My childhood friend — who fled NYC long ago to live in Paris — sends us the cutest, chicest outfits every year for the girls’ birthday.I am always excited when the package arrives but always find myself equally bummed out that I can never find the brand here! Well last week I learned that Obaibi had quietly opened a store on the upper east side, and so I made the trek the other day and practically bought the entire place out.
What I love about the clothes is not only the beautiful muted color palate but the hipper-than-hip French styling. In addition to a bunch of great sweaters and dresses, I picked up a pair of cargo capris with a flowy top and a printed cotton wrap scarf. The cuteness factor was off the charts! Obaibi carries items from birth-5yrs and I am hoping that they soon open a store with the line for older kids (Okaidi). I would say to all New York moms that it is worth the trip – the clothes are adorable, beautifully made and priced WELL WELL WELL below what you would find elsewhere. Dress like a little French girl at Old Navy pricing. Viva la France!
With a steady stream of visiting friends over the Christmas holidays, and many with young children, we have been busy! Whilst we treated them to the hedonistic pleasures of the Aussie beach culture, we also spent a great deal of time indoors appreciating the ‘higher arts’. This can be tricky with young kids in tow, especially those who are jet-lagged and tantrum prone, but Melbourne has some fabulous museums and galleries, several of which are especially wonderful for children. Here are my top 3.
1. Melbourne Museum – This fabulous museum, located on the northern border of the Carlton Gardens behind the Royal Exhibition Building, is futuristic and interactive and connects architecture and nature – in the middle of the museum, you can walk through a forest! The Children’s Gallery is designed for children 3 to 8 but I would think it would delight even the younger toddler. The children’s exhibition, entitled 1,2,3 Grow, explores the many ways things, including humans, grow. Activities, children’s art, stories, an indoor sandpit with fossils beneath the sand which children are encouraged to discover, a kids puppet theatre and an outside play/picnic area including games such as skittles for the whole family, are just some of the attractions. It doesn’t matter how often we visit (we try to put our membership to good use after all) my children are always stimulated and engaged. Young children particularly love the insect section and the Forest gallery. Click here for more details.
2. Scienceworks – My kids’ favorite! This museum is situated in an old plumbing station and is simply brilliant. It is dynamic and interactive and a must for children who are inquisitive especially in matters relating to science and technology. The museum collection objects are combined with hands-on exhibits so you can test your reflexes, jumping and kicking abilities and are designed to be explored. Amazingly the exhibits continuously changes so repeat visits never get repetitive. The Planetarium is particularly fabulous and without fail my children always protest when it is time to leave! For more details click here.
3. Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) – One of our newest art spots in Federation Square, dedicated to the moving image in all its forms including cinema, television, computer games and interactive media arts. This place is amazing. I think the official emphasis here is on older kids but I could not get my 2-year-old out the first time we visited. In addition to the babies screenings there is so much child-centred programming, all very high tech — with free animated flicks and the annual International Childrens Festival. Kids can even create their own short film! The Games Lab is a changing exhibition of computer games with exhibits showing the development of the game and several consoles on which to play the current game. Needless to say, kids love this area and given that so many young children are techno savvy these days, even the toddlers can be seen having a go. The Memory Grid has more than 200 short films in free futuristic ‘lounge rooms’. Just brilliant. Small pods of seats surround a screen from which short films can be chosen from the touch screen. I cannot recommend it highly enough, for kids and for adults! See here for more information.
These days I’m so busy with work, I don’t have much time for my much loved little creative projects (sewing, baking, drawing). But I love looking at craft and cooking blogs instead! Joel Henriques is a Portland-based artist who has two little kids and does the most amazing craft projects with them. Just have a look at his blog — these yo-yo balls are so sweet, and this design-tree-toy is to die for! Or this doll house…
If you have a printer at home you can print these cool designs for your kids to colour (just click on the picture to go to the original post for the download). I really love them!
I love bright colours — especially in this cold, grey winter season a splash of colour does wonders to my mood. And my daughter loves dresses she can twirl in — the moment a dress twirls, it is labelled a princess dress! So when we received a beautiful dress from Masala Baby, a NewYork-based label, we both thought it was the best.
The colours are fabulous: a rich pink contrasting with a deep shade of orange — colours that instantly remind you of India. The dress is made from soft cotton and because of its full skirt it twirls and twirls endlessly (or until she gets really, really dizzy).
