Getting Back in the Swing of Things!

To say that we have been busy around our house may be more than an understatement. Our family activities left me little time to devote to HappyLittleMonkey and blogging, however, the dust is starting to settle and I'm looking forward to blogging about our adventures and updating the shops!

Since my last post in August, there have been quite a few changes in our little world, including that we

Found out we were pregnant with baby #3, 

Started both kids in new schools (kindergarten and preschool), 

Decided to make an offer on a new house, 

Celebrated our son's fourth birthday (which was a monumental birthday to him!), 

Announced that our pumpkin patch is growing, 

Closed on the new house on Halloween and then... 

...went Trick-or-Treating, 

Began a few renovations at the new house and moved in,

Welcomed our families to the new house for Thanksgiving (two weeks after we moved in), 

Learned baby #3 is a Girl, 

and Celebrated Christmas!

We also lost a dear friend to cancer, showing us all too closely how precious life is and teaching us to focus on what is truly important.

As we look forward to 2013, we are thankful for the opportunities it will bring as we welcome our second daughter, transform our new house into a home, and even more importantly, concentrate on spending more time with those we love and celebrating the life we get to live.

Sammy is Here! Christmas countdown begins!

Sammy first came to visit us two years ago, and he is such a treasured visitor at our house.  From the day he arrives, the kids are excited to find where he lands each day.

This morning, we were so excited to find him on our mantle!

Each day he travels back to see Santa and deliver the daily report of Christmas wishes and behavior.    He finds a new place to watch over us from each day.

Welcome home, Sammy!  We look forward to finding you tomorrow.

Gift Giving Made Easy: For the Love of a Great Tea Party!

As we get closer to the holidays, I thought I would start sharing a few posts on some of our favorite gifts to give to help make gift-giving a little easier.  A key foundation of my shop is that I will only share things we love to use.  I stand behind the function and utility of everything I make as things we have tried and love.  

First up, tea sets!

My kids just love these tea sets!   They have so much fun passing the cookies and dolling out sugar cubes after dipping their tea bags, that it even makes the tenth consecutive air tea party fun for me.

Tea Party in Action on a Custom Kids' Table Tablecloth (also made by me)

At the last couple of shows I have done, I offered a menu of choices for the tea and cookie sets as separates, making it even easier to customize a gift set.  As a result of the positive feedback, I updated the online shop to also offer a menu of all the options to order a tea set that is perfect for the little people in your life.

You can now custom design each set you order by picking how many pieces you would like to include.  The pieces can be found online at my MonkeySeeMonkeyDoHLM Shop, my shop for handmade items for bigger little kids.  

Each piece is listed individually at the shop, including tea bags, flowered cookies, personalized initial cookies, sprinkled cookies, gingerbread girls and boys, and frosted cookies.   For the boys, I can create these pieces in blue, which I had to do for my son who was constantly getting invited to my daughter's very pink air tea parties.

How many pieces make a "good" set?  I think that four pieces make a great gift, especially if the four pieces are two tea bags and two cookies.  This allows for a tea party to take place and you can easily add more pieces later.   As a bonus, from now though December 10th, you will receive a FREE frosted or sprinkled cookie with each set you order of four or more pieces.

You can also add the fun round plastic gift container to wrap the whole set up.

These tea and cookie sets have been a favorite gift for us to give too!  You can even add a little more to the set by pairing it with a great book or kids' tea set.

Our most favorite thing to pair with any gift is a book, and we just loved finding this great book to go with a tea and cookies set: Fancy Nancy Tea Parties, a complete 'how to' book on tea parties taught by our favorite fancy little girl.  Pinkies up!  Fancy Nancy is the girliest of girlie girls, and loves to be extraordinary in everything she does. As a parent, I love Fancy Nancy because she exposes my daughter to fancy words and defines them in a playful manner so my daughter doesn't know she is learning.

One of our favorite tea sets in the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Say Please Tea Set with its tea pouring sound and songs, it is totally adorable and durable.  We have been playing for this one for a few years now!

Caroline's most recent favorite tea set is the Disney Princess Belle Teapot which contains all of the pieces for a Princess themed tea party.   Best of all, the pieces all fit back into the teapot pretty easily for storage between parties, if there is ever any down time!

I hope this becomes one of your favorite gifts to give this holiday season.  The sets make a great gift under the tree, stocking stuffer, birthday gifts, and even a big sister gift to give mom and the big girl some special time together.

If you have tried out these tea sets and have some stories to share or great gift pairings, please let me know.

If you have any questions or need help ordering, please don't hesitate to email me.

Christmas in October?

I can't believe it is already October, nor can I believe that I am already getting ready for Christmas! Besides starting to plot our own holiday adventures, this year, I purchased 40+ yards of fabric from designer Michael Miller and created my own Choose Your Own Fabric Christmas Collection. I have made the samples, ordered shirts, and appliqued! I had appliqued a little before, but with some guidance from the geniuses at my local sewing machine store and practice, they are coming out great. This adventure has taken me into some new territory and I am excited about the journey.

The majority of my online store has been of one- (or two-)of-a-kind blanket sets. I have gone to the fabric store, picked out the material one bolt at a time, touching and thoughtfully choosing each pattern, then purchasing only a few yards of each. The next steps of the process are generally that I bring the fabric home, cut it, construct it, fold it up, take pictures of it, and post it to the store. People can then browse the store, choose, and I ship within 24 hours. I believe in fast and great customer service.

This Christmas collection is so much different. For example, I purchased over forty yards of designer fabric at one time. For a fabric collector, this is fun! It is super soft, with great colors, and its high quality. I really want to create. Customers get to pair these fabrics together and create outfits especially for their little one. I am so looking forward to putting these together.

With this collection, for the first time I am also offering clothes, well, besides the custom little boy butt covers that are currently in the shop.

I LOVE ruffle-bottomed pants and have been making them for my daughter and a friend's daughter for over a year now. They have now been tested on the kids and persevered. I am ready to offer them to you. From this collection, I think the best pairing is a flannel leg and cotton ruffle, however, any pairing will work. These pants will be great for Christmas morning, travelling, nighttime parades, and so much more. They are so soft and cozy, that you may have a hard time getting them off of your little girl.

I didn't leave out the boys. I am happy to make your little guy pants out of the trees or dotted fabrics, or I also have created a cargo-type flannel lounge pant for him. Choose red or green flannel, or add in some of the Michael Miller fabrics. He will look adorable!

The collection also includes blankets, of course! Choose a Swaddler Blanket (40" x 40", single layer) or Everything Blanket (36" x 36", double-layered). Choose one of the flannel fabrics for the Swaddler. For the Everything Blanket, choose two flannels, or one flannel and one cotton. Accessories like burp clothes and bibs are also available.

This collection also includes appliqued shirts and onesies. Choose from long or short sleeved shirts or onesies. Although some of the pictures feature the appliques on Hanes shirts, I am now using a higher quality shirt.

I think this collection is different than others because you get to choose what fabrics you put together! You get to choose especially for your little one. So, design away!

I will have the samples available on the Craft Show Tour 2010, see the schedule on the right side of the blog.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask at HappyLittleMonkey@comcast.net.

More pictures are available on Facebook and if you haven't "liked" the shop there, please do to be the first to receive information on promotions and new releases.

The Christmas Collection is available at the store.

Happy Fall!