Wilde Fig

Has it been this long?!

2009-11-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I can't believe it's already been four months...but it has. This summer my husband and I welcomed our second little boy, Jasper. He is amazing! His big brother Benicio is loving having him around. He makes him giggle and helps out so much. I've posted a pic of Jasper when he was born (a more recent pic soon to come). Who knew life could be this great?!

I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to Becky for holding down the fort while I was away in babyland. She kept up with the blog, orders, advertising and keeping contact with our customers. She went above and beyond and I'm so grateful!

We've got some great events coming up really soon. Join us Thursday November 12th from 5-9pm at My Kidz World for their holiday event. We sell our products in their store and we just love it! We are really looking forward to this event. We will also be at Me Too! Cafe on Monday December 7th from 6-8:30pm. We do their events throughout the year and they are always so much fun with a great turnout. Check out our events page on our website for complete information. We'd love to have you come out and we'd love to meet you!

I've been working on some new products. First, the coloring kit. It combines a notepad and crayons in a convenient wallet sized wrap. Then I've got diaper sachets made. These sachets are filled with baking soda to eliminate smells in your diaper bag. They are made of cute soft cotton flannel and are a perfect size for your diaper bags, how perfect is that? Stay tuned to our shopping page, pics will be up soon!!

The Wilde Fig mitt identifier has been reviewed at
http://evergreenmoms.com/2009/07/perfect-for-standing-out-in-crowd.html Yeah! They love it! I know you will too...check it out.

An upcoming review on http://www.portlandpicks.com/ link soon to come.

Now, time to get ready for the holidays....

Summer Pizza

2009-07-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's summer, and we are enjoying the fruits of our labor in the garden. Our garden is doing great this year, we planted about 3x as much as last year, and (surprise, surprise) it's 3x as much work. But we are having a great time watching the garden grow, teaching our 4 yr old about growing our own food, and teaching our 1 yr old NOT to pick yet (after loosing many a green tomato first.) So far we have eaten lots of beans, peas, carrots, and the occasional tomato. And, the squash. Oh, the squash, it is good. As each week goes by, we get to eat more and more (we almost have a fully grown cauliflower!)

This is the first year we have planted round squash; the first time we picked one, I didn't know what to do. But, in the wise words of my friend Joni, "when all else fails... grill". So, grill it was, and we loved it. We started brainstorming the many things we could do with this lovely round squash, and so was born, the Summer Pizza.

Ingredients

1 Round Squash

Olive Oil

Italian Spices

Pizza Sauce or Pasta Sauce

Cheese

Anything else you top pizzas with (we topped ours with canadian bacon, pineapple, olives and tomatoes)

Step 1: Cut the squash into thick slices and rub Olive Oil on them. Sprinkle with Itialian Spices, then put on a medium hot grill

Step 2: Flip. Cook for a few minutes (depending on how done you like it) and then spread on the sauce

Step 3: Cheese-a-fy

Step 4: Meat-a-fy

Step 5: Add toppings

Step 6: Enjoy!

Kids loved it, but adults loved it more. Great summer meal!

The Many Uses of a Mitt ID

2009-07-14T19:57:00.000-07:00

We like multi-tasking. I mean, who doesn’t, right? So, we like our products to multi-task too… we expect a lot of out them, you see. So, when baseball season winds down, we want our Mitt IDs, who have been trusty sidekicks through the spring and summer, to keep on working for you. So, today, we present to you their many other uses in your life.

1. Luggage Identifiers. Instead of tying on an old ribbon, attach your Mitt ID to your luggage handle to easily identify it at the airport.
2. Napkin Ring. Who doesn’t love a cute little napkin ring? Also works well in lunch boxes and on picnics to keep silverware together with your napkin.
3. Wine Drip Catchers. A use for moms too! Wrap around your wine to catch the drips, or wrap it around for cute little packaging when bringing wine as a gift.
4. Key Keeper. We can think of tons of ways that our Mitt IDs can be a key keeper. I use it to keep my keys attached in a certain spot so I don’t have to search through the abyss that is my purse when trying to get out the door.
5. Shoe Keeper Together-er. Works at home, at a bouncy house, at the playground… anywhere that shoes are off and need to be kept together. I have had countless mornings searching for the match for my 4 yr old’s shoes, and now, no more.
6. Tennis Racquet ID. Mitt IDs love sports, so keep it in it’s realm and use it to ID your tennis raquet!

I'm sure you can think of many more, send us pics of your creative uses of your Mitt ID and we'll post them!

the climber, the explorer, the candlestick... eater?

