Spring Fever

Spring has finally come to Portland, Maine.  Today, we should reach a high of 64 degrees.  Trees are starting to show a true commitment to budding and soon the lilacs will be in full force.  Kids are in shorts with no jackets!  To say it was a long winter would be an understatement.  We're so happy to have the windows open and the kids OUTSIDE!  

It is time to climb trees, plant gardens and go to the beach.  With this new season also comes a new breath of fresh air for eco-kids.  We are at it developing four new products to introduce this August at NY NOW.  Like life, this business is in a constant cycle.  It is this time of year that we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off from our busiest time of the year.   Now we get to the art of bringing concepts to life and eco-kids products to shelves.  We have always been blessed with the constant support of locally owned toy stores and boutiques.  This past year we have started to find eco-kids products on shelves in larger chain stores.  Growing is the goal.  More USA made products, equals more USA jobs.  The more support and shelf space eco-kids takes up means the less room for "other" products that are not made with our environment in mind.  It is also important to remember that we are not all environmentally conscious.  For some people, it was just a matter of growing up without the environment being an important subject.  That being said, when a new customer picks up our products in a small store or a large chain, hopefully they read the box, see our ingredients, notice the responsible packaging and a change can start to happen for them on the way they view our planet.  

One individual change of perception is not only a change for them, but its one more person who cares about the environment for all of us, regardless of what store they found us in.  

earth day ~ every day

Negative to Positive to Freedom

Negative to Positive to Freedom

When you come up with an idea, do all the work to develop it, manufacture and introduce it at market you become not only financially attached but emotionally attached as well.   The product and the work becomes personal, and it feels like it is yours.  When other companies start following your lead and echoing your ideas and products, the first reaction is usually a negative one.  There is no doubt about it...you came up with a great product and other people are riding in your wake.  You could feel cheated and have ill will toward the companies copying your products, websites and press photos.  Who hasn't sat around and looked at a product, or talked about an idea and said, "Gosh I wish I had come up with that".   This thought process is negative and could instill bad vibes that will transcend through out your day.  You have to choose how to live your life, and eco-kids chooses to be grateful and humbled.

Excepting positivity is an amazing feeling that can change your day, your week, your life.

Being open to others without judgement is an overwhelming experience.  As we go into our fifth year we have seen other natural art supply companies come and go.  We have met them along the way at trade shows around the country.  We have always wished them well as eco-kids believes there is room for all of us.  This year we noticed a few companies following in our footsteps and putting there own spin on the products eco-kids developed.  One product in particular is the eco-eggs coloring kit™.  A few GREAT companies have made beautiful versions of our eco-eggs coloring kit™.  One of those companies is GLOB.  This company started a few years ago making a natural powder based paint set.  This year they introduced there Natural Easter Egg Coloring Kit.  This kit is beautifully packaged and made in the USA.   Another company is WE CAN TOO with their Nature's Magic Egg Dying Kit.  Look them up, check them out, read their story, and try their products.  Seriously!

One would think it would be hard to see other companies following us, but instead of negativity, eco-kids chooses to welcome them.  There is room for all of us and the truth is,  we need more companies like eco-kids, GlOB and WE CAN TOO!  Not only in the natural art world but for every product we consume in every category in everyday life.  We need to support one another until we have taken over the shelves at all of our beautiful mom and pop toy stores, mid tear franchises, and as blasphemous as it may sound every big box stores in America.  Yes I am saying it…WAL-MART,  TARGET,  HOME DEPOT, TOYS R US,  WILLIAMS-SONOMA and GAP!  The more companies like eco-kids, GLOB and Wee CAN TOO that have their products on shelves, the better it is for the consumer, for children, and for this earth.  It's all about small companies making responsible products and taking care of the environment along the way.  I would rather see our products on the shelves than PVC based action figures from the newest blockbuster movie saturating our kids minds.

This positive way of thinking and living will set you free!  Support all that are making strides to change the world. And I say to them, competitor or not, "DON'T STOP!"  There IS room for us all.  I hope to meet you along my path.  Maybe at a trade show and then a discussion at a coffee shop.  I am proud of all of these companies, as you all should be too.


“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits.  Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Giving Back

When Cammie first started making eco-dough® it was to give to our kids, our kids friends and the children Cammie would nanny for.  When we decided to sell our eco-dough® at the Hollywood Farmers market we were overwhelmed with encouraging words.  If a child enjoyed our product while visiting the booth we always wanted to make sure they left with dough regardless of whether or not money was exchanged.  When we started our company we were never worried about keeping inventory counts.  It just felt better to give our excess product away to people.  We would trade with other vendors at the market, and they were kind to us.  I would sometimes leave the market with a box full of heirloom tomatoes, vegetables and fresh cut wild flowers.  All the necessities to fill a house, body and mind with joy. 

As eco-kids has grown we've never had a budget for PR and Marketing.  What we did have was a willingness to donate or give our products away to a good cause or a family in need.  Giving away gift baskets to be raffled off at schools and doing give-aways on blogs around the country seemed to be the perfect fit for eco-kids.  We have been very fortunate to be surrounded by a supportive customer base, family and friends. 

So to continue on this path, this Spring we have decided to do a eco-eggs coloring kit™ give away.  We've put 5 golden tickets randomly in our eco-eggs coloring kit™ reminiscent of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.  The lucky winners will receive our entire line of products, PLUS eco-kids will donate $500 worth of art supplies to a charity or cause of that child's choice.  

As we continue to grow it is nice to be reminded of where eco-kids 

came from and our core beliefs.

What is the perception of success?

