Cookie's Nesting Blog

Check out the great PoppyTalk article I featured over on Cookie's Nesting blog today. It's all about creating a temporary outdoor kitchen. And here's a peek at some of the other fun stuff I've posted at Cookie lately:



-The Rapplekist Bunk Bed. So amazingly cool.
-Gorgeous Nanimarquina Rugs. Dozens of beautiful choices.
-And a how-to on how your kids can make their own Modern Art Masterpiece.

Maude's Cloud Photos

Unexpected flight entertainment: Maude kept busy with the camera phone shooting the gorgeous pink tinged clouds out the window. There's something grainy and otherworldly that's lovely about them.

Redfish Kids

Yesterday I attended the children's clothing trade show. It comes to New York every August and showcases the spring/summer lines of the following year (a fall/winter one happens earlier in the year). It's a great show. Not too big. Not too small. And really friendly.

As I attended this year I was particularly keeping watch for new or new-to-me lines that I could share with you. And I totally scored. I found all sorts of fantastic companies which I'll be featuring over the next month or so. Just in time for thoughts of back-to-school. The first one up is Redfish Kids.




It's a new, small, boutique line, sized for babies through age 6. And I love every piece. Designed by a brave and talented mother of two from Vancouver, the line is season-less and oh-so-wearable. The dresses are feminine without being princess-y. The prints are colorful but not stereotypically child-like. And it's been picked up by artistic celebs like Diana Krall and Sarah McLachlan.

My favorite piece is the Fisherman Jean (pictured above). It's a unisex design, but made to feel either boyish or girlish with two different fabrics available for the waist lining. Very well constructed and dripping with personality. I would love to see my kids sporting a pair of these.

Great Kids’ Room Finds — by Guest Mom Jane Maynard

My two sweet girls have a super sweet bedroom. I thought I’d quickly share my top finds for their space.

Play Mat.
Love this play mat from Ikea. It’s super cute in a boy or girl room, doesn’t slide around and is only $14.99!! You can’t beat it.


Table & Chairs.
Santa brought Cate a table and chair set two years ago. He asked me to do some research and I found ChildrensTablesandChairs.com. Their stuff is cute, high quality and not much more expensive than Target or Wal-Mart. Santa was very pleased. He gave Cate this set in cherry.


Toddler Bedding.
I am SUPER excited about this find. If you’ve ever shopped for bedding for a toddler bed, you feel my pain. Everything is, well, cheeeee-zeeee. Wandering around Marshalls one day I found the perfect solution. Throw blankets! They’re just the right size, and you can find some really pretty patterns. Plus, if you’re lucky like me, you’ll find a matching sham! Throw in a white toddler sheet set from Babies R Us and you’re set!

From the Archive: Rock Climbing Birthday Report

I realize I never reported on Maude's birthday party, so here's a little recap:

The party favors turned out wonderfully. My original vision was wide-mouth Nalgene bottles that I could fill with rock candy and a bandana. The final version was a variation of this, but still very cute — and coordinated with the invitations.

I picked up the water bottles at Target. I liked their sporty straps, but the mouths were too narrow to stuff the favors into. No biggie, the kids just received an empty water-bottle with their other favors on the way out the door.


I found an excellent online source on the rock candy, but because I didn't order until the last minute, I couldn't get the candy delivered in time with out paying more than the candy was worth in shipping charges, so I used Gold Nugget Bubble Gum instead and repackaged it as Rock Bubble Gum.


Instead of bandanas, I packaged up bags of 5 sticks ofsidewalk chalk renamed as Climbing Chalk. And I attached the chalk and gum together with carabiners picked up in the Target sporting goods department. So each child went home with chalk, bubble gum, a carabiner, and a water bottle.

Two hours before the party started, the climbing gym called and said they had to shut down for the day because of a gas leak.

I'm not kidding.

Alternative plans had to be made. And fast.

