What are boys into? Sports and trains apparently! Our sports theme has been especially popular lately, along with the custom team personalization. These custom step stools make the perfect gifts, and I’m sure all these little guys will grow up to become #1 fans.  

USC stool

Dallas Cowboys Stool

Boston Red Sox Stool

Choo Choo Train Stool

Washington Redskins Stool

Have a little rookie that you want to mold into your team’s future #1 fan? I recently connected with an old friend (thanks Facebook!) who happens to live in the DC area now. Turns out she also needed a baby gift. What better time of year, and personalization than to not only give a stool with his name, but also theme it out with their parents favorite team, the Washington Redskins! I turned this around and shipped it out for her in about a week. So don’t worry all you Dallas, San Francisco and all-over-the-country NFL fans.. You can get your own stool too, without having to even pick it up on the east coast.

August is otherwise referred to as “lil monkey” so it was obvious what to paint on here step stool! Another custom-job complete… 

Tiny little Samantha has a tiny little room.. the perfect fit for such a space, rather then paint all 4 walls, is to paint something solo on just one wall. Here I painted a tree above the bed, matching some of the light brown and pale green accents in her room. I also brought in the tiniest touch of yellow to highlight the tree, with butterflies. One great reason this idea works so well is, since you shouldn’t hang anything above the crib (for safety sake), this adds a friendly & safe alternative rather than a blank wall. It completes the space, and the smile on her face shows how much she likes it! (I hope!!)

Recently I did 3 new jobs – all for little girls who love pink. Beyond that, both of my customers ordering the stools, had chosen the exact same design. I dug out my dark and light pinks (luckily having enough) and got to work! The first Princess/Castle designs have begun..

Kiddie Designs participated for the first time in the International Pre School’s Spring Auction Event, held in NYC. The event was in May, and we auctioned-off a mural, to be painted in the winning bidder’s home. Little did he know, 5-year-old Ben Schiffer’s dream of an under-the-sea themed room would soon become a reality. His parents won the auction, and 2 months later, I painted it. From the minute I met Ben at our consultation, I could tell he had such a passion for fish. I allowed him to have input, in all the different kinds of fish he wanted, and he went on with excitement talking about what he’d like to see. I kept that in mind when creating this mural, while sticking within the limits of his parents plan. It came together beautifully and I’m sure he will soon have many dreams at night, of being under the sea.

While I work for Kiddie Designs, I also have a full-time graphic design job in NYC… Busy? Yes. And of all things, there just so happens to be a lot of pregnant women right now in our office. We had a shower for a co-worker Kristin, who’s expecting a boy, Austin. I was hired to paint the little stool with the teddy bear, to match her coloring (browns, beige, blue). Which, I did and it turned out to be a hit. Such a hit that another co-worker, Nicole, who’s due in August, placed an order for her little guy. What a nice surprise! I designed a choo-choo train in green and blue, for her soon-to-be born son Jacob. Just goes to show, one thing sometimes really does lead to another!

Does Mommy Love it? I hope so! This helpful little mommy blog written by Cece Hekman is quite fabulous, I must say. Her blog speaks about all types of baby products, gifts, and all sorts of neat stuff, that she tests out and says whether she loves, hates, and everything in between. She recently contacted me about Kiddie Designs products (decals, and mural services) to write on the blog. I of course jumped at the opportunity, and went up and painted her a “sample” of my murals. Her 9-month-old son Henry’s bedding is polka-dots, so I carried the elements from that and the rest of his room, into a simple little design above his crib. It definitely added something fun for him to peek up at, and hopefully Henry will enjoy it. He certainly was enjoying all the other products that his mommy has been collecting, so I was glad to add to the collection! Hopefully more readers will hear about Kiddie Designs through the blog. Check it out at http://www.doesmommyloveit.com

After painting Jake’s airplane room.. I got a job for another little Jake. This time it was for a sports-themed step stool. My parents are at the age where they’re friends are all starting to become grandparents… and what better gift?! Their long-time friends, the Gershenhorn’s (I painted 2 stools for their grandkids, Sammy and Ava) hired me to paint a stool as a gift. It just so happens that the family who this stool was going to, lives right in Hoboken. So I offered to deliver it myself, and added a little card saying it was from them. It worked out great, and if anyone else out there wants to give Kiddie Designs gifts to people in Hoboken, I can absolutely deliver it for you and throw on the card! Easy for you, easy for me!

Since Jake moved into his “big boy” airplane room, I went back to the Alvarez family’s home again in Fairfield, NJ to transform his old room into a Japanese garden for baby sister Mikayla. What a difference paint makes! The room went from solid green walls and a border to a full-on scene filled with cherry blossoms and bamboo. This mural took me a full day to complete. Mirelis dressed up the rest of the room with pink, brown and green bedding and items to bring out the decor. This was an especially fun project, as it included painting all four walls in the room, shelving, and was my first Japanese garden theme!