in the textile production process, including the raw materials that are used to create clothes. Oeko-Tex standards ensure that materials are responsibly sourced. This means re-planting any trees or plants that are used to ensure there is no significant impact on the environment. Of course, any brand that carries the Oeko-Tex label can be stylish too! The label won't affect the price or the style, it's there to provide quality assurance. Many well-known brands are now supporting Oeko-Tex 100 standard which is fast becoming a selling point for concerned consumers.

At Little Sunflowers we aim to deliver a simply outstanding customer experience to you and here is a summary of the results of our recent Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Where did this information come from?

We sent out a customer survey in April this year to everyone on our newsletter list plus we posted a link to it on our Facebook Fan Page.  Over 800 of you responded.   We were amazed and really chuffed to receive such a large and positive response – so thank you very much!

Here’s a summary of what you said:

72% of you have recommended us to your friends and 97% of you would definitely/ probably buy from us again.  We appreciate you putting your trust in us and telling other people, and we will now strive to improve our service further as a result of what you’ve said.  We’ve also been thinking hard about how to enhance our referral programme to make it as rewarding for you as possible and will let you know about this separately very soon.

As well as answering our questions you’ve given us some great ideas about how we can improve our site.  We’ve already started to make some of the changes you asked for:

• You asked for reviews on the site - reviews are now live.  We’ll be communicating separately about how this is going to work and the incentives that will be available if you decide to post a review on the site.
• Some of you wanted the gift-wrapping option to be clearer.  We’ve moved it so that it’s at the top of every page, along with a second ‘add to basket’ button at the top to save time when you’re in a rush.
• Some of you would like the site to be brighter and less ‘busy’ on the homepage.  We agree, it is about time for a revamp!  So we’ve given the go ahead for a new site which will happen over the next 2-3 months.  Lots of people said ‘don’t change a thing’ though so we’ll be working hard to make the site look more appealing without changing the things you like about it.

Finally some of your lovely comments are here: http://www.littlesunflowers.com/customer_testimonials.php

More importantly, who won the Gift Vouchers?

We’ve been to http://www.random.org to help us select our 2 winners who are: Julia Rackind and Mette Jacobsen.  Congratulations to you both, we have sent you your codes for £30 gift vouchers!

We never forget that we wouldn’t have a business without you.  You are loveliest customers we could hope for and we really appreciate your custom – thank you again for your feedback and support.

Best wishes

Bev, Andy & the Team

Win £100 of Little Sunflowers vouchers!

We've never really considered stocking high heels for 3 year olds as one of our ranges in our childrenswear shop, as it doesn't strike us as the most sensible thing to do! So it's with interest that we've read the press recently and watched the growing furore over little Suri Cruise and her choice of footwear. Suri, the daughter of actor Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes, has been seen out and about regularly in high heeled shoes, and they seem to be becoming a bit of a habit! While we know that every little girl loves dressing up, we're not convinced that letting her wear high heels (and yes we know they're not 5 inch stilettoes but even so!) regularly is good for her feet. The Daily Mail today has quoted mum Katie as saying:

'They are actually ballroom dancing shoes for kids. I found them for her and she loves them.'

Well, ballroom dancing shoes or not, we're not sure they're suitable every day footwear for a growing 3 year old with paparazzi to outrun! We'd love to hear your comments - please post below!

We're currently running a competition on our Facebook Fan Page, where we're offering £100 of Little Sunflowers vouchers to one lucky participant.