Both owning a business, and the retail industry, were both foreign territory when we launched Kai Kids two years ago this month. We’ve had lots of stumbles and successes and are always trying to learn and try new things, one of which has been hosting our own little trunk shows in Toronto for our local customers.

We’ve now had five or six over the past year and really enjoy meeting our clients face to face and watching their kids grow. Once in a while we get to see some of them dressed in our organic clothes, clutching one of our made-in-Canada non-toxic teethers or toting the safe sippy they bought from us. That always  makes us smile!

We are once again trying something new, a twist on our usual trunk show. This weekend in Toronto, we are joining forces with a friend, and fellow parentpreneur and eco biz person, Barb of Little Footprints Toys, another online store based here in Toronto. Together we are hosting the Eco Family Holiday Sale, carting our stock of organic clothing, safe toys, natural skincare, litterless lunch gear and accessories plus her inventory of fun, sustainable toys and games for the whole family, to our usual location on the Danforth.

We’ll both have some real deals, just in time for holiday shopping, plus some hot new products on display. Yesterday I received shipment of made-in-Canada cozy bamboo fleece sleep sacs for babies with sweet elephant and bird appliques from Nap & Nod in Vancouver! I haven’t yet had time to post them to our Kai Kids online store, but we will definitely have them at our sale on Saturday.

Little Footprints Toys will have lots of cool stuff for the little ones to try out and amuse themselves with, plus we will have a children’s musician on hand to lead a singing circle every hour on the half hour from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to help keep the kids occupied while parents shop!  And there might even be a pot of warm apple cider brewing!

So please come, join us to celebrate the season and score some great eco deals, Sat. Nov. 21, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1390 Danforth Avenue, Toronto. (near Greenwood Avenue). We hope to see you!

If you live in and around Toronto, please come join us tomorrow at the Temple Sinai Nursery School’s 7th Annual Boutique Night in north Toronto.

We at Kai Kids will be there, offline, with our plethora of ethically-made, eco-friendly products for babies and toddlers, plus there will be many other companies selling women’s and children’s clothing, giftware, jewelry, stationery, personalized accessories, home decor, and more. Guests can also purchase raffle tickets as there are lots of prizes to be won.

Come on out to The Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto, 210 Wilson Ave., at Avenue and Wilson.

We hope to see you there!

Another hot new eco product, another way to reduce and reuse!  I’m thrilled to have found these brand new reusable organic cotton mesh produce bags for our family’s grocery shopping needs and for our Kai Kids online store!  They really fit all of our criteria (and we are picky!):

•  eco-friendly: reusable and so you can cut down or stop using those filmy plastic produce bags at the store
• organic: Credo was previously making cotton bags but just introduced this new line made from 100% certifiled organic cotton (from Turkey), which means no nasty pesticide residues tainting your tomatoes
• ethically-manufactured: the yarn for the bags is spun in Montreal, Quebec, and the bags are also sewn there under excellent labour conditions
• Canadian:  made by a Montreal company, voila!

These produce bags come in two sizes, small (great for apples, pears, peaches, green beans, lemons, onions, garlic, peppers etc. and large (perfect for lettuce, kale, corn, broccoli, grapefruit).  They are machine washable and have a convenient drawstring enclosure so you won’t lose any of your fruit or veggies coming home from the grocery store or farmer’s market. They are also super-light so won’t add cost at the cash register when weighing your produce!

Just in time for earth day, one more way to help keep your family, and the planet, healthy!  Give them a try!

I just received a new shipment for our Kai Kids eco boutique today that I’m very excited about!  I finally found some reusable colourful, funky organic cotton training pants that kids will actually want to wear.

If you and your toddler are tackling potty training, then have a look at our new Little Beetle Learners.  They are made of two layers of 100%  organic velour cotton, with a third layer tucked into the wet zone and hidden by some very sporty stitching! Happily, these training pants are also Fair Trade, so no little children overseas sweated to ensure your little one could wear them.

I must confess, even after cloth diapering,  I went through my share of disposable pullups with our Big Boy a few years ago, but felt guilty about all of that paper and gel heading for the landfill.

