If you’re on the hunt for some personalized baby gifts, we’re always happy to help! And today we’re offering some ideas for personalized onesies which were created by our awesome Creative Director Hillary, with a dose of design inspiration and mommyhood reality thrown in.
In general, where do you find design inspiration?
I find design inspiration everywhere….cereal boxes, magazines, Children’s books, hiking in the mountains, television commercials, blogs, Pinterest, Target, clothing…. I love looking at the world around me. I have 2 little girls and they have taught me to look at things at a different angle…which is fun and gives me a new perspective as well.
You designed the Charming Hello, Modern Name, and Playful Hello personalized onesies. What was your inspiration for each design or what do you like most about it?
Charming Hello: This chalk trend is everywhere. I love putting my own twist on a fun trend.
Modern name: This design was a lot of fun to create. I love that it reads vertically and has a lot of impact.
Playful Hello: I LOVE the hand lettering here. This design is so simple, but has so much personality.
What’s a typical day like, how do you juggle designing, finding inspiration, and being a parent?
There is no typical day. Every day is an adventure….balancing/juggling work/life I am still trying to master this. I have a 3 year old girl, 9 month old girl, Chihuahua and a husband with an online shop. We have a nanny come in during the week so we can get our work done and our kids don’t just watch TV and eat cheerios all day long.
What ideas/designs/fonts are you working on developing now?
We are just finishing up our Christmas Card collection for Shutterfly. It’s always interesting to be working on Christmas cards not during the holiday season.
Thanks Hill! We know you’re a busy working mama, so we’ll let you get back to designing more adorable personalized baby gifts now.
Martha Stewart’s Outdoor Kids Party Ideas
Summer birthdays call for outdoor parties. And when looking for ideas for fun 1st birthday party themes, you pretty much can’t go wrong turning to the entertaining guru, Martha Stewart. We found a roundup of 11 amazing outdoor party ideas here and picked a few of our favorites to share. And of course, if our kiddos attended any of these parties, we’d be sure to gift the birthday boy or girl with personalized baby gifts that matched the color and/or theme of the party.
A carnival theme offers plenty of ideas for games, as well as colorful décor. We’d gift the guest of honor with either the Balloon or Happy Confetti 1 Birthday Shirts.
Fiestas are pure fun, plus who doesn’t love a piñata full of candy?! The Party One and Happy To Be 1 Birthday Shirts are also muy bueno and you can even personalize them in another language too.
Nothing says outdoors than a Flower Power balloon party in the garden. Balloon Bouquet Monogram or Flutter By personalized onesies with a tutu make festive, customized personalized baby gifts for this party idea.
For the boys (or girls) of summer, a baseball themed birthday party is ideal. Sports themed personalized growth charts, like the Perfect Pennant or Junior Varsity, are gifts that will be used (and loved) for years.
To get more celebratory inspiration, click here to see the other awesome outdoor party ideas from Martha Stewart. And don’t forget to give personalized baby gifts that complement the party theme.
What We Love Now: Bold Printed Personalized Baby Gifts
One of the big trends in fashion and home décor right now is bold prints and honestly, we aren’t surprised. We’re big fans of vibrant, bold designs and like to utilize them in our line of personalized baby giftsas much as we can. We’ve chosen five of our favorite bold printed designs here:
- Striped Monogram and All Mixed Up personalized onesies
- Sprinkled Flowers personalized growth chart
- Chic Chevron and 1Birthday Shirts
- Doodle Delight alphabet poster
- Color It Up Big Brother T shirt
From personalized growth charts to tees and onesies, which of these bold printed personalized baby gifts do you prefer?
Get Inspired!: Safari Themed Décor
Last week we posted about safari themed personalized baby gifts (here) and promised a décor post to help inspire you to get the look. Well, here it is! We’ve rounded up some super cute safari animal inspired nurseries and chose some of our personalized growth charts that would make the rooms even more adorable.
Animal print décor, as well as a mix of stuffed animals and wall decals, pull together the safari theme in this sophisticated warm brown and pale chartreuse green nursery. The Animal Crackers personalized growth chart would accent this room perfectly! (Janey Mac)
We love how chic, yet whimsical this blue and green safari nursery is, and would choose the Zoo Friends personalized growth chart to soften up the look in the room’s very geometric design. (Project Nursery)
This nursery’s design is a less literal version of a safari theme, but it has a colorful, fun vibe with jungle animal accents that will easily take it from baby room to kid’s room. The equally creative Doodle It Up personalized growth chart would only add to the quirky cool room. (La Dolce Vita)
The Growing Giraffes personalized growth chart makes a great complement to this nursery decorated with pops of bright colors and wild animal themed wall art and knick knacks. (On to
Baby)
The safari theme offers a wide range of style options, which of these nurseries and personalized growth charts fits your style?
