Miffy Tulips Now Growing in Holland

Dutch tulip breeders have recently produced a variety of tulip to represent Miffy. We were sent some Miffy Tulips to plant.
miffy tulips, nijntje tulipa

Miffy Tulips are a lovely deep red colour. They were produced to match the red shade of Miffy’s dress. Miffy of course, is from Dick Bruna’s much loved bunny storybooks from over the last 60 years.

The cultivation process started back in 2001, and they’re hoping to be on sale in 2017/2018. That’s fifteen years of cultivation!!

This year there are only 2,500 Miffy bulbs in existence. You’ll find most of them in the Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands. It opens from the 23rd March to 21st May 2017. You’ll see them growing on their walk of fame, as well as the Miffy Garden located in the park.

Panda preparing the soil for the miffy bulbs

There are also some Miffy tulips growing in Carshalton as we received some! H planted them this weekend, it needs to happen in November. Our biggest fear is that the local squirrels will try and dig them up (I will be so cross if they do). We’re going to get some mesh to put over the top of our plant pot, so that should prevent them from doing it. This will still allow the bulbs to grow.

the miffy tulips are ready to be planted

 

The planting instructions are pretty straightforward. Get rid of weeds, and make sure your soil is turned over.

Place each bulb around 5cm apart, and then dig them down deep around another 10cm.

Cover them with soil and then give them a water. Then you just have to wait for them to grow.

Around March time you should start to see some Miffy tulips!

Miffy tulips being watered

They look pretty awesome and I can’t wait for a bit of colour once this coldness is over and spring begins.

We’ll be reporting back on the Miffy Tulips progress – we’re really looking forward to seeing them.

Miffy Mums

Miffy’s Adventures Come to Tiny Pop!

This Friday, Miffy is going to be on Tiny Pop – a new programme Miffy’s Adventures – Big and Small starts! We’ve got some information about it plus a lovely giveaway for you.

Miffy's Adventures Big and Small on Tiny Pop

Miffy’s Adventures – Big and Small comes to Tiny Pop on the 2nd October 2015 at 7pm which consists of fifty two episodes, all of them seven minutes long. This series is an animated sequel to Miffy and Friends which was on tv from 2003 onwards.

Tiny Pop is a digital channel, which has a fine selection of kids programmes. We’ve spent many afternoons watching Meg and Mog on there – and now Miffy is the latest to join the channel.

Miffy's Adventures Big and Small on Tiny Pop

Miffy’s Adventures – Big and Small features Miffy (of course) as well as her friends Snuffy, Grunty and Melanie who all feature in Dick Bruna’s books. This new series also marks the first time Miffy has been seen in CGI.

Miffy’s Adventures – Big and Small features simple dialogue, and consists of stories about the world around her, designed to keep even the smallest children engaged.

Miffy's Adventures Big and Small on Tiny Pop

The episodes keep the bright primary colours that Dick Bruna uses in the books, bringing the characters to life and bringing a new generation of youngsters into the world of Miffy.

Quite frankly, I think the more children that grow up loving Miffy, the better!

Miffy’s Adventures – Big and Small will become a key part of Tiny Pop’s evening block, Cuddle Time, which features gentle programming allowing kids, mums and dads to enjoy calmer, quieter time around bedtime. Tiny Pop has the strongest evening viewing figures in the kids’ category, from 7pm-midnight and will broadcast Mike the Knight, My Little Pony and Miffy from October as part of their autumn schedule.

We’ve seen some preview episodes, and they’re lovely – and very much in keeping with the spirit of Dick Bruna’s books. They’re definitely set to be a favourite for children!

Sensory Miffy Giveaway

As well as this, we’ve got a giveaway! How do you fancy winning a Sensory Miffy Toy? Suitable for children aged 6 months and up, this toy has several areas which it can identify on the body, and is a great fun toy for little ones. We’ve got one to give away, and all I need you to do is answer a simple question. Who is your favourite Miffy character?

Terms & conditions – UK entrants only please. This giveaway finishes on the 9th October 2015. The prize will be sent direct from Miffy’s PR company in the UK. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We Saw the Miffy Art Parade!

A month ago we spent three days in The Netherlands, timing our visit so H could see some of the Miffy Statues around Amsterdam and Utrecht. We’ve mentioned the Miffy Art Parade on here already, but this was our chance to see them properly.

 

Miffy Art Parade Schiphol Airport Pop Up ShopWe landed in Schiphol Airport mid-morning, knowing there was a Miffy Statue before and after passport control [note – the one after passport control had been moved] – and found a Miffy Pop Up Store as we exited Passport Control. Happily, our first one was in there, as well as a map of Amsterdam showing us locations of the statues – phew!

Miffy Art Parade rijksmuseum

So the aim was, find as many statues from the Miffy Art Parade while going to areas we’d be going to anyway. That seemed an easy enough task – we met Steven whose house we stayed in, and headed off on the tram towards the museumplein where we knew several statues would be. As it was we missed loads by a matter of days, as they had been removed, but still found two statues at the Rijksmuseum – who have recently opened a Dick Bruna exhibition which is showing until the 15th November 2015, and has borrowed work from the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as well as some of Dick Bruna’s own personal collection. More info here. Most places around here no longer had statues (check the website for up to date information) so we moved on.

Miffy Art Parade Hotel Okura

We walked to the Miffy Store (de winkel von Nijntje) via the Hotel Okura (which had another statue inside), and were left baffled why the store didn’t have a statue (but you can look inside the store on Google Maps which was fun). We still managed to spend money on essentials like a nice dutch Nijntje, a pack of plasters, several postcards of the statues (picking out the ones we’d seen), and a keyring, money box… so much stuff, but enough we could still carry it all home in our hand luggage.

