I’m one of those moms who can’t bear to see certain things go after my kids grow out of them.  Isaac’s first tiny booties.  Emma’s sweet classic Pooh bib with the ruffle.  Some of our favorite onesies and baby blankets.  There are some things that are irreplaceable, you know?  You have pictures, but being able to touch them really brings the memories flooding back.

For a long time, I’ve been planning on making Emma a quilt with her old baby clothes… but I’ve never made a quilt before and didn’t want to practice on those items.  So I turned to a company that makes professional quilts, Campus Quilt Company.  And I am SO glad I did!  But before we get to the great reveal (I’m so excited to show you!), I want to show you the process, and how easy it was to have done.

This is the kit they sent me:

The kit includes:

• A bag to mail all your quilt pieces (t-shirts, baby clothes, whatever you wish) to them in
• A prepaid label
• Detailed instructions with diagrams and pictures
• A form to fill out describing how you want your quilt to look
• Samples of the fabrics you have to choose from for the backing and binding

You have the option of designing your quilt completely yourself, down to where you want each piece you send in to be placed on the quilt (that’s what the sticker numbers are for), OR you can have their amazing designers do it for you.  That’s what I chose to do – have them design it for me – since I had already cut my onesies down to squares and rectangles.  I had no idea how I wanted it to look or what would be the best way to do it, I just knew I wanted them in a quilt.  I did throw an idea out, though, and suggested they put the squares in groups of four with white binding around each square.  Then I carefully put my precious onesies, a bib, and some super soft minky fabric I wanted in the quilt as well into the bag and dropped it off at a FedEx dropbox.  So. Easy!

Over the next month, I received updates via email letting me know that the quilt was being made and where it was in the process.  A designer emailed me at one point, too, telling me that they had some extra space to fill and I could choose the color and material to be used.  They were awesome!  Finally, I received the email letting me know that my quilt was on the way.  *Note that it normally takes about two weeks, but because I ordered mine over the Christmas holidays, it took longer.* 

One day, I received THIS in the mail:

Eeeee, so gorgeous – I couldn’t be more pleased with the result!  This quilt is so beautiful, and so special – I love it!  The flannel backing is really soft and pretty, and everything looks so pretty.  It is a true quilt, with batting inside and everything.  I can feel that the materials used are high quality, and the quilt is made so well!  It’s not going to fall apart for a LONG time, let me tell you that.

I love the way they incorporated the bib and Pooh mittens that went over her tiny hands!

Emma really loves her new special quilt, too.  She likes to go over each piece and really look at the details, then look through her baby album and find the onesies she wore.  She won’t go to sleep at night without it now!

I really could not be more thrilled with this quilt.  And now I know for sure I want to save up and do the same thing with Isaac’s baby clothes in the future!  And yes, I am saving them all.  It is going to be one spectacular quilt.  ;-)

Want to have a quilt made at Campus Quilt Company?

Campus Quilt Company makes T-Shirt Quilts, Baby Clothes Quilts, Photo Quilts, and even T-Shirt pillows!  They make them in all sizes, and what you receive is truly quilted!  Apparently not everyone who promises a t-shirt quilt actually quilts it.  Campus Quilt Company DOES.  Check out their FAQs for more information!

Here’s another cool variation of their baby quilts:

Yep, that’s right, they can stitch anything to the quilt that they can get a needle through! :)

See more examples of their quilts here. (I personally think mine is the prettiest!)

I would like to thank Campus Quilt Company for making me a quilt with my daughter’s baby clothes that I will treasure ALWAYS!  I was not charged for this – I was only expected to share my experience with you.  :) 

Emma and I did something really fun last week.  We designed our own stuffed toy!  Thanks to Happy Toy Machine, we were given the ability to make any kind of toy be it animal, humanoid, monster, or robot.  You can make virtually anything with this super cool “toy machine” that lets you customize head shape, body parts, eyes, ears, and colors.  you can even add a tail or wings!  There’s also the ability to add an embroidered emblem or text.  Oh, the possibilities!  Here’s what Emma and I came up with:

We made two different characters before this, but the monkey won out in the end.  Isn’t he cute?  And we just had to add that little basketball emblem.  Emma’s daddy plays basketball and she loves playing with him.  I’m also always calling Emma my little monkey so I think this guy will fit in pretty well here.