Our second son, Baby Boy is now two, and I’m hoping he’ll soon start showing signs he’s ready to start potty training (especially before Baby #3 arrives this summer! ) And when he does, I’m going to try these oh-so-soft,  organic training pants.

Pull them on, snap them off, and you and your little one will enjoy the soft velour material on his bottom, plus he’ll feel the wetness from accidents and hopefully be motivated to stay dry!

After an inevitable accident, just rinse out or shake any feces into the toilet, then wash in hot water (to kill any bacteria) and dry at a low temperature, or better yet, line dry.

I am so glad to see the sun shine and the last of the snow melt! It has envigourated me with a renewed zest for life and business!  I’ve gone into planning mode and have been organizing some in-person shopping shows around Toronto for Kai Kids this spring.

The first will be our own, once again on the Danforth, on Saturday April 4th, in an early celebration of Earth Day!  Peter and I will be in our usual  funky space  at 1390 Danforth along with a bunch of new products we’ve added to Kai Kids boutique lately:

• natural, non-toxic and chemical-free skincare from TruKid
• Bamboo scratch mittens from Bamboobino
•  natural antibacterial hand sanitizer from CleanGeorge
• recycled cotton shopping bags from Bamboosa
• cute crib shoes for babies made from non-toxic leather by BabySoles
• gorgeous cable knit bamboo blankets from Bamboosa
• a fun new design (Town Scene) of Bok Handmade Wooden Blocks from Petit Flaneur

plus a lot more!

Come on out and say hello to us and check out our new lines, ask questions, and meet other green-minded parents. Please feel free to bring strollers and kids, as the store is stroller-friendly, has a couch for nursing, and we always bring lots of puzzles, colouring books and toys to keep your little ones occupied while you shop!

Details: Saturday April 4, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., 1390 Danforth Avenue (north side, just East of Greenwood and West of Monarch Park Avenue). For more information, please email us at info@kaikids.com

Hope to see you there!

Back in the fall, I brought a new line of super fun, colourful and safe bibs and spill-proof feeding gear to Kai Kids from the U.S. I’d been a fan of Mimi the Sardine’s funky and eco-friendly products for a while and was thrilled to bring them on board to our store. We launched the line at our Kai Kids Shopping Day in November and at the Children’s Trunk Show  in Torontoand it was a big hit with our customers and sold out in a flash!  So fast, that I never even managed to post the collection on our eco baby online store!

We recently received a big re-order and I’m happy to announce that I finally have got all of the adorable aprons, bibs, place mats, splash mats and lunch bags up online at Kai Kids!  All of it is made of gorgeous Swedish cotton prints, finished with a washable, wipable, non-toxic and eco-friendly acrylic coating – no lead, PVC etc. so perfect for wee ones!

Each product comes in a range of fun prints (Fleur, Insects, Jungle, Penguin etc.), some for boys, some for girls and some unisex and you can machine wash everything!

I’d been hunting for a bib as convenient as the wipable vinyl and plastic ones i used four years ago when Big Boy was a bab – but now that I know better – without the PVC and lead!  We carry a range of bamboo and organic cotton bibs in the store, and use them at home when our youngest was small, but once your baby or toddler is into the really messy self-feeding stage, you don’t want to be washing three bibs a day! Mimi the Sardine bibs are the perfect solution, plus they have a food catching rim at the bottom.

Get them while they last!

Hello everyone and happy (belated) 2009!  I can’t believe i haven’t blogged in over a month!  Apologies all around. December got busy with Kai Kids at shopping shows, plus our own kids, Christmas celebrations and then our family got felled by a horrid virus that left us all sick over Christmas and New Years, reeling, lethargic and behind on so many fronts in our life.

But my energy is back now and I’ve a renewed enthusiasm for business, babies and blogging!  Last week Peter and I went to a kids trade show for retailers and saw some excellent new products we are thinking of bringing on board at Kai Kids.

One is the TruKid line of non-toxic, organic natural skin and hair care – safe for babies but really aimed at toddlers, preschoolers and older kids. The scents are fresh and mild, the ingredients are natural, there are all kinds of excellent  products such as a sunblock stick and a natural hair detangler  (no more tears!), and the prices are very reasonable. Look for the line in February.

