Thursday, June 26, 2008

ecochic by babysparewear is almost here...


the wait for our organic kits is almost over...we promise. look for our three new styles on our web site next week.

photography by gretchen easton photography

Thursday, June 19, 2008

spare the nation: a 6-year-old's letter to the president

early this school year my six-year-old was asked by a contest at school how she "can make a difference." she responded by writing a letter to the president. she proceeded to sum up her simplified version of political and social issues at hand. we were quite touched by her innocent, yet deep understanding of the world we live in. we framed the letter and it now has a place in our home for all of our friends to read. she even won an award of merit from the los angeles school district. we did not send the letter to the current administration...but feel the sentiment is worth sharing with you.












i have tried not to have the babysparewear blog become a blog about my life with three kids (not an easy task since that is such a big part of me). but with the historic advancements of our current presidential race, and today's important announcement from barack obama regarding his path towards true independence from a broken system, luna's letter seemed appropriate and timely. maybe we will send the letter one day soon.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

happy father's day from bsw!

so, here's the guy who makes all my dreams come true: 3 beautiful daughters, a happy marriage, a lovely home, and all the support i need to continue on this unwavering path to building the babysparewear brand... he's not only my best friend of over 18 years, but the best father my girls could ask for. happy father's day. we love you. (sorry, i know you hate that i just posted your photo...get over it.)

to my own father/papá, my biggest fan (he must be the only one who has read this blog in its entirety...) though i must say, our relationship is one of mutual appreciation. felíz día!

to tatiana's father, whose memory and many wonderful qualities live on in his daughters... and to all fathers and grandfathers whether near or far—or with us just in spirit, your role as father is more important than you may ever know. happy father's day.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

babysparewear available in belgium!

monsieur minouchet
we would like to welcome monsieur minouchet as our newest international retail partner. this up and coming belgium-based retailer offers a mission that is pure and simple: kids clothes & other funny, useful, beautiful stuff! we love the feeling this photo on their website evokes. makes me smile every time. we are flattered to be in the store owner's high regard. minouchet's owner and buyer extraordinaire catherine dupont was lovely to work with even if it was only over fax and email... catherine, we wish you tremendous success.

monsieur minouchet- 15, rue du lavoir - 6782 habergy - belgium

Friday, June 13, 2008

spare the planet...not the cuteness.


as promised, here is a sneak peek of our ecochic™ by babysparewear recycle symbol kit. our 100% organic cotton line will include a screen printed long sleeve tee and pant as modeled by our toe-gripping fit model logan. both super-soft garments will be packaged in a coordinating reuseable organic canvas travel case. our three new eco kits available later this month will offer three hopeful messages for a better tomorrow: spare the planet, spare peace and spare love.

and for those very patient stores on our organic waiting list, we promise we will have actual product photos really soon! just finalizing some details... you will not be disappointed.

babysparewear is a sweet pea baby planners favorite...


so another bit of exciting news to share: babysparewear has made the sweet pea baby planners favorites list! this is quite an honor to receive from a savvy business dedicated to finding and providing references for only the best must-have baby products to their extensive list of expecting clients in colorado. thank you!

founder april b
each is a pretty motivated entrepreneur. in addition to starting a baby planning business, she took it a step further and helped start the national baby planners association. april is now the vice president and director of manufacturer relations for the association with over 15 members and growing! baby planners are merging all over the country and the association is receiving requests every week for new businesses to join. right on, april! but wait, there's more. april is also launching an online boutique in july. as a consultant, she will only be selling goods which are hard to find, exceptional and not offered by local retail partners. look for more details soon.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

no spare time...

a lot going on here at babysparewear... we are pretty close to showing our ecochic™ line, sooo excited about that. see, our hang tags are almost done, too. we have quite a list of interested retailers and can't wait to get these babies into the stores! we are very pleased with how these eco kits have come together. stay tuned.

also, not sure if it is the work of all of our amazing online reviewers (thanks again, ladies.) or this fine blog we have added (as if), but our online store has been quite busy since march. we are talking an increase of over 100% the sales figures of previous months. so we are finally starting to feel that snowball effect...or at least a light drizzle. and, need we say we appreciate the word of mouth from our customers tremendously. we are finding that the majority of our gift recipients return to buy gifts as well. clearly, the best testament to our products by far. keep 'em coming, and we'll keep gift wrapping!

our fashion fix kits in the baby animal graphics style are doing quite well, so we have begun yet another production run of these kits which we customize only with water-based silk screens and low impact dyes. production always means lots of driving: to the cutter, the sewing house, the dye house and the inevitable visit to downtown l.a. for elastic, labels and trims. not to mention buying textiles and coordinating with our bag factory in texas. the up side is our little network of people we love working with: from our amazing garment cutter (fabulous argentinian gentlemen with over 30 years experience) who always makes time for us, to our sewing house run by two lovely ladies
for over 25 years—simply the best. and of course, the icing on the cake: working with our moms (hi, mami!). tatiana's mom does our book keeping and my mom handles order fulfillment and keeps inventory.

and, we are getting ready for our first major photo shoot with a talented children's photographer here in los angeles gretchen easton photography with real live models through a casting group and a killer location (thanks to the bergs). did i mention we are also in the process of upgrading our website software and server? (thanks for all the help david & john.) oh, and we have a new international retail partner and affiliations with other fantastic businesses. more on that later. we are busy busy busy. i would not have it any other way.