We have a tendency to carve out a special place in our heart for the personalized and simplistic toys of our youth. Thankful, for this generation of children, these toys have not gone the way of the buffalo, but instead have led to the “Flatofrog”.

Sometimes simplicity breeds creativity. If you think about architecture, some of the most beloved buildings in the history of mankind have their roots in simplistic design. While the glass pyramid at the Louvre might seem like some type of avant-guard experiment in architecture by someone who worships at the post-modern alter, the pyramid is a simplistic design that has been around for tens of thousands of years. In fact, post-modernism relies on simplicity in its design; it just likes to push the envelope a bit further.

Before I get off on too much of a tangent, as much as we love creativity, we also love to balance it with a comforting simplicity which we hold near to our heats. Take the personalized baby toys that we grew up with as a child. For as much as technology has made its way into our lives, the toys we remember from our youth are usually of the simplistic breed. For as much as we loved Transformers and dream houses with moving parts, we also yearn for Lego’s, Barbies and My Little Pony’s which use simple designs to give a more specialized, personalized feel.

Today’s personalized baby toys, blankets and plushes tend to follow the traditional idea of simplicity that continue to be commonplace after generations. As stuffed animals never seem to go out of style, one of the most popular of the personalized baby toys continues to be designer stuffed animals. While teddy bears continue to be a popular item, different animals have begun to pop up in the plush world. If it’s a cute animal chances are you can find a plush of it out there: frogs, bunnies, penguins and especially hippos brings delight to the face of babies and small children. Heck, you can even find “ugly” animals such as platypus’ and manatees (though, manatees are very huggable, if you think about it). Plus, with these plushes being personalized, each of the dolls (some of them handmade) come with the child’s name embroidered on them. Call it human nature, but if something is personalized with an embroidered name we tend to hang out to it longer then if it is just another anonymous belonging.

Some of the cutest push animal dolls I’ve seen in recent years have come from the North American Bear Co. This company not only offers a full line of personalized plush stuffed animals, but also stuffed animal cozys are designed as blankets so a child can use them for both sleep and play time. These cozys feature such animals as hippos (or, as they call them  “Flatopotamus”), a “sleepytime” rabbit complete with stripped night cap, a frog (“Flatofrog”) as well as a “Flatodeer”, “Flatophant” and, of course, a “Flatobearius”. All these are simplistic in nature yet sophisticated and subtle and are sure to become some of those simple and beloved toys that your child will keep as a keepsake into their adult years.

Author Kimberly Green still has a treasures her oldest child’s first personalized baby toys – they were the best personalized baby gifts ever received!

Office parties celebrating birthdays and babies are an American tradition. They are also easy to put together, as long as you know what you are doing.

As offices have become second homes for many business oriented people, the office party has begun to slowly evolve from a standard store bought birthday cake to something more. Now everything from upcoming baby births to anniversaries are being celebrated at office buildings, and birthday cakes and streamers are being replaced by gourmet cupcakes, gift exchanges and even designer baby gift baskets for office baby showers.

While different companies will have different policies on what can and cannot be offered at office parties (some will even allow wine… party down), there are some things to remember when trying to plan the best office party for a fellow employee. Whether it’s a surprise party or something that they will have the final say on, office parties are best done as a temporary celebration, and distraction, that can be quick, fun, and ultimately allow people to get to work quickly before anyone gets in too much trouble. Because these parties must be done within office guidelines, be sure to run each step by a manager, or someone in charge. Make sure your get-together follows the guidelines put forth in your employee handbooks to a t so that no one gets in trouble for it (that would be bad).

Probably the main reason people will attend an office party will be for food. Let’s not kid ourselves, while they like the person you’re throwing the party for, the idea of free food during the work day is usually the main attraction. Since the current economy might limit the amount of food that a company is willing to buy for a said party, the best way to get everyone well fed might be a potluck. While the word “potluck” has gotten a bad rap, work potlucks usually have some pretty good food. If everyone is not up for a potluck then maybe you can have everyone chip in a few bucks for catering.

Once the food is out of the way, you can now focus on the other important part of any office party: gifts. Usually the two biggest office celebrations are birthdays and baby showers. While gifts for birthdays are usually a personal preference, for baby showers co-workers usually like to combine their funds for a “big” gift. This can be anything from gift baskets to strollers to cribs. Make sure you collect the money first and that you get a gift that the mother to be doesn’t already have. This way the party can be a success and the fabled tradition of office parties will have another great entry.

Author Kimberly Green gets the most beautiful baby gift baskets online @ BabyStuffGifts.com

While you count down the days until birth, parents are hard out work making sure their baby’s nursery is the perfect haven for their little miracle. While it might be tempting to let others decorate the room with personalized baby gifts, making sure that they blend with the planned design of the room is of the utmost importance.

Nine months is a long time to plan. Nine months to work. Nine months to search. Nine months to perfect. Part of the magic of a new child is putting together the perfect nursery to welcome the little miracle to the world. Seeing a finished nursery is one of the most magical and rewarding things you will ever experience.

Of course, it’s only rewarding afterwards. Putting together any new living space can be a stressful ordeal. But putting together a living space for someone who doesn’t have any tastes or ideas yet, well, that’s nearly impossible, right? Thankfully, parents have been doing it for centuries and it’s not that tough. All you have to do is keep a few things in mind and just go by your own personal tastes. In the end, your baby won’t mind as long as it’s comfortable (remember your doing this more for yourself then the baby at this point).

