All You Need To Know About Sourcing Baby Gifts
My sister’s baby is now 10 months old and I can honestly say he owns twice as many clothes as I do! For most people, buying gifts for babies is not a duty or a chore, it is a compulsion. Every time my partner and I walk past a shop window and see something cute that we think my nephew would like, we have to buy it!
Having said that, there have been times in the past when buying gifts for babies did cause me some dismay. Trying to find a Christening gift for a friend’s baby was one difficult occasion that springs to mind and another was trying to find a suitable gift for a newborn baby belonging to a relative that I hadn’t seen in years. The problem was that at the time of gifting I wasn’t close enough with the parents to know what was a suitable purchase and what was not. For example, I see my sister every week and so I know the decor of the nursery and therefore I know which products would fit in with this theme and which would clash. Similarly, I know which toys my nephew already owns and the colours and materials of the products that my sister likes him to have. He is also fairly big for his age and so my sister likes his clothes to be the next size up so they last as long as possible
My point is that unless you know those little family details, buying suitable clothes is extremely difficult to get right. Toys, games and books are easier to get right but a lot of people choose this option and so you could easily buy the same thing as someone else without realising it. Furthermore, in my opinion, there is a difference between presents and gifts- a red and yellow plastic race car that plays music and flashes lights as it’s pushed would be great for Christmas but I certainly wouldn’t think it was appropriate for a Christening. In the gift market, especially for Christenings, there is a staggering array of keepsake gifts that are occasion-specific: A silver photo frame with a Christening message engraved on the base for example, or a crystal figurine of a teddy bear. These types of gifts are fine but the good-quality ones do tend to be over-priced. Furthermore, they are not the most original gifts on the market which I feel is important. The images displayed on websites of such products can also be misleading and when the gift arrives, more often than not, you discover that the quality is not as good as it looked on screen. Because many of us shop for these occasions at the last minute, by the time they have arrived it is often too late to get a replacement.
I’m sure you have all bought something in the past that the gift-recipient smiled at and thanked you for, but that you knew deep down wasn’t quite right. It’s a horrible feeling and after a few unsuccessful gifting experiences of my own, I began to dread the whole thing. I decided there must be a better way and this eventually lead me to leave my well-paid career in the music business to develop my own product line and to open my own store. Unlike other retailers that offer gifts for babies, I do not diversify. I have a small, very carefully-selected product range that I selected to solve the problems listed above. My flag-ship product is the key to the business brand and is what I am most proud of. Due to the fact that we are a new business, our products are relatively unknown. Therefore, if you have stumbled across this article, you may just find the little gem that you are looking for. Recently, we have been featured in the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and BBC radio so 2009 may be the year we establish ourselves as a house-hold name. Until then, many of our customers like to think of us as the best kept secret in this niche. Our customers have kept coming back time after time and have nearly all taken the time to send extremely warm letters of gratitude to convey how well the products were received. I find this so rewarding because even when I have been very happy with personal purchases in the past, I have never felt compelled to write a letter of gratitude to the manufacturer!
If you want to know what these products are.. read on!
As a professional musician, singer and award-winning songwriter, I had to cover many miles in the car travelling to different venues. I first came up with the concept for the products when I was driving home from a concert one evening. I was trying to decide what to buy for a friend’s baby when I thought of the perfect product. After trawling the internet for it I discovered that nobody was manufacturing the product of high-enough quality for this demanding market segment- so, I decided I would! The product-development took over a year but in essence, what I decided to do was to write a selection of original Lullabies with carefully tailored lyrics for each baby-gifting occasion. So for example, the Welcome to the World lullaby that was designed for commemorating the birth of a newborn baby, featured a lyrical sentiment of welcoming a new life into the world. I carefully designed the chorus of each song so that it could be personalised with any baby’s first name. The idea being, if the newborn baby was called Bethany then in the chorus the soothing vocalist would sing the lyrics, “Sleep little Bethany, may all your dreams come true. Sleep little Bethany, know that we’re always here for you.”
Once I had written the songs, I located the best design agency I could find and together we produced the perfect packaging concept to compliment the gifts and allow them to be treasured for all the years to come as unique and precious keepsakes.
I am delighted when I hear stories of how well the gifts have been received. Stories such as parents who have played their baby’s personalised lullaby at a Christening ceremony and reduced every guest to tears! Or a new mother that has written in to share how she adores rocking her baby to sleep with her own song playing in the background.
If you would like to find out more about these Personalised Baby Gifts please visit us at www.lullaby-babies.co.uk
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Filed under Kids and Teens | Comment (0)Students Rights Clothing About Kids rights
Teachers are taking things too far. First administers see their selves as parents now they see their selves as god figures. When does life ever become more than what it should be? Rules, policies, and PROSPECTIVES that THEY, enforce amongst US, ONLY! Perhaps the freest country most would say, yet our human rights are totally scarce. Many people back in the day would say there was more freedom. But now as it is, does it frighten you of future freedom?