If you're dying for details, I wrote up all the drama in my latest post at NY Metro Parents.

Originally posted March 30, 2007.

From the Archive: The Little Red Lighthouse

On Friday I loaded up the kids and we went on a hunt for the Little Red Light House.

A dear friend, Rebecca, gave us the book (about an actual lighthouse here in New York that was dwarfed as the George Washington Bridge was built) not long after we moved here. We love the book and have always wanted to visit the lighthouse — we even attempted to find it once a couple of years ago — but our attempt was rained out. Hooray that Friday was our lucky day.



I swear, it was like the cosmic forces all combined to help us have the perfect outing. The weather was fantastic — with a nice breeze coming off the water. It's a bit of hike, but there was plenty of shade and the kids were great sports and helped push the stoller. We packed a simple picnic and ate lunch at the lighthouse. We had the park absolutely to ourselves. Climbed around on the rocks. Dipped our toes in the Hudson River. Admired the cliffs across the water in New Jersey. Threw pebbles into the river.

My favorite part: on the hike back we discovered the path was lined with wild raspberries. They were yummy. And I kept laughing as we ate them because they were such an unexpected surprise.

lighthouse photo (and directions on how to get there) from Kathryn

Originally posted on July 16, 2007.

From the Archive: Sketch Swap

Have your kids do this instead of their homework.

What it is: you go to the site and make a sketch. (It doesn't have to be a good sketch. Mine was a profile of an elephant.) Then you click "submit sketch" and you get someone else's sketch in return. The two best parts are 1) you can't erase and 2) you get to watch the sketch you receive being drawn. So genius.

Someone compared it to fortune cookies, and for me it's true. I wonder who will receive the elephant?

Originally posted September 29, 2006. It's a perfect summer-boredom-buster!

Random Giveaway — Tretorn Shoes for the Family

It's the 4th of July tomorrow. Which is wonderful. I LOVE July 4th! And I think we should celebrate our freedom with some new shoes. Because being able to walk around — when you want, where you want, in whatever shoes you want — is a lovely way to model independence. So how about new shoes for the whole family? A pair for Dad. A pair for Mom. And a pair for your child. All sponsored by Tretorn!



That's right. The winner will receive 3 pairs of shoes from Tretorn. And the winner gets to pick which pairs and which sizes. And it's going to be kind of a big job choosing those 3 pairs of shoes. Because Tretorn carries all sorts of really good-looking options. Check out the men's shoes. And the women's line. And the adorable children's sneakers and boots.





Why is Tretorn feeling so generous and All-American? Well. It's because in addition to the 4th of July, they are also celebrating the opening of their new shop in SoHo — yay Tretorn! It's located on 150 Spring Street, and I for one am dying to pay it a visit. If only so I can see this lovely pair of boots in person.

Thank you Tretorn!

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Random Giveaway Guidelines:
-You have until Midnight PST on Sunday, July 13th to enter this giveaway. (I know that's super, extra long for one of my Giveaways. But I'll be at camp all next week and won't be ready to announce a winner until the 14th. So I thought: why not have an extra-long Giveaway?)
-Just make a comment ON THIS POST to enter — any comment.
-Anonymous comments will be ignored/removed.
-One entry per person, please.
-The winner will be randomly picked and announced on Monday, July 14th.
-What are Random Giveaways? Read about them here.

Funny Food Day

Knowing this summer was going to kick me in the pants, what with Girls Camp and BlogHer and a family vacation to Utah and on and on, I arranged for a friend, home from college for the summer, to be the family nanny/mother's helper/babysitter/what have you. Her name is Lisette. And she is wonderful. We've made a big calendar of projects and adventures for this summer, and Lisette is helping me make it happen.

On the schedule for yesterday was Funny Food Day (my kids were inspired after seeing the fine food work featured here.) Lisette orchestrated the whole thing and my kids were beyond happy with the results. Fruit Faces in the morning. Weiner Dogs around lunch time. And Crazy Cupcakes in the afternoon.