2009-07-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

We are moms of boys. I am a mom of 2 boys, and Amy is almost a mom of 2 boys (baby boy #2 will be here in a week!) I never really liked the “boys will be boys” expression because I thought it was more “kids will be kids”, you know? Kids will find fun in everything, and it is my job as their mom to help them play and learn and learn while playing and play while learning. But, now that my BABY is ONE I’m seeing more and more where that expression came from. In the past week, he has learned to unbuckle his carseat while driving, climb on the stool and turn on the bathroom sink, climb into the bathtub and turn on the water, open the fridge and open bottles of sauce/salad dressing with his teeth, and climb up the shelves in the pantry. Oh yeah, and spray the sunblock. From a toddler point of view, all of these things must be AWESOME and he is probably so proud of himself for learning these… but as a mom? As a mom, it means I have no downtime, like, none. And, I have to find the line that I want to walk between keeping him safe and letting him be an explorer kid teaching himself new things and discovering new ways to do things, and being independent. One of my focuses as a mom is letting my kids make their own decisions when appropriate, but with baby #2, this has become increasingly hard…. I am trying not to suggest things that could hinder his discovery, but climbing the pantry? Danger. Eating sunblock? Danger. Eating A-1 sauce, yeah, ok, I’m fine with that. Turning on the bathtub water? Danger. Carrying around a tube of gutter glue? No (and where did he even find that?) I think his first sentence might be “J, are you kidding me?” He is the most curious little boy I have ever met, I love him dearly, and I’m learning from him just as much as he’s learning from me (when he’s not ignoring me.) He’s on the loose, watch out Beaverton. Wish me luck!

b

Baby showers and new products!

2009-06-25T21:54:00.002-07:00

Becky and I have been working hard trying to come up some great new products. While they are still being worked on and re-designed, I couldn't wait to tell you about them. First, we've got a great new "coloring kit" (name is still up in the air) that will incorporate our creative and fun crayon rolls (with a twist) and a pad of scratch paper. It will still fold up into a convenient easy to carry and travel with size, but it will include all of the necessary parts to entertain your little one. And of course, it will be made with some really fun and cute fabrics just like all of the Wilde Fig products. Those will be ready to reveal early next week...so stay tuned! Next, Becky is working on a great nursing apron. I know you've seen them, they are cover ups for when you are nursing your baby and want some privacy. She is working on her own design to mix it up and allow it to stand outside the sea of nursing aprons you find out there now days...I'm so excited to see what she comes up with. On the Wilde Fig site we new have some great gift sets available (check out "gifts" on the shopping page). You are able to customize these sets, boy, girl or neutral, it's up to you. We offer small sets, medium sets and large sets that range from $25 to $75 and with everything that is included in those sets, it's an amazing deal, so check them out!

We are so excited to have our first official review! Rain or Shine Finds has done a great review on Wilde Fig and we want to share it with you. Visit http://rainorshinefinds.com/2009/06/23/wilde-fig/ and see the write up. We hope that this is the beginning of many many great reviews.

Last Saturday Becky hosted a beautiful baby shower for me. It had all of the makings for a great shower. Brunch, laughter, gifts and most importantly, friends. We are so excited to welcome our little boy on July 13, 2009! Thanks Becky, for a great shower, you are an amazing friend.

I know...it's been a while

2009-06-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since our last posting, ok, so 7 months to be exact, but in our defense we have had a whirlwind of excitement going on. I've got lots to update you on! To start out, you can now find Wilde Fig at 3 store locations! Our complete line is now available at My Kidz World (pictures above), located at 16305 Nw Cornell Road in Beaverton Oregon. My Kidz World is a great new store in a great location and they feature tons of local vendors. We are proud to be a part of the team! Wilde Fig is also now located at Milagros Boutique at 5429 Ne 30th in Portland, Oregon. Milagros is a great, locally owned boutique, featuring some wonderful local artists. Also, visit http://www.munchkindesigns.com/ to view and purchase some great new products we've been working on. Lisa Komer is the owner of Munchkin Designs and we are so honored that she would like to sell Wilde Fig on her amazing site!

We are going to be featured in an upcoming blog, Happy Mom Blog, with Amy West at http://www.makesmomhappy.com/ She will be reviewing some samples we've sent her and will put the good word out on how great Wilde Fig products are, so check out their site!!

A link for Wilde Fig can also be found on http://www.iknowamom.com/ click on "for baby + kids" and you will find us along with many many other mom owned businesses, lets get out and support them!

We are now on Twitter. Search wildefig and follow us. You will get updates on what's going on with us and any new products or events we will be working on. Its a great way to connect with a huge audience and meet some great artists and fellow entrepreneurial moms.

