While you’re here, don’t forget to check out our giveaway. You could win a $75 Zutano shopping spree! (My little munchkin is wearing Zutano in the above pics.) Deadline is midnight tonight!

Looking for more great photos? Grab a cup of tea or coffee and check out these sites that host more Wordless Wednesday entries: SevenClownCircus, 5MinutesforMom, and WordlessWednesday.

A good friend of mine is going with an owl theme for his daughter’s 1-year birthday. I sent him some ideas the other day and then I noticed on our Facebook page that one of this blog’s readers, Courtney, is going with an owl theme for her daughter’s nursery. I posted some  links for her, too.

And then I thought, duh, maybe other people would like links to cool owl stuff for babies? So here you go, by request, sort of, my list of owl stuff.

Bedding: Pottery Barn Kids Brooke Collection

Toy Box: Etsy Shop ModMomFurniture

Mini Owl Stuffed Animals: Perfect for a baby’s room or party favors from Etsy seller AprilFoss

Wall Decals: Repositionable fabric decals (forest creatures) from Etsy seller LoveMaeStore

Mobile: Check out this bamboo, laser-cut owl mobile from Branch (eco-friendly shop) – not pictured above but it’s cute!

Birthday Party or Baby Shower:  Cupcake toppers and party decorations from Etsy seller CiaoBambino

Perfect Little Owl Outfit: Zutano Owls print (register for our giveaway – deadline TONIGHT at midnight – and win it!)

Hand-Made Owl Shoes: These baby shoes from Bugaloo are sooo cute! I just ordered a pair for my son.

Looking for ideas for your nursery or party? Or just gift ideas in general? Email me at sherean at gmail dot com and I’ll see what I can rustle up.

This post is part of the Works for Me Wednesday series, hosted by WeAreThatFamily. Lots of great tips and tricks there every Wednesday!

Do you keep a wish list on Amazon? I do. It’s a great way for me to keep track of things I’m interested in but don’t want to buy now. And it provides a handy cheat sheet for my in-laws when my birthday rolls around. But as much as I love Amazon, they don’t sell everything I love. (I do buy just about everything from them, including diapers and umbrellas!) What if I really want a darling little necklace from an Etsy seller? Wouldn’t it be great if I could add that to my Amazon wish list? Well, you can! Just use their Universal Wish List button. Drag and drop it into your web browser tool bar and any time you see something you like, simply click on the button and add it to your Amazon wish list. When your friends or family go shopping for you, they’ll see all your favorite things, including the ones that can’t be bought on Amazon.

UPDATE. Since I first posted this in June, some of you have told me about another great way to use Amazon’s wish lists: create wish lists for your children! That way, when birthday time or the holidays roll around, your friends and family will know what to buy. I know I’m always bugging my friends and relatives to give me a list of what their kids want. I love the moms who just send me a link, ya’ know? But a link to an entire wish list? Even better!

When I was pregnant, someone asked me what theme I was going with for the nursery.  “Theme? What do you mean?” I asked, “Like Winnie the Pooh?” No offense to Pooh fans but cutesie themes made me gag worse than chicken (I didn’t have food cravings when I was pregnant but I had serious food aversions).

I wanted a modern nursery, stylish, but with some whimsy.  I figured that the nursery was for me: until my son was old enough to tell me that he absolutely, positively loves Thomas the Train more than anything else, I’d be choosing the decor.  Later, he can go all train-happy if he wants. (Just please, God, let it be trains and not NASCAR.)

OK, now that I’ve offended all the NASCAR Winnie the Pooh lovers, here’s what I decided on for the nursery:  black and white with pops of bright yellow.  My inspiration was one of my shirts. Y’all remember when INC (International Concepts) had a sea of black, white and bright yellow clothes?

I searched and searched for bedding in my chosen colors and found nothing. Most of the black and white stuff I found was damask which felt too girlie for me. (Even though the room was for me, I did want it to transition into a little boy’s room some day.)  Then I came across this set and thought it’d make a good base. Of course, I didn’t use the bumper or quilt, so that was a big waste of money. If you decide to go bumper-less, save yourself the money and buy a sheet, crib skirt, and curtains to match. Voila! Instant design. Get a rug, too, if you can find one you like.

