November 2008

We’re back from our week-long trip to see Mickey. We had a great time, but I can’t tell you how good it feels to be home. There’s something to be said for sleeping in your own bed, showering in your own shower, eating in your own kitchen…

I’ve got tons of photos from our trip that I’m sure I’ll share in later posts, but just wanted to let you all know that we made it back safe and sound.

Christmas apparently snuck up on us while we were away. When we arrived home last night, we were greeted with Christmas lights all over the neighborhood. Clearly we have some catching up to do. I’m itching to write about vintage Christmas ideas too, just as soon as I can get settled back in, wash about 10 loads of laundry from the trip, start and finish a class project with Grace, and deck the halls with boughs of holly. It’s great to be home.

Happy Thanksgiving! Wishing all of you full tummies and long naps this turkey day. My crew will be continuing to pound the pavements at Disney World. We’ve got reservations at a Pan-Asian restaurant for our Thanksgiving dinner (Yak & Yeti’s, for all you DW pros). Definitely not your typical Thanksgiving feast. Should be interesting. But I digress…

What YOU want to hear about is The Baby Gardner’s One-Day Sale right? It only happens one day a year and tomorrow’s the big day! Tomorrow only…

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28th — FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS!

Enter promotion code GOBBLE at checkout.

That’s right. No fine print. You want it? You got it. And shipping’s on us. You won’t see this offer any other time of year, so scoop up another helping of those candied yams (sweet potatoes, whatever) and then scoop up the savings tomorrow at The Baby Gardner!

Gobble! Gobble!

After months and months of childlike anticipation, the day is finally here. We’ve officially hit the road on our way to that place where wishes really do come true (if you’re age 3, that is) – Walt Disney World. Wish us luck on our 10-hour road trip of endless bathroom breaks, bickering siblings, and answering the ‘are we there yet’ question about a gazillion times. It’s gonna be great!

Never fear! I haven’t left you empty-handed in my absence. I can’t spill the beans completely, but let me just say there will be a very special post on Thanksgiving Day. Feel FREE to stop by. Catch my drift?

Hope all of you have a fabulous Thanksgiving. I’m sure I will come back with a ton of stories and more photos than I know what to do with. Talk to you soon!

D

[ Shop Note: The shop will remain open while I'm away. Orders for in-stock items placed Thanksgiving week will ship on 12/1/08. ]

I can’t remember if I told you guys already or not, but the fam has been planning a trip to Disney World since January — yeh, before the whole economy scare. (Our timing is always stellar.) Anywho, we decided to stick with the plan, forget reality for a week, and head to sunny Florida. This will be Gracie and Aidan’s first time to DW. We’re really looking forward to it (minus the 10-hour road trip) and as you might expect, the kids are bouncing off the walls already. Granny & Pop are even joining us (it’s their first time too)!

So in the spirit of our upcoming adventure, I thought now was the perfect time to talk about vintage Disney! When it comes to decorating, I’m personally not a fan of the Disney Princesses, Cars, and Buzz Lightyear decor which is available in every department store from here to eternity. But believe me, I know how much the kids love them. Lightning McQueen is a member of the family. But I’d like to think that maybe there’s a way to fulfill the Disney dynasty with the kids while throwing in a bit of vintage flair that stands apart from the aisles and aisles of Disney-branded merchandise. Is it too much to hope for?

Believe it or not, yesterday was the 80th anniversary of Mickey Mouse’s debut in Steamboat Willie. (Who says my timing is bad!) Finding vintage Disney really isn’t hard. It’s incredibly popular and collectible. Prices on rare pieces can get pretty high, but there’s so much Disneyana (that’s the avid collector’s term) out there, you’re sure to find something in even the most modest price range.

I went through eBay looking for vintage pieces that I thought might inspire you. Let me take you on a little tour…

If you have an extra, say $1000 or so, you might want to check out this fabulous 1930′s Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse doll (shown above) currently up for auction on eBay. Even if you can’t swing the price (yeh, me neither), it’s still worth a peek. It’s the epitome of vintage Disney collectibles.

Another vintage Disney treasure I found was this Mickey & Minnie Vintage Pail. Wouldn’t it look great filled with vintage wooden alphabet blocks? (Stuff the bottom with newspaper first so it doesn’t take so many blocks to fill the pail.) You could use it as an adorable bookend or display it as a central focus on a wall shelf or dresser. This particular one is sold, but you can find many more like it on eBay.

Disneyana isn’t only about Mickey and Minnie though. Bambi, Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Dumbo (my personal all-time favorite) — the list goes on and on. You can find vintage versions of all of them and more. Here are two more examples of great oldies that are just itching to be rediscovered and adored…

Vintage Bambi Alarm Clock, circa 1964

Vintage Classic Dumbo Comic Book

Are you just giddy now with inspiration? Ok, well maybe that’s overstating a bit, but I hope you did enjoy the trip down memory lane. That’s truly one of the best things about Disney — the characters that we grew up with are still there among the Jasmines and Lightning McQueens our children are growing up with today. And you better believe I plan to point out every one when we get to that amazing wonderland in the sun — Walt Disney World.

