Rue Keller
If you are ever in the 11th arrondissement in Paris, rue Keller is a great street to visit for a little bit of off-the-beaten-track retail therapy. It is lined with loads of cute autonomous boutiques, reasonably priced lively restaurants and bars, and little art galleries.
Anne Willi, the adult and children’s clothes designer, has her flagship on rue Keller. I especially love her kid’s collection. Her designs are not classically French — they have a very northern European feel to them, and every item is intelligently designed and crafted.
Another little shop I love is the design shop Lou Lou Addict. It is one of these shops were the owner has fantastic taste and has chosen each piece on display for good reason. (Even if you cannot make it over to rue Keller check out the Lou Lou Addict online shop.)
Dorothy’s Gallery is a great little art gallery which at the moment has a very topical exhibition on: an exhibition all about Obama in Paris!
And another one of my fav’s is Klok — a maternity and baby shop. They have wonderfully high-end maternity wear, and cute baby and toddler clothes. They are not exactly cheap but the maternity clothes are especially very well designed. They stock furniture like the Leander cradle and bed and beautiful baby bags and accessories.
- Emilie
Just Gorgeous!
My sea creature-obsessed little boy has been parading around the house all day today wearing what may possibly be his newest most prized possession: a Dante Beatrix little kid shark backpack. He has filled it with all his favorite toys, and hasn’t taken it off the entire day. Super cute! (And I think it will come in handy for traveling… making him carry all his travel toys.)
The backpack came from the darling website called Just-Gorgeous, which has the exclusive rights to sell Dante Beatrix products on-line in the U.K. (You should check out the other little kid backpacks! They’re all so cute.)
Just-Gorgeous also stocks a ton of our favorite brands including Esthex, Imps & Elfs, Our Children’s Gorilla, and many more. They’re also offering Babyccino readers a 10% discount for the next three months. Just enter code CCINO at check-out.
-Courtney
Their own keys
Babies love keys, mobile phones and remote controls, that’s a fact. It’s so easy to hand them one of these objects when they start crying in the least convenient places: when you are in a changing room trying on a nice dress that you absolutely need for that evening, when you are queueing at the post office or when you are finally having a cappuccino with your girlfriends! So you hand them your keys and the baby stays quiet, and you forget all about it. You remember it only once you get home and cannot find the keys in your messy handbag or when you decide to make a phone call. If you are lucky you find it at the bottom of the pushchair, behind your baby and covered in crumbs!
There are, of course, toys that replicate these objects, but every kid from a very young age can tell the difference between the real thing and a fake!
So to avoid loosing my house keys I decided to give my son (and now my daughter) their own set of keys. Instead of using old ones I went to the locksmith and bought a few coloured keys, a name tag and a carabiner. There you go, it was even an instructive toy for when my son started learning colours.
Needless to say, we never lost those keys!
-Michela
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• Stolen Wallet- Stolen (fashion) Identity• The baby beanbag
• Only in Amsterdam!
Very fine art!
I suddenly have this urge to make my house ‘winter cozy’. I want to work on my kids’ room a bit — hang some new art pieces, maybe paint a wall…
One of the art pieces we need to hang is a giclee print on canvas by San Fransisco based artist Vera Costa. Not very long ago, Vera started her company Sillydot, which not only offers fantastic wall art, but also beautiful pillow covers, onesies and T-shirts, always with the typical Vera Costa prints.
What I like most about Vera’s giclee canvases (besides the fact that they are beautiful, have great colour combinations and fun sayings), is that they are ready to hang! The canvas is stretched around a wooden frame, and the sides have a matching design (in our case dots). They come in different styles and colours (we have the bright green birds and tree print, very cool), and are always signed at the back by Vera herself.
The most difficult part will be to find a proper place for it in our kids’ room!
xxx Esther
Name cards
I just ordered these cute name cards for both my boys and I think they’re so cute!
Mrs. Booth designs these bespoke cards (you pick the background colors and letters), and while they come with an envelope like a normal card, I think they’re perfect for sitting on a shelf in your child’s room.
You should see how proud my older son is of his — he points out each of the letters, and he’s getting pretty good at memorizing how to spell his name!
Educational AND cute…. my favorite combo! (And not expensive either, so it’s a cute card to give someone on their birthday.)
-Courtney
Is cheap the new chic?
Nobody can ignore it. Every time I pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio or turn on the TV, the credit crunch seems to be looming over our heads.