The thing that surprised me the most about this day was that my kids were as content and happily worn out at the end of the day as if we'd spent the whole time at the park. There was hardly a stitch of fighting and they were creatively engaged the entire day. Funny Food Day was a huge hit! Who knew?




I also want to note that one of the funnest parts was testing out our brand spanking new pocket camera — the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120. It's a sleek little number and I'm loving how clear the images came out, especially considering they were shot at low-resolution.



The memory card arrived in the mail today and I look forward to testing out the camera at high-resolution as well. And experimenting with all the features. According to the instruction booklet, there's one setting where the camera will automatically take the shot when it senses a smile — I'm so curious to try it!

TRAVEL — Get Moving — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

August has driven cross country twice. Flown to New Orleans, Charleston, Seattle, New York, Santa Fe, and Indiana — some on multiple trips. Most recently, we spent a month in Mexico, getting to know the locals in San Miguel. Even at times when I’ve been home sick, lonely, travel weary, or have found a language barrier to be isolating and frustrating, it didn’t seem to matter much to him. Always resourceful, kids adapt to situations pretty easily if parents keep their cools.

I always try and make each trip engaging for him — making sure he samples the local food, he listens to the local music, and that we have plenty of books on hand so that he can get a feel for the place and its culture. If we stop longer than a moment in any spot on the globe, he’s liable to instantly make friends. He’s seen way more than I ever saw when I was three, so I know how lucky August is.

As a single mom of three on a tight budget, my mom didn’t have a ton of money to spend on vacations. Even so, by the time I was 12, I’d been up and down the east coast any number of times and hit every historical hotspot from NYC to Gettysburg. Granted, in today’s gas guzzling, $4-a-gallon era, it is not as cheap or environmentally-friendly to own the road. (My husband is trying to make up for the giant carbon footprint we left on our driving trip to Mexico by taking the bus to work four times a week.)

Even if you don’t have the time, money, and inclination to get out and show your child the world, you can at least make the next town over seem like paradise. Just north of San Antonio where we live is a little town called New Braunfels. They have a children’s museum way better than ours, a nice main street full of restaurants and shops, a wildlife park, and a snake farm! Taking August there for a day trip… I might as well be jetting him to Paris. There is something about going to a new place (even those close to home) that ignites his imagination and opens up his world view.

So no matter where you go or what you do — a cruise to Jamaica or a bus ride two towns over — get your kids moving. They’ll love you for it.

ART — Stuff for Walls… Yummy. — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

August’s room is in a constant state of redecoration as sometimes it more closely resembles a science lab or a library than a child’s room. When not filling his walls with paintings by his grandmother or dinosaur posters out of National Geographic magazine, I am constantly on the lookout for original art and prints I think he might enjoy. I bought one of these hysterical Donald Roller Wilson knockoffs off of eBay all the way from China when he was first born, and he is still obsessed with the “crazy monkey”.

I love all things Etsy – who doesn’t really? – and in addition to the rad drawings by Rebecca Horwood I mentioned the other day, August also has this little moose ditty by Nate. One of my favorites though is a print of a painting by the amazing Austin artist Jay Long. I am madly in love with his stuff, and Jay’s silhouette paintings are unbelievable to see in person.

A few years back, I visited a friend in NYC and checked out her newly designed nursery in Brooklyn. As her husband is an architect and she’s a pretty swanky magazine editor, of course everything about it was tasteful and inspiring. The highlight of the visit was a print that seemed vaguely familiar and absolutely intriguing. I immediately researched it and discovered it as a poster called “The Land of Make Believe” — a work created by the artist Jaro Hess for the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. Just as its title implies, it maps everything from where Little Red Riding Hood visited grandma to Jack climbing the bean stalk.



