Toddler T-shirt Business

I made a t-shirt for a friend's daughter as a thank you for letting me borrow her maternity clothes. Everyone loved the shirt so much that I decided to try to sell them. I joined etsy and my shop can be found at spudduds.etsy.com. I hand-carved potatoes and used them to stamp the t-shirt and hand-painted details. I made it glitter for a little something extra. I only have the one in my etsy shop but I do have lots of other designs for girls and boys including glow in the dark shirts. I'm going to see how this goes and see about launching my own website for them and I'm currently looking for baby boutiques to provide them wholesale to or for drop shipping. Wish me luck! I'd love to make this into a business.

The Sock Monkey

Sock monkeys galore! I love this picture from http://www.sockmonkeylady.com/. So many sock monkeys! You can buy sock monkeys and learn all about them from the website. I recently found out about the existence of these sock monkeys. Can you believe I had never heard of such a thing? They seem to be everywhere and have been around for so long, you'd think I would have heard of them before. Anyway, ever since I saw one I can't get them out of my head. I can't wait to try my hand at making one... I just need a sewing machine first. One pair of Rockford Red Heel socks and you've got yourself an adorable stuffed animal. Wow. I think my son would really love one of these since he loves his stuffed animals but is too young to play with most of them since they have button eyes. If you make your own sock monkey you can embroider the eyes and give them to a child under 3 years of age. There is a great pattern at http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/Monkey.htm which I think I will try when I'm visiting my mother in the next few months - she has a sewing machine. There's also something called Operation Sock Monkey (website: http://www.operationsockmonkey.com/) which supports Clowns Without Borders and allows you to either buy one to be sent to one of the children in need or to buy one for yourself or as a gift and the proceeds will go towards their effort.

Your Baby Can Read!

We've decided to try Your Baby Can Read. It only makes sense to teach your child the written word at the same time as the spoken word when they are developing so rapidly. At the very least, it can't hurt to attempt to teach your child to read at such a young age. I've read that some people have a problem with this type of learning because they believe a phonics approach is better than a whole word approach. I guess I learned first by the whole word approach. I did take phonics in school but I learned to read before I went to school. I memorized all the words to my favourite books and then I used my knowledge of those words and the sounds the different letters made to sound out new words. My mother's favourite anecdote is when we were driving and I said "Hey Mom, it's a Buick!" I pronounced Buick like quick because of the spelling. Anyway, we're going to give it a try. I'll keep posting about my son's progress. He's 8 months old now, we'll see how old he is when he seems to be able to read. Has anyone else tried this? Has it worked for your child(ren)?

Welcome

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! This is my first time blogging. I wanted to create a blog about my adventures as a new mom and my pursuit to becoming a stay-at-home-mom. I'm currently on parental leave and dreading going back to work. My son is now 8 months old and time is just flying by. It seems like just yesterday that he was born. I can't believe how quickly he's growing up. I want to be there for every minute of it! I plan to post often. Hopefully I'll be able to since I, like most good parents, am a very busy mommy. Please come check out my blog often and I look forward to reading your comments.