Posts by Babyccino Editors Babyccino Kids: Daily tips, Children's products, Craft ideas, Recipes & More

BOOKS

Sweet William Monthly Book Selection

Exciting news! One of my favourite children's boutiques, Sweet William, has launched a new monthly selection of children's books! I'm so excited to see so many new titles (new to me, at least) alongside some of my favourites. There is nothing better than discovering great, new children's books... and I have a good feeling this ...

NEW YORK CITY GUIDE

Sweet William opens in Manhattan!

One of my very favorite children's shops from Brooklyn recently opened in Nolita last month -- dangerously close to where I live (uh oh). I have always admired Sweet William as it is a store that gets it just right. The space is adorable and the clothes are incredibly well edited, wearable and unique. I ...

TOYS & GAMES

TomTect contruction set

One of the best presents my son received this Christmas is a box of TomTect, a contruction game I had never heard of before. The box contains small pine boards (from renewable resources) and plastic crowbars which join the boards together-- and that's it! It's so simple, so ingenious and so stylish! My son jumped ...

BOOKS

Bilingual alphabet book

Although my husband and I speak English for work on a daily basis, our children speak only Italian. We do make an effort by teaching them a word every now and then and by showing them some English DVDs, and we truly welcome any activity which will help our kids learn a bit of English in ...

UNCATEGORIZED

Dabbawalla bags

My daughter's new treasured possession is this cool rucksack from Dabbawalla Bags. It's made of neoprene (like wetsuits) which is lead and PVC free and it's stain-resistant and machine washable. The name 'Dabbawalla' was inspired by one of the founder's travels in India where she was fascinated by the complex system of lunch-box delivery men ...

BABY

Erbaviva baby shampoo

My older son never suffered from cradle cap when he was a baby, but now at 4½, he is affected by a mild form of it! It's nothing major; we have just been advised to use very mild, oily shampoos. Which is how we discovered Erbaviva, a company that was started in 1996 to offer mommies-to-be ...

HOME AND DÉCOR

Mishmish prints

We recently moved and so we had plenty of white walls to fill up! I was looking for something to hang in my children's bedroom and landed on Mishmish studio. Artist Susie Lubell offers high quality prints of her original watercolor paintings, which means professional archival ink and professional museum etching paper. Her subjects are sweet ...

TOYS & GAMES

Doll's wooden bed from Ikea

My daughter is finally interested in the Corolle doll that she received as a gift nearly a year ago. She keeps it undressed (I know it's common, but why?) and she takes it everywhere . I guess it has joined the blanket in the transitional object set. She calls it 'baby', and for an Italian-speaking 2-year-old ...

KIDS

His first Campers

I love Camper shoes. I bought my first pair 10 years ago and have added regularly to my collection since. I know they are not the most elegant shoes (I do own one or two pairs of those) but they are cool, funky and so comfortable. Somehow I've never bought a pair for my son, ...

SERVICES

Babyccino birthday -- Personalised gift tags

Luckily in Italy the vast majority of shops will gift-wrap any item you buy as a present. Some are stylish wrapping jobs, some are simple boxes and sometimes there's nothing more than a ribbon on a paper shopping bag. But that's normally enough for me; unlike Courtney, I'm not that good at wrapping plus I'm also ...

UNCATEGORIZED

Babyccino Birthday - Michela's Top 5

It was hard to choose as always, but it was also nice looking back! Here are my top five favourites... 1.) A tutu for you by Emilie, because I can just feel the relaxed atmosphere in that English cottage in the evening (and the tutu is great too). 2.) Homemade maracas by Courtney, because it's such ...

CRAFTS AND DIY

Jack-o-lantern clementines

Halloween is definitely not an Italian tradition, but in recent years around this time of the year we do see more pumpkins and orange stuff in the grocery stores. Funnily enough the only costumes accepted are spooky ones, which I'm not too sure are very appropriate for children. Nonetheless it's another occasion to have some ...

CELEBRATIONS

Fun hats from Ikea

It must be Halloween season because dress-up items are everywhere in the kid's section at Ikea! They've brought out again the funny masks that Courtney wrote about a while ago (although I could not find the ladybird or the chick), and in the same Maskerade collection they have added these fun hats which can definitely be ...

FOR MUMS

Family dinners

As you probably know, Italians are experts at family dinners, especially the 'special occasion' meals. We'll usually have three (or more) generations sitting, eating and chatting their time away. I love them, but real life is different. In our home it seems that even two generations is one too many as it's nearly impossible to ...

KIDS ROOMS

Very portable kid's desk

I just love it when people come up with different ways of using an object; it's nearly like inventing something new! Apparently the Ikea Bekvam step stool is quite prone to being reinvented. I particularly like this idea from lovelydesign to use it as a children's desk. It's great for small flats but also as ...

BOOKS

The city-mouse and the country-mouse

I recently bought the Italian translation of this German book by Kathrin Schärer. It's a simple story of a city-mouse visiting his friend in the country; he is shown all the beauties and simplicity of life in the countryside and he appreciates them but he feels a bit out of place. To reciprocate he invites ...

HOME AND DÉCOR

Hanging children's art

We are moving home! The new one is larger and, of course, better decorated. I have made the usual promise to myself (and my husband) to be more organised and to keep it tidier. So I'm on the lookout for smart tricks to help me keep my promise. This clever Ikea hack that I found ...

FOOD

Aperitivo in Milan

Milan is an expensive city, and when you are visiting on travel it's probably even more difficult to have dinner without spending a fortune. During the day the ubiquitous bakeries allow you to eat on a budget easily but at night it's easy to have to shell out a small fortune for a dinner, however nice ...

FOOD

Frittata

Frittata is a delicious and extremely simple dish that you can find in any Italian region. Everybody has their own special recipe for it -- which means that you just can't go wrong. Whomever the cook, a frittata will always contains eggs (obviously), typically one or more vegetables, often some cheese and possibly some ham. ...

FOR MUMS

What did you do at school today?

"What did you do at school today?" is the first question I ask my son when I pick him up from school, and when the nanny picks him up it's the question I normally ask during dinner. The second one is "What did you eat at school today?" (Which obviously doesn't apply to the majority ...

MILAN

Play-brunch at the San Vittore

Italians, or possibly just the people from Milan, have come up with their own version of brunch. In the last 10 years many restaurants have specialised in a particular Sunday lunch, that goes by the name of brunch. It's not too dissimilar from what the international crowd believes brunch should be, but it has its own ...

CRAFTS AND DIY

Funny bird collage/drawing

Last weekend we had dinner at a street fair and we ventured to the kids craft tent to see if there was anything nice and easy for my 4-year-old to do. And that's where we made these funny birds! My son loved it, and it was a super simple project... something I could even organise myself! His bird ...

DIY FOR MUMS

A year long photo project

This summer a few blogs published this nice movie which was posted on YouTube. Parents took (at least) one picture of their baby every day for the first year of his life, nearly always in the same position (basically lying on a white sheet). Then they made a movie out of it with a nice ...

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