Top ten natural baby shower gifts

I wrote a little article and put it on squidoo. (Which is way fun and I plan to do more!) I put together a little list of natural baby shower gifts. There are lots of great choices, these are the ones that were on my mind that day. (Including some items from my store, of course!)

Here's the link: http://www.squidoo.com/toptennaturalbaby

I set up a little blow-up pool in the backyard today. I got this picture using my zoom lens, since if I get close with the camera, Hannah usually looks down. Is she cute or what?

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Here are some pictures of Hannah at her birthday party. She had fun, even with the crowd! She just ate a little cake, it was more fun to play with new toys and new people! So now she's one year old! I can hardly believe it! She's been walking across the floor, too!



This is a collage our friend Chris made. It's a special treasure!

Almost One!

Hannah's birthday is in three days. I'm having fun remembering this week last year. I knew I was going to have a baby soon, but I didn't know when!!

And I can't believe my baby is almost one! It's amazing!

Eco-Footprints

Well, I've decided to change the name of my business! It's more of an expansion, really. It is now the Eco-Footprints and is "home of The Sox Club." As things have been rolling along, I have had more orders for just a few pairs of socks, rather than for a sock subscription. I still have that option, and I know some people are interested in becoming subscribers, they just haven't done it yet. I decided to change the name. The "footprints" part of the name definitely goes along with socks, but allows me to have a few more items as well. I started carrying some really nice soft bamboo scarves and a couple of bamboo tops. (I was given a bamboo top as a sample, and was told, "you're going to live in it." That has turned out to be true! I wear it during the day, and I love sleeping in it!!!)

So, we just move along. I'm having fun shaping this new business! And just seeing what it does! I have a new domain name to go with the new name: The .com version was already taken.

Hannah is sound asleep next to me as I write this. She's so sweet!

Sock photo and baby's first steps

 

Yesterday when I had hung my laundry to dry, I noticed the dark socks lined up in a row in the shade and decided to take a picture! I added the lighter colored socks for the photo, and took a bunch of shots. This one was my favorite!! I put it on the home page of my site!

And while I'm posting, I will mention that Hannah has taken a couple of steps unassisted! Go Hannah! It's neat to watch her move around. She's very stable. It'll be fun to see her take a few steps in a row!

 

I wrote a little article

I put a little something together about sweatshops. Here's the link: sweatshop article

I haven't written anything like this for awhile. I'm a bit rusty, but I quite enjoyed it! I have always enjoyed writing. I had to write a lot of reports as an audiologist, and I hated it. There's nothing creative about writing a report! I finally stopped writing those reports, unless absolutely necessary! (As in, need to have one in the file in case of audit.)

So, anyway, I wrote an article!!

Paper made without waste

Here's a link to an article about a company that makes paper in a unique environmentally-friendly way! Actually, it is made with "waste"- elephant waste! read the article here

I love reading how companies make products that help animals and people (and plants!) rather than harming them. This company supports a conservation program by providing jobs in areas where elephants are being destroyed.

Enjoy the read!

Girl Scout Cookies!

I bought some girl scout cookies today- yum!!! When I was in line to buy them I was looking at the cute little girls, and I got all choked up! I'm so happy to have a cute little girl of my own!!! I could barely talk to tell them what kind of cookies I wanted, then I cried on the way to my car. Just one of those mommy moments, I guess! I love have a tiny person around!

Baby socks that don't fall off!!

I have been loving the bamboo baby socks that don't fall off! Yes, these baby socks really do stay on!! I especially like to have Hannah wear them when it's cold and I don't want to be worrying about her socks slipping or falling off. Here's a link to the bamboo baby socks in my online sock store! I had 18 other moms test them out, and they stayed put on all but one baby! I think that baby only kicked them off a couple of times, too. I know that typically with wiggly little baby feet, baby socks just do not stay on. These socks stay on, and they're cute, too! They come in pink, natural, green, and blue. I love bamboo socks! They are made by Bamboosa, and made in the U.S.A., too!

It was only a matter of time

I thought I had a little more time before Hannah would be crawling through the dog door, but here she is!

