I am a proud member of the EtsyMom team! On the team blog there is a monthly series encouraging us to learn more about fellow members, and Sweetbeets is the featured shop for July. Will you take a peek?

A huge thank you to Jamie of Boody Babies for writing the article! Here are my favorite handmade lovelies from her Etsy shop:

(image via boodybabies.etsy.com)

Technorati Tags: handmade, handcrafted, Etsy, EtsyMom Team

Technorati Tags: letterpress, sample sale, baby cards, birthday cards, stationery

My husband very kindly took our boys on a walk yesterday while I got my quarterly sales tax returns done and also photos edited and submitted for a book that’s being published by RotoVision on letterpress. They came back with this cute toad!

I’ve been meaning to tell you about this bug keeper that we bought at the local Royal Botanical Gardens when they hosted a bug exhibit a few months ago. We bought two actually since I thought it would make a fun gift for my nephew who turned six recently.

The bug keeper is handcrafted by LTR Works in Ancaster, Ontario and the mesh on one side is secured by velcro so kids can open and close it easily. I couldn’t find a website, but I did find a nice alternative on Etsy. This bug collecting box is handmade in the USA by BirchLeaf Designs.

(image via birchleafdesigns.etsy.com)

Technorati Tags: handmade, handcrafted, bug box, bug collecting, bug keeper, birthday gift ideas for boys

I joined the Etsy Kids Team a while ago and I’m trying to be more involved and help promote my fellow members. I did a search for “etsykids team” on Etsy.com and found over 9,000 items. Here are some of my favorites: Bubblegirl, Wood Pond Designs, My Sunshine Designs, Plum Tree Studio, Butterfly Baby Place and Lissa.

(images via Etsy.com)

Technorati Tags: Etsy, EtsyKids Team, baby gift ideas, girl, baby shower gifts, handmade, independent designers

This is my story of Citizen Kid, a new Sweetbeets retailer located on the very hip Locke Street in Hamilton, Ontario! Last September I was chatting with a friend whose son went to the same kindergarten as my son. She had moved and mentioned that the couple who had bought her house was planning to open a toy shop.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, the toy store turned out to be Citizen Kid! The owners Rebecca Bamford and Trevor Westerhoff independently found Sweetbeets while searching online for potential vendors. I think we were all surprised to discover that we live a short drive from each other. I happily delivered their order in person and learned a bit about their story, which included relocating from British Columbia to Ontario. Via the Citizen Kid blog, I began following the extensive renovations and learned about the design of their amazing logo.

My family and I went to the grand opening of Citizen Kid in May. Despite the dreary day with lots of rain, the shop was packed. There are a lot of summer and fall birthdays in my extended family and I was quite pleased with myself for being so organized and getting gifts in advance!

Recently my boys and I went back for another visit and I was able to take some photos to share with you. I also have a photo of Sweetbeets cards in the shop, but I’m saving that for a future post about greeting card displays.

Citizen Kid specializes in beautiful, eco-friendly, fair-trade, and safe toys for boys and girls age 0-8. It is now my local go-to shop for kids gifts because I love the philosophy and I can find a lot of eco-friendly and/or handmade gifts in the $10 to $30 range. There is no other toy store like it in Hamilton.

I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about Calafant’s line of toys made from recycled cardboard so it was great to see the product in person. I love how the treehouse is on display so customers can imagine the possibilities. It looks like Rebecca and Trevor’s daughter had fun decorating it!

For his birthday, my youngest son received the TOOLS book (wonderfully illustrated by Taro Miura) and the toolbox shown on the bottom shelf.

You’ll find lots of play food for little chefs! My son couldn’t keep his fingers out of this clever market display.

These rainbow colored stacking blocks are very eye-catching when you first walk into the store. In the background you’ll see Canadian-made Ukoonto wooden blocks that I had blogged about after connecting via twitter. If I recall correctly, there is a play table at the back of Citizen Kid with a set of these blocks for kids to play with while parents shop.

You’ll also find lots of beautiful wooden toys. At the grand opening I bought this squirrel for a gift.

