Monthly Archives: October 2010

Giveaway: Oh Hello Dear!

Ooowee! We’ve got a particularly delicious giveaway this week, friends!  Thanks to Etsy gal about town, Carolyne Tillery, we are giving away five of her stunning prints from her Etsy shop, Oh, Hello Dear, at value of $60.

Who is this lovely lady behind the equally lovely art?  Well, growing up,  young Carolyne loved to read vintage children literature, not just for the stories, but for the delightful illustrations of children and animals.   She would spend her afternoons  just staring at the illustrations of Carolyne Haywood, Mary Blair, Hilary Knight, and Gyo Fujikawa to name just a few.  In her spare time, she frequently carried around her favorite children books and a sketch pad so she could sketch from the illustrations. Her beloved mama even held daily “observation time,” where she set aside an hour every day for her and her dear daughter to do nothing but observe and draw from one of their favorite illustrators.   Note to self for future fun with the Peach.  So, it should be no surprise to anyone that Carolyne wanted to grow up and illustrate children’s literature.

Sweet Carolyne went to college and got a Bachelors in Art History (so did I!)  in order to combine her love of art with her obsession with history and dates.  However, she didn’t really draw much then.  Our girl sort of hit a block where she no longer wanted to copy her favorite illustrators, instead, she wanted to be her own illustrator/person!

Fast forward a few years or so, things began to change for our young artistic heroine.  After the birth of her daughter almost three years ago, her love for vintage stories was rekindled as she read her favorite stories and shared their charming illustrations with her wee lass.   It rekindled in Carolyne a new desire to illustrate pictures that would delight her sweet girl.

So, Carolyne spent lots of time practicing, and after her  son was born this past winter, it seemed to her that she finally found my niche andher own delicious and sweet style.

And, she decided to share her beautiful and oh so charming prints on Etsy, at her shop,  Oh Hello Dear.  Her favorite item in her shop is “Favorite Story” because it reminds me of my children.

I know right? Adorable.

OK, now how to get this wonderful one of a kind poster, you can:

  1. Leave a comment (natch)!
  2. Follow Carolyne’s awesome and highly addictive blog, Oh Hello Dear Friends!  Trust, me you’ll want to book mark it and follow it anyway. She has some super cute finds, like this and this.
  3. If you already follow us on twitter, tweet about this giveaway—don’t forget to include @modernkiddo in the tweet please!
  4. “Like” this postie
  5. And super bonus round–vote for us as Top Mommy blog.

If you do all foive you’ll be entered five times. Woot!

Good luck!

Vintage Kiddo Retro Round up!

I know I did a very spooktacular round up of vintage kiddo goodness last week, but there were some sweet goodies for the round-up that would be awesome every day of the week regardless of a holiday.

With the rain coming down this weekend, I sure could have used a pair of these jaunty red boots with with straps to keep the Peach’s little footies nice and dry!  From eBay seller, paradea.

Danielle Thompson loves a good vintage shoe for her boys. So, Danielle, get a load of these multi-colored suede cuties. From eBay seller, Sweetphemera.

This little mod stripey dress is genius, no?  Red and white stripe without looking too holiday is very impressive.  From eBay seller, retro*cool.

Retro cardigans are big in boys fashion right now, and they are based on beauties like this green goodie.  From eBay seller, cowtown’s revenge.

Ooh, this little rose applique faux blouse dress with matching jacket is quite the steal and so charming to boot! From eBay seller, Princesskelvis.

You know boys clothing in bigger sizes are very rare to find. And in good condition, well, that makes it even tougher and this is why this seventies deadstock boys shirt in size 8 is a wonderful find. From eBay seller, rekroom. Oh and psst…. this is one of many boys shirts thiis eBay seller has…

I always have a thing for bunny applique and you must check out this very cheeky bunny vintage overalls.  From Etsy seller, Mother Midnight.

What little kiddo doesn’t love a good choo choo train sweater? Thanks 3 Ring Circus for finding this shirt that would be any little one’s favorite sweater.

Now this might be one of my favorite favorite pieces this week.  A little scarecrow of cuteness on a pretty black and white dress. Perfect late fall dressie to wear, don’t you think?  From our girl Lishyloo.

I love Etsy seller, MidState Vintage for many reason. Like finding these gorgeous little dresses like this one and also with very charming modern styling to go with it.

This looks like something a young Sonja Henning would wear.  Blue velvet hat with white rabbit fur. Squee! Makes me want to take out holiday ornaments. From Etsy seller, Ms. Tips.

Happy Monday!

It’s the Modern Kiddo Costume Parade!

Step right up folks, it’s time for the Modern Kiddo Costume Parade! We said wanted to see yer best homemade costumes—the good, the bad, the semi disastrous. And you delivered! Of course I should have known that Modern Kiddo readers don’t play the Craft Fail game and ya’ll turned it out with some spectacular costumes. Take a look at some of these fantastic creations. Seriously you guys….

Our fave girl Shutterbean’s sweet boy Cooper rockin’ the octopus. Love this!

Cutie brothers Max and Beck got inspired by Where the Wild Things Are and dress up as Moishe and Max. Mama Jenn (The Blueberry Hill) whipped together these amazing costumes. I especially love the Moishe costume! So unique…I’ve never seen one before.

