Little Choux Blog

#makebelieve Pin-a-way

ahauer — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:10:45 +0000

Who doesn’t love a pin-a-way, especially when it means dreaming up ways to inspire your children’s creativity! To enter, follow the steps listed above and note the below reference links to start pinning.

Little Choux website: www.littlechoux.com

Shop Belle website: www.shopbelle.com

SUMMER CLEARANCE EVENT!

ahauer — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:12:15 +0000

Little Choux is just over a year old and we are excited to announce our first annual Summer Clearance Event with our sister site, Shop Belle. Toys, decor, accessories and clothes are marked down 30-70% off – pretty awesome deals for two small boutiques! We hope you will stop in and take a look – sale ends on Monday, June 23rd.

http://www.littlechoux.com/summerclearance.html

Summer YOLO List

ahauer — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:26:10 +0000

Do you have a YOLO list? Your reaction was probably the same as mine when I first read this acronym for You Only Live Once! The idea is simple and so much fun: create a list of the most important things you would like to do with your kids this summer and document them as you make them happen! After reading a few summer wish lists I realized how many projects or things I had already thought of doing with our family like backyard camping, set up an outdoor train track in the garden or catch fireflies. If you have young kids like we do the days go by so quickly and I don’t ever seem to have time to plan some of these fun adventures.

So here is my official Top 20 Summer YOLO List. I hope to get to all of them but at least now I have a reminder of the fun things I want to do!

#1. Go berry picking

#2. Attend an outdoor summer concert

#3. Have a picnic dinner at the park (with Daddy)!

#4. Invite neighborhood friends over for a bike wash

#5 & #6. Look at the moon through a telescope & catch fireflies

#7. Write down a wish, tie it to a ballon and send it off to the heavens!

#8. Start a summer reading list

#9. Make a cardboard castle on a rainy (or HOT) day

#10. Attend a children’s theatre performance

#11. Play water balloon baseball

#12. Invite imaginary friends for a picnic

#13. Plant a “Stone Soup” garden for the Big Bad Wolf (add that to summer reading list first)!

#14. Camp in the backyard

#15. Roast smores

#16. Paint with bubbles

#17. Set up an outdoor railroad track

#18. Paint sticks

#19. Take them out to the ball game!

#20. Don’t forget to create a summer memory book!

If you are looking for more ideas, check out this awesome list from the friend who inspired me to YOLO …and be sure to send us your favorites as well!

Happy Summer!

A Dockside Sailing Party

ahauer — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:30:54 +0000

Do you have friends who are just a fountain of creativity? I am lucky to have many but thrilled to introduce you to one in particular. Meet Stephanie: mom to Matias, owner of a local design business (Besch Designs), photographer, sailer and ultimate crafter of turning trash into amazing treasure! We had the excitement of taking part in her latest project, Matias’ dockside sailing party in celebration of his 5th birthday.

Stephanie really wanted to create a mix of learning, doing and also having just plain old fun. One of the things she was trying to accomplish was for the kids to learn that your location has coordinates, so she included the latitude and longitude of the party on the invitations and had a sign on the boat building table that further explained the concept of coordinates. Another fun detail was the “Slip 5″ theme used throughout the party to connect the dockside sailing party to Matias’ 5th birthday. To boot, she even had a slip knot tutorial that her husband, Captain Paul, helped the kids perfect!

She had so many unique ideas including the “message in a bottle” invitations, a “dock”side entrance made from crates, personalize and hoist a burgee, build then race your own boat, sailboat themed sandwiches and the confetti popper finish! From borrowing wooden pallets from the local grocery store for the dock side entrance to building a sailing canal out of cardboard floral boxes (among other things), there are so many amazing & authentic details that you don’t want to miss!

Announcing the Little Choux mini boutique!

ahauer — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:30:39 +0000

We love our home town of Alexandria, Virginia! Great shopping, restaurants, historical monuments and best of all the people! We knew it wouldn’t be long before we planted a Little Choux boutique right in the heart of Old Town to give our friends a first hand look at our unique products. So when the well known “pop-up shop” boutique, 529.Kids.Consign, opened their doors we knew it was kismet! 529 offers a great selection of consigned children’s clothes and gear, both new and gently used. We felt Little Choux products would be a perfect compliment to their assortment and we are so glad they agreed!

So if you live in the DC area, please come visit the Little Choux mini boutique at 529.Kids.Consign! We will be selling many giftable items as well as a selection of home decor including our popular melamine tableware, lunch boxes, raffia baskets, finger printing art kits, matchbox mice & more! We hope to see you soon!