We are both so excited and proud of the direction that Wilde Fig is taking. We've been working so hard on creating products and designs to send out and sell and have been loving every minute of it. Make sure and check out our events page on our site to see when and where you can see us, there are quite a few events that will be going on late summer into fall. We look forward to meeting you!

Wait.... it's December?

2008-12-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a busy season with craft fairs and shows, but it looks like events are winding down for Wilde Fig for the holiday season; so, now we have some time to do some holiday shopping of our own! Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us at all of our shows, we really appreciate it, and loved meeting you...

Something that we didn't realize would happen after meeting more of our customers and setting up our tables was that we became more in touch with who, and maybe what, Wilde Fig is to us. We have more of an idea of the style of our little business, thus the HUGE redesign of the website. We wanted something more us. So, there it is, it's us. It's totally us. Black and white photos, handwriting lettering, and more quirky write ups :) We hope you like it as much as we do. Our store will be hooked back up in the coming days, we are working with our host on how we want it to look.

Enjoy your holidays, and remember..... buy local!

Halloween!

2008-10-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

First off, we are new to this whole blogging thing.... but we are going to try to keep this updated with all the latest projects and crafts going on around our household. SO, projects.... Halloween in itself is a project, with decorating, costumes, carving, pumpin patches, and roasted pumpkin seeds! We tried carving a "blue" pumpkin last night, only to find that it was much to thick to carve anything through. It took 10 minutes, 2 adults, and one 3 yr old to finally get the top off to look inside. But.... inside we found huge pillowy pumpkin seeds, that are soaking now for roasting. Yum, hopefully they taste as good as they look! Costumes are all done, Jonas didn't get a mommy-made costume this year, the time crunch got the better of me. But, Aiden is outfitted in his custom Super Why costume, which only moms of pbs-watching 3 yr olds will know what he is. (It's a super hero with the power to read, by the way.) And, mom has a nice mrs. pacman costume, thanks to dad.

So, on to Wilde Fig news. We have a few craft fairs that we will be attending this holiday season (see events page), and you can also see our products in Lake Shore Pharmacy in Lake Oswego (see link on Friends page.) We are always working to come up with new designs for products that we need in our houses. In the design phase is toddler belts and re-usable lunch bags for kids and moms. We are working to get some done by our craft shows, so come check them out.

Preschool Followup

2008-10-19T21:36:00.001-07:00

We have got some really great new products coming and we are so excited to share them with you! At Wilde Fig we believe in sustainable living and doing our part. Becky is working (and sewing) extremely hard getting fabulous coffee wraps ready for the boutique. The coffee wraps are made of various funky fabrics sewn together to form a chic reusable sleeve for your coffee, keeping your hand cool and your coffee warm. You can be modern and hip while sipping your latte, all while doing your part for the environment, by not using (and throwing away) those terrible cardboard covers at your favorite coffee shop. We are also working on some creative and fun reusable lunch sacks. The lunch sacks will be available for both mom and kiddo, offered in great prints. You will be the talk of the breakroom and the kiddos will be the toast of the cafeteria in these great economical and environmentally friendly lunch sacks. These along with many other products soon to come are a part of Wilde Fig's belief in offering everyone a hip, modern and economical way to do our part for the environment.

Quote of the Day:“Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.” -Marcel Proust

Store Launch

2008-10-19T21:34:00.001-07:00

Wednesday September 10th 2008

Well, we did it!! Our new store Wilde Fig is now up and ready for business! We had such a great time getting everything together and designing all of our great products. Becky and I had quite the adventure of taking on the task of creating our new "photography studio" which was an accomplishment in itself and I think the pictures came out so great! We really hope you love our products as much as we do. We take great pride in offering nothing but the best products for you and your baby. We will be adding new products, designs and fabrics daily so check in with Wilde Fig regularly so you don't miss out on all of the fabulous items we have to offer!
On another note, since the last time I spoke with you, we were on the lookout for a great preschool and none in site. Then of course, we got two, yes TWO calls from preschools that had open spots for Benicio. It's so funny how a month ago we had no potential prospects, then get two great schools! With alot of thinking, planning, talking and asking tons of questions to other parents we decided to go with Cathedral Park Co-Op in North Portland. The parents are wonderful, the teacher is fabulous and Benicio just loves it! We are so happy and so thankful that we found such a loving, caring and compassionate environment for him to be in. Now if I could just get him to pick up after himself all would be well in the world...

