Finally! I am typing this after finding something which has inspired me. I have had so many ideas to blog about, yet nothing was coming together for me, until now. I find it amazing that I could talk all day long, yet when it comes to blogging, I seem to have a block. So, sorry for the elapsed time with no entry but it has been on my mind daily.

And just so you understand, at the risk of this sounding like a sales spiel, I am typing this to share our experiences with you so many others will know about this trusty product and can also help their families all get a good night’s sleep.

Paul and I have four children. All too often, at this time of the year especially, there is often a child who suffers a coughing episode during the night. Of course it often starts just as they (or us!) lay down for the night. With the Owen’s Homeopathic Cough Complex though, I feel empowered getting out of bed in the wee hours knowing we have such an effective product on hand. The fact that I can administer it easily and see the results (and therefore get back to bed!) in minutes, is an added bonus. The results are so good that the cough just literally disappears. My children each love the tiny pilules and more importantly the fact they are back asleep, sans cough, in no time at all. You have no idea how often I go back to bed with a smile on my face feeling very blessed we have been lucky enough to have found this wonderful product. That is why I want to share this, so you too can go back to bed with a smile on your face J

At a time when all of a sudden so many are ill with colds and sickness around us, this product will help to get you through those coughing fits easily. What a bonus it is also a natural homoeopathic remedy!

Another example of the effectiveness of the Cough Complex was when I had a girlfriend over a couple of weeks ago to help me with some book keeping*. This girlfriend suffered from a coughing fit whilst we were working; something which has been reoccurring for her for a while now but which she hasn’t been able to shake. One dose of the Cough Complex and her cough disappeared and didn't return again for the entire visit. Needless to say, she was more than happy for me to send her off on her way with the trusty remedy. Especially as she was soon travelling to Bali and wanted to be in peak condition for her holiday! Unfortunately at the time I didn't realise that it was my last vial. Of course one of my sons came down with a cough the following night and I lay there frozen, wondering, what I was to do?! We tried all sorts of cures- lemon drinks, cough syrups, an air humidifier and the whole gamut of suggestions from my trusty natural health books. All was to no avail and so neither of us slept well for the two nights until it passed. Needless to say I have a renewed respect for this pocket rocket formula and plan to have plenty of back up stock in the future!

The moment I had Cough Complex back in my house I felt relieved and once again ready to take on the next cough battle and come out the victor! My husband is a sceptic of a lot of things so it is extra nice to hear him ask in the dead of night, where are those cough balls? Sceptic sold!

At the moment I have lost my voice, due to overdoing the activities with all four children home over the holidays. Last night I had a tickle in my throat and was able to feel firsthand how easily the remedy removed my cough. I did have to take a second dose for it to cease my cough, yet it worked- much to my (and also Paul's) relief! More importantly I was able to fall back asleep quickly, with that horrible tickle removed and the healing of my sore throat to resume.

May the same power of the remedy be with you! Please let me know if you find the same results, email us at info@booloobabe.com.au, with the heading Cough Complex Rocks (!) as I would love to share in your positive experiences with this product. Keep well!

Samxo

The Cough Complex includes the following homoeopathic remedies in a 6c potency: Drosera, Kali Carb, Phosphorus, Ipecac, Pulsatilla, Belladonna and Spongia.

* I've just noticed, book keeping and blogs, two b's I have blocks with at the moment- ahh!

J Happy Birthday to Xani for her 10th birthday today!! J  A big kiss for you and your gorgeous family xo

To the lovely local mummas out there- thank you for being a part of the Booloo babe family xo

With the Aussie dollar continuing to strengthen against overseas currencies and imported items becoming cheaper, it got me thinking about how we choose to shop these days and why. How many of you prefer online shopping compared to shopping local? Is it important to you to touch, feel or try something before you purchase it? Or is getting it at the best price and as quickly as possible a priority for you? To be honest, I probably fall somewhere in between, depending on the product I am after and how much time I have. Booloo babe started out as just a personalised modern cloth nappy fitting service, offering mums and babes the chance to try before they buy in the comfort of their own home.  Samantha and I decided that was the way we wanted to start our business after personal experiences of having nowhere local to go to experience the fit and feel of a modern cloth nappy when we were first starting out with cloth on our babes. I desperately wanted to have a play with a nappy before I committed to buying a full time pack that could cost up to $1000. Personally I found the pictures on the Internet of One Size Fits Most, All In Ones and Snap In Ones (to name just a few!) so confusing and felt so out of my depth. It really only left me feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with all the options! We took a gamble and bet that we weren’t the only ones and Booloo babe’s personalised service was born!

The personalised service went well from the beginning so we expanded to doing local markets where there was more opportunity to meet and speak face to face with expectant mums. About the same time we also found many customers asking if they could just grab our website details and shop online in their own time. These people really didn’t want to have someone to talk them through the ins and outs of cloth, instead they were happy to just have a look at something on the Internet and try their luck at the fit of the nappy on their babe. Different strokes for different folks I suppose! So since the middle of 2011 we decided to join the online world of shopping carts, Paypal and courier services and now have over 1000 products to choose from on our Booloo babe website- www.booloobabe.com.au .  