The ‘elves’ are crazy busy these days, but allowed me one sneak peek of a brand new product coming soon to the shop. Imagine these vintage reproduction fabrics transformed into an insanely-cute garland pennant for little one’s room. Now imagine that pennant accented with hand-embroidery too. Drooling yet? Yep. Me too. Can’t wait to see what Laurie at Old School Acres has up her sleeve. It’s sure to be fab! When it’s ready, you can find it here.

Crystal Rendon is one of my oldest and dearest friends and the artist behind the popular Vintage-Style Baby Charm Bracelet for Mom available exclusively at The Baby Gardner. Crystal had introduced me to a friend of hers, Julia, who is adopting a little one from China. She shared stories of Julia’s support group of families awaiting adoptions from China. They rally together through the arduous adoption process and prepare for the journey to China that they will all take together. I couldn’t begin to do justice to their story, but Crystal expressed a desire to create a bracelet in honor of Julia and her group. So of course I said, “Absolutely, I’m in!” That was all it took. The girl was on a mission…

We knew we wanted to give the bracelet a vintage flair and pandas seemed the perfect choice. The obvious first question was, “Do vintage panda illustrations even exist?” No clue. We searched high and low and everywhere in between. And sure enough, we found them on vintage birthday cards, vintage baby shower invitations and vintage children’s books.

Once we found the illustrations, Crystal began to create — adding authentic vintage cabachons, glass beads, adorable lampwork pandas and more. The result? It speaks for itself…

I’m not adopting from China, but luckily it’s not a requirement. I fell in love with this all the same. The pink and black color combination is to die for. And the best part? Crystal created the original design for moms and a perfectly-proportioned version for little girls as well! Gracie and I will be sporting these by Christmas for sure!

Here’s an idea! Know someone adopting from China? Give the mom-sized bracelet to that special mom-to-be while she waits for her little one from China. If she’s adopting a baby girl, surprise Mom with the matching daughter bracelet when baby arrives home!

You can see more photos of these fabulous bracelets here.

Baby James was born today, 11/11/08, at 12:57pm! He weighed in at 7lbs, 15 ounces and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great. We live about 5 hours away, so I’m dying to get my hands on him! Had to share the news. In case you have no clue who Baby James is, catch up on the ‘vintage nautical saga’ here and here.

Welcome to the world, little one!

[Since I don't have any pics yet of the baby, here's a pic from the day of Renee's baby shower when I gave her the now infamous vintage sailor coloring book. Renee also sent me a pic of his nursery with some other vintage finds: a vintage children's book titled Teddy's Sailboat and a set of vintage glass nursery jars that have the cutest baby graphics on them. The big paper maché 'J' was a decoupaged table centerpiece from her shower.]

Your votes have been counted in our Vintage Election 2008! Our brand new invitation design for the shop will be Baby Ringing Bells! Thanks to all who voted. Look for the new design to be revealed and inaugurated into the shop in January 2009!

On a national level, last night was a historic election night. Regardless who you voted for, there’s an undeniable sense of hope for the country moving forward. I think expectations will be really high, and I hope our new president and Congress will be able to exceed all of them. And TGIF! Thank Goodness It’s Finished! I’m so over this whole (2 years+) political election cycle. Can we talk about something else now?

Get ready for a major revelation… The holidays are almost here! I know! How is that possible? But I had a slew of ‘holiday shopping’ emails in my in-box today — all of them hammering the point home. And as much as I hate to steam-roll over Thanksgiving, I have to admit that now is a great time to start your holiday shopping. Now is when to get first pick of the litter with half the stress.

Shopping early has another benefit too. It gives you the option of selecting personalized gifts that are usually out of contention for the procrastinator-types out there (myself included). But I do love to buy personalized gifts when the stars align and I still have the time to make it happen. There’s just something about making a gift personal that makes it personal. The only thing that tops it in my book is handmade gifts. And what? What’s that? Oh my gosh! You’re right! The Baby Gardner offers both! (Yes, insert shameless shop promotion here.)

So even if you are a notorious procrastinator like I am, here’s your chance to get ahead of the curve this holiday season. We’ve made an easy reference list of all the personalized gift ideas currently available at The Baby Gardner. Just click and go! Easy peas-y!

Personalized Book Plates & Name Labels (Vintage Illustrations)

Baby Boy Elephant Personalized Onesie Set

Baby Girl Elephant Personalized Onesie Set

Monogrammed or Personalized Scalloped Hair Clips

Personalized Hear Me Roar Little Lion Blanket

Personalized Playful Monkey Blanket

Personalized Vintage Red Soft Block Set with Bag

Personalized Nautical Soft Block Set with Bag

Personalized My First Christmas Bib

Monogrammed or Personalized Holiday Toy Bags

Personalized Bluebird Greetings Note Cards

We had a pretty sweet Halloween around here as the gobs and gobs of candy will attest to. The kids had a ball. And as much candy as I dished out to every trick-or-treater Friday night, I swear they came home with twice as much. But I will admit I loved watching them ‘organize’ their candy all afternoon — by color, shape, flavor… You name it, they did it. That candy was seriously man-handled. And then of course mean Mama had to break it to them that it would be rationed.

We had a cowboy theme going this year. I had all these great plans of making costumes, but this year it just didn’t happen. So I punted and went shopping. Aidan was a piece of cake, but getting Grace on board? She was less than thrilled — until she found the pink cowboy hat with the sequins and the tiara on the front! SOLD!

So how did YOUR Halloween go? Share the costume pics!