"Did You Know?" #4

Did you know that I (Zi) was born in Malaysia and so is Eva's husband, Alston? And Eva and my husband, John, were both born in the United States. So our cultural situation is sort of the opposite of each other. It's funny how this creates some common likes and dislikes among us.

For example, Alston and I both love to eat durian and Eva and John both really dislike it! When our families returned to Malaysia on separate occasions, Eva and John were both asked to try this wonderful "king of the fruit" but unfortunately, they both still didn't become a fan. Maybe we will just have to try again next time we are back =)

*Image taken from medic-herbal.blogspot.com

Don't know what a durian is? It is a tropical fruit, commonly found in South East Asian countries like Malaysia and Thailand. It is green and thorny on the outside and has several sections on the inside containing yellow fleshy meat wrapped around rather large pits. The smell is very strong and is often considered stinky by people who do not like the fruit. Fun fact about durian, when the fruit is ripe and ready to eat, it will fall by itself from the tree that often only happens at night so there aren't too many incidents of it actually falling on a person!

Any durian lovers out there? Let us know in the comments section!

Zi

Introducing BOJ Valentines!

We are so happy to introduce to you Bumble of Joy's first line of Valentines!

*Heart Warmer Valentines--set of 4

*DIY Valentines--set of 12

There are 2 wonderful sets that we have available for you--FIRST is a set of 4 special BOJ designs including some new characters that comes with cute heart-shaped hand warmer gifts made with 100% Cotton fabric filled with rice; SECOND is a wonderful DIY set of 12 (3 sets of 4 designs) that comes with Valentine cards and clear bags for YOU to fill with whatever treat you would like at an affordable low price!

In addition to these wonderful sets, we are happy to announce that we will be offering FREE SHIPPING on all our products from now to February 14th as a sign of our LOVE for all our wonderful readers and friends!

Go to our valentine's here or click on the "honeycomb" store tab above!

P/S We have reduced the price on Bumble's Calender, so make sure you check it out!

"Did You Know?" #3

Most of you may have already guessed that since both Eva and I are SAHM (stay at home moms) and WAHM (work at home moms) we get most of our sewing and designing for BOJ done at night after the kids are in bed. But did you know that our supportive husbands are usually our cutters? Meaning they usually have the job to help us cut out the patterns in fabric and we do the sewing. It is usually around this time, that they start to "question" our designs, like "Honey, does this design really need to be this small?" Or they start to get their creative juices running and say, "There has got to be a way to make this easier. Is there a punch or a machine that can cut this shape out in 1 step?" Maybe we will get another business idea this way, who knows!

Some of the designs that have been more "work" were the transportation line and the lunch buddies. If you haven't checked them out before, why don't you stop by the "honeycomb" store and see what they are all about!

If there is anything you would like to know about BOJ or Eva and I feel free to ask us in the comments and we will try to answer them in our next post!

Zi

BOJ Valentine Preview

Starting to look for Valentine's to give to your child's classmates? We will be offering a super cute 4 piece set here at BOJ very soon! Here is a sneak preview of one of the designs:

Make sure to check back again when we launch in our store!

Planning a Disney World Trip

Continuing our Disney theme from yesterday, both of our families have been talking about doing a Disney World trip in 2013. We have not nailed down anything yet but have started to do research, such as pinning a bunch of resources from Pinterest and ordering the planning DVD from Disney.

You can check out our Pinterest board here.

*Image taken from disneyworld.disney.go.com

It is pretty crazy the amount of planning and thought people put into Disney trips these days! Now, Eva and I are both big planners and are pretty organized but some of the sites we have visited even seem like overkill for us. We want to get the most out of trip and for the kids to have fun but probably won't go overboard with planning down to the minute what we will be doing.

For our readers that have gone before, any suggestions for us? What is the best and economical place to stay? Which parks and rides would you recommend for a group of kids that range from age 4 1/2 (possibly 5 by the time we go) to 1? What about food, did you pack your own/recommend a certain place/s to eat?

Would love to hear feedback from you guys!

Zi

Disney on Ice

One of my fondest memories as a little girl was going to my first Ice Capades featuring the Smurfs. La la la la la la.... It was a dream come true, my love of watching ice skating and the Smurfs too! We had a family friend who happened to know someone performing in the show and got front row tickets! I'll never forget when Smurfette was trying to hide from Gargamel in one scene and came up to me and "hid" in my lap. I was overjoyed and amazed she came up to me!

So when I saw a really good deal to see Disney on Ice I had to purchase some tickets. I knew my kids would love it but I had some convincing to do when it came to my husband. Over Christmas break we went to see Rockin' Ever After.  The show featured Ariel, Rapunzel, Merida & Belle.

MC's Mickey, Minnie, Donald & Goofy (not shown)

Tangled: Rapunzel, Flynn, & Maximus

Brave: Merida, triplets and clans

Beauty & the Beast

This show is perfect for all ages, boys and girls. N enjoyed it just as much as his sister.  He was mesmerized and clapped along. Great music, performances, theatrics and cool pyrotechnic effects. They already told me they would love to see another show.... and my husband would be happy to tag along too haha!

