With our business still young, nearing the 3 year mark, we know it’s meant to be because so many great opportunities just happen to come our way.  We’re sure it’s got a lot to do with our hard work and dedication, but often it also seems that luck is on our side.  Last June when we held our photo shoot, one of our super-cute models Levi, pictured below, had a connection that we never even knew!  His mom Angela, a friend of mine (or mum, as they say in the UK) had a sister named Sarah Jane in Great Britain, who just happened to have the passion for mally bibs, plus the drive and business skills to take our product and make it a success in Europe too!  So, just like that, the next chapter in the mally bibs story is written.  We’re excited to see how the story continues from here!

We’re SO excited!  Today our bibs were featured on the fabulous Bloggy Giveaways site!  If you haven’t heard of Bloggy Giveaways yet, I suggest you check it out and add it to your favorites right now.  They feature fabulous products weekly and then GIVE THEM AWAY!  All you have to do is reply to their post to be entered.  Why not head on over now and try to win a few mally bibs?  You have until Friday, March 21st to enter.  Good luck!

It's my absolute most favorite part of business - designing the new mally bibs collection.  I'm just in the early stages of our design process for our next collection: brainstorming, sketching, and drawing in CAD (computer assisted drafting).  Designing an entire new collection usually takes me a few weeks to a month off and on.  I often wait until the creative mood strikes, which is usually late at night when the kids are sound asleep.  I keep a little diary throughout the year to jot down customer requests or to sketch design ideas as I'm inspired by something.  If you have any fabulous design ideas that you would like us to consider, we would love to hear!  Just add a comment to this post to let us know!   

I particularly enjoy products that promote and encourage our children's artistic development, even at the earliest age when they just begin discovering crayons.  I believe it's such an important part of their early learning years, and what better way to encourage it than by proudly highlighting or displaying their creations in your home.  Each of my own children have a designated art area on their bedroom wall to hang their latest art work.  We change it up regularly and they even make special pieces for each other to hang.  They truly get enjoyment out of this.  Here is a great product that shows off their works of art in an extra special, yet modern, stylish and functional way.  The design your own lamp by streamline allows you to insert the latest masterpiece for display in the shade.  The great thing is you can change it up as greater masterpieces are made!   

This unique lamp is available for purchase here.  If you know of any other great places to find this product, please leave a comment to suggest a location! 

What makes more sense? 

#1 – A relatively inexpensive (approx. $25) plastic diaper pail which wraps each diaper individually for convenience and odor control:

OR

#2 – A rather expensive (approx. $295) stainless steel diaper pail that has an airtight odor seal to keep odors away and stay sanitary:

My vote, hands down, is #2.  I’ll admit, I owned the type shown in example #1, but if I were to do it all again it would be option #2.  Why?  Many reasons:

One of the little perks of having this blog is having products sent to us for review.  We get all kinds of products sent, in hopes that we will review them, but we don’t review just any product.  It has to be something we believe in and consider to be a great product.  We were recently sent a line of natural skin care for breastfeeding moms, which is great!  Since I am no longer a nursing mom (children nearing ages 4 and 6), I sent the product to a breast feeding mom friend to test and review.  Of the products tested, the Nipple Nurture Cleansing Pads by Mother's Intuition were the fav.  They were described as “light and cool” and “magic little pads of heaven” which I thought was certainly blog-worthy!  Plus they're all natural, which is always a bonus.  Kate, our tester, thought they were especially great for moms like herself who have to do a lot of pumping for their little one.  So, if you’re a breast-feeding mom who would love to feel fresh and cool after breast feeding or pumping (who wouldn’t?!) give these a try.

Nipple Nurture by Mother’s Intuition can be purchased through Amazon.

That's right!  We're making monkeys like mad!  Just for fun, here's a little history on our monkey design:

2005 - We (Mally bibs) launched our debut collection, with NO monkey design.  Why?  We wanted to be different...and EVERYBODY seemed to do a monkey design...

2005 - Monkey was BY FAR the #1 customer request!  Wanting to offer designs that our customers were asking for, we had some designing to do.

2006 - We worked on our monkey until it was just right and added it to our collection in a vibrant yet gender neutral red, and monkey sales took off!  Except some people wanted monkey in pink, blue, green, orange, etc...

2007 - We added an unique online option to customize the color combinations of ANY of our designs for an extra $5.50.  Monkey was and still is our most customized design.

2008 - MONKEY MADNESS is here - the latest development in our monkey design.  For a limited time only, our amazingly popular monkey is available in 10 fabulous colors and 2 sizes for the price of our regular baby and toddlers bibs!

Hurry though, these monkey's are only going to be available until March 31st!  As always we must thank the talented Jason and Darcie of Revival Arts Studio for the amazing product photography.  They can even make spools thread look enticing!

With all the recent scary headlines about the potentially damaging affects of plastic water bottles, baby bottles and sippy cups, of course we’re all turning to our favorite stores in search of something safer for our little ones, and ourselves!  I recently wrote about a fab new glass baby bottle a while back, but what about the older children or ourselves?  I have the answer, of course!  Sigg aluminum water bottles have been known for their Swiss made quality for years, and I’m sure now people are less hesitant to pay the few extra dollars to own them.  Plus they come in several sizes and styles, and sport some great graphic design.

There are 3 sizes available in their KIDZ collection, perfect to suit children of any age.  They even have a great collection of adult water bottles, so the whole family can drink their H2O in style.  Sigg water bottles can be purchased online at www.mysigg.com.  

We've never seen such blow-out prices at Milk Factory before - you must check it out, and soon too!!!  The Milk Factory sale ends this Friday, January 18th.  Super deals for the little athlete in your life such as short and long sleeve quickwick shirts and bodysuits for only $10, beanie hats for only $5, or even the top selling leisure pants for $5 just because they're slightly misfit!  If you've been wanting to try out their products, NOW is the time!

Be sure also to regularily check out the Milk Factory blog to learn about their ongoing contests, sales, or any of the fun stuff they have to share! Happy Shopping!