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Showing posts from May, 2013

Toyday Treasure Hunt and Pirate Themed Window Display

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We've gone a bit Pirate mad at Toyday and created a window display with all things Pirate!  The sun is shining and I'm sure many of you will be heading to the beach or nearest park this weekend.  Our Magnetic Fishing Game and Wooden Spade would make great fun for the day out. The Decorate Your Own Pirate Chest is great for keeping all your little treasures safe in your personally designed special box. In the picture below you can see somethings essential for Pirate themed birthday parties such as our Pirate Telescope .  Emily's also customised our Pirate Flags to look like bunting, which would be perfect for decoration. My favourite thing in the window has to be the Sailor Rag Doll , which is from our new collection of rag dolls .  I know I would have loved this as a little girl and probably want to take it with me everywhere i went!  I also need to point out our new Small Pirate Rag Doll with a rattle inside, which is suitable for children from birth.

Looe Festival By The Sea

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This weekend is the Looe Festival By The Sea, a fantastic event for all the family! The weather is set to shine on Cornwall this half term so this is certainly a going to be a fantastic time to visit Looe. The festival is a celebration of everything which coastal living has to offer. This is a must for all foodies as the quayside holds a market showcasing all the amazing culinary delights the town and it's industries have to offer. As you walk down the side of the picturesque Looe River you will be inundated by the smells of exotic sea foods which are all being prepared live in front of you. 1st & 2nd of June 2013 - Festival By The Sea - A great way to finish your half term break! Looe Marine Conservation Group On the Friday there is a rock pool ramble organised on Hannafore Beach (West Looe) starting at 3pm and finishing at 5 pm, meet at the life guard station. This is a family friendly event to introduce you to a few creatures from the rocky sea shore around Looe –

What Toys to Buy for a New Baby

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While you wait for the grand arrival of your little one you find yourself surrounded by things to buy but what do they actually need? There is so much temptation out there of cute outfits and adorable baby things. You want to be prepared which is a good idea as you won't have much time when baby arrives but you have to bear in mind that other people may buy lots of gifts for baby. The biggest mistake tends to be buying lots of clothes in size 0-3 months as this seems to be the size that everybody buys as presents when in actual fact most babies wear the newborn size (about 11lb) to start off with or maybe even smaller sizes. When buying a rattle you need to find one that will be easy to grip for little hands as like everything else, gripping is something that they will have to learn. For the same reason I would recommend looking for one that is lightweight. The other thing to consider is that everything will go in the mouth and they may start teething as early as three months o

A Bath Is Not A Bath Without Your Rubber Duck

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Everyone, at some point in their lives, has had a bath with a rubber duck. A rubber duck in the bath can make washing, for a child, so much more fun. Here at Toyday you can pick up big ducks, small ducks, ducks with personalities or even a duck that you can blow bubbles with.   Our ducks that have their own personalities are perfect as gifts for your son or daughter. We have Count Dracula ducks and Darling ducks. Here in Looe we even have a annual duck race. The 2012 Great Looe River Duck Race took place on 2nd September 2012 and 5,000 plastic ducks took part. They had to float down the river from Looe Bridge to the Lower Ferry Steps. The ticket holders for the first 4 ducks to complete the course win a cash prize ranging from £1,000 to £50.  Some people have even set out to create the largest rubber duck in the world. The current world record for the largest duck was created by a Dutch artist in 2007. His duck measures at 16.5 x 20 x 32 meters and weighs o

How to make a bottle cannon

I found a small section in a book about how to make bottle cannon's out of a glass bottle. I thought I would post the intructions for adults/children to try it themselves! You will need- An empty glass bottle (preferably a champagne bottle) 1 cork to fit in the bottle A piece of card Blotting paper 2 pencils Thread Carbonate of soda Tartaric acid Water Instructions- 1) Fill the bottle 1/3 of the way with water 2) Dissolve the carbonate of soda in the bottle 3) Make a cylinder out of the card and pour in the tartaric acid 4) Plug the other end of the cylinder with paper 5) Stick the pin into the base of the cork and tie it to the end of the cartridge with the thread 6) Make sure the bottom of the tube doesn't touch the water in the bottle when it's standing upright by ensuring that the thread is not too long 7) When you have made and attached the cartridge, lower it through the bottle neck and fit the cork into the bottle neck (not too tight) 8) FIRE A

How To Make Paper Beads

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Creating paper beads is a really easy and fun way of making your own jewellery. With a little practice you can achieve very professional results without shelling out a fortune for equipment. Things You Will Need        Scraps of Paper      Large Pair of Scissors       A Piece of Thin Wire or Tooth Picks         Wood Glue or PVA       Varnish or Clear Nail Polish    A Small Brush Top Tips If you haven't got any craft paper you could create your own by decorating plain paper with felt tips. Plain white paper with multicoloured scribbles makes great beads! Recycling old newspaper can look very stylish too. When varnishing it is a good idea to use metal wire rather than a toothpick so it doesn’t stick. You could even dip them whole into varnish if you prefer but be sure to allow all the excess varnish to drip off before setting aside to dry or you will end up with a clear blob hanging from the bottom of your bead. If you are going to