As you can see, Citizen Kid is such a beautiful (both in appearance and philosophy) toy shop and I’m very proud that Sweetbeets cards are available there!

Technorati Tags: Hamilton, Canada, toy shop, toys, Canadian toy store, eco-friendly toys, fair trade toys

School’s out for summer for my boys. They’ll be going to one day camp for a week in July, and later in the summer we have a family gathering to attend and another week we’ll be renting a cottage for the first time. Otherwise, we’ll mostly just be hanging out around home. Luckily there’s a splash pad at the playground down the street. We went there for the first time yesterday bright and early and hung around until the water turned on at 9am!

Today I took the boys to a local pick-your-own strawberry patch. They’ve never gone strawberry picking before! It was hot. And such hard work. We bought two large baskets but that was way too ambitious and we went home with just one filled which as it turns out is more than enough.

Technorati Tags: summer fun, splash pad, picking strawberries

My new alphabet print is hot off the press! It’s letterpress printed 100% recycled cotton paper and coordinates with the numbers print. Both designs fit standard frames such as the RIBBA from Ikea. If you’ve been thinking of buying one of the prints, now is a good time because I’m offering a promotion via the June Sweetbeets newsletter that ends this Friday.

Technorati Tags: letterpress, art for kids rooms, nursery decor, alphabet print, alphabet poster, abc poster, wall art, letterpress prints, eco-friendly

This past weekend we had a family birthday party celebrating my sons turning four and seven. I think this is the first year we haven’t been able to have an outdoor party since it turned out to be a very rainy day.

For a couple of months I had been planning a carnival theme inspired by this article and also this amazing real-life circus birthday party. But as per usual I was scrambling a couple of days prior to the party to pull it all together! Luckily I had ordered some supplies ahead of time including clown noses, circus-themed tattoos, 260Q twisting balloons for making balloon animals, and a balloon pump.

I had also stumbled upon a bunch of carnival and circus fonts that are available for free, and I decided to use De Louisville for the invitation and party banner. For decorations I strung 75 small red, blue and yellow balloons across the dining room ceiling.

We had a BBQ with sausages and hotdogs and we also served popcorn in these fun cones I made. I had planned to make these ice cream cone cakes, but at 10:30 the night before the party I decided I was just too tired to try something new and so I made cupcakes using a variation of this muffin recipe (substituting applesauce for the mashed bananas) with sprinkles to go with the polka dot theme I had started with the invitations.

I had several carnival-inspired games planned but we just ended up doing a ball toss with holes cut in a cardboard box!

I found these instructions and video showing how to make balloon animals. My oldest son was thrilled about teaching his younger cousins how to twist the balloons, and they all had fun making their own animals–or swords which was popular with the boys!

Most of the time the kids just ran around chasing each other in the house so it got a little wild at times. I set up a tattoo chair and the kids really liked picking out their favorite tattoo and it helped calm things down for a little while at least.

For goodie bags for the kids, I bought these popcorn bags which we filled with a clown nose, some balloons, caramels and tattoos.

Technorati Tags: carnival party, circus party, birthday party theme ideas

I’m hoping I’ll be the lucky winner of one of these giveaways! I thought you might like to enter too.

Pair of super cool kids shoes by Eleven via True Cuddles (contest closes June 14)

Buckwheat toddler pillow by HoneyDumplings via True Cuddles (contest closes June 14)

Gift certificate for $25 to shop at PlanetKid.ca via Natural Mommie (contest closes June 19)

(images via truecuddles.ca and planetkid.ca)

Technorati Tags: giveaways, contests, children, kids

Some good food for thought about the importance of play in childhood (and beyond!) over at The Grass Stain Guru blog written by Bethe Almeras.

10 Can’t-Miss Childhood Moments
10 More Can’t-Miss Childhood Moments
Kids’ Choice: Self-Directed Play
Getting Serious About Play
The Flipside of Childhood
Reflections on Childhood Spaces
10 Perspectives On Restoring Childhood

(image via ob2)

Technorati Tags: childhood, play, free play, children, kids, child development