The Nursery Project

The Toy Shop With No Barbies

Peanut got her first birthday present yesterday.

There's a toyshop close to where I work. I walked to it during lunch hour to have a look if they might have something. The shop was called Kleine Eland, which means The Little Elk in Dutch. The street where it stands is also called Elandgracht, or Elk Canal (can't imagine elk and canal being mentioned in the same sentence before myself). Inside they had the loveliest wooden toys; dollhouses with all the accessories, wooden trainsets, kitchen playsets, puzzles and boardgames, pedal cars. No Barbies, Dora, Disney characters or any sort of plastic toys with blinking lights and bleeping tunes. I'm in heaven!

We don't have a lot of space in the house for toys. So what toys we've got space for, they should have long play value (watching Elmo laughs for 2 full minutes doesn't qualify), made of high quality materials, well designed and well thought of, and most importantly fun in an enganging, instead of hypnotising, way (hence, empty shoe box is good, Baby Einstein is not).

I want Peanut to be the master (mistress?) of her toys, where what she's playing with them is not predetermined from the manuals or the marketing campaign, but because her imagination leads her to it. It's cool when her toys also teaches her something, but not everything she owns should be able to recite ABC's on demand. I especially don't want her to fall into the trap of the zealously marketed character toys, which bombards children from thinking they should have EVERYTHING that has Barbie/Dora/Pooh emblazoned on it, just because it's available. I know this will be an uphill battle as she gets older, but if she at least has the experience with playing with the alternatives, she's going to be savvy enough in knowing the difference.

Anyway, since I had been thinking of getting Cora some musical toys, I picked a crisp yet colourful looking wooden xylophone as pictured above for her birthday present.  I let her open the box the same day though. It wouldn't make a difference to her whether she receives it yesterday or next week.

The Pilgrimage

Even though I get teary eyed over the idea of a nursery filled with designer furniture, realistically, I know that at the end of the day, we probably end up in IKEA again, and buy most of her nursery stuffs from them, like we do the rest of the house. I don't have the stamina of a real shopper to pick every single item for a room from different vendors, nor do we have the budget. We bought all our existing nursery items (crib + dresser + wardrobe) from a 'real' furniture shop specialising in nurseries, and only after 8 weeks and 800 Euros later it finally managed to arrived (lucky she didn't come out earlier).

So, I made a little pilgrimage to that haven of impulsive redecoration (where else to turn to when you suddenly just can't take your sofa anymore and want a new yet affordable one today?). I still love them.

1. Black Minnen adjustable toddler's bed. €79, not including mattress.
2. Red and yellow Barnslig Rand duvet cover and pillow case, € 19.95.
3. Multicoloured Barnslig Rand Rug , € 24.95. It's not easy finding rugs that are fun looking yet not tackily childish.
4. Kritter chairs and table, chairs are € 14.95 a piece, table € 29.95.
5. MÅLA blackboard with roll of paper, € 21.90.
6. LÖMSK revolving child's chair. I love the canopy, it looks like a private thinking pod when the child's in need of a bit of inspiration or privacy (including time out for tantrums?). € 49.95

Arcadia Woozy Building Blocks

If Vincent van Gogh were to invent a set of building blocks, I'd imagine these how they'd look like. With no right angles, they might prove to be more challenging to stack, but for toddlers who feel the need to 'graduate' from ordinary building blocks, they could be a lot of fun.

I know I posted a lot of toys lately, but that's because I'm really starting to get panicky about what to get Peanut for her first birthday. I've been looking around for the perfect 'big girl' toys for her and came across so many cool playthings across the internet.

Arcadia was made by Selecta Spielzeug. They have lovely selection of other wooden toys as well. Perfect for the retro minded parents, as well as those who are simply tired of mass produced plastic playthings with buttons that goes off to an array of annoying beeps and tunes.

Sushi Wooden Play Set by Melissa & Doug

We had sushi for dinner tonight. The reason for this sudden craving for sushi was because I spotted this beautiful wooden Sushi Play Set by Melissa & Doug. It comes with three types of sushi rice (nigiri, oshi, and maki) pieces come with shrimp, tuna, salmon roe, and egg pieces. Ginger, wasabi, and a dish of shoyu (soy sauce) are included, along with chopsticks, a play cleaver, and a menu. All in a realistic looking lacquered bento box.

Peanut is still a bit young for small food-like toys, but as I can't wait until I can start nurturing her acquired taste for raw fish, I can't wait to get this play set sitting in her room. Hey, maybe it will inspire her to like her raw fish sooner.

$19.95 from Oliebollen.com

The Birthday Girl Update

More on the search for Peanut's birthday present. We're still trying to find her a perfect present that is enjoyable from a 1-year-old's point of view, but still looks good enough to sit in our living room. Since this also meant to be something that stays in the new nursery, we also have to think ahead what would look adaptable enough for a nursery,with a decor that we haven't got a clue at the moment.

