Fall is in the air!
Although here in New England, it looked like the height of winter.
With a freak Nor’easter and power outages for over a week it was like Christmas time camping!
And after the thaw, I heard a little kid in the grocery store ask his mother, “Is it spring now mom, is it spring?” but alas, spring is a long way away!
With the coming holiday season we are offering (for the first time) sale prices on 2 little merry favorites!
Reg $100.00, Sale $ 50.00!
Reg. $300.00 Sale $250.00
The Take-a-break lamb chair, this item is coming to a close in it’s limited edition and the Egg backpack!
Both are in stock for immediate delivery…
“Function, Fun and Fuzzy”
Enjoy, Mary
Aaaahhhh…………Spring!!
I think it is finally safe here in New England to put away the snow shovels and buy a new kitchen doormat!
Winter here seemed to never end, closing in on June, with all the
Cold and rainy days we’ve had I wasn’t assuming anything.
Although I must say that any weather we had in the past season
gives me nothing to complain about in seeing all the devastation that is non-stop through the central part of our great country.
It truly puts life into perspective, all material things can be replaced and loss of life is final. The people from those towns move me to tears. When I see the reports the heroisms it’s awe-inspiring.
It seems to me that the past few years in the world of weather has shown us just how power-less we are to the things we cannot control.
My brothers and their family’s live in California and they need to have emergency kits for their kids sent to school at the start of the year, and have their houses blocked out for having to deal with all the possibility that nature could throw their way.
If you’re like me, and things have been relativity OK, then today make a plan.
My family has put off installing a generator (our house already has a hook-up for one, so what’s our excuse?) or not being able to find a flashlight to locate the dogs in the distance of our back yard (never mind a blackout)
In the month of June, I will shop for a generator; have flashlights in every room (and make my family put the back where the got them)
Have some emergency food and water in the basement and talk, as a group to what our emergency plan will be.
And with that donate (anything you can) to help those who have lost everything that had.
Flock to: redcross.org or tornadorelief.org
Summertime……
Life was so much easier when I was single, it’s like a book you’ve read years ago…….you only remember the good parts (all the time you need in the bathroom, spending lengthy days on your personal and work projects, packing only the basics for a quick mental health trip)
I love my job. My family. My home.
It’s just that it is all too much sometimes and you have to remember to breathe. Often.
I have not Blogged in a long time. Life and all it’s glory is full and that’s Ok.
The only thing that shakes-up the summer for us around here is our local farmers market. Something I started some 8 years ago (primarily because we did not have one?)
And it’s the highlight of the summer.
All the new things growing keep in check as to how time flies and the seasons change. New foods, new families and lots of fun!
This being (what I consider) the last summer of my daughters “tween” years. This fall she enters High School. (sniff!!)
She still has the awesome sense of wonder about everything (odd bugs, the night sky and all the birds that take up residence in our yard) will she always have that? Or will it fade and she will become jaded to all the hardships the future will surely put in from of her?
I would not be called one of those “Helicopter parents” you could call me a ground force parent, keeping her grounded,
Building up her self-esteem, reminding her that people come and go, money comes and goes and some friends do last forever
(if only sometimes in our hearts)
In some ways babies are the easiest. I have always loved the daily firsts and seeing the wonderful progressions of my daughters’ evolution in time, now all we have are power struggles usually about things I really don’t care about? But some how we fight about it? I have 3 rules:
Clothing: must be properly fitting, age appropriate and seasonal. Food: Whole foods with no artificial anything
Shelter: Keep it neat.
With all these battles, I lose.
But I think I’m heard. And it all gets filed and I know when the time is right, they will appear! (So I’m told?)
Sometimes I think I would trade 30 babies for 1 teenager?
(But this time too shall pass) I hope not as quick as
Baby-dom has. (sniff.)
Here is an update of one of our Mom-dels from the Egg shoot, meet little Jim Shortt, now 2.5 years old!
He’s little mister sunshine on Tuesdays! from 2-6pm
(And till Oct 22 on Tuesdays, that is where I’ll be!)
Have a great summer!…….. xo Mary
“Love is………..”
Little mini feet! cooing! the promise of a better world! And all that goes with the beginning of something big! (Or small.)
I think every spring brings the promise of the New Year. We may celebrate the new year on Jan 1st. but it really does not start till the crocuses come out and the sap stops running from the maples and the bunnies come to the surface!
We have lots of new things at little merry fellows, the lambs, the little hairy fellows line and the new website that we love.
We just finished the New York International Gift show on Feb. 3rd.
Lots of new stores will be carrying our line and many of our old customers will be stocking up as well.
We have been picked up by Osaka, Japan, Rio in Brazil and have seen a big trend in our USA products in Asia (How cool is that!)
Welcome to all the “Valentine babies!” and please feel free to share any and all stories with us to the wonders of your life.
Welcome. Mary
* Cleo and Harmony, her 6 yr old equine sister!
“New Year, New decade, new leaf”……
2010. (Already) that decade flew? so much has happened.
