Kidlutions Award Anniversary!

As a new business with a new product, one of our proudest moments was when the Nightmare Nibbler was chosen as a recipient of the Kidlutions Preferred Product Award!

One year ago today, the official announcement was made and we were celebrating not only the great news of the award itself, but also that the Nibbler was the first international recipient! 

There are a couple of things that make this award so special: not only has it passed inspection by moms across America, it has also been recognized as a product which enhances the social-emotional development of children by a licensed child and family therapist.

As per Kidlutions:  ”The Nightmare Nibbler contributes to social-emotional development in a big way.  When kids learn how to conquer their fears, and master situations that make them feel helpless, their self-confidence soars.  Now, that is something to cheer about!”

We thought so too! Kidlutions has been a great resource for Nightmare Nibbler and for that we are very thankful!

Tags: award, children, social emotional development

Crazy about Social Media

I am the first to admit that until the launch of the Nightmare Nibbler business and website, I had NEVER gone near social media sites…yes, I had heard about them, but since I’m not a ‘gadget’, ‘tech’ or ‘computer savvy’ girl at heart, I never felt the pull – much to the annoyance of friends who kept insisting that I just *had* to join Facebook!

Well, once I did – was I ever glad!  Although Facebook seems to implement changes faster than I can keep up with them, I have found it to be an amazingly wonderful forum for connecting with friends/family on a personal level and for making new contacts and forging new relationships on a business level as well! How else could I have had requests from folks in Australia who were interested in ordering Nibblers?  Grateful for the global reach of this fabulous and FREE resource!

Twitter as well as been a great learning experience – after going through my ‘addiction’ phase I now tweet ‘responsibly’ and find it to be a fun challenge when I’m forced to dig deep to figure out how to say what I want, without exceeding the 140 character limit!

So easy to fall in to the addiction!

Well, I’ve been getting more and more comfortable with both of these sites and even with LinkedIn – recently updating my profile and figuring out the ins/outs of making the  most of this professional network…I know that I’m still far away from being a social media expert or harnessing the full potential of these tools, but I thought I was making decent progress…

AND THEN CAME PINTEREST!….

I had heard rumblings about this pinboard style social photo sharing website, but didn’t investigate until recent comments from those using it compelled me to check things out. It is so pretty and engaging, it’s easy to see how it has become to popular so quickly and why the comments of  ’you’ll spend hours on it!’…were indeed founded!  However,  having gone through Facebook/Twitter ‘rehab’ for addiction, I am in a much better position now – I’m trying to allocate little chunks of time to it – trying to take baby steps and not get sucked in…so far so good – I’m having fun checking things out without being glued to the screen for hours on end – for now. Let’s see how long that will power will last!

~Susan

Tags: facebook, pinterest, social media, twitter

20% Valentine’s Day Discount

What better way to celebrate a  holiday that celebrates love than to offer a SPECIAL DEAL to our Nightmare Nibbler Nation friends!

Enjoy a 20% discount off the purchase of Nightmare Nibbler plush toys and picture books!  Simply use the coupon code: VALENTINE upon checkout in our online store!

We LOVE our Nightmare Nibbler Nation friends!

Tags: book, Discount, nibbler, special, Valentine

Cause for celebration in the Nightmare Nibbler Nation!

For many people, February the 13th is simply a ‘regular’ day – for some it may be a day in which advance preparations are made to acknowledge the celebration of loved ones for Valentine’s Day.

For our family however, and indeed for the Nightmare Nibbler Nation, this day holds a very special place in our hearts…

It was in the wee hours of the morning on the 13th of February in 2002, that a highly anticipated cry pierced the darkness at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

At that time, Samuel Smith-Lauchlan made his debut, my name switched from Susan to ‘MAMA’ and the lives of myself and my hubby would be changed forever…in all the best ways possible!

Presenting Mr. Dressup - Age 4

This little loving ball of energy…MY little loving ball of energy – would, when he was 4 years old, prove to be the inspiration for the birth of a new nation! Who knew?!

As I’ve shared on our ABOUT US page, Sam’s experiences with nightmares as a younger child initiated the creation of the Nightmare Nibbler character, the land of the Nibblers and in turn the launch of a new business designed to bring comfort to other kids and families as well!

Sam - Today

Happy 10th Birthday Sam…the creativity and ingenuity that you are gifted with continually proves to inspire and motivate me…and for that I am truly grateful.

I love you!!  xoxoxoxo

Tags: birthday, inspiration, nightmare nibbler

Monkey see…monkey do?

I recently found myself in the middle of a discussion by a group of talented entrepreneurs the other day – one that had to do with the dreaded question of  how one should handle a Copy Cat…after committing endless hours, blood, sweat and tears in developing a product and bringing a creation to life – what should one do if/when faced with someone else who seemingly feels it’s alright to ‘borrow’ someone else’s ideas?!

It is unfortunate but in spite of the best laid intellectual property plans, this type of thing happens!  This discussion got me to thinking about how I’d feel if this were to happen to me…as I am prone to do – I immediately Googled the subject and found a great article which spoke exactly of this theme and I knew I just had to share it!

Charlie Kilkey, of Productive Flourishing, gives some fabulous tips in his blog post called, ” How to Deal with Copycats and Idea Thieves”  for those who may find themselves in this unenviable (or is it?) predicament.

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

 Susan

Tags: copycat, copyright, intellectual, property