I have been layering it up with a long sleeved T-shirt underneath, but I cannot wait for it to be warm enough so my daughter can just slip it on and go play in the sun.
Masala Baby are kindly offering a 20% discount to Babyccino Kids readers, just use the discount code: friends.
Oh, and we are also giving away one of Masala Baby’s Pure Cotton Wrap Tunics! Just leave a comment by Sunday, March 21st and we’ll pick a winner at random.
I love clever concepts. Something new, something different, something fresh! Take this jacket from Bastida Solutions: ONE jacket, that thanks to some clever zips and folds adjusts from a 6 months size to a 3 year size! How cool is that? And it’s not only ingenious in design, it’s also very cute! The bright colours are lovely, and the fact that the stitching is done in a contrasting colour makes it really casual and cool.
Alicia (from Barcelona) has just started producing her cool concepts. At the moment this jacket and a pair of trousers are available, but hopefully there will be more products to come — I saw a lovely yellow dress on a picture that would look darling on the new baby…
If you’re interested in the concept, please send an email to Alicia at info@bastidasolutions.com.
It’s amazing how much of an impact the time of year your baby is born has on sartorial choices. My son was born in June — which is winter-time in Australia. So woolen hats outnumbered any other gift (other than socks, for some strange reason). But I was talking to a friend recently who had a summer baby and she said her son lives in nappy cover shorts. Unfortunately I never got the chance to buy these for little C… but maybe next time I’ll have a summer baby (am I really talking next time?!), and I’ll be able to buy bloomers such as these. I saw this range recently from Elki. Sisters Emma and Georgina import fabric directly from Liberty of London to hand-make their products. Just beautiful.
Williamsburg is seriously as cool as it gets.In fact, I used to joke with a friend of mine that they should just plaster a picture of either Beck or Moby on the front of all the Subway cars to identify that the “L” train to Brooklyn was for hipster transport only.
I guess now, with time being what it is, those young men and women with the complicated haircuts and ironic t-shirts are getting older and having kids of their own. And thank goodness they are because the children’s stores there are really just so darn cool!!!! If you have not been, you must go. Make a day of it as there are so many amazing shops and little places to eat.
Mini Jake – is kind of like the Brooklyn version of the popular Giggle chain.It’s a huge space filled with all things modern and cool — strollers, cribs, bedding, feeding stuff… you name it. In a nutshell, it is a modern parents dream as it is chock full of all those eco-fashionable brands that they go gaga for (Oeuf, Stokke, Bloom etc;).The store also has a huge selection toys (think Plan Toys and Playmobil) and a book nook with all the classics.
Sweet William – an absolutely gorgeous store carrying brands that I simply can’t find anywhere else.I am obsessed with under the radar brands like Makie and Talc and they carry both. The well edited selection caters mainly to the younger set — newborn to 5 yrs and has the type of stuff that you will hold on to for years just because it’s all too beautiful to part with. A perfect place for gifts for a newborn.
Flying Squirrel – One word: GENIUS. Flying Squirrel is a consignment shop for gently used kid’s clothes, gear and toys.I bought an amazing fleece jacket here in perfect condition for $10 dollars which retails for like $100. There is a small selection of new items as well but that is not the draw here. Although you have to sift through the racks a bit, all of the clothing that they carry is “higher-end” stuff in perfect condition. When I stop hoarding all my girls’ clothing I might go here to unload.
Smoochie Baby – Another lovely modern store with a well edited selection of clothes and shoes.I was happy to find the tunic top that Emilie wrote about here and it was on sale!I also picked up an adorable dress (pictured) from an Australian line that they carry there called LittleHorn. So cute right?
When packing for our trip I knew I had to pack children’s books — we couldn’t go a whole three months without them, no matter how heavy they made our suitcases! So I decided to pack books that were relevant to our travels — books about nature, animals, sea creatures, etc.
Over the years we’ve collected many of the books from the award-winning Read and Wonder series of nature storybooks, including One Tiny Turtle, Surprising Sharks, and Bat Loves the Night. The Read and Wonder storybooks are great because they merge stories with interesting facts, making them entertaining as well as educational.
These books have turned out to be perfect for our trip — we’ve seen so many of the featured animals (sharks, turtles, bats, frogs…) and so it’s fun for the kids to read about them. Plus the books are all paperback — making them much easier to lug around with us.
