Just a quick note to let you all know that we have appreciated all the support, comments and advice that you’ve given us throughout the year. Color Me House is such an important part of our lives that it means the world to us that it has been so well received. We’ve got lots of fun stuff in store for 2010, so stay tuned!

Happy Holidays to all!

We have a very creative friend named Jen who has done some amazing work on our playhouses and rockets. We know everyone isn’t quite the artist Jen is, but we hope these give you and your kids some inspiration!

We’ve posted more ideas on our Facebook Fan Page - check them out here.

“Go green” is used all the time these days, but it sure sounds best when you’re talking about the holidays. (You know green and red…OK, corny, we know.) But really, it only makes sense to us to try to make some subtle changes to our holiday traditions to help out the environment a little.

We just love the Planet Green website. We find it to be a wonderful resource for all things “green.” Their How to Go Green series is full of good and easy tips. We think the How to Go Green: Holidays is especially good.

From trimming the tree with LED lights to sending greeting cards that can be turned into ornaments (or better yet, send email cards) or giving gifts of experience (like concert tickets or spa treatments), we think we can make some valuable changes to our traditions – without sacrificing the joy of the season.

Hope you join us!

We were in doing a little holiday shopping this afternoon in Northwest Portland and popped into Child’s Play, a cute little neighborhood toy store, and what should we see right inside the front door…a Color Me Rocket! It’s so fun to see the rockets and playhouses when we’re out and about. It was cool because they let the kids color on the Rocket while moms and dads are shopping. It was great to see the little ones go in and out of the Rocket. One cute little girl even said she was going to ask Santa for a Rocket. Hmmm. Maybe we can talk to the big man at the North Pole about a quantity discount!

Child's Play in Northwest Portland

If you live in the Portland area, you should check out Child’s Play. It’s not a huge place, but it has a great selection of quality toys. We picked up a few things for the kiddies on our lists! Plus, NW 23rd is a fabulous area for other things like chocolate – we took our friends to Moonstruck Chocolate for a little after shopping treat!

If you have other favorite toy shops, we’d love to hear about them!

It’s no secret that here at Color Me House we are all about inspiring kids to be creative while being eco-friendly. And since it’s that time of year, we thought we’d share with you a few of the environmentally-friendly, kid-friendly gifts we’ve run across recently.

Our criteria for the list is simple: fun for kids, eco-friendly and made in the USA (let’s do our part to keep the economy going, right!). There are certainly thousands of children’s items out there that fit this criteria, but here are a few of our favorites. If you have ideas that you’d like to share, please let us know.

Hope these help make your holiday shopping just a little easier!

The Green Toys Dish Set

The Green Toys Dish Set ($40) is made from 100% recycled plastic milk containers that save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The set includes everything you need to serve a dinner for four, and even though it’s a play set, it’s dishwasher safe and meets FDA food contact standards. And it comes in cute colors that girls will love!

Little Sapling Toys

This game is called Skittles ($35) – it’s a 10 pin retro wooden bowling developmental set. The 10 pins are made from maple and the two balls from hardwood. They are sanded satin smooth and a light local beeswax and organic jojoba oil finish enhances the natural beauty of the wood. All Little Sapling Toys are 100% recycled (80% post consumer) and recyclable.

Chase Dreams Building Block Crayons

This set of Building Block Crayons ($3) will be a hit for any child who loves Legos. They are made from recycled non-toxic crayons. Each set includes a red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

Bebeloosh Mini Snack Bags

Forget about the plastic baggies. we don’t know any kid who wouldn’t love to open their backpack and find these great Reusable Organic Sandwich/Snack Bags ($25 for 4). The bags are made from 55% recycled hemp and 45% unbleached cotton cotton – giving them great durability and wearability. The eco-friendly sack has a velcro closure that keeps all the crumbs inside.

Mama K's Aromatic Play Clay

Mold and shape away with Mama K’s Play Clay ($22). This 100% natural modeling clay made from certified GF flours and organic essential oils. There are no synthetics or artificial dyes. Comes in a tube of five 4-oz. tubs in aromas like lavender, lemongrass and other wonderful smelling scents. The tubs are reusable and the tube is recyclable.

We’ve always been fans of the Ronald McDonald House – what a wonderful organization. As you probably know, many families have to travel far from home to get treatment for their seriously ill or injured children. Treatment sometimes takes days or months or even longer – that’s a long time to be away from home.

Ronald McDonald Houses around the world offer families a way to stay together, be close to their children’s hospitals, and be comfortable and cared for during their stays.

Recently, we were lucky enough to be involved with the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Washington D.C.’s “Houses of Hope” fundraising event. It means so much to help an organization like this.

