Childhood best friends turned business partners, Penny and Nicole, are the mamas behind Nosey Toesie, a small New Zealand brand born from the magic – and challenges – of early motherhood. With backgrounds in nursing and social work, they combined their professional care for people with a passion for play, creating their first product, the Kiwiana-inspired Touch ‘n Go Play Mat. Designed to nurture sensory development in babies and toddlers through purposeful, screen-free play, their products help little ones learn and develop fine motor skills. Here they talk to The Natural Parent Magazine about the passion behind Nosey Toesie, how they balance work and family time, the challenges they have overcome, and their hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
As two childhood best friends and a former Registered Nurse and Social Worker, we began our journey into motherhood together, which opened up a whole new avenue. Through watching our boys grow and explore the different ages and stages of play, the high need for sensory-based toys became clear. After some research and identifying the gap in the local market, we decided to develop a play product that aligns with both sensory and interactive play. This is how our beautiful and neutral Kiwiana-inspired ‘Touch ‘n Go Play Mat’ was created.
Our biggest motivators were our children. We want to be able to teach and show our children the value of hard work, creativity and family. Nosey Toesie is a business built on love, learning and the everyday magic of play. Our hope is that by creating this business, we can remain stay-at-home mums longer, being present in our children’s lives. At the same time of building something meaningful for others, we want it to contribute to our own children’s learning and development, especially in those early crucial years.
We have always believed that children don’t need noisy, plastic, battery-operated toys to thrive. What they need is play with purpose – things that engage their senses, spark curiosity and support natural brain development.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
Our journey to creating our ‘Touch ‘n Go Play Mat’ began in 2023.
Like many great ideas, ours was born during a casual hangout between two sleep-deprived, uncertain first-time mums. We were in the trenches of early motherhood, navigating nappies, nap schedules and all the newness that comes with babies. But amid the chaos, we also shared a mutual love for something simple but powerful: sensory play.
We noticed our two little ones were always on the ground, exploring the world with their hands, eyes and mouths. That’s when we had our light bulb moment: what if we created a play mat designed especially for this kind of learning? One that wasn’t just soft and safe, but also interactive, showcased New Zealand’s native beauty through interactive and tactile sensory squares, provided natural and neutral colour tones and was full of sensory magic.
Neither of us were professional designers, but we had something even better: high school textile skills, lots of enthusiasm and a shared vision to create something that would benefit every baby. We headed to Spotlight and began to sew our very own prototype. This took many months, late nights and lots of unstitching and restitching, but we got there and fell in love with our imperfect masterpiece. Our little ones got to trial our prototype and we immediately knew this would be such a gift if we could provide other babies and toddlers with the experience of sensory-rich play on a play mat that supported this.
We naturally had doubts, questioned whether we could do it and compared ourself to big brands in the baby and children industry, but our desire to give it a go together, push past all the noise and want to provide something that could support us being stay-at-home mums was what gave us the nudge we needed.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
Honestly, our biggest breakthrough wasn’t a big sale or a viral post – it was realising that we could build a business that fits around our lives as mums, instead of the other way around. Although in the beginning it was proving challenging to find an OEKO-TEX® company that was willing to give our sensory play mat creation a go, we were amazed with the prototype they completed from our design and then eventually the final product.
The moment we saw other families engaging and using our ‘Touch ‘n Go Play Mat’, sharing how their babies and toddlers were learning, reaching milestones and building connections through play – that for us is also a breakthrough. Knowing we have created something meaningful for many other families is truly heart warming.
We have since added to our sensory play range, having a great response to our recent Wooden Instrument Set launch.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
If we are being honest, it can feel like some days and weeks the balance is not so balanced. It can be overwhelming and exhausting, but this is the current season we are in: being a new small business plus having a young family, but we know (or hope) it wont always be like this. With both being stay-at-home māmās, we try to do the bulk of our business working hours early in the morning, at nap times and late in the evening to not take away from time with our boys. They grow too quickly and spending quality time without a screen nearby is very important to us. We make sure on weekends we dedicate this to being present with our family and only do Nosey Toesie orientated work if really required. That being said, sometimes it is too easy to get carried away, especially when working on something exciting.
Nicole was previously a social worker, so knows you can never pour from an empty cup, therefore you can find her doing some weekly skin care and a yoga or reformer pilates workout to help juggle the chaos of mum life and business life.
Drawing from Penny’s background in nursing, she values the importance of mental wellbeing and prioritises self-care to fill her cup by including fresh air and social interaction in her weekly routine. These excursions help her recharge and maintain balance between work, motherhood and family life.
At the end of the day, our golden rule is family always comes first and is always first priority.
