Carousel Designs Blog

Yesterday I came across another great artist who makes Customizable Baby Blocks. 

Not only are these blocks a hip twist on a retro idea, all materials used are non toxic – and that is a great update from the children’s blocks of the past.  These solid wood blocks are a great way to decorate the nursery or for helping your child to learn the alphabet.  And all of the blocks can be customized to create a truly unique baby shower gift. 

These hand painted blocks are offered in a variety of sizes and there is a huge assortment of styles so you can pick the colors and treatment that suits your taste.  Here are some great sample photos on Flickr.  Take a look at the Holy Craft blog for more information and to get your own customized baby blocks.

Baby Blocks from Holycraft

John

It looks like we’re going to be heading into another baby shower season very soon.  We have two sets of friends who are expecting their first child in the beginning of April.  (When did men start getting invited to these events anyway?)  I used to try to find a way out of these events but now I realize it’s a perfect time to catch up with good friends before they enter the world of new parenthood where they will disappear for a few months.

I remember the struggle of putting together invitations and gathering names and addresses for our invitations – email just won’t do for a well planned shower.  There are a lot of companies that now make this process a lot easier and one that I recently noticed is Scribetime.com.  They have a large selection of baby shower invitations and they provide a simple web interface for customization.

Another good site that I noticed for both birth announcements and baby shower invitations is InvitingSmiles.com.  They have a large variety of unique baby shower invitations and baby gifts.

And once you have you invitations in hand, don’t forget to sign up for our baby gift registry so you’ll be able to add baby bedding to your gift list.

From the very beginning, babies are learning about their environment and absorbing knowledge faster than we can really comprehend.  Even tiny infants with their limited eyesight stare in amazement at crib mobiles – especially those that have high contrast colors (such as black and white mobiles). 

When our daughter had her first birthday, I was surprised at the sheer number of educational toys that she received.  From farm animal puzzles to fun and inventive music creation toys to the Melissa and Doug alphabet art puzzle, today’s education toy choices are vast.

Sherri over at Little Smarties (www.littlesmarties.com) has a huge selection of educational toys for children and is worth a look when searching for a great baby gift.  They have very reasonable prices and offer a solid exchange policy as well.

John

Today’s changing tables are built with baby safety in mind and most have a convenient strap to keep baby from accidentally rolling off the table.  The contoured changing pads add a small lip on either side for an extra bit of safety.  We actually have an old fashioned baby buggy stroller that doubles as a cradle as well as an emergency changing area and it uses a flat changing pad insert.  In the nursery we have a changing pad table that has the contoured changing pad.

In either case, it has become abundantly clear that a back-up changing pad cover is not just prudent, but often necessary.  In the early days of diaper changing, I simply could not figure out how to take care of all the tasks with just two hands.  And that inexperience often presented a need to quickly wash the changing pad cover.  And babies typically don’t wait until the wash and dry cycle are complete before demanding a fresh diaper change.

For the old fashioned buggy changing pad we stuck with the simple, solid white changing pad cover.  For our nursery and the contoured changing pad, we went with the pink minky changing pad cover as it matched the rest of the nursery.

Quality changing pad covers make great baby gifts and most parents would appreciate a second set.  At Babybedding.com, we have over 150 designs to choose from in both flat and contoured designs.  Starting at just $14, these great gifts will be easy on the pocketbook as well.

Etsy.com is going to be hosting a highly innovative online baby shower event beginning this afternon at 4:00 pm EST. 

For those looking for one-of-a-kind handmade baby gifts, there are a lot of small shops on Etsy that are operated by stay at home moms and a variety of artisans.  The virtural shower is a live event where artists and moms are collaborating and donating so all moms will be able to receive a special gift. 

Read more at Etsy

John

When my wife was expecting, I found myself suddenly surrounded by expecting couples. Shower invitations poured in and it seemed like there was an event every couple of weeks.  Having a limited budget and lots of shower invitations can mean reserving premium gifts for close friends and family and more budget-oriented gifts for coworkers and acquaintances. 

Keeping within budget while bringing a cool gift to the shower requires using a bit of creativity.  Dr. Seuss books are always a hit and today there are lots of board books that are perfect for babies who love to tear paper.  But another idea I recently discovered is creating custom onesies.  Makeaonesie.com is a great place to create a custom onesie (or sleeper or romper) for less than $20.  They have an intelligent interface where custom onesies can be made and visually rendered in seconds.

I haven’t ordered from them before and I wonder if others can share their experience.

John