With rises in the cost of living including electricity and childcare costs in 2012 I understand the priority to shop around, compare prices and get the most out of your dollar. This is so much easier to do at the click of a button instead of trawling around the shops to find the best deal (possibly with child and possibly a hungry/tired/cranky/all of the above one at that). However, I believe that there is nothing quite like a personalised experience where you have the chance to get great customer service and build relationships with your local retailers. It really is what makes the world go around and helps a local area to grow and prosper. I feel blessed in this respect to be a part of Booloo babe. The amount of mums and their babes (and even dads) that I have been lucky enough to meet in my local area is one of the main reasons I continue with this home based business. Sometimes when I am spending a lot more time on Booloo babe for what feels like very little return, taking time away from my family while I, “just reply to a few quick emails” or spend all day at a market only to lug all my stock back home at the end of the day- it is the familiar face of a customer at my local park or shopping centre, stopping to say hello and telling me how much she loves her nappies that is Booloo babe’s raison d’etre! Sometimes, when my family is with me a customer will stop and tell me, “Without you, I never would have tried cloth nappies”.  It is moments like these that I know I am teaching my children through example and maybe even making a difference, albeit a tiny one.  What a feeling!

Interestingly, we have hundreds  of visitors to our website www.booloobabe.com.au every day but 6 months into the birth of our online shop, we can still say that the majority of our sales are made through our personalised service- when we have spent precious time away from our families to be with other lovely families at their homes, trying on different nappies and accessories, talking them through the different options and finding something that best suits their family and their pocket.  Whether this will change when our website gains more followers and modern cloth nappies become more common in the local shops who’s to say? However I know that Samantha and I never would have had the chance to meet all the lovely mums we have, some who we are now privileged enough to call our friends.

 So, to those lovely mums who we met at markets or mother’s groups, who were expecting;  or who just had their firstborn; who wanted to go cloth from the minute their babe was born; to the lovely mums who were attempting cloth with their third child (or more!); who just wanted to save a dollar (or have more room in their bin!), who thought they were just more funky than disposables; who considered the environment and wanted to set a good example to their children and to anyone else who supported us- thanks for your custom, thanks for your encouragement, your referrals to other mums and for helping us to continue when sometimes it feels like 95% of the disposable market is against us (probably because they are)! Thank you and keep spreading the cloth love!    

   Plastic is so ubiquitous in society now- so much so that we don't even realise how much we do use it in our everyday life. And a huge part of our day to day plastic usage comes from, you guessed it... plastic bags! According to planetgreen.com, 'each year, approximately 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide'. That’s over one million bags per minute! They say it can take anywhere between 400-1000 years for one plastic bag to decompose but here's the thing- no one knows just how long it takes as they have been around for less than 50! Read below if you need further proof to start swapping your plastic bags for something fun, funky and food safe like the Planetwise Snack Stuff Window Bags! At only $8 each they are so much more economical than a roll of plastic wrap (and look prettier too)! Find them in our shop in the reuseable section or click on the link http://booloo-babe.businesscatalyst.com/other-products/planetwise-snack-stuff-window-bags

Our friends at Naturally Sustainable (where we get our fabulous Earthlust bottles!) have just shared this little food for thought and we wanted to share it with you too.

1. Plastic food wraps, bags and containers not only have a number of negative effectson human health but also on our environment.
2. Some common food cling wraps are made from polyvinylchloride (PVC), which is not only very environmentally toxic, it’s also laced with phthalates (a chemical used to soften this #3 plastic).
3. Bisphenol A (BPA) & Phthalates can also be found in several types of plastic food containers and storage bags, and by storing your food in these plastics you are increasing the possibility that you absorb these harmful chemicals. BPA and phthalates leached through plastics act as an endocrine disruptor and have been found to increase the risks of obesity, neurological problems, thyroid function problems, breast cancer and reproductive development.
4. One time use film plastics like bags and cling wraps are an environmental hazard, as they pollute landscapes and oceans where they pose choking, suffocating, intestinal blockage threats to wildlife.
5. Your common everyday plastic wrap and zip locks bags are not only non-recyclablebut non-renewable, but will live in our landfills for 1000 years. Considering how much plastic wrap and bags most people use, that is a lot of unnecessary waste going directly to landfill, polluting our air with carcinogenic toxins.

 Tomorrow (Tuesday 13th December) is twenty dollar Tuesday on Booloo babe's Facebook page (www.facebook.com/booloobabe). To encourage our friends to use less plastic, we are including a Furoshiki Japanese style ECO bag. These are fully lined, double sided, machine washable and sewn from fair trade textiles. Great for either packing food at home or when you just need a funky bag! You will love the Furoshiki Lunch Wrap as it is non-toxic, plastic free, BPA free, waste free...the list goes on!

Let us know what you think or how you go about packing a plastic free lunch for you or your children's lunches- we'd love to hear your ideas!