Right away, I found a vintage copy on eBay, and wrapped it up for Lost in Texas’ daughter as a birthday gift thinking there would be an abundance of vintage copies available. Sadly, I have yet to find another, and have been too cheap to splurge on the new version. Perhaps you will not be so thrifty once you get an eyeball full of its awesomeness. (Even though Lost in Texas adores her daughter’s “Marimekko frame kit”, she, of course, made room.)

ART — Painting, Coloring and All That Jazz — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

Create an art space for your child that is permanent, varied, and always open. Pick a spot. Mount an easel. And leave all the supplies out. So what if the paint dries up because junior’s been too busy building train tracks all week. If the supplies are open and there, there is no schedule and a kid can create when the mood strikes him without having to wait for mommy or daddy to ready the spill proof cups or debag the crayons.



And speaking of crayons, I am sure these are made out of some toxic chemical that is going to peel back the ozone layer, but what’s up with Crayola’s new Twistable Slick Stix Crayons? The colors are amazing. They are almost like paint, but they are definitely crayons. Everything August draws with these is so vibrant and alive; I wanna mount them on the hood of my car for the world to see.

ART — Art Museums Are For Babies Too! — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

As the daughter of a museum director dad and a painter mom, I started going to museums the moment I came out of the womb. Somewhere I read once that you shouldn’t “drag” kids into an art museum until they are older, and I think that sentiment is total baloney. My son was propped up in a stroller the first time he visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and though we stayed only 35 minutes, I’ll never forget the moment he looked at Jackson Pollock’s White Light and screamed “Look at all the pretty colors Mom!” He then went on to tell me Christina in Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth looked like our neighbor Mary Ann. When it came time to pick out something from the gift shop, he selected postcards of both paintings. Awwww. (Museum gift shops are the best places to shop for awesome kids’ stuff, and the MOMA Design Store is worth a trip to NYC all by itself.)

The key to taking kids’ to art museums is to let them take it on their own pace. Don’t go expecting to see everything. Choose one exhibit and stay as long as the child feels comfortable. Ask your child to tell you about what they see. Engage them in the full experience. Talk about the colors. Count the shapes. Most museums encourage kids to come in and have a look see. After all, they are the next generations of patrons (and donors). On a recent trip to Santa Fe, we visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, and the admissions provided us with a copy of the children’s book My Name is Georgia and pointed us to a bench to read before taking in the show.

I find that memberships make the experience much more enjoyable. They allow you to stay five minutes or 50 and really feel comfortable letting your kid set the pace. Even going a handful of times over the course of the year can earn your money back, plus you often get invited to member exclusive events that are kid-centered. Your local museum should be a place your child feels comfortable. A place he or she can call his own. It shouldn’t be looked at as a treat to be enjoyed only once a year on a school trip.

I know going to museums seems like a luxury, and those on a tight schedule and budget can feel overwhelmed. However, it’s these little moments with your family can build a lifetime of cool memories and expand your little one’s world view. Plus, maybe you’ll learn something along the way.

Still not convinced to make the trek out? One of my favorite museums as a child — The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC — has a super cool interactive Website for kids where they can mix and match classical paintings, create a work of abstract art, or build a virtual mobile ala Calder.

Music — Peter and the Wolf — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

Though I don’t remember exactly what version we had on LP, Peter and the Wolf had a huge impact on me when I was young. Somewhere between wanting to dance the lead role in the Nutcracker Suite and lusting after Joshua Bell, it seeped into my subconscious and took hold forever. Imagined by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 as a gift for his son, it was written expressly with children in mind, so any version is a wonderful way to expose your kids to classical music early.

It is the story of a boy and his grandfather, a bird, a duck, a cat, a handful of hunters, and a wolf – with each character identified within the score by a certain kind of instrument. The bird by a flute. The duck by the oboe. The cat by a clarinet. The grandfather a bassoon. Three French horns for the wolf. Timpani and bass drum for the hunters. And Peter by the string instruments.

