The Smart Bird

Drizzly Easter Sunday

 

I hope all of you had a lovely Easter Sunday.  We dyed eggs and had a smallish Easter egg hunt for my daughter and the neighbor's girl who is the same age.  The girls donned strands of Mardi Gras beads courtesy of an uncle who lives in Louisiana, adding a bit of color to the gray, drizzly day.  Much cuteness ensued, as you can imagine. 

I haven't dyed eggs since I was a little girl, and so it was kind of a rude awakening.  It's harder than you might think to get even, saturated color, let alone any sort of design incorporated into the mix!  So rather than bore you with pictures of my sad eggs (I've already promised myself next year will be better.  I'm going to do research, read some Martha Stewart books, and generally become an egg-dying expert over the next year), I thought I'd share a charming Etsy shop I recently found.  It's called The Handwork Group, and she sells dolls, tiny felted animals and lovely Ukranian Easter eggs.  The dolls and animals follow a Waldorf aesthetic (simple designs that allow children the most freedom in play and imagination), and are just adorable in every way.  Here are a few of my favorites from her shop.... 

{Photo credits belong to The Handwork Group}

Happy Easter!

Holiday Shopping on Etsy

With the exception of a couple of things for the bebe, and one gift for my husband, I've managed to do all of my holiday shopping on Etsy this year.  Pretty nifty!  Not only that, but I came in well under budget, which seems appropriate given the current economic situation the U.S. (and the world) is experiencing.  It seems like a good year to go "small" in the gift-giving arena, while going "large" in the enjoying-the-holiday-and-your-family arena. 

So here is a sampling of some of my favorite Christmas '08 gift purchases:

(photo credits belong to each individual shop)

*Vespa magnet from Circa Ceramics.*


*Faux Bois magnets from Jessica Jane.*

 
 
*Assorted soaps from Anderson Soap Company.  Clockwise, from top left: Beer Buzz Soap Set, Cedarwood and Sage Massage Bar, Mild Almond Mini Soap, Exfoliating Milk and Honey Oatmeal Soap Bar.*


*North Country Lamb print from Golly Bard.*


*Handstitched baseball from Lemon Ball.*



*Assorted bath products from Daisycakes Soap.  Clockwise from top left: Animal Bath Fizzies Pack, Mini Animal Soaps Pack, Honey Bar Assortment Gift Box, Hockey Puck Soap.*


*Snail Jockey print from The Black Apple.*


*Bird ornament from Shoshona Snow (who I previously featured here).*

 
*Mini Dwelling ornament from Petite House.*

Such an amazing assortment from so many talented artists! 

And how about you?  Have you found some great gifts, from Etsy or elsewhere?  Please share.  I'd love to see them! 

Tip Of The Week

Actually, considering how often I give "tips" here, maybe I should title this post "Tip Of The Next Four Months"?  Anyhoo...

Last week I decided to get rid of a couple of stacks of old magazines I had lying around.  Luckily, I remembered that Lucky magazine used to have a page of stickers you could use to mark items in the magazine you were interested in.  Remember those?  They said either "Yes!" or "Maybe?" (curiously, there were never any "Hell, no!" stickers).  I'm referring to these in the past tense because I checked my most recent issue, and there wasn't a sticker sheet!  I guess Lucky decided to make some budget cuts.

 

Well, my 15-month-old daughter *loves* stickers of any kind.  Even if it's not technically a sticker, like a used stamp or something, she'll play with it and try to stick it on her shirt.  So I gave her a sheet of Lucky stickers, and her eyes lit up and she practically fell over with excitement. 





I like to help her put a whole bunch on, so she ends up looking like a color-coordinated hedge-hog.  She likes it too, and struts around the house proudly once we've finished her "adornment."  So, the tip is that if you have old Lucky magazines you want to get rid of, cut out the sticker sheet before you send them to the recycling center!  Your kiddo will thank you for it, believe me.

 

(P.S. When adorning your child, necklace of African brass beads is optional but recommended). 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween week on The Smart Bird, Day 6:



When I was a girl, it was an annual tradition to watch Disney's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in school at Halloween.  All the students would gather in the auditorium, where the head of the A.V. department had set up the 16mm film projector the night before.  One of the teacher's introduced the film and reminded us to be good, the lights were turned off, and the magic would begin.  No matter how advanced and exciting modern technology gets, nothing compares to sitting in the dark, listening to the hum of the projector behind you, and basking in the subtle flicker of the images projected on the screen.  We were like little caveman children sitting around a camp fire compared to the slick DVD, flat-screen, surround-sound media environment today's kids take for granted.  But it was wonderful and spellbinding and magical.  Here's a little snippet for your Friday enjoyment.

Happy Halloween, everybody!

Politics Unusual?

Halloween Week on The Smart Bird, Day 5:

Considering that Halloween falls during an election this year, and considering that Halloween is, technically, a holiday for children, let us take a moment to consider the ghosts that haunt the White House.  Here are two children's books that address this important and scary issue.  My bebe is too young to understand terrifying things like "ghosts" and "politics", but I'm told that kids really like both of these books. 

