#trendytottuesdays what’s that all about? Myself and Bronagh, my new Insta Buddy (as she puts it) from @whiledollysleeps have teamed up to bring you toddler fashion inspiration each and every Tuesday. I thought you may be wondering where this idea came from and how we know each other so here it goes…

I moved to Swansea almost three years ago and I really loved the place and the people but oh how I missed the shops back home. Before then I’d lived in Liverpool for six years and I could roll of out bed to Liverpool One where there is an amazing range of shops and a Topshop with four floors. Swansea just can’t offer anything near to it so I started to do a lot of shopping online. I soon realised that it wasn’t just the variety of shops and their products that I was missing but also the inspiration that comes from a bigger city.

Before my daughter was born I knew I wanted to dress her in lots of traditional outfits and baby pink. The baby pink was easy but I struggled to find places here that sold the traditional style of clothes I was looking for and so I would buy her bits when I went back home and search hastags like #spanishbabywear on Instagram to find small boutiques selling these pieces.

I love Instagram and it’s now my main source of fashion inspiration. I love seeing an outfit that I like and just being able to tap and see where an item is from and maybe even purchase it! I know so many others love to do this too so I thought if it works for adults why not try and make it work for kids too? We all need a bit of help sometimes when our Mum brain is frazzled and by sharing ideas it might help us find something we’re searching for in a place we would never have thought to look or may not have known existed!

How did me & Bronagh meet? Well the truth is we’ve never met!! If you think that’s crazy then you’re going to think I’m mad shortly. One day I posted a pic of Lily wearing Kickers shoes that I bought her from Schuch so I tagged both Kickers and Schuh in the post, then I clicked the tag for Schuh and started to browse through and saw this super trendy tot (Dolly) in her pink satin bomber jacket and Nike Air Force 1s. I followed Bronagh’s account and read a few posts on here blog – I liked her style and her daughter’s even though it is so different to how I dress Lily. Maybe a week or so later I got up one morning and a quick thought popped into my head to send @whiledollysleeps (I didn’t know her name at this point) a message to see if she would like to team up. Luckily she didn’t seem to think I was an absolute weirdo and we had our first successful week last week and I would like, on behalf of both us, to say thank you once more to everybody that joined it and helped to promote it with us.

What Bronagh says…When I explained to my husband (Ben) that evening that a random girl from Swansea had been in touch on Instagram and we are going to start the hashtag trendytottuesdays together he thought I was nuts. Nothing new there then! I was busy messaging Jane with ideas and he laughed at the fact that we are total strangers who have suddenly become some sort of weird pen pals. I liked it! I love meeting new people and making new friends. I’m always the one who makes friends on holiday or in the toilets during a night out. It’s kind of a running joke with my friends from home. Plus her idea was great! I’m a fashion stylist and when I worked at Heat magazine back in the day I started the “Find It’ page which was the page that encouraged readers to write in and ask where an item of clothing that a celebrity was wearing was from and it was my job to ‘Find It’. Instagram has made that type of thing redundant because instead of keeping your clothes a secret so no one will copy you it’s now become cool to be kind and share your knowledge. Our hashtag is all about making that knowledge easier to find and what could cooler and kinder than that?

How to get involved…

1. Take a photo of your little one and post it on your grid on Instagram or you can share it on your story
2. Each week we will share a selection of tots that have inspired us. So to allow to do so please use the hashtag #trendytottuesdays AND tag our account @trendytottuesdays in BOTH the photo and your comment so we can see you photo
3. Don’t forget to tag the brands/shops where your  tiny fashionista’s items are from so others can copy the look if they like it

Top Tip – us Mums (and Dads) are busy enough, we don’t need the added stress of chasing after a toddler every Tuesday morning trying to capture them looking cute, you can share an image from any time at all – just share it on a Tuesday and remember to follow the instructions above.

Look forward to seeing you all again this Tuesday so get your camera at the ready!

J x