Flannel Xmas decoration

Closer we are to the year end, faster the time flies. I have no time for anything..I am nowhere with the presents and I have millions of ideas rushing through my head...and most probably big majority of them will stay only that - idea.

Today I just want to quickly share cute decoration by boGár Krea (a.k.a. Brigitta Gábor) made out of Riley  Blake designs flannel.

Available from Meska
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Chester and Bell

Hi Chester and Bell, you are too cute...Especially Chester!

By Acne JR ...

Cardboard Xmas tree

As a big fan of cardboard I was really happy to see JULMYS Christmas tree by Ikea. It is not the most beautiful design in my opinion, and choice of color is also not my cup of tea, but I loved the idea. We never spend the holidays at home, so we rarely do any holiday decoration. In fact, last year was the first for one for us. With baby I being only a week old at Christmas, we were unable to travel, so we had Christmas brought to us by granny and grandpa.

This year we are back to our normal selves, packing up our bags, presents and saying bye, bye to Budapest for a while. But, with kids in the house, it is a little bit weird not to do any Christmas preparations, because lets face it...this Christmas craze starts earlier and earlier every year. That said, there will be some light decorating on my part. And we will have a Christmas tree, and it will be cardboard!

Cardboard Christmas tree is exactly what we need!

It is only two 70 x 62 cm corrugated cardboard pieces and a circular stand. Simple design, INCLUDING decoration you can really use in various ways. For me cardboard is the best in its natural color, so I will probably let P only scribble on decoration, but possibilities are endless. I also already bought a super cheap STRÅLA light chain with 10 bulbs which is battery operated and LED, so we can use that too.

Isn't this tree just perfect?

Tree stump tools - our Happy Toys

I came across a Happy Boat made out of tree stump on Pinterest and remembered I never showed you the tools we made this summer.

So here they are:

Owl Calendar for Owl Lovers

 3rd year in a row, here is the Owl Lover 2013 by My Owl Barn.

Owl Lover 2013 is a collaborative project between My Owl Barn and over 40 artists  (Jo James, Wee Gallery, Donna McKenzie, Juliette Crane and Nathan Jurevicius to name a few) from all over the globe who make this project unique on the net and has created a community of like minded people who admire art.

The calendar is completely customizable, you can pick an artwork of your choice separately for each month. If you are having trouble deciding there is also a pre-made version.

Here are some of my favorites:

 Enjoy!

Potty training for boys

I do love weird holidays, and the World Toilet Day came in handy because I've been wanting to write about urinals for a long time. I know, weirdo...but what can you do.

You see, as soon as I got my first flat, if only space allowed for it I was going to have a urinal. So we got it. When we moved to a bigger flat we couldn't imagine a bathroom without one anymore, so we got it again...
And now my kid is 3.5 and he started to 'pee like a big boy'...and although I learned today that '2.5 billion people do not have a clean toilet I am really wishing for this...

And with possibility to even clip it to your regular toilet bowl, even space is not a problem.

Calendars you will want

It is very hard for me to comprehend, but it really is that time of year already. Time to talk about holiday gifts, calendars and planners.

This year, for the first time, Két Egér (Two Mice) bookstore (Budapest) decided to have 2013. planners printed. But not just your regular planners. They gathered 7 designers, to create a limited edition of 70 planners (10 each) - hard covered, hand bound 112 pages printed on recycled paper.

Diána Barcsi - Bimba

Anna Holló

Fruzsina Kun

Zsuzsi Kupcsik

Dóri Lévai

Mariann Márai - Pikku Dot

Diána Nagy - Picidia

They can be bought at the bookstore, or on Wamp on Dec 9, 16, 23.
See the rest of the photos here.

Deskhouse by ninetonine

Have you ever noticed how kids struggle to reach the top of the paper they are drawing on, so they end up turning the paper.
Madrid based designer and architect Alberto Marcos designed this Deskhouse for ninetonine - table and a playhouse in one.

It even has a chimney to store pencils in.

This is a perfect position for drawing, reading, even playing with puzzles with some non slip mat of a sort. Many of us, including me, can not afford to have this, for both money and space reasons, but it is great design and it is on sale on fab now, so check it out if you love it and want it:)

Make Great Together

 Are you entering the challenge?





We just sent in P's first entry:) THE CROCBOX!

 Instagram #MiniMakeGreatMakedo 

Come join in the fun!! (there are some great prizes too)

Dealing with snot

Cool title, right? But snotty weather is here and I just have to know: How do you deal with snot?