Boo!

lino creative

I'm always on the lookout for great art for my daughter's room.  At this point, I'm running out of wall space (and reserved wall space I'm keeping open for prints I have my eye on or haven't gotten around to framing yet).  But I may have to expand my sights to the hallway, front foyer or even a little nook in the living room that could use some color.  Why?  Well...

I stumbled across this great shop on Etsy today and I'm completely enamored.  I love the bright colors, graphic images, and adorable animals, and of course the lovely old-timey typewriter (which, if you remember, I have a certain weakness for).  What (grown-up) kid wouldn't love to have these on her wall?

 

Got An Hour To Spare? Or Five?

 

Here's a great idea for those of you who want to add a little handmade touch to your holiday gifts, but don't know where to start.  Clothkits offers these adorable doll kits that you cut out and sew yourself.  Everything is included: printed fabric (no need to mess with fussy paper patterns), "top quality" thread, and polyester stuffing.  They even sell dress and kimono kits so you can dress your doll.  How cool is that?

And, after you've practiced making doll clothes, you can step up to the next level with unbelievably cute clothing kits for living, breathing children.  I don't think I would trust myself to tackle one of these just yet, but they give me something to aim for! 




Finally, once you've honed your chops on the kiddie stuff, you can step up to ultimate, and final, level: a skirt for yourself!



I might just go for the "ready made" skirts, though.  They're only £15 more, which is about $26 at current conversion rates.  If, like me, you'd have to actually buy a sewing machine in order to make one of these skirts, then the extra cost is pretty trivial.  Plus, the Trellick skirt in red only comes ready made.  Darn!  ;-)

All You Need Is...

This:



Or, maybe, this:



But, definitely, this:

A Tale of Two Palettes, Part II

In talking about sources for non-pastel children's clothes last week, I accidentally left out a couple of my favorite makers of colorful handmade clothes.  Silly me!  So, for those of you who want a more personal touch when injecting color into your child's wardrobe, may I present the following...

The first is 1girl 1boy.  Stacy and Mark hand-dye, block print, and applique these amazing onesies and tees in their basement.  Read their shop profile for all the details (they really put a lot of care and work into their designs). Their pieces are on the more expensive side, but when you think about what goes into each one, it actually seems like quite a deal.

The other is Charlie and Sarah.  They make what they call "flashcard apparel."  It's comprised of simple, bold prints silkscreened onto solid backgrounds.  Learn (or teach) the Queen's English whilst adding color to your child's wardrobe.  Brilliant!  Happy Wednesday, everybody!

A Tale of Two Palettes

 As many of you know, I have a bebe.  As I mentioned here, she's now one year old.  Since the beginning, shopping for little girl things has been some of the most fun I've had in my life.  Little boy things are quite cute, but you just can't imagine the cuteness overload you'll be faced with when you start shopping for little girl things. 

{Insert gratuitous cuteness here}



  Between shower gifts, grandma gifts, hand-me-downs, and my own shopping, we had two drawers-full of swaddling blankets, onesies, rompers, socks, hats, sleep-sacks and burp cloths by the time our bean was barely 3 months old.  But at some point, I looked over my daughter's wardrobe and realized that, on the whole, almost everything was a pale pastel color.  Lavender.  Petal pink.  Light green.  Pale yellow.  Sky blue.
 


For a helpless baby, such a pale color pallette seemed somehow appropriate.  But as my daughter grew and gained skills - sitting up, rolling over, crawling, walking (almost) - the pastels began to look...washed out.  Boring.  Just all around un-kid-like.  So when she was around 9 months old, I vowed that any future clothes I bought for her would be in the richest, most jewel-like tones I could find.


In part, I was inspired by the crazy-colorful (or are they just crazy?) designs of Hanna Andersson.  These are by far the brightest, loudest, most vivid clothes you will find for your child.  Which is why you need to use Hanna Andersson with care; a few carefully chosen "accent pieces," as the saying goes, is enough.  Just mix them in with your child's "regular" clothes for a pop of pattern and color. 

Another great source for richly-colored kid clothes is the Tea Collection.  Their current fall collections have names like Fjords and Forests and Nihon Nature (which of course appeals to the Japanophile in me).  If only they made that green floral dress in adult sizes.  Sigh.

 

Last, but not least, is Mini Boden.  Their style lies somewhere between Hanna Andersson and the Tea Collection.  Their patterns are mostly of the dot/stripe variety, but even though they're visually exuberant, they don't have the over-the-top quality of Andersson's offerings.  I haven't actually bought anything from them yet, but I know women who love their adult offerings.

Only four months in, I think I'm doing well on my anti-pastel mission.  Final touches this season include these brown boots from Target, navy blue leggings from Baby Gap, and raspberry pink cords from Old Navy.  My daughter now has great mix-and-match options for fall, in vibrant colors that I think are much more fitting for an active little monkey than the barely-there pastels of her...youth?

Postscript:
Supposedly, Hanna Andersson's fashions are "inspired by our Swedish heritage."  Conveniently, a friend of mine is currently doing a stint in Sweden.  Her blog documents her daily life there, and she has a weekly "ask me about Sweden" feature.  So I checked in about whether children in Sweden actually do dress like the kids in the Hanna Andersson catalog.  You can read Megan's informative reply here.)