I am noticing that in every magazine I read or newspaper I check online, everyone is writing tips on how to deal with the new downward spiraling financial situation. When I was walking past the newspaper stand the other day I saw that both Elle Deco and Marie Claire were spreading their wisdom on how to shop in style whilst keeping budgets low. So I am wondering: is cheap the new chic? (more…)
Write your name
My son can name most of the letters that form his name, and if he sees his name written somewhere he can recognise it (saying that he can read would be exaggerating it a bit). Unfortunately he is not a very talented artist (like Esther’s daughter is) and we are lagging a bit behind in writing and drawing. But he is perfectly excused — I can’t draw either.
However, he has recently made a big improvement thanks to a clever idea by the Little Stamp Company which makes professional, self-inking stamps with your child’s name written in a large dotted font.
After the initial excitement about such a grown-up looking stamp with which he stamped his name on every piece of paper he got hold of, my son started to enjoy joining the dots to be able to write his own name. He is still far away from being able to write it by himself, but I think he is slowly learning the shape of each letter. I’m sure one of these days he will surprise me!
A suggestion I was given is to encourage your child to trace the lines from top to bottom and from left to right for proper letter formation, unless he is left handed (like me)!
-Michela
Buisjes en Beugels +++
Thinking of my early teenager years, I recall a heavy leather book-bag on the back of my new bike, cycling to the ‘big school’ in town (we were living in a little village), wearing my much needed (but not really much loved) glasses, and with huge braces in my mouth!
I wonder if Dutch designer Kellie Smits had a similar experience, because she named her kids’ designer label BB+++ (short for ‘Buisjes en Beugels +++’, or, ‘Tubes and Braces +++’), giving these childhood necessities an instant sense of chic!
Kellie’s background lies in art and design (she studied at the famous Dutch Design Academy), and although she was a very successful independent artist before, she felt a bit isolated and missed interaction. When she was pregnant with her second son, and looking for more sophisticated and authentic clothes for kids (and especially boys), she started her first collection of BB+++ in 2005. Kellie’s collections are very ‘down to earth’ Dutch. They are very functional and minimalistic, showing the essence of the design. The garments are classic, but are at the same time very modern in their detailing and shape.
Dolce V
I’m really rather boring when it comes to lingerie. Every day I wear a pair of hanky panky underpants and an Only Hearts bra. It’s been the same for almost six years now (apart from the two 8-month stints in nursing bras)! BORING! So I’m thinking about switching it up a bit and paying a visit to on-line shop Dolce V. After all, being pregnant doesn’t exactly do wonders for the ‘ol body image self-esteem — I can use all the help I can get!
Dolce V has an extensive range of sexy lingerie, including some very beautiful maternity pieces. I love the look of this pretty Sweet Reminiscence camisole and brief set (sexy, yet not too showy!), and they also have some lovely nursing bras as well.
Now this is something even your husbands will rally behind…
-Courtney
The things kids come up with…
Courtney recently wrote a post about the cute things kids say… but what about the things kids say that put you in a tight spot?
Our household has been hit by the chicken pox virus, both our girls have been covered in spots. A couple of days ago we finally managed to venture out and were happily sitting on the metro when my daughter exclaimed in a voice that could be heard for miles: “Mommy, that lady over there has got chicken pox, she needs to go to the doctor and get fixed!” I looked over at the lady she was pointing at (as did the rest of the carriage). The lady in question must have had some acne as a teenager and had slightly pocked skin. Nothing shocking, but definitely something that she would have been aware of herself and did not need a two-year-old to point out! And the 2-year-old just kept on going, “Lady! Lady! You there: Lady! You have got chicken pox! You need to go to the doctor and be fixed!!!”
Luckily the lady in question thought she was being funny and laughed, but we were really lucky to fall on someone with a sense of humour, or else I really wouldn’t have known what to do! To be fair my daughter actually thought she was being genuinely helpful, but lets face it, it was a really, really inappropriate thing to say. I have tried to explain that to her, but I am not sure if it really did compute…..
- Emilie
Know your colours!
Some children have a talent of recognizing their colours before they can properly speak. Michela’s son is one of them, and also Courtney’s son could tell you the colours of his cars before he could even properly pronounce them!
My daughter surely does not have such a talent, because she is nearly 3½ years old and still doesn’t know the difference between green and blue!