Right now August rocks out hard on a 1978 version on LP by the Philadelphia Orchestra with David Bowie as narrator. One of my proudest moments came last week when as August and I were watching a live music performance, I pointed out an oboe and a clarinet in the orchestra, and he told me they were the duck and the cat, respectively. Nice, right?

Music — Random Fun Music Picks — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

As Huey Lewis sang so poetically all those years ago (yes, we are that old), the heart of rock ‘n roll is still beating. As third generation lovers of that voodoo sound, it is up to us as parents to pass those musical legacies onto our own kids. Picking and choosing what pieces of the puzzle will help them have the right combination of rhythm, soul, and mojo can seem like an endless task, but this is the part of your kids’ childhood where you really get to have fun.

Below is a small play list of must-have adult songs that appeal to kids (some of my son’s faves) and will help them begin building a musical foundation. Plus if you get them hooked on the good stuff early, you won’t have to listen to The Backyardigans theme song EVER AGAIN. Where you go from here is up to you.



1) Blackbird by The Beatles, “The White Album”
2) Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys, “Pet Sounds”
3) ABC by The Jackson Five, “ABC”
4) Children Go Where I Send You by Nina Simone, “The Amazing Nina Simone"
5) A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash, “Johnny Cash At San Quentin”
6) Brass Monkey by The Beasties Boys, “License to Ill”
7) Picture Book by The Kinks, “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society”
8) Come On In My Kitchen by Robert Johnson,” The Complete Recordings”
9) Move It On Over by Hank Williams, “20 Greatest Hits”
10) Roly Poly by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “Anthology (1935-1973)
11) Glow Worm by Johnny Mercer
12) Two Headed Boy by Neutral Milk Hotel, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”

Music — Music Together, LPs and More — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

Music education is as important for children as learning to read or write. It is the spiritual tonic that binds us all together, and makes it possible to communicate no matter where we are from or what language we speak. As the daughter of a pianist and a mess-arounder on the guitar myself, I started my son early — first in Kindermusic as a baby and then through to Music Together — so he could begin to learn basic melody and harmony.

Of course, real music education starts at home. I wanted to make instruments accessible for August, so in addition to his obligatory box of musical fun, he got a five-piece drum set for his third birthday. The awesome Vintage Drum Center offers up a nice selection of tot-sized kits, and really helps those of us who have no idea what we are doing navigate the cymbaled waters. I am holding off until he is five to bring piano lessons into the fold though… don’t wanna be too stage mom.



He loves the old spoken stories and music available for download on Kiddie Records Weekly, and got his first real live record player a few months back. I love the feel of changing vinyl for my son. The thoughtfulness of selecting an album, taking it out of the sleeve, placing it on the turntable, setting the needle, etc… etc creates an air of patience and appreciation for what he’s about to hear ~ whether it’s vintage Little Golden Records or Turandot or The Muppet Movie or The Beach Boys or Nat King Cole or Mario Lanza or Raymond Scott.

The way I see it, the more music related things he has filling his life the better. It is what marketing people like to call high touch, multiple touch. Being exposed to a thing often and in places that matter will incorporate said thing into your life in a way that makes it stick. Here’s to sticking!

Nature — A Few of His Favorite Things — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

August lives and breathes three things — books, water and animals, though not in that order. Above all else, animals are his thing. He gives every person he knows an animal alter ego. He is a duck. I am a duck. His father is a rhino. His grandmother is a camel. His girlfriend is a horse. The dude lives, plays and sleeps the animal kingdom.

SLEEPS – His bed is a corral for every stuffed creature from aardvark to okapi to zebra, and at night his noggin rests on a pillow case I made out of Alexander Henry 2D Zoo fabric. He has an inflatable moose head on his bedroom wall, and I love to buy him original animal art like this little ditty from Etsy artist Rebecca Horwood.

