Duck Duck Goose
So, you might say it’s far from wool-wearing weather, what with NYC temperatures up in the 90’s, but with every store, theater, and restaurant cranking the AC like they’re charged with re-freezing the glaciers, it’s comforting to have a little fuzzy critter to curl up with at the end of the day (or a cute scarf to wrap around your little one’s neck to keep the summer sniffles away!)…
Oh Japan, you’ve done it again: perfect concept, perfect design – even the packaging is drool-worthy! Following the age-old tradition of Japanese hanko (判子) stamps (the first of these dates back to 57 AD!!!), Tokyo-based design firm Kawamura Hideo Activity / Rezon has created Otete & Anyo: a service for making custom hanko stamps of your baby’s hand- and footprints…
For all the cool kids out there: hipster offspring, weathered NYC youngsters and such, SuperFancy’s line of children’s tees are fresh, bright, and (aside from the one questionable gun tee) innocuous in content: rather important when dressing youngsters in this age of uber-violent video games (I’m against it), horror flicks (against it), and the like. Want your own SuperFancy shwag? Well, the Danish company makes tees for old farts too — although not quite as spirited as the munchkin selection… At a hefty €22 a pop (for kids tees), you’ll definitely want to hand the duds down to the next burgeoning fashionista in line…
Guilt-free and incredibly cute, these plushy renditions of roadkill by Roadkill Toys are irresistibly wrong-yet-right. The squashed raccoon, rabbit, and hedgehog come packaged in a hilarious transparent bodybag with oodles of organs ready to spew out of their zippered abdomen. Hell, there’s even an adorable toe tag!!! These guys are truly to die for (sorry — couldn’t help myself)…
There’s something timelessly sweet (and very Dutch) about the snuggly collection of dolls, critters, and baby accessories by Esther Schuivens. Her brand, Esthex, was born one afternoon after discovering her childhood toys while sleuthing around her parents’ attic. The designer’s use of gingham, stripes, felt, cotton rope, and old-school hardware are a pleasant departure from the hi-tech plasticy toys of today. Lo’s favorite: the Gilbert Rattle!
For those of you that caught the edge-of-your-seat action of the Super Bowl last week (yay Saints!), you might have noticed a ROTFL commercial for the Kia Sorento that involved a sock monkey, an alien Gumby cyclops, a windup tin robot, teddy bear, and the peculiar looking, prison bird-striped, shaggier-than-thou character from Blabla, Mr. X. I’ve been a huge fan of this childrens toy company since I stumbled upon the site a while back and was thrilled to see the little hairy monster soaking up his 15 minutes of fame. And, it reminded me that I should share the Blabla wealth with you all…
There’s just something elevated about wooden toys – the lovely way they age from endless afternoons of playtime, the texture of their surface, the woodsy smell… Miller Goodman’s ShapeMaker and PlayShapes have all these qualities and a massive dose of up-to-date design sense. Business partners Zoe Miller and David Goodman started the company just two years back and soon thereafter won…
To top off all the gifts from Santa, our very good friends and neighbors Lili & Thomas welcomed their son Louis Verzeaux Brodin into the world on December 27th. So, as any proper Tata would do, I headed out shopping for a care package. Fortunately, our neighborhood (Williamsburg) has some top-notch childrens’ shops and YZ & I, after much contemplation, settled on a trio of super-soft accessories…
“We used to learn our alphabets by reading those classroom banners that associated each letter with an animal or object. These days as kids become increasingly computer dependent at an early age I thought it was about time to adapt an old method to a new medium.” – CMD
These keyboard stickies by Christopher Monroe Delorenzo are retarded cute and, aside from teaching munchkins their ABC’s, could be a wonderful tool for type training. Although not currently available online, you can email the designer here for further instructions on how to buy the $15 sticker set.
