Organic box delivered on a bike

For a while, while driving through Brussels wih Mr M and the kids, we often spotted a guy riding a cool delivery bicycle with organic fruit and vegetables. We could make out the website, so we noted it down and we decided to give it a try.

The company is called L'Hereaux Nouveau and it offers a weekly delivery service for organic/ bio fruit and vegetables straight from the farmers. They have a shop in Saint Gilles but you can order your delivery through their website (only available in French, I am afraid) in a fairly straightforward manner. Every week, deliveries are made on Fridays, so orders can be placed until Wednesday afternoon. You can view the composition of the organic box (or "panier") and choose between Belgian-only produce or European-wide produce and go for a small, medium or large box. For a few extra euros, you can ask for the box to be delivered straight to your home address, or choose one of the delivery points in St Gilles, Forest, Ixelles, Etterbeek, Uccle, Brussels centre and St Josse.

Last week, we went for a medium, European box, which weighted about 7 kilos.

The produce is delivered in a paper bag and it contains a description of the contents and also a leaflet with some recipe ideas. When you register in the service, you also receive a weekly newsletter with more recipes info about their producers, and a whole array of events they are involved in.

I think organic box delivery services are a great way of encouraging eating seasonal, organic produce that is healthier than the average supermarket variety. It also makes you discover less popular fruit and vegetables. and kinds of forces you into planning your weekly menus around the contents of the bag, making sure nothing goes to waste. It definitely pushes you a bit out of your comfort, tried-and-tested zone, but it is definitely worth it.

DOD: Great clothes at great prices

When I think about kids clothes, especially boys, I know they have to be nice but also have to be also great quality and stand the wear and tear of two active little fellows. On the other hand, I don't want to spend a fortune dressing my kids.

DOD Junior in Avenue Louise

DOD is one of those shops I go time and time again. It's not only a kids' clothes paradise, but also caters women and men's fashion. I think it only exists in Brussels, and, since I've become a Bruselaar, it's one of those places you need to visit. There are few shops dotted around the Madou Tower area (metro Madou) and one in the Bascule neighbourhood, but the ones I go to most often are in the Rue de Bailli area, in Ixelles (tram 94, stop Rue de Bailli). The women, men's and 6 to 16 year old shops are located in Rue de Bailli itself, while the babies, toddlers and kids up to 6 years is around the corner, on Avenue Louise (a few metres from the Michael Collins Irish Pub)

What is the secret? Well, you can find a huge variety of clothes and footwear of well known, good quality brands, for a fraction of the price you pay elsewere. Some of the brands in the baby shop include Noukie, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Chevignon, Okaidi, IKKS, Geoxx shoes, etc.

I believe the way they work is that they stock clothes from a couple of season's ago. It does not really bother me because, hello, who cares about following the latest trends in kids fashion? A body (onesie/ romper) is a body and a sweater is a sweater. Over the years I have bought tons of clothes and shoes for Bibu and Pingu in DOD Junior and I have always been very happy with the quality and with the price, of course. Just as an example, last year, my mother in law bought Bibu a very nice pair of sneakers from Geoxx in a shoe shop close to their home. They paid something like 70 EUR, which is I think an average price for kids sport shoes. A few months later, I saw similar Geoxx shoes in the DOD for less than half the price, and it was not during the sales, just their regular price. Also, more recently, I bought a lovely light sweater from IKKS, for a 6-month old baby at 14 EUR.

So, cannot recommend the place enough. For me it really ticks many boxes.

The only drawback from DOD, and one you have to bear in mind, is that they do not make exhanges under any circumstances. Once you have paid for the item, it's yours........ for all eternity, even if you find out it's too small for your kiddo or he/ she hates it. So, maybe a tricky one to go for presents, unless you know the size of the kid perfectly well. The same applies for shoes, so make sure they try them properly before leaving the place.

Another point to bear in mind when shopping in the DOD Junior in Avenue Louise is that the shop has just enough place to manouver a pram/ stroller. The babies clothes up to 3 years is on the groundfloor, but for older kids, up to 6 years old, you need to go upstairs and there is no elevator, so not really recommended if you want to go shopping for your baby and older kids at the same time (unless you are accompanied by someone who can mind the baby in the stroller while you go upstairs). Same happens in the DOD Junior in Bascule.

Tried and tested: cute labels for your kid's stuff

Baby Pingu recently started going to daycare, in view to my imminent return to the office world. At Belgium's childcare centres, they typically provide the nappies and meals and you need to foresee to provide the formula, bottles, extra sets of clothes, pacifiers, creams for nappy rash, etc, all dutifully labelled with your bundle of joy's name.

In the past, I've resorted to just writing into the labels of the garment in question and sticking a regular paper label onto the bottles. Regardless to say, the process needs to be repeated rather often, as the labels peel off after a couple of washes and the "permanent" markers are not so permanent after all.

I was therefore looking for a more lasting solution. I had seen nice plastic labels, some with cute designs, on the clothes and items of Bibu's friends, but never found out a place to it. That is until a few weeks ago, when one of my friends showed me her kid's labels from Lovely Labels and told me it was super easy to order them online.

Source: homepage Lovelylabels

I went to their website and ordered the "paquet combiné", which consists of a combo of labels for textile, two different sizes of plastic labels and a luggage tag for your kid's school bag for about 20 EUR. You can choose the font, colour and a variety of cute designs (you can also choose not to have any design) and pick one of a several designs for the luggage tag. I ordered the textile labels and the big plastic labels for Bibu and the small labels for baby Pingu, which are more handy for example to stick to his pacifier (just about the perfect size). They also make custom ID bracelets -which can come in handy on holidays-, and round and special shape labels.

I made the order on a Sunday evening and by Tuesday morning the pack had arrived. The items arrived as I had ordered them, so no nasty surprises. So far I have used the plastic labels on a number of items but still have not tested the textile ones, although they look very pretty too.

I'll definitely re-order!