Brilliant Sky Toys

Okay burb mommas you no longer have to make a trip to the big city to find unique toys for your little one. As you all know the last thing we want to do is fight the traffic down 407 or 2499 to get to Frisco, Dallas or Southlake, and now you don’t have to. Right around the corner we have the most incredible new toy shop.  Brilliant Sky Toys just opened at the Shops of Highland Village and you must check it out. This is a specialty toy store where you will find interesting, educational and one of a kind toys.

You will find quality brands here such as Melissa and Doug, Bruder, Playmobil, Erector, Schleich, ImagiBricks and these are just to name a few.

Handmade 1st Birthday

I”m doing my best to avoid the “theme” birthday as long as I can. I know it is only a matter of time that we will be all about Spiderman and Disney Princesses when it comes to birthday parties, but for now mommy gets to decide on the details. And, I must admit…I really enjoy every minute of it – everything from making the invitations, decorations and even baking the cake.

So recently for my daughter’s 1st birthday I decided to have a cupcake party. While working on the invitations I searched the internet for free cupcake clipart, but all the free stuff I found was pretty lame.  I decided to search Etsy, and I found this cupcake clipart for $1.00!

The cupcake clipart was my inspiration to do a pink and turquoise theme for the invitation and all of the decorations.

Back when I first started planning and getting ideas for the party I ran across an Etsy shop called Golden that had the most adorable custom bibs and birthday hats. I bookmarked the site planning to come back to order one of her cute little custom 1st birthday bibs, but when I came back to order there was an announcement that all orders would not be shipped until 4-5 weeks out. Yikes! I did not plan that far in advance. I couldn’t find anything else like these adorable bibs, but I thought “I can make this”.  And  I did.  And it turned out great.  And I was surprised!

Really it was pretty easy. I won’t go into step-by-step instructions, but if anyone is interested just send me an email.

The birthday party was a success, and I’m only crying a little bit that my baby girl is now a toddler.

Lee Ann is a Design Partner for Javis Davis.  When not hanging out at burbmom she writes about nursery design, baby products, adorable clothes, safe and environmentally friendly toys and even some photography tips at Meet Me in the Baby’s Room.

Let’s get personal

The sweet ladies at baby girl’s daycare (shout out to Connie and Kris!) turned me on to an awesome product by Inchbug. Inchbug makes a personalized, reusable stretchy label that fits over bottles and sippy cups called the Bumpy Name Orbit Label.

No more mix-ups at daycare or playdates, and no more writing names with the Sharpie only to gradually wear off in the dishwasher. Inchbug labels are dishwasher and microwave safe.

A package of four labels with one line of personalization is $12.95, or two lines is $13.95. You can also add icons such as a flower, heart, smile or star for .75. We love our inchbug labels!

Lee Ann is a Design Partner for Javis Davis.  When not hanging out at burbmom she writes about nursery design, baby products, adorable clothes, safe and environmentally friendly toys and even some photography tips at Meet Me in the Baby’s Room.

Small Fry…Big Deals!

Small Fry Children’s Clothing in Denton, Texas is such a great place to find unique clothing and accessories for your little one. With brand names such as Baby Nay, Baby Lulu, Biscotti-Kate Mack, Le Top, (the list goes on and on), you are sure to find something adorable that you can’t live without.
Considering the ups and downs of our economy over the last several decades, Small Fry has really stood the test of time. They will soon celebrate their 40th year in business under the watchful eye of the original owner, Nancy Cole. She must be doing something right because customers keep coming back again and again. The customer service is superb and you feel like you are part of the family when you enter the small little store located at the corner of Sunset and Anna Street in Denton (just off University Drive).

I always turn to Small Fry when looking for a special outfit for my baby girl, and also back when my son was little. I must say that little girl clothing is definitely the focus here. You’ll find that in the section containing newborn to 12 month size all of the clothing is pretty equally divided between boy and girl, but once you get into the big room the focus is all girly girl…lots of dresses, bows, headbands, tights, bloomers, hats…you name it!

What is really incredible is that my mom used to shop at Small Fry for my clothing back when I was a little girl. I still remember our special trips there for new “school clothes”.

And while it feels great to support such a wonderful, long standing local business, it feels even better to get a great deal. Small Fry’s regular prices are better than anything I’ve found online. To give an example, I found a Baby Biscotti Christening gown for my daughter at Small Fry with a regular retail price of $86.00. The best deal I could find online for the same dress was $100.00 + shipping.

Baby Biscotti White Christening Gown modeled by my baby girl, Summer – (This gown is sold out)

You’ll also find incredible sales throughout the year, and end of season markdowns that you can’t resist.
Head on over to Small Fry Children’s Clothing, and tell Shelby and Nancy hello for me.

Lee Ann is a Design Partner for Javis Davis Custom Bedding.  When not hanging out at burbmom she writes about nursery design, baby products, adorable clothes, safe and environmentally friendly toys and even some photography tips at Meet Me in the Baby’s Room.

Inspiration Boards Made Easy

Inspiration boards are a great tool to help you visualize and create the look you are going for in a room. If you haven’t mastered a graphics program like Photoshop, I’ve found a much easier way of creating your own inspiration board on a website called Polyvore. Polyvore is a free web-based application that allows you to drag and drop items from your favorite websites to create virtual inspiration boards such as the Coral Vine board listed below.

Polyvore will save the board you create and it will also save useful information next to the board such as product description, source website and price.

Here’s more information about how it works. The general layout reminds me a lot of Flickr. All in all I have found it very addictive, fairly easy to use and best of all…free!

Lee Ann is a Design Partner for Javis Davis.  When not hanging out at burbmom she writes about nursery design, baby products, adorable clothes, safe and environmentally friendly toys and even some photography tips at Meet Me in the Baby’s Room.