I truly do not believe luck exists, except for maybe the time when I was playing Texas Holdem (poker) on a family cruise we took last year when I got a Royal Flush (odds according to Wikipedia are 1:649,639). I think luck might have had something to do with that. But the kind of luck I don't believe in is when it comes to life and business, in which case I really don't think luck has anything to do with success. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I believe that if you combine an amazing product with a positive attitude and a whole lot of determination, good things will happen. They just WILL! It's a no brainer.

Now, speaking of Royal, one of those great things took place last week when we got a request to send one of our leather bibs to William and Kate, the Royal couple themselves, for the Royal Baby that is due any day now! We were so excited, and feeling a little panicked as we were not sure which design to send, we turned to our facebook page likers for support as we so often do! All I can say is that we were in awe at the responses. So many people offered such amazing advice. Our first thought was to send the crown or something Canadian, then so many people gave their input and we were so thankful, as we have come to the conclusion that we will choose 3 designs to send. Once we find out if they had a boy or a girl, we will reveal those designs and personalize them and send them off to the happy Royal family. Will and Kate are apparently very down to earth people and we want to make sure they are given something that many people would enjoy, so we will send them something popular - a top seller as the first design. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also love Canada, so the second design will be something Canadian - we think they would love it and nothing says we're prouder to have a Canadian made product than that! Lastly, for the third design we will send them one of our new designs which has yet to be revealed - believe me we have a few new designs in the works that we know they will absolutely love! 

Here's a shot of William and Kate in Calgary on their last visit to Canada, where they were 'White-hatted'. The White Hat Ceremony is a long-standing tradition in Calgary, a symbol of the Western hospitality and good cheer they like to share with visiting guests to their city. 

Photo Source: Bauer Griffin, July 7, 2011 from Zimbio.com

Now some people may be wondering how we got asked to do something of such great honour as sending our product to the future King and future Queen for their first born child?! Well, it turns out that one of the wonderful people at Children's Wish is also a big fan of Mally Bibs. They have connections with the Royal Couple from their last visit to Canada when they arranged for Kate to meet one of their children who had a wish, and they would like to gift them one of our bibs, on behalf of Children's Wish and Mally Designs. This amazing foundation has been granting wishes for children who are ill since 1987. They believe that each wish is as unique as the child who makes it. When William and Kate visited Canada last, Children's Wish granted a sweet little girl named Diamond her own wish to meet a real Princess. You may have got to watch this, as it was highly televised when little Diamond he got to meet Kate Middleton. My eyes water as I type this, because this is something that is truly amazing for this little girl to have experienced this in her lifetime and Kate was just so amazing with her, taking lots of time with her despite the windy weather. If you would like to read more about this little girl who stole Kate's heart, please click here.

Here's a shot of the precious moment when Diamond's wish came true and she got to meet Kate Middleton, a real Princess. 

photo source: childrenswish.ca from Canadian Press

A Royal Baby Contest:

Now, let's all wipe the tears away together and think about something super fun! What I thought would be really exciting is if we ran a Royal baby contest, baby pool style! So go on over to our facebook page and be sure to like it if you haven't already. Then check out the status update at the very top of our page (which will remain at the top until the Royal baby's birth has taken place and the details are announced). Comment on that status update with 3 guesses: the birthdate, gender and weight of the baby. Whoever is closest will get to choose one of the bibs for themselves, that we send to William and Kate, personalized if you wish!

We love making personalized and bibs. It's always fun to see all the different baby names, and funny or quirky nicknames that are ordered and in case you haven't seen our personalized bibs up close or in person, we want you to know that we don't simply embroider the names on with a computerized machine. Embroidery can be a beautiful addition to some products, but we also need our bibs to be easy to clean and stain resistant.

To celebrate our 8th Birthday, we have tons of deals, steals, contests, promotions, freebies and surprises in store, but we also have a pretty awesome contest going on too! You could win a 2 x $100 gift certificates for you AND a friend! It's easy, only takes a second and there are multiple ways to enter, so what are you waiting for?! Click through our Raffle Copter contest link below for your chance to win! 

