Shop: Sewn Natural

I set out to do a post on baby blankets but ended up ogling most of the quilts and blankets by Sewn Natural.  Love the mod baby sheep blanket!

Best of our Blogs: Lori's Floors

Designing Mom Lori (of Fin + Roe) has the best wood floor redo I've seen.  Talk about sunshine chic...I bet any guest can't help but smile when they walk into that room!  Another big perk is it's an affordable project as well.  Click here to to go to Lori's blog and read about the full redo.

Shop: Lala Shoes

It's back to school time...so baby's gotta get new shoes right?  Lovely little pairs by Lala Shoes!  
They're made of felt and linen and felt in the most pleasant, rainbow of colors.  I am head over heels (pardon pun) for those ballet flats!

Shop: Tiny Frock Shop

Pamela Thompson of Tiny Frock Shop wrote to me about her darling vintage shop for dolls and I just had to share with ya'll!  With a fashion background (working for Betsey Johnson and Anna Sui) she decided to start an online "frock" shop for your little one's best friends...  Barbie never looked better if you ask me and what a wonderful and affordable way to introduce a love for vintage fashion to your daughter.  Click here to visit her shop! 

from Pamela:
I am a new Mom and fashion designer who worked in NYC for over 18 years. Once my daughter was born, my husband and I decided to move to Chicago so my daughter could grow up near family.


Since I can't get fashion out of my system, I decided to open an online shop that marries all my loves and experiences (vintage clothing, kids, play, dollies and editorial fashion) into a business that will benefit moms and children alike.

Giveaway at To be Charmed

Love this book...Happy Gloves.  It's about knit gloves transformed into the cutest creatures.  Elizabeth over at To Be Charmed is doing a giveaway for this so click here to enter.
Happy Friday and weekend everyone...I think it's Indian Summer here in the city so we're gonna take full advantage of it! 

Best of our Blogs: Emily Part 2

Here's a followup to one of Designing Mom Guissell's favorite posts from her blog Earthy Beginnings...
If you recall, her little man had a certain crush on Angelina but things quickly changed...

from Designing Mom Guissell:

While riding on the elevator w/a neighbor and my 3yr old this morning:
Me: "E do you have a girlfriend?"
E: "Yes!"
Neighbor: "You do?!!"
E: "Yeah!"
Looking at my neighbor perplexed points at himself and tells him, "I'm a boy!"
Neighbor: (laughs)..."This is best thing I've heard today!!"

Me: "WOW! So what's her name?"
E: "Emily!"

It's official the Angelina craze is over! In the meantime here's the heart he gave me when he asked me to be his valentine last week. I'm so last weekend!... sigh.

Shop: Eco Mattress

This is very timely.  Yesterday we discovered a large rip in our dd's mattress due to some slightly "exuberant" jumping as of late.  That poor mattress has been peed on, drooled on, chewed and pounded on with little fists...I think it just finally gave up.
Goodnight Green has a new mattress by Nook called Pebble.   It sounds like sleeping on a bed of fresh air...with eucalyptus fibers and textures and inner layers promoting oxygen flow.  It's pricey but completely eco-friendly and if it soothes the savage I'll be first in line for it!

Shop: Fall Maternity Clothes

I basically shopped for anything empire and loose at my own boutique when I was expecting...but if you're pressed for time here are some stylish fall options for moms-to-be. How cute is that striped shirt? I've just barely scratched the surface here so if anyone has any to add please do!

above:
a. ann taylor loft  
b. isabella oliver  
c. unbuttoned maternity

Story: What's for Lunch?

by Designing Mom Jenn of 13 Creative

As the countdown to the 1st day of preschool begun, the first thing on my list was to find a cool lunchbox for Grace.  Grace has never used a lunchbox before (her old daycare made lunch for the kids everyday, so I never needed to worry about packing up a healthy lunch and sending it with her).

But now we needed to do things like "label clothes" and "pack lunches" and bring things to "share" everyday!  Geez, preschool is a ton of work for mommy!

I did a lot of research and found myself contemplating bento lunch boxes versus cloth lunch bags.  I took almost an entire day and scoured the internet for solutions that were not only good looking, but eco-friendly and most importantly HARD TO LOSE!!  My worry wasn't that Grace was going to "lose her lunch" (!) but that I was going to lose all the lunch box components in the dishwasher, or in the dish drainer at night - and then be stuck the next day.

I thought finding a great, designy and eco-friendly lunchbox was impossible, until I found Goodbyn!

Here are a few pics of our 2 Goodbyns.  Notice, they're both pink!  And with nearly identical stickers!  While they come in an awesome range of colors, I didn't want to have any fights in the morning about "I want the green" or "I want the pink one" so we just got two in pink and are sort of pretending like there is actually only one of them!!  Very similar to her best friend doll BlaBla (who, unbeknownst to Grace, we actually have five of!)

Anyway, it is only two pieces of plastic - the bottom half holds all the lunchtime goodies, and the top half seals all of the little compartments on the bottom.  Plus, it comes with a bunch of neat stickers to decorate the front of the box!  My OCD kicked in pretty good and I couldn't resist decorating the lunchbox myself, because I didn't think my control-freak 'designerness' could handle the stickers applied unevenly and out of order by the 2 year old!!  I know, bad mommy!!  But I'll encourage her to add a few more stickers as the days and weeks go by and really fill it out!  I promise.

