Groovy new Fleurville

I love me some Fleurville! I was thrilled when I was able to start carrying this wonderful brand. The prints are so yummy and the quality is great. I use the bags myself. I have just gotten a shipment and will be using two of the bags for personal use. That is saying a lot as I am super picky.

Here are some of the gorgeous new prints that just arrived.

Suspicious order with Indonesia ship-to address

I just got a very suspicious order.

I mean, what business owner does not love to open their shipping cart and see an order more than ten times the size of an average order!

But that was my first red flag.

A few minutes quick research revealed quite a few red flags. One red flag alone does not cause me to cancel an order, but all together, this was too much.

Here are all the red flags of this particular order:

• many of the same item (who needs 4 of the same brand of baby sling?)*
• different country on the shipping and billing address. I have many good orders where the order is shipped to a different address than the billing address, but a different country is a red flag.
• shipping address in Indonesia. A bit of quick surfing reveals that they are now second for Internet fraud. It seems the scam is they claim the goods never arrived and do a credit card charge-back, leaving me out the goods. Which brings me to my last point,
• a request to ship via USPS Priority Mail, not Express - the claim being that Express mail causes them to have to pay higher taxes. It all goes to the same post office, so I highly doubt that one would incur higher tax than the other. Express Mail International is a highly reliable and highly trackable service. It is also insured. I am not quite understanding how using Priority gets them around this but perhaps their post office doesn't treat it very well and the charge back claims hold up somehow. How awful that credit card companies go along with this.

Sorry, prospective customer, but not today am I willing to give away this much inventory. Perhaps you'd like a nice free pencil sharpener instead?

Wouldn't it be ironic if the person who placed this order was just a mom, trying to make a little extra cash for food for her kids, just like me?


*Except a reseller - and in that case, they should be getting their own wholesale account

Pikkolo is awesome

Have you seen the Pikkolo baby carrier? It is the only baby carrier I recommend that does a facing out position that supports proper hip positioning for the baby.

Most mainstream baby carriers leave the baby's legs dangling down. This has been linked to issues such as hip dysplasia. Even if other carriers don't cause a developmental problem (this point is directed to those of you, who, like my five year old, will argue that nothing happened to your child - as I often say to her, just because you didn't get hurt, it doesn't mean that what you are doing isn't unsafe), common sense says it's not comfortable to be supported by a narrow strip of fabric. Would you want to hang like that?

The Pikkolo is suitable from birth for most babies and can be used front or back, with straps crossed or uncrossed. The straps have memory foam, which makes for a super comfy and contoured fit.

The material of the Pikkolo is so soft. Some buckle carriers use harsher, more scratchy materials. It's also gorgeous! Check out the current prints!