QuickZipBlog

Newborns In Need

Quickzipblog — Sat, 12 May 2012 21:30:29 +0000

Bringing donations to Denver HealthClouds and Stars

Clouds and Stars, through our staff and families,was thrilled to be involved with Newborns in Need Baby Shower last weekend. Each year, this wonderful organization provides a great start for almost 4000 babies born at Denver Health. Each family goes home with a Warm Welcome Bag filled with diapers, wipes, a blanket, receiving blankets, bath items, onesies, teethers, an outfit, socks, booties, a hand knitted hat, stuffed animal, a book and often other special gift items. Around the holidays, extra seasonal gifts like christmas toys or outfits are a sweet surprise in the bags also.

Shelves of donations, ready for packing

Newborns in Need also provides car seats and Play Yards whenever they are needed so each baby can get home and sleep there in safety and comfort. Now many of the babies will sleep in added comfort on a Clouds and Stars PortaBaby Safety Sheet. We realized that these babies now had a cozy bed, but possibly no sheets, so we ran a promotion in March in which we donated a PortaBaby sheet for each one purchased on our website. We are so grateful to our customers who purchased during the promotion, and it felt great to deliver the sheets to Denver Health during the annual baby shower.

Pink and Blue gift bags ready to go up to the floor.

We got to help out at the shower with lots of other great volunteers and sponsors like Boppy and the Denver Nuggets Wives Organization to collect, log, sort and prepare donations from all over the city. We were touched by volunteers who were sitting out in the Denver sun all day knitting hats and blankets for the babies and by the notes on many of the hand-made outfits and blankets sending the donors’ special wishes. We also packed Welcome Bags toward the end of the day – the favorite activity of my daughter since it feels like shopping – you get to choose which outfits, blankets and books go best together for each special child.

It was great to spend a day with so much positive energy, and we plan to be there again this year packing bags and doing whatever else we can to help out.

Great Nutrition – Yummy Recipe

Quickzipblog — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:06:01 +0000

I am a huge fan of beets – not only for their nutritional value but also their taste. My family immediately turns up their noses when I start cooking them so I am the lone person in my house that will eat them. No worries – their loss. This is my favorite way to cook and enjoy beets.

Recipe

6 – 8 fresh beets, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
⅛ C of extra virgin olive oil
⅛ C of balsamic vinegar
¼ -½ t of salt (as preferred)
1 small red or Valdaldi onion

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place the cut beets into a shallow baking dish. Add salt, then olive oil and vinegar. Stir until the beets are coated. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. Immediately before beets are finished, slice the red onion and then cut slices into halves. When the beets are done, remove them from the oven, add onions and stir to completely coat with vinegar and oil. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil for fifteen minutes allowing the onions to soften. Serve warm or cold. I prefer cold. Enjoy!

Eating – Healthy and Simple: Calcutta Chicken

Quickzipblog — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:36:34 +0000

Try this one for a really tasty, interesting and healthy meal – and it meets two of my biggest priorities: one pan prep and great leftovers! One of my family’s favorites…..

Ingredients:

1 chicken, or 6 pieces - bone-in (I remove skin)

Marinade:

2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 t ginger powder
2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 t turmeric
4 t paprika
4-6 t vegetable or olive oil (to make a wet paste)

4-6 medium red potatoes – diced

Combine onion, spices and oil in food processor, grind into paste. Marinate chicken in onion mixture overnight. Place chicken in baking dish, add diced potatoes, cover with remaining marinade. Bake at 350° for 2 hours- covered – and 20 minutes uncovered. Serve with salad and/or steamed veggies. Enjoy!

Meet our Customer: Rose and the Safety Sleepter

Quickzipblog — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:57:58 +0000

Meet Rose: a Clouds and Stars customer who has come up with a great product for children and adults with special needs and sleep challenges. Rose Morris, a mother of 3, one of whom is Abram, a son with autism. She created The Safety Sleeper™ after a long struggle to cope with her son’s sleeping issues such as climbing out of the bed and having to worry about him falling down the stairs or walking out the front door in the middle of the night. No longer did she worry about his safety, no longer did she have to stay outside his door and wait until he tired himself out and fell asleep, no longer did she have the fear that we would never go on vacation together as an entire family. The Safety Sleeper™ is a portable bed frame that fits a regular twin (or full) size mattress. The enclosure piece is made of canvas and a mesh material that encompasses the mattress and works like a canopy or tent so that Abram is completely contained. Because The Safety Sleeper™ encompasses the mattress QuickZip® sheets work extremely well – no hassle sheet changes. “The Safety Sleeper™ found a home with many families across the US and abroad, helping them to take care of their special needs children with Angelman Syndrome, Smith-Magenis Syndrome, Autism, Dandy-Walker Syndrome, Mowat-Wilson Syndrome, Sanfilippo Syndrome and traumatic brain injuries.” .

The promise of a few hours alone…..