Here is Max all by his lonesome tonight, as a stylin’ Elvis….

I love a good box costume and I’m dying over this picture of Finley as a Mini Cooper:

Sweet little Beatrice Bird makes a darling little lady panda:

And the hills are alive with the sound of cutenesssssss…….Bea as a fetching little Heidi:

Aw, the awesome Baby Olive is sweet as can bee:

And Baby Olive as an adorrrrrrrrrrrrrable pirate! (OK….HOW DID YOU GET HER TO WEAR THE HAT???)

Wolfie’s best bud Miles does the funky robot….woot woot! We hear he’s going as an ANGRY BIRD this year. Love it!

Awww, look at sweet little Baby Pia as a quirky butterfly!

This retro photo of my sweet “blog nephew” Henry as a Pirate melts my heart (Jenny, I can’t believe he’s younger than Wolfie here!)

Oscar is as utterly adorable as Max but it’s his mom Suzy as the BOAT that is EVEN MORE AWESOME:

Everyone was swooning over hipster Billy as our Weekly Kiddo a few weeks ago, check out the rest of his cute family! Billy is a bat, his sis Harriet is one of the Andrew Sisters (!!!! CUTE) and baby Arlo is another sweet take on Max.

Sweet little Oscar and his folks are awesome as the Gnome Family! These smart “no sew” costumes were created  by his cool mama Kate (of Troolie). They all look so cute!

Sayer is another Modern Kiddo sweetie and here he is with his papa Chris as the dynamic Robot duo:

Sayer’s amazing mama Kristin(of klt :: works) hooked him up with this cute costume— Plankton from Sponge Bob. Genius.

Seriously flipping muh wig over Piper as a 50s Diner Twin!!! Those glasses are so fab!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane….it’s SUPER PARKER!!!!! So stinkin’ cute, eh?

Modern Kiddo reader tipped me to the amazing Sarah who made these Woody and Jessie from Toy Story costumes for her and her little boy Max—AMAZING!

People you are going to D-I-E. You loved Miss Sasha as Weekly Kiddo, Here she is with her brother as a wee widdle cow….

But NOW check out the fabulous costume the super creative Inessa came up with for her sweet little girl Sasha (Diaper Style Memoirs). Eddie Munster? Bananas!!!!!! So good.

But how about her papa as Grandpa?? Just as amazing.

And yes, she hand crafted a grown up wig just for the occasion. BRILLIANT!!

I’m exhausted just looking at all that fabulousness. I hope you are inspired to create your own masterpiece this year. And even if you don’t make one by hand, I don’t judge. As we all know my own little Boy Wonder is not a fan of costumes (let’s relive the magic of my pain in last weeks post “When Yer Kiddo Hates Costumes“).

OH! And apparently a lot of you were inspired by my Crazy Vintage Mask post from earlier in the week (over HERE ) because I got some awesome old skool family photos. Like this amazing one from reader Chris:

Awesome reader Marcie as the pink bunny and her friend as a suspicious “Yoda”:

And finally, Modern Kiddo fave, Lishy Loo,  sent in her own vintage kiddo photos. Check out the adorable lil Lishy…but then thrill to the site of her DAD as….um…..honestly I don’t know what the hell he’s supposed to be, but I’m sure diggin’ it!!!

AMAZING STUFF! Hey, if you sent in a photo and don’t see it please let me know! I’ll be happy to add you to the parade!

PS: This late breaking entry just in! One of our fave Kiddo readers RocketGirl just completed an insane hobbit costume for her little cutie Eliza. Nothing beats a toddler with a pipe, friends.

Crafty Minx :: Googley Eye Cupcake Toppers.

I was browsing the adorable blog scrumdilly-do and stumbled upon these super cute googly eye cupcake toppers. The fabulous Jessica graciously let us reprint her tutorial so you could try ’em yourself. These lil suckas are so cute and really easy to make, I think you’ll love ’em.  Take it away Miss Jessica!

Hi everyone! Jessica here. If happiness came in a bag (and it wasn’t chocolate) I do think it may be googly eyes. There is just so much one can do with these little guys. It being fall and all and almost Halloween I think a little extra googly eye fun is in order. Yesterday’s post is a perfect example of how easy it is to play with these kooky things. Today, I want to show you how delightful a pack of eyes, a few toothpics, glue and paper punches or scissors can be. Viola…googly cupcake toppers! So, what are ya waiting for? Whip up a batch of pumpkin cupcakes or gingerbread muffins and while they are baking, let your kidlets loose to make all sorts of spooky-fun toppers. It’s an impromptu party! Yay for Halloween!

MATERIALS
* toothpicks
* scrap paper, printed paper, newspaper
* paint of your choice
* paint brushes
* cup o water
* glue and/or glue stick
* various paper punches or scissors
* googly eyes
* markers (optional)


To make the same style of toppers I made here, set out newspaper or phone book pages and watercolors or other paint and have your wee ones paint away. Set aside to dry and let them give a stir or two to whatever cupcake or muffin you are baking. I made gingerbread cupcakes from this recipe. Make sure to work in an area that is happy for spills and mess, use a splat mat or wax paper to protect your table top if you need to.

