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!

As soon as Halloween costumes are put away and the kids have settled down from their sugar high (Halloween and Easter are the only times of the year they get even a tiny bit of candy), we need to start planning for our big show next week. Next Friday and Saturday Nov. 6 and 7, Kai Kids will be at our booth at our favourite sale/trade show: Toronto’s popular Children’s Trunk Show.

It is a really well organized, well attended show featuring amazing products made and sold by Canadian mompreneurs. Everything is high quality, unique, gorgeous and geared to babies, moms and kids. We are one of the few retailers there, as most booths feature suppliers who make their own items.

We always enjoy the crowd, meeting new customers and chatting with loyal, repeat customers and networking with the other vendors.  This time out, we’ll have our new baby boy in tow so that should make things interesting!

So please, if you are in the Toronto area, come on out and support us, and the show.  It’s a great chance to get started on your holiday shopping and you know you’ll be supporting parents in small, local businesses. Plus, there are always lots of great deals!  This year, we’ll be having a big sale on the ever useful, durable, super-safe Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles.   Get them while they last!

details:

• when: Fri. Nov. 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sat. Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• where: The Fermenting Room in  Toronto’s Distillery District: Buildings 6 & 7
  55 Mill Street.
• www.thedistillerydistrict.com

Hope to see you there!

Well, we’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from hosting our Kai Kids in person sales lately!  A new baby has a way of sweetly derailing the best of intentions. But we are starting to settle into a new routine and have time to refocus on the business once again, so are planning a fall sale on Sat. Oct. 17th!

Same place, 1390 Danforth Ave., same time, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but with one big difference:

this time we are going to feature a special information session on Designing Healthy Rooms for Healthy Kids, by Toronto interior decorator and eco-designer Barbara Nyke of NIKKA DESIGN. Barbara is an accredited interior decorator who specializes in eco-friendly design, and has spoken widely on the topic on CBC Radio, Breakfast Television,  Canada AM, in the National Post and Loulou Magazine, and recently at The Green Home Show.

Send us your questions for Barbara and she’ll be happy to answer them for you during her talk at our sale! Either post them by commenting here on our blog, or email us at infoatkaikids.com (please replace at with @ – we are trying to avoid auto-spam here).

So make sure to join us for a hands-on look at our latest products, some special discounts, and Barbara’s talk on keeping toxins out of your toddler’s room. She will be doing a short presentaion at 11:30 with a question period after.

Mark your calendars!

This belly of mine is getting big now (only a month or so to go until Baby #3 arrives!) and Peter and I are getting ready for our last big shopping show of the spring season!

This Friday, May 29, Kai Kids will be at the always fabulous Children’s Trunk Show at the Distillery District in Toronto.   This will be our third time at the Trunk Show and it is definitely our favourite shopping show: well organized, featuring gorgeous unique products for babies and kids, and a bunch of really nice parents: both vendors and customers.

We will be there with our Kai Kids booth and will be hauling our pretty, eco maternity and nursingwear so you can try it on,  our standard bestselling stock such as Bambu, Bamboosa and BabySoy, plus a bunch of excellent new items we’ve added to our online store:

•  handmade bamboo and organic cotton baby rattles
• new stainless steel feeding trays, perfect for baby
• organic mesh produce bags just in time for farmer’s markets
• natural, chemical-free hand sanitizer
• new spring styles of sweet and funky non-toxic baby and toddler shoes from

The Children’s Trunk Show is an exclusive shopping event featuring high-quality fashion, jewellery and art made by moms and geared exclusively towards kids and families. 50+ vendors are hand-selected to ensure a wide variety of goods—so you’re sure to find unique and useful gifts for all the children in your life in one place.

Come on out and join us this Friday, May 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., in the Fermenting Cellar at the Distillery District, 55 Mill Street, Toronto. We’d love to see you there!

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!

Don’t forget that tomorrow (Sat. April 4) is our big Kai Kids Spring Sale in Toronto!  We hope you can make it to check out our new earth-friendly products for families and take advantage of some special one-day only sales:

• BornFree baby bottles: 20% off
• Klean Kanteen water bottles: $2 off each bottle
• Babysoy: 20% off
• Jessica Scott eco maternity wear: 30% off
• Jolie Maman soy nursing tops: 30% off
• Little Green Star slogan T’s and onesies: 30% off
• Pip Essentials organic cotton blankets and sleepers: 25% off
• Fleurville diaper bags: 30% off
• Echoes in the Attic purses and totes: 15% off

1390 Danforth Ave, north side (near Greenwood Ave), 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.Hope to see you there!

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!

March heralds the start of spring and the melting snow, chirping birds and our mucky, muddy garden have been making me feel happy to be alive!  March also brings Earth Hour at the end of the month, and to celebrate, Kai Kids is having special sale on glass baby bottles by BornFree until the end of the month! They are wonderful baby bottles – safe, non-toxic, sturdy and they do not leak! We have a few too many sitting in our storage room and we’d like to make way for some new products, so right now the 5 oz and the 9 oz glass bottles are 20% off. Get them while they last!

On Saturday we had a special, in-person holiday sale for our Toronto area customers. It was lovely to see so many of you, and it was especially rewarding to see so many repeat customers, some of whom even brought their children wearing clothing they had purchased from us at Kai Kids!

But we wanted to offer our online customers a similar chance to save, so today I put a bunch of items on sale, just in time for the holidays! You’ll find reduced prices on funky Fleurville diaper bags, cute and funny Little Green Star slogan tees and onesies, and some winter-weight pants and skirts from our premium organic cotton line from England, Cut4Cloth.  We loved this line when we first saw it, but the feedback from our customers has been wonderful. It really is extremely well-made, super-soft and thick organic cotton. Plus it’s Fair Trade, colourful and very stylish.  Happy shopping!