On Party Hats: 1st Birthday Series

My idea: party hats = name tag  + activity

Each guest will be given a ‘blank’ handmade party hat to decorate. Since there are so many guests coming to the party, each guest is to clearly label that hat with their name and decorate their hat to personalize it!

The hats will serve as name tags as well as a fun activity for both adults AND kids!

We will pre-make the cones and collect up all the things one might want to use to decorate their party hats!

I will be bringing some trusty beloved supplies from our craft collection, including MANY items from the Cuddly Bunny! Our trusty Melissa and Dougs crayons are strong enough for the task, as well as the poster paints from Melissa and Doug. I will DEFINITELY be bringing along our Melissa and Doug scissors sets, both the straight cut and pinking shears. How cute will a ruffled edge hat be!?

Our fellow retail space mate, Pipsqueak Toys, stocks the Cuddly Bunny Co. FULL of some FABULOUS craft supplies from Faber Castell.

I buy lots of yarn from our local yarn store, Never Enough Wool, and so while part of me, thinks about buying ribbons to create ‘ties’ for the hats, I am sure I have enough mercerized cotton bought in the sale bins from Never Enough Wool, to make enough hats for the entire town.

Saving me from re-inventing the wheel, good Ol’ Martha Stewart provides an EXCELLENT tutorial on how to create ‘Martha worthy’ hats that are both GORGEOUS and easy to make!

1st Year Birthday Party! A Series of Posts

My youngest is turning ONE! Oh my! The time has flown. The event has snuck up on me and I am rushing about from today which is Monday, to the party date on Sunday!

With every whipped up party, there are the staple elements to consider! This Type A personality needs lists and definition to make sure it HAPPENS. I am a very disorganized person and so I have to outline a very basic structure that helps me ensure I’m keeping within my budget, my VALUES and NOT overthinking it TOO much!

Basic Intent: 1st Year Party

Theme

Guest List

Location/Venue

Decor

Food

Activities

For our first son’s 1st Birthday party, we wanted to host a community spiritual yet extremely casual get together. We invited all of our extended family, all of his young baby friends and their parents and pretty much anyone we could think of. This accounted for MANY people. We decided to hold his birthday, which was a September, in our local park that overlooks the water under a grove of very tall and shady trees. The only decor I really considered where the large patchwork tablecloth blanket things we had made for our wedding. We have 10 of them, 7×7feet and make perfect park blankets! We laid those out for anyone to sit on.

It was a potluck event, so we had a mishmash of food. I made a vegan cake that was hard as a rock and served in the dish I cooked it in. Teehee.

For an activity, we had everyone prepare a little something that shared what spirituality meant to them, and placed in a scrapbook to give to our son when he got older as he forged a spiritual path.

We also made KITES! This was ALOT of fun. Everyone tried their hand at putting together a kite from fabric, paper and whatever else I had brought along and saw whos actually flew.

For our 2nd child, I recognize the need to scale it back and maybe put more METHOD into my madness! (that is my ideas!)

As I hone my ideas this week, I’ll share them with you in a series of posts on creating a creative 1st Birthday Party for Baby!

I also have yet to select a gift for him…..this will probably end up with a very quick visit to the Cuddly Bunny on my way to the party!

Please, feel free to send on your ideas and I’ll post them up!

*gorgeous graphic featured in this post, created by Toronto designer, Clairice Gomes

Nurturing during tough times

Yesterday we took our youngest child to have an eeg done, as he’s had a few little episodes of moderate concern. While a rather innocuous procedure, it is a bit taxing.

This was what they call a ’sleep deprived’ eeg. He wasn’t allowed to nap all day (till 1pm) after waking at about 8am. He needed to be good and tired by the time he was in his appointment.

As we drove the 40 minutes  to the hospital where the appointment was, I had to do my best to keep him awake. I had all of his little dodad toys, a cup of water and a facecloth.

By the time we arrived, he was good and ANGRY! It took him a while to nurse and settle down. At 1pm they wanted me to put him to sleep so they could glue on the dozens of little diodes to his head.

He was wired, not just literally but figuratively. After forcing him to stay awake for so long,sleep just wasn’t gunna happen. He fussed, pushed away from me, grating his gums along me when I tried to nurse him etc etc.

I asked the tech if I could plop him in my wraparound baby carrier for the procedure. She wasn’t familiar with how he would be positioned and so I had to reassure her that I felt he would be adequately exposed to have the wires attached to him.

As soon as I wrapped him all up snuggly, my 10 mth old baby, snuggled him into my chest, swayed lightly back and forth: Poof. He was asleep within a minute. And soundly.

