10 Tips for Preparing Your Baby’s Room for Spring

Connect your children with the seasonal nature around them by preparing their rooms for spring. Read the following Flower Clvb tips, then hear advice from baby registry expert and founder of Poppylist, Sarah Hollingsworth.

Spring Nursery Tips

1. Bring something from outside, inside. Whether a blooming branch or bunch of daffodils from your garden, incorporating nature into your baby’s room will add a fresh feel to their space.

2. Go through your books and pick out any ones related to growth, birth and of course, spring to have available and accessible for reading. Place non-seasonal books away for later.

3. Notice what is blooming outside. Sprinkle a few bud vases around the room and place either real or faux flowers in them to mirror what is growing around your neighborhood.

4. Plant a few seedlings and allow them to bud along the windowsill of your baby’s room.

5. Find ways to incorporate spring colors in your baby’s space. While yellow can be a tricky color to design with, it is one of the first colors we see during spring. Pull out any blankets or sheets with spring colors and put away the blankets or sheets that might resemble fall colors.

6. Find a local artist that you can support and invest in one new piece of artwork whether an image or sculpture. This will help your child visually connect with the season and encourage them to take note of the growing life around them. If you are unable to buy a piece of art, take some water colors and create a painting based on an observation from the nearest garden. In my ideal world, I would have one frame in the baby’s room that changes imagery based on the season.

7. When you can, open the windows and allow your children to hear the chirping of the birds and to receive the fresh air as much as possible.

8. Select an oil such as as lavender or rose and dust the dresser, counter and book-shelf tops.

9. Consider the way light enters into your child’s room during certain times of the day and identify ways to . elevate it. Whether shifting the reading nook ever so slightly, or the play rug where the baby does tummy time, find a way to take comfort in the natural light.

10. Dangle some faux blooms or dried flowers. Having something dangle, will lift the eye in the room and will be an interesting, contrasting and evocative element for your baby to focus their attention.

*FULL DISCLOSURE: These are my suggestions that admittedly, I do not follow to the letter, as my life circumstances do not permit. Currently my kiddos are sharing a small room and all they do in there is sleep. Do what you can/want but do not fret if baby’s room is simply a crib and blank walls. Your love is all they need.

This week I am highlighting fellow mompreneur,  Sarah Hollingsworth, Founder of Poppylist.

Poppylist provides you with a curated baby registry list matched to your lifestyle and needs, without all the added stuff. Our product recommendations are sourced directly from a network of parents, with additional input from over 350 moms and dads.

My Interview with Founder of Poppylist, Sarah Hollingsworth

Why did you decide to start Poppylist?

When I was purchasing items for Amelia, I accidentally bought a mini crib. I didn't even know such a thing existed! It was in that moment, after having already spent over 20 hours researching items, that I knew this experience for all future parents needed to be better. To be simpler. And it was in my own overwhelming experience building my baby registry that Poppylist was born.

What is the most rewarding part of being a mom and running a business at the same time?

The most rewarding part right now is having the flexibility to adjust my schedule to support my family without having to request time off from work or get approval from a boss. It's rewarding and liberating wrapped into one. In the future, when Amelia can truly understand what it means to have a parent running their own business, then I think it'll become so much more rewarding in a different way. And I can't wait to share this part of my life with her!

…Continued

What about the poppy flower made you decide that "Poppylist" was the perfect name for your company?

When I first found out I was pregnant, I downloaded an app that tells you the size of your baby. Amelia was the size of a poppy seed. And since I'm from California (it's our state flower), I've always loved poppies. And so Poppylist just felt like a natural fit from the beginning.

What do you think is the most important item to have in a baby's nursery?

A comfortable chair or daybed with a side table. Hands down. A place to rest, cuddle, nap, nurse, read, etc. And you want a side table next to that space for your water, snacks, phone, books, etc. Create a corner where you, the mother, will feel at peace. It'll be a corner where both of you grow together.

If you could give any advice to new mothers, what would it be?

To have an open mind, no expectations, and listen to your gut. No one mother's experience is the same, so it's important to go in with an open mind about everything from your birth plan to feeding, and just accept that whatever is best for the mother and the baby, then that's perfect. Since there's so much information out there, sometimes we second guess what we truly know to be true as mothers. And I would tell every mother to pay attention to their intuition and do what feels right to her.

