A tiny lost village... full of surprises

Most of my childhood holidays were spent in this Andalusian tiny village which doesn´t even appear in some maps... My mother is from there and my grandparents and a big part of my family still live there today. For a foreigner who does not know the "real" Spain, visiting this village is a surreal experience... Everyone knows each other (there are less than 200 inhabitants after all!).

During the winter, the harvest of the olive trees takes place. The whole village is busy picking up olives and taking them to the factories, where some of the best extra virgin olive oil in the world is produced. In May, they all celebrate the popular fiestas, where people spend all day outdoors, enjoying free food and drinks, and dancing the night away in the village square to the sound of local bands... During the hot summers - sometimes temperatures reach over 42 degrees! - the streets are empty during the day. The locals, most of them in their 70s, don´t venture out of their cool stone houses until the evening, when it´s a bit, just a bit, cooler outside. Then they go for long walks, chat to each other in the central square, or sit outside their houses, having dinner and watching telly through the window... I still remember when I was a little child, it was so hot inside the houses that some people would sleep on mattresses outside their houses... there was not danger of traffic, as you could count with the fingers of one hand the number of cars in the village... things are a bit more developped nowadays, but there is still a flavour of the old Spain...

Now that I am in Spain looking at the new collections for Nectarina , I usually visit my grandparents there... It´s funny how after such long periods away in England, people still come out of their houses to give me a warm welcome, to kiss me and the girls and to ask about things... It´s like time has never passed... The other day this lady came to say hello and she gave me and my daughter these cute flower rings which she had knitted out of cotton. They were so beautiful and perfect, my daughter was delighted... I thought they would be perfect for Nectarina, it´s the kind of thing British little girls would love for its bright colours and originality... So I asked the lady if she would knit a few, many more to take home with me... It took her for surprise, and she didn´t know what to answer... She has been making them for fun so far, giving them away to friends... But making them in large quantity for money... It took me a while to convince her, but she finally agreed... and today I am going over to pick them up... I am not sure what to expect, but I hope they are as beautiful as the first ones we saw... I will let you know! And better of all, you will hopefully see them on our website soon!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Nectarina has been very busy these days getting ready for the New Summer collection. They will be available to buy on www.nectarina.co.uk in the next few weeks. How exciting! We are very pleased to have added bigger sizes for both dresses and shoes after popular demand... The designs are fresh and summery, very in line with our timeless style... Girly but not too frilly, lovely florals, sky blues, and of course, pretty pinks...
Hopefully we will get some nice weather to go with our beautiful dresses! :-)
Otherwise there is always the lovely cardigan, which can be so versatile... We have added some new models to our range this year, and will also be available very soon!
Finally, we are still working hard on bringing you those lovely Spanish hair accesories which go so well with our dresses, and cute summer hats too! Keep checking our website for news, or why not subscribe to our newsletter? Or join our Facebook online store? http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwnectarinacouk/15873080870?sid=0b1d7d29cc35038f4bcac5006e905224&ref=s
You will be the first to know when our gorgeous products are available!
Happy waiting!

Special Offers

We have a very good sale on http://www.nectarina.co.uk/ at the moment. An amazing 30% in some of our beautiful dresses and all our coats. And the shoes are reduced too.
And on top of that we are offering a further 5% off to those of you who have become fans of our Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwnectarinacouk/15873080870?ref=s#/pages/wwwnectarinacouk/15873080870
How is that?

What's in a dress?