What was one of your fondest experiences as a child?

Eva

Birth Story: Lisa Ng from Expandng

Today we are excited to have our first birth story guest post from our faithful reader, Lisa! I'll let her introduce herself and share her amazing story:

 My name is Lisa, and I blog at expandng.com. I've known Eva for many years, probably since middle school, because we went to the same church as "kids". As that church expanded, Zi started attending, and I've known her since collage. Wow, time flies huh? Now that we're all "grown up", it's been wonderful seeing their business and blog grow, even as we live so many miles apart now. Thanks to Eva and Zi for letting me share my birth story on their blog today. The birth of our son was about 2.5 years ago. I won't share all of the details originally posted here. I remember that labor was looooooong, and by "labor", I mean from the time contractions first started (10pm) to the time I saw my son (6am, two days later). After a full night's sleep, I woke up thinking/hoping that today would be the day. Contractions became more regular in the afternoon. I remember falling asleep during show about the Autobon on TV. Did you know that European cars don't have as many cup holders as American cars? Anyways, I woke up and decided we should probably have dinner. During an episode of So You Think You Can Dance, the contractions start coming more frequently, and we get the "ok" from our OB to head to the hospital. I think Alan and I might have had a small fight in the car on the way to the hospital. Haha. Of all the times, right? I am finally in a labor & delivery room around 10pm. The events between water breaking and seeing my baby boy were pretty blurry, you know, with the pain and all. I had a beautifully perfect, epidural-free labor planned out, and it went out the window when our sunny side up baby was not moving down the birth canal after three hours of scary pushing. I nearly gave-up when the OB said it was time for a C-section. I was angry at myself for not being able to delivery our son the way I wanted, but I also really wanted him to be out. At 6:34am, our little baby boy was born at 7 lbs, 2 oz. I was quite emotional after having an unplanned C-section, but after 2.5 years watching our dear boy grow up, those feelings are in the past. If I had to do it all again, I would have truly prepared myself for the real possibility of a C-section. I wouldn't have let birth classes have me believing that a vaginal birth was the only way to have a child. Thanks again for letting me guest post, Eva and Zi, and thank YOU for reading! Feel free to stop by expandng.com!

Throwback Thursday: Making A Good Impression

* My husband, John and I, back in 2006 when we were still dating.

While trying to come up with an idea for Throwback Thursday this time, I decided to just write about a picture that I really like. This picture was taken back in April of 2006 when my husband I were still dating. In fact, we had only been dating for about 5 months at this point. And it is one of our favorite pictures of us.

It was taken at one of his good friend's wedding and he was a groomsman. This was the first time I would be meeting many of his friends from NYC and I was a bit nervous. I wanted to make a good impression and hoped that everyone would like me. 

I remember telling John we needed to go shopping so I could pick up a new outfit to wear to the wedding. And he was so sweet and bought me an entirely new outfit, from my dress, to my jacket, purse, and shoes! 

Though I was nervous in the beginning, all of his friends were great and made me feel really comfortable and welcomed that day. I ended up having a great day meeting his friends and celebrating the wedding day of his good friend.

What are some of the things you have done to make a good impression?

Zi

"Did You Know?" #2

Did you know that the Monsters Magnet line was created totally by coincidence? We were both trying to come up with more boy friendly designs and showed up at our next business meeting/play date with monsters as one of our designs!

If you missed it the first time they came out, make sure you check them out at our "honeycomb" store. Also, there were coloring pages for our monster elections between Mittens and Pajamas! Get all our previous coloring pages at our downloads tab up top.

Any questions you would like to ask about Bumble of Joy? Let us know in the comment section and we will try to answer them in our next post.

Zi

"Did You Know?" Series Intro

In January, we will be doing a little series of posts called the "Did You Know?" posts. They will give you some little known facts that hopefully will give you more insight into Bumble of Joy as a company, our products, and also Eva and I as designers!

We will still have other posts mixed in throughout the month but hope our readers will enjoy some "behind the scene" looks into Bumble of Joy.

Also don't forget we would love to share some of our reader's labor stories, so send them on over to bumbleofjoy@gmail.com.

So here we go with the first "Did You Know?" post:

Did you know that one of the first Bumble of Joy hair clips were made by Eva as birthday gifts for E2 and E3? The "original" designs were the strawberry and apple hair clips which became Sassy Strawberry and A+ Apple.

With those designs as starting off points, we have come up with more designs for our hair clips and with more to come! If you haven't checked out our "honeycomb" store in a while, I suggest going for a visit again today!

Let us know if there are any things you would like to know more about Bumble of Joy and we will try to answer them in the coming posts!

Zi

Happy New Year!

Wishing all our readers a very happy and prosperous new year! May all your resolutions and dreams come true in 2013.

Eva and Zi