Quote of the Day: “It's hard to detect good luck - it looks so much like something you've earned.” -Frank A. Clark

Dibs

2008-10-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 27th 2008

So, some of you may have read that Jonas was wearing a Dib… no, not a bib, a Dib. Dibs are a Wilde Fig creation to help tame the constant drool in our household. Drool + Bib = Dib :) Any moms of droolers out there know that regular bibs, if worn all day, (like they have to be for fountains like my boys) shift and turn and end up like capes after only mere minutes on a 4 month old. Viola the dib. The dib is a smaller version of a bib, and it’s more circular; so, if it shifts, and moves, and rotates, there’s still sufficient drool-catching material under the chin. Plus, they’re ultra-hip to boot. Try one for your little drooler!

Introduction

2008-08-26T08:24:00.001-07:00

It's about time I step out from behind the sewing machine, and introduce myself... I'm the other half of Wilde Fig, Becky. I wear many hats during the day: mom of 2 boys, software engineer, cook, chauffeur, and a maker of many things. I love to sew. I grew up in a house where in September you not only did your back to school shopping, but the kids had to determine what they wanted to be for Halloween so my mom could sew all of the costumes. I look forward to continuing this tradition! Here at Wilde Fig, we strive to create great designs that you will love; things that we, as moms, think are necessary. A lot of the items you will find at Wilde Fig are custom designs that emerged from something we needed. We love finding and using beautiful fabric, and believe that there is more to baby products than pink and blue, ducks and teddy bears. Orange is the new green here at Wilde Fig -- it's GREAT for girls and boys! (If you saw my house, you'd see that I was partial to orange anyway.) But, not to worry, we have some beautiful green products as well.

Speaking of green products.... we also believe strongly in sustainable living. We are working towards coming up with new designs for a whole line of sustainable living products. Our first will launch with the store in September, it has gone through several versions of the design, and has now emerged.... wait for it... the Wilde Fig Coffee Wrap. It's like a mini quilt for your coffee cup so you can keep your fingers from the heat, look cute, and stop using those little cardboard coffee holders (I don't even want to think about how many of these I've wasted!) Tomorrow I will introduce one of the other Wilde Fig creations that I know you'll love, and has become an every day item around our house.

Preschool!

2008-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday August 24th 2008

Wow, its been so crazy! Products to sew, designs to test out, pictures to take, cards to order, opinions to get and getting the word out, it has been a whirlwind of activity but it's been so fun! We took Aiden and Benicio to an amazing park here in Portland in the park blocks in Northwest to take some really cute pictures. They just loved tying the blankets around their necks and running as fast as they could pretending they were superman. Little Jonas was a happy camper in his dib (which came in incredibly handy by the way!) but he will be up and running around with the two hyper tots in no time. My husband Noe and I have now launched into a new realm in our world...drumroll please...enrolling for PRESCHOOL. Little did we know, that you needed to put your child on a waiting list when they were merely 6 months to get them in when they are nearly four years old. I know, I know, I'm exagerating about the 6 months, but I might as well have put him on some lists because the demand here in Portland for a really good co-op preschool is high. Co-ops are so great (from what I've heard from girlfriends and read and talked with teachers) they offer children a social, interactive and creative outlet while allowing us SAHMs to volunteer our time and energy in the classroom to alleviate the much dreaded tuition costs each month. The average cost of a co-op here is only $100! Wow, no wonder co-ops are so popular. We've put him on three waiting lists for schools around our area in North Portand and we will see how it goes. I will keep you posted on our progress. Cross your fingers!

Quote of the Day: “Every child born, has innate goodness.” -Chinese Proverb

Welcome!

2008-08-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

Wednesday August 13th 2008

Welcome to Wilde Fig! We are super busy getting ready for the launch of our brand new boutique and are so excited you are here to join us. First off let me tell you a little bit about Wilde Fig and how it came to be. I'm Amy and my very good friend Becky, whom I have been friends with since our little ones were actually little. We had always tossed around the idea of starting a business that would let our creative juices flow, offer flexibilty and allow us to share our creative talents with great moms like you. About a month ago, driving along the Willamette River while we were out on a scavenger hunt in search of the illusive (and now sold) Belle of the Falls in Oregon City, boys in tow, Aiden and Benicio (now both almost four!!) and 4 month old Jonas, when I showed her a bib that I had made for fun, thinking perhaps there was a business in there somewhere. Becky has always been super creative and I have always thought of myself as super creative (although I was the only one who knew until now!) so we decided to put our ideas and talents together to form this amazing new boutique. We are so excited to share with you our ideas, inspirations and designs. We have some great products and fabulous fabrics that we are so excited to share with you. We hope that shopping at Wilde Fig is as thrilling and inspirational as it is to us. We appreciate your time and support!

Quote of the Day: “Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget" -Unknown