twentythirteen domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/alixndottie/modernkiddo.com/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6170Thanks for everyone’s interest in our fabulous Mini Me Paper Doll giveaway!
The winner is: Melanie of Meli-Mello!
Stay tuned for the next Modern Kiddo giveaway coming up soon. And THANK YOU THANK YOU to our lovely friend Hannah Stevenson of Lily & Thistle for this super charming giveaway set. We heart you AND your adorable dolls lady!
Believe it or not, I’ve never actually met most of the Weekly Kiddos we feature. I think I’ve met, hmmmm, two? Yup. Wolfie and Georgia! (My little sweetie and Dottie’s adorable girlie.) But that’s what makes this feature so much fun—the never ending stream of crazy cute kiddos that appear in my In Box. This week’s lil man is especially fun for me because he belongs to a sweet new bloggie friend. I “met” Kristin back when we were launching Modern Kiddo. Dottie and I were smitten with her shop, klt:works and thought she was sooo talented. As we began to chat I discovered she was also totally sweet, cool and fun AND she was a mama! Her little guy is an awesome little two and half year old named Sayer and he’s our Weekly Kiddo! Lemme tell ya he’s a cutie:
I love this red and white stripey shirt with blue jeans. From our pals at Polarn O. Pyret.
I love that groovy graphic tee Sayer’s sportin’! Those little buses are kee-yoot! It’s also from Polarn O. Pyret!
Sayer loungin’ on all of mama’s rad vintage fabrics. Â (Dottie is drooling over them, to be sure! hee)
The grey thermal is from Alternative Apparel.
Look WHOO WHOO is wearing a charming klt:works owl tee designed by his mama??
This Fore! Axel & Hudson fedora is killing me…..the littlest minstrel with his ukulele! The groovy button up shirt is from Old Navy.
I love Sayer’s caps….totally adorable! This pub cap is from Knuckleheads. (The kitty tee is klt:works, of course!)
Hee hee. Nooooooo Sayer isn’t named for Leo Sayer…..he’s named after artist/photographer Richard Sayer (a good family friend!) but this picture cracked me up!
So Mr. Sayer is a well rounded cutie. He loves music, especially Dan Zanes, Louis Armstrong and lots of Yo Gabba Gabba hits (like Biz Markie, Cornelius and the Aquabats). He’s gotten quite good at the harmonica and also fiddles around on the drums, guitar, and tambourine! Like all red-blooded lads, Sayer is a lover of trains (THOMAS!) and has a penchant for fire engines and garbage trucks.
His mama tells us that Sayer is a big cuddle bug and he loooves to work with her in the studio, where he is an excellent advisor and helper when it comes to organizing her  thread. When snack time rolls around he loves smoothies, Jamba Juice (carrot and orange….hey Sayer, that’s one of my faves too!), yogurt & granola, green grapes and applesauce. Wolfie was extremely pleased to hear Sayer loves tortilla chips and “everything” bagels with cream cheese! He also just got a baby skateboard (RAD!) and loves it—watching the instructional video about 25 times. Hee. Aw yes, safety before shredding, Sayer. I approve! Kristin, thank you so much for sharing this adorable lil man with us!
Today I have a little mix-n-match for you. I love looking at handmade pretties for children but then there is a part of me that gets totally inspired by the slightly trendier, high-fashion boutique lines. Soooooo, why not look at both? Presenting, A Little Bit Country….A Little Bit Rock-n-Roll. First up:
Do you Kinchi? Ooooh but you should! The fabulous Mirjam is the genius behind this adorable line. Mirjam lives in the Netherlands and her style is both seriously cool and totally sustainable. Each charming little garment incorporates vintage fabric, tea towels and the like for a one-of-a-kind treat. We at Modern Kiddo are big fans of using old textiles to create sassy new garments!
