What an exciting time we’re having here at PacaPod HQ.

With a new division opening in Devon (more on that later!), a tonne of recent press coverage, 2 splendid awards to brag about and a new AW12 collection coming soon, it’s safe to say we haven’t been dragging our feet lately!

First up in our summer round up is the fantastic news that PacaPod has won the Mumsnet Best Award for the third year running!

Couple this with our Mumpreneur Best Website Award and we’re literally dancing around the office (apologies to the floor below for all the stomping...).

In other exciting PacaPod news our AW12 collection is now available to pre-order on our website. Choose from the luxurious Firenze or the cool and classic Oban, and not forgetting your old favourites, the Portland and Almora are available in new colours too!

Now, we love our Mirano bag as much as the next person. But between you and me this popular style is getting a little too big for it’s boots*.

But who can blame it?! Having recently starred in the Independent and Baby & Me Magazine the Mirano's been feeling pretty good about itself.

The icing on the cake came this week in the form of OK! Magazine – turning to page 123 and spotting itself snuggling up to PacaPod fan Jo Whiley was enough to send the once-modest Mirano packing it’s bags and setting off for Hollywood stardom.

Send us a postcard when you get there, Mirano.

* Metaphorical boots. Real boots would be silly

Rain rain rain. We’re so sick of talking about it but we.just.can’t.stop. Much like the rain itself.

With every raindrop that falls directly into our eyes (which by some freak of nature is about 40% of the total annual rainfall) our dreams of escaping to somewhere warm and dry get a little more desperate.

For those of you lucky enough to be hotfooting it out of the UK and jetting off in search of our long lost sun, don’t forget to spend some time on the journey flicking through the in-flight magazine.

We’re very glad one eagle-eyed PacaPod fan did, when she told us she’d seen none other than our Coromandel bag inside Flybe’s Uncovered magazine earlier this year. Luckily for us Flybe publish their magazine online so we were able to see for ourselves – check it out here (the Katy Perry interview’s a good 5 minute distraction too).

N.B. Apologies for being whingey in paragraphs 1 & 2, we've been staring at grey skies for too long!

…how we choose the names for the bags in the range?

What the Dickens is an Almora? I hear you ask.

Is a Coromandel some kind of flightless bird?  You mutter to yourself.

Ok, so these questions probably haven’t actually crossed your mind before, and there’s a good chance you’ve never used the term ‘what the Dickens’ in your life, what with it being the 21^st century and everything…

But since you’re here we might as well share a ‘PacaPod fun fact’:

When PacaPod inventor Jacqueline dreamt up the idea of a changing bag with a '3-1 organisation system' she was busy cycling around the world with her partner.

To pay homage to Jacqueline’s greatest adventure (before motherhood!), all styles in the PacaPod range are named after places she visited on her journey!

Want to play ‘Match the bag to it’s namesake’ (a very popular game at PacaPod HQ)? Head to our Pinterest page for a visual feast that will have you pumping up your bike tyres, donning your helmet and planning your own epic cycle tour!

In May we were very excited to launch the first ever PacaPod Model Search - our goal was to find local mums and tots to star in our Autumn/Winter 2012 photoshoot held in Manchester.

Fast-forward a month and after a deluge of applications, a million cups of coffee and much indecision from the team, the winners have been selected and the photoshoot completed (we don’t waste any time here at PacaPod!).

Our winning mums and their young daughters all put in stellar performances on the day and we’ve been blown away by the results – we think a new career in modelling beckons for these top ladies!

As we’re feeling generous (and a little bit REALLY excited by the whole thing) we’ve given you a sneaky peek below!

We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the competition - you gave us some tough decisions to make!

The new styles will be available from September – add them to your wish list now!

Last weekend, as we sat soaking up the glorious sunshine, with the smell of barbeque filling the air, our minds drifted to dreams of holidays in far-off locations. For inspiration we turned to the travel section of Sunday’s Independent and lo and behold! We only spotted our very own Mirano!

Sitting merrily amongst some other fab products in the Top 10 Family Travel Gadgets, the Independent has described this classic changing bag as both clever & cunning! Not that we let that kind of talk go to our heads…

Fancy yourself as the next Kate Moss? Or know someone who does?

We are giving one lucky mum and her child the opportunity to become PacaPod models for the day with starring roles in our summer photoshoot - in exchange for gorgeous PacaPod goodies.

We’re big fans of supporting our local community so the winning mum must be local to Manchester and previous modelling experience would be an advantage but not essential.

So if you have your poses & pouts down to a fine art, and a baby/toddler (girl or boy) who loves having their photo taken then email a pic of the two of you to offers@pacapod.com.

Include your contact details with your photo and we’ll be in touch with the lucky winner soon.

Good luck!

Amongst the glossy pages of this month’s Baby & Me magazine we spied our Mirano and Napier changing bags  – the answer to all packing dilemmas this summer!

Our adorable Changer Toy Pod took pride of place in the Mail on Sunday’s You Magazine last weekend, and whilst safety reins aren’t so frequently spotted on tots these days, tester Michelle reckons they’re making a comeback:

“Reins have been a must ever since our happy wanderer of a daughter could walk. Now two and a half, her old reins seem too babyish so this backpack from PacaPod with a lead attached ticks all the boxes. It looks fun, so she loves wearing it”

There’s been such a great reaction to the feature that we’ve already sold out of the Red Leopard and Pink Giraffe Pods! With just the Navy Zebra left make sure you get your orders in quick!

The spotlight has been firmly on the Mirano Chalk this Spring, with it’s bright hues and ample size making it the perfect holiday companion.

The latest PacaPod fan to sing it’s praises is mum of two and blogger Heather – you can check our her review and marvel at her arty photos at http://sahmlovingit.blogspot.co.uk/