Friday Fotos: Kite Day

above: Designing Mom Jackie's cutie, Simon, takes advantage of some kite flying in the city.
Have a happy Friday and weekend everyone!

Best of Our Blogs: Top Ten Toy Trends

This is a fave of Designing Mom Mari (Small for Big)...  And coming from a former toy designer, who wouldn't want to know what her top ten toy trend picks are?  Thanks for sharing Mari!  Click here for the full post.

Shop: Habitat UK

Lovely little things from UK's Habitat...  I especially love the "mini hana" canopy bed!

Make: Bubble Wrap Prints

by Designing Mom Sara of Creative Jewish Mom


The Jewish New Year is just around the corner, so we're busy making and sending New Year's greetings to our friends and family around the globe. Recently we tried bubble wrap printing with white paint on colored paper, and the results were so fantastic we just had to use the paper for some of our cards.



Bubble wrap printing is very simple with great results, and really quick to boot! I highly recommend it as an activity on it's own, or as the first step in an art project using patterned paper. For complete instructions please visit the original post here. Wishing you all a very happy and healthy New Year with good health and an abundance of creativity!

QA with Sabrina Soto of HGTV's "Get it Sold"

I'm hoping this helps to make all of our Mondays kick-off to a productive start... 
The adorable and talented Sabrina Soto of HGTV's Get it Sold  was kind enough to take in some questions I had about making our places  (even if it's down the line) with kids in tow.  If you haven't watched the show, I am always amazed at how she is able to transform rooms with just a few simple (and most often affordable) adjustments.
Thank you again Sabrina!
*Just click below to play.  And if an you have trouble viewing it you can also click on this link. 

Friday Fotos: Candy Store Collective

above: A quick but fun stop-in at Candy Store Collective to congratulate Meg and Joy on their Creative, Inc book.  And bumped into cute new mom Heidi Yarger (of Spitfire Girl and website guru to Designing Mom Abby's Style Me Pretty site). 

Happy Friday and weekend everyone!

In the News: Delphine and Martha

Congrats to Designing Mom Erika of Delphine on having her invites featured in the latest Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine! 

Party: Creative, Inc Book Signing

Any of you moms in the bay area want to join me for Meg Ilasco and Joy Cho's book signing for Creative, Inc tonight?  It's going to be at Candystore Collective and will be a great chance to meet other creatives!  Click here for details.

Story: the Baby Hipster

I had two simultaneous conversations with friends in the past week over the bane of hipsters.  One refuses to date them and the other (that's you Designing Mom Shinmin!) showed me the most hilarious You Tube video (Hipster Olympics).

It got me thinking...what about the bane of "hipster babies?"
Lo and behold there was a little article in MSN over the weekend called Baby Fashionistas
listing "over the top baby trends."  I pulled the photos from it (below).  Some of their picks were skulls, leopard, tutus, skinny jeans and motorcyle jackets...  I don't mind the novelty of denim printed diapers  (kinda tired of Winnie the Pooh).  But skinny jeans?!  I LIVE for baby chub and can't imagine hiding any of it.  

So what are some you seeing out there and are tired of?  Any crazy baby fashion scenarios?

Best of our Blogs: Monster Surfboard

This ultra creative post is a favorite of Designing Mom Aya.  She along with other designers were asked to customize skate decks that were auctioned off for an AIGA fundraiser.  I am not surprised at all to see how "Where the Wild Things Are" and her boy Hayden ended up inspiring the design (after all, take a look at the cute Halloween costume she was crafting).
Read on to see how she designed the board and to view the full post click here. 

 

 I “heart” brown. – Aya Akazawa (me!)
“I was very charmed by the simple and natural feel of the plain deck, and immediately drawn to the idea of creating something that will retain these qualities. Then I thought of production methods that might work with this material. I couldn’t start working on this until Halloween was over, because Halloween IS a serious business here at Chronicle (but that is a story for another day.) So I had about two days to produce and wanted to do it by my hands, which narrowed down my options quite a bit. I am a big fan of Rex Ray and I thought that was my primary inspiration for this particular piece, but as my friend pointed out, the Carol costume that I was making for my little Hayden must have been subliminally driving my path of thinking to a crafty direction.”

Make: Coffee Chocolate Cupcakes

Hope everyone is having fun stretching out their long weekend today...
I might try a little baking and have my "Cupcake #24" recipe (Bailey's frosting!) by Ming Makes Cupcakes in the queue.
We'll be back to regular posting tomorrow--Happy Monday!

Friday Fotos: New Arrival...

by Designing Mom Tori:
Here are a couple of pictures of our new little girl (born on 8-9-10). We are pretty happy around here and adjusting quite nicely to being a family of four. I used the "Newborn Hat" tutorial by Designing Mom Jenn - what a fun (and easy) project!

Make: Knit Yoga Mat

Ok all of you knitters out there...  Have any of you made a knit yoga mat (below)?  I'm in love! 
You can purchase the tutorial and also the yarn (like recycled silk sari yarn) from Darn Good Yarn.   

Shop: Mini Eames Rockers

Did you see the post on "Best of Play Rooms" on Design Sponge?   Such great ideas!  And in case you're wondering where you can get yourself one of those irresistable mini-Eames rockers, click here. 

Shop: Paige Russell

I'm piggy backing off of Jackie's post yesterday...  While we're on the subject of back to school supplies, how about this nifty little trailer for all those stray markers and rulers by Canadian designer Paige Russell?