The story of The Mouse Works is impressive. Cute, fun, functional and even crazy hats for babies, kids and adults are handmade by Ryan Williamson in the mountains of Virginia. Each hat is made from pieces of fleece discarded by factories, some of which is made from recycled pop bottles. His business produces minimal waste, and he has even used his scraps as insulation in the ceiling of his storage shed! If we didn’t have an excess of hats at home right now, I would totally buy these hats. This is exactly the type of business I want to support. I’m sure I’ll be back next winter. These windproof fleece mountain hats look perfect.

Technorati Tags: eco-friendly fleece hats, handmade hats for kids, baby hats, winter hats, made in USA

I’m super excited to show you these images from Brighton’s first birthday party! Her mom bought the printable bee party package from my Sweetbeets shop, and she graciously allowed me to share the images with you. Here’s the birthday girl - isn’t she absolutely adorable?!!

All photos were taken by Stef of fani j. foto, a friend who just happens to be a very talented photographer in Hawaii. You can see more of her portfolio on flickr. Oh to live close to the beach…this image is one of my favorites.

Technorati Tags: first birthday, bee party, bee birthday theme, printable invitations, yellow birthday party, Etsy, Sweetbeets

I must confess that I’ve been struggling with keeping up this blog. I was thinking the other day about what “fun” means to me and I realized I’m having fun when I’m doing something and I completely lose track of time…like when I’m reading, decluttering, creating in Adobe Illustrator, coding websites and planning projects. I cannot honestly say that I lose track of time when I write this blog, but I think partly that’s because I haven’t really found my voice yet. I had an a-ha moment while reading Stacy’s thoughts on Kids Stuff World and I’m inspired to share more of me via this blog instead of letting it drift.

So, sharing my intentions for 2010 seems like a good place to start.

Last night I watched this free preview video for the Live Your Truth project. I’d visited Elizabeth’s website months ago, but it was only yesterday that I stumbled upon it again and this time what she was saying really resonated with me. First, she talked about finding your passion by thinking of what you do when you lose track of time. Yes, exactly what I’d just been thinking about a few days ago! Later she talked about creating mental and physical space if you’re feeling stuck with your creating.

As it happens, at the beginning of January I made a big change in my business - I’m no longer selling Sweetbeets wholesale to retailers. Now that I think of it, this change created both mental and physical space. Neat! I absolutely love letterpress printing, but I need to have my designs printed in fairly high quantities to offset the cost of the time-consuming set up of the press. No doubt this affected my design process since I knew I would have a lot of money invested in the printing of each design and I didn’t know how well cards would sell. I realized that the wholesale part of my business is not sustainable unless I were to begin working with a network of sales reps. Plus I’d have to increase my collection (and inventory) in a big way, and as aspiring minimalist, the prospect of this weighed on me. It was time to just let go.

The upside is this gives me a lot more time and energy to focus on other things.

I’ve already started creating a bunch of new printable birthday and baby shower invitation designs for the do-it-yourself party host, and I’ll soon be offering customization of fonts and colors. You’ll also now find some printable valentines for kids in my shop.

This year I will (finally) launch Gift Gush, the curated marketplace that connects independent designers and artisans with people who are looking for unique gifts for babies and kids. Last year I made a lot of progress and the first phase of website development was completed. Then it stalled because the website developer I hired didn’t finish the next phase in a timely manner. After a delay of more than 3 months I decided to develop the website myself. I was working on it nearly every day prior to the holidays and got a lot of the coding done. I now just need to learn some more php coding to connect the website with the database. I intend to find some online courses to figure it out and get things moving again.

I also wanted to share one big lifestyle change I’ll make in 2010 - I’m going to sell my car in June. Until recently I thought I needed my car since my oldest son (plus my youngest son starting in September) goes to a school outside our neighborhood (about 4 miles or 6 kms away) and every day I drive him to and from school. This blog post and this one inspired me to think outside the box. I realized there is a bus (actually 2) that stops near our home and near the school and the route will allow me to get the kids to school on time without a lot of waiting around. I’ll walk home (after drop off) at least 3 times a week to get organic exercise. We’re lucky to live in a walkable neighborhood with a grocery store, library, old-fashioned movie theatre, banks, drug store, restaurants, gift shops etc within a 5-10 minute walk, and my husband still will have his car since he commutes to work. So how hard should it be? My kids are super excited about taking the bus so that helps. Hopefully the novelty won’t wear off too soon.

Wow, this is probably my longest ever blog post! Stay tuned for some upcoming posts about some neat handmade things for kids that I’ve found online in the past couple of weeks…

Technorati Tags: 2010 intentions, goals, printable valentines for kids

Hello, hello! I’m back after an unplanned month long hiatus from this blog. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s stopped by for a visit! I really am grateful for all of your comments.

I’ve been doing some soul-searching lately about what direction to take for Sweetbeets and my life in general. I was inspired by this post to think about a single word that would sum up a theme for this year. One day “sustainable” popped into my head. Maybe it was because over the holidays I’d read No Impact Man and 100 Mile Diet and sustainability in the eco sense has been on my mind, but I realized the concept is pretty broad and that some of the things in my business and everyday life are not sustainable and ready for change.

I’ve been reading so much online lately about goals, intentions and new year’s resolutions that my mind is spinning. I really need to get organized with an eco-friendly notebook like this handmade one by Darling Clementine.

Simple Mom advocates setting goals in the Winter and taking action in the Spring. This makes sense to me and takes the pressure off of trying to make a bunch of changes in January. I plan to take to heart this advice for making big goals achievable and getting a fresh start. I’m looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks!

