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It’s Scout Community Week this week 3-9 June 2013 where Scouts raise money for local and national groups and promote all the inspirational activities they get up to during the rest of the year.

Community project ideas for Scouts include stuff like:

• Volunteer to clean up litter at a community event or county fair
• Set up an art exhibit at a local business, school or nursing home
• Spruce up and paint your youth or community centre
• Plant a community garden
• Adopt a town monument and keep it clean
• Plant flowers at the town hall
• Clean up litter along a river or in a park
• Create a wildlife habitat
• Offer to mow the lawns of a street near your Scout headquarters
• Repair homes or abandoned buildings
• Volunteer to clean out animal shelters

We Were Scouts Too. Once Upon A Time.

Back in our day when we were Scouts we always loved the annual Scout camping trip.

Wrestling with a tent. Sleeping under the stars. Listening to the raindrops falling on tarpaulin. Eating a hearty breakfast. Sleeping like a log even though we were lying on hard ground without any sort of mattress. Those were the days…

What would we think were essentials for camping today?

·      Plenty of tent pegs to double peg in case it’s windy

·      Roll up mattresses

·      Battery-operated iPod speakers

·      Solar powered iPod charger

·      Wellies in case it’s wet (and you need to visit the loo at 2am)

·      Umbrella

·      Warm sleeping bag

·      Torch (es)

·      Plenty of sausages, bacon, sliced bread, butter, tea bags for a full-on full English breakfast

·      Gas stove to cook it on

Seriously though, if you want to be fully prepared, visit the Duke of Edinburgh recommended camping equipment section on the Scouts’ own website.

We haven’t done much camping lately but we do supply woven labels for Scouts and of course if your offspring are going camping you can quickly make sure that t-shirts, jeans, trainers, sleeping bags and all the other paraphernalia the kids are going to take are labelled  - and do it in a flash with our iron-on name labels which attach in seconds but last 100s of washes.

And stick-on name labels are perfect for all the other stuff like camping plates, mugs, bowls, toothbrushes, shoes, wellies, fold-up chairs, hot water bottles …

Are you still camping? Love it? Never again? Or is it time you had another go?

We just came across a Daily Mail article called “How mothers use up to 20 time saving short cuts a day”.

One of the shortcuts said “Many also admitted to writing names in uniforms with pen rather than sewing in labels.”

Well. Interesting use of the word ‘admitted’ we think. Although in fact we think mums need to know about more useful shortcuts – like our ONCE™ iron on name labels that apply in seconds and last for hundreds of washes.

Hate Sewing? Try Our No Guilt Iron On Name Labels

If you can’t bear sewing but still want school kit named efficiently this is the way to go. Of course, for the old school types we do offer sew-in name labels but we also have stick on, tagg on and iron on name labels for people who a) can’t sew b) hate sewing c) would be overcome by guilt if they (heaven forbid) wrote a name in a uniform in pen.

Other shortcuts mums ‘admitted’ to were things like hanging up clothes instead of ironing them, using ketchup on foods kids don’t really like and buying, not making, fancy dress outfits. Oh, the guilt.

Hmm.

Well, we’ve listed 10 of our own shortcuts/tips that we think make parents’ lives much easier (and help you to find your socks).  If you’ve any to add, please let us know.

1.     Using our ONCE™ iron on name labels that last 100s washes. A no brainer.

2.     Always using bubble bath in the bath (makes the bath easier to clean). That goes for all members of the family.

3.     Take a picture of your cupboards/fridge before you go shopping so you remember what to buy. Also take a picture of your friend with anything you lend out so that you remember who you lent your favourite dress/book/shoes to.

4.     Put dry tea bags in smelly trainers to get rid of that adolescent boy whiff.

5.     It’s an old one but worth it. When you’re making a favourite family meal, make double and freeze half.

6.     Get into online banking. Are you really still going to the bank to pay bills? Set up an online account and you can pay bills, transfer money. It’ll save you so much time when you could be going on spa breaks, gossiping on the phone, watching a DVD box set eating chocolates …

7.     Have a box full of all-purpose birthday and thank you cards to save you making individual trips to the shops to buy in a panic. Same goes for postage stamps. Buy in bulk and keep to hand.

8.     Get rid of children’s clothes that no longer fit. Have a box marked ‘outgrown clothes’ and put stuff in as soon as it’s tried on. Otherwise you’ll find yourself in that endless cycle of child tries on something, it’s too small, it goes in laundry basket, washed, put back in drawer … and repeat. You’ll feel fabulously organised if you do this.

9.     Have back to school haircuts and buy new shoes a couple of weeks before the kids go back to avoid long queues at the hairdressers and shoe shop. It depends on how fast your children are growing but shoe shops and hairdressers are usually pretty deserted mid-August.