Yes, I am a cute baby!

OK, gotta post a naked baby pic!

Still Made in USA

Here's a website that lists companies that sell items made in the U.S.A. Still Made in USA

My first subscriber!

I have a subscriber to my sox club! My first subscriber is a male and he ordered the quarterly sock subscription! I hope I'm not violating any kind of confidentiality, I don't know the rules here. Is there HIPAA for clothing? Anyway, how exciting to have a sock subscriber!!!

www.thesoxclub.com is live!!!

We're up and running! The website has been "live" for a little while, but I haven't been ready to say that we're "open" yet, but now we are! I have some socks that came in today (organic cotton socks that come in burgundy- my only socks that are even close to the color red!) that I need to photograph and get on the website, hopefully tomorrow. I'm also going to add some socks made from alpaca fibers, which I will do as soon as I have a moment to get my first order in with the alpaca people. I keep starting an order just before Hannah wakes up, and I don't get to finish! All in due time. That's what being on "baby time" is all about.

The socks in my store are all made from natural fibers grown without pesticides, from manufacturers that also use fair trade/fair wage practices. The organic label makes a big difference with cotton and wool, as I'm finding out! Better for the land, and the people living in the communities where cotton is grown, and better for the sheep! I also have socks made with hemp/cotton blends, and bamboo. So far!

The other aspect of my sock store is a subscription, or "sock club." I have three kinds of clubs that people can sign up for. The "kaleidoscope" club will have a different "eco-friendly" sock each month. I also have a "dress sox" club and a club for sport socks, which will have the same (dress, or sports) socks each month, again, all eco-friendly. Or each quarter, if people prefer quarterly.

Please check out my store and let me know what you think! Leave a comment and/or sign the guestbook! http://www.thesoxclub.com/

Some teeth!

You can kind of see Hannah's two bottom teeth. So cute!!!

If you're in the market for a high chair

The kind with a net at the bottom is very handy for little Chihuahuas who want to catch any dropped food before it even hits the floor!

Wow, a new catalog

So I'm basically putting together an online catalog for my sock store. For some reason I didn't think it would be this much work, but I don't know why I thought that! I actually have more varieties of socks than I thought I would at first, and I'm excited about that! I've been entering the descriptions of the socks and also retrieving info on each type of fiber, and learning more about designing websites than I ever imagined! Fortunately the template I'm using is awesome and there are great tutorials. (I'm using shop kit plus http://www.waterswebshops.com/ and I recommend them.) It's overwhelming at first, but I'm slowly but surely figuring out what I need to know. I was able to successfuly point my domain name to my shop kit plus store and also redirect the nameservers, when a week ago I didn't know what a nameserver was. (Oh, I still don't know, but I know how to redirect them!)

I bought a new camera today, too! I'm excited about that, my old was was getting kind of limited. I'll have even better pictures of Hannah! I took some sample photos of my mom's socks while we were in the store and I liked the way they came out. So the project this week will be photographing socks and uploading the photos. We'll be ready to go soon!

Bamboo-licious

I've been trying out new socks as they come in. The most recent pair was a pair of bamboo socks, and they are so nice! They are soft and obviously very durable and strong. They feel silky! Another nice quality is that they do not slip around on my feet! They are quite thin, and typically I don't care for thin socks, but even though they are thin they feel good with shoes! They come out looking nice after being washed also.

Bamboo is a great source for fiber for clothing. It requires very little, if any, watering; it mostly is watered by rain water. No pesticides are required, so bamboo is easily and naturally organic. Bamboo is a grass, so when it is harvested, it simply continues to grow, which improves soil stability. Bamboo also grows very quickly. Bamboo fabric is naturally bacteria-resistant, it also offers UV protection (not a big deal with socks, I suppose!) and also absorbs moisture. Compared to cotton, bamboo will feel dryer against the skin. (That is a good quality to have for socks!) The fabric is breathable. Bamboo fabric keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The main down side is that most if not all of the bamboo used for textiles is grown in China. I will have bamboo socks in my store and will look for companies that employ fair labor practices.

Bamboo is good stuff!!