Independent of whether your pre-schooler knows his/her colours or not, they will LOVE this ‘Couleurs’ game by Djeco. It contains 104 super cute (what else to expect from Djeco) picture cards and 11 colour discs, with which different sorts of association, memory or image games can be played. It also contains a spinning top which reveals that red and white become pink, blue and yellow become green etc. (as you notice I’ve been paying attention)!
xxx Esther
Italian men and their socks
I do not know if you agree with me but I find that a man’s socks tell a lot about his style. I tend to be quite conservative on that front, but that is beside the point. Italian men are taught, from a very early age, that socks should match their trousers and they should be long, up to their knee. The idea, I guess, is that if they go up beyond the calf muscle it’s more difficult for the socks to slide down so that when a man crosses his legs no white hairy leg portion is on show.
While nowadays short socks are deemed acceptable with casual wear it would still definitely be a big faux pas if someone was caught with short socks while dressed up in a suit.
I remember how my poor husband, who worked in an investment bank in London, came home one day quite puzzled by all the comments that his colleagues on the trading floor made when they discovered he was wearing long socks. I think the most amusing ones were, “Do you come from Bermuda?” and “Are those hold-ups?”.
So next time you see a man in a suit with long socks, be kind to him. He is most likely just an Italian behaving like his mama told him to and not a cross-dresser in disguise!
-Michela
Milk Mag
I love reading magazines and I love being a parent, but I find that most parenting magazine are just, well, a little bit boring….. That was until I discovered Milk Magazine — a hip, French parenting magazine. It’s like a kids version of Vogue!
The articles are contemporary and cool and full of great ideas, and the fashion pages and photography rival any grown-up fashion magazine. Not everything is affordable and some things are over the top, but that is what I love about it — it makes me dream! The only slight hitch is that most of the magazine is in French, BUT for the non-French speakers out there, the most important articles are grouped together at the back of the magazine and translated into English.
Milk also has a great website full of ideas for toys and clothes, recipes, competitions, hot addresses and a regularly updated blog. And we are very honoured here at Babyccino to have been asked to contribute to it on a regular basis. On top of that, the Milk girls will be giving us a monthly update of some of their favorite little gems they’ve discovered. We hope you enjoy!!
Monthly news from Milk Magazine
Soft Gallery:
The least one can say about this young fashion label is that they are incredibly creative. The fabric used is great quality cotton, wool and silk, all in soft colors. The magic, however, lies in the exclusive multi-coloured art prints specially designed for the label. Started in February 2008 for kids from 0 to 12 years of age, Tine Holt Moeller and Barbara Hvidt call upon different artists to create unique patterns, which are first created on canvas. The artwork is then printed or stitched onto the T-shirts and sweatshirts. It’s modern, original and it will make moms want to steal one for their own wardrobe. -Doria Mançon
Cute Mushrooms:
These cool new lamps in the shape of mushrooms are thanks to two English sisters who are recreating objects from their childhood. As kids, they were afraid of the dark and really wanted a lamp to brighten up their nights. Now grown up, they have invented a whole series of lamps with a British flair, reminiscent of the homes the Smurfs lived in. They are available in lots of different colours and shapes, and there is even a little house lamp, so you can start a collection of mushroom houses and lamps. -Sophie Carré
Carton Chic:
Carton Chic is ethical and chic. Little Fashion Gallery is trendy and design-orientated. When the two work together you get a perfect toy house, which is environmentally friendly and, at the same time, has a sleek, contemporary look. The modular house is made out of recycled and recyclable cardboard, you can personalize it, and last but not least it is easy to put together (no glue or staples).
A percentage of the price goes toward the charity “Les Toiles Enchantées”. Hurry up — this toy house is a limited edition. -Sophie Carré
Pink Lining
This year my daughter started at the nursery of the British School here in Amsterdam. For me, a whole new phase in motherhood has started: buying school uniforms, and making school lunches.
Every morning I dress my daughter in her dark blue ensemble, and then prepare a healthy and nutritious lunch for her.
Her father then brings her to school, in true Dutch fashion — on the back of his bike!
How cute does she look, waving goodbye with one hand, her other hand holding her little school bag… She’s getting so big!
Speaking of schoolbags – since my daughter’s schoolbag has to hold her lunch bag as well as her juice beaker, I’ve learned that having a bag that is easy to wipe clean is a must! A 3-year-old is apparently not always skilled enough to properly screw the lid of the beaker back on! Also, the lunch box and the beaker are quite heavy, let alone the additional weight of a book or two, so the bag should really be able to be used as a backpack too.