If you really take a breath and think about it, the key to putting together any room in the house is pre- planning and making sure everything matches. People are going to buy personalized baby gifts for your baby, and while that’s sweet unfortunately these gifts don’t always match the planned décor. Because of this try and give those who you know are going to buy gifts an idea on what you want the baby’s room to look like. Show them around the planning stages. Don’t tell them what to buy, but instead let them in on the process so that they can buy the perfect gift that matches the overall theme of the room.

Of course, the overall theme and color scheme of your babies nursery is going to come right from your own brain. Thankfully, thanks’ to the explosion of chain stores you can get most of your babies furniture and decorations at one or two locations. Plus, you can usually get everything at a pretty competitive price if you check prices at different stores. You can now get everything from cute paintings, to mirrors, to cribs, to lamps in one location, all for a cheap price (and all made in China).

Planning is paramount in making sure that you put together the perfect nursery for your baby. Before actually buying furniture and decorations, make sure you measure and diagram where you’re going to put your furniture. It might sound like your being over cautious, but before you start impulsively buying furniture make sure you take precise measurements on what will go where in your nursery. Nothing is worse than putting together a crib and realizing that it’s too big for an area. That’s when the real stress comes in. Thankfully, by taking a few steps, you can make sure it all goes painlessly.

Author Kimberly Green has gotten personalized baby gifts for all of her children and they are the absolute best presents ever!

It’s that time of the year! Everyone is starting to think of the holiday season and what he or she will go out and buy everyone for Christmas. As much as you may try, it never fails that you forget someone special and the next thing you know you’re running out on Christmas Eve to find a gift because you forgot to order that personalized baby gift.

December is honestly just about one of the most hectic times in just about everyone’s year! At work most people are closing out inventory, dealing with last minute customers or trying to get everything done before the close of the business year. On top of this most people have a seriously ramped up social schedule that includes evening long parties and social gatherings. It’s easy to see where December is the shortest month even though it has thirty-one days in it!

Even if you’re not one to be the social butterfly around the holidays with our lives increasingly becoming more stressed and our dollar becoming increasingly thinner on a daily basis it’s still easy to see why gift buying keeps getting pushed later and later into the holiday season.  It doesn’t have to be like this though. It’s very possible to get that personalized baby gift early enough in the season without leaving the comfort of your personal computer! It’s really that simple. A recent pole showed that most Americans put off shopping due to busy work lives and crowded stores. What they don’t realize is, the work isn’t going to stop (in December) and the crowds are only going to get worse as Christmas gets closer. Shopping in October or November not only prevents dealing with large crowds it usually frees up time in December so you can attend those social gatherings you would otherwise be forced to omit from your schedule.

A side affect of this is cost savings. In November many retail outlets have a slight increase in their ticket prices only to drop them a fraction of the increase to bring buyers into their stores. Traditionally this is not the case with online retailers so you can attack your Christmas shipping in two segments. If you are buying early (which you should be) and you want to have the retail outlet experience then you should be doing it in mid October to early November before retailers raise their prices for the holiday season. Then, save your online buying for last minute situations where you need something quick but don’t want to pay more for it.

Many holiday shoppers do all of their shopping online because it allows instant price comparison and they don’t have to deal with the heavy crowds. If this is your method, just make sure you are doing it in time to have the products delivered before you need to give the gift. There is nothing more frustrating then ordering something too late and it doesn’t show up in time. Look for vendors that promise delivery times. Around Christmas you’ll find plenty of them that offer guarantees.  However, if you are looking for say, personalized baby toys, you’ll want to make sure you give extra time for it to be crafted and delivered to you!

Again, shopping earlier in the season will prevent any issues where your loved ones don’t get their gifts on time.
The holiday season is supposed to be an enjoyable one and if you can eliminate the stress of last minute shopping, low inventory and large crowds your holiday season will be much more enjoyable!

Author Kim Green always makes sure to put personalized baby gifts and baby gift baskets on her holiday gift list! They make wonderful presents!

If you’ll be going to a baby shower, think about baby gift baskets to make your gift a special one.

Have you been invited to a baby shower?  Whether it is before or after the blessed event, it can be difficult picking just the right item.  So why try?  Instead, think about baby gift baskets.  Baby gift baskets make fun gifts as the mother-to-be pulls one wonderful item after another from the basket.

As the guest of honor, the mom-to-be has lots of fun.  A baby shower can certainly save the new mom from having to do a lot of shopping.  But for the guests, shopping for a baby shower can be tough.  You don’t want your gift to simply blend in with all the others.  You want the new mom-to-be excited when she opens your gift.  An easy way to accomplish all that is by thinking about baby gift baskets.

Once you’ve got your gift chosen, it is now time for you to have fun.   Very often games will be played at baby showers.   You might end up winning a prize and have a gift of your own to take home!

One popular game has to do with nursery rhymes.  If you read them to your children (or are reading them to your grandchildren) then you’ll probably do fine.   There are many variations of this game.  In one variation, you need to know the name of the rhyme.    In another variation you need to know how it finishes.

In another game, pieces of ribbon are cut with one perfectly fitting the girth of the new mom.  Can you guess which is the right piece of ribbon?

Have you considered a blind taste test of baby food?   Each jar has the label removed and, instead, it has a number.  Then you have the opportunity to taste the food in each jar.   You get a piece of paper with a list of numbers and, next to each number, you write what you think is in the jar.  Of course the one guessing the most right wins.

Be sure to bested and have your memory in tip top shape.  If you were to look into a box, for a few seconds, that is filled with baby items like a bib or baby spoon could you remember everything that was in the box? Quickly write down what you remember seeing and maybe win a prize.

Baby gift baskets allow you to relax at the shower.  Have fun.   Watch the mom-to-be light up as she opens your gift and starts looking at all of the wonderful items inside.

Author Kimberly Green loves mixing and matching items to create the perfect baby gift baskets