PLAYS – Except for a few dog breeds, he has every Schleich animal ever made and loves to make animal lines that snake throughout the house. Fellow San Antonio blogger and ex-New Yorker like myself, Lost in Texas, gifted August a Hansa stuffed tarsier for his birthday, and ever since, I’ve been obsessed with finding a way to afford the entire set (including the three-toed sloth and life-size kiwi.) Plus his grandmother gifted him a set of vintage Pelham puppets, and the donkey and dragon sure do like to dance Sound of Music-style.

LIVES – When the Walton Ford show came to San Antonio, he made take him three times, and was still begging to go back weeks after it was packed up and gone. But even better than seeing animal paintings in a museum, he loves to see them in real life. We’ve promised him a trip to Africa when he turns 11, but for now, August has visited 18 zoos and aquariums across the US (I know, I know… zoos are evil, but how else will he get to see a real, live polar bear). By far his favorite is the Georgia Aquarium — a place so spectacularly designed and gorgeous to look at, it is hard for even an animal rights activist to not audibly gasp when they see a 20-ton whale shark swim by.

Nature — Butterfly Alphabet — by Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

Though this is probably old news by now, a few years back August was gifted a Butterfly Alphabet poster by his aunt, and I still adore it. Kjell Sandved was working for the Smithsonian when he realized you could find all the letters of the alphabet hidden in the wings of the world’s butterflies. Each picture lets you experience a sort of intimacy with the winged creatures that only lepidopterists enjoy. (Look it up.) You can even get your child’s name spelled out in butterfly letters. How cool is that?

Nature — Sense of Wonder — By Guest Mom Burgin Streetman

We all need nature, and the sooner your child learns to appreciate and love the outside world, the richer his connection will be to the people, animals, and plants that flourish around him. My parents read The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson right after it came out in 1965, and it forever changed how they would pass the natural world onto my sisters and me.

Summers when I was a child never officially began until my mom took us down to the corner store to buy butterfly nets. Many a June/July day was spent watching a caterpillar turn into a luna moth through the side of a Mason jar or nursing an injured baby squirrel back to health. I grew up exploring 20 acres on the marsh and was always tromping, digging, and climbing. Even if your kids are apartment or city bound, you can get them to stop and spy a line of ants or smell the flowers where they grow, even if only in a window pot.



In my son August’s case, when he can’t be trekking around our farm looking for roadrunners, chasing geese, and searching for deer tracks, I’ve brought the outside world in by turning his room into a mini ecosystem filled with mice, hamsters (How rad are these new Habitrails?), goldfish, cotton, pine cones, leaves, feathers, sea shells and just about anything else you can feed or find.



August has a special shelf just for his vintage Little Golden Guides and loves to sit for hours with a 1977 Audible Audubon player (just like the one I had way back when) and name the birds by sight while quietly listening to their songs. The first television we ever let him watch were nature videos and the 1974 documentary Animals Are Beautiful People is still one of his favorites. (Check it out if you wanna see a sidewinder literally run across the desert!) My husband is waiting in the wings to share his childhood fave Hatari! with August, and though the African animal trapping scenes are awesome, the John Wayne love angle can probably wait a few years.

As with anything, if you choose wisely, you can infuse nature into every aspect of your family life. That is why I love the Children & Nature Network, a non-profit organization with the one and only goal of giving every child in every community a wide range of opportunities to experience nature directly. They are all about getting kids back to nature no matter where their roots are grounded.

Welcome Burgin Streetman!

It's going to be a great week! Burgin Streetman is here. And she's taking over. Three posts a day. Monday through Friday. I've already had a sneak peek of the first 3 days and I think you're going to love what she has to share.

I hardly know Burgin at all. But it's hard not to love a lady that admits she blogs from the bathroom now and then. I can also see from reading the posts she's sent over for this week, that she has completely dedicated her life to raising her beautiful son. Which is wonderful.

And while you're in Burgin's capable hands, I will be taking the week off from Design Mom, so that I can focus on some kirtsy stuff. And getting ready for summer to officially begin at our house — the last day of school is Friday!!