Show your appreciation!

ahauer — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:06:54 +0000

One thing I am certain about, I could never be a teacher! Teachers are a unique breed. They have everlasting patience and enthusiasm, love and kindness. Many of them even go home to their own children after a long day of work! It’s exhausting just thinking about it and I am in awe of their dedication, devotion and generosity!

So today we are sharing our favorite gift ideas to spoil our teachers at the end of the year and thank them for nurturing and loving our children as much as we do!

TEACHER APPRECIATION GIFTS:

Apple Push Pins

Personalized Chalkboard & Stamp Set

Teacher Push Pins

Customizable Blackboard

Reusable Drink Cup

Customizable Chalkboard

Red Dot Pencil Pouch

Laugh Love Teach Tote Bag

Pink Daisy Cooler Bag

Teacher Notebook Lined Notecards

Apple Thank you Cards

Green Garden Roses Stationery

Letter Mug

School Cookies

Thank you Gift Tags

Turquoise Floral Apron

Tan Linen Embroidered Apron

Patchwork Butterfly Apron

Take a look at our Back to School pinterest board for additional ideas.

Girly Dress-Up Corner

ahauer — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:36:45 +0000

I love the idea of turning a cluttered or dreary corner into a perfectly pretty play space! This creatively styled image got us thinking about the Little Choux products we would use to design a girly dress up corner. Read on to see what we have dreamed up !

eclectic kids design by new york kitchen and bath Kelly Donovan

DRESS-UP CORNER DECOR:

Enchanted Woods Wallpaper in Peony

Vintage White Chairs

Grey Criss Cross Pouf

Pink Raffia Storage Basket

Queen Crown Pillow

Emma the Elephant

PLAYTIME ACCESSORIES:

Pink Crochet Striped Necklace

Pin-it Contest with Honey & Fitz

ahauer — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:31:58 +0000

If you love Pinterest as much as we do, then you will love this new contest! We have teamed up with the super chic design blog Honey & Fitz and you could pin-it-to-win-it!

Here’s how you enter -

1. Create a board on Pinterest titled “Honey & Fitz/Little Choux Contest” and pin some of your favorite Little Choux items to the board. Pin as many as you want , just be sure to include AT LEAST FIVE items from Little Chouxin your design board.

2. Share the link to your pin board in the comments section of the Honey & Fitz Pinterest contest board here.

3. For extra entries, follow Little Choux on Pinterest here and Honey & Fitz on Pinterest here.

4. You have until April 20th to enter. Get pinning!

A Soup Fairy Garden?

ahauer — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:26:56 +0000

Now that our kids are a bit older we decided it would be fun to attempt a more structured version of gardening. Up until now planting has involved scattering (aka wildly throwing) seeds. While that method actually sprouted one of the best wildflower gardens we have seen, it will be much more exciting to teach the kids how to nurture “fruit” producing plants.

The plan is to grow the Soup Planting Kit among a fairy garden making it both fun & functional! The kit includes cabbage, tomatoes, fingerling carrots, onions, peas and beans so we may need a bit more space that a single container will allow. We will let you know how it comes along, but in the meantime enjoy the inspiration that we have collected to help jump start our gardening project!

{Soup Planting Kit + Fairy Garden = A Soup Fairy Garden}

* Fairy garden image courtesy of Midwestliving.com

Fairy Garden in a Drawer

Wine Barrel Fairy Garden

Apple Crate Fairy Garden

Wheelbarrow Fairy Garden

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

ahauer — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:29:04 +0000

Knowing how much we love animals in our house we are definitely not going on a bear hunt but we are going on a mini vacation and every time it feels like a new adventure! Listed below are a few essentials that we will have handy to make the car trip “successful”.

We never seem to leave home without our snack bags whether its to carry the obvious …or sunscreen, first aid, cars/trucks, trinkets, you name it, we carry it! However, this will be our first trip bringing the duffle bags. The kids are just about old enough to carry (and want to carry) their own bags. The W.J. Mills bags are a perfect size for kids, durable and so bright and colorful! The other items on this list are a staple for us but the Mini Dot Magnet Puzzle is a new one that I am excited about. It includes mini magnetic dots that can be transformed into shapes, letters, pretty much anything their imagination can drum up + the black metal case can be shared among the kids (top and bottom separate).

Wish us luck!

1. Blue & Yellow Striped Snack Bag

2. Sky Bento Box

3. Yellow Snack Bag

4. Corn Yellow Bento Box

5. Red Dino Messenger Bag

6. Red Pieced Tote

7. Mini Dot Magnet Puzzle

8. Placemat Coloring Pad

9. Owl Crayon Roll

10. Red Duffle Bag

11. Hot Pink Duffle Bag