Camera Day project

As a known sucker for geeky holidays, as seen here I dedicated todays naptime to make myself a cute top.
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Not long ago I bought this super soft white top for almost nothing, but it had disproportionally huge armholes.

Since naptime is not too long at this house, I had to be quick and efficient. I just marked the size of the holes using one top that fits me well and sewn through on the outer side of the top. Like this:

 

Cut of the excess.

By now you must be asking yourselves, what the heck does this all have to do with Camera day, she is resizing a top, big deal!
But it does, because when the top was ready, I printed out a super-cute camera applique (Funkytime provided it for her fb fans a few months back) on a transfer paper and ironed it on.

Note: 1. This is not an applique originally, so the image needs to be mirorred when printed on transfer paper.
          2. The image is b&w, this sophisticated ombre look was acchieved by the toner in my printer being low.

And this is me with my top on.

And for more free printable goodness including cameras jump here or here, to honor this special day:)















Linking to 30days

Sorry Germany

Germany did not make it to the finals, but German abteil makes crazy bags out of footballs. (via)

Poor kid, he speaks too many languages

 Two to three times a week P gets picked up in the nursery by his babysitter, Eva.

She takes him to the playgorund, the zoo, they ride busses and trams together. She puts her scarf and hat on him, when bad mommy forgets to leave warmer clothes there for him.
AND, she speaks German to him.

When she picked him up yesterday, one of the moms, hearing they spoke German (in an otherwise Hugarian nursery) asked her if P was bilingual. Eva proudly explained he was actually multilingual, to which the mom said: Oh, poor kid!





















Now, for a little bit of a background: I am Croatian, daddy is Serbian, we live in Hugary. We have friends to whom we only speak English.
Ever since I was a kid and my cousins from Germany came for a visit I knew what a gift it was to grow up bilingual. Even then, when I had no idea what that meant, I knew I am going to try to give that to my children one day. I had no idea then that I am going to live in a foreign country and some of that will be given.

When P was aroun 8 months old we started with sign language. Most people thought I was insane doing that, saying it will slow down his speach development.Well, it didn't!

P signing 'more' at the interactive fountain in Budapest:) They grow so fast!

Currently P speaks mostly Croatian at home, and even though Croatian and Serbian are very similar, he does know the difference very well. He speaks German to Eva. Since he was born I made it a daily routine to introduce English through singing and later reading books, and most of the cartoons he watches are in English. And naturally, he speaks Hugarian. He is past three now, and he still does not mix the languages. When Eva, P and me are together we use three languages at the same time (Croatian, Hungarian and English) and there is no mixing, he turns to me speaking Croatian, turns back to Eva speaking German, while Eva and me are speaking Hungarian.

I am not talking about best practices here, only something that works for us for now. I don't think he is a 'poor kid', I think he is lucky!

What do you think?

Here is P reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar in English. It is too funny for words:

Fairy tale hats by Gwen van den Eijinde

In a romantic mood today I decided to show you some baby hats designed by Gwen van den Eijinde. No words are necessary, just look, and feel...

Cozy up with Milo & Gabby

There are numerous animal pillows in this world. There are too many animal pillows in my house. Most of the animal pillows people buy for your kids because they think they are cute ARE NOT.
However..there are cute animal pillows. Even better, there are cute and cosy pillowcases! Because, lets face it, if you want your kiddo snuggling with a pillow, it better be clean.

Milo and Gabby make just that! Pillowcase that will make a pillow into your kid's best friend, a snugly toy and a designer piece. I love them! heck, I want it for ME!

They  fit standard queen pillow (36'' W x 25'' H), are made of 100% cotton sateen / virgin poly fill and can be machine washed and  tumble dried.

And you can get them at 50% of their price on Zulily till Thursday. Go shopping!

Zebra in Zagreb

This is the Zebra crossing in front of the Zoo here in Zagreb

 and it says: A STEP AWAY FROM A REAL ZEBRA

The worlds cutest rattles - Bimba

I've already posted about Bimba, but I couldn't not do it again.
Mini rattles are out, and the are so PERFECT.

The world of rattles will never be the same for me. First, we want a doggy (is this a bulldog? OH!) and then the rest of them!

And there are big sisters available too:

If you want the too, find the retailers here or visit Meska or Etsy to shop online.

