Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2008 | Page 113

LOCAL BUSINESS

life

Where every
baby is special

This is not a shop for the mundaine, but it
is a shop where we would all like to buy our
everyday clothes for our children.
Walk into Little Nippers and
it’s like recapturing that first
thrill of having a new baby
in the family. All is precious
and exciting. A cot is like a
magical sleigh. Lush furred
teddy bears beam benignly
as you drift through rows of
gorgeous clothes. Toys, wooden
of course, are reminiscent of
times past when things were
built to last.
Inspiration for this
wonderland of quality clothes
and gifts came when proprietor
Lisa Boynton had a baby
herself. “I realised there wasn’t
anywhere for that really special
gift anywhere on the Island,”
she said.
Organic clothing, made in
natural unbleached cotton
by Frugi, is ideal for children
with skin conditions, but is
appealing just for its cute
styling and long-lasting
quality. By contrast, vibrant
coloured funky clothes, made
with Danish practicality, gives
children a great designer look.
French sophistication comes

gift-wrapped: Emile et Rose
baby clothes, heavenly to the
touch, are all hand-finished.
What the many ranges have in
common is quality.
“It’s often the grandparents
who realise it’s worth paying
a little bit extra for something
special. They know how often
things get washed, and handed
on through the family,” says
Lisa, who stocks clothes up to
age five.
They also find it hard to
resist the wooden dolls houses
or sit-on fire engines – as a
special gift for the toddler in
the family when little brother
or sister comes along, perhaps.
Rocking Ewes, made in Wales,
make a cuddly variation on the
horse theme.
“When mothers dress their
babies in our clothes they get
an awful lot of compliments!”
says Lisa.
Little Nippers, 44 Regent
Street, Shanklin 868492

www.wightfrog.com/islandlife

Emma’s yoga for all
Yoga with Emma Brading is
not some church hall stretch
class. As she gently adjusts
your posture or encourages
your breath to flow, she does
it with the authority of having
studied with some of the
foremost experts in the world.
In 2000 Emma went to
Egypt to study classical yoga,
Sivinanda. “The emphasis is
on posture and breath control,
leading to deep relaxation,”
she says. When she has taught
yoga in the workplace, her
clients found they returned
to their desks more focussed
and able to prioritise – and
their colleagues, who didn’t
attend classes, thanked her
for sending such nice human
beings back to the office.
Ever hungry for more
knowledge and wishing to
appeal not just to women, she
studied an increasingly popular
form of yoga, Ashtanga, which
is a very physical, energetic
form; she is the only person
teaching it on the Island.
She learnt from Texan David
Swenson who is more or less
the horse’s mouth in this
particular discipline. “It’s

fantastic for balancing all the
major muscle systems in the
body and providing integrity
for the joints,” says Emma.
Her second pregnancy led
her to embrace pregnancy
yoga which she studied with
an anthropologist who started
the Birthright Foundation,
which trains yoga teachers in
pre-natal care.
Yoga makes people feel good
about themselves. The flow
of the breath, in tune with
movement of the body, all
help with relaxation, while
the postures, under Emma’s
careful guidance, can deal with
all sorts of physical ailments
including back pain and
digestive problems.
Each of the three types
of yoga are taught in Ryde
School, at levels appropriate
for beginners or improvers. “As
you progress you may want to
find out what it is people have
been seeking for five or six
thousand years.”
Emma Brading Yoga,
01983 612545 info@
emmabradingyoga.wanadoo.