Quickzipblog — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:23:20 +0000

The other day my husband took our kids skiing – leaving me at home alone on a Sunday. (I am not a total dud, but have skied a lot in my life and don’t love the day trips anymore!) I had dreams about sitting on the couch, reading the NY Times, watching the finals of the Australian Open and then meeting a friend for breakfast. Now I need to figure out is what stops me from actually fulfilling that dream and feeling refreshed by it?

Here is what actually happened: alarms were ringing in our house at 5:30; my 13-year old was having a fit that no one had dragged her out of bad until 6 (the time she wanted to leave); I helped get breakfasts, lunches, and snacks prepped; I had to intervene in sibling fighting about who was ready to go and who was not; and I pushed them all out the door at 6:30….. that was my moment, right? I did make delicious coffee, get the Times and head to the basement for an amazing fifth set between Nadal and Djokovich. I even started reading the Sunday Styles. I calculated that I had plenty of time since I needed to leave at 7:45 for breakfast, and seriously needed a shower. But then …… I started watching the match but got distracted by some piece of family administration and began going through the mail and sorting various bins and piles of 2011 statements and receipts (watched a point or two of great tennis). At the time I was on my second weekend trying to sew (my last big sewing project was in high school so this was a challenge) a mini, but functioning and eye-catching version of the QuickZip sheet for a baby show, so I thought I could just quickly print the iron-on decal graphic I had pulled together so that it would be ready to go when I got home. Easy, right…. Just grab the template and instructions from the internet, print and go. So I printed on paper to test – perfect fit, and then on the iron-on paper – twice so that I could practice once, ran upstairs where I had the iron and sewing machine set up, and realized that I hadn’t read the fine print about “reversing the image”! So, no problem, look for the button in Publisher – can’t figure it out, type “print in mirror image” into help – , can’t find the right article, (check the score in the fifth set – 5 all!), make the file into a pdf and try to print a reverse image in Adobe – wrong version of Adobe on my husband’s computer which I was using because mine won’t print to the wireless printer at our house; (check the score – 6-5!) go back to publisher and find the term “flip horizontally”; works but I forgot the group all the images and some text is printing backward and some forward; repeat and … Success! And it was 7:35 – image printed on iron on paper, fifth set finally ends, Rafa loses, and I race upstairs to take a shower and jump into the car. As usual, I was 12 minutes late to breakfast, and I forgot the birthday present (but I did get a huge box of hand-me-downs into the back seat so I could drop them off on the way home). And don’t ask about the few hours I had after I got home from breakfast……

I have come to accept the fact that I actually like to be busy, I guess that is just who I am, and it is not a bad trait! I am also guessing that a lot of our colleagues and customers have this trait also, so let’s stick together and enjoy being busy and productive!

Moms In Business Unite

Quickzipblog — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:59:56 +0000

Joan and I were on a panel yesterday at the MIBU conference in Denver. A great organization providing resources to women business owners, focusing on business education. Thanks to Maria Bailey and the Huggies Mom-Inspired Grant program for getting us involved! The speakers provided practical information, and I have a few self-imposed action items after attending the session by Marley Majcher - The Party Goddess – and author of “But Are You Making Any Money?” loved her analogy of comparing her process in getting control of her business and finances with a diet – since I only ever loose weight when I log every morsel that enters my mouth – she suggests really tracking, even for a week or a month, what your are doing with your time and money, and then to categorize and organize your activities and tasks as a way to put yourself on the path to achieving your business goals. I see this concept helping not only at work but at home! During the panel, we, along with other Colorado business owners Michelle Staley (Busy Breathers) and Fiona Bryan (TheBanteringBlonde), were able to share some of our experiences in achieving success in our businesses, providing some encouragement and tips to avoid certain pitfalls. The bottom line from all of us for the other business owners was that you are not alone, just about everyone (despite what you read or see on TV) has gone through similar challenges and ridden the entrepreneur roller coaster – so reach out and talk to people, keep an open mind, follow your instincts, and keep the faith!

Let us know what you are working on and your favorite tips on getting it done! What do you use as your “weigh-in” to keep yourself accountable?

