Logo!

Let me start by saying how much we love our in-house graphic designer (and not just because he's logged more hours getting our .com up and running than we have sewing lately :).  When we launched our etsy and facebook sites, we was there for us to play around with our little elephant friend and make him cuter than cute.  He was also there to help out with all the packaging materials, and has even designed all the pamphlet-type stuff we've had at trade and craft shows.

And it's not that we didn't like our logo, we just thought it was time to LOVE it.  And we really didn't want to bother the GD right now - his to do list is SCARY. 

So we got some outside help, and are pretty excited about how it's all come together.  So while the .com continues to progress, here's a little sneak peek of the logo that will come with it.  What do YOU think??

Dresses or Skirts, Anyone??

Okay, so nothing gets us excited like new fabric.  We are worse than kids at Christmas when we know it's been mailed out.  Let's just say we're on a first name basis with all the post office workers.  :)

One of us was sick a couple weeks ago.  Good and sick.  Could barely get out of bed, sick.  Makes it hard to get much sewing done, but it makes it REALLY EASY to click and buy fabric.  LOTS of fabric.  We still have a couple new product launches up our sleeves, so we needed a few new designs.  And then there's nothing like adding in some new options to replace a few old favourites that are now out of stock. 

What do you think of our 3 new favourite combinations for dresses and twirl skirts???

 daisy flowers with candy

grey plain jane with citron

boho blossom with orchid

Christmas Show and Tell

I facebooked a while back about being the "homemade" Aunty, and finding it to be just a little bit harder each year as my nieces and (especially!) nephews get older. I went for something completely different for the boys this year, and it sounds like they are quite the hit...  It's a bird, it's a plane, nope - it's a PERSONALIZED SUPERHERO CAPE!

The pictures don't really show them off, but my 2 and a half year old didn't want to model them for me so until I can convince her to show off hers (yup, capes aren't just for boys!), it's the best I can do.  I may have also saved my sisters-in-law from having to get too creative for Halloween!

Not to be outdone, I did have to come up with something cute for my curly-headed little niece, so since my other niece got a tutu for her first birthday it was time to make one for Miss M.  I gotta say, I think I'm getting into this tutu thing.  I LOVE these colours together.  Purple is the colour of choice in that house, so I added in some blue, green and yellow for good measure.  My daughter was a little sad to see it leave...

Hello January!

Where oh where did the last 2 months go? 

We have a zillion posts just waiting to be written, but in the meantime, here's a Happy New Year from the Playful Peanuts (no, these are the sewers - yet - they are just the inspiration behind our little business :).

First up, the "original two."  Pardon the sweaty hair and goofy faces.  These 2 play hard when they get together.  And they're 2 and a half, need we say more?  Is there any way to properly prepare a parent for 2 and a half?  We don't think so either, but we love them just the same.  :)

Then there's a our new little man.  Who I'm sure is really, really hoping for another little male peanut soon.  There is no doubt he is smothered with affection from the little "mothers" above.

So from our peanuts to yours, have a WONDERFUL 2011, and keep checking back because we did resolve to update this blog a little more this year than we did last year.  :)

Peanut Tested

There are a few questions that we seem to get asked over and over again.  Some of the most common would likely be:
-Do you girls REALLY sew all this stuff?
-Where do you get your ideas from?
-Where do you find the time to do this with children?
-Do these things really work?

In a nutshell, we'd say: yes, everywhere, we have no idea and we truly believe so - respectively, though I think we could probably write a blog post (or two, or three) on each of these.  For today, though, we want to focus on the last one - do these things really work?

If you've followed our little business venture at all, you know the story.  We were a couple of moms who used to work together (in the radio industry, for those of you that are interested).  Our daughters are about 6 weeks apart, born in the early/mid part of 2008.  Amanda had absolutley no sewing experience, but an awesome napper.  She wanted a hobby, and decided sewing it was.  Kari-Ann was a big-time 4-Her from days gone by and had probably logged more sewing and quilting hours (yes, I said quilting :) than some ladies three times her age.  Like most of you, we seemed to be having babies the same time as all the rest of our friends, so we started making homemade baby gifts for them.  The reception was amazing, and soon we found some of our friends asking us to make the same things for them to give to other friends.  Before we knew it, we had a name (in honour of our little peanuts), an etsy shop and a really great excuse to buy fabric.  A year and a half later, here we are.

In the beginning, we started out making the things that we wanted to have, but didn't want to pay the big boutique bucks for.  And for the most part, that's still how we operate.  We want to create really great, AFFORDABLE and FUNCTIONAL options for parents and kids. 

