vintage nautical theme

To celebrate the holidays with all of you, The Baby Gardner is happy to announce our holiday-edition of FREE Vintage Friday! This Personalized Nautical Soft Block Set with Drawstring Bag ($40 value) is a perfect gift for baby. Each block makes a different noise: rattle, bell, and squeaker. Vintage-inspired cotton prints including anchors, sailors, geometrics and ticking stripes are featured on each block. Blocks are housed neatly inside the coordinating drawstring bag. This giveaway set will be personalized with the word ‘baby’.

Win it! Just leave a comment on this post briefly describing your most memorable Christmas moment as a child. Giveaway ends Monday, 12/22 at 11pm GMT. Winner will be announced on Tuesday and chosen at random. Good luck!

Want one of your own? This set is available exclusively at The Baby Gardner and can be personalized with your own little one’s name!

We still have our voting taking place to select a new invitation pattern for the shop. Be sure to cast your vote! In the meantime, I’ve been working on a few other vintage designs. I’m excited to introduce you to our two newest patterns: In the Treetop and By the Seashore.

The nautical little boy on the seashore was a request from my friend, Renee — you know the one who wanted the vintage / nautical / Navy – themed nursery? Luckily, designing a birth announcement for Baby James was a much easier assignment. She’s due 11/11 and is in serious nesting mode. Let’s just say she did a really good job of ‘nudging’ me along to get this done. Hey, if it eases her mind to know it’s finished (even before the baby gets here), then what kind of friend would I be if I procrastinated? (I’d be the exact kind of friend she’s had for the past 20 years — she knows me too well.)

On a personal note, I’m having minor outpatient surgery on my wrist tomorrow. It’s a long story. I won’t bore you with the details (ok, well maybe I will if I get really desperate for posting ideas). I just wanted to mention it in case you guys start wondering if I disappeared. We’ll catch up next week! If you need to place an order over the next few days, no worries. The elves are still working.

One of my dearest friends, Renee, is pregnant with her second child — a boy (her first). Renee’s dad and her husband’s dad are both retired Navy, so she had this great idea to decorate Baby James’ nursery in a Navy/nautical theme. Perfect, right? Well, in addition to that she really wanted a vintage flair to it which made it a definite challenge. But with all the WWII memorabilia out there, I thought, “We can do this!”

So I began hunting and hunting and hunting for vintage + nautical + baby themed items (no pressure here). A lot of what I found was either sailboats (not really Navy or sailor) or serious WWII collectibles (no babies in sight). I was getting frustrated looking at eBay and searching all the flea markets and antique shops in town. Then one night like a shining beacon (cheesy pun intended), I found this:

Now, come on. Is that perfect or what? I about (excuse my expression) peed in my pants when I saw this! This is the cover of an authentic vintage coloring book from 1943. Can you say inspiration piece? I’m framing it for her to hang in the nursery. I can’t wait to give it to her.

Of course I really couldn’t stop there. Finding the coloring book gave me the shove I needed to keep looking. So, in addition to that, I’m giving her some other vintage-inspired goodies. I won’t show them all (I went a little crazy), but here’s the highlights…

Vintage-inspired Whale Rattle: The vintage fabrics are great. And he has a little braided ‘stream’ coming out of his blow hole. Truth be told, I loved this so much, the artist is making them for the shop! Grab him up at The Baby Gardner!

Sailor Blankie: Another vintage goodie for Baby James will be a small blankie made especially for him by his Aunt Dee using this vintage-inspired sailor fabric and minky-dot backing. Pretty adorable, right?

So what do you think overall? Did I meet the vintage nautical nursery challenge?

While I’m writing about Renee and Baby James, I have to get your opinion on one other thing. Please settle a debate we’re having. Renee had asked for some help picking colors and fabrics for his nursery based on the vintage nautical theme. I sent her two groups: 1) Classic Navy & Red or 2) Nautical with a Modern Twist of Red & Green. I’m not going to tell you which she picked or which one I encouraged, but I can tell you that we didn’t agree. Both are great, but I had a definite favorite and so did she. The question is, which one would YOU choose?Renee and I are more like family than friends, so the fact that we didn’t agree on this is so typical. But I love her dearly and I cannot wait to be an aunt (again) to her precious baby boy. Maybe our saga with her ever-so-complex nursery theme will inspire you!

Nautical in general seems to be a really popular style these days. If you’re pondering that one, why not make it even more unique by infusing it with a vintage twist. It is doable!

UPDATE! Looking for unique vintage nautical items for baby? We have some great new additions in the shop, including:
• On the Seashore Invitation or Birth Announcement
• Personalized Nautical Soft Blocks Set with Drawstring Bag
• Ahoy Sailor Toddler Set
• Vintage-Inspired Wally the Whale Onesie
• Little Moby Dick Baby Rattle