The Nursery Project

My Little Girl Doesn't Have To Be a Rockstar, As Long As She Rocks!

Another cool toy from Plantoys!

I said to hubby the other day that I'm going to buy Peanut a real drum set for her 13th birthday. Lo and behold, I found a smaller play drum that might as well be her Christmas present this year. Children always have play guitar, play xylophone, play piano, but I rarely saw a play percussion set, if ever there was one.

It's not that I want to mold her into a musician (or into anything for that matter, as long as what she wants to do is NOT being a princess). She doesn't have to be a musician,as long as she rocks!

This is even better than the baby piano I found a couple of month back.

Other arrays of Plantoys I featured previously. Did you know that Plantoys made their toys from rubberwood of over 25 years in age, at a time when its sap-producing days are done? In doing so, they are recycling wood which would otherwise be burnt away.

Available at Babystyle, for $50.

Marie Antoinette Dolls by Heather Louise Bennett

These dolls are made by Heather Louise Bennett. The dolls are entirely hand made(no machine is involved in their construction whatsoever).The fabrics, buttons and beads are often vintage, found in thrift stores, markets or estate sales, and many of the shells were found while she was digging around in the soil. While they might not make the ideal toy doll for toddlers, they make fabulous collectibles for a girl's room. I especially love the Baroque dolls series above, featuring Marie Antoinette as the inspiration. They are beautifully dressed (and I love the hair!) and each are one of a kind. You can order it directly from her via http://www.pencilfight.org or by several online shops that carries them (her website has a list of them). They are individually priced, but the Marie Antoinette starts from around €92.

Heather Louise also keeps a blog.

Menace Height Chart

This is a cool idea for a height chart. Every birthday you can make a mug shot of the child, making notes on how tall they are every year. You can also stick those mugshots on the sheet directly, making it a wall scrapbook of how the kid grows.

It even looks nice being left alone on the wall without children in front of it, especially if you've got a nice big empty wall in the nursery and don't know what to put on it. It's got laminated surface, so you can write on it  or reuse.

The Menace Height Chart is from Childhood Interior. It's 116 x 137 cm. £55.

I want a Fatboy for my Littlegirl

Fatboy is huge here in Holland (no pun intended). I saw it pretty much everywhere, but I was never impressed with the apparent bulkiness and lack of elegance of it. And it seems like a real space hoarder. I just changed my mind.

We took Peanut to the beach on Sunday. Our favourite beach is the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee. The beach is family friendly, not overly commercialised, yet close enough to the village center that it's convenient. There, we saw they set up a Strandbibliotheek (Beach Library) next to one of the cafe. Book loans are completely free, and they scattered several Fatboys on the sand for people to relax and read on. We tried one of them, and boy, it was comfy! I never thought I could fall in love with a huge bean bag in such an instance. Peanut loved it too, she rolled around and hopped on it, laughing heartily.

I have to get one for Peanut's nursery!

The Fatboy original is 140 x 180 cm. It takes quite some space. They also have Fatboy Junior, which is 100 x 130 cm. A decent size for Peanut's future reading corner since you can also put it upright, so it doesn't really cover the full extent of its horizontal dimension. It's definitely something she can grow on past her toddler years.

Fatboy Original is €169, while the Junior sells for  €119. They also launched the new Fatboy Marimekko for €249 each, in original size only.

Foldschool: Free Furniture for the Crafty Ones!

I'm totally in love with this. Foldschool website listed awesome cardboard furniture, and put up their patterns for free, so you can have a hand in making them yourself. The patterns cost you nothing, but you do have to come up with your own materials and effort.

There is something about cardboard that always fascinates me. I love the natural-yet-iconic putty colour, the texture, and most of all its versatility. Cardboard is the mother of all things rustic beautiful (hence, the inspiration for Peanut's 1st Birthday Announcement card).

Anyway, what I love most about these patterns is the ingenious geometric design that builds the furniture in a robust and stable structure with nothing else but cleverly folded and glued cardboard. There are three choices of furniture can can build: a chair, a stool and a rocker. I'm hoping they're going to come up with new designs in the near future. This is a project that I would gladly take on when Peanut has her own room. I could love this so much (it appeals to both my artistic and geeky sides), I might make enough that Peanut's next birthday includes a chair in the goodie bags.

