Were all worn within the first twelve months of her walking this earth.

But let’s face it- baby clothes are FUN. They are cute, they are soft, and with a baby, you don’t ever have to worry about whether or not the baby will think the shirt/romper/bloomers makes her butt look big or thighs chubby or faced washed out. Babies just wear what you give them and smile. 

So when the Tea Collection, purveyor of Designer Children’s Clothing, asked me if I wanted to shop their new fall collection, I emailed back YES! YES! YES! You see, our extended family is being blessed with baby girls this year. By the end of 2011, we will have three brand-new, beautiful nieces. And guess what? All of these baby girls will need new clothes! All of them! (they are all getting a bag of MaM’s greatest hits as well, btw)

Looking around Tea Collection’s site, their Amate Aves Raglan Dress and leggings to go with it. She’s enamored with the bird on the skirt.

We also picked a romper for a little niece about to be born in Milwaukee– don’t you think the Pava Real Romper will keep her warm on those cold winter days next to Lake Michigan??

MaM eagerly awaited the arrival of her picks, and she tried her outfit on right away. It fit perfectly, the sizing chart was right on the money. The romper is soft and darling, and I can’t wait to gift it to my soon-to-arrive niece. The biggest hit though, was the coloring book that came with the order. This fall’s collection is from Mexico, so the coloring book features traditional Mexican art.

Dislcosure: In exchange for this blog post, Tea Collection provided me with a gift certificate for some online shopping. The opinions expressed above are uniquely my own.

No related posts.

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Fun and sun were had by all!

We had a full week of fun at my parents’ timeshare (thanks, Mom and Dad), complete with hours and hours of swimming by the pool, ice cream eating, and watching cable TV.

We also met the Mouse. If you’ve met the Mouse, you know that it’s an expensive venture. We were on the fence about doing it,  as I’m sure many parents are, because if your kid wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, you may as well have set fire to a couple of  hundred dollar bills and call it a day. (I wrote about the money aspect of our Disney visit at Persephone this week)

Guess what? The kids woke up on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED.

We got there in plenty of time to see the welcoming show and see Mickey open the park.

We met thirteen different characters, including three princesses, Mary Poppins, Woody & Jessie. They signed our autograph books and gave hugs and made the kids feel like a million bucks.

We rode fifteen rides, MaM rode three of them twice. There were no lines, the crowds were thin and navigating the park was easy.

We had a sit down lunch, which was perfect for cooling off and taking a  breather during the heat of the day.

We were actually able to stay through until the park’s fireworks finale.

A week later, the kids are still talking about it.

I love vacation.

Related posts:

1. Announcing: Family Fun in the City.com!
2. Summer Vacation? We Have an App for That
3. Staycation 2011: Kahuna Style

Right now Muhtar Kent (CEO of Coke) and Dan Cathy (CEO of Chik-Fil-A) are sitting down onstage together. Kent is outlining Coca Cola’s goals — the focus is sustainability in many different ways.

There’s kind of a lot of Coca Cola & Chik-Fil-A love going on here.

Dan’s givig Muhtar credit for being so versatile in business — he can run the grocery store part as well as the higher level management.

What keeps Muhtar up at night? His answer: arrogance.

Coca Cola is the fourth largest private employer in the world. When your out in the marketplace, meeting all types of people, you learn. He visits stores at least once a week, no matter where he is.

Dan Cathy is now talking about how he likes doing things no one has done or other fast food joints wouldn’t dare do. He’s proud of his kitchen staff, drive throughs, etc.

Muhtar is learning how important is for consumers wanting to vote not just for great products, but also the character of the company behind the products. Companies are being held to moral contracts with the consumer.

He’s also talking about how technology is impacting the world — everyone knows everything now. He’s learning about how this technology is changing consumer behavior and what that means for brands. We need to create a dialogue with consumers. No more monologues.

Oh my — now there’s a trumpet call and a Coca-Cola cake in honor of Coke’s 125th anniversary.

My seat mate just said, “Good information, boring delivery”. It was kind of a quiet talk, but yes, good information.