Once dry, use a large scallop punch to punch out newspaper shapes, set aside. You can let your kidlets go to town here or you can give your paper a couple of folds and punch out multiples at a time. Use a smaller circular punch to cut out shapes from your printed or scrap paper. A solid page would be better for this but you can use whichever you want. Colored paper would be nice, and/or cardstock. I used an old library brochure.


Use the gluestick on the back of the scalloped circles and sandwich a toothpick between two of the. I found it easier to use a large gluestick and to put the circle on the gluestick rather than glob the gluestick all over the back of the circle. If your tots are going to use the gluestick like a pen, use a sheet of wax paper underneath to prevent extra sticking.

Next up, repeat the gluestick process with the smaller circles, one circle per topper. You can do both sides but you don’t need to.

Finally, use a small dab of glue to anchor a googly eye or two to the center of each paper circles combo (try saying that three times fast). Lay flat to dry.

When cupcakes are cool and yer ready to serve, plop a google-eyed topper into each cake and admire. Yay for impromptu party fun!

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YAHOO LADY JEK! These are adorable.
Friends, Jessica is a talented crafter and photographer and has a super fun Flickr set under Jek-A-Go-Go. You may also remember her super duper cute niece Beatrice Bird who was a Weekly Kiddo! THANK YOU SO MUCH JESSICA!

Real Life :: Chasing Fall into the Apple Orchard

Every year we go to our favorite pumpkin patch at the Western Railway Museum. You take a little vintage train out to the patch and they have bales of hay, games, music and yummy treats. It’s really awesome. But as charming as it is, it’s not reeeeeally a pumpkin patch. They schlep the pumpkins in from somewhere else and you get to cruise around and pick your faves. Don’t get me wrong. I love it. But this year we decided to mix it up and try something a little different.

It all started with me craving a little bit of Autumn. When I left Prague, the weather was like this:

It was full-on fall. Crisp and lovely. My favorite time of year. When I got back to San Francisco, I was thrust back into summer. Our weather is decidedly fickle in September and October. We had a HUGE heat wave with temperature in the steamy 90s. Lemme tell ya, I was not feelin’ it. Who wants to be sweatin’ their butt off in October?? As a result, I have been craving AUTUMN. To help me out, Greg had a great idea. We decided to head towards Tahoe….to an area called APPLE HILL. Apple Hill is a winding scenic road with FIFTY different apple orchards, ranches and pumpkin patches. I was in apple-lovin’ heaven. We decided to pick 3 or 4 to go to. The first spot we hit was one of the most charming: Willow Pond Organic Farm. Super sweet!

Yep. There really was a Willow Pond.

This little farm was an honest to goodness pumpkin patch, with punkins on da vine! I loved it.

Wolfie specializes in picking extra huge punkins.

Of course the other big sell was the sweet  little apple orchard. I love picking apples and drinking cider. My favorite apples are Honeycrisp—which you can only get during a small window in October. They are a little sweet, a little tart and you guessed it…..crisp. Mmmm.

With two pumpkins in hand, we kept on driving. It was a really pretty drive. And while these are redwoods, we DID see lots of trees with changing leaves…and the air was perfectly crisp.

The next place we went to had an awesome corn maze…..and of course more pumpkins. We got two more at this place.

Each apple orchard was different and unique. Some were a little bit of a circus—overcrowded and had more of a cheap carnival vibe. I wasn’t that into those. Neither was Wolfie.

Of course he *was* thrilled to have a little Sno Cone action. I was on the prowl for a caramel apple. Caramel is one of my favorite things and caramel apples? Fuggitaboutit. As a side note, I don’t recommend getting a caramel apple when you go to the movies. I did that one time and it was a mess. I kept trying to eat it quietly and it was all crunchy and juicy….I had to wait for the loud action scenes to take a bite and then it got all dribbly and messy. Yeah. Definitely leave the caramel apple at home.

We finally got back on track and hit the orchards that were more off the beaten path.

You may notice a shirt change on Wolfie. We had a little exploding sno cone action and his tee was a sno-cone mess. Miraculously I found a spare shirt in the back of the van. Yes. I said VAN. I drive a Jetta and Greg rolls the Honda Odyssey. Woot woot!

The last apple farm we went to had a HIGH-larious name. Something like “Ken’s Apples and Laurie’s Dolls”.  We weren’t going to go (the name kind of scared me….I was expecting lots of soft bunny dolls and “kooky” ragdolls) but then we saw these gorgeous flowers and had to pull over.

The dolls were as bad as I expected (L-A-M-E…..sorry Laurie), but the place was really pretty and manicured and Ken turned it out with the apples.

They gave away free apples that were peeled into a curly cue. This was a big hit….

We definitely had a super awesome day…..the guys listened to the GIANTS game on the way home. (GO GIANTS!)

Now to carve the FOUR pumpkins we walked away with…..and make some apple crisp. And come to think of it, I never DID get that caramel apple. Hmmm.

Please swing by later today as we will have a couple of fun (and easy!) crafty posts for ya!