It has been a crazy month for pretty much everyone, hasn't it? On top of the economy, the elections, and anticipation of the Holidays, Scandinavian Child has been in the middle of big changes of our own. In addition to rolling out many new products and brands over the next few months, we also moved to new office space.

We would have moved earlier, and avoided this chaos, except that the space we originally wanted fell through at the last minute. ("Fell Through" is generous to the property owners who backed out at the last minute when another tenant showed up wanting a larger share of the building.) I was devastated, because the space was just a few blocks from my home. In the end, it worked out for the best. We now have much nicer space that is a lot more comfortable for all of us.

And, through a twist of unplanned fate, we now share a backyard with Kelly's elementary school! Amazing to be able to break away and have lunch with her. There is a great deal of stress around being a small business owner, but once in a while being the boss does have a few perks that help make it worthwhile.

For fun, here are a few pictures of the team in front of the old office building (one of our current staff minus a few folks and one of the ORIGINAL four SCI employees who are still here.)

And the new building...

This year's First Candle Windflower Ball celebrated the event's 10th anniversary and honored some important contributors to the cause. If you don't know about First Candle, you should. They probably had some impact on how you put your baby to sleep every night. Through efforts such as Back to Sleep, this group has been instrumental in the steep decline in SIDS over the past decades.

Founded in the 1960s as the National SIDS Foundation, they eventually merging with other groups to become the SIDS Alliance. In 2002, they expanded their role beyond SIDS to other causes of infant death as well as still births and miscarriages ... helping bring all children survive to their first birthday, while supporting families who have lost a child at this tender age.

One of First Candle's current campaigns is called Bedtime Basics. This campaign encourages families to provide a separate, safe sleep environment for their babies. You can read more here... Bedtime Basics . This year's Windflower Ball honorees were Halo Innovations, Regal Lager, and Scripps Howard. You can read about these important individuals and organizations here .

Click here for more information on First Candle.

I know that a speech or book is really great when I find myself quoting them over and over for weeks. Such is the case with Carol Evans, CEO and President of Working Mother magazine, as well as the author of This Is How We Do It: The Working Mother's Manifesto.

Ms. Evans came to Raleigh a few weeks ago to speak to our Working Mother's Luncheon group, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. Now I would not classify myself as a 'feminist', but walking into a room of several hundred working moms is nothing short of inspiring. On this particular day, I was overwhelmed with things at the office, but decided to attend this seminar anyway (arriving 30 minutes late, but luckily before the speaker began).

The topic of the day was 'Strategies for Making Life Work'. The most interesting part of the presentation for me was when Ms. Evans talked about her belief that you should combine work with home and home with work ... what she calles "Fusion Family." I was stunned. This idea flies in the face of one of my strongest beliefs about being a working mom, which is that (with some very obvious exceptions), you need to be 'in the moment' and focus on work at work and family with family.

To my relief, her point did not actually run counter to this belief. Her advice is simply that it makes sense to share your work experiences at home with your children, and your home experiences at work.

Why bring work home? Well, for the same reason you ask your children each day to tell you what they did in school  to share in each others' day and also to demonstrate to your children that you are doing significant and meaningful things when you are apart. The hope is that this will make your work, whether by choice or by necessity, a good example to your children. The Rule: Do not talk about the bad things that happen at the office, like threats of pink slips or that colleague who drives you crazy, this should be left between you and a friend or your partner (too true!).

Why bring home to work? Simply put, how will you ask for a few days off for your son's broken leg if your boss doesn't even know you have a child?!? In my office, I like to take it a step further than that. We believe that we are, in many ways, a community of people. If I don't know that you are preparing to move your home, struggling with a parent's illness, or celebrating your child's major academic achievement, then I can't support you when you are distracted at the office. We can't avoid the fact that experience at home will affect us at work. However, this too has rules: Keep it in check. Don't babble on and on about your Rhode's Scholar child or constantly drag everyone down with one story after another about your mother's sciatica.

I haven't quite found time to tackle the rest of Ms. Evan's book, but it is right there at my bedside. I will keep you posted as I discover other gems that I am sure to find between the pages. If you have a quote that you love, please share!

We had a great time at the ABC Show last month! It's always fun to see the hot new colors for the coming year. Scandinavian Child debuted several new colors and patterns in the Svan and lillebaby lines.

Svan, in particular, is very rich with new colors for their Bouncers and Cushions. They are launching their 2009 bouncer model in just a few weeks and with it comes many new color options. Also, this new Svan Bouncer design features a deeper recline and easier to clean Velcro attachments for the fabric parts.

New Bouncer color options include an ESPRESSO base with vanilla/sage, vanilla/chocolate or chocolate/turquoise fabric! We also are launching the BabyStar® balloons pink pattern with an espresso base.

New Svan cushion colors include: a gorgeous Turquoise, classic Oatmeal, and BabyStar's fantastic and fun Balloons Pink and Connect the Dots Blue patterns.

In the land of lillebaby, we are excited to announce a new EuroTote color - Whole Latte Love! (I have a Latte Love for the name.) It's a fabulous neutral color that moms and dads everywhere are sure to love. This color will also be one of four fabulous EveryWear colors.

If YOU have great ideas for hot new colors, you can always send in a comment through our Web site . Many of these colors came about directly from customer feedback! Check back on scichild.com to see more of what's new in the coming weeks!