Dave Ramsey is up next!

Tripp Crosby is opening for Dave with a video  at Financial Peace University. He’s talking cheese and cracker envelope vs his khaki pants envelope. And buying his iPad on credit with skymiles, I think. Dave is DYING. Tripp is truly a trip. I hope this one’s on YouTube.

Dave is now getting the crowd excited.

“Seth Godin has so many brain cells he can’t hold hair on his head.” He’s complimenting the whole line up, noting how it goes downhill as the day goes on, and now we’re stuck with him.

He talks really, really fast. But if you’re a fan, you know this.

His business has grown from his living room to a company that employs 300 people.

He tells us his workforce is young, they don’t know how to dress but they are really smart, AND apparently, they’re very fertile. Lots of babies and whatnot. The company picnic ends up being 1000 people (wow!) and there are close to 100 kids under the age of nine.

He had his son look at the bounce house set up, and asked him what he saw. And he told his son that he saw a bunch of little kids, and that if your dad messes up, those kids may not have the good kind of life if I make bad decision. Leadership is a service. Son, I’m not the boss of those people, I’m the servant.  (he’s kind of giving me chills)

He then launched into a responsiblity speech to his teenage son.

That’s Leadership.

What are the key things that have built his business?

5 key things for winning:

He mentioned the I-Surrender-All moment. Everything was going to be God’s way.

1) We believe inthe DNA of our organization — People Matter. Your customers matter. They are not units of revenue.Your team matters. They are not units of production. Does your ream know you love them? The way you treat them? Your vendors matter. Your competitors matter. They’re people too.

2) An incredible team matters where excellence matters. We want a building full a smart people who are nice. Prayer starts the hiring process — kind of a comical prayer, to be hones. Zero tolerance policy for gossip. Shut up and get your work done. Hang your negatives up and your positives down. You get one warning, the second time you are set free.

3) Slow and steady matters. When you’re distracted by shiny things, you can’t run your business. The Tortiose always wins. This is a culture of Hares. Business is cooked in crock pot. I’ve worked my butt off for 15 years, now I’m an overnight success.

4) Financial Principles Matters. Run your company on less than it takes in. When everything screeched to a halt in the fall of 2008? I was not scared. It’s because he was financially secure. When everything’s going good, stupid looks Ok. Even a turkey can fly in a tornado. You can tell you was skinny dipping when the tide goes out. Be generous in your organization.

5) A Higher Calling Matters. When you play for something bigger than you, you try harder. When you play for your country, your Lord, you work harder. How has the Cathy family turned chicken into a higher calling? It’s not about the chicken, is it? Business is tough. If you’re not playing for a higher calling, you’ll quit. It’s not what you do that matters, it’s the WHY you do it. You better know what your “why” is , or you’ll quit.

He doesn’t do exit interviews — he doesn’t need to hear the criticism. He’s getting Americans straightened out with their money.

“Me and Jenny Craig, we got a big job.”

He’s been studying family businesses, and how they transition from generation to generation. Leaving a legacy that’s solid, that’s a higher calling.

What’s that thing that you’ve done?

Related posts:

1. Chik Fil A Leadercast Indy (session 2)
2. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy (session 3)
3. Chik-Fil-A LeaderCast Indy Live Blog (session 1)

Frans Johnansson is now up!

Then 90 second version – he comes from his parents, born/raised in Sweden, he and his sister where the two non-blue eyed, blondes in the country.He went  to Harvard, had a software company and then wrote a book.

The Medici Effect.

He’s got words popping up on screen, generating some word association.You can combine diverse ideas.

Diversity Drives Innovation

He goes on to give the examples of a skyscraper in Africa which mimics the venting system of termite mounds.

He goes on to tell us about the woman who made a suitable swimming suit for Muslim women.

Why do people who change the world try so many ideas? Stats on Einstein, Richard Branson and Google —

We are terrible at predicting what ideas will work.

We are not always going to be successful.

Imagine that you have an idea. You want to make it happen. You set up a goal. It’s huge. Who wants to be involved in anything that’s small? It’s an ambitious, large goal. You use up all your resources….and you learn from the experience, you should have done it differently.

