Mama Needs a New Bag

It’s transition time and mama needs a new bag! Little Miss is now 2 years old. We no longer need to take the entire house with us when we go out. It’s a welcome change! I adore changing bags. It’s a bit of an obsession with me. When I see mums & pushchairs the first thing I look at is what make/model of pushchair they have and then what sort of bag is hanging off the handlebars. Even though I don’t need them I still look longingly at them in department stores. I have a problem.

My mom surprised me with a Skip Hop Duo Deluxe changing bag in Blossom about a year or so ago. The Graco changing bag that came with our original Graco Tour Deluxe travel system was no longer suitable at that time as it was ripping and looking a bit tatty. The Skip Hop was a very welcome replacement and suited our needs perfectly. It still does but perhaps for longer trips out and not so much the daily outings now.

About a month ago I got an email from a lovely lady called Jenny from Willvin of Sweden. They wanted me to test and review one of their changing bags! And offer a competition prize to one of my lovely readers! Wowie Zowie as Little Miss says! A new changing bag to trial and review and one for the readers as well? It didn’t take me long to type out a reply.

I chose to review the Willvin Magnificent Leatherette in Brown as I wanted to have a bag that hubby was happy to tote along on the occasions when he takes Little Miss out on his own.

The bag is luuuuuuvly! One of my favourite things about the Willvin changing bag is that it doesn’t LOOK like a changing bag. My niece mentioned the same thing. And I really adore the zipped compartment at the bottom of the bag. I now keep Little Miss’ nappies and wipes in there which makes fishing them out infinitely easier than before when they were stuffed in inner pockets of our previous changing bag.

The bag also comes with a thin changing mat, nylon nappy/clothes bag, a zipped plastic pouch and a drinks/bottle bag. To be perfectly honest, as Little Miss is now 2 we don’t need to have those additional accessories with us but they are exceptionally useful, particularly for younger babies.

I really like the fact that the Willvin bag has 2 zipped compartments as well as pockets with very strong velcro. I feel that my belongings are very secure in this bag. We went out and about last weekend in the POURING rain and the Willvin bag did get wet but as it’s made of leatherette/artificial leather it was basically waterproof but also didn’t show any water marks which real leather would. Everything in the bag was dry and safe! Perfect!

The Willvin bag also comes with stroller straps that allow you to clip the bag onto the handlebars of your pushchair with ease. The only awkward thing is that you have to remove the shoulder strap to allow you to clip the stroller straps onto the pushchair which makes transitioning from the pushchair to your shoulder a little slower. This is a small inconvenience, however. The only negative I could find is that the mesh pockets on either end of the bag are rather small. I struggled to put a sippy cup in it and in the end gave up as I didn’t want to stretch them out. I put the sippy cup in the inner compartment instead which isn’t as handy.

In short, this bag, in my humble opinion is the perfect transition bag from newborn/infant GIANT changing bag to toddler/mummy fashionable dual purpose changing bag. This is definitely one that would serve perfectly when a changing bag is no longer needed. I could just see my laptop sitting in the centre compartment…that is, if I had a laptop to take around with me!

So, dear readers…how would you like to own one of these lovely Willvin Changing bags?? I need you to go to their site and have a browse and answer the following question in order to be considered for this competition:

• What is the name of the mum behind Willvin and what was her inspiration?

Answer the question in the comment box below and tweet about this competition for an additional entry. While you’re checking out the Willvin site, have a look at their Facebook Fan page as well! This competition will run from 19 August to 26 August with the winner of the competition announced next Friday 27 August. Willvin will send the winner THEIR CHOICE of changing bag (any one!) directly. Yes, I know…it’s a pretty great prize! I haven’t run a competition in a VERY LONG TIME so you know this has to be good! Good luck and see you next Friday to announce the winner.