Pappet - creative paper toys (interview with Bernardett Perjes)

 Two weeks ago I introduced you to Bimba - wonderfully cool textile toys. Today it is papers turn. Pappet are paper and cardboard toys created by Bernardett Perjes. Not only they are Eco-friendly, they are also creativity boosters. Kids (and parents) get to assemble their own toys that can then can be coloured and decorated to your hearts content. Now, lets hear it from the creator herself:


1. Tell us a few words about yourself. Who is Bernardett Perjes ?

I am 43 years old graphic designer. I deal with all kinds of graphic design, from business cards to billboards or even web design. With digital design I am happy if I get to do some manual stuff. I have a 7,5 years old daughter who is full of pep. Luckily, she also loves to create: cut, colour, paint, glue, weave, bead.


 

2. What is Pappet? / Why paper?


I love working with paper, it is a well known material available to everybody. People are not 'affraid' of it. On the other hand, it is very versatile and easy to use. My motto is: Give space to kids creativity and desire to create. I can just hope that my toys are inspiring and that they induce the creative process and then move to the background and let the kids create according to their imagination. On the other hand, I hope they can help the less independent ones and show them the way to the nice result. I wish that people who buy my toys find them a 'time well spent', people who will find joy in the finished product but find real joy in creating itself.

3. How did it all start?


Browsing the Internet I came to like cardboard toys and thought it would be cool to create my own version, and think of a smart way to produce them. With time it became difficult to deal with big cardboard toys, so I started turning to smaller toys. Making them up makes me happy, and they can be produced in small series.

4. You have a daughter, to which extent does she influence your work?


Olivia is my first and biggest critic. She'll tell you right away if she likes something or not. Sometimes it is her idea that starts a process. She also enjoys testing finished toys and exhibit pieces are often her making.






    5. What part of the creative process do you like best?


I love brainstorming and experimenting. Creating a demo version and detailing can be a tedious process, but I like doing optimization for manufacturing too. When the toy is finished I usually have to make loads of samples to be put up in shops, but it is really only a problem if the deadlines are tight. If there is time to fuss around I love to make them pretty.




6. Do you have a 5-10-year plan, or do you just do it instinctively?

Things are still happening quite randomly, but I would like to create a system, do it more business like. I'd like to create more opportunities for people to meet with my toys, and maybe take them abroad if the opportunity presented itself.











 7. Favourite Hungarian designers!

Gabriella Makhult,  Diána Nagy,  László Herbszt, Kinga Rofusz, Eszter Schall.


 8. Favourite foreign designers!


There are fantastic things on the Internet. Many times I just feel - why didn't I think of this?

Thank you so much Bernardett! Keep up the good work, we'll be following you along.


See also Pappet Castle review

Summertime and the livin' is easy

Summer has not officially started yet, and we are already back from one summer vacation. Here is our two weeks in photos:

And now I am going to bed to cry a bit about being back to life:)

Lazy Football

I am not what you would call a Football fan, but with EURO 2012 being on, and Emanuele Magini Lazy Football chair, I could forget about that for a moment, and have fun.

 images source

If only I had a Flux

After two weeks we are packing up the apartment and going back to real life. When we are here at the seaside, we live very small. The apartment is only 20 sqm, but perfectly livable, especially if we are lucky with the weather and spend most of the time outside on the terrace.
When the weather gets rough we need to pack out stuff inside though...and it would be sooo much easier with Flux furniture.

Dutch designer duo created this one-piece, foldable, polypropylene chair that looks like a giant envelope and allegedly turns into a designer chair in matter of seconds.

I ma not a necessarily a minimal design fan, and 'designer' is in numerous cases more about the looks than function, but furniture that folds in seconds and can be kept in a wall mount just a little bigger than a tie-rack definitely has my attention. I would love to test drive one of those babes though, to see if they fold this flat even after they have been assembled and sat on for a while.

BUT, what my hear really aches, is actually the little sibling of a flux chair, flux junior!

I would like one of each colour! Foldable kids chairs are without a doubt something I would need. With enough grownup chairs in a flat to stock a smaller theatre, we never have the right number of kids chairs. They really are to die for, I think.


Check out my ever expanding Portable seating pinterest board for more portable designs.
Join me on facebook too if you liked this post.

Pebble neck(shoe)lace

We're spending some time at the seaside and we had family from Germany with us the past week. P and his cousin L had loads of fun spending time together. One day we made pebble+shoelace necklace.

I took colorful shoelaces I had, broke P's stone, found a replacement stone, put stones on shoelaces and did adjustable knots...and gave the boys chocolate so they'd be willing to pose for photos.

Boom

I had a really idyllic family post lined up for today, but after spending the whole day with a 3-year old, and a 5 months old alone, I just want to go BOOM.

L`ALLUMEUSE

Flip flop mood

Enjoying the pre-season seaside with the kids brought me into the flip flop mood. Interesing design, and great colours make the below flip flops very special.

 

Designed by: Ondřej Václavík

Would you wear them?

They reminded me of dopies a little...