He talks about the Ice Hotel in Sweden — the first winter, he has ice sculptures flown in.

The next year, he creates the snow gallery, an art gallery made of snow

The next year, the world’s first movie screen made out of ice. Some backpackers came to the event and asked if they could sleep somewhere — maybe on a bed made of ice?!!?

And the Ice Hotel was born.

This is how ideas evolve.

Jack Welch is now introducing Suzy Welch.

Suzy is talking about how none of us are the people we used to be — but we are not the people we have yet become. We are always changing.

Sometimes we get stuck between who we used to be and the person that we want to be. We can get stuck in the “i Can’ts”

She’s talking about her first marriage, and how she was living a picture — it all looked very good, but it was all very fake.

While at a conference in Hawaii, she was presenting to a group of insurance agents — when she saw her kids in the back of the room. They’d made a jail break from the hulu-class and made a launch for her down the aisle.

NOT GOOD.

In evaluating her life, she realized she needed to start making better decisions. Not on the two G’s — Gut and Guilt. Her decisions needed to slow down.

10-10-10 works because it connects your decision making to your values. How does this decision effect your life in  10 minutes 10 months, in 10 years?

Legacy. FFWD to your 70th birthday party. What would make you cry from regret?(what a deep question)

Next: What do you want people to say about you when you’re not in the room?  (these are some good questions)

LAst Question: What did you love about your upbringing? What did you hate? (wow, I think I could think about these questions all the way to Florida)

Even if we don’t like something about our past, we tend to relive it.

Alison Levine is up next! I’m running out of juice…don’t know how much more I’ll be able to blog today!

Related posts:

1. Chik Fil A Leadercast Indy (session 2)
2. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy, Closing Session
3. Chik-Fil-A LeaderCast Indy Live Blog (session 1)

Did you know that there’s a Chik-Fil-A Bowl? they are giving away tickets in Atlanta, and holding twitter contest giveaways to the satellite locations. I love how they are supporting the use of Twitter, btw.

Mack Brown is starting this session on the Voice of Purpose. He is apparently a football coach of some note. John Maxwell is conducting an interview –Coach Brown went to the Middle East after a former player asked him to do so — via cargo plane. They visited troops in the hospital in Germany. Coach Brown is talking about how the troops there, severely injured soldiers, just wanting to get back to their guys on the front lines.

Three cheers for the Osama capture — the Armed Forces teaches leadership every day. Our military is strong, and proud, and we should all appreciate what they do.

Maxwell: What do you for in recruiting?

Brown: They look for the great players — if on video, you can’t tell he’s a great player in 5 plays, turn it off. He also needs to have atleast a 3.0 and be on a winning team. …….we want them to be good leaders in their community.

Maxwell: What’s your purpose for coaching? Beyond the wins/losses?

Brown: You have to win, or you can’t continue to do what you do. ((aside–good point)).

Apparently, Texas football is important. They made $93 million last year, spent $25 million on the program, the rest of the money goes to the other college programs. (seriously?!?! DAMN!) If they aren’t winning, he’s no longer coaching. (pressure much?)

Maxwell: Last year wasn’t your best year — what can you say to folks who aren’t having their best year?

Brown: About the time it gets easy is about the time you’re gonna get into trouble……..we went to work, but we didn’t create that same edge.  You better create an edge every day. You lose your edge, and they played better against us. Your worst day can give you your best results, because we wouldn’t have gone back to work so hard.

Sir Ken Robinson is up next ,according to Tripp Crosby. I don’t really know who Tripp is, but he’s ,well, a total trip. He’s showing us how he was knighted at Medieval Times and now walking the streets. You kind of need to see it to get it.

Sir Ken Robinson was knighted by the Queen of England and is a voice of innovation.

He’s warming the crowd up with his observations on LA, Las Vegas and his renewing of his marriage vows with the “Blue Hawaii” package.

Now he’s working his way to the point — there’s no reason for Las Vegas to be there. Most cities have a geographical advantage– Vegas is in the middle of nowhere.