I am offering 15% off of silk flower poppy bunches with discount code, “POPPYLIST” at checkout. I hope these blooms make your baby’s room feel a little more vibrant this spring!

The origin story

Camping in Fire Island, Summer 2015

Back in the day when we were younger and more single, my dear friend Rebecka and I would bike to the beach, go on epic camping trips and get together to make flowers. We called our floral gatherings Flower Clvb and would wake up early in the morning, travel to the flower district, grab some blooms, then meet back up after work to make! Years prior to my NYC move, I worked for a florist in Waco, TX (Rose Tree) preparing flowers and sweeping floors, all while taking careful note of the ways each designer would place and put together pieces of various shapes and sizes. So when Rebecka and I began creating arrangements, my experience gave us the foundation we needed to jump into filling water buckets and de-thorninng roses. At the time when our flower clvb gatherings began, she was cutting hair and I was working at Patagonia.

Rebecka and I in our element

Given that our NYC hustles did not provide unlimited funds for our flower arranging hobby, we gave ourselves a $25 budget and choose flowers simply based on whatever fit into our $50 spending pot. Clearly, this wasn’t something we could do on a weekly basis but when we did, the 6 A.M. vigor of florists and vendors scurrying about the flower district, made flowers seem like an adventure. Eventually, Rebecka and I started making arrangements for church events and friends, growing more in love with the idea of working alongside nature.

Left arm = Rebecka’s arm. Right arm = my arm. Obviously Rebecka’s arm is way more cool!

When I think about the origin of Flower Clvb, I often think about my time with Rebecka, wildly pursuing nature and a life chasing the sun. Though not my favorite flower to use in arrangements, of all blooms, I would consider myself a Sun Flower as they go where the sun goes. Rebecka is a birch tree, deeply rooted in the forest and mountains, where she moved the summer of 2016. Although we lived in different cities, the time we had together made way for each of our next chapters. It was the fall of 2016, that I began dreaming about the steps it would take to start my own floral business. I started taking classes and workshops from some of my favorite designers and then with a few weddings under my belt, I launched.

Me, with a sunflower I grew from my fire escape garden

Rebecka & Mark celebrating their next chapter! Flowers made by Rebecka!

Having worked at Patagonia and learned the business practices of Yvon Chouinard’s environmentally progressive company, I acquired the groundwork for how I wanted to run my own business. Not only do certain profits go towards supporting environmental organizations, but the materials and working conditions used to create supply are done ethically and responsibly. After my time at Patagonia, I ran various arts education programs at libraries and public schools, developing a deep love for how children and adults alike acquire aesthetic preferences and learn to see and value the world. Each of my working experiences has defined what Flower Clvb is beyond just a floral design business.

While to me, making sculptural art pieces using nature as my medium of choice is what floral design is all about, it is also about celebrating the people who receive each arrangement and loving the earth by which each blossom came. It is a profound mystery that the ground is able to produce such an array of color, shape and texture. By spending time with organisms as intricate as blossoming plants through Flower Clvb’s gatherings and educational workshops, participants come together in awe, fellowship and affirmation that there is something bigger than ourselves at work in the world.

Preserving the earth and taking care of each flower as a living and created thing changes the perspective of how we interact with our encountered environments. Choosing materials that cause as little harm to the earth as possible such as chicken wire over floral foam, and composting refuse are small ways that Flower Clvb is making sure it has as little impact on the planet as possible. By donating to organizations seeking to preserve life and creating just conditions for living, Flower Clvb operates as a small business motivated by care for the earth.

Reflecting on life moments and experiences shared with friends like Rebecka convince me that the work we choose is inspired by something. For me, money is not the primary motivation behind my business but rather my work with flowers is inspired by a love for nature that has cultivated and grown through my relationships with people. I love the perspective of my dear friend Sarah Gregory who often reminds me that people are one of nature’s greatest gifts. So whenever I want to escape to the ocean and am stuck inside a studio processing flowers, I look into each flowerhead, think about the people receiving them and am transported to to a place equivalent to the beach on a clear day.

picture taken back in the day when over-saturated pics were a thing