BuggaLove Recommends - Mama's Little Helper

I haven't done an edition of BuggaLove Recommends in a very long time! So here it is! Mama's Little Helper is a great site for PA moms who are in and around Bucks county!  Christina Glen, a Richboro, PA mother of one has launched Mama's Little Helper, a reference for Bucks County Moms, to help moms in and around Bucks County, PA by providing a much needed resource of places to play, classes to take, story times, consignment sales/stores, calendar listings, local events, holiday features, coupons and a blog of need to know information.

"The inspiration for Mama's Little Helper came from my experience as a new mother to my daughter Jenna," said Christina. "When I was a new mom, I had a hard time looking for activities and places to take my child. I decided to design a resource in the form of a website that would help moms to access all of the resources available to them and their child with a click of their mouse!"


Mama's Little Helper is easy to navigate and is updated daily. Pages and features include a calendar, newsletter, classes, coupons, indoor/outdoor play, blog, story times, free activities and helpful parenting articles.  Mama's Little Helper reaches working moms, stay-at-home moms, nannies, parents, grandparents and any child care provider looking for something to do in and around Bucks County. Hope you'll check it out!

BuggaLove Recommends - Holiday Edition 2008

Last year, my kids had a Handmade Holiday.  Really, we just bought them one big gift and a few stocking stuffers. The BIG gift was their kitchen set. Which I then finished myself to match our living room. We got it from Willow Toys. The quality and craftsmanship are superb. I can say a year later that this set is going to last us for many years to come despite the fact that my kids play with it daily and they're not always gentle.  These toys also come with a lifetime guarantee. I consider them an investment. We got them the oven and refrigerator. There is plenty of storage space for all the kitchen accessories.

Every kitchen needs play food! I found a couple of wonderful Etsy shops to fit the bill. Their felt and cotton creations have more than held up to being cooked with by my two chefs for almost a year now and look as good as new. The first seller I'd like to introduce you to is BugBitesPlayFood who made our vegetable set. But beyond fruits and vegetables, this seller offers an amazing and creative variety of food items for your child to play with.

The fruits we purchased were equally fabulous. Made of felt and cotton, these fruits are colorful and very well made. We bought these from aebaby on Etsy. AeBaby not only offers these fun food creations but sells the most adorable I Spy bags and Loveys too!

Lastly, when we finished the kitchen set, I used a magnetic paint on the refirgerator door. I wanted to have letters to stick on it, just like a real refrigerator. But down with the plastic letters! I found these letters made from felt by MiChiMa on Etsy. You can get letters, numbers, names, uppercase, lowercase, you name it! These have held up well and were very colorful! The perfect finishing touch to our new kitchen!

Yes, I realize that this is the 2008 edition! Sadly, we didn't do much of a Handmade Holiday this year. And those items we DID  buy handmade I can't show you yet, lest the recipeint be a BuggaBlog Reader.  BUT there was ONE item we had custom made for our Buggas. I'd like to introduce you to CurlyQCuties. The most adorable custom monsters in the world! We bought one for each bugga to stick in their stockings. They came faster then I expected and are very well made. When I asked my 3 year old what to get her brother for Christmas yesterday, she told me a monster. I think I found the perfect thing to fit the bill! This monster isn't the one I got for him, but it was too cute not to show you.

Hope you enjoyed the BuggaLove Recommends Holiday Edition! Happy T-giving everyone!

New Look for the BuggaLove website!

It's almost complete! All of the major features are up, I just have a few headers to change from the old design...so take a look!

http://www.buggalove.com

I worked with Angelic Touch Designs on this project. This husband and wife team worked tirelessly to help me realize the vision I had for my site. My favorite feature are the links to Twitter, Facebook, and my blog at the top. I thought their implementation of that feature combined with my bugs was really smart. I highly recommend Mark and Jennie for your web template design. In addition to their web templates, they also do templates for wordpress, business card design, twitter, and more. I will probably be contacting them again for design projects in the future.

Other happenings in the BuggaLove World: My new newsletter will be rolling out at the end of the month. Contact me to sign up! Also, Halloween bodysuits on sale! I must clear them out by Halloween. They are 50% off!! Great deal!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

BuggaLove Recommends....

I am thinking that every once in awhile, I'll have a post about things I recommend. This will be the first in that series. I have a small obsession with baby feet. Ok, it's not so much baby feet as much as what goes on them. A very good friend of mine is always bemused with my matching socks for every little outfit. When my daughter first starting wearing shoes, I bought more pairs than she could ever wear. Of course, at that time, I had no idea the extent of the handmade options available to me. Only one pair of her shoes was handmade, the rest were Robeez. If only I had known then what I know now! This from a woman who before having her own children thought that shoes on babies were unnecessary and ridiculous. Of course, I didn't go as far as these baby high heels, which I still contend are unnecessary and ridiculous.

With my son, now only 6 months old, I was completely entrenched in handmade. And as such, I looked to fill my obsession with new baby shoes. I was so disappointed that there were more boy options. The girl options seemed so endless! But I was determined to find the perfect little shoe. That's when I found these by BabyBugShoeDesigns. They come in several design styles and all the colors in the rainbow. So many wonderful choices!

I bought him a little brown pair and a pair of argyle shoes. These shoes are FABULOUS. They stay on little feet, they can be machine washed and dried, they are made of the softest material (an Ultrasuede), and the craftsmanship is excellent. I absolutely loved them. This week, the time came that he outgrew these itty bitty shoes. As I sadly packed them away, I just had to go back for more. I bought him the same pair of brown ones again (they're just so perfect for almost every outfit!) but I also got him an "athletic" pair. All those little sweatsuits and hoodie outfits would be totally incomplete without these on his feet!

I was VERY torn about getting a pair of personalized ones with his initial on them. In the end, I decided against it. But I'm sure that when he outgrows these, I'll be back for more! I hope you'll visit BabyBugShoeDesign for your babies shoes!