Category Archives: Best of Modern Kiddo

The Colorful World of Alexander Girard.

Graphic, bold, playful, fun….we are big fans of Alexander Girard over here! His work has a childlike simpleness but is also rather sophisticated. As we embark on our Month of Color, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of his awesomeness.

Alexander (“Sandro”) Girard was born in New York City in 1907 and was an influential figure in post-war American design. Girard was head of textile division at the renowned Herman Miller furniture company and worked closely with his dear friends Charles & Ray Eames and George Nelson. (Now *there’s* a dinner party I’d love to be invited to!)

Alexander Girard’s playful patterns and bright colors were a breath of fresh air into the otherwise stodgy and often colorless domestic world of post-war America. Drawing inspiration from folk art — Girard’s personal collection reached some 100,000 items — he brought a dimension of taste and color to his work with Herman Miller and their other design leaders, George Nelson and Charles Eames. Today, Girard’s fabric designs are timeless expressions of charm, wit, and originality.

(from Herman Miller.com)

An avid world traveler, Girard’s designs always reflected his love of festive colours and patterns and influences from around the globe. You might remember this post I did a while back on airlines of the 1960s. Alexander Girard was responsible for revamping Braniff Airlines, launching an amazing campaign called the “End of the Plain Plane.”

He redid their entire identity…from airport lounges and plane interiors (orange and pink seats, anyone?) and even painted all the jets in bright candy colors. He also infamously hired Emilio Pucci to redesign all the flight attendants uniforms!

Yep. This was a man who had a fine appreciation for color! Sadly he passed away in 1993, but his legacy and passion lives on! There have been many awesome re-releases of his artwork. Here’s how you can add a little Alexander Girard into you (and your kiddo’s!) life.

MEMORY GAME + BLOCKS

The always awesome House Industries has partnered with the Girard Estate and released some amazing pieces featuring Alexander Girard’s artwork. The memory game is one of my favorites! He originally created the colorful images as environmental “enrichment panels” that were designed to spice up the Herman Miller offices. Each game comes with 72 pieces and a limited-edition wooden box. Buy one here. The building blocks are also colorful and fun (and printed with non-toxic, kiddo-safe inks). AND then a little something for mama…..they also have an amazing collection of Gerard-inspired fonts. Me want!

THE CUTEST GROWTH CHART.

Pincushion has taken some of his most iconic designs and put them on five fantastic growth charts! These are so great and would look pretty fab in any wall on your house. {They won’t be for sale til June/July, but you can pre-order one here.)

SIMPLY AWESOME TRAY.

The Vitra Museum has released some of his artwork on these super snazzy serving trays. Score this sweet Alexander Girard Mother + Child Serving Tray here.

ADORABLE BOARD BOOK….ABOUT COLOR!


image: alison moore

This adorable chunky board book celebrates the vivid, playful, and sophisticated world of Alexander Girard (the cover features the vintage 1972 illustration “Girls” and there are 26 other classic Girard designs inside). Get a copy of Alexander Girard Color, here.

So there you have it. His work just makes me smile! And has me dreaming of a more colorful and fun airport….

 

My favorite vintage car? Easy. The metropolitan!


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The year was 1950 and cars were big, bold and beautiful. Fins? Got ’em! White wall tires? No problem! Which was what made the decision of the Nash Motor Corporation to concept a smaller “mini” car so revolutionary. For this very reason they decided they would test their idea first by creating a questionnaire brochure called a “surview” to gauge public interest. The brochure would show pictures of a prototype concept car, based on a design by auto designer William Flajole. It even included a postage-paid envelope for people to return their opinions on the car.


The survey was a hit! And as a result, one of the cutest little cars to ever roll off the assembly line was introduced to the public.

Can you even believe how cute this thing is?? It came in a sweet little two-toned version and even a convertible. Of course this strikingly cute car was popular. Even Nancy Drew, intrepid girl detective, drove a Nash Metropolitan!

With sparkling new power?? Sign me up!

I’m especially amazed by this prototype for the future they created, the Metropolitan “Astra-Gnome,” which was exhibited at the 1956 International Auto Show in New York. This bad boy was cooooool.  It was even featured on the September 3, 1956 cover of Newsweek magazine.

Alas it was only a concept car and never produced. The actual protoype still exists at the Metropolitan Pit Stop museum (see it here!). You can still see Metropolitans out on the road. (Remember, I saw one the other day!) Like look at this adorable police car? (Takes the sting outta getting pulled over….)

And this custom station wagon. LOVE IT! They never actually produced a station wagon version of the Metropolitan (well, they made two prototypes). If you ever see one, they were usually a sedan that was tricked out.


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So there she is! The beautiful Metropolitan. She’s one of my favorite cars. And I just found out she was Steve Job’s first car too. Is she your new favorite too??


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Kiddo Fieldtrip :: San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers

 

A few weeks ago (actually over President’s Day weekend) Eric and I took the Peach to the Conservatory of Flowers, because they had an amazingly fun exhibit for kids, based on San Francisco’s famous boardwalk, Playland by the Sea.  The popular amusement park, Playland by the Sea, was a mainstay in San Francisco from Victorian Times until 1972 when it closed. Although the amusement park has been dismantled and scattered across San Francisco–like the famous carousel is in Yerba Buena Garden, Playland by the Sea still looms large in San Francisco lore.  and it was the perfect inspiration for the wonderful floral exhibit at the Conservatory of Flowers.

