About Us

The Bellini Buzz is a blog dedicated to all things baby. From nursery design and fashion, to motherly advice and celebrity babies we have it all. Our fabulous cast of contributors are hand picked industry insiders with all the latest scoop expecting parents and moms and dads will want to read about. Visit us for great sales, new product finds, important safety information and of course some inspirational design ideas. We’re so glad you stopped by!

The Buzz is brought to you by one of the most respected names in the baby business, Bellini Baby & Teen Furniture.

Contributors

Michelle Freedberg has been in the heart of the baby business for over 10 years. Owning her own Bellini store in Stamford, CT and high-end online baby boutique, the bean’s closet, Michelle has her finger on the pulse of what’s hot in the world of baby fashion, gear and nursery design. In her spare time (that’s definitely a joke), she is also one of the contributors on Project Nursery.  Michelle is a family therapist in Bergen County, NJ, where she also resides. She is mom to her two little beans, Stella Chase and Nate Cooper and of course her ever-loyal soft coated Wheaton Terrier, Eloise.

Tracy Wild has over 15 years experience in the children’s industry from working behind the scenes at Ralph Lauren children’s wear and DKNY Kids.  Before moving to North Carolina, Tracy helped manage the Connecticut Bellini showroom, doing buying and running their online boutique, the bean’s closet. She is also a mom to Julia and Max. With her passion for interior design, she is always on the hunt to find us the hottest trends for our kids!

Nava Writz is an icon in the baby bedding and nursery accessory industry, offering clients the ultimate in luxurious, detailed and finely crafted baby bedding for over 25 years. Writz’s company, Nava’s Designs, is the gold standard in baby nursery design with a list of celebrity clients longer than the spools of finely woven fabric that line her Los Angeles warehouse.Nava’s Designs has numerous television and print media credits including Good Morning America, Child Magazine, People Magazine, In Touch Weekly, Southern Living Magazine, TLC’s Make Room for Multiples, ongoing appearances on Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and most recently, Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Some of Nava’s celebrity clients through the years have included Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Sir Paul McCartney, The Obama Family, The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Teresa Giudice, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, Usher, Slash, Joan Lunden, Melanie Griffith, Richard Dreyfuss, Eddie Murphy and Bette Midler to name just a few.

Aiko Decelles began designing for dan dan in 2007 after her niece grew out of her “very favorite dress”. She left a career on Wall Street to pursue her passion for creativity in design. She traces her passion to her grandparents who designed kimono fabric and traditional dolls in Japan. She lives in New York City with her husband Dan.

Sam Simon is a NYC artist and designer. He creates beautiful murals
and paintings on canvas for homes, and businesses. As a child, Sam loved animated films, especially the fanciful background illustrations and how they transported the characters to magical places. Early in his career, Sam realized to achieve his dreams of being an artist and creator he would have to start something from the ground up. So that’s where he started – on the ground, or the sidewalks rather. Sam created larger than life chalk drawings on the fashionable shopping streets of Boston and handed out his number to anyone who would stop and talk. Lots of people did just that. Sam started to create beautiful murals and hand painted children’s rooms. Sam has built a wonderful following and his artwork has become a treasured part of many peoples’ homes. He currently lives in Manhattan with Tarzan his cat- they both like to listen to rock and roll music and hang out with friends on rooftops.

Patty Shaw has worked in baby retail and studied popular children’s fashion for years. For the past six years she has been the editor of Baby Chic 101 (www.babychic101.com), a baby blog dedicated to fashion, gear and the latest in what celebrity are buying got their babies.

Christine Fox is Everyday Mama to two and a San Diego-based freelance writer. She loves everything that has to do with shopping and being the talk of the playgroup when she finds the perfect shirt and diaper bag. Her fashion philosophy is simple: that being a mom does not mean that you should sacrifice style. You can be a mom and stylish! When she’s not shopping or writing about shopping, she can be found playing with her two kids at the park. Her favorite stores are Target, Nordstrom and Anthropologie but when it comes to finding the perfect pair of jeans, no store is off limits. Currently she is a style contributor for StyleBakeryMom.com and has her own daily blog at EverydayMama.com. For more mom finds, you can also follow her on Twitter @Everydaymama and @Stylebakerymom.