Vegas is there because of humans. (aside -only humans can pole dance, but that’s not why LV is there) — LV is just an idea, it’s the power of human imagination.

You can predict some things — you know when Haley’s comet is coming back. But you can’t predict human affairs. Are you doing know what you thought you’d be doing at 15?

Very many people don’t enjoy the work they do or the lives they leave — they don’t enjoy it, they just get on with it, and they wait for the weekend. They endure their lives.

The people who love what they do and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. They are in their element.

You’re doing something for which you have a natural aptitude. (does it sound like I’m typing in a British accent? Because I totally am)

Creativity rises from imagination, it’s the natural gift of human intelligence. Most adults think they’re not creative. Yet, all children think that they are.

CHildren are born with immense creative capacities, but many of use lose them as they get older. Yet, they are the greatest resource of any organizaiton.

We are living now in time of revolution. Literally. Technology is changing everything. Transforming economy, work, social life and culture.

When I was born in 1950, you could buy four gadgets.

A record player (they had one record– Tom Dooley)

The telephone

The television

The radio

If you had those four things, you had no reason to back to Best Buy. (btw, I LOVE HIM. I LOVE SIR KEN ROBINSON)

Technology is one factor, the second is population (his reasoning for calling our time a revolution).

Three key terms — imagination, creativity and innovation –innovation is putting good ideas into practice.

Creativity and innovation are now fundamental issues to every industry on earth. But we have to look very hard to how we’re educating our children — factory model, not inovative.

>>Jab at No Child Left Behind<< (it’s doing the opposite — leaving millions of children behind)

Your kids are different from each other, aren’t they? You’d never confuse them, would you?(point that one size fits all doesn’t work in education)

Leadership is about movement ….

oh, closing remarks. Now he’s gone…..oh come back Sir Ken Robinson. Seriously, I could listen to him ALL DAY.

Erin Gruwell is up next.

“I’m an ordinary person who had an extraordinary experience”. She talks about seeing footage of Tiennamen Square, and she realized that she never stood up for anything. She decided she no longer wanted to be a lawyer, so she became a teacher. She moved to LA and joined a school in a community where 126 kids were killed in just the previous year.

Her students laughed at her syllabus. 150 kids strong — she had the lowest 150 kids in a community of 90,000 kids. They just came from boot camp, or juvenile hall, or from foster care. All 150 of them scored in the bottom  25% of the standardized tests.

She thought about ways to get her students to tell her their stories.

She got them to play a game, “stand on the line” –it made them see that they all came from a similar place.  She is telling some serious tales — bout poverty, drugs, homelessness, CPS, etc.  Seriously powerful stuff. (she points out they are 30 minutes from Disneyland and 45 minutes from 90210, but these kids have been at war)

Her idea — she asked her department if she can use books by kids who have been at war — Anne Frank, etc.

The chair of the English department said they were too stupid, too dumb to read a book.

That inspired her to do better. To show them that they were better than that.

She started with the Diary of Anne Frank, and her students found themselves.

They started writing letters to authors they read — and they realized they were rewriting their own ending.

150 kids penned their own story.

Here’s more about Freedom Writers. I’m kind of overwhelmed right now — every school needs an Erin Gruwell.

Related posts:

1. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy (session 3)
2. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy, Closing Session
3. Chik-Fil-A LeaderCast Indy Live Blog (session 1)

I’m blogging from the downtown Marriott, listeing to John C Maxwell speak live from Atlanta. He’s starting on the 5 steps of Leadership.

Level 1: A leadership position in title. The people who follow you follow you because they have to — they follow you to get their paycheck. They will give you the very least, because people don’t like to do it. How can you tell if you are a leader in this kind of environment??

At 4:30, people clear their desks.

They talk to co-workers.

At 4:50, they go to the bathroom. They like to pee on company time.

At 4:57 they are just waiting to leave

At 5:00, they are out the door.

Also a sign? People back into their parking spots– they like to make a quick getaway.

At Level 2: Permission Level

People begin to follow you because they want to do so. What’s happened? You (the leader) have connected with your people. You’ve gotten to know each other, and  you’ve become a supervisor people like.