My Nursery is Inspired by A Hotel Room

How sad is that to tell people that your nursery design is inspired by a hotel room? Well, not if the hotel in mind is the Fox Hotel of Copenhagen, Denmark. Hotel Fox hand designed each of its 61 rooms individually, letting the personality and quirks of th designer to shine through beyond the conventional hotel room aesthetics (how hilariously cool is that to put a monster shouting 'Sleep!' at your hotel guests?). I found the rooms such inspirations, even for children's room. Above featured are the ones I found most suitable for younger children. I love the humor of the one with the headless monster (might only be suitable for children who are over the there's-a-monster-under-my-bed phase). I love the simple idea of a bed made of only mattress and cloth tent (no need for toddler railing!). I'm infatuated by all the beautiful wall murals, which makes most of the room's atmosphere. I have to learn to do that...

Magical Floating Book Shelf by Umbra

I juct picked one of these invisible shelves from a local shop around the corner. It's called the Conceal Book Shelf by Umbra. It's a very simple metal shelf that supports a hardcover book with the back cover slips into a a small clip that holds it in place.  Once you have that, you simply stack other books on top, until you can't see the metal part anymore and voila! it looks like tha books are floating on your wall. I originally bought it for my sister, but thinking about the amount of boardbooks Peanut has, which comes in all sort of irregular sizes and colour, this might be a fabulous idea to put into the nursery. Stacks of colourful books on the wall, which has no edges to babyproof, and it's also more difficult to climb onto than regular shelves (no visible, hence tempting planks). A dream for a toddler's nursery. Children would love the magical feeling of having floating books in the room.

It comes in two sizes, 5.25 x x 5.5" (13 x 13 x 14 cm), which costs €15 and 5.5 x 7 x 6.5" (14 x 18 x 17 cm), which costs €20. Might seems to be costly for a piece which goes invisible, but hey, it's the great idea that counts!

Nino Conillo: Peanut's First Boardgame?

We are a family that loves board games. During our games, my husband and I always musing about how fun it would be when Peanut can finally join us on the table, playing a game or two and start working those strategic skills early. Well, maybe it won't be too long before she can start playing this very simple board game from Selecta Spielzeug (the Germans churn out the best boardgames out there in the last 15-20 years).

Nino Conillo is a charmingly simple boardgame for toddlers. There is a burrow and 20 little rabbits. It's raining, the burrow is flooding and you have to save all the bunnies.

Very simple theme any of the smallest children can relate to.

In order to save the bunnies, you have to roll a dice with colours on the faces, and whatever colour comes out, you put a bunny in front of a door with the same colour. When you roll a colour of a doorway which already has a bunny standing before it, you can take it safely out of the burrow. Player with most bunnies saved won.

Very simple rule of playing and winning, is a hallmark of every great game, that's why I love the game. It doesn't involve any strategic thinking yet, only colour recognising and maybe simple counting at the end to determine the winner. The box said 3 years and up, but I suspect that's because the bunnies are rather small, not because they need to be 3 years old to be smart enough to play this.

Actually, I'm not sure at what age they will start to name colours. Or taking a defeat without throwing tantrums... (Oh, the latter will take years after puberty to develop).

Met Zonder Jas Dress for Peanut: Definitely 'Zonder Jas' for This One

I don't usually post about children fashion on the blog, but this one piece I just ordered is special. I've been watching Met Zonder Jas (With Without Jacket) for a while now. They make children clothing from all kinds of vintage materials. They are one off, available in one size for every design, it can be tricky to find the right combination of a favourite pattern design and right size for your child, but you can be sure it's a unique piece. I just ordered the dress above. It comes in the perfect size 80 for Peanut, and I love the retro colour and look of the fabrics. It somehow reminds me of the Von Trapp curtain dresses, only from a different decade. A perfect dress for a summer playtime for Peanut. (Speaking of curtains, I've also seen Met Zonder Jas dresses made out of vintage tableclothes and curtains.)

Met Zonder Jas makes mostly very simple dresses and skirts (with the occasional shirts and trousers), which is the only way I would do a child clothes if you've got a fabulous and bold material to begin with. The one I ordered costs €38.95, with free shipping nationally (that is, within Netherlands).

Good Idea or Not: One Alexander Girard Doll for Every Birthday?

I've heard of parents of girls giving their daughters charm bracelet, or pearl necklace, so they can give each charm or pearl every birthday ot other special milestones (graduations, etc). I want to give Peanut one Alexander Girard Wooden doll every birthday, so one day she'll have a complete (or near complete, since some are not reproduced anymore) collection.

The iconic Alexander Girard wooden dolls originated as his own personal collection which is now reproduced by Vitra Design Museum. Made from solid pinewood and hand painted. Each comes delivered with a brochure in a high-quality printed wooden box. Highly collectible, and since they're limited edition, I'm not sure any will still be affordably available by the time Peanut turns 18. Hmm, I'm wondering if I should embark on this journey or not.

Searching around the internet, I found that Babygeared has the most complete collection with 11 dolls, Each for $145.