Deborah Acquino has worked for over 10 years designing and creating products in the children’s décor industry for other companies. Being an artist and designer, she had always dreamt of pursuing her passion and creating a company of her own. She started her company, LotAspots, three years ago and introduced her products on Etsy, a site which connects unique artists with buyers. Etsy has changed the way buyers find new and exciting handmade products online. Before she knew it, Deborah’s line was sought out by moms who recognized a need for a new style of items personalized just for themselves and their children. The name of her Etsy store came from her desire to turn LotAspots into a family business and include her two daughters Candice and Katie, who continue to inspire her every day. From a young age Deborah always had a knack for coordinating and combining colors, patterns and designs. She really enjoys staying in the loop of new companies and designers in the business. Her products reflect her passion for keeping up with the latest trends in children’s décor and applying her personalized talent to meet her client’s needs.
She has been featured on numerous blogs and her line of products can be found in stores throughout the country and Dubai. Follow Deborah on Facebook , Twitter and her blog as well. Deborah has 3 children and currently resides outside of Charleston, S.C. with her husband Chris and her 2 dogs, Simon and Skippy.

Andrea Totten, designer of furniture, bedding and upholstery for nursery, children and teen rooms made her debut 39 years ago. Totten founded Rags to Riches/Sweetpea of California in 1971 manufacturing custom bedding.  She produced a few quilts, bought a booth at the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena and the dream was born.   That initial investment grew into a large factory with up to 50 employees after adding upholstery and hand painted furniture divisions.  All designs and styling had the Totten Touch.A year ago Totten decided to sell her business to her vice president and retire.  But after a few days realized this lifestyle was not for her, not yet anyway.  Re-inventing herself and using the skills and experience from many years in the industry, Totten is pleased to announce she is available for in-home or in-store designing of nurseries and children’s rooms. “Creating a nursery for that most wonderful new addition to a family is still a thrill for me.  The furnishings become a part of a family’s heirlooms to be saved and handed down to future generations,” she adds.  “We have designed nurseries for Moms and Dads who themselves started life with a Sweetpea quilt!”Now a proud grandmother of an 8 year old, she spends much of her spare time with her grandson, Max.   It’s the best!

Raleigh, NC-based Susan Tollefsen (Susan Tollefsen Interiors) has been an interior designer for 12 years but she’s been working at design in one form or another most of her life – from crafting Barbie’s Dream Drapes as a child to styling dorm rooms in college. Design has been a lifelong passion and she always brings freshness and a new way of looking at things to every project. Flip through her portfolio and you’ll find a sense of style that is fun yet thought-provoking…ever-stylish but with a twist!

Susan describes her work as “kitschy glam.” It can be quirky and whimsical (she once covered a dog statue in timepieces and dubbed it The Watch Dog for a focal point on a mantle) but she doesn’t shy away from classic and traditional lines either.

Winner of the 2009 Nation’s Next Top Model Home design competition, Susan creates interiors that have thought and meaning to them.

“It’s easy to pull off clean and simple interiors, she said, “but I encourage clients to go a step further. It takes time to layer and give interiors lots of dimension by adding art, fabrics, accoutrement, wallpaper, murals, and unusual pieces of furniture, either new or ‘flea market’ finds. The goal is to have a room that is rich and interesting, not like something you’d find in a mass-marketed furniture showroom. And as Jonathon Adler says, ‘you should have something inappropriate in every room.’ I believe in that!”

In 2010 – out of her obsession with flea markets, junk shops, art, furniture and design – she debuted “The Fort,” a retail home furnishings shop that features fun, interesting things for your home that, according to Susan, “you didn’t know you needed.”

In Susan’s spare time, she enjoys junk shopping, crafting and making mini-ham biscuits (yes, she says, it’s really a hobby.)

Lauren Gindes is the founder mommylearningcurve.com, a website geared towards helping first-time moms climb the steep learning curve of motherhood. A former corporate securities attorney, Lauren assumed she’d breeze into motherhood without a hitch. However, upon having her son, Lauren quickly realized that she had absolutely positively no idea what she was doing. She had no idea what she needed or what the best products were or how not to blow her life savings buying those products or what to feed her baby or how her baby should be sleeping or … well, you get the idea. Lauren founded Mommy Learning Curve to provide other first-time mothers an easily-accessible one-stop site where they can find all of the information they need to know about being a first-time mom. Mommy Learning Curve… because they teach you trigonometry, but don’t teach you how to be a mother in school.

Lauren currently resides in Raleigh, NC with her fabulous husband, Jonathan and her amazing son, Nate.