All things family
Happy, healthy families
Recipes, parties and meals
Savvy money solutions
Making Learning Fun
Solutions for your home
Cakes, parties & more
Good stuff for everyone
Eco-friendly choices
SavvyBlog
Posts tagged under Clothing. Show all posts.
Last weekend SavvyMom joined hundreds of mom brands and businesses at the International Centre for the 12th Annual Spring BabyTime Show. It was a great weekend and we met a lot of other interesting companies and vendors.
It goes without saying that we most enjoyed meeting the ladies from Please Mum, our show partners this year. Please Mum is a Canadian retailer started by a mom entrepreneur with over 90 stores across the country. They sell adorable and affordable kids’ clothes (in case you haven’t heard of them, but I’m pretty sure you have). Our partnership is based on an exclusive contest we are running with them for SavvyMom readers—a chance to win a $500 shopping spree! This contest is running online and is being promoted in stores as well throughout the month of May.
The BabyTime show was a great opportunity to launch the contest and get some buzz going. And since we like to ‘super-size’ everything we do, we decided it would be fun to showcase some of the fabulous fashions for kids by hosting a fashion show. So we did just that. All of the SavvyMoms from our office with babies and toddlers came to the main stage to show off their kids in the latest Please Mum summer fashions.
Thank you to Ally, Madeline, Riley, Josh and Mathew, who all got up and smiled, waved and danced in front of all those strangers! And thank you to our savvy staff who brought their beauties to the show and accompanied them out on the catwalk!
A Shopping Spree
We’ve been telling you about it for the past few weeks on SavvyMom, we put on a big display a booth at the Toronto BabyTime Show and we even hosted a fashion show to help promote it. So you can see that we’re very excited about our partnership with Please Mum and the SavvyMom Stylish Kid Contest we are running with them this month.
We teamed up with Please Mum because we think it’s a great Canadian brand (run by a mom entrepreneur) that makes great clothes for kids that are fun, stylish and practical. (Did we mention they’re affordable, too?)
And for you, our loyal readers, we are offering a chance to win a shopping spree worth $500. With the great deals and discounts at Please Mum, you can buy a lot of fabulous kids’ clothes with that!
So if you still haven’t entered, go ahead and do it now before the contest ends. Haven’t you always wanted to go on a shopping spree?
We Have a Winner!
We are thrilled, delighted and pleased as punch to announce the winner of the SavvyMom Stylish Kid Contest we ran with our partner, Please Mum this spring. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the contest, which ran over the past two months on Pleasemum.com, offered moms the chance to win a $500 shopping spree at Please Mum. We promoted the contest at a trade show in Toronto, on our site and in all of the Please Mum stores across Canada. So we know lots of people heard about it!
The lucky savvy mom who won the contest is Robin Hodgson, from Toronto. She is the proud mom of a little girl and a newborn baby boy. We hope she enjoys finding lots of fabulous gear for her two kids at Please Mum!
Congratulations Robin, and happy shopping.
How clean is your laundry? Apparently it’s not easy to tell unless you have revolutionary technology that can detect residue like sweat and body oils that linger on your clothes. Watch this video on the Sunlight.ca site or the one below to see for yourself. It shows that with UV lighting and a special formula that is sprayed onto the laundry, you can detect all of the smelly body oils and fabric residue that’s left on laundry. In other words, your white towels might look white, but they’re not necessarily clean. Gross, I know.
For the record, and in the spirit of editorial transparency, this is not a sponsored post. After learning about this new product, I was a bit suspicious about this ‘scientific method’, so I took some of the Sunlight Deep Clean home and tested it against my worst laundry nightmare of all time—smelly camp towels. It worked. How do I know it worked? Not from a special spray and UV lighting, but my eyes and nose. Years of experience with mildewed towels told me they were clean to look at, but my nose was the most surprised. For the first year, I only had to wash those towels once to get rid of the mildew smell. I’m told that mildew smell is a result of all the oils and buildup left on towels which doesn’t get deep cleaned (pun intended).
I don’t know if I need to use this detergent on all my fine washables, but for the tough stuff (and I have a lot of that with two pre-teen boys), it will be on my shelf.
Wait for more sponsored info on Sunlight Deep Clean in our newsletters coming soon.
What’s your favourite detergent? I would love to know.
It’s not surprising that these T-shirts were pulled off the shelves in JC Penny stores across the US last week. They had moms everywhere in an uproar.
To add more fuel to the fire, look at the descriptive message in the right hand box where the product information goes: ‘Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Beiber album out?’
True, girls are subjected to confusing messages about subjective beauty everywhere. It’s nothing new. What’s crazy to me as a mom, is that in this case, we are the ones being marketed to, not the girls. And they think moms will buy these T-shirts for their daughters? Where is the research these retailers apparently spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on? Surely there is something in there that would help them understand what moms are looking for when shopping for their kids—if their own common sense isn’t enough.
That said, there is still room for more bad messages for young girls—and boys for that matter. Check out this funny gallery for more really inappropriate ideas.
