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!

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!   

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!

Clearly gift giving season is upon us.  I expected business to be booming right now, but it has far exceded my expectations.  It's our busiest time of year for wholesale orders, online orders, custom orders,and consumer shows.  That doesn't leave much time for blogging!  As we jet off to Toronto today for the fabulous One of a Kind Show I just wanted our regular readers to know that I will be returning to regular blogging in a few weeks.  Be sure to check back then - I'm expecting to find some amazing quality products for families to blog about upon my return from the show!  

PS - if you're curious as to which mally bibs are most popular for gift giving, please visit our archived winter '07 edition of mally mail.  Happy shopping!      

We’re thrilled!  It was just announced a few days ago that Mally Bibs has won an iParenting Media Award!  Months ago we submitted our bibs to be reviewed by the expert team at iParenting Media.  Our product was reviewed, analyzed and tested by 3 individuals including a licensed childcare facility/school, an industry expert, and a parent.  Because the reviewers were so pleased with the quality, style, comfort and convenience of our bibs, we can now add award winner to our list of achievements! 

 Here’s a list quotes about the product from our reviewers:

If you haven't already, be sure to stop by our custom design studio and place your order for our custom design contest.  We have had many great custom orders come in over the past 6  weeks, and now we're in the final stretch with only 2 weeks to go!  Don't be afraid to be original either - we love to see unique ideas and color combinations, so have fun with it and send us your custom order before October 31st to be entered. 

The grand prize winner will receive 2 free custom bibs of their own designs and we may even decide to add the winning bib to our new collection next year!  We will also award our 2nd and 3rd place bibs with a custom art card in their bib design AND free shipping on their next mally bibs order!  Good luck to all who entered! 

It's our absolute favorite time of year.  This week we’re officially kicking off our retail show season!  Yes zipping around the continent to all the distinctive North American cities during our wholesale season is a treat, but it’s our retail season that we truly get the most excited about.  It’s a time where we get to meet our end customers face to face.  We get to observe the excitement on their faces as they gaze upon our latest collection of bibs as they try to decide the perfect ones to buy.  We get to hear straight from our customers which designs they wish to see in the future (and we listen!).  They share their mally bibs stories with us and rave about how they have used no other bib for the past year and it still looks like brand new, or that it was the hit of the baby shower they were at last week.  It’s really what keeps us going and motivates our growth, making even the toughest days completely worthwhile.

If you’re in the area of any of our upcoming shows, we’d love for you to stop by our booth and say hi.  We will have some exclusive designs only available at these shows, as well as a draw for a free mally bib for those who sign up for mally mail!  Here’s the complete list of our upcoming retail shows:

Have you been tempted to design and order one of our custom bibs?  Well, now is definitely the best time to do so!  For all custom bib orders placed in September and October 2007, we are going to choose our favorite and award the person who designed and ordered that bib with 2 custom bibs (approx. value $90) of their choice for FREE!  Who knows, we may even decide to add the winning design to our next collection!  There are 442, 170 possible combinations using our color and design options, so we're pretty sure there will be no two the same!  When ordering for toddlers, a great tip is to let them help design their bib in the colors and design that they want. Allowing them to have a say in what they will be wearing will generate excitement, and they will want to wear it more!  Remeber our custom bibs include a special 'Custom Designed for you!' label:   

Speaking of contests, I thought I’d send one last shout out to our customers, fans and readers.  If you have been impressed with mally bibs products and customer service, or if you simply enjoy reading our blog, please take a moment to vote for mally bibs for the SavvyMom Mompreneur™ of the year award.  This contest is closing in less than two weeks and we need every vote we can get!  Good luck to all in the running!  Win or lose, we were thrilled to be a part of this contest. 

Today's post is going to be a little different.  Rather than a typical product feature, which I hope you're enjoying, I'm going to take this opportunity to ask for some feedback.  We don't get very many comments through our blog, as most new blogs don't, but that's something we would like to change!  We want to know what our readers want to hear.  What types of products are you interested in, what would you like to see less or more of,  or would you like to see a monthly contest perhaps???  Whatever it is, please share - we're open to suggestions!  Simply log in to create an account so you can start commenting.  We are off to our next tradeshow in the fabulous city of New York (don't worry - I've pre-published the blog posts for while we're away!), where I'm sure I will find plenty of inspiration to bring back and share on the mally bibs blog.