bob's yer uncle

Ahh she does it again.... "Ode to Bob Ross" by the one, the only, the I-wish-she-lived-next-door-to-me-and-we-were-bff's elloh aka ellen lohse. Visit her here.
















Limited edition of 100 - did I mention my birthday's coming up?

eames house blocks

There are a lot of toys perched on high around the house and in my studio, the majority of which are off limits to little people. Cruel, I know. If only there were a happy marriage between horrendous kid-approved stuff and my precious vintage treasures...

Enter the newly released Eames House Blocks by the marvelous folks at House Industries. With this set's cool design and solid construction, we may just have stumbled upon a thing of beauty that's actually built to survive drooling and chewing. Happy days are here again.

While the price ($175) isn't exactly cheap, I think I may just make an executive decision and bypass the purchasing committee on this one. After all, as Charles himself said, "toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are the preludes to serious ideas."

kool in de skool

One of our visits to Holland was in August during the height of back to school season. Signs everywhere pronounced "kool in de skool" or something along those lines. It's a phrase oft repeated in our household ever since.

It's not a subject I care to delve too deeply into in this particular forum (slippery slope to the world of the mommyblog, yikes!), but since we've entered that certain phase of life, I've been horrified at the general hideousity of most things kid. It's been a bit of a learning curve finding the balance between sucking it up and graciously accepting pre-loved yet oh so aesthetically-challenged baby gear with shelling out ridiculous amounts of money for short-term items that will not cause our eyes and ears to bleed. Aside from an incurable addiction to danish baby clothes, I think I've been showing remarkable restraint - so far.

Designed for Kids is a neat sourcebook compiling some of the best of the best in the way of design for smafolk. A number of the featured items are sure to become classics - like one of my favourites, the Sleepi crib by Stokke. I had my heart set on one initially but in an uncharacteristic fit of fiscal responsibility was convinced to go with a lovely wooden hand-me-down instead. Fortunately, a girlfriend's mom gifted one to her so I will be able to drool over it in person whenever we visit. Perhaps pop the wee one in for a photo op - who'll be the wiser?