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allows you the freedom to speak, write, and meet freely with others, also the right to freely express yourself. But there are some limits of expression. 1) Your not allowed to block the entrance of a building to protest. 2) For your own safety you shouldn’t use obscene or “vulgar” language that might be offensive to others. So where does wearing anything on your head come into play as a “no-no”? Thee entire background of taking your head gear off came from back-in-the-day, where as being a ‘gentlemen’, you‘d take off any head gear to show loyalty, almost sounds graceful, now in days that grace is mandatory..so are you setting standards that interfere with my will? What is gentlemen? Who are you to judge, shape, or filter me, and then threaten me to obey what YOU desire me to do? That action alone should get you into a lot of trouble…Wait..Is it that we’re teens? Obviously, threw first hand experience, if an adult wore all of the same color or came into a building with any kind of hat on there wouldn’t be an issue. In our society today I believe there’s just too many people criticizing what you should and should not be doing especially at a young age. It doesn’t even matter of what degree of why it’s tolerated, most of the grief is based upon what the ‘controller’ wants you to ‘to do’. Well, in the low sense of a controller, my buttons are tired and worn out and it’s time for change. You take it how you wanna’ take it but no one should be able to tell me what to do. God said be fruitful, that’s my intention and you can’t manipulate it.
Now, the ‘bandana’ issue. Excuse my slang, bandana is slang, the tern gaining popularity from Outlaw/Hip-Hop/African American culture…oh now we’re serious..Anyway, the proper term for bandana is scarf, not flag, durag, etc, thank you for allowing me to address that because many people are deceived by what something is referred to, just as though many people are deceived by the cover of a book.
To mention, I witness plenty of women wearing things men aren’t allowed to wear, including scarves. Then ironically they say you can wear a headband that is mysterious that a large margin of females wear bands of this description? As Though a bit a slack is being offered to the opposite sex. During a ordinary school day I witness this and teachers don’t say anything..it‘s either they don‘t notice, which is negligence, or they act like they don‘t notice because they’re scared-you know what I mean, or they‘re totally cool with..they wear thee exact things that I could be wearing; caps, scarves, hats, etc…It angers me, and it offends me. I Believe it is an act of sexism, I’ve been going threw this for a large margin of my life and things must change.
I Have first period Physical Science with Mrs. Houdek in room 207, Central High School Saint Paul, MN. Recently I walked into class with a scarf on. Before I sat down I noticed a female was also wearing a scarf which exceeded the wack standard of 2in’.. Spontaneously, I was asked to approach Mrs. Houdek’s desk, she asked, “Do you know why I asked you to come over here for?” grinning…I Said, “Yes” and pointed at my scarf like ‘who didn’t know’. She said, “Yes, so take it off.” We then went into an entire confrontation of my rights. Some students wanted to back me up, they thought my points were meaningful. I Said, “What about her?” The teacher says, “Well that’s the ‘look’, maybe she doesn’t have ‘her’ ‘hair’ ‘done’ .” ..Soooo-is it about affection? ..Do you not show the same to the opposite sex? Do I not have hair? Do I not have a ‘look’? Does being a gentlewomen exist? And about these standards of HUMANITY, what the hell kind of culture do YOU think I’m apart of ???
She then gave me what I believed was phony talk saying, “Well you should talk to the office about it” as though she supported the cause. Sadly, all I felt was that she just wanted me out her room…
The next day during first period I was in the office having continuous conversations without true clarification about this issue, just a simple waste of my presents. The girl that wore her scarf the day before came into advisory still wearing it. I Asked, “Did you wear that all day without anyone saying anything to you?” She said, “Yeah”, smiling. “Did Ms. Houdek have a problem with it?”, I said. “No”, she said, now laughing. So here I am abiding by their ironic policy, yet where do I go wrong? At birth, if I’m not mistaken. If I am, please explain what you haven’t already explained. The answer is not what you want me to be which is a gentlemen. How would you feel if I were to say, “coming to work without those high heels would be you less trampy of you, be a gentlewomen, I advise you to take them off, NOW, for YOUR own safety, ever hear of sexual harassment? Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes, according to the U.S. Department Of Justice. 60% of women are harassed on a daily basis. Oh yes, and heels may be very distractive, in many ways, anything could be as long as you allow it to be, such as hair, make up, clothing, natural appearance, jewelry, CULTURE..etc… Yet it seems like the adults in todays world are the up most bitchiest, snootiest, immature, pet peeved bastards…
This isn’t the only problem many of us endure on a daily basis..So this isn’t all you shall hear from me, Mr. Jerral Le’Ron Carlsen. For this issue specifically it’s either all or nothing…You know..for the large majority of women that come to school with a scarf on, you have to understand that it is apart of them, which you already may, but be sure to do the same for us all. Show liberty..show respect…Again, it’s either all or nothing, strictly, and theoretically..If someone were to have a bad hair day of what ever degree of how bad it was to THEM, that would cause the notion of no one deciding weather or not I can wear it, because that’s how it should be, with anything, even hats, no one shouldn’t even have to excuse it with the ‘bad hair day’ statement, it should be entirely up to that person. Weather it’s a cancer victim, or a barber victim, you can’t differ from which is more personal or acceptable. EVERYTHING IS LIFE DOESN’T HAVE TO HAVE REASONING, SO TO MENTION, STOP INVESTIGATING THE UNIVERSE!…But think if the policy were to be strictly forbidden, think of the increase of complaints..think of how much of a distraction it would be if people of the norm were to disobey the ‘rule’.Think of the chaos. The embarrassment and HUMILIATION you’d have to ANTICIPATE before the teacher finally tells you to take it off.
Let us be..let us live…let us be…
Jerral Carlsen
1/15/09
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