Learn Tricks, Flicks and Stunts With Our Own Diabolo

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The Diabolo consists of a spool, string and two sticks. The spool is tossed and thrown around using the string and sticks to do all sorts of interesting tricks. There are many different sorts of diabolos that you can get. Here at Toyday we sell glow in the dark, wooden and flashing diabolos. The different materials that diabolos can come in are useful for helping get the right sort of movement and momentum out of it . The smaller the diabolo that higher and faster it will travel.   The basic principal of the diabolo is to get the spool to spin while being suspended from the spring. You can do this by dragging the spring back and forth across the axle of the spool to create the friction to make it spin.   You can carry out many tricks with your diabolo too. These tricks range from simple ones with one spool on your string too the harder ones with multiple spools all on one string and to be able to manipulate more then one spool at a time takes time and practice. 

Dolls Dolls Dolls

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Today is going to be a very girly blog, because as I opened up the shop today, I noticed the different rag dolls we have. The reason this is such an exciting thing for me is because when I was 7 I bought my very own rag doll, from Totnes (the same make as the ones we sell) and I would save up all my Birthday and Christmas money and buy my very own little collection! I just loved everything about their hair and faces and all the detail in their clothes etc.  It's so lovely for me to see these dolls in our shop and to watch all the small children admiring them and being told ''not to touch!''  I also discovered that we have mini ones now that even have their own little character and costume. Which again is pretty cool! There was always something so exciting about having your very own doll to look after and play with! And every generation could agree with this!   Not only do we have this specific make of dolls but we also have different makes and characters. W

Could You Be The Next YoYo World Champion?

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I was amazed when I first saw this! I thought I'd seen enough yoyo tricks in my time but this guy is full of surprises! He lifts this fun game up to the level of art form and makes it look effortless. For the first 3 minutes he explains his passion for the yoyo and it is a real inspiration to listen to, however my jaw dropped at his first trick and I was glued to the screen until it was finished. A truly beautiful display and well worth a watch. Find out more about Black here and see more of Blacks yoyo tricks here. History of Yo-Yo's Yoyo's have been around in one form or another for thousands of years, the exact origin is debatable as there are illustrations of people holding what appears to be yo-yo's on all sorts of ancient artifacts, however it is uncertain if it was intended to be used as a toy. It is possible it was invented in numerous places at numerous times, but it was probably derived from the Diabolo's in China which date back to at least

Quick and Easy Paper Flowers

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To make these quick and easy paper flowers all I used was different coloured sheets of paper and green pipe cleaners. First I cut a flower shape into 3 or 4 pieces of the paper each one in a different size. I didn't use a flower template I just cut out my flower shapes free hand. I then layered the different sized flower shapes together with the flowers getting smaller towards the centre. Then I pierced a hole in the centre of all the flowers and secured these all together by hooking the end of a pipe cleaner through the holes. To create a more flower like shape I folded and scrunched the paper inwards. If you want to use a simple flower template to draw around onto your paper before cutting around it there is one pictured below that you could print out and use.

Bath Time Toys!

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Bath time toys are such an essential for children, a way of making bath time a lot more fun and a lot more entertaining! Especially when there's a lot of children to have keep happy and amused!... We have so many different toys for the bath ranging from our classic rubber ducks, colourful ducks such as; glow in the dark, flashing and colour changing ones. We also have  'different character' ducks and our wind up swimming divers and submarines . My ultimate favourite toy and the one that seems to be the most popular in the shop- the cartoon animal, bath time, basketball game  which makes bath time even more fun and more of a challenge! Check out the website- www.toyday.co.uk for all bath time related toys, games and wind ups. 

Jigsaws - Great For The Little Ones

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Here at Toyday we sell a vast range of jigsaw puzzles. They are all very colourful and help your children learn - whilst having fun. They help children to develop a wider range of thinking as their physical shape helps children learn think about how the different shapes fit together and the individual piece’s colours helps them with matching them up using the colours of different pieces.  Now to several of the fantastic jigsaws we have for younger children. One of our simplest puzzles is an wooden alphabet lift out jigsaw puzzle. This is suitable for both boys and girls from the age of 3 up. The aim for your children would be to put all the letters into the right space. This helps with them learning their alphabet and as the letters are all different colours, it could help them also learn them too.  Our wooden dog and cat jigsaw puzzles are great for children who love animals and is suitable for ages 3 upwards of any gender. As there are only five pieces to each puzzle they ar