When we ask ourselves what success means to us there are many different answers.  Most commonly the answer is money. 
 
To me success is accomplishment, and it comes in many forms.  Whether it be finishing a paper, passing a course, running a marathon, teaching your child to announce they need to go to the bathroom or today it means putting 9 pallets of natural egg coloring kits in my driveway for pick up and delivery to Williams-Sonoma.  Our kits will be available in every Williams-Sonoma store in North America including Canada and online.  This endeavor took four months of planning and executing.  We had to hire more staff, stock more product and buy more natural vegetable extracts than ever before.  All this came at a cost to us at eco-kids both financially and psychologically.  As we drained our bank accounts to fill this order we were put to the test as a company, family and at one point had to ask ourselves, "How far are we willing to go?".

For us the answer was simple, all the way, until it works or fails.  You keep going and pushing because you know there is light at the end of the tunnel.  If you can visualize the end, then all you have to do is put the pieces of the puzzle together to get there.  When you own and operate your own business and manufacture the products yourself, it is a feat that you even remember your name at times.  There are days when you struggle to answer "Why are we doing this?".  Then, there are days like today where I stand in my driveway surrounded by success.  We made the right orders, asked for the right favors, our staff did the work that was required, and now we reach another national level.  You might look at all this "success" and think it is filled with money...but it's not.  The cost of ramping up production comes with it's own growing pains.  What I see in this photo, is a family with a dream, who went from the farmers market to the national market.  I see the hard work of our employees, whom in return got a fair wage and are able to work toward their dreams.  I see pride in a job well done. I see a small made in the USA business risking it all to get to this point.  A big and a small business providing for a nation, all out of a house in Portland Maine.  Our bank accounts may not be filled with paper gold, but to me, that has success written all over it. 

We are off to the the New York Toy Fair!

A Field of dreams

A Field of Dreams

The Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies. An Iowa corn farmer hears voices in his head and he interprets them as a call to build a baseball diamond in his fields and "he" will come.  To me it is a film about dreams and realizations.  Burt Lancaster plays a talented ball player who ends up becoming a family doctor.  In the end he faces a choice to be a ball player and live out his childhood dream or cross the line and save a child, and be the doctor.  I won't leave you in suspense, he crossed the line, he saved the child, and he realized he was living his dream by being the doctor.

Today, Cammie and I took Maggie to Wholefoods in Portland, Maine to visit a very special end cap. (Industry term for the end of an aisle which a store considers prime real estate.)  A few years ago, I started hearing voices in my head.  Make it and "they" will come.  Cammie and I have always wanted to start a Natural Food Company where we make safe food coloring for our children.  So after several years of research, Maggie's Naturals was imagined, conceptualized and now realized.  I am a constant believer of "imagine it and it will one day be".  There were many hurdles in getting our product to market, which makes today all the more satisfying.

I have pursued quite a few large dreams in my life, and have made a few of them come true.  I am so happy to have this picture so that Maggie will always remember to dream, and dream BIG!  This is only the start for Maggie's Naturals.  

As an added bonus as we were leaving Whole Foods we noticed another small business on another end cap...

One of those moments

I recently had one of those moments.  You know the ones where you laugh at life and wonder how you got where you are at that certain moment.  

There I was in Augusta, Maine at the back bay of our printer who had just finished a custom order where our new art pads and crayons had to be shrink wrapped as a bundle.  I was in between two large freight trucks in my minivan and could not stop thinking about the farmers markets in California from where we came.  I felt encouraged, and hopeful for a busy Holiday season and first quarter of 2013.  You need these moments when you run your own business to remind you to keep going.  Maybe one day those trucks will say eco-kids and they will be leaving from our distribution center.  

You have to imagine it for it to become reality...right?  

Build a Block set

It is part of life sometimes to feel disconnected.  

Life sometimes feels rudimentary. Something happens like Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast and the people on the West Coast are reading about it on there home page.  It happens to all of us when something tragic occurs thousands of miles away.  For me personally,  it's times like this that connect us most.  Flights are cancelled around the country affecting busy schedules and lives.  We start to read the stories of the aftermath and the people who were hit the hardest.  The pictures start to amaze us, like the shark swimming around the yard in New Jersey and stories of perseverance start to emerge.  I think of the hospitals that got evacuated, I think of the staff and nurses that worked so hard to make sure that other peoples family's were safe.  My thoughts are with the people who lost a loved one. I also hope that those without electricity and food will soon get relief. 

On the business side of Hurricane Sandy, an entire country is affected.  Businesses are closed or running on a skeleton staff,  orders are lost or delayed and guaranteed deliveries have no guarantee anymore.  Anyone who works with, or relies on,  manufacturing that comes out of the hardest hit areas finds themselves making adjustments to keep there businesses moving forward.  Here at eco-kids this is the case.  The company that was helping manufacture our bio degradable marker casings is based in Long Island and they have been dramatically affected by Hurricane Sandy.  Our hope to have the new eco-markers in stores by the holiday season will not be met.  With this news adjustments and tough choices have been made.  The company that produces our eco-markers is assessing the extent of the damage to their factory and we wish them luck.  For us, we are postponing a great new product that represents hundreds of man hours.  For them, they may lose a business that represents millions of dollars in property, production, employment, and livelihood.

So as our connection to Hurricane Sandy leads us to postpone the release of our eco-markers, we are now focusing on getting our stores the new eco-build a block set.  Another product we are proud of here at eco-kids!  A 100% recycled cardboard build a block set that inspires imagination and creativity.  

Life has to move forward and you have to land from the bumps in the road and be open to the path that is in front of you.