Since I couldn’t find bedding with a pop of yellow, I went nuts and painted the walls bright yellow. No wonder the kid won’t take naps. One pregnant, insomnia-filled night, I decided I wanted a wall of black shelves so I searched and found nothing and decided right then and there that my husband should take up woodworking, which he sort of did, and made some built-in shelves. (They turned out great, Honey!) I also decided the baby should have something hand made from each of us so Christopher took some of his childhood Legos and made the Lego Dude on the ledge.  I have yet to make my hand made item. But I bought lots of stuff on Etsy that other people made. That has to count for something, right?

Anyhow, time for the pictures, which is what you really came for, right? Keep in mind, I am no decorator. It’s not as neat and tidy as those adorable rooms I see over at ProjectNursery, for example. But I’m proud of it. It’s different and it suits us.

And you know the best part? Since we’re moving in a few weeks, I get to do it all over again! (Seriously, we’re going to be in a rental while we build so I can’t do much but I’m thinking of going with a green wall color and buying some re-positionable wall decals to spruce it up a bit. It’ll be Nursery 2.0.)

Items in the Room:

Baby Cache Manhattan Nursery Furniture from BabiesRUs

Wall ledges from Michael’s

Canvas storage bins from Container Store

Artwork – free -from artist Kal Barteski (cheap frames from Michael’s)

Down East Midnight Bedding from Carousel Designs (only available in their outlet; if you want black and white, check out their Black and White dots collection, which is similar)

Dandelion wall decal (large) from Etsy seller LewasDesigns

My friend, Alistair, updating his status from merry ‘ol England:

Reading station. Pronounced “Redding.” Just one more way we can identify the American tourists and charge ‘appropriate’ prices.

When I first discovered Zutano shortly before my son’s birth, I was SO excited! My husband and I hated all the baby boy clothes we’d seen in the chain stores. Too much powder blue. Too many trucks and puppy dogs. I work in a creative field. I wanted big. I wanted bold. I wanted bright colors! Enter Zutano.

Zutano began 20 years ago, the brain child of a designer/art director, Uli Belenky and her photographer husband, Michael. Frustrated with what they saw in the stores, they took matters into their own hands and began designing colorful, high-quality clothes. Zutano is headquartered in a beautiful farmhouse in Vermont. One of the things I love about the brand (besides the cute clothes) is that they let their employees bring their babies to work. Why don’t more companies do this?

I had a chance to ask the founder, Uli, a few questions. Here’s what I learned:

Q: Where do you get the inspiration for your new designs?

A: The inspiration for our new prints come from so many different things! Mostly things found in the world around us: color schemes, gardens, little gum wrappers, urban landscapes and trees changing colors in the fall. Constant observation and investigation are integral to the creative process. A great regard for playful and humorous situations and a focus on happiness is the place from which we approach our work. At Zutano we always try to challenge our boundaries and look at everything from different perspectives.

This fall’s collection was inspired by the Vermont countryside, forest jaunts, cozy afternoons baking bread by the warm kitchen hearth and natural autumn landscapes.

Q: How many prints do you release each year? When and how do you roll them out?

A: Zutano divides our year into two seasons: fall and spring. We divide our clothing into three categories: Newborn (Itzy Bitzy), Baby and Toddler

In Toddler (2T-4T) we offer styles in all the Baby fabrics, but with a slightly smaller selection and in different silhouettes for older children. Again, we add a few new styles and silhouettes to the mix each season and sometimes retire a few.

Overall we add about 20-25 cotton Interlock prints to the line each year and retire that same amount.

Q: What are some of the most popular prints?

A: Some of the prints that have become Zutano customer favorites and have been in the collection a long time are Circus, Monkeys, Zoo Crew, and Good Dog, and Chocolate Five Stripe. New prints are released over time throughout each season on a month to month basis.

Q: Why don’t you make footies in sizes larger than 9 months? (This question was just for me cuz my puddin’ pop outgrew his Zutano footies at 6 months old.)

A: We will take your request to heart about making footies larger than 9m!

Don’t forget to enter our giveaway to win a $75 gift card to the Zutano Itzy Bitzy boutique. Deadline is Wed., Sept. 30th.