People in leadership positions need to be likeable.

Relationships are the foundation of leadership. You cannot influence someone you antagonize.

1) Listen Well, take all of your leadership cues from listening

2) They observe, and are conscious of where their people are and what they are doing

3) They are learning.

They have an attitude of serving. They love to serve.

Level 3: 1) They produce by example. People produce what they see. You can’t send people where you haven’t been yourself.

Your leadership gains credibility because you are starting to produce. You attract people you want to be productive. Law of magnetism. We attract who we are, not what we want.

Managers solve problems, leaders create momentum.

Momentum at level 3 leadership with take care of 80% of the problems.

Level 4: quick check– are you learning something?

People development level. This is what he (maxwell) lives for.

You commit to developing the people of an organization. You build an organization by growing people.

1) the key to devleoping good people is recruitment — the better they are, the better they’ll become.

Successful leaders discover what other people are good at.

At level 4, you recruit well, position well and equip well.

Level 5: The Pinnacle Level — RESPECT. You’ve done it so well for so long, people just follow you because of what you have done. It takes a long time to get to level 5. Leadership is always an ongoing, growing, learning process.

Your assignemnt: Take the people that you lead, write down their names and think about what level you are on with each one of your people. Once you know, you’ll know how to lead them. The commitment level of your people is higher, the higher the level you’re on.

Seth Godin is Up Next!

The Act of Making a Decision

He’s staring with seeing the future/seeing what we want to see: starting with the newspaper business. Newspapers should have seen 15 years ago that 10 years from now, we are not going to chop down trees, print a paper, have it delivered to your house, even if you’re not home, something for you to read. After 15 minutes, you’ll recycle it. It won’t be happening forever. But papers don’t want to see that.

There are two ways to get marry, walk up to someone in a bar and propose. Keep asking people til someone gets married. The other way to do it is to go on a date, if it works, keep going out until you want to get married.

Are you invisible or are your remarkable?

Yelling doesn’t work ,average doesn’t work becasue it’s boring. (mass marketing to the masses no longer works)

Now he’s talking about socks — wanna see my socks? That’s the marketing strategy — three socks to a pack, they don’t match. $10 packs, marketed to 12 yr old girls. “Our job is to give 12yr old girls something to talk about at recess”

How did you decide to spend the extra money? You tell yourself a story about our worldview.

Now he’s holding a record. For a long time, the music industry was perfect. You hear music on the radio for free, and you could buy it at the record store. You play it enough, and it wears out and you buy another one.

Then digital comes along, and you can listen to anything you want for free. What did the music industry do? They sued their biggest customers. That’s a strategy.

Either you defend or you invent the future. The Future doesn’t care if you believe in it. Either you’re leading it or you’re not.

The edge of the box is where the magic happens. That’s where the action is. It makes people nervous.

Henry Ford was the most important person in the 20th century by far. He figured out mass production and interchangeable parts.

Interchangeable parts brings us to interchangeable people. This is the discussion of our time. It’s what we all grew up with, and now it’s not working so well. Interchangeable people are really good at running a factory that makes average stuff.

It’s not smart enough.

The notion of choosing to be irreplaceable is frightening.

We need individuals who will lead, not manage. Management is what you do when you want your employees to do what they did yesterday, a little faster, a little cheaper.

Leadership is giving them a platform and then getting out the way. It’s being surprised by the the people who work for you. It means giving up control. Are you in the business of complying or do you want to own things.

What used to be scarce is now abundant (books on paper, vs. books on Kindle). What’s scarce now? Our attention.

Zappos — if someone takes the time to call customer service, that’s the greatest marketing oppotunity of them all. Their phone reps are encouraged to keep people on the phone.

You’re either an accountant, doing it again and again, or a you’re an artist– doing something that’s never been done before.

