Cedar Valley Publishing

Meet Sheila of Love Prints

Tell us a little about you . . .

My name is Sheila McGoldrick and I am a mom to three fabulous kiddies. Their ages are six, four and one. I am married to my high school sweetheart, who makes me laugh every day. I am truly blessed and I take nothing for granted. I am also the mom-inventor of the Handy Burpee and the Handy Burp’ems, which are new style burp cloths with a protective covering for your hand ans protects baby, as well, from wearing spit-up.

You can find my product at http://www.loveprints.net/, all Babies R’ Us locations nationwide, and http://www.mom4life.com/ with more stores to come. We are very proud at successful they have been so far.

Is it mom-owned, invented, created . . .?

Absolutely! I was a mom in pain and totally invented it out of necessity! I had an allergic reaction to a preservative in their washes and wipes and needed something to protect myself from constantly wearing spit-up and washing my hands. It has worked perfectly for me and figured I could surely help others if I just followed my dream of getting them out there.

A little about your entrepreneur journey so far?

Well, it has been a four year journey so far. I invented my product in September of 04’ and it was not until September of 06’ when I launched my site. I had so much wonderful feedback from family and friends and orders were coming in for more. Someone asked me about a website and then I thought that would be great to get them out there nationwide. So in October of 2006 we launched Love Prints. Some people could not quite get the name, but to me my kiddies little hand and foot prints are my Love Prints and it was a perfect fit for me and reminds me of them and why I started this journey. I was selling, advertising, going to craft shows, applied for my non-provisional patent, filed it and continued on selling and advertising. Then in February of 08’ WE WERE FOUND. A large manufacturer of baby and children’s products found me on http://www.mom4life.com/ where they were being sold. She ordered and tested it on herself with her baby and FELL IN LOVE with them. WOW, what a huge compliment coming from such a large company. I actually re-designed the original Handy Burpee at that time and added a dribble catcher pocket to catch those quicker and larger spit-ups. What a wonderful addition and it really added to the protection of the burp cloth. They name was also changed to Handy Burp’ems to go with the added feature. I trademarked the name and filed for my provisional patent. We are now in the patent pending stage.

Win a Handy Burp’ ems from Love Prints!
(We’re giving away two!)

Here’s how . . .

1. Check out Love Prints at www.loveprints.net. 
2. Come back here and leave a comment telling us your favorite pattern.
3. Be sure to leave your e-mail if you don’t have a blogger ID.

Who wants extra entries?!
(Please leave a separate comment for each entry.)

4. Sign up for our Mommy’s Idea feed or e-mail feed. (Over to the right.)
5. Add our button to your blog or link to http://www.mommysidea.com/. (If you add our Mommy’s Idea button AND Ellie Bags button, you get 2 entries!)
6. Blog about and link to this giveaway. Please leave your blog url in your comment.
7. Become a follower of Mommy’s Idea.
8. Stumble this post.

Open to residents of the US and Canada.
Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on Monday, October 30, 2008.

This blog post was copied with permission from Mommy’s Idea:  http://www.mommysidea.com/2008/10/win-handy-burp-em-from-love-prints.html

BRAND NEW!!!  Spanish & English “Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten!”
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There’s something to be said for overt educational gifts - such as giving a child a dictionary or a book that they need for school.
 
But, by gifting a child with something that is educational, yet they don’t know it — well, I just chalk that up to the spoils of parenting! 
 
I love to give my girls gifts that are meaningful to them, but also have a bit of fun and education involved, too.  A couple of years ago, I found a website that offered books for kids.  Not written books, but blank books with hard covers and the crayons to go with them.  These were some of the best-received books that my kids have ever seen!  They played with them, used their fabulous imaginations to fill in the pages and they created stories that made my heart stop.  They used their wonderful minds to show me how their worlds come together, how they think, how they feel and what’s important to them.
 
This year, I found the cutest gifts to give to them - again, with my parent-whirling mind, I know that the educational aspects are far from visible to a child’s eye … but, the underlying notion is that Heidi and Megan will learn from these things, too.
 
Sally Huss is an artist, author, book illustrator and speaker.  Her website says:
 
“My name is Sally Huss and I am a full time artist/designer from Del Mar, California. I graduated from USC with a fine arts degree and have been a professional artist for over 20 years. Besides my original paintings, I have licensed my designs for clothing, baby products, and stationary products. Recently King Features Syndicate in New York licensed my “Happy Musings”, positive upbeat thoughts as a feature panel for distribution to newspapers throughout the US. To view my original art please checkout www.sallyhuss.com.
 
<insert this image> http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-64543157396260_1979_9101307
 
Let’s see.  ummm.  Sally is US.  She’s you and me!  She’s taking her passions in life and earning an income from them.  What’s *not* educational about that?!  And her inspiration is … well, it’s inspiring.  Take a look at this print:  http://store.sallyhuss.com/gp0219fniche.html … and this one:  http://store.sallyhuss.com/gp0248fhpydays.html.  Ah, doesn’t that just make you want to grab your kids and hug them until they giggle?! 
 
Sally Huss’s work is my educational gift idea today.  Go visit her at http://www.sallyhuss.com or at http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=I5ukl&m=1bLuCcVYRovTe5&b=b5gtU4sjSm3RKWAOOtfUtw