Petite Lemon Presents: Monthly Baby Belly Bump Stickers
Whether it’s measuring our kids with personalized growth charts or using DIY onesies to mark each month of our new baby’s life, we love to record as many milestones as we can. That’s why we’ve created these adorable Belly Bump Stickers so you can start measuring your pregnancy from the beginning and take photos along the way.
(Download our free monthly baby bump stickers (here)
Our free PDF download includes all three color sets — pink, blue, and yellow! As well as our printing instructions sheet.
Print these out for yourself or bundle them with a gift card for a personalized growth chart or onesie for a super sweet customized gift set to give to a friend or family member as soon as they announce a wee one is on the way.
(Shown: Zoo Friends and Sprinkled Flowers personalized growth charts; Best Dad, Modern Name, Hearts personalized onesies)
Top Boys Names of 2013
It might seem like a silly thing to get excited about, but as designers of personalized baby giftswe kind of can’t help it, we LOVE when the Social Security Administration announces the top names of the year. For the last several years there hasn’t been a whole lot of change when it came to the top 5 names for boys and girls, but 2013 was a real game changer for boys. For the first time in decades, neither Jacob nor Michael were the most commonly chosen names for boys – in 2013, Noah grabbed the top spot.
If you have a Noah or know someone who recently had one, we think personalized baby gifts with an animal theme would be perfect for boys with this Biblical name most often associated with the man with the ark.
(Shown: Merry Menagerie Big Brother T shirt, Whale of Fun Big Brother T shirt, Joyful Elephant, Gentle Giraffe, and Sweet Fox personalized onesies; Playful Owls Big Brother T shirt)
Two other big movers on the list were Liam up to #2 from #10 and Daniel made it into the top 10 at #10, surprisingly knocking the super popular Aiden out of the top 10 altogether.
Daniel is popular around the globe, currently #1 in Spain, so the Around the World Big Brother T shirt would make a great option.
Green-colored personalized baby gifts are fitting for boys with the Irish name Liam, which can also be a nickname for William (which happens to be #5 on the list!). (Shown: Stamped Delight and Beep Beep personalized onesies)
Are you buying a big brother t shirt or other personalized baby gifts for boys with a top 10 name, like Jacob, Mason, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, or Jayden?
5 Big Brother Gift Ideas
Yesterday we put together a list of ideas of custom personalized baby gifts for girls, pairing big sister shirts with gifts inspired by a child’s favorite hobby or activity to help the transition smooth when welcoming a new baby into the family. This week, we do the same for boys withpersonalized baby giftssets that include big brother shirts.
Here are 5 big brother gift ideas:
- The budding architect will love the Skyline Big Brother T shirt and an erector set.
- A dump truck and the Under Construction Big Brother T shirt is perfect for the truck lover with a new little bro.
- Get his comic book collection started with one or two comics and the Super Big Brother T shirt.
- The Batter Up Big Brother T shirt and a baseball hat with his (or your) fave MLB or college team logo is ideal for little sluggers.
- Choose a classic board game (CandyLand, Shoots & Ladders, etc) to pair with the Kids Play Big Brother T shirt.
We hope these 5 gift sets with big brother shirts, as well as yesterday’s sets withbig sister shirtshelp inspire fun ways to make siblings excited for their new role in the family.
5 Big Sister Gift Ideas
Getting ready to welcome a new baby into the family? Creating custom sets with personalized baby gifts, likebig sister shirtsorbig brother shirts, inspired by a child’s favorite hobby or activity makes a great way to smooth the transition for a wee one unsure of how the new baby will change things.
Here are 5 big sister gift ideas:
- For animal lovers, choose the Merry Menagerie Big Sister Tshirt and a stuffed version of their favorite furry friend to cuddle.
- The Charming Castle or Looks Like Me Princess big sister shirtsalong with a DVD of Frozen, Tangled, etc is ideal for little princesses.
- Garden tools and a Blooms Big Sister Tshirt is perfect for the mini gardener.
- The crafty girl will love the Stamped Style or Stitched Style big sister shirts and some arts & crafts supplies.
- The little baker will want to spend more time in the kitchen in her Sweet Treats Big Sister Tshirt and her own utensils for mixing, stirring, etc.
Later this week we’ll offer 5 gift sets with big brother shirts.
Pregnancy Announcement Ideas
We love hearing about new and interesting ways mamas are announcing their pregnancies, as well as birth details. With Facebook and Instagram, it seems like people are getting more and more creative – and we love it! Parents Magazine recently offered several cool ideas, click here to read, and their Facebook followers offered some of their own sweet ideas.
