Nostalgic Sweet Playtime

Long warm summer days spent riding bikes and chasing down the ice cream man, playing with the neighborhood kids. The sounds of laughter and screams of joy filled the streets. Those were the days of my childhood and many of yours. The days before everyone had a computer and access to electronic media. When Saturday morning was for cartoons! As much as I LOVE my IPhone and my computer (yes I am addicted to them and spend way too much time on them )I miss the simpler days! I wish my kids could go outside on a Saturday morning after watching their cartoons, get on their bikes and meet up with friends and explore the neighborhood until the sun starts to set. Those days taught me how to be creative when I was bored, how to get along with all sorts of personalities types, how to work out my own problems, how to talk to people. It’s an area where I fear we are failing our kids and ourselves by being so “connected” electronically sometimes!  I long for the sweet simple days of my childhood. I want that for my kids but it’s just not the way their world is.

 

A few years ago I was trying to come up with Christmas gift ideas for my girls. I had picked up an adorable play kitchen at a local consignment store earlier that year and my girls loved it! They had a collection of play food and felt food and would spend hours taking my order and serving me up some delicious treats. I remember playing restaurant when I was little! Who didn’t play restaurant?!?  My sister had a basement with an unfinished room of some sort. The room had an open window area that was not finished out and made a perfect drive through! My cousins and I would take our bikes to the basement and play restaurant. Taking turns biking through the drive through and serving the food. My mom worked part time as a waitress and I used to love to take her old order books and pretend to be taking orders.

 

I decided to make them a play menu set to go along with their kitchen. I worked late at night while they were asleep designing and creating. I was so excited to give it to them on Christmas morning!! They loved it! “Jenna and Jordan’s Double Dip Diner” opened promptly thereafter and they have been proudly serving customers for 3 years!  I was encouraged by several friends to make my sets available for purchase on my Etsy site.  After working on the product for about a year I launched them into my site.  This year after much prayer I have decided it’s time to take these into the market in a big way. I have never launched a product into the retail market so it will be a learning experience for sure! I am taking it one step at a time and praying and learning my way through it…HA!

The super cool thing about these menus and the driving force behind my decision is the reaction I get from the people buying them. I can’t tell you how many of you have connected on an emotional level with this play set. They are nostalgic and non-electronic and you love them and I am blown away! I have had people write me and tell me how they used to play restaurant with their brothers/sisters, how it reminds them of their moms or dads, how they can’t wait to give it as a gift to their kiddo’s. I can’t tell you how humbled I am to know that you connect with my product. That you get the simple idea that I wanted to create something fun that would stimulate creativity. These were designed to help facilitate play between parents/grandparents and their kiddos.  They were created to bring families together to play! They work great to help teach simple math techniques like addition and subtraction while still being fun.

I am so thrilled that those of you who have already purchased them have loved them so much and I look forward to offering you more products to help you enjoy the sweet and simple moments of your life! Thanks for following along with me on this journey and prayers are much appreciated!

Stay Sweet!

to purchase check out my Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/sweetbycandy