Here’s what’s open in my browser right now:

The Bumbo potty training seat. We never used a Bumbo. That was one thing our kid figured out early (sitting) and he’s still sitting today (instead of crawling). But I just read on CoolMomPicks about this Bumbo seat for the toilet and I’m filing it away for future reference. Any potty-training experienced mommas out there want to weigh in on this? Is this a genius idea or just another thing desperate parents waste their money on?

Infant and Children’s Tylenol Recall. Here’s a list of all the recalled box numbers. But notice it’s a long list of teeny, tiny numbers. <sigh> No time to pore through each one so here’s what I did. I found the box of Infant Tylenol we have at home, looked for the code on the bottom, went to the recall list on my browser, hit the Control Key plus “F” (ctrl+f) which brings up a “Find” dialogue box. I typed the lot number in there and it highlighted it for me on the page. (If yours isn’t recalled, it won’t find it.) Quick and easy!

Pinwheel Birthday Idea. This is really coming together. Found cute pinwheels and pinwheel favor boxes on Etsy, of course. Some of you all emailed me last week that you thought it was a great idea. I think I’ll do pinwheel food (think sandwich roll-ups) and pinwheel cinnamon rolls, that type of thing. I’m liking this as a one year birthday idea. What do you think?

50 Kitchen Ideas from the Barefoot Contessa. You all know that we’re building a house, right? Hope to break ground in a few weeks so we’re in the thick of meeting with the builder, revising plans, that sort of thing. I am researching like mad to find ideas for the house and ran across this piece — with lots of pictures – from Ina Garten (a/k/a “The Barefoot Contessa”) on her kitchen. She details what you need in the kitchen, how she designed hers to be maximally efficient, and other little helpful tips. The site also has lots of other kitchen designs and ideas. I’m in research heaven!

Hope you all have a GREAT weekend! Don’t forget to enter my Zutano giveaway.

Congratulations to Melissa who had comment # 36. That was the winning number in our maternity shirt giveaway (selected using Random.org). Melissa will get TWO maternity shirts from Apple and Eve.

I loved reading all your comments. You all clearly liked the shirts and had your own funny stories to share. Thanks for participating! Make sure to enter this week’s contest to win a $75 shopping spree from Zutano.

Eeeek! It’s Zutano, Y’all! I am beyond excited to announce this week’s giveaway . . . the final one in our month of giveaways! You all know I love Zutano, right? Literally, about 2/3 of my baby’s wardrobe is Zutano.  They have been kind enough to offer one of my readers a $75 gift card to spend in their online store. Their online store features their Itzy Bitzy line, which comes in two sizes, from 4-8 pounds and 9-13 pounds. Perfect bring-home-the-baby from the hospital outfits — and beyond! (My little one lived in his footies for the first few months of his life.) In addition to the generous prize, I also got to ask the founder, Uli Belenky, a few questions. I’ll post my interview here tomorrow.

GIVEAWAY RULES

1. To enter, go check out Zutano’s Itzy Bitzy Boutique and report back here with a comment on your favorite Zutano outfits or accessories.

2. To gain one more entry, follow us on Facebook and leave me a comment telling me that you’re a follower.

3. To gain yet another entry, follow Zutano on Facebook and leave me another comment to let me know. They have a great FB page!

Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Entry deadline: midnight PST, Wednesday, September 30, 2009. The winner will receive a $75 gift card to Zutano’s online store. The winner will be selected using Random.org and announced on Thursday, September 30.

I am seriously obsessed with Zutano. They make such great, vibrant, bold, graphic prints. Totally appeals to my inner designer. They come out with over 20 new patterns a year. It’s easy and fun to mix and match their prints, stripes and solids. Here’s my little bean in some choice Zutano clothes. I just stocked up on new prints for fall (love the moss stripe!) and am already formulating my plan on what to mix, what to match, what to layer and where to take him to show off his cute clothes!

Two days old

Two months old

Three months old

First snow, four months old

Six months (and getting some hair!)

This was taken at the end of June and is still one of my favorite pics of the two of them together. The baby is wearing an outfit by CachCach Kids. I dressed my husband, too, but don’t recall the brand! haha

Looking for more great photos? Grab a cup of tea or coffee and check out these sites that host more Wordless Wednesday entries: SevenClownCircus, 5MinutesforMom, and WordlessWednesday.