10. Get kids involved in clearing out their drawers and cupboards at the end of every holiday and bagging up clothes that no longer fit to save time on a school morning. 

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. We LOVE saving parents’ time. It’s one of our aims in life here at Name Label Company. Name labelling of school kit is a fact of life …  but we’ll make it as painless as possible for you (and efficient too). 

You might like to look at our other blogs on surviving the dreaded kids' sleepover and is there anything you can't label? 

It’s been a long week and then you get to Friday and need to unwind a little. Over a cup of tea we debated (as you do on a Friday) which character each of us at Label HQ most resembled, the results of which are below. We only managed to offend each other a couple of times  - enjoy the clips.

Emma – (Customer Detective) aka Marge Simpson

Emma is our front of house luvvie whol always keeps our customers so happy. When not addressing everyone with “My Lovely” her life begins to resemble that of Marge Simpson: the heart of the family always organising everyone, she operates without sleep and between work and home always seems to be juggling one thing too many.

Matt – (Operations Detective) aka Rocky Balboa

Matt is our operations machine, responsible for the lovely labels you order. He lives his whole life to the Rocky soundtrack, on a number of occasions he has actually been chased by children through the streets of Tewkesbury – he was scared witless.

Gerard – (Marketing Detective) aka Chandler Bing

Gerard sits quietly in the corner doing ‘marketing stuff’ that no-one else really understands, he also writes most of the stupid things you may have read on our site. When he does occasionally interact with everyone else it’s normally laced with the sarcasm of Chandler Bing.

Louise – (Office Detective) aka Lucy from Snoopy

Louise is the quietly efficient one in the background who organises, cajoles and as it turns out, now seems to be in charge of us – she manages everyone like Lucy from Snoopy.

As well as our 'off the shelf' labels available to purchase online, we also offer a bespoke clothing labels service.

This service is very popular with clothing brands which are handmade, tailored or boutique and want a high quality label to complete their garment. 

Labels can be produced in woven or cotton.

Woven labels are available with a Taffeta, Satin or Damask weave. Fold options are Loop Fold, End Fold, Border (flat) label, Manhatten (book) Fold or a Mitre Fold. Minimum order quantity is 500 pcs with a lead-time of 14 to 18 working days.

Cotton labels are available in soft white or natural ecru. Fold options are Loop Fold, End Fold or order a border (flat) label. Minimum order quantity is 500 pcs with a lead-time of 10 to 14 working days.

To find out more, please give us a call and we can discuss your requirements in more detail.

You know the feeling. You’re off on holiday. You’re at the airport trying to check in, there’s a long queue and you’re edging your trolley forward trying not to run over toes, whilst at the same time anxiously keeping an eye on the kids and trying to make they don’t run off. You’re feeling pretty stressed out. You’re wondering why your other half is taking so long to change currency.  You’re wondering if you locked the back door. You’re wondering if this holiday is worth all this hassle.

Or maybe you’re out shopping in a department store, the toddler won’t stay in the pushchair so you let him/her potter by you but they won’t hold your hand and you’re worried they’ll get lost somewhere. And you’re wondering why you even put yourself through the hell of shopping with a toddler in the first place.

Or you’re on the beach, the kids are running about and you’re scanning the horizon on a regular basis just to make sure you’ve still got an eye on them. No chance of settling back with a paperback then.

Yep, it’s stressful being a parent and trying to keep track. And the last thing you want is for your three year old to get lost and then there’s panic all round.

Which is why we developed our children’s ID wristbands. So you can relax a little when you’re on holiday, shopping or the kids are on a school trip.

You write your name and phone number on the inside – as well as any other relevant information. Put them on your child’s wrist (the strong sticky fold over tab means they’ll stay on) and if they get lost an adult will know how to contact you. The wristbands are robust – waterproof and made from a tear-proof hypoallergenic paper.

They’re also a great idea for school trips if you’re trying to keep up with a class of 30 or so children on a museum trip, field trip or some other sort of educational outing.  

If your child has a potentially severe allergy, we also have medical allergy wristbands which alert carers – just write an emergency number inside and an allergy warning (we also have some useful allergy stickers which you can put on lunchboxes, school bags and car seats … or anywhere you think you need them).

Stress levels as a parent are never going to be that low … but if you’re organised it can help and our selection of name labels mean you can keep track of belongings – whether they’re school shoes, uniform, playclothes, sleeping bags for sleepovers, water bottles, dogs, husbands …

Mind you, we can’t do anything about the weather on a British beach holiday or industrial action at Gatwick airport in the summer … but at least you’ll know the kids are labelled correctly.

Photo credit: Top image via http://www.coombemill.com/blog