(This is seriously motivating and an interesting look at the future of business)

The problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win (doing average things for cheap)

Related posts:

1. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy, Closing Session
2. Chik Fil A Leadercast Indy (session 2)
3. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy (session 3)

Chik-Fil-A’s Leadercast is no exception. Every year, Chik-Fil-A brings together the top leaders from across many disciplines and puts together a day’s worth of inspirational presentations on leadership. The grand event takes place in Atlanta, and it’s broadcast at various venues across the country. And Indy has a venue.

The JW Marriot to be precise ((squee!)).

Leadercast is an annual Chik-Fil-A event, showcasing some of the most inspirational speakers around. This year’s line up includes Sir Ken Robinson, Dave Ramsey, and Suzy Welch.

BgK and I will be attending this year, and I can’t wait. A full day of grown-ups, listening to successful people and eating Chik-Fil-A sounds like a win-win-win to me.

You can register on line and join us this coming Friday!

BgK’s been having fun with the Chik-Fil-A cow — they are both looking forward to Friday!

Related posts:

1. Chik Fil A Leadercast Indy (session 2)
2. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy (session 3)
3. Chik-Fil-A Leadercast Indy, Closing Session

That’s when I started noticing something that still made me roll my eyes and mutter every morning: email. Precisely, the 395964820 promotional emails I get every.single.day.

Sure, when I was reading Anna Karenina with Oprah, it made sense to get the daily newsletter that highlighted each week’s reading selection. But after I was done with that book, I never unsubscribed.

It made sense to get those Travelocity fare watcher emails when I was looking for plane fares last summer, but we’re not flying this summer.

And while I love looking at all Groupon offers in the midwest, I don’t need to see all of them every day (I’ll probably end up saving a lot of money, actually).

I won’t notice not getting pizza, oil change, and clothing deals every week.

I should save a little time every day not doing a massive delete, I’ll let go of the nagging “I should really click through and read this”, and I’ll avoid getting crazy ideas like “yes! I should totally by 24 widgets to  get 6 free”.

I stopped short of taking a screenshot, but it’s true — I unsubscribed from over 40 different subscriptions today. 28 days down, only 12 more to go!

Related posts:

1. 40 Bags in 40 Days: Bags 6 through 14
2. 40 Bags in 40 Days: The First Five Bags
3. 40 Bags in 40 Days: Palm Sunday

Bag #6: This is actually not a new bag, but a bag that’s been packed for awhile but not delivered. I delivered it, so I counted it!

Bag#7: Conquered the bathroom vanity while the boy took a bath. Expired ointment, dried out tubes, and old toothbrushes be gone!

I did finally start in on the closet of doom, the one under the stairs that is the catch-all for the entire first floor of our home. What happens is that we get tired of the clutter in the living room, so we stash it in the closet. Things tend to go in, but never come back out.

Bag #8: The first bag from the closet of doom was actually a box — a box of infant and toddler toys is ready for charity!

Bag #9: A bag of broken crayons, used coloring books, and dead markers vacated the closet of doom.

Bag #10: Sorted through of box of papers from the closet of doom, the recycling bin was filled to the brim this week!

Over the weekend, I took a break from the closet of doom and focused on the bedrooms.

Bag #11: Dead electronics mad there way to the electronic graveyard in the garage, soon to be delivered to the recycling center

Bag #12: In cleaning out the boy’s dresser and getting it ready for spring, I got a bag together to pass on and a bag for charity.

Bag #13: More toy cars and some more toddler toys went out the door.

I  finally did get back to that closet. Instead of doing it on the sly, I started it today, while MaM is home with a cough and the Fox is here too. We basically emptied everything, and then started sorting. It was interesting in what caught their attention and what really didn’t. I was able to actually start a trash bag while they were within mere feet of it — something I didn’t think possible.

Bag #14: a bag of trash, broken pieces, toys that frustrated the heck out of at least one child, and books too well-loved to pass on. I also added to the bags in the garage that will be passed on to friends and charity.

Tomorrow is Day #15 — Lent is 1/3 of the way over, and I don’t think I’ll be running out of clutter anytime soon.

Related posts:

1. 40 Bags in 40 Days: Bags 15 -22
2. 40 Bags in 40 Days: The First Five Bags
3. 40 Bags in 40 Days