Hello Utrecht

The following day was the big one – our trip to Utrecht. The home of Dick Bruna, somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, and the home of the Dick Bruna Huis (currently being refurbished until December 2015), and over the road the Centraal Museum which has a large Miffy exhibition.

Miffy Art Parade maps for Utrecht and AmsterdamOn arriving at Utrecht we wandered around the streets, relying on our data on our phones to find some statues – and stumbling across another Miffy Pop Up Store which was closing on the day we went. Inside was a statue, and there were many more to follow. Knowing there was a map for Amsterdam, I found out that Utrecht also had them, so headed to the tourist information building, where of course there was another statue, so our total spotted was growing!

Miffy Art Parade in Utrecht

When in Utrecht, and you have a map of all the Miffy things, the one place you need to visit is the Nijntje Pleintje (Miffy Place). In reality just a square with a permanent little Miffy in there, but the name was the first time I’d got the pronunciation of Nijntje correct (nine-tche is the closest I can say).

nijntje pleintje in utrecht

It was wet on our Utrecht day, and we were getting cold, and had been wandering around a while now. It was decided we needed food – in H’s case she decided she needed ice cream. So we headed back into the main shopping area, where we found the wonderful Njintje crossing – it’s a Dick Bruna fan’s Abbey Road, basically. We may have crossed over it several times, much to H’s delight. Lesser so, the drivers… oops.

Miffy crossing Utrecht

By now we’d eaten and had to head over to the other side of Utrecht, so took a boat on the canal. What a lovely way to get to know the city – and seeing all the shops canal-side was a great perspective to look at the areas we’d walked. We were soon at the Centraal Museum, where we continued our trip, visiting the Miffy exhibition. In the first room you can see two statues from the Miffy Art Parade.

Miffy Art Parade in Centraal Museum Room 2

These were followed by many more – plus some we couldn’t find. With it being towards the end of the exhibition a lot of the statues were being moved into the Rijksmuseum for an auction on the 8th October (which I’m guessing will tie in with what’s going on there now), but there were still plenty to see!

Miffy Art Parade Centraal Museum grounds

H had a wonderful time in the museum, doing some crafts and colouring in while I wandered around, my childhood in giant books I could hide inside. We stopped in the cafe for a Miffy pancake which I shared with H.

Miffy pancake

We decided to wander back and see which other statues we could find. As it was, there was just the one – in Winkel van Sinkel (which we had walked past several times that morning).

Miffy Art Parade in Winkel van SinkelPlus we also spotted some of the Miffy statues that were on cars when the Tour de France came through Utrecht, on display in a window at the central Council offices. That was it, we were Miffy-d out for another day, and caught our train back to Leiden!

Miffy Tour De France

Our final day, we were back in Amsterdam. The sun was shining and it was a glorious day. A day for wandering around, and if we happened to be near anywhere that had a statue, we’d pop in. We spent most of the day at the Dutch Resistance Museum Junior, before wandering around and finding ourselves where another three statues lived – in the Hortus Botanicus – who let me in at a reduced rate and H in for free – so we found our final two statues which were inside the grounds, including the one by Madelon Bruna, Dick Bruna’s daughter [far right].

Miffy Art Parade Hortus Botanicus

I would imagine all the Miffy Art Parade statues have gone, as the exhibition is due to finish around now, but the celebrations are continuing this year – Miffy is 60, and I’m so happy we had a chance to visit and celebrate too!

The Miffy Art Parade website is here where you can check the status of which Miffy’s are still on show. There’s also a webstore, and I really wish I had bought this Design-Your-Own Miffy – at €39.95 it isn’t cheap, so you’d need to know what you wanted your Miffy to be!

The Miffy Art Parade is still on show in Japan in various cities. Again, check the website for which are still viewable for up to date information.

Miffy Art Parade

Miffy is 60, and there are many things to help her celebrate – including a fabulous Miffy Art Parade in several cities across The Netherlands and Japan.

sunshine-by-carli-hermc3a8s-e1430993877523

The Miffy Art Parade is along the same lines as the Paddington and Shaun the Sheep ones we’ve had in London – and are a fab idea. We’re going to The Netherlands in August, and H and I are pretty excited to be there! The Dick Bruna Huis is currently being refurbished so is closed (shame, we’ll just have to go back next year…) but there’s still a Miffy exhibition at the main Centraal Museum in Utrecht – as well as plenty of statues to find. There are two at Schiphol Airport which means we’ll be starting almost as soon as we land!

Across Amsterdam, The Hague and of course Utrecht there are several Miffy statues to be found. I have to say, I was pleased the Shaun the Sheep app existed as quite often I was stood metres away from the statues, having no idea they were there, so this will be a challenge – but one we’re all looking forward to. I’ve been reliably informed by a colleague who lives in Amsterdam that there’s a Miffy Square and they’re quite easy to find!

het-spook-nijntje-by-kenjiro-sano-e1430992595263

Each Miffy Art Parade statue has been customised by a different artist – including Dick Bruna’s daughter – there are 45 statues in the Netherlands – how many will we find? We shall see…

The Miffy Art Parade is across various sites, locations can be found here. The statues are there to see until the 30th September 2015!

de-feestjurk-by-piet-paris-e1430994217609

If all this wasn’t enough, we have an announcement to make – we’re joining the Miffy Mums! Having loved Miffy since I was a little girl (and I remember my parents going to The Netherlands in my 30’s, and my dad buying me something Miffy related for old time’s sake (but he lost it)), I’m glad to be passing the books on to H – who also loves them. So we’re going to have a super Miffy year this year!

Miffy Mums