I first “met” Mirjam as a Flickr friend where I was transfixed by her adorable photos of her little girl in handmade gorgeousness. One day she posted photos of her garden and I commented on some beautiful holly hock flowers. One thing led to another and next thing I knew, I received a little packet of hollyhock seeds in the mail—straight from her garden! Take a look at these beautiful photos and then head over to the
Kinchi Etsy shop to scoop up these goodies for yourself.
You like??? Oh I KNEW you would. The 1966 Dish Towel Dress is officially BANANARAMA. OK, now lets switch gears and take a little at something totally different but equally cool.
Finger in the Nose was started by Siv-Tone Kverneland, a talented Norwegian living in Paris. She calls her style, “a mouth watering and eclectic combination of French chic and Scandinavian cool” Sounds good to me! Inspired by her little daughter Selma, she wanted to create wonderful clothes that children would fall in love with and mothers would be jealous of. I think she’s off to a great start.
Finger in the Nose is the ultimate hipster clothing line…I’m usually more a fan of kid’s dressing like kids and not like little grown ups but this line is pretty damn cute. The collection is influenced by eighties L.A. (hot!) and was designed to be fashionable but durable. I especially love the boy’s clothes and think they would be great on a slightly older kiddos—with a penchant for struttin’ like a rock star….
These kids are so rockin’, I love ’em. The skinny plaid stove pipe pants above are totally cool….and I love the boy’s in their rad jackets. They just need a micro Vespa like the one I saw at the flea market a few years ago.
So what are you feeling? A Little Bit Country or A Little Bit Rock? I think a healthy mix of both is just what the fashion doctor ordered.
As a little mental health break in the middle of a super stressy day at work, I like to take an online stroll through the aisles of my favorite fabric stores with visions of sweet and easy sundresses for my little Peach.
Earlier this week I made my usual first stop is my tried and true favorite, ReproDepot only to see this sign:
SAY WHA???
Well, after weeping into my keyboard for a few minutes, I remembered that there are other wonderful online fabric stores out there. Don’t get me wrong–I love me a stroll through Joann’s and Beverly’s but sometimes I want to spread my wings and look at those harder to find fabrics by amazing designers that you can usually find in smaller independent boutique stores like the wonderous Purl in Soho or Bolt in Portland. Here are my top online fabric stores:
Alewives Fabrics is a wonderful gem of a store that I would be my first stop on my road trip through Maine (next stop: to get a lobster roll on the way.)
Make sure to check out the Alewives favorites. I particularly love their fat quarter selections–great combos that would be so utterly divine as a little dress or pair of pants.
This is one bar I never mind bellying up to! The Fabric Bar!
Beautifully curated fabric and some amazingly clever DIY kits such as this You Sew Sassy Tessa Dress in Olivia. Damn, that’s genius. And she has some brilliant and very hard to find designer fabrics as well as a swell selection of fabulous twills that would just pop even a store-bought outfit up to eleven. And pssst… there’s even a sales section that is chockablock with good sales right now. Sweet!
Sew Mama Sew is one of my favorites, just for the name alone.
But the site also offers some brilliant patterns and much needed tutorials such as this one focusing on what all those different feet for your sewing machine are for.
And blessings of blessings–they even have an online forum of like minded sewing ladies getting help on some of the most popular patterns around.
When I’m craving Japanese (fabric that is) I head over straight to Superbuzzy.
Oh, this site kills me.
It has seven different matryoshka doll patterned fabrics. Seven! Unbelievable. You come for the fabric but stay for all the other goodies like the Zakka & gifts section. like the ecrulat sewing kit. Bookmark this page for stocking stuffers–you’ll thank me later.
(BTW: According to Wikipedia, Zakka is a fashion and design phenomenon that has spread from Japan throughout Asia. The term refers to everything and anything that improves your home, life and appearance. It is often based on household items from the West that are regarded as kitsch in their countries of origin, but it can also be Japanese goods, mainly from the fifties, sixties, and seventies.)