This was my first time to the Conservatory of Flowers and it was divine! And the exhibit–well, it took my breath away. And I know the Peach loved it too.

The exhibit also featured a few bits beyond the flowers–like these wonderful fun house mirrors, which the Peach loved.

Just walking into the room and seeing the original Playland sign was pretty impressive. Look at those awesome As!

 

The exhibit also included one of the original bumper cars from the popular ride. I think that was the Peach’s favorite.

The flower exhibit wasn’t just a staid arrangement, but had these buttons that kiddos could easily push to make the trains go or the carousel turn.  Too much fun!

What really made the exhibit particularly wonderful is that all of the structures were made from products that would have ended up in a landfill if it weren’t for the upcycling.

And it was so fun to see San Francisco landmarks that we all know and love.

We spent almost two hours there watching the Peach run around the room having a blast. It reminded me of my childhood trips to the Philadelphia Flower Show with my Dad years ago.  And it made me feel like spring was around the corner.  Perfect for this time of year.

After we left the conservatory, we headed to Cole Valley and  San Francisco’s new Ice Cream Bar. Eric had this insane milk shake and the Peach’s favorite strawberry wasn’t available, so she enjoyed a little cherry ice cream.

The best part was that we were able to make it back for the Peach’s 2:30 nap!  As you can imagine, she was pretty tuckered out from her full day of fun.  I think this may be our new spring tradition. Do you have any spring traditions?

 

 

The Peach’s Balloon Birthday Party

Hoo boy!  I’m exhausted just remembering this party.

Since we invested most of the Peach’s birthday funds into a new play house, we were determined not to spend a lot of money on her party.  I set the budget at $50, so the mantra for the party was Cheap and Cheerful!  We ditched the idea of having helium balloons since that was too spendy for us.  Instead Eric and I watched a few YouTube videos and learned how to make balloon dogs, swords and flowers.  Perfect! Manned with only $20 I headed to the party store and left with cheap plain party hats, some kinda weird ruffly edging stuff and bag of biodegradable balloons.

I used water balloons at $1.39 for a pack of 60 to make a balloon banner which was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest.

I loved the idea of kids running around in fun and fancy party hats! So I jazzed up these plain jane hats with some white sticker dots I picked up from an office supply store and some leftover washi tape I bought last year from Paper Source. And I used that super cheap paper mache rainbow stuff to edge the bottoms of the hats. I did it in less than an hour, while watching Parks & Recreation and 30 Rock.

I gotta say the kids loved ’em and wore the heck out of ’em!

And the last balloon accent to this party was this nutty idea I had to create little balloon doggie stuffed animals.  After two weeks of trial, I made some cute little friends as giveaways for the kiddos.  I made them out of lycra scraps which cost no more than $15 all together.

And the kids loved ’em! AS you can imagine, Molly here took the yellow one…

I must admit, the Peach was tickled pink with her little play house. And a lot of the party action happened outside in the play house.  Please note–Miss Peach picked out her entire outfit herself including her boots!

And everyone loved the balloons!

The Peach had a very specific menu she wanted: lemonade, pizza and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles. DONE! In fact, she was so tickled pink with her cupcakes that she just grabbed one and started eating it without a candle so we had to start singing “Happy Birthday” as she nommed away.

But what the Peach really enjoyed more than anything else was playing with her friends!

You always worry a bit about how your little kiddo will respond to hanging with a bunch of kids. Some she knew well and some were children of my friends that she sees maybe every six months. And I must say there were several times I beamed with pride over my little girl’s inherent goodness.  Miss Peach was drinking her lemonade when another little girl came up to her and said she was thirsty.  Miss Peach immediately took her little tea cup of lemonade from her own lips and raised the cup up to the little girl’s lips to drink.  Outside, some of the older girls had commandeered the playhouse and wouldn’t let little Finn in. He came crying over to the Peach, who immediately took his hand and marched over to the playhouse, knocked on the door and demanded those big girls play with Finn. Attagirl!  No “How not to be a mean girl” classes for you!

As you can imagine we tucked in be a very happy albeit very tired little three year old into her bed last night.

“Cheap and Cheerful” can still produce some pretty priceless memories!

Loving The Fisher Price Castle.

Oh you magical year of 1974. Episodes of Kojak and The Six Million Dollar Man filled the screens of TVs across the country. The Godfather Part 2 and The Sting were playing at the local movie theater. Abba and Supertramp were groovin’ on the stereo. And Fisher Price rocked our world, releasing the most awesome castle ever to grace a play room. My brother and I had this glorious thang and had SO MUCH fun playing with it. Thankfully my mama saved it and every time we visit them, I can’t resist bringing it out to play around with.

Here’s the thing. The Fisher Price Play Family Castle 993 had SO MANY cool little features. Like a fun, clackety clack draw bridge. And a secret trap door that dropped unsuspecting visitors into the moat below.

And the cool stair case that opened up to reveal a hidden chamber.

Then there was the dragon’s lair—and the sweet little pink dragon that lived there.

In addition to the King and Queen and the little prince and princess, you also got two snazzy horses, a carriage, a knight and a cool huntsman (that looked suspiciously like Robin Hood).

Isn’t it awesome? The best part, of course, is that in true 70s fashion….this castle is perfect for boys OR girls with nary a piece of glitter sparkle or  pink in site. Well, except for that cheeky dragon.

final images:  1, 2 and 3

Want to nab a Fisher Price Castle for your little royal? Find them here.