The pendulum swings ……

Quickzipblog — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:43:24 +0000

I think I grew up at the opposite end of the arc. (Of course, that will tell you something about my age!). As I continue on my path, living life, raising kids, working, and relating to people, I keep seeing signs that we are headed back to the basics in a lot of ways. I think I grew up in a generation when the novelty of new, “higher-tech” things were always thought to be better – in the food area, it was the generation of infant formula, margarine and Tang (in case you are too young to remember that was powdered orange juice, marketed as the drink of the astronauts). I found confirmation of this in a cookbook from my elementary school. I could not believe it, just about every recipe had AT LEAST one can of something – creamed soups, canned veggies, and fried onions, not to mention the amount of bread crumbs, I have never seen vegetable recipes with so many ingredients, many not including any perishable vegetables…. Canned asparagus with cream of mushroom soup and buttered bread crumbs! The name of one even boasted “Five Can Casserole” (cans of tuna, Chinese noodles, cream of chicken soup, evaporated milk and cream of mushroom soup, plus crushed potato chips!). Now we complain about too many chicken nuggets for the kids, look how we grew up! I should explain that I am married to the healthiest eater on the planet (he also owns a gym and sells exercise DVDs -check it out at www.halfhourpower.com), and have come to understand his perspective, which is that if he can’t “see” the ingredients in his head he won’t eat it – so that rules out all unknown sauces and processed foods (for him – the rest of us do this in moderation). I have even had to agree that he is right. We seem to eat pretty plain food – mostly grilled, roasted or steamed. The recipes usually have few ingredients so shopping is easier and it seems to take less time to prepare. And I do have to admit I feel a lot better when I eat “cleaner” food. But I see this trend back to the basics in attitudes toward other things beside food. I try to take the least amount of medicine I can (I am fortunate not to need much at this time) so I try to stay away from most OTC medicines and tell my kids to drink water when they don’t feel well or do the nasal wash instead of cold medicine; and our customers often are looking for simpler toys and green bedding products. Crafting and DIY are huge and growing industries. I personally feel a need to get away from some of the craziness of parenting like competitve sports leagues and spend more time hiking or playing at the park. Even in the technology area, though a new computer, pad or smart phone is always on the list most of us try to keep our kids off the keyboard and in the yard for a reasonable amount of time. As the pendulum continues to swing, I wonder what we are doing now that we will jettison in the future as too far away from the core?

Do you try to keep it basic? Let us know how……

A little more music

Quickzipblog — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:09:29 +0000

I am your basic over-connected mom….. two cell phones, three emails, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts….. I am sure you know it well. I am also in a more-crazy-than-normal phase preparing for the imminent arrival of 50 out of town guests for a big family event. Happily I have hit upon a new activity that relieves my stress and makes me a safer driver – it started the other day as I was sitting at a stop light on my way home from work - anticipating (with a little dread) the onslaught of demands when I walked through the door – when “Let it Be” came on the radio. I cranked up the volume and closed the windows and enjoyed the music pushing all other thoughts out of my head for a few minutes (I realize that this only works if you have no childrenor other passengers in the car!). I was loving it so much that I sat in the garage and listened to to another song (I think by Adele) watching my daughter’s lips moving as she approached the car to ask me something. Those few moments of space have been my guilty pleasure of late, and then I realized today that it only works if you are not on the phone while driving. Now I realize if I commit to not using the phone while driving (unless I am set up with the ear piece) – I get the double benefit of being a safer driver and a little stress down-time while the music plays. It is like a little cat nap, refreshing me before the next event. Have you taken the No-texting pledge? What are your stress-releivers?

Little Victories

Quickzipblog — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 13:32:21 +0000

Not that I imagine myself as a housekeeping icon…. but I did have two amazing laundry successes this week that made me feel pretty good! (I know it is 4th of July weekend and we are supposed to be out playing, but we will be spending much of the weekend catching up and preparing for a big family event at our house next month)

I have always known that cleaning the dryer lint filter has to be done for every laundry load, and do it faithfully, but recently, our relatively new front loading dryer was just not cutting it lately. So, not wanting to have to call for service, I started investigating……

As background, since starting Clouds and Stars I have learned a lot about fabrics and laundry, and I know that dryers work in strange ways! We have done some tests to see how hot dryers get and compared that to manufacturers specs, and found out that lint blocking vents can cause dryers to overheat, firstly causing a fire hazard and secondly, getting hot enough to melt a zipper. So I had some background and thought it had to do with lint. I looked beneath the lint filter and saw a pile of lint which I extracted with a variety of implements including kitchen tongs spatulas and screwdrivers. But that didn’t do the trick. It wasn’t until a suggestion from a visiting college friend that I went further, and followed the lint…… I went outside, found the dryer vent cover (which is a very open plastic cage) which was caked with a thick dense layer of lint. Voila! Dry clothes! No service call necessary.

Second Success – I have been using any amazing stain remover – Zout – which easily takes care of grass stains and blood on all types of fabric, even if they are old, dried, and previously laundered.

Little victories - I will take whatever I can get!

New Crib Safety Standards

Quickzipblog — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:00:13 +0000

In developing the QuickZip sheet, we were able to make changing sheets easier AND address safety concerns related to entrapment in loose bedding, so we like to keep you updated on baby safety issues whenever we can. Today, there are important new crib safety standards to keep in mind and forward on to your friends.

The new CPSC regulations, which apply to full-size and non-full-size cribs, prohibit the manufacture or sale of traditional drop-side rail cribs, strengthen crib slats and mattress supports, improve the quality of hardware and require more rigorous testing. The details of the rule are available on CPSC’s website at: www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr11/cribfinal.pdf

How will this standard affect you?