I vacuum clean it out of my kids!
There is an attachment, almost like the one you can get to clean you keyboards, but it is a baby nose vacuum. It was invented in Hungary back in mid nineties and while here everybody knows and owns one I am getting the feeling it is not that widely popular in the rest of the world. And it should be.


C is attached to the vacuum cleaner tube, while A goes to your kids nose.































It is safe and it works. I am actually not sure what people do without it. I have several, one at each grandma's, a few at home. All my friends and family who have kids have one. Arianna orrszívó porszívó (Arianna Baby-Vac) is my go to present when someone has a baby. And their go to present when someone has a baby. And at a cost of about 10 bucks you get a friend for life...or at least for a few years, until your kids don't learn how to blow their noses. Trust me, it is a life savior.

I am not embedding the video here, because it is disgusting, but if you want to know how it works you can jump here to see the video or read the FAQ page.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go suck my baby's nose, he is screaming again because he can not breathe.

EFVVA (Interview with Ewa Wróbel-Hultqvist + giveaway)

I fell head over heals in love with EFVVA the moment I saw the snowflake shoes. Find out about EFVVA and its creator - artist Ewa Wróbel-Hultqvist in the following interview. When you are done reading you can enter to win an EFVVA bow tie bracelet. Have fun!

First of all, what is it that we definitely HAVE TO know about Ewa Wróbel-Hultqvist? 

I was born in the beautiful Polish town Krakow. I grew up in an artistic family where design and art intertwined with each other each day. I have studied at Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and graduate painting. I lived in Stockholm for 2 years with my great Swedish husband. We moved back to Poland because we were missing the warm weather ;-) and I missed my family.

Tell us about EFVVA! What does the name stand for?

I founded EFVVA in 2011. The name EFVVA stands for my name Ewa but with Scandinavian sound because I love Sweden, I used to lived there and my husband and son have Swedish nationality,  and with letter F as in fashion. EFVVA is a young, growing Polish children's brand. EFVVA loves children, fashion and art. We design unique, limited collection of clothing and shoes for children from 3 months to 6 years. We use the highest quality natural materials and our clothes and shoes are handmade in Poland, personally designed and finished by me.We put a lot of heart in to our work, fine tuning the product so that it is unique to wear for it's owner. All products are individually made for our little individualists who are our greatest treasure. Therefore it is important to protect their future through care of the environment. EFVVA aims to create clothes with respect to the environment and human rights.

How did it all start?

Like I said I grew up in an artistic family where design and art intertwined with each other each day - follow this path worked out as a child was natural, but the birth of the my son became the inspiration for the merger of three loves life: painting, design, and children & EFVVA Brand was born.

How much does your son influence your work?

He has a very strong influence on what I do. I often ask him for advice :-)

Which part of the creative process do you like best?

One of the most enjoyable parts of the creative process is the first part when I just start thinking and design in my mind the upcoming collections and the last part finishing the final touches.

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

Well, I really like working instinctively, but EFVVA needs to develop and ought to have  5/10 years plan and I of course have it:-)

Favourite Polish designers!

I am very happy to see so many interesting and great Polish children's designers

I admire great design Rafa Kids, miniio, miszkomaszko and many more...

Favourite foreign designers!

There's so many great designers... I love provocative fashion by Alexander McQueen and innovative and elegant designs by Coco Chanel

Now for the giveaway!

To win the bow tie bracelet leave a comment below telling me what is your favorite item from the EFVVA shop. (EFVVA is havin a 50% off on Baby collection - only one week from 06.11-13.11) You already know my favorite item. Or, do you?
Please validate this entry in the tool below, this will unlock possibilities for additional entries. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Ewa, thank you so much for being here!

Speedboating in the rain

Rainy day - but no problem. P has a list of ideas "mommy and me have to make". Like A SPEED BOAT. He wants a speed boat, to ride the sea waves AND he wants to use 'his making kit (Makedo) I wasn't up to huge piles of cardboard yesterday, so I cheated a bit.

A sled, a shoe box, a Trzy Mysy propeller and the inevitable Makedo...and we are off!

WRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!

Wait dad, I don't have a license, you have to drive! We also need a seat-belt.

Let me check out the area for police...and sharks...and submarines (we also had torpedoes in the front of the sled, made out of plastic bottles)

 What's that coming? Is that a whale? No, it is a hippo (?!)

The sun is gone, let me put away my glasses.

The boat is tied to our stairs securely, waiting for the next day.

Finally one grownup refashion project

What does a girl do when her Internet is down the whole day?

Finally SOMETHING!

Her face says all 

Huge thrifted pullover

to a romantic little number.

 

I am happy with what I did, Eva is happy with what she got. Maybe Internet should die on me more often!

Linking to The Train To Crazy