Let's put it this way - can you spend upwards of $60 on a nursing cover?  EASY.  Does that make it *better* than ours which retail for $26?  We genuinely don't think so. 

Nothing is foolproof - especially when all our items are handmade in our basements.  But you can bet that if we think something is useless, overpriced or not of the quality we'd use for our own kids, it doesn't leave the basement.  Everything is tested first on our little peanuts, but we all know that the best feedback comes from our customers.  So if you ever have anything you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you: good, bad or indifferent.

Like this one, from a new customer of Playful Peanut.  She'd purchased a couple comfy headbands a while back to try out.  She has an active little old girl, and was impressed with how they stayed on - so impressed she came back for more.  And who can blame her for wanting to dress up her adorable little blondie!  Thanks for sharing your photo with us!

TUTU Pretty!

Okay, so I (Kari-Ann), am not the girliest of the girlie girls.  Now, don't get me wrong...  We're all about hair pretties and dresses and make-up in this house, but if you looked at my daughter's closet you'd have to strain to find pink, and some people would be shocked by the amount of blue, black and grey. 

What can I say?  She's 2 and a half.  I'm still in control.  I fear there will be a day coming when she'll go all girlie-girl on me and I'll have to deal.  Today is not that day.  :)

So I'm sure when I told my sister-in-law I was making a tutu for my niece's first birthday, she probably wondered.  But I believe you should go big, or go home.  So I went big.  And I think I even shocked myself.  Because I think it's seriously cute.  Or maybe it's just the niece.  Or the ridiculously cute pictures from Jodi Lee over at Memories by Me Photography. 

HELP!

They say the first step in solving your addiction is acknowledging it.  Well, we have.  We know we have a problem when it comes to buying fabric.  It's not our fault!  If there weren't so many cute ones on the market we'd be able to hold ourselves back!

But, alas, a new one made its way into a shipment of fabric to my house this week.  And I LOVE it, but I'm not entirely sure as what.  So I'll pose the question to you - what would you like to see this fabric turned into?  Snack-Loc Bags?  Bibs?  Chalk placemats?  Comment below, or drop us a line at yourplayfulpeanut@gmail.com!

New Snack-Loc Bags!

We're sewing like crazy women getting ready for the Christmas season, and in doing so I noticed that we're low on some of our favourite Snack-Loc Bag fabrics.

And it turns out some of our favourite fabrics are getting harder and harder to find.  But fortunately they make more cute ones every day...  What do you think of the 2 newest additions?

Animal Party

Dino Dudes

Twist-N-Stay Headbands

As promised!  A blogged "tutorial" on how to use the new Twist-N-Stay Headbands.  First up, you place the headband on your head and then pull the ends in opposite directions.   

 Then, once you done that, you simply give it a twist and then flatten out the ends.  Done!  And it really does stay put.  There's no elastic to slide off, or no plastic ends to dig into your head.  Cute, and comfortable!

 Someone didn't want to put their makeup on this morning, but here's the "model" angle shot that shows the headband in my hair.  And notice that my hair is pretty short right now and I love it -especially for those days that I don't actually feel like doing my hair, but I need to run and grab some milk or mail some parcels.  What do you think??

Happy Hippo

So, a couple of years ago both my sisters-in-law and I were all expecting.  I`m not sure what was in the water at the family gatherings, but I didn`t recommend anyone drink it.  ;)

E was due first, but I`ve never in my life seen a lady get given more due dates than her.  Needless to say, we were expecting a baby sometime between late November and January. 

Which created a big question for Christmas.  Whether or not there would be a new addition by then was anyone`s guess.

As the Crafty Aunty-to-be, I decided to be ready just in case. But what do you make when you have no idea if it`s a boy or a girl (or if it would even be there!). This was what I came up with...

 Basically, it`s a gigantic floor pillow in the shape of a hippopotamus (with an opening mouth!).  Completely machine washable, it`s great if you have carpet you don`t want a little mess on, or if you just need a bit of extra padding on hardwood or laminate flooring.  Since G didn`t arrive in time for Christmas, I made it out of a buttery yellow dimple chenille (quite possible my favourite material ever).  And it turned out to be a pretty welcome addition at the house, because `little messes`didn`t quite describe what he was capable of.  :)

I recently finished up another one to deliver as a baby gift, and as I begin to ponder what all the Crafty Aunty has planned for Christmas 2010, I was just reminiscing a bit...