The D.C. Ronald McDonald House partnered with about 18 schools and companies to decorate Color Me Playhouses as a part of their fundraiser. After the playhouses were decorated, many were displayed at a local mall to show the community the many organizations involved in the Ronald McDonald House event.

One of the ways the schools and companies raised money was by collecting spare change for a week – using their Color Me House playhouse like a giant piggybank. On Monday, the organizations collected pennies; Tuesday, nickels; Wednesday, dimes; Thursday, quarters; And Friday, dollars. All told, about $20,000 was collected for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Washington D.C. in just one week.

Wow! Great job, Washington D.C., and keep up the good work, Ronald!

It’s mid-November already. Eek. Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. Eek eek. We feel our collective blood pressure rising. We know that the holiday season is supposed to be jolly and bright, but it’s hard to keep our sanity when the kids are already seeing all the toys ads on TV and asking for a Wii and Legos and Disney Princesses and this and that and the other thing.

You can imagine our relief when we came across “9 New Traditions for a Greener, Saner Holiday Season” on the Planet Green website. Ahhh.

It’s time to take back the holiday season. Start your own traditions, and make memories of the fun you had rather than all of the shopping you did. Focus on living more deliberately this holiday season; making real choices about how you are going to spend your time and resources. Rather than getting caught up in the shopping frenzy, make eco-conscious choices whenever possible. It’s not about giving up those holiday traditions, it’s about making them better!

The nine ideas that writer Colleen Vanderlinden suggest all make perfect sense. Slow down and refocus on what really is important this holiday season. It’s not about the latest greatest electronics. It’s not about “trying to go all Martha Stewart on your Thanksgiving table,” as Colleen so eloquently puts it. It’s about sharing time with family and friends and creating new traditions.

We can do that. Are you in?

While we don’t normally like to toot our own horn – paint our own playhouse…yes, toot horn…no – we are thrilled to have received a few awards lately. It’s always gratifying to be recognized for the products we have worked so hard at creating.

So we were thrilled earlier this year when the Color Me House and Color Me Rocket made Dr. Toy’s “Best Classic Toys” and “Best Green Toys” list, respectively.

Dr. Toy, a.k.a. Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D., has been tracking trends in the toy business for more than 30 years. Each year, she searches the toy aisles – figuratively speaking, of course – for the best toys on the market.

To be on the 2009 Best Classic Toys list, Dr. Toy looked for products that are fun and have high play value. The award-winning green toys are “made by companies striving to inspire children to appreciate the environment and help them learn to take better care of our natural resources,” according to Dr. Toy’s website.

That’s us. How cool! Thanks, Dr. Toy!

The Dr. Toy website is packed full of great toy ideas – let’s not forget that Christmas is just around the corner. Ugh! And, oh, there’s just so much – there’s cool stuff like a page that lists how to say “toy” in 67 different languages. And the Kids’ Page has links for multiple toy design contests for kids – time to get your kids in an inventive mood!

Dr. Toy, you rock!

We love to hear from customers! And it’s so cool for us to get letters from folks across the country. When we started Color Me House in 2008, it was our dream to inspire creativity in children across the country – our dream is now a reality!

Here is what one of our Indiana customers had to say:

Hello,

First off I would like to say thank you for the wonderful House. My children (ages 11, 8 and 2) love it! Second, I would like to share an interesting story with you. We noticed today after buying this house from our Costco in INDIANA that your company is in Sherwood, Oregon.  That just happens to be where I grew up and where my parents still live. It is such a small world that we live in! So this House now has extra special meaning to it. I have a feeling that my kids will draw pictures that represent their Grandparents house on it. What a great and inventive product. We love it.

Thank you so very much,

Tiffany Bosket

We love getting mail and photos of your playhouses and rockets. Hope to hear from you soon!

We are always happy to be asked to participate in fundraisers that make a difference in kids’ lives. So when the nice folks over at White Wave Foods, makers of Silk Soymilk, Horizon organic milk and several other delicious dairy products, asked us if we would donate some Color Me House playhouses for an employee fundraiser, we were in!

Individuals, department teams and employees’ families let their creativity explode onto the walls of the playhouses (Isn’t that dairy delivery truck great!). Then the houses were auctioned off to benefit the Thorne Ecological Institute, a Colorado-based non-profit that teaches kids and adults about nature through hands-on activities.

The White Wave folks were SO creative and did such a bang up job that they raised more than $850 for Thorne. How cool is that?!

We are so proud to be a part of White Wave Foods fundraising. Thorne Ecological Institute has connected more than 185,000 kids and adults to nature since it began in 1954. Fifty-five years of teaching kids about nature – congratulations to Thorne and many thanks to White Wave Foods for helping them out!