Weston King's nursery

As you may know, I had my second child at the end of September - a little guy named Weston King. Things were definitely a little different with number 2 - with Emi, I was so excited to decorate her room and had everything perfect weeks before she arrived. With Weston, I still had boxes of crap and Emi's old nursery furniture just shoved in the room randomly a few weeks after his arrival.

I just felt more tired, less inspired and also had a lot less time available this go around, so I enlisted the help of my favourite designer and stylist Renee from Re: Creative to take over the project. On a very tight budget, she managed to turn the space into a cozy, cool, creative and not too cutesy nursery that was absolutely perfect for West.

Renee gave us the awesome oversized beanbag chair as a baby gift.

She painted one wall with dark green (classroom style) chalkboard paint and had another wallpapered with a fun abstract frame print.

She made this totally amazing piece of crayon art which my husband and I absolutely love!

The owl piece I already had and Renee made the 'KING' scrabble piece and the reclaimed wood art.

Renee had these shadow box shelves made and my husband and I picked up the dye holder from an antique store which made a perfect display for the hot wheels (all saved from my husbands collection when he was a kid)!

Great vintage light fixture and mobile which was made by hand by local artist Jess Koehn

Hugh Maw and the Sick Kids Hospital Foundation

One of my close friends, Kate Maw has had quite the year. Last spring, her little guy Hugh, who is now 5 years old, was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumour - every parent's worst nightmare. Over the course of the past year, Hugh has undergone treatment at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto - from several surgeries to chemotherapy and radiation. While he is not 'in the clear' yet and his treatment continues, he is thankfully doing very well.

Hugh was recently chosen to be the Ambassador for Sick Kids (not surprising as he is absolutely adorable), which means he has been featured in everything from their blog to their lottery materials and in all of them he is rocking his mini mioche duds!

Please click on the links below to learn more about Hugh's experience and please consider purchasing a ticket (or a few) for the upcoming Sick Kids lottery - definitely a worthy cause and one that mini mioche will continue to support.

Hugh's story on Youtube

The Sick Kids Blog

The Sick Kids Foundation Lottery

Hugh in the comfy cardi, serenity short sleeve tee, mini mioche slim fit denim and Toms Botas

Hugh in the lush hoody, serenity short sleeve tee, mm slim fit denim and Toms - what a cutie!

mini mioche in Canadian Family March issue

Thank you to our lovely friends at Canadian Family for featuring mini mioche in the March issue of their awesome magazine. We love how they have styled two of our simplest basics - the bloomer and love beanie.

Spring 2012 Sneak Peek

Ok, first off I want to say sorry for being such a brutal blogger of late. With the holidays, the new baby, a short vacay and then getting back into work mode in January, I've been a little spun or should I say 'more spun,' than usual. I am going to try and get my act together (but I'm not making any promises).

So I thought I'd start the new year off with a post about what's coming in just a few short weeks. Here are a few of my favourite styles from the new mm spring collection. I will keep you posted on when this will be in store and online (it will likely be around the middle of February).

the hoody robe (the perfect cover up post pool or lake come summer)!

the twirly tiered skirt

the dandy henley tunic

the airy a-line dress

the beloved bloomie short

the heavenly hoody dress

the fresh dress

the snappy romper

the rockin' romper

the darling ruffle dress

the ball tee and buck short

mini mioche - holiday gift picks for guaranteed merriment!

I can't believe that it's December and the holiday season is right around the corner. As usual, I'll be leaving everything until the last minute and then will be racing around in a panic trying to think of and find gifts for all the peeps in my life.

In an effort to try to help all of you avoid this stress inducing situation, I have put together my top holiday gift picks for the little ones in your life - all available at the mini mioche store of course! :-)

1 . The coolest hats from Barts and Kangol

2 . Non toxic fun from Piggy Paints and Clementine Art.

3 . Ridiculously cute shoes from Toms, Frye, Native, Keep, Bloch, Sorel, Minnetonka and more

4 . Rock a bye baby discs- lullabye versions of Coldplay, U2, Bob Marley, The Cure, Radiohead, Floyd, Sabbath and more.

5 . mini mioche signature super stretch denim - hipster cool and comfy.

6 . The coziest slippers from Kina and Collegien (and they stay on)!

7 . Backpacks from Beatrix NY and Herschel

8 . Handmade stuffed animals and toys from Needlings, Cate and Levi, Arks and Angels and Tiny Warbler.

9 . The bundler/beanie/bib gift set - the perfect newborn gift.

10 . The mini mioche Happy Romper and other super cozy fleece fashion.

Bella Child Magazine

We were recently contacted by Bella Child Magazine, a fabulous new online magazine that is published quarterly focusing on great children's fashion. They asked if we would do a little video story on great layering pieces for the fall/winter season and they came into the store a few weeks ago to shoot it. The kids were super cute and I think the piece turned out really well (although I have to say that my boobs look HUGE - I think Weston was about a week old at this point and I hadn't fed him in a few hours).

Layering with Mini Mioche from Stephanie Andrews on Vimeo.

Cool new brand: Native

I recently discovered the Canadian shoe brand, Native. To me, these shoes are like a much, much cooler version of a Croc. We have these boots from the fall collection in store now. They are super light, waterproof and neoprene lined for added warmth.

mini mioche autumn window

Here's a few pics of the lovely autumn window at the mini mioche store, created as always by the talented Renee Elliott of eat.live.shop. I also hired Renee to design and create Weston's baby room (as I was feeling a little too overwhelmed and uninspired to do it myself) and I will post some photos of the completed room in the very near future.

New and exciting brand: Bart's

I love kids hats and yet I often have a hard time finding cool ones, which was why I was so excited to discover the Barts collection of infant and kids winter accessories. This Amsterdam based company makes such amazing hats, mitts and scarves that I literally could not pick what to buy for the mm store. Here are 2 of my favourite styles that we have in for fall - the Kamikaze Bomber for kids and the Loggy Bomber for infants. Super styling and super warm - can't beat that.

The latest mini mioche model

I am incredibly excited to have a new little model for mini mioche arrive on the scene this week. Weston King was born on Wednesday, September 28th weighing 6 lbs 3 ounces. I have to admit, I am psyched to get to dress a boy even though I know it won't be that exciting. I could also use some boy inspiration for future mm collections. He is of course rocking mm for his first trip out in the real world - although given his small stature the only thing that would fit him was our preemie line from our very first collection 3 years ago (and it's still a little big on him). I am absolutely in love with the slippers which are from New Zealand brand, Kina (we sell them at the mini mioche store) - they are super cozy and a perfect fit and most importantly they stay on!

mini mioche on Dragon's Den

So back in April, I took a bit of risk and decided to go on the well known Canadian show, Dragon's Den to pitch the mini mioche retail concept. I guess you can say, I'm not exactly 'risk adverse'. The pitch ended up airing online only (they feature one 'web pitch' on the Dragon's Den web site each week and this is our week). Although it went down somewhat differently than the final edited version (to be expected when edited from 30 minutes down to 5), overall it was a really good experience. I'm disappointed that Kevin didn't get much air time in the final version - he and I actually got on pretty well.

If you want to check out the pitch, please click on the link below or visit www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/.

http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/episodes.html?ID=2145952169

New brand profile: Frye

We are so excited to have Frye for baby and kids arriving at the store for fall. I am a big fan of the brand - I have a bit of a Frye collection myself, both vintage and new and seriously, how ridiculously cute are the mini versions?