I am pretty sure everyone likes their little girls dressed in pretty dresses. Who wouldn't? A pretty dress makes a little girl look... well, girly, special, innocent... I don't know... It's so difficult to find proper pretty dresses for girls these days... I know they grow up fast, I know they get them filthy when running around in the playground... but still, there are so many special occasions when they can wear a pretty, girly, floaty dress... That's the joy of having a baby girl, isn't it? What's the point of having a baby girl if you are going to dress her like a tomboy? Nearly every expectant mum longs for a baby girl so she can dress her up in pretty flowery numbers...
And then you go to the High Street looking for that special dress for your little bundle of joy... and what do you find? Black skirts with skulls all over? I have seen these in a shop, for very young girls... why? Won't they have time to become sulky teenagers in a few years time? Why start treating them like that at the tender age of 3?
A dress is a dress, and a girl will always look like a little girl in a dress, not like a mini-teenager. And I am not talking about pink, frilly dresses. I am talking about stylish, not too girly, beautiful dresses, for every occasion. Well, I know, I am a bit biased... That's what I do for a living... I source those beautiful dresses all over Spain. I choose from among hundreds of models. I bring them over to the UK, give them names, and get to offer them to the very lucky mums who access our website.
And that's what the essence of Nectarina is. Nectarina offers proud mums the chance to make their little daughters dazzle at family parties and special occasions. Nectarina has brought breath of fresh air to the saturated childrenwear market. Nectarina will make your daughter feel special and unique.
And who doesn't want that for their little girl?

Who is not on Facebook?

Facebook seems to be the place to be these days... Do you know anyone who does not have a Facebook page? Well, I do, a few people, but not too many... I seem to find nearly everyone I know there. And they all have so much activity going on all the time... Don't these people work, study or have a life? Don't get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful tool and I do spend some time on it every now and then... But I can't keep up with all the applications, hatching eggs, pets, hugs, booze... Everytime I check I have like a hundred requests from various people for one thing or the other... Honestly, I haven't got time to respond to all of you, so please accept my excuses from here...
But I do think Facebook has great potential for businesses... News can spread like hot potatoes (isn't that another application?). Maybe I haven't taken it too seriously until now, but I have decided to create a Facebook store for Nectarina -
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/editprofile.php?id=15873080870&section=detailed#/pages/wwwnectarinacouk/15873080870?ref=s
I will be adding pictures of our dreses, coats and shoes, news about Sales Events, competitions, new stock arriving... I think I am going to be veeeeery busy from now on... Competition is tough out there...

Toys, recipes and so on...

I came across a great website today selling very original wooden toys. It's called Charlie Moo's ( http://www.charliemoos.co.uk/ ) - Cool name too!
I really love their party bags - so different to what I've seen before... They fill them with very cute little wooden toys (like animal castanets, bouncy balls and wooden whistles). Children seem to love them... I think I might try them for my daughter's birthday....

Some news on the Nectarina website front - we have added a new section called "Baby Recipes". It contains, guess what? home made recipes for your little ones. There are only a handful of them at the moment, but I promise to keep up the hard work and add more as I experiment in the kitchen... All the recipes currently included were very much loved by my daughter. And she is now a very happy and healthy toddler, so I must have done something right! Check them out http://www.nectarina.co.uk/index.php?main_page=page&id=9

And let us know how they go down with your little one!

We are part of the Mums Club...

Any mummy thinking of opening her own business or already running one, should check out the great http://www.mumsclub.co.uk/ . This is a very inspirational website, full of other mums like you (and me!) who have already taken the plunge and are combining successful home based businesses with looking after their little ones.
What is good about Mums Club is that it provides new business ideas and opportunities to work from home, business tips and a very lively forum where you can meet other mums in the business.
Nectarina is now a premium member, and we can be found in their Marketplace. We are also part of their new venture, the Mumpreneur Directory (http://www.mumpreneurdirectory.com/ ), a directory full of businesses exclusively run by mums, with everything from Clothing and Fashion, Jewellery and Books to Franchise opportunities.
Find us on http://www.mumpreneurdirectory.com/html/children.html .
Have a look and tell us what you think! Do you think a website like this is useful for business mums? Would you use it yourself?

Welcome to Nectarina Blog!

Hi all and welcome to our brand new blog!

At http://www.nectarina.co.uk/ we want to keep up with the new Technology, and we thought having a blog would be ideal to keep in touch with our existing clients or anyone with an interest in girl’s fashion. We are very excited with the project and we hope to get lots of feedback from you. Comments, ideas, testimonials... anything you want to share with us! We are also happy to publish pictures of your little ones wearing our gorgeous clothes, so do not hesitate to share with us!

Here is for a long, happy relationship!

The Nectarina Team