It’s only the second week of my return to the blog and so much has caught my attention. Here are my top five radar-worthy things this week.
- The Roller Buggy Stroller. Really? Put your most prized possession (that would be your baby) in the seat and then go for a joy ride—as fast as you can. Because we just can’t keep things simple, we have to make it more fun. But as all moms know, there is a very fine line between fun and danger. Please don’t buy this product if you live in San Francisco—there is nowhere to go but downhill for this ridiculosity (new noun I just made up).
- Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I know I’m a bit late to the party as this book has been around for a while and is already a major motion picture (released last summer). But this story about the life of a Holocaust survivor and the lives connected to her kept me reading all night.
- My new Lole Tank because it’s great for Pilates. It fits perfectly and is nice and long so I can bend over without exposing my entire muffin top to the world.
- SHOP.CA. It’s the biggest and coolest new place for Canadians to shop on the world wide web, promising to take the hassles out of shopping online for Canadians, too. It’s just that it’s not open for business YET. But if you’re savvy, you’ll want to sign up and tell all your friends about it so you can start earning SHOP.CA Rewards™ . You can earn $10 in SHOP.CA Rewards™ with your first purchase of $100 or more PLUS 5x SHOP.CA Rewards™ for the rest of 2012. Then get ready for a shopping spree on May 17 when it opens.
- Chicken infused with arsenic, Benadryl and caffeine. My obsession with what to eat and what not to eat did not improve after reading this article on Babble, especially considering the amount of chicken I eat and feed my family. I’m reminding myself that it’s just one study but I’ll be following the debate closely. You’ll likely hear back from me on this one.
What’s on your radar this week?
We have officially entered into the holiday season, whether we like it or not. It’s all about the sounds of Christmas jingles in grocery stores, gingerbread house kits, sparkles, baubles and great gift ideas everywhere we turn. Instead of fighting it, I say bring it. Get your shopping done early so you can enjoy the festivities and family when the big day (and school break) arrives.
1. My inbox is full of gift recos these days. One that caught my attention for being hilarious—although not very mom focused—is the Finger Hockey Play Set. It’s clearly a sign that Canadians are suffering from the NHL strike. Honestly…do we need finger sized knee pads? Does that even make sense? This is so bad it’s good. I give it a thumbs up for the under $20 office gift.
2. You’ll find some more appropriate gifts for kids in our gallery of 34 Hot Toys for the Holidays. There are so many great ones, but if I had to choose, I would definitely go with the Yetitoy, because it’s a friend, a toy and a tricycle. What more can you ask for?
3. If you’re a mompreneur, you might be asking your friends to vote for you these days. Together with Parents Canada and Mompreneur Inc., we have launched our annual MOMpreneur Award of Excellence, designed to help mompreneurs build connections with each other and offer one lucky winner the means to help grow her business to the next level. If you’re a mompreneur, nominate yourself. If you know a mompreneur, vote for her. The grand prize is worth over $30,000.
4. Since you’re so busy buying for everyone else these days, you might not have time to pick up stuff for yourself. Still, you want to update your look, so why not try a new way to wear that old pashmina scarf? I ran into my friend Johanna, a fashion blogger at Real Life Runway who reminded me of this fantastic how-to video. Sarah and I found this last year but I don’t think I ever had a chance to share it. Enjoy!
5. One last thing that crossed my desk is this note about a project called Snail Mail My Email. In an effort to save the lost art of letter writing, an artist invites us to send a message to him by email so he can transform it into a lovely handwritten note to be sent by snail mail. This is an art project with an important message. Is email the new hand written note? Is letter writing a lost art? Are we celebrating this lost art already—the way we hang onto dead languages in order to maintain our culture? Does it matter if our kids don’t know how to write a proper hand-written note? Maybe this guy is a bit premature with his concerns. My kids still write thank you notes (ahem). And moms are still sending Christmas/holiday cards.
Watch out for some great ideas on those cards coming up next week on SavvyMom.
Have a great week.
It’s an honour to be guest blogging in Minnow’s Five Things spot this week, as she’s off on vacation with her family. As co-founder of SavvyMom, I used to do a lot more of the writing than I do now (half of everything we published, to be exact). With the growth of our company, my time has increasingly been spent on the fun stuff like finance, accounting and our technology ‘stack,’ so it was good to pick up the pen this week and share what caught my attention:
1. As a student of grammar and punctuation (I still reserve the right around Savvy HQ to make the final edits on all our writing), I was intrigued by this report out of SXSW this weekend that stated that ‘e-mail’ is not cool. I was initially concerned when I read this headline because we put a lot of effort into our series of newsletters that we lovingly send to our readers’ inboxes, but I was relieved to read, however, that email (sans hyphen) is totally cool. And apparently digital types are still seeking the perfect short form for WWW. I think I will start trying out the term ‘twiple,’ as offered by one of the readers of this article. Say ‘twiple.savvymom.ca.’