My daughter is very pleased with her schoolbag from Pink Lining. It has the above mentioned ‘must-have qualities’, and it also has the brand’s signature bright Pink Lining. Guess what my daughter’s favourite colour is…? Check. (more…)
Holiday cards… it’s that time of year!
Last year I made my own holiday cards, which seemed like a clever idea at first, but I ended up spending far too much time creating them (and I’m not sure it was really worth it)! This year I’ve decided to make my life easy and order them in advance. And the holidays are quickly approaching, so it’s time to get serious…
Kirby Woodson, whom I’ve mentioned before, is the renowned designer and creator of Petite Alma. Her trademark style (simple and charming with a Parisian flair) is instantly recognizable and endearing. I knew that if I stuck with Kirby’s stationery, I would have no problems finding something I love. Really, you can’t go wrong.
Kirby has two design studios: Petite Alma, and a new one called Feather. The designs for both are available through Tiny Prints, which I’ve found to be really easy to use. You can customize the cards quite easily, as well as upload potential photos and view the results on-line. You can create an account and save your projects, which is also nice if you’re a bit undecided.
Need more incentive? Petite Alma and Feather are offering a discount of $15 off your order when you spend $150 or more. Just enter the following codes: “merryfeather” on Feather designs and “merrypetite” on Petite Alma designs.
I’m so happy with my new holiday cards! And what a relief to have it all sorted already!
-Courtney
Tout doux Doudous
At the moment, my daughter shares a bedroom with her brother and so we thought it would be nice to put some wall stickers on her side of the bedroom (he has his animals). We decided it had to be something feminine but not too “pink”, because after all there’s a boy in the room too. In addition my daughter is still far away from the princess/fairy phase (she is only 10 months old — that would be a tad early!).
So we were delighted when we found these Tout doux Doudous sticker sets from Djeco in a lovely toy shop in Padova. They are sweet and funny creatures with colourful flowers and dots –quite suitable for a little girl! Djeco also makes sets with height charts, and all their designs are extremely cute!
-Michela
Baby-led weaning
Our second daughter is now 6 months old and we have started weaning her, and she is really enjoying a change from plain old milk. The thing is… with our first daughter, weaning was a big deal for us and I would spend hours reading books on concocting the perfect nutritious purée, but this time round I don’t have the same luxury. I often need to give the baby something to chew on while I get a meal in front of the eldest. The good thing is, she loves feeding herself much more than being fed.
I read about baby-led weaning a couple of years ago and recently read an article about it in the Guardian. It is apparently very popular in Holland (as usual the Dutch are a bit more advanced than the rest of Europe). The theory is that you give your baby food they can pick up and then let them go crazy: steamed vegetables and fruit, bananas, and avocado all work. You feed them whatever you can cut up into big chunks and soften so that they cannot choke on it. At the end your table will look like a vegetable battle field, but your baby will have had the best time.
I don’t know how much food actually gets eaten, so I am still feeding my daughter purées, but I do believe she is getting to enjoy food and develop her motor skills whilst having a great time with the rest of the family at the dinner table.
- Emilie
Acorn men and chestnut chaps
Although summer is still my favourite season, autumn is not too bad if you consider a beautiful walk in a forest filled with mushrooms, beautifully coloured leaves and plenty of nuts to collect!
Last weekend was nice and sunny so we took our little family to the south of the Netherlands, where the forests are beautiful. We collected a basket full of pine-cones, acorns and chestnuts. And plenty of leaves!
Back home, we created this little chestnut family. The old-fashioned way, just with some wooden skewers and a drop of glue!
Cute, don’t you think?
xxx Esther
I Carry ERGO sunt
I am not obsessed with babywearing, but in the past 3½ years I have done my share of carrying babies. I used the Tricotti and the Babybjorn quite extensively but this past summer I went looking for a new carrier — summers in Italy are too warm for the Tricotti and even my daughter was too big and heavy for the Babybjorn. After some search I opted for the ERGObaby carrier, and I’m quite pleased with it. I think that the main attraction for this carrier is that it really works for babies, toddlers and even pre-schoolers. We used it a lot while hiking in the mountains; we kept it in the rucksack until needed, and if my 3-year-old son was tired of walking and needed a rest, my husband moved the rucksack to the front and carried our son on the back, piggy-back style (making use of the sleeping hood too). If instead we were doing a more easy hike and had our pushchair with us, we would let our son take a rest in it and I would front-carry the baby in the ERGO. While babies can also be carried in the back, it’s not that easy to get a non-walking and un-cooperative baby in the carrier by yourself. (more…)
