Crisp leaves, pumpkins, and cloudbursts galore! Fall is here and so is some of our Tea Collection and our Daily Tea Fall selection. Just in time to stock up the kids closets for the cooler weather! Although these adorable images show more girls items, there are lots of wonderful choices for boys too. Inspired by Old Hungary and Countryside Chic, it’s comfy and modern all at the same time. Extra adorable paired with rubber boots for our rainy Vancouver weather!

Stay tuned… More Fall shopping ideas to follow…

An East Van elementary school needs your vote!

Laura Secord Elementary School has been undergoing a seismic upgrade for the past year. As a result, the children have lost most of their outdoor play equipment, and more than half of their play space.

Laura Secord has entered a contest to win up to $500,000 for a sustainable, earth friendly, wheelchari accessible playground – one the whole community can enjoy for years to come. They need to be in the Top 10 to get into the semi finals and have their proposal in the running to win.

It takes only minutes to sign up for an account and one click to vote.
Anyone with an email account can register and vote at: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf5890.

Please spread the word and vote daily until October 15, 2010.  8 days left!!!!!

Thank you for your community support.

All photos have been taken on the iPhone.

First:  We had the desks painted by our friend Sean at AL Creations. Thanks Sean!

Oh so neat and tidy all in a row.

Then Jimmy and Pete loaded them up and delivered them. Thanks Jimmy and Pete, we think you’re swell!

Then we stacked them and realized that we had to hold them in place while Greg used wire to secure them… This took many, many hours… We even ran out of wire and had to go get more.

But the wine helped us cope… See, now we’re smiling. Miss Maggie even gave us a leg up.

And voila!  We’re done.  Phew.

Now that summer is full swing, so are all the fall arrivals. Appaman has just arrived and we’re so excited. It’s a throwback to the 80′s. The Gym Sweats remind us of Rocky, the Vest – we swear the cool boys were wearing in high school, and the BMX shirt is well… just cool.

We’ll keep you up to date with all the new Fall arrivals at Dandelion Kids…

Yay! Annemarie from yoyomama.ca has written our first guest blog! Read on for her reflections on styles past and meaningful shopping.

The media (yoyomama included) has been full of articles on back to school fashions and style and all the things your child will need as they venture forth into a new year of preschool, kindergarten or beyond. I remember how I used to love choosing my back to school “outfit”, though I shudder now when I think of what I thought was styling. Pink jeans, ruffled neck nylon blouses, clompy wooden clogs. But for as long as possible I plan to pick my kids’ clothes on my own, because what a three-year-old princess-in-training thinks is appropriate for pre school isn’t necessarily what I think is appropriate. I’ve accepted that you have to give up a lot of control when you become a parent, so it makes me feel better to exert mine wherever I can.

The expectation these days seems to be that you’ll kit your kid out from tip to toe, just because the seasons are changing and school is starting, but that’s just not how I shop. I don’t hit one store at the mall and work my way from underwear on outwards, instead as the seasons change I go through the girls’ drawers and sort them into piles of too small, consign, save for next winter etc.

Then I refill the drawers with what we’ve got stored for fall ’09 for example, and then I spot the gaps and go out looking to fill them. It’s exhausting.

And it also means their wardrobes can be a bit haphazard with highlights and lowlights. I seem to fall down when it comes to finding good socks, tights and leggings to match the lovely dresses I have no problems spotting. But it also means their clothes tend to be more interesting (to me anyhow) and often have a story. Things along the lines of “That’s the organic cotton dress I got for $10 at that sample sale.” Or “When I bought this dress for M for fall, Stefanie at dandelion KIDS said her daughter L had the same dress.” True story and luckily L and M don’t go to the same school. Or “That’s the skirt her grandma sent back from England from a fair trade collective.” And I like it better that way, even though it may not be as organized or as matchy matchy. Which could be the whole root of the socks, tights and leggings problem.