Speaking of getting ready for summer, before I go, I have to share this wonderful idea from clever Lisa, to help keep boredom at bay this summer. She made a huge poster to hang on the pantry door. And filled it up with everything her kids could imagine wanting to do this summer — hunting for snakes, selling Kool-aid, climbing a tree. Now, when they get bored. Because they will get bored. She can look to the poster for inspiration. Brilliant.

I love the idea so much we made our own poster this weekend. I'm telling you, it has me super-psyched for the summer.

So. I hope you have a wonderful week. I hope you help Burgin feel at home. And I'll see you on Monday. (Except really I'll check in on Friday, because I have an amazing Giveaway on the schedule. And I'm pretty much addicted to this blog.)

Soft. Yet Hard Core.

Guitar softies from The Greatful Thread. I totally want the houndstooth one. Rock it.

Little Matisse

Check out the children's art project I posted about yesterday on Cookie (including instructions). It's fingerpainting multiplied by cool.

Jan Eleni

I like this so much! Jan Eleni is an interior design company that focuses on rooms for children. And their work is super appealing. (They have a flash site, so I can't link directly to their portfolio, but just click "our work" from this page.) Out of the ordinary design. Really beautiful. And they sell pretty vintage-print bedding as well.

I wonder how they feel about working with really, really, small bedrooms. Like the one I'm working on for my sons. . .

Weatherproof Blankies

Crabmommy sent me a link to these beautiful, functional, weather proof baby blankets by Rugged Idea. Just in time for summer picnics, parades, and fireworks watching. In three sizes. And lots of colors. Perfect to keep in your car or stroller for just-in-case weather.

Shokay

Finding socially responsible companies is such a delight. So I was super happy to hear about Shokay from my friend Esther. Shokay offers a range of luxury items knitted from Yak down — down sourced directly from Tibetan herders. Pillows, blankets, accessories, children's items. They even feature the biographies of the talented Tibetan knitters on their website.

It's June. Which means it's too hot in my neck of the woods for many of Shokay's gorgeous knitted items, but I've got a couple of pieces earmarked for the coming winter. In the meantime, I'm admiring this amazing stuffed yak. (I realize it's a complete splurge, but I've never seen a toy yak before, and seeing this one makes me realize I could totally get into yaks.)

Kice Kice

The carefree, comfortable look that the Kice Kice line pulls off is appealing to me. And I'm loving the calming colors.

Yeondoo Jung

The Artist Yeondoo Jung, takes drawings made by children and interprets them as photographs. I can't believe how happy these images make me.

Thanks for the link, Christy!

Small Magazine Summer 08

The latest edition of Small Magazine came out this week. It is always a visual treat. And I never regret taking some time to click through its pages. (For those new to Small: it's an online magazine. All about small things. Like children.)

Child's Artwork Collage — by Guest Mom Kristin Fine

I have to share the most gorgeous, creative, chic way of enjoying your child’s artwork. Jan Eleni, a child-centric decorator, stylist, genius has come up with the Jan Eleni Collage.

I loved it so much, I convinced her to allow us to offer it through our store. We have had one up in the shop and everyone comments on it.

Basically she edits, reproduces and shrinks your child’s artwork and creates this stunning archival piece that is modern and true all at once.

I am having one made of each of my children’s work as they hit they age of 8. Someday maybe I’ll pass it on to them.

Ask Design Mom Week: Toddler Dress Pattern

Ask Design Mom Question:
Hello Design Mom. I’m wondering if you might know where I can find a pattern to make a simple toddler’s a-line dress. Thanks, Kimi

Design Mom Answer:
Thanks for your question, Kimi. I've been told there are many experienced seamstresses that visit this blog now and again — I hope they'll chime in with their suggestions.



While they ponder the question, I'll send you to two places: you could pick up this vintage pattern on etsy. Or you could visit Oliver + S to see if any of their darling toddler patterns will work for you — like this