The tech was able to run the procedure and I was able to be close to my baby during a stressful time : a 30 minute testing that could have gotten quite uncomfy for ME if I had been trying to hold him in the awkward position needed .

This is one of the many  times I thanked the mums who introduced me to wearing my baby and taught me the skills to wrap him up.

Just 10 Days Left!

The time has flown! If you’re anything like me, perhaps you have a TON of shopping to do! Let The Cuddly Bunny help!

100’s of new products are being added since our merger with The Baby Garden! We are the one stop shop for all things baby gear! No idea what to get Baby for Christmas? New nephew? Baby brother? Grandchild? The Mom who has everything for both her AND baby? Never fear, give the gift of the online gift certificate!

The Baby Garden

The Cuddly Bunny and The Baby Garden of Lindsay Ontario, are teaming up! The Cuddly Bunny and The Baby Garden are merging!

The Baby Garden will close their Lindsay storefront doors and online store as of December 12, 2009, following a big BLOW OUT sale on December 5!

After which, The Cuddly Bunny will inherit ALL of the wonderful beautiful collections carried by The Baby Garden of Lindsay Ontario, both in The Cuddly Bunny online and storefront!

From sling baby carriers, to lovely baby shower gift collections, childrens shoes, organic toys, to nursing wear to baby gear, you can shop online with stores through The Cuddly Bunny!

For all The Baby Garden customers, who may not know The Cuddly Bunny, checkout our online store tour, to see who is behind the emails and calls!

Mountain Boy Bambino Sled!

CONGRATULATIONS TO HEATHER M! of Prince Albert ON!

Heather is the proud winner of the Grand Prize from this weekend past’s draw from the Cuddly Bunny storefront Re-opening! Heather wins a beautifully handcrafted Mountain Boy Bambino Sled courtesy of our local storefront Partner, Pipsqueak Toys!

Many thanks to Monika Uren, the vibrant and ever cheerful proprietor of Pipsqueak Toys, as seen in the photo above as she draws the winning ticket!

Mally Bibs!

Oh my! We carried Mally Bibs aways back, and I had forgotten how cute they are!!!
We received a wonderful assortment of Mally Bib’s wonderful designs.

My particular favorites are the gender neutral designs. In particular the giraffe, fish, lizard, owl and cherries.

The quality is amazing. They are very sturdy. The stitching is strong and firm. There is no velcro to fray, as they are clasped with magnets.

Double sided, easy to clean and store. Mally Bibs are a definite win for baby shower gifts, as an heirloom quality item!

New Products

Ok folks. This will be intense. I’m about to list some of our latest in store products. I won’t include all of the product Pipsqueak Toys maintains at the Cuddly Bunny storefront location…simply because our online customers/readers will feel jealous of all you locals
The Cuddly Bunny Storefront and Online is now carrying the following new items and/or receiving items any day now from:

Goodbyn
Stonz Booties, Mitts and Pointy Hats
Balaboosta Baby
Kushies Organics
Hatley
Sassy (yayy! Been awhile for us to have Sassy with us!)
Robeez
Pediped Soft Sole/Flex
Magz Bagz
Girl Gotch
More Earth Mama Angel Baby
Squishy Fish Swaddlers and Long Sleeved Onesies/Sets
Taggies

The Holiday Season is approaching! If theres anything you think we ought to be carrying in store, let us know! Also, keep your eye out. We’re JUST getting started…not to mention our weekly clearence deals on our homepage

Gift Certificates

www.cuddlybunny.com

With todays era, we are seeing our friends and family live further and further away. Lest we lose those close connections, we turn to alternative ways to keep connected. These blogs, facebook, email, handwritten letters, photo sharing sites, all enable us to keep our connections to those we love.

I believe that online media actually HELPS us maintain our relationships, as we drift farther and farther away to the far corners of the world. We are now able to virtually take part in those we love’s lives, even though physically we cannot be present.

With this reflection, the Cuddly Bunny devised a plan on how to facilitate Great Uncle Bobby in Japan to celebrate the birth of a new baby in Canada or the USA or Denmark or whereever else. The ONLINE GIFT CERTIFICATE!

Great Uncle Bobby can now purchase a gift certificate from the Cuddly Bunny in any quantity of CAD$. He then indicates on checkout whether he would like us to POST or EMAIL the certificate for the new parent to use either IN STORE in PORT PERRY ONTARIO or ONLINE at www.cuddlybunny.com

ENJOY! Spread the word! Save yourself from the Big Box, Shop the Cuddly Bunny for ALL your essentials, gifts!

Queen St Commons

The Cuddly Bunny is very pleased to share with our audience, our new location within the Queen Street Commons, at 180 Queen St Port Perry ON.

Take a look at our online tour! Enjoy!