We were also very interested in a new organic cotton preemie line of hats, booties, onesies and sleepers from the U.S. So far, we have not carried items for premature babies, but i can imagine that parents of such vulnerable wee ones might be even more interested than the average mom or dad in organic, non-toxic clothing for their babies. Are any of you parents of preemies? Would these be products you would be interested in purchasing? We’d love your feedback to help make our decision.

We also just put in our new order for Baby Soles crib shoes. The new line from our popular Little Soles leather shoes for babies, these are soft-soled shoes aimed at babies 0-9 months in a bunch of cute, funky styles. We’ve always loved this natural, Canadian shoe line, but recently we’ve become even bigger fans!

The Calgary-based company has just launched rigorous independent testing of the leather and soles of their line of shoes to ensure they are free from: fomaldehyde, Perfluorooctane Sulfonate, AZO Colourants, and seven toxic elements commonly found in leather: lead, mercury, arsenic cadmium, antimony, selenium and barium. They are a very socially responsible and environmentally-aware company right in line with our own philosophy as parents and owners of Kai Kids  eco-friendly online boutique.Watch for their spring/summer collection coming soon!

Kai Kids is once again hosting a shopping day here in Toronto on the Danforth. This will be our third, right in time for the holidays!

Peter and I will be at 1390 Danforth from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 6 with all of our organic, eco-friendly wares for your family! We will have some special sales to encourage you to get your holiday shopping done, and to help us clear some stock to make way for new arrivals in the new year!

We’ll also have some lovely new eco-friendly products, including funky winter hats made from recycled sweaters (our boys look so cute in them!), and fun animal organic hooded towels and sleep sacks from Toronto’s 3 Sprouts.

As usual, the store is stroller-friendly, we’ll have some toys for your toddlers to play with while you shop, and we have a big, comfy couch that is a perfect spot to nurse if your baby feels the need.

For more information, please feel free to email us at info@kaikids.com

Please come on out and tell your friends!

So far in our travels to shopping shows we haven’t yet left the GTA, but this week we are heading to lovely Oakville!  If you live in Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton, Milton etc., we invite you to join us at the Living and Giving Show, this Thursday Nov. 27!

Peter and I will be there with boxes of Klean Kanteens, stainless steel food containers, natural skincare and organic clothes for wee ones and pregnant and nursing mamas as well.  Please come out and have a look at some of our new stock, such as sweet winter hats made from recycled wool sweaters! Some items are so new I haven’t even had time to post them to our online store yet.

Kai Kids will be at the Living and Giving Show from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. at Otellos Banquet Hall on Royal Windsor Drive, Oakville. Hope to see you there!

Just got back from a busy and fun day today at the Children’s Trunk Show in Toronto. We hauled boxes and suitcases full of our Kai Kids products – everything from natural rubber pacifiers to organic cotton sleepers to non-toxic teething toys and natural skincare. It’s always interesting to see what sells in person versus online.

Today, the big sellers were two of our most popular items online as well: the Ringley Natural Teething Toy and the Organic Teething Bon Bon TM. Both I’m proud to say, were invented by moms here in Canada! I love finding unique, local products and partnering with other mompreneurs! It’s a win/win/win: great natural products our customers feel good about, plus sales for our mom suppliers, and sales for us at Kai Kids too.

But we also had some new products that sold like crazy today. They are so new, I haven’t even posted them online to our Kai Kids store yet! But if they sell as well online as today, I think I’m going to have to put another order in soon for both of them, which is great!

One is a range of safe, eco-friendly bibs, aprons, lunch bags and splash mat from Mimi the Sardine. Really cute stuff, with an eco-friendly acrylic coating that makes them wipeable and machine washable. The best part is they contain no PVC, plastic or lead, and the designs are bright and fun. Kids and parents love them.

The other line that did well was Toronto’s 3 Sprouts organic hooded towels ( a chicken and a monkey) and organic sleep sacs. Gorgeous, unique, very modern-looking and excellent pricepoints. Stay tuned as I’m going to add both to our online boutique as soon as our weekend of shows is finished!

So many amazing products there made by moms! Unfortunately, not many were eco-friendly