Have you ever tried Wordle.net? It’s a free site that lets you paste any text in a box, play around with it and create word clouds. Change the colors, the layout, the font — and Worldle will “randomize” it. Words that are repeated often in your text will show up larger in the Wordle art that you create. Here’s an example I did using the lyrics to “You are My Sunshine.” It’s a lot of fun to play around with. Have a favorite nursery rhyme? Song? Poem or passage from a book? All would make great Worldles!

Once you get your Worldle looking the way you like, simply print it, frame it and hang it. Voila! A Mommy Masterpiece!

Don’t want to make your own? Download these free black and white animal prints. Soooo cute! I have six of them framed in my nursery.

This is part of the Works for Me Wednesday series. More great tips at WeAreThatFamily.

Don’t forget to enter this week’s giveaway. Deadline is tonight at midnight PST. And come back tomorrow for our final contest of the month. Psst, someone told me the prize has something to do with my favorite baby clothes . . . starts with a “Z.”

This may only be funny to Atlantans, but here’s Phillip:

Dear Gov. Perdue, if you’re still praying for rain, you can stop now!

We got a bit of interesting news on our last visit to the pediatrician: new guidelines from the American Pediatric Association recommend keeping toddlers in a rear-facing car seat until they are at least two years old! I thought it was just till they turned one, but apparently, it’s safer to keep them rear-facing as long as possible. <sigh> So what’s a new mommy to do? Buy the infant car seat for the first year, then put the munchkin in a convertible car seat (like the Britax Roundabout or Marathon), which is weighted to 35 lbs or so rear-facing. The Roundabout is rated to 40 lbs forward facing; the Marathon to 65, so you can spend the extra hundred bucks on the Marathon and it’ll last longer.

Now watch, by the time my son turns two, they’ll change the guidelines and say he needs to stay rear-facing till he’s three and in a car seat until he’s old enough to drive.

My friend Phillip is out of town, but thankfully, still updating his Facebook status:
Just walked in on some extreme PDA in the Hampton Inn pool!! You are at a hotel…go to your room!!

So did I mention that it’s been kind of crazy around here? Our house sold and we’re closing in a few weeks. We’re planning to move into a rental while we build our dream “green” home. Our nanny doesn’t want to drive to our new neighborhood (too far) so I’m interviewing nanny candidates. I have two speaking engagements in the three weeks surrounding the move. My son, who isn’t crawling yet, but getting seriously close, is probably going to figure that out on the day the movers arrive. Oh yeah, movers. I need to call some.

So what’s open in my browser right now? A bit of EVERYTHING.

Nannies4Hire — this is where I found my last nanny and where I hope to find the new one. It’s free for nannies to register and free for parents to search. But you have to pay if you want to contact any of the candidates (or reply to any of their emails). The free-to-search function is useful because you can check out the talent pool and decide if you want to spend the money on a subscription or not. We did, and I have been overwhelmed with the number of people contacting me about the position.

The color gray. When we were looking at whether to buy or build, I fell in love with the interior of this house (pictured below). Loved the gray and white kitchen and the gray walls everywhere. So now I’m trying to figure out how much gray I want in the new house. And then I saw this post on Apartment Therapy and love the idea of a gray bathroom. Would that be too much in the master bath, I wonder? (Ours won’t be nearly as grand as the one pictured below, but how I would love to have a chandelier in there!) I also like the idea of a gray dining room. Hmmm . . .

Inexpensive area rugs. I’m still looking. The house we’re going to rent has hardwoods throughout but I’m thinking that it might be painful for a soon-to-be toddler. We’ll need area rugs in the new house, too, so the trick is finding some large enough for the new house but small enough to fit the rental. Maybe I’ll just get some at IKEA. Suggestions anyone?

Liking the pinwheel idea. Last week, I told you that my son loves anything that spins (wheels, ceiling fans) and so I was trying to come up with a theme for his first birthday party that involved wheels, but not cars. And I wanted an orange and yellow color scheme. So imagine my DELIGHT when I saw this post about a baby shower, orange and yellow, with pinwheels! I am totally stealing a bunch of these ideas. I have a million Etsy shops open in my browser right now. Stay tuned cuz next week, I think I’ll post pics and links — a virtual “inspiration board” if you will — and show you all the direction I’m headed. Maybe there will be some good resources there for you as well. (And maybe you all will have some ideas for me!)