We have now been around for 12 years (and my baby will be 14 this month phew!)
The world has embraced as a standard organic EVERYTHING! “ The choice not a choice”, the people have spoken and global commerce has provided, fair trade is a phrase that everyone understands and most companies abide by, and the mantra, “ less is more ” is really the movement of the day. (And my family no longer thinks I’m a zealot!)
My thought is it’s better to have money, then to look like you have money!
I for one never understood the 1200.00 handbags? And the 100K automobiles,
“Can you live in either or eat them?”
This Holiday season I lowered my expectations, not because of depression, although those TV ads try to convince you that you do? Everything is a struggle, weight loss, finances, parenting, time management, it is depressing, and the thought of a prescription to take that all away is tempting, but not realistic for the most of us. I decided not to have the most perfectly decorated house on the street, not to spend 100’s on perishable garlands and wreaths, Cleo and I trooped through our woods, cut our own tree, made our own garland and gathered clippings for our mantle and window sills, She told me it was the best Christmas she has ever had! How could I have missed this opportunity in the past? “Baa-hoo doris, Bah-hoo doris, welcome Christmas day is hereeeeeeeee!, (Leave it to those who’s down in whoville!) Where have I been all these years?
Last year Cleo got a horse and I think that is equal to in my day the bike,” how do you top that?” I told her the next best Christmas she will have that compares to that will be the first Christmas in her first home! (And congratulations to everyone this holiday in there new homes) and the first Christmas when her first-born is 2 or 3! (Those were great years too!) this years not so crowed tree was filled of thankfulness and reflection.
Lastly, 10% (I’ve read its more like 25%) of the country is unemployed.
We had a dismal last quarter sales but I’m thankful for the customers we have that are loyal and supportive today as in the past decade, and I was sorry to see some of our oldest (and some new) stores go. (I wish them all the best in their new ventures)
My overall wish for this year is the creation of more Jobs. If this economic downturn has proven anything is that there is no job security. I met this past year, a wonderful woman who told me if anyone told her job and invested stock in the multi-billion dollar investment firm she works for would be gone and worthless, she would never believe it and what she said was the only real thing you can count on is yourself (“Amen!”)
“We will all rise like the phoenix from the ashes and the future will be bright!”
Get out there, put good vibes out into the universe and it will always come back!
“Merry New Year” Mary
Christmas time…..
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” (I guess?) We are soooooo busy, but not as busy as I would like to be. This year is about family and the little things. I saw a special about Christmas in the White House and how the Obama’s remembered this best Christmas gifts ever, I think in my day and age it was the Bike! (It your a mover and shaker it was the bike) Everyone has a story about the best gift ever and almost everyone thinks to their childhood!
My mom loved Christmas, we were from a sort of lean up bringing (really lean) but as kids you really don’t think of how much, just that in August I would have my selection picked out! (in August!) My daughter had a year where she could not think of one thing till Christmas eve and by that time I had it all wrapped-up, only she thought Santa had a hot-line and it was open “Up to the minute” (That was not good.) and I knew something had to change.
Every year since then, we decide what we will give first and what we need later, This year is about all the people close to us and who are most in need .
I told Cleo about the year I got a coat, she said, “You got a coat for Christmas?”, I said, “I needed a coat and what I wanted was not as important as being warm!” Since then she stops and thinks. I don’t think anyone is above losing everything. Look at all those people who invested with Madoff. Who is safe?
Love is the best investment. You always get so much in return!
Start your new babies off with that. Give first and then dream. Don’t be disappointed or discouraged. Babies are the best way to start people!(I don’t remember who said that?) but it is true
Have a Merry, Merry Christmas!
Love everyone close to you and who you meet!
Mary
Thanksgiving
Being Thankful……..
Thanksgiving is not about the turkey around here or that the pilgrims stole the land from the kind native indians.
It’s about all the little things that make us think and be grateful for it all. A warm day, the brillant leaves, family and health. Todays day was spent with our good friends at their BEAUTIFUL New England home where we reminisced about the early days of out kids (now 13 and soon to be 14!) and I spoke about how I would trade 6 babies for the one teenager that I now have!
OK, I really don’t think that way but during the dessert play and it’s un censored content I traveled back to the days of it being a simple and out of tune rendition of the Barney Theme song or jungle-bells!. I guess my point is that time flies and you don’t even remember getting on the plane?
The birth of a child is a course that you can only travel on in one direction with that one child once and never turn back. You will never get it all right, you can only do your best with what you know, you can read all the books and join all the chat room and ask what you think are all the right questions and still at some fork in the road none of it will matter (sure, some of it will be helpful but don’t give-up on your own instinct) “All a baby really needs is you.” was advise I was once given and that is the one that sticks in my head.
So as much as I wanted to ring Cleo’s neck for that performance, I gave her that look that needed no words, the one my mother would give me, I think it’s a thread that runs through us that Cleo may use one day! (She should be so lucky) I think Love is the answer.
And now on to Christmas……. Mary
Mary