My son has a funny thing going on with witches and wolves. He can’t get enough of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and also the Three Little Pigs is another favourite. Especially if you make it a little more exciting with well implemented sounds and pauses, he’s completely enchanted. Never mind that he hears the same story for the gazillionth time! This cuddly wolf from Ebulobo has therefore stolen his heart. It’s a bit of a crazy wolf, because besides Pigs and Little Red Riding Hoods he eats saucepans, mobile phones and chickens. And even though my son should have outgrown this toy a little, he and even his big sister are still majorly entertained by it!
I found it amongst many other treasures in the new online shop Peanut & Pip, which is definitely worth a visit to discover some new, cool products.
Oh, I think I have died and gone to heaven! Olive’s friend Pop is a collection of vintage-inspired clothing inspired by proper little-girls’ clothes of post WWII, from a time when little girls looked like…well…little girls. They call it ‘nostalgic playwear‘ — capes, bonnets, overalls, pinafores, aprons and so much more. Simply adorable!
The collection was designed by two very clever Aussie mothers who are quick to concede that whilst their clothes are indeed ’special’ they are not ’special occasion’ wear. The materials are durable and robust, to be worn… because let’s face it, little girls may like getting ‘dressed up’ but they love getting ‘grubbed up’ too (oh, indeed they do, especially mine).
I have a feeling this is a brand to watch out for. The Winter/Autumn range (pictured) is available through stockists listed here.
I met the Reverend Ian about 9 years ago after I’d read an article about how Madonna’s son Rocco was wearing these scratch-mits from a new baby-wear brand he’d set up called Nippaz with Attitude (NWA). I immediately fell in love with him (not like that! but he is seriously one of the nicest guys on the planet) and the brand.
The Rev is not your usual man of the church — he used to work in A&R (artist and repertoire) for an indie record label but had a background in graphic design. As all his mates started to have kids he found it difficult to find really cool ‘new-baby’ gifts and so started to design some t-shirts and bibs. It grew from there and since then Nippaz has gone from strength to strength. The designs are reminiscent of record covers but have a great sense of humour — very much from the child’s perspective but playing with references familiar to grown-ups. We’ve all heard from our parents and probably said to our kids “it will end in tears” but when that is on a kid’s t-shirt as “its gonna end in tears” it’s somehow funny — that the child knows it already themselves!
I’m not usually a fan of slogan-tees but NWA always raises a smile. Both my children have tickled me wearing their designs (as can be seen in the pics)! As a Dylan fan (my son’s middle name is Dylan!) “Time I need a changin’” was a must for us.
I always recommend Nippaz to my guy friends who are struggling over what to buy as a new baby or birthday present for their god-son, niece or friend’s child. But I don’t think Nippaz is just for boys — it’s for anyone with a youth spent watching bands or at festivals or even anyone who just enjoys a laugh.
Another fabulous interactive colouring book just begging to be illustrated! They seem to be popping up everywhere these days and with good reason too. Created by talented Melbournian Nicole Mandile, in the first of her My Picture Storybooks series, The Magical Milky Way’s Super Galactic Zoo kept my rambunctious 4-year-old son in check on a long-haul airplane flight recently. So naturally I am a big fan. He was totally engrossed in creating, drawing and pasting away, each page providing the perfect canvas for his masterpiece. It helps that he has a complete fascination with all things galaxy-related.
The book is created using uncoated paper, a great surface to sketch on and is staple bound so the pages open flat. It is printed in Australia on 100% recycled paper. It isn’t too long or too short — just perfect to capture their little attention spans.
Available through weheartbooks for local and international shipment.
If only just for the intro you should have a look at the website of Franka Stockholm. I think it’s one of the coolest websites I’ve seen! I admit I usually have no patience for a website intro, but I promise you this one shouldn’t be missed — it will give you an immediate impression of the children’s clothing brand it represents: original, fresh, playful and interesting!
The design and quality of the clothes is great, but above all they’re functional: they’re playful clothes made for playful children. I really like the originality of the pieces and the easiness to wear, without becoming grungy or cheap.
And I really LOVE the little baby dresses — let the baby come and the summer begin (another 10 weeks to go)!
While I would really love for my kids to play with handcrafted, eco-friendly and artistically stunning toys, I also know full well that I might as well just set a pile of money on fire.The beautiful wooden farm house with hand painted animals is coated in a layer of dust. The hand-sewn finger puppet theater has yet to be touched by a human hand. That being said, I don’t want a house full of flashing plastic junk but I do like to find items that my kids will actually play with.
