Online and in the shops

Down to earth: Author and former astronaut Chris Hadfield will be signing copies of his latest book You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes, at Eason, Patrick St, Cork tomorrow from 3pm.

Until May 9, in addition to the weekly Saturday Story Time, the Eason Children’s Spring Fest will include a series of in-store events to promote reading and creative play with brands such as Crayola, Ravensburger, and Melissa & Doug. Tomorrow, there will be a Top Model event and Princess Mirror-Belle storytime at participating stores. Contact your local store to confirm event times. Further details are available on www.easonedition.com.

Look sharp:

Heatons Kids is the store’s best-selling range and hero pieces in the new spring collection include a border print dress (from €14 ) with a Peter Pan collar and pink skinny belt, and a vintage-inspired lace full dress (from €15) with a white lace overlay against mint green. A chambray shirt (from €8) can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. Pair with chino shorts (from €8) and laced canvas shoe (€4). Heatons Kids includes collections for babies (0-12 months), toddlers (1-5 years), and children (3-12 years). Heatons recently launched its new online store and now offers customers free click and collect to store and free delivery on orders over €30 at heatonsstores.com.

Head start:

At the Ideas Festival in Ikea Dublin recently, designers had some suggestions for parents on organised storage to help make school mornings less chaotic. Place child-safe hooks low enough so that children can hang up and retrieve their stuff, including school bags, coats, gym gear, helping them get into a routine and take pressure off mam and dad. Another suggestion was to give children their own storage spaces in which to keep items that get thrown to one side when arriving home after a busy day. Next morning, everything is easier to find. New to Ikea this month, the Stickar range of children’s textiles includes practical bed pockets and knitted storage baskets in a variety of colours, prices from €5. www.ikea.ie/dublin.

Race day:

This Chad Valley Sports Day Set has a start and a finish banner for marking out races, four plastic eggs and four spoons for a mess-free egg and spoon race, four bean bags, and four jumping bags, ages 3+, €7.99; www.argos.ie.