- Designing your toy online is a blast, and you can save as many different characters as you want.
- Your child can save their designs and share them with friends!
- All embellishments are embroidered on, not glued or snapped on.  Totally baby-safe!
- All materials used are certified non-toxic.
- All pricing is the same no matter how many features or extra embroidery you add to your doll.
- The resulting stuffed animals are made of super soft fleece and are just like your design!

Room for Improvement?

- Some of the design options are limited.  I would like to be able to make everything a different color – it’s pretty uniform in that both arms are always the same color, both legs, etc.

Video – Opening of Emma’s Monkey:

I’m really happy with the way our design translated into the toy we received.  I wasn’t sure it would be worth the price at first, but if you consider the fact that you’re getting the opportunity to design your own toy and that it is made of non-toxic, soft materials, well, I think it’s worth it.  :)  I also like that all embroidery and customization is included in the original price, so you can make it very personalized.

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Visit www.happytoymachine.com to create your own custom stuffed toy!

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I’ll admit I was skeptical about this craze when I first heard about it.  Fashionable jewelry that doubles as a teether for your baby?  Is it really something that would benefit both mom and baby, or is it a money-making scheme?  I wasn’t sure, so I decided to test it out myself.  And thanks to Smart Mom Jewelry, I was able to try the most popular brand on the market, Smart Mom Jewelry’s Teething Bling!

Let’s start with the packaging.

Teething Bling’s presentation is beautiful, as you can see in the photo above.  The pendant is made to look like stone.  The first thing you note when taking it out is that it is made of a smooth, mildly flexible material – not rock-hard like it appears to be.  The necklace part is a cording that is strong and soft.  For safety reasons the clasp is breakaway (the clasp will come apart with a certain amount of pressure).

Fact:  All Teething Bling is made of non-toxic FDA-approved pthalate-, PVC-, latex-, and lead-free silicone.

As far as style goes, Teething Bling has a variety of different pendant colors and patterns to choose from, and they’re all very attractive. You can go for shimmery, psychedelic, a guitar pick type shape, solid shades, or patterns like zebra stripes.  There’s something for everyone!

The cording length is long so that the pendant ends up lying somewhere around your stomach, but you can knot it up so it is more of a choker-type length.  Doesn’t it look great?

So we know now that the pendants are cute, stylish, and safe.  Are they practical?

I’ve decided that they are.  First, they’re a great plaything for your baby and can be distracting while you’re out on the town or sitting for long periods of time.  No, I’m not promising it’s going to distract and entertain your baby for hours on end, but it is an intriguing object to any child.  Kids always love to play with jewelry – I think having it be something of mom’s makes it that much more fun to touch. Teething Bling is also nice for nursing moms who are tired of having their hair grabbed (this I know from experience).  Isaac likes to play with this necklace while he’s nursing.

The size of the pendant is large enough that my 11-month-old son can get a good grip while he chews the soft, cool silicone.  Now these necklaces aren’t intended to be given to babies as teething toys, and certainly not with the cording attached – they’re meant to be worn around mom’s neck and chewed on under mommy supervision.  But you will find bangles, or large wrist-sized rings that can be given to baby to play with – they look like they would be great teething toys, and double as bracelets.

Final Thoughts: The only negative I can think of is that once teeth come in, the teething pendants can start looking like a doggie toy (i.e. chew marks).  I personally don’t mind this – after all, it is a pendant especially for baby to teethe on, right?  However, it’s not prone to marks, either.  A baby will have to be gnawing pretty hard to put tooth marks on it.  Isaac has chewed on my pendant with his four very sharp teeth and there are no marks on mine yet, but I do have a friend whose Teething Bling has evidence of being chewed on over time. I don’t consider this a con, and it certainly wouldn’t dissuade me from buying.

Overall, I found the Smart Mom Jewelry Teething Bling pendant I received to be a great product and recommend it!  I really love mine.  :)  I think their jewelry is a terrific baby shower gift idea because it’s something cute that moms can wear right away, and it’s something for them for a change!

All pendants start at $19.99, and you can find replacement cords with breakaway clasps for less than $2.00 in their store.

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Leaving a blog post comment is mandatory.
After that, you can tweet the giveaway for extra daily entries.  :) 

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Disclosure: I was provided with a Teething Bling pendant at no cost in order to share my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are 100% mine.