From left ro right, our shortlist:
1. BRIO pushcart: sleek black, and might be useful as a toy and a storage for toys. SEK 299,00, or about €32.
2. Playsam Rocking Horse: Looks modern, yet Trojan classic. SEK 1 212,00, or about €130.
3. Trioli Chair by Eero Aarnio: A rocking thingy that can be turned into a normal looking child's chair. Space saving and very minimalistic. A point for being available in white too. About € 132.
4. The Gem of the Catalogue, The Fire Engine from Baby Walz, a classic looking fire engine in bright red. A bargain at €54.50. Additional fireman's helmet costs €4.50.
5. Playsam's Saab Roadster: A very handsome piece of toy, I wouldn't mind it sitting in my living room at all. In fact, when she's not playing with it anymore, I might just keep it in the living room just for it's sculpture-like quality. SEK 2654, or about €290. 

In the Wacky Races

I'm still looking for the perfect first birthday present for Peanut. It's really tricky knowing that we don't actually have any space for ANY new toy. The girl is no longer interested with most of her baby toys, and by now enjoys playing with non-toy items, such as shoe boxes, spoons, fridge magnets and a packet of half-full (or half-empty, if you prefer) Tictac with duct tape on the lid (to prevent her from getting any Tictacs out). On the other hand it's also my excitement for her being a 'big girl' and no longer a little baby and I want a toy that reflects that.

I'm still unable to find a rocking thingy that I like, and I'm starting to consider playrides instead. That pedal retro racer shown here is a replica of the famous 1952-1957 Ferrari F2 Racers. It comes with chrome rims, a chrome steering wheel, chrome knock off spinners, chrome windshield, and a big chrome grille. Made of lead-free coating, it costs €499 .

The yellow Comet Checker cab version of the pedal car is also nice, in a cuter way than the racer, and it costs half as much.

These pedal cars are available at Mamalou.eu
For those outside of the EU

Foldable, Portable Cardboard Dollhouse

A dollhouse is always a delight for a little girl. I remember getting one for my 4th birthday, and it was one of the most memorable toys I've ever had. I loved marvelling at the miniature furniture, how the miniature toilet's got a real lid I could open and close, and it had a garden printed on a board on which the house is standing, complete with little swingsets and its own merry-go-round.

Of course, a doll house is not the most space-saving toy there is. Unless, if it's foldable and could easily be flat packed after each play and stored under the bed. In Holland, domestic spatial crisis is a very familiar problem, with 16 million people packed in to a very tiny country. The result is, a lot of Dutch designs incorporate answers to this problem in their products, like Poppen-HUIS, which is an eight-room cardboard dollhouse, which is totally collapsible, and comes with a handle to make it portable. It costs € 20, with endless redecoration possibilities; let the child paint it, draw on it, put stickers on, you're unlikely to be able to sell it used at eBay anyway, might as well let the child have it the way she wants it. When she's not using it anymore, simply recycle.

Desperately Seeking a Jacadi Rocking Mermaid

When I was pregnant with Peanut, we received a deluge of baby product catalogs. One that stood out was from Jacadi. Their nursery collection was so disarmingly pretty I actually book my 6 month pregnant self on a train trip to the closest Jacadi shop: in Dusseldorf, Germany. Travelling from Amsterdam in the dead of winter during the Christmas shopping rush (and the Germans take their Christmas shopping SERIOUSLY), I found the shop, nestled between a Gucci and another expensive store I couldn't remember by now since I didn't even bother glancing in their direction.

The store melted my heart. I made a beeline to their Crabes et Coquillage collection; a beach themed nursery collection that we've coveted because we thought it'd look perfect in our living room (the nursery was going to be set in the living room, after all). But after wandering among the €80 mobiles and €90 sleeping sacks, I started to have doubt. I decided to get her something from the collection for her first birthday instead, when she could enjoy it better.

Next month is Peanut's first birthday. I notice at the daycare her favourite toy was the rocking horse (well, it looks more like an elephant, actually). She was beginning to get the idea of playing with it and enjoys rocking in it by herself. I thought a rocking animal would be the perfect birthday gift for her. I remember well that Jacadi had this beautiful rocking mermaid and I was going to get it for Peanut. Going to the Jacadi site revealed that the collection had been scrapped. Searching through Ebay UK, France and Germany also didn't yield any results. No other shops seems to stock it, neither does anybody selling it second hand. What's going on?

I finally managed to find one shop which still stock them, it's Jacadi Australia. Of all places it has to be the exact opposite of the globe?

Dado Cubes: Definitely not Ugly Toy

Dado Cubes is basically a more challenging, decorative version of the ordinary building blocks. They come in a set of 10 cubes, ranging from 3-13 cm in width. I love the colour scheme; primary colours in softer hues (yet still bright enough to be pastel). It's creative and good looking, it's brainy without sporting the ambitious baby-who-plays-with-this-will-be-a-genious look (you know the style, every inch of the surfaces are covered in so called stimulating patterns, lights ands buttons). It's reasonably priced at $24.95. I checked that Sparkability also ship internationally.