Wednesday, July 30, 2008

No Disney Allowed: Decorating you kids room!



Kristina for Baby Center has the right idea! She take the words right out our mouths here at Olive Kids... Read what she had to say about Olive Kids bedding...

"Honestly, I have nothing against Disney. Or Noggin. Or PBS Kids. My 3-year-old daughter and baby boy have clothes and toys featuring TV and movie characters. And goodness knows, there have been times when we’ve watched way too much kiddie television.

But when it comes to the decor of my kids’ rooms, I just don’t want commercial characters taking center stage. For one thing, it’s not practical: One day your kid loves Cinderella; the next day, it’s Dora. It would be too expensive, too wasteful and too annoying to change a room based on a child’s whims. Besides, I want my kids’ rooms to be magical places where imaginations run wild.

So when my daughter got a big-girl bed, we went shopping for playful bedding that did more than promote a brand for a deep-pocketed corporation.

The search continued for a few months, with my daughter using old twin sheets and a tattered comforter.
Then the folks at Olive Kids–a mom and dad-owned company headquartered in a New England barn–sent a pink, tea-party bedding set for review on mom blogs such as this one.

For my frilly, tea party-loving daughter, the bedding was as exciting as a sparkly, ruffled dress or a pink-frosted cupcake with sprinkles. “Oooh,” she said. “It’s just like Fancy Nancy.”
For me, I liked Olive Kids bedding because it is practical: The comforter is girly but not too girly. Polka dots adorn one side; stripes, the other. It would be at home on the bed of a preschooler, an elementary school student or even a tween.

And so far, the set has washed well. For Christmas, I bought my daughter a comforter from a discount department store, and after four washes, parts of the seam had unraveled and the color had faded. It now has a place in the back of my car for spur-of-the-moment picnics.

For the most part, Olive Kids prices seem comparable to bedding sold at The Land of Nod but less expensive–and certainly as cute–as sheets and quilts from Pottery Barn Kids. Even celebrities like the company’s products. Truthfully, however, I’d prefer to purchase a kid’s bedding set for (significantly) under $100…but then again, that’s exactly what I did back in December and, well, I got what I paid for.

But the best part about the tea party bedding is when I’m putting my daughter to bed and she is pouring me a cup of tea from the teapot on her sham, or telling me what ingredients we need to make cupcakes like the ones on her sheets. Her imagination is off and running.

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