The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
Remember when we talked about The Snowy Day and how much we all adore it? Well, look how cute: MerryMakers makes dolls based on characters from favorite books and they sent out a Little Peter Doll as a gift for my kids. On any given night, you will now find Betty asleep with Peter in her arms. Did you see the Go Dog Go doll? I love that one too.
If you could have a doll made, based on a character from a picture book, what character would it be?
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My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six. We are currently living in a dreamy farmhouse in the French countryside. (I have to pinch myself each morning!) I post on the intersection of design and motherhood.
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New to Design Mom? Here are 10 posts to get you started:
What to Wear To Middle School
Napoleon Dynamite
Our Birth Announcements
Potato Print Clothing
Having Another Child
Young Einstein Birthday Party
Little Red LightHouse Outing
Porch Makeover
Waving Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean
Build Two Toddler Beds for $75
Pimp My Ride: Family Edition
We've used our base in France to do lots of traveling. It's addictive! Here are some of our adventures:
A trip to Amsterdam.
Canoeing on the Dordogne River.
A Belgian Waffle Tour.
A wintery visit to Cologne.
Three cheers for Barcelona!
The tulip fields in Holland.
We saw the final match of the French Open.
One of our favorite spots is Mont St. Michel.
I wonder where we'll wander next! To see more of our travels, click here.
Here's something fun. Our family was featured in an episode of House Hunters International! Spoiler: we choose the gorgeous French Farmhouse. It's called La Cressonnière and we take pictures of it all the time. If you're curious, try these links:
The Kitchen
Summer at La Cressonnière
The Halfbath
The Stairwell
The Neighbors
Ralph's Bedroom
The Studio
Springtime at La Cressonnière
The Living Room
Maude's Bedroom
The Artists
Oscar & Betty's Bedroom
The Exterior
The Floors
Olive's Bedroom
The Treehouse
The House: La Cressonnière
I hope you enjoy the house tour! Oh. And if you'd like to see the episode, you can find it on Youtube here (it's in four parts).
I write a weekly column called Inspiration Scout on Cafémom. Find new posts on Thursdays.
I write a daily post (Monday through Friday) for Babble's Family Style blog.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Corduroy, with the missing button and all. Loved that book as a kid and delight in reading it to my toddler today.
What a wonderful company! Great find!!
GREAT find! I have to say…. I loved The Snowy Day… have never seen a Peter doll….
of course the Tomten. i sitll have yet to see the one that roams around our home taking care of the animals in our yard. i have found signs of him though…maybe one day i will see him. he’s a curious one.
Oh, I would love a Tomten doll. Thank you for reminding me about that wonderful book!
lola from charlie and lola
Holy cow, these are wonderful. And they are so affordable! I clicked over thinking it would be out of my price range, but no! They are almost all under $20! (I promise I don’t work for them, I was just got really excited.)
definitely Corduroy:).
The Pigeon from Mo Willem’s “Don’t Let the Pigeon” series and the little boy from “What Do You Do, Dear?” and “What Do You Say, Dear?”. Does anyone else know these adorable books about manners? They are written by Sesylr Johnson and illustrated by the timeless Maurice Sendak. I loved those two books as a kid.
Love Mo Willems books and the awesome manners books! Those are so great! I’m replying to you because you can buy the pigeon! I’ve seen him at Borders and I know he’s on amazon. I’ve been contemplating buying a Knuffle bunny for myself. :)
Very sweet. I would like a “Little Bear” doll.
Darling. Not a word I like to use. But these are darling. :)
I have all of the little stuffed animals that go with the Biddle Books. We love them!
I’d love a little pea. Milo would love him even more. A toy pea doubles as a toy ball, and that’s our favorite thing right now!
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Pea-Amy-Krouse-Rosenthal/dp/081184658X
We love all of her books. We’d probably want Little Hoot the most and Little Oink, too!
Curious George or the Cat in the Hat! Those are really cute!! I love the the “Are You My Mother” doll!
a cowboy bunny from christine loomis’ book
I’d love a Chrysanthemum doll. Kevin Henkes is just great.
Anne, from Anne of Green Gables. Or Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory might be fun too.
How about a hippo from The Belly Button Book. “We hippos love our belly-Bs. There round and cute and funny…”
I collect book character dolls and Merrymakers is one of my favorite places to collect dolls.
Mm… I don’t know if I could pick a character! I love Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems (and may have to buy one of those!) but I think I would also say a Toot and Puddle from Holly Hobbie’s books. Those are some of my new favorites!
What a precious little doll! I wished I had known about this when mine was younger.
It’s a toss up – my son loves Spoon from the book “Spoon” and the Chameleon from the book “A Color of My Own.” We read them almost every night.
I think I’d have a Miss Rumphius doll!
We’d like a Cowboy Small!
So very happy to see this sweet post and the kind comments!! We love kids’ books and are always looking for new ideas — great to get this feedback!
Another book we got a big kick out of is Pete the Cat. If you haven’t checked it out it’s definitely worth a read. (Our Pete doll will be ready in Sept.)
Again, many thanks for the kind words!!
We LOVE MerryMakers! Not sure we can pick a favorite. Fun, creative toys for all ages.
It’s not a picture book, but I would choose a Laura Ingalls doll a la Little House on the Prairie. Because she was sweet as Ma’s's peach preserves and tough as Pa’s horseshoe nails.
Great post! The Snowy Day is one of the best books ever.
We had a Lowly Worm doll when we were kids. Richard Scary would have to be my choice – Pig Will & Pig Won’t or Goldbug!!
I’d have a Big Nutbrown Hare, and a little Nutbrown hare made from “Guess How Much I Love You” – one of my all time faves:)