Kidding Around is a toy store in Chelsea that I really love as it does a great job stocking toys which are both parent savvy and ones that your kids will love. The website is in dire need of a makeover but if you visit the store in person you will be extremely pleased with what you find inside. Not only is it huge but it has everything that a child could want from birth through the teen years — all of which is thoughtfully edited and categorized. It is my go-to place for amazing birthday gifts and I always stumble upon something new when I go.
I have my sights set on this little red accordian to buy as a gift for someone who bought my girls two recorders last month. Payback time!
Yes, it’s true. I’ve been having a secret affair with a man called Roger. It started shortly after my son was born 3 years ago and my husband doesn’t know about it … yet. I got caught up with this guy when I bought a book called The Happy Lion for my son (A Babyccino favourite as Courtney wrote about here). He illustrated the book written by his wife Louise Fatio. We both (my son and I) immediately fell in love with the story and accompanying pictures and wanted to learn more about this French Lion. So we set about buying some more of the stories in the Happy Lion series. But we could only get ‘The Happy Lion Roars‘ direct from Amazon — all the others seemed out of print and only available through the Amazon Market Place. Over the last couple of years we have gradually bought them up when they have been for sale at a sensible price. We fell so much in love with this Lion that we grew to want more from his creators.
Ms. Fatio also wrote about a delightful penguin and his lady-love: Hector and Christina (but you have to keep your eyes peeled on e-bay or Amazon to find copies of them, which is definitely worth doing). But Mr. Duvoisin (Roger when you know him like I do) has a library to start collecting — he illustrated a number of books written by Alvin Tresselt including White Snow, Bright Snow and Hide and Seek Fog (which are still in print) and The Beaver Pond (which you can usually find a pretty cheap second-hand copy of). But I love the books he has both written and illustrated: The Petunia Goose stories, the Veronica Hippopotomus stories (and the stories where those two meet, as in Veronica on Petunia’s Farm — a hippo and a goose — brilliant!). His writing has an old-fashioned tone but I’m a sucker for his illustrations.
He is really worth looking out for in second-hand bookstores and you can often find a real bargain. At the time of going to press one of my favourite titles; ‘Mr and Mrs Button’s Wonderful Watchdogs’ was on Amazon for £0.01 (+ £2.75 postage) – a whole lot of story fun for under £3! I love that the books have been owned and loved by children from generations gone by –you can see their scribbles and the much-thumbed pages and imagine that children then and now are similar in many ways. I also like seeing the contrast of these old books in my children’s room next to all their new shiny toys and books. It’s nice to see that to them, at such a young age, there’s no difference.
My Duvoisin recommendations (other than the aforementioned) are The House of Four Seasons (a book about colours), The Crocodile in the Tree, Donkey Donkey and Petunia’s Christmas.
I set myself some rules when buying second-hand books on e-bay or Amazon (so as not to go too overboard). They are:
1. Have a limit of what you’re prepared to spend — mine is usually £10. If the title costs more, wait it out. My experience says that one week it could cost you over £50 and the next under £10 (I bought Petunia’s Christmas for a couple of pounds back in July last year but nearer Christmas it was reaching over £100!).
2. Decide what condition you are prepared to accept — often online marketplaces have condition categories (like new, very good, good, acceptable etc). I don’t mind scribbles and worn edges but want a good binding so that it doesn’t fall apart when a child reads it (that is usually classed as good or above — even though I always read the description of acceptable as one person’s good is another’s acceptable). If you want a like new standard for old books you are going to have to pay for it.
3. When you find an author or illustrator that you like then search for their other titles, they rarely disappoint.
It is hard to believe but Merci, one of Paris’ most fashionable concept stores has been out-trumped by a kid’s store. Just a stone’s throw away from Merci on the corner where the boulevard Beaumarchais turns into the boulevard Filles du Calvaire, Bonton has opened up a 800 M² new flagship shop. It is absolutely fabulous! On over 3 floors you can find clothes, clothes and even more clothes, a book shop (with a GREAT selection of books), a bakery, a sweets bar, a hair dresser, a deco area and I don’t even remember what else.
Rebecca (who used to write for us from Washington and who has, luckily for me, moved back to Paris) and I went to the opening and had a blast. The Prosecco was flowing, there was a huge counter full of hams and cheeses and little sandwiches. It was a great way of discovering the shop and the new Bonton summer collection.