Technorati Tags: fresh start, sustainabilty, goals, intentions

I’ve been terribly behind on my blog email inbox but finally attended to it tonight. Several independent designers very kindly wrote to me over the past few months about the gifts they make for babies and kids. To keep things manageable I decide to select just a few ideas to share with you. I hope you like these too!

Eco-friendly organic clothing for babies and toddlers by Earthy Beginnings. Made in USA.

Technorati Tags: organic onesies, handmade baby blanket, non-toxic play dough, made in USA, baby gifts

I recently connected with Emily of Love and Laughter and wanted to share this beautiful birthday crown. It’s made of 100% wool felt and can be enjoyed for birthdays 1 through 10 (one size fits all!) as well as for pretend play. If you check through her sold items you’ll see a design for boys. One is on its way to my home and I can’t wait! I also noticed this lovely handcrafted wood birthday ring since something similar is used at my son’s school to celebrate each child’s birthday.

I love the versatility of these shift dresses for girls that you’ll find at Red Pajamas. A couple of years ago I won a handmade dress of this style (from another shop) and I gave it to my niece. She wore it first as a dress and then as a top, and now her younger sister wears it as a dress. Shop owners Vanessa and Lynnette offer a custom option with your choice of fabric from another shop on Etsy, or you can even have a dress for your daughter made from her Daddy’s shirt!

I recently searched for boys pajamas on Etsy and stumbled upon Snug Organics. Doesn’t this organic cotton sleeper look super cozy? Sizes range from newborn through 4T. They are made in the USA and are free of pesticides, synthetics and flame retardant chemicals. I saw a special offer on their main website: free shipping with purchase of any 3 Snug Sherpa Sleepers.

Technorati Tags: handmade gifts for kids, Etsy, girls dress, organic pajamas, felt birthday crown

My husband and I watched this documentary last weekend. Food, Inc. exposes America’s industrialized food system and its effect on our environment, health, economy and workers’ rights. You can read more about the issues here.

Over at the Simple Living Network forums I learned of similar-themed documentary called Fresh that focuses more on re-inventing the food system and positive change. If you browse their website you can check to see if there’s a screening of the film in your community.

(image via foodincmovie.com)

Technorati Tags: food industry, Food Inc, food system, Fresh movie

For years I’ve been wanting to make an arrangement of branches and hang Christmas ornaments on it instead of a huge tree. I like the idea of simplifying things (no more needles to vacuum daily, yay!), being frugal (we’ll save $80 by not buying a fancy live tree) and being creative with materials gathered from outside instead of just doing the same old thing every year because it’s “tradition”. My husband is much more sentimental than me and he’s been reluctant to let go of having a real tree, but this year we’re compromising. We’ll have my branch tree and we’ll make a point of taking a hike somewhere where we’ll see lots of evergreen trees and we can also take walks in the neighborhood to admire other people’s trees.

My son happened to bring home some branches from a neighbor’s house yesterday. When I told him my idea, he was so excited about “making the Christmas tree” but was concerned that Santa wouldn’t see it. I promised we’d move it beside the fireplace on Christmas Eve! Today we finally had time to work on it. I used an elastic band to hold the branches together. A few scoops of the 10lb bag of black beans I’d bought recently (I went a little wild with bulk food buying!) hid the bottoms of the branches.

I was thinking it looked a bit bare, but when I checked my email today I saw a note from Liz of Cici Art Factory about her free printable advent calendar. Perfect! It took only about 10 minutes to print, cut, fold and clip each numbered tag to the branch tree. I love how each tag has a fun (or funny!) family activity to do. I think my kids will get a kick out of it! They were already asking how many days until December 1st when we’ll open the first surprise.

Technorati Tags: free printable, PDF, advent, advent calendar

Over a year ago I featured this Moop book bag for kids in my Etsy favorites and I finally bought one … for myself!

I never carried a bag or purse until recently when I started borrowing my son’s Mee a Bee bag. As cute as those robots are, I figured it was time to get something a little more grown up and just for me to use.

My Moop bag arrived earlier this week and I’m thrilled with it. I bought the kids version of the messenger bag because it seemed more my size. Even still I was surprised how large and roomy it is in real life. The adjustable strap is just long enough that I can wear the bag across my chest, or I can shorten the strap and have the bag over my shoulder. It’s machine washable and can be put in the dryer, the sewing is obviously high quality, and there’s no shortage of storage space with 4 pockets plus the inner pouch. When I saw that the sand colored bag was lined in my favorite vibrant green I couldn’t resist!

(images via moopshop.com)

Technorati Tags: Moop, handmade, book bag, messenger bag

A friend passed along this link to an online documentary about advertising and kids that’s produced by the Media Education Foundation. My husband and I found it fascinating, and it reinforced a big reason why we got rid of our TV a little over 4 years ago (though my kids do still watch TV when they visit their grandparents).

A few years ago I read Consuming Kids by Susan Linn who is interviewed in the video series. I didn’t realize that she has a new book, The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World. Both my kids have gone to a Waldorf-inspired kindergarten where child-led imaginative play is a major focus. Parents are asked to have the children dressed in clothing without commercial characters because it’s believed that these images work their way into the childrens’ play and they are more likely to act out something they’ve seen on TV instead of just using their imagination.

Obviously I cannot completely shield my kids from commercialism and branded characters, toys etc. It’s simply so pervasive. Just this week my kids were each given a branded character toothbrush from the dental hygienist! I found it interesting that when she said the name of the character, she assumed my kids would know who it was but instead I think she got some blank stares. Anyways, I googled media literacy for kids and found these tips for talking to kids about advertising, but if anyone has any links to share please leave a comment. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: commercialization of childhood, consumerism, marketing to kids, kids and advertising, documentary