We love nothing more than spotting Mally Bibs on babies out and about, or receiving happy photos from fans with their adorable little ones wearing Mally Bibs. We are looking to create some fun new marketing material here at mallybibs.com - some for print, some on our website and some for our social media use. If you have some adorable photos of your wee one wearing Mally Bibs, please send them to us! Your child may be pictured on our website, print material, or even end up in a magazine (we get media photo requests all the time!) = bragging rights for you!

You know, I always say everyone deserves and should do what they love and love what they do. Why do I say this? Well, really the answer is as simple as it gets: YOLO! You only live once, and you should make the most of it, doing what you love! I'm sure you have seen people in your life who don't enjoy what they do, and perhaps you wonder why. Or perhaps you yourself have been or currently are stuck in a job that you don't like, but you just don't know a way out.

Almost 8 years ago my Husband and I started this business based on an idea to create the best baby bib, inspired by our Daughter Malia, who was less than a year old at the time. I remember dreaming about what could be and wishing I could take a peek into the future to see what life would be like once our business was off the ground.

I love Etsy. I've always loved browsing Etsy for unique and beautiful handmade made items. It's such a great resource for inspiration and seeing the success of so many craftspeople just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. We decided a few years ago to create our own Etsy shop. We really didn't give it a whole lot of effort to be honest. It's just that it seemed a little silly to me, when we already have a gorgeous and perfecly functioning website, to have an Etsy shop as well. We started selling a few items and I thought, okay, here I am paying Etsy a fee to sell my items that I have no problem selling on my own wesbite, so I decided to save Etsy for just our slightly imperfect sales in the beginning. Please note that NOW we only have our slightly imperfect sales 2x per year, in the Spring and in the Fall, and we generally announce it on our Facebook Page a day or two before. It is a great way for us to quickly sell off our still functional but slightly imperfect items at a discount, while maintaining the image of our website. It worked very well, and if you've ever seen one of our slightly imperfect sales go live on Etsy, then you know I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's always a HUGE success! You have to be quick. The items sell out in seconds and as a craftsperson / business owner, it's pretty thrilling. We only do these slightly imperfect sales twice per year (in the Spring and in the Fall), and the rest of the time our Etsy shop has sat empty and unattended to. 

This was not smart and here's why:

We have the perfect products to sell on Etsy! It's handmade in Canada, in our studio. We do custom work, personalization and work with all kinds of themes and color combinations that appeal to various people and age groups. Our items are very gifty. We design each product with design and function in mind, as well as uniqueness. All of that really describes how we are so very Etsy! What I didn't realize at first is the entirely huge community of Etsy shoppers, designers and artists that are constantly browsing around on etsy, just waiting to be exposed to products just like ours! A few months ago I decided to post EVERYTHING that we have on our website, on our Etsy shop as well. Etsy sales have trickled in here and there, and we have definitely gained new exposure.

Now it's time to take it a step further. Let's give credit where credit is due: I have been entirely inspired by a little company on Vancouver Island called Bamboletta. Bamboletta is run by Christina, who I was lucky enough to meet a few years ago. She is Whaldorf Doll maker extraordinaire, and in my opinion, Marketing Genius. She has created such an amazingly beautiful and sought-after handmade product that is one of a kind. They have thousands of fans and followers who wait each week for their highly anticipated pre-announced uploads of their unique Whaldorf Dolls, which they perfectly describe as companions for little ones. When the dolls go live for sale, they sell out FAST, much like our slightly imperfect bibs do! The entrepreneur in me loves this. In order to keep doing what I love, I need to make money. The artist in me LOVES this even more because uploading unqiue one of a kind items means I get to be creative. So, we're experimenting with this model, and I really hope it works for us like it has for Bamboletta. We just launched our first ever upload, a lovely collection of one of a kind Valentine's themed items on our Etsy shop! I hope as we learn and grow that we can create a similar enthusiasm and anticipation for our own uploads. I realize it might take a little time. 

Here's a sampling of what you can find on our first ever one of a kind themed upload: 

This is just a quick blog post because I feel it's a little silly that my post from 5 months ago is still the most recent, and showing on our home page. Let's just say, blogging is not my forte...right now. I love blogging, it's fun and I love to update our readers, but I just haven't had the time lately.

Last year around this time we set off on a 34 day road trip with our 2 kids, 6 month old lab Sadie, and trailer packed with business and personal essentials. We drove through the United States, as for those who don't know BC -> ON is faster when travelling through the states, not to mention gas is cheaper!