new products

Here’s a sneak peek at our brand new coordinating line of vintage-inspired baby shower invitations, decorations, favors and more. We’re calling this line Bundle of Joy and we’re designing it in such a way that it can work perfectly for a vintage baby girl shower, a vintage baby boy shower, or a vintage don’t-have-a-clue shower. Bunny, duck and bear with their bottles, booties and pins can be found throughout this line and give it a vintage flair you’ll find hard to resist.

Look for this new and exclusive line to appear at The Baby Gardner in late January. When it’s available, you can find it here.      [UPDATE: The new collection has arrived!]

… Hooded Towel! Can’t think of any better place for a little mermaid to be. Check out our new Maggie the Mermaid Hooded Towel now available in the shop!

Congrats to Christy, winner of a $15 gift certificate to The Baby Gardner! Christy, we will email your gift certificate code to use at your convenience. Thanks for playing!

I’m doing a bit of research for our next post. I’ll give you a hint: vintage plastic. Think it sounds awful? Think again! Get ready to fall in love.

This little mermaid is coming to The Baby Gardner! She’s based on a wonderful vintage pattern and completely hand-embroidered by the talented Heather Hales.

Enter to win! Can you guess the new item this little embroidery will show up on? Dive in and leave a comment with your guess. If you guess correctly, you’ll be entered to win a $15 gift certificate to the shop. Winner will be chosen at random. Deadline for entering is Sunday 8/2 at 11pm GMT.

Now how fin-tastic is that? And it’s not even a Friday!

Wanted to introduce you guys to our latest arrival at the shop, Penelope. She’s a little girl’s best friend and handcrafted in vintage style by one of our new artist contributors, Rachelle, at Two Homes Handmade.

My daughter loved carrying around purses even before she had anything to put in them. It didn’t matter. Small toys, chapstick, even a lonely sock without its mate — all of them made it into the purse and went everywhere. I would have loved to see Grace carrying around Penelope when she was little. Now at age 9, I’m doubtful Penelope (as cute as she is) could pass her ‘cool’ inspection. You know those 9-year-olds — they have a mind of their own!

Stop by and say hello to Penelope and let us know what you think!

We’ve been working on a whole new section of goodies over at The Baby Gardner! Since our new BABY SHOWER collection has been so well-received, we’re now in the process of developing a BIRTHDAY PARTY collection! This collection will include all sorts of vintage-inspired goodies from favor bags to picks to banners and more. We’ve even developed new party invitations to coordinate with these items!

We’re adding the finishing touches, so be sure to look for this new addition to the shop in the next few weeks! Until then, here’s a sweet little taste…

So how many of us have hosted a baby shower and felt obligated to include a cheesy baby shower game? You know, one of those that usually humiliates the guests and the mom-to-be? Something like “guess how many toilet paper squares it takes to wrap around mom’s belly.” Yeh, you know the ones. Well here’s a few creative alternatives to the rescue!

IDEA #1: A Little Encouragement Goes A Long Way

I was watching Oprah several weeks ago and it was one of her ‘Favorite Things’ episodes. Usually she gives away an obscene amount of free stuff to the audience, but because of the economy, she was introducing ‘thrifty’ gift ideas. Anyway, she was talking about how (years ago) one of her producers had asked each member of the staff to write down what they liked about working at Harpo. They collected all the notes, put them in a simple box and gave them to Oprah as a gift. It was something she still cherished years and years later. Inexpensive but priceless.

That really struck a cord with me. I’m a sucker for sentiment. And then it hit me — baby showers! And after some brainstorming and staying true to my love for vintage, I came up with these: Baby Silhouette Encouragement Cards for the New Mom — now available exclusively at The Baby Gardner.

How to Play:

1. Pass these out to each guest as they arrive at the baby shower. Ask each of them to write a special message of encouragement for the new mom.
2. Collect all the cards towards the end of the shower. Place them back in the coordinating archival envelope.
3. Present the envelope to the new mom as a final gift and watch the tears flow! Allow her to read each one aloud if she likes.