Because we design big sister shirts and big brother shirts, we’re especially fond of the announcements that include siblings-to-be, like these ideas:
Dress kids in a big sister tshirt or big brother t shirt, like the Something To Say Big Sister Tshirt or Only Child Expiring Big Brother T shirt, and take 3-4 photos with them holding a sign that changes with each picture and put it together to look like photo booth pictures so it reads “Guess who is going to be a big brother/sister” or something along those lines.
Choose your kid’s favorite theme, like superheroes, princesses, construction, etc and create a sign that corresponds with it. For example, a boy in a Super Big Brother T shirt could hold a sign that says, “Every superhero needs a sidekick” or the Dig In Big Brother T shirt and a sign saying, “I’m going to dig being a big brother.”
Have you used big brother shirts or big sister shirts to announce your pregnancy? If so, please share your photo(s) with us at buzz (at) petitelemon.com for an upcoming Petite Lemon in Real Life feature.
Petite Lemon in Real Life – Cara
When we’re designing our personalized baby gifts, 1st birthday shirts, big brother shirts and big sister shirts, we can’t help but think about the wee ones that will be enjoying them and the memories they’ll become a part of. It motivates us and inspires us, which is why we love the Petite Lemon in Real Life feature on our blog.
So when Cara (IG @caramhanson and www.vienieavolare.blogspot.com) tagged us in a picture of her son Ian wearing our Color It Up Big Brother T shirton Instagram to announce her second pregnancy, we were just so thrilled and completely honored. Of course we had to ask her to be our next Petite Lemon in Real Life feature!
Here’s Cara’s responses to our line up of questions:
How old is Ian?:
Ian is 18 months old and will be turning 2 two weeks before our new little one arrives.
What is your due date with #2?:
I am due October 15, 2014.
What brought you to Petite Lemon and to purchase Ian’s big brother t shirt?
I saw an Instagram post by @thriftylittles when you first joined Instagram. It was for a giveaway which I entered but didn’t win…boo! Shortly afterwards we found out we were expecting our second and I knew for sure I wanted a Petite Lemon big brother t shirt to make the announcement to family and friends.
What are your favorite Petite Lemon products and why?
Everything is soooo adorable, but I think the tees and personalized onesies are my favorite. I loved his “promotion” tee and absolutely plan on getting personalized shirts for both children for photos this Fall.
What are you enjoying most about having one child?
Naptime…haha! I’m joking…although I never knew how fast I could work when you have to make that hour really count when it comes to staying on top of the chores. On a more serious note, I love having the time to devote solely to Ian. I’m lucky to be a stay-at-home-mummy and we do everything together. He’s getting super helpful now and I love having my little man around!
What are you looking forward to about having two?
I’m really excited to have a little one again. Although I love having a toddler who is more independent and running all around, I do miss those sleepy snuggles with a tiny baby. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the sibling relationship develop!
Anything you are nervous for?
I’m a tad nervous about how I’m going to juggle a two year old and a newborn…not going to lie! I know I’ll figure it out, but I’m sure it will be a bit of a learning curve. I have a very supportive husband and a great friends group, many of whom are having their second babies as well. My best friend is due three days before me, so we’ll all be going through it together.
What kind of big brother do you think Ian is going to be?
I’m hoping he’s going to be a loving, caring big brother. He really is very sweet, gives hugs and kisses all the time and is generally very thoughtful. He does love to pull hair though…still working on curbing that not so delightful behavior! I really do think he will be great though J
What is your favorite blog right now:
Oh I have sooo many blogs that I love! I’m going to have to do a top three…can’t just pick one! For food: Gina at www.skinnytaste.com, for home and life: Ashli at www.maillardvilllemanor.com and for fun: www.whatkatewore.com. Being English, I have to get my Duchess of Cambridge fix somewhere!
What is your favorite Instagram to follow right now:
I fell in love with @2sisters_angie after their recent social media discovery. Her daughter’s paper dresses and adorable poses always make me smile when they come across my feed!
Define motherhood in one word:
Love! It may seem cliché, but even on those hardest days, love is still the reason why we strive to be the best mothers we can be.
Awww, thanks for participating Cara! We just love all of your answers and are totally motivated to keep designing the best personalized baby gifts we can.
Have you used our 1st birthday shirts,big brother shirtsor big sister shirts to celebrate a special moment in your child’s life or mark milestones of their personalized growth chart? If so, please let us know if you’d like to be featured in a future Petite Lemon in Real Life. Email us at buzz (at) petitelemon.com.
