I’m in my kitchen, pretending to be the perfect mother and I look out the window to see my little Leo in the hydrangeas, again.  And what might he be doing in my hydrangeas?  A wee.

Th sun is out, summer has almost arrived and with it come public displays of urination.  You see, I am the only one that does have the necessary tooling to make this magic happen.  I am shunned to the stale toilet.  Although, good for the garden and my memories.

“It’s my time to reflect”, I said to myself, as I scrubbed my shower door.

You see, it’s summer in New Zealand and we get our fair share of visitors from the Northern Hemisphere. Summer in Devonport is special, I know that, but what visitors don’t see is Devonport in July when it’s subtropical oasis is basking in rain. That’s the time I am most homesick for America.

The holiday season is now past and it’s back to work again. Not that I haven’t been working hard over the holiday season. Soon we’ll be launching our new website, check up on us frequently. We’re really excited about the new look and the opportunity to bring together the bunch of folks that love our products.

For us, 2011 will be about creating a Hushamok that is open to a community that want to ask, tell and request. We love the pictures, posts, and reviews. It’s a sign of good things yet to come.

Cheers to 2011
Julie

I love natural things.

I moved to New Zealand to embrace the clean and green world. I used to follow the Grateful Dead and sell vegetarian burritos. I married a Fisheries Economist who shares my passion for clean living. In my 20s, I roamed Kenya for three months and after the birth of my 1st born we started a company that makes sustainable and organic comfort solutions for children.

Recently I was folding some friends bedding (she’s moving and I was being a kind and helpful friend) and noticed how much stuff goes into a babies crib. You have the bumpers, fitted sheet, top sheet and blanket. In the summer time you may have less bedding but, you still have to balance the temperature in that wide-open space of a crib.

It got me thinking about Hushamok and how I take it’s design for granted. My children didn’t sleep in a crib until they were 5 months old. All sleep was in our Hushamok or in my arms.

The natural design of the hammock is so basic. It dates back over a thousand years and is still used throughout Latin America and South East Asia.

So why have hammocks stood the test of time?

Again, it goes back to simplicity. 100% organic cotton, swaddling, motion, how it mimics the natural environment in your womb.

There is one difference between the womb and our hammock though. In your womb, baby is in a fetal position. Hushamok’s unique support prevents spinal and respiratory compression, which means your baby is sleeping flat and cradled from the sides.

Soon we’ll be posting some amazing images from our recent Hushamok lifestyle photo shoot. We can’t wait for you to see them and all the big and small babies relaxing in the calming environment of a Hushamok.

Isn’t it enough that you have to dive into the daunting world of parenthood, now you have to decide whether or not you’re risking your babies safety with drop-side crib or some other product you thought was safe?

What is safe? Who measures safety for your baby? Can safety be measured in a factory or around a boardroom with a bunch of executives that don’t even know (or remember) what it’s like to hold a newborn baby?

Well, before I pass judgment I thought it best to focus on Hushamok and our safety standards and the lengths WE hold ourselves accountable to.

As parents ourselves, we decided to journey down the path of developing a new and improved baby hammock back in 2006, one that wouldn’t contribute to the risks of spinal compression or suffocation.

Not only did we hire an independent industrial design firm but we also enlisted the assistance of JPMA and an affiliated US and EU safety testing facility.

Jurgen Brand of New Zealand based Design Brand is not only a certified industrial designer with over 25 years experience but he is a proud father of 3 children. It is important to Hushamok that our designs are not only beautiful but functional, safe, and sustainable. Jurgen is of German descent and his natural designs focus on simplicity and ease of use.

The design process started just after the birth of my first-born, Lucas, so we immediately had a test subject to trial our designs. When we were sufficiently satisfied with the design and function we applied for the safety certification through the Juvenile Manufacturers Association (JPMA) and worked with Bureau Veritas, a US based testing facility that looked at dozens of criteria to decide if the Hammock was safe for the consumer market.

It would take us almost 3 years and countless hours an changes before that we began selling Hushamok Hammocks in the US based on the rigorous safety tests.

All safety testing was voluntary, but not to us, as parents and owners of a company with a conscious it’s always been important for Hushamok to maintain the highest standards for all our products.

And if you ever had the fortunate experience of using our products you know we stand by the quality with outstanding customer services especially for those new parents who bravely charter into the beautiful waters of parenthood.

We love hearing from you and thank JPMA and all the advocacy groups for keeping a keen eye on unsafe products that put our babies and children at risk. Let’s stay strong and look out for one another.

Cheers,
Julie

Still does.

Cat Stevens, now known as, Yusuf Islam, hasn’t toured in over 30 years and last week I was living my dream.

I swear, Cat Stevens, was singing to me. It felt like it anyway.

Originals written during the tumultuous 60′s included, “Where do the Children Play”, “Wild World’, and “Father and Son.” The flood of memories was overwhelming.

Funny thing is that although so much time has elapsed since Cat’s last performance it’s amazing how relevant his lyrics still are. The music moved me as much as it did some 20-something years ago.

Which brings me to my childhood memories of Independence Day. The annual 4th of July party at my parent’s house with family and friends, a hot summer day spent throwing one another in our pool, never-ending volleyball games, and ending it with an evening of mesmerizing fireworks from the Blue HIll’s Mountains that peek over the Boston Skyline.

Those are the memories my mind thankfully will not let go of, as I’m thousands of miles away from the Independence Holiday freezing in the Southern Hemisphere winter.

At least I have my Cat Steven’s CD and my memories to comfort me.

My response, “Are you kidding, it’s a mess and hasn’t been cut in months.”

They say, “Your children are gorgeous.”

I say, “But they’re cheeky and naughty.”

They say, “Your business is growing and you’re accomplished so much.”

I say, “We still have so much more to do.”

Why can’t I just take the compliment?

Next time someone says something positive I promise to say, “thank you so much for the kind words” and smile.

I say, “What are you crazy? I can’t go. No internet, too much work and of course there’s the air travel from New Zealand to France, 30 hours with 2 kids (Lucas = 4yrs old and Leo = 2 yrs old). So I opt not to go.

Seems like I made the wrong choice with 6 nights down and 6 more to go.

I had never even heard of Dubrovnik before this converstaion.

At least cooking has been easy Wagamama style

The family minus Mark

For now Dubrovnik rules my thoughts and has stolen my husband.

If I hadn’t been procrastinating for the past 4 years I would have started with the birth of my first born and then taken you through the process of plunging into parenthood and launching a Start-Up simultaneously.

Pure insanity. Welcome to the world of Hushamok.

I’ll go back a bit further because the number question I get is: How did a die hard New Englander and a South African end up in New Zealand?

Right, so let’s go back to 2004. No children, in love, looking for a romantic escape for a few years and New Zealand seemed as good a place as any. What I didn’t expect was that I’d fall head over heals in love with New Zealand.

What a fantastic place to live never mind raise a family. NZ’s clean, green, and safe. I imagine it’s what California was like 50 years ago.

Launching a company in the US is a major feat in itself. Launching a company in 2006 right before a global economic meltdown made it even more challenging. Running a company from a small county in the middle of the South Pacific.

Not so easy.