Of course, you could always adapt this idea using your own card design (please don’t copy ours). Either way, you’re looking at a great alternative to the same old baby shower games and you’re giving the new mom something she’s sure to cherish for years to come!

IDEA #2: When Will Her Water Break?

Can’t take credit for this clever game, but it’s one of my favorites. And of course I love the fact that the little babies give it a vintage twist.

How to Play:

1. The night before the shower, fill ice cube trays with water (one cube per guest) and place a baby (available in packs by Wilton) in each slot. [Bonus: Make extra baby cubes to place in the punch bowl as an added touch.]
2. Pop cubes out right before the shower and place one baby ice cube in each drinking glass. Distribute a glass to each guest and point out their impending ‘birth’. Tell them it has to be a natural birth. No biting the ice!
3. The first to ‘deliver’ a baby floating freely in their glass wins a door prize!

IDEA #3: No Thanks Necessary

Here’s another great baby shower ‘game’ that actually gives a helping hand to the mom-to-be.

How to Play:

1. Purchase thank-you cards for the guest of honor before the shower. May we suggest a few vintage-inspired choices at The Baby Gardner?
2. At the shower, give each guest an envelope (those that came with the thank-you cards) and ask them to write their name on the envelope.
3. Collect all the envelopes and place them in a bowl. Draw one name/envelope to win a handsome door prize.
4. After the shower, give the thank-you cards and envelopes to the mom-to-be. She’ll have a helpful head start on her thank-you notes.

In the spirit of this historical election, last Fall we started our own Vintage Election 2008. We asked for your vote to select a new design to be incorporated into our line of vintage-inspired birth announcements and baby shower invitations at The Baby Gardner. Voting ended on Election Day, November 4th, and we announced our winner!

Now, we’re pleased to introduce and inaugurate our brand new design, Baby Bells! We liked your choice so much, we decided to create coordinating thank-you cards as well. 

Thanks to all who participated in our election! Let us know what you think of the results!

Giving is a wonderful thing. Receiving can be pretty nice too. But have you ever tried giving a receiving — a receiving blanket that is — like the brand new Puppy Love Receiving Blanket at The Baby Gardner? Can’t go wrong there. 100% soft cotton knit with a vintage graphic of baby’s best friend. Tied with grosgrain ribbon in bright blues.

Tonight the temperature here will drop to 10 degrees with a sub-zero wind chill. For the south, that’s pretty rare and darn chilly! Blankets all around!

Ba-what? Babushka! You know! Those adorable Russian nesting dolls? Well, get ready. The Baby Gardner will soon be introducing our own take on these dolls… which just happen to be the most adorable ones I’ve ever seen. Chenille and vintage-inspired fabrics make them totally unique. They’re an original design by Leah Littlehales, a new artist contributor at The Baby Gardner. (Welcome, Leah!)

Leah’s down-under, so these little treasures should be arriving in the states very soon. When they debut, you can find them here.

If you’ve been keeping up with the blog for a while, you’ll remember Baby James (brand new son of my dear friend, Renee) and his arrival back on 11/11. I had been itching to get my hands on him (5-hour commute) and was finally able to do just that over these last few days.

I took every opportunity to spoil him rotten. Sleep on my chest for over an hour so you can get away with sleeping on your stomach? No problem. Christen me during diaper changing? You got it. Want to be held ALL the time? Your wish is my command. I loved it. Every second with him reminded me of the first few fleeting months I had with my own sweet little man, Aidan.

Renee is totally smitten with her new little boy. No surprise there. But what I think catches every new mom off guard a little, is when that tiny fist wraps around your finger for the first time and you wonder how your world could have ever been complete before he came into it.

As for James, he’s already charming the ladies. See for yourself… (Check out his personalized elephant onesie. You’ll never guess where that came from.)