Oh, did I mention that they also have one of those old-fashioned photo booths with a bucket full of dressing up hats in front of it? We also took advantage of that, though we were the only grown-ups queueing up for it in a huge line of kids…
- Emilie
BONTON
5 boulevard Filles Du Calvaire
75003 Paris
Open: Monday – Saturday 10:00 – 19:00
Before we moved to a new house a few weeks ago, we used to live in an apartment building. Parking in the basement, large elevator, and the rooms conveniently laid-out on one single level. Disadvantage: no garden. Advantage: no stairs.
Last week I came home from work and found my 4-year-old daughter sitting on the sofa with a package of frozen red cabbage wrapped in a tea towel, pressed to her forehead. A bump the size of an egg was slowly developing. You guessed it, she fell from the stairs (or, as she stated, her little brother pushed her, but I’m not sure how much of a truth there is in that). Poor girl.
Now I’m not against red cabbage, (we prepare it with a little sugar and apples — truly delicious with good sausage or game), but don’t you think this cute little elephant from Goodies of Desire would do a much better job at soothing a little (or bigger) owie? I do, and thus, from now on, I keep one in the freezer compartment of my fridge for cases of emergencies. Good to have around.
The friendly elephant is filled with cherry pits and the label says that in addition to the usual bumps and bruises it can also be useful for ‘Kopfenschmerzen & Kater’ (headache & hang-over) or ‘Milchstau’ (engorgement). VERY good to have around.
If you find it a pity however to hide the friendly fellow in the freezer, you may also warm it in a medium warm oven to treat colds or to use it for relaxation. Or, thanks to its cotton elephant skin and natural cherry pit filling, you can safely give it to a baby as a cuddling toy/rattle.
What a multi-purpose little fellow… And, to make it even better — it’s machine washable.
Thanks to a tip from Sara, I stopped into a great children’s shop in Bangalow (just inland from Byron Bay) called Echidna Place, which is where I discovered Scruffy Dog — a cute Australian brand of children’s shoes. I promised my husband I woudn’t do any shopping while we’re here (only browsing!)… but I must say I was seriously tempted by the Buddy sandals. And I also love the Bonnie strappy sandal… but my daughter is too young for them, much to my husband’s relief!
Scruffy Dog’s aim is to produce good-quality, stylish children’s shoes which are also affordable and comfortable (no easy feat!). The brand is growing rapidly too — one of my favourite American shops, Sweet William, is now stocking the Buddy sandal (pictured). Perfect for summer…
It has seriously been freakishly cold here in Paris. We have seen snow, snow, snow and more snow. First it was fun, then it was plain cold, and now it is just fustrating. It means that children have to play indoors most of the time and it is really hard to keep them from going completely stir crazy…
So we have been building forts, castles, caves and jungles — it is amazing how much you can do with some chairs and a couple of blankets… and some dress-up items.
One of the big hits of this winter has been a lion mask we got from the gorgeous Shak Shuka online eco-boutique. It looks great and it is amazing how much one mask can stimulate a game that is starting to go stale. I am really glad there is no one living under us right now, as I am not sure what they would think of the lioness and her cubs roaming around in the flat above them…
Whippet Grey began as a story-book, one full of enchanting objects … and that’s just the feeling you get when stepping onto the web pages of this online store. Whippet Grey is a family-run business selling various curiosities for the home, garden, you & the kids. With the departments sounding like chapter-headings; “Secret Garden” or “Curious Objects“, Whippet Grey is a lovely cyber-space to spend a coffee break.
I particularly like the “Children’s Den” split into 3 sub-chapters; Animal Kingdom, Budding Artist and Discovery Trail — there are some beautiful and different gifts for children of all ages. I love this shaggy black sheep rocker (if only there was justification for another rocker!) and have just ordered these ‘play-shapes‘ for my son’s 3rd birthday — we are very into any good rainy-day activities and these not only fit the bill but are beautiful to boot!
Oh and also their sale just started — temptation just got a bit more tempting!
My childhood friend — who fled NYC long ago to live in Paris — sends us the cutest, chicest outfits every year for the girls’ birthday. I am always excited when the package arrives but always find myself equally bummed out that I can never find the brand here! Well last week I learned that Obaibi had quietly opened a store on the upper east side, and so I made the trek the other day and practically bought the entire place out. 
Dina in New York
March 17th, 2010
6 comments
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. The Read and Wonder storybooks are great because they merge stories with interesting facts, making them entertaining as well as educational.