My last recommendation should come as no surprise to anyone–Etsy. Etsy has too many amazing fabric sellers, but right now I’m crushing on a Fabric Outlet, who I believe has the last half yard of Anna Maria Horner oilcloth. Oh the baby goodies I could make with that! And this seller also has a quite snazzy selection of fat quarter bundles for you to run your e-hands all over.
And what are yours? Let’s share!
OH! Pssst…. We are going to extend our wonderful Mini-Me Paper Doll giveaway a bit longer–you have until tonight at midnight to enter. And remember you can enter again if you tweet it or mention it on Facebook. Saweet!
Oh Wednesday, I love you so because it’s time for:
And let’s spend some time in the nursery today, shall we? What is a nursery without a sweet little mobile for baby to stare up at in wonder? And there are soooo many good ones out there that you can find the perfect one to match your nursery decor. And did you know that mobiles are good for your baby? Not only can they helplittle ones’ eyes to focus, but it keeps them on their backs, which is believed to help prevent SIDS. See—design can save lives!
So, let’s take a look at some of the mobile marvels out there today!
You just can’t help but love a good modern mobile. It’s a great investment that extends past the toddler years to college and beyond. Especially if it is a gorg as this wooden one of abstract birds from Bookhou.
The Peach is obsessed with kitties. But wouldn’t any baby be if they had this glorious kitty cat mobile made by Modern Kiddo fav klt:works? Nuff said. Actually I have more to say. I love how Kristien (the K of klt:works)Â uses her sewing machine stitching as cat whiskers. It’s purrfect! (Sorry, I couldn’t help mahself!)
You all are familiar with the wonderful Bla bla plushies like the owl, the mermaid or even the little kitty. Well, take a gander at this bit of Blabla awesomeness: the Blabla Grand Chicken mobile. This is just so deliciously cozy and yummy and oh, I love it!
It’s just too much. One chicken has a scarf on. Another a little hat. Hey wait, is that chicken wearing a headscarf? Be still my heart. Would it be wrong to buy this for myself and hang it in my office at work?
Petit collage mobiles are hugely popular especially the owl one. But check out this wonderful folk farm friends mobile by our friends at Petit Collage. I particularly love the Swedish horse.
Let your little ones have dreams of little bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest with this dear bunny mobile. The different grays are just wonderful and add a little bit of the abstract into something so sweet.
That bunny mobile is a Flensted, a Danish brand that has been around for 50 plus years and is considered by many to be the grand dame of mobiles (after Calder, natch!) Check out these popular Flensted mobiles. The fish is a classic that would look great anywhere in your house as well as in the nursery. I love the chicken one too. You can purchase these Flensted mobiles at BabyGeared.
I love Plan Toys and was delighted to hear that the company has a great wooden mobile that continues the company’s goal of creating beautiful toys made of natural, chemical free recycled rubberwood and finished with non-toxic water based dye. And the primary colors are just the ticket to keep your little one staring up.
Portland artist, Heather Frasier makes these floaty bits of goodness using cut shapes that are strung on clear, sturdy string and hang from a thin, clear acrylic disc so they just float over the baby’s head. You can find these Heather Frasier mobiles here.
As you know we love Etsy something fierce here at Modern Kiddo—and they didn’t disappoint when I went mobile hunting. Like this great bird mobile that uses real branches for the wee cloth birds to sit on.
Tissue pom pom mobiles are wonderful above the crib. They add this great otherworldly feeling and are a good choice for nervous mamas that don’t like to hang anything remotely heavy over their little one’s cribs.
I love this mod trees mobile. The Etsy seller, Molly Anne Make also created a matching set of goodies that could extend the cuteness of the mod trees throughout the nursery.
But of course this is the tip of the iceberg for mobiles. I used a vintage Irmi one and it broke my heart when I found the Peach standing in her crib manhandling the heck out of it. Naughty girl! Sigh. I still might hang it over her bed because I love it so.