When I first saw Green Lullaby’s doll cradle and block style storage boxes I was sure they were made of wood.  They looked so sturdy and classically designed.  That is all true too.  Yet each Green Lullaby product is made of corrugated cardboard.  Light, easy to assemble and Eco-friendly too Green Lullaby has created a whole line of  100% natural products.

The real rocking doll cradle is completely portable, easy to assemble and even has a carrying case to tote it with you to different places and spaces like grandma’s house. The pink and green floral design is sweet and guaranteed to please with its included doll mattress.  Even better is Green Lullaby’s unisex MultiBox, a 3-in-1 storage box, seat and learning tool.  Styled like those classic wooden blocks we all had as kids these corrugated cardboard boxes are perfect for play rooms, bedrooms and even outdoor play spaces.  Each box is recyclable and fire-retardant.  I love how each box has a cover and hand slots for toting around.  The numbers, letters and bright colors will inspire and teach your children during their hours of play.

Green Lullaby products are available at Oompa toys, Abe’s Market and Giggle.com.  Check out their portable cradle and kid-sized desk and chair too.  You won’t believe they’re  cardboard either.

The company prides itself on offering superb bath products that also give back to their local community by supporting the agrarian lifestyle that has been in effect for over 270 years.  Many of Grubby Girl products are made from beeswax, honey or herbs collected from the county’s pastoral fields.  The company has its own hives and the queenbees- Martha, Jackie and Denise, to name a few, are hard at work creating the supple, soft wax for your lip balm, soaps and more.

I love how in a flash you can create a darling gift sets, like their ‘Washin’ Up Bucket’ filled with fine-milled soaps, freshly made exfoliating body scrub, bath salts and a full bottle of moisturizing, soothing bath oil. You pick the scents and voila! The basket is created and its price won’t break your bank.  Grubby Girl products are scented with natural notes like honeysuckle, rosemary, lavender, sage, coffee, and oranges.

If you need soothing, a wake-up call, or a gift this holiday season then Grubby Girl will do just the trick!

The matching bell-shaped linen lampshade compliments the round and casual-style durable plastic docking station.  The sleek desk lamp’s design has a 6-watt output speaker system with a hidden volume control dial.  The dock is universal for easy iPod connection and other auxillory audio devices and mp3 players will work with the Candy iPod lamp too.  It is perfect for a bedroom, dorm room, living room or any place where you want to combine style, sound and need to save some space.

The iHome Candy iPod Lamp is a great affordable ($60-100) gift idea for all ages and can be found at Lillian Vernon, Target, Walmart and other stores nationwide.

From our friends at Mommy Insider

I think it’s a great idea to let your child design their own monster but if you are giving one as a gift, I’m sure just about any design will be appreciated! CurlyQ Cuties are great for any age. My 3 and 10 year old both love their CurlyQ Cuties Made-to-Order Monster.

Madelyn named her CurlyQ Cutie Made-to-Order Monster Noodles.

Where to buy: CurlyQ Cuties
How much is it? $25+

From our friends at The Mommy Insider ]]> http://blog.thefind.com/2009/11/curlyq-cuties-made-to-order-monsters/feed/ 0 http://blog.thefind.com/2009/11/gingerbread-house-kits-are-cost-time-efficient/ http://blog.thefind.com/2009/11/gingerbread-house-kits-are-cost-time-efficient/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:56:32 +0000 Holly http://blog.thefind.com/?p=8999

Building a gingerbread house is a great family tradition.  Assembling and decorating a house made of cookies and candy is a fun project to do with children during the holiday season.  It’s something your children will look forward to each year.  While you could bake your own from scratch, pre-made kits are widely available and cost efficient.  The kit pictured here from Williams Sonoma contains a building tray, gingerbread pieces for house, tree and snowman, green and white icing “glue” and candy decorations including gummy trees, red and green pearls, multicolored gumdrops, large red, green and white jelly beans, mini candy canes and starlight mints.  Purchasing each of these items individually and baking from scratch would be very time consuming and likely cost far more than the price of a kit.

The holidays are a very busy time for everyone but it’s important to carve out some time to slow down and enjoy the season with your children.  Having a gingerbread kit makes it easy to pull out and get to work on your masterpiece when you have a few spare moments.

If there is one thing that I have noticed over the years as a nanny and then a mother is that if there is one toy that gets played with, it’s a kitchen.  Boys and girls alike are drawn to the imaginative play that goes along with play kitchens.  Pretending to cook a meal, wash dishes and put groceries away allows children to imitate their parents and learn valuable skills.  A play kitchen isn’t complete without:

• Dishes
• Pretend food
• A shopping cart
• A cash register (for the pretend grocery store!)

Purchasing all of these items may not be cheap, but trust me, they will get played with.  This type of toy is suitable for a large age range and will last for years to come.

Seagate has made a brilliant companion to the FreeAgent Go called DockStar that enables you to access the files on your FreeAgent Go from anywhere!  You will be able to access the content stored on your hard drive from anywhere via a website. From this site you can:

• Share drives and directories
• Manage content on your drives
• Rename attached drives
• Remove drives safely
• Publish updates to RSS feeds and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace
• Download your client application so that your DockStar will appear as a drive letter on your system

Do you spend hours uploading pictures to photo sharing sites to share with friends and family? With DockStar you don’t have to! You can upload, download, copy and share with just a click! The “share” feature is my favorite. You can grant access to specific file folders to one or multiple people with just an email address. A note can be sent to alert the user that you are sharing with along with a link for them to instantly view and browse the content that you’ve selected to share.  Then, if you grant them “write” permission, they can add files to the folder as well.  This is perfect for kid’s birthday parties.  I am often very busy at my own children’s parties and don’t take nearly as many pictures as I would like.  Friends and family always help out but it’s hard to gather the pictures from them.  Not anymore!  DockStar makes it a piece of cake!

According to Anxiety Disorders Association America and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder facing children today and 70% of school age children say that they worry. Lori Lite has created a line of books and CD’s to help teach children how to cope with relaxation and stress management techniques.

From anger management to boosting self-esteem, Lori Lite’s books and CD’s are great tools for teaching our children how to handle stress in positive ways.  Children ages 6 through 12 can benefit from these products which range in price from $9-$16.

New parents know the pleasure (or pain) of constantly dealing with dirty diapers. What better way to keep your babies legs warm and toasty while keeping their bum accessible than with these Agoo Bamboo Leg Huggers.

These ultra cute leg huggers are 13 inches long and have 1″ knitted elastic ribbing on each end to keep them in place. It’s also made out of bamboo, an earth-friendly sustainable material, that’s moisture-wicking, odor-resistant, and naturally anti-bacterial.

There’s tons of patterns and colors so you can easily mix ‘n match.

From our friends at Green Shopaholic