2. Apparently there are now over 750,000 apps just in the Apple App Store, so it makes sense that we now need an app just to find apps, because it’s too time-consuming otherwise. A few of us in the office have been using AppHero, which uses your existing app preferences and other insights it picks up from your social media interactions to suggest other apps for you. I usually love to quiz other iPhone users about which apps they recommend but this is a fun way to discover new apps you want to try.
3. Speaking of apps, there’s even one now to let you know as soon as the new pope is named, which you can sign up for at popealarm.com to be alerted to the Habemus Papam! as soon as it happens. (As I write this, the conclave has just started so it’s hard to know when the new pope will be named but I found this interesting infographic full of good information on how the voting process works.)
4. If you know me, you know that I do almost all of my shopping online—from office supplies for SavvyHQ, to groceries for home, to clothing for my kids and myself—so I was very excited to learn this week that Everlane is looking at entering the Canadian market. The online-only retailer specializes in beautiful, high-quality basics, but by cutting out all the middlemen of the typical fashion business, they are able to offer amazing wardrobe staples like cashmere sweaters and classic tees for much less than usual. To test the market and finance their initial marketing costs, they launched a crowd-funding campaign entitled #CrowdFundCanada where you can support them at different levels, from $15 to $7500, as they attempt to raise $100,000. I signed up right away at the $200 level, which offered me a $200 credit and free shipping to Canada for life. They’ve raised about 80% of the goal amount so far—I hope they make it so I can start buying all the basics for the adults in our family there.
5. The ISU World Figure Skating Championships are on this week in London, ON. While I have never been into watching figure skating (unlike my mother, who is Kurt Browning’s biggest fan), I was intrigued to view CBC Doc Zone’s Ice, Sweat and Tears last week when it aired. It chronicles the difficult training schedules and often dangerous situations faced by some of Canada’s top figure skaters. Even my tough-on-the-ice, hockey-playing son who watched it with me was impressed by the physical and mental challenges these amazing athletes face. Definitely worth a watch with the kids—no matter what sport they’re into—just to see the hard work, commitment and determination these athletes display.
That’s all from me—I’d love to hear what caught your attention this week.
Autism Awareness, April Fools’ Day spoofs, more bacon, more white t-shirts and party favours—that’s what caught my attention this week.
1. April 2 was World Autism Awareness Day and this year marks the first that Canada officially recognized the date and participated in events around the country. Naturally, we have many inspiring blog posts featured on SavvyMom this week raising awareness of autism by some of our Savvy Storytellers. I thought this one in particular is something that all of us should read because it speaks to everyone who is not a parent of an autistic child and provides tips on how to navigate their world with respect: Five Things Autism Parents Want You to Know. I also have a book recommendation, about a child with autism and his mother’s journey, called Love Anthony by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Genova. Read it, but keep your tissue close. It’s a tear jerker.
2. In entertaining news, I noticed there were a lot of April Fools’ pranks this year populating the internet. April Fools’ Day has clearly made a comeback, and it’s no wonder after seeing what companies like Google Nose, Youtube and Gmail Blue are getting up to (all Google products, by the way). I like that these pranks don’t inflict any physical pain and they aren’t making direct fun at anyone specific. But who knew April Fools’ Day would re-emerge as such a prolific holiday for marketers to capitalize on? At least it’s one holiday where I don’t have to worry about a gift…unless it’s one of the new BMW strollers that were released on Monday—for babes who like to ride. Just kidding. That was a prank too. Marketers have all the fun, don’t they?
3. Maybe the people who came up with the idea of creating a line of jewellery fashioned after fruit and bacon have more fun. It’s hard to know, but this Bacon Headband certainly caught my attention this week. You’ve heard me talk about bacon before—it’s the new protein and its popularity doesn’t appear to be waning. But could this be the tipping point? Have we saturated the bacon market? We’ll have to watch closely.
4. I might have had enough bacon, but I will never tire of the classic white T-shirt. That’s why I appreciated this gallery of great white tees from Chatelaine which I found particularly helpful. Note that the stylists remind us not to wear the tees too tight—that’s just not right. I’m just saying.
5. And finally, for all you party planners out there, if you like it, you can now put a ring on it. The popular candy company Ring Pop®, has launched a new US site called MyRingPop.com which allows Ring Pop® fans to choose the flavour, colour and wrapper design for their very own edible bling with a choice of birthday or general-celebration-themed wrappers. Included in the purchase, consumers can print personalized messages on the wrappers to share a sweet note along with their sweet treat. Hopefully they start shipping to Canada soon…
Topics
- About Mom [3]
- Birthday Parties [1]
- Contests [15]
- Family Fun [22]
- Family Photography [4]
- From the Editor's Desk [100]
- From the Publisher's Desk [72]
- Mom Entrepreneurs [2]
- Parenting Solutions [4]
- Photo of the Month Contest [13]
- Product Reviews [6]
- Savvy Mom HQ Updates [11]
- SavvyDad [52]
- The Savvy on Mom Entrepreneurs [11]
- The Savvy on Moms [2]
Who's Blogging
Explore More Savvy
SavvyMom is the registered trademark of SavvyMom Media Inc.
