Vintage Kiddo :: The 70s Retro Playground.

Best of Alix, Vintage Childhood, Vintage Kiddo Photos, ,

As you guys all pretty much know by now, I am crazy about the 60s and 70s. I kind of thought I’d seen and remembered it all, until a friend sent me a few photos of a playground that still had swings and slides from the 1970s. And lawdy did it ever take me back! I had TOTALLY forgotten about most of these, but seeing them again made me smile. I know they don’t make them like this anymore for fear of accidents (the metal designs are begging for injuries) but at the same time it makes me a tad sad that we are a generation who bubble wraps their kids. Look HOW MUCH FUN these things are….I am especially fond of the rocket ships and space themed playgrounds. Just think how many space missions went down on these cool things:



And what kid didn’t want to spin around at a zillion miles an hour on one of these dealies??

Aw, look at these guys. I ask you, what’s wrong with them? They’re totally cute. So much more fun than the plasticky stuff on playgrounds today.


Oooh, yeowtch! Remember sliding down one of these babies on a hot hot day?? Yeah. Butt burner for sure.

OK, who came up with this one? The sliding wall of doom. [“Frank, got an excellent idea for down at the playground. We take a 10-foot tall piece of metal, stick it on an angle and let that sucker bake in the hot afternoon sun. The kid’s will love it!”]  I guess it was still pretty fun—when it wasn’t giving you burns on your hands or blinding the hell outta you.

I vaguely remember these McDonalds playgrounds—pretty hilarious. Love the Big Mac police guy climber dealie. And the Mayor McCheese spinner was the best! For some reason these seem way less germ-laden then the current McPlayhouses I see. I’m sure it’s all in my imagination, but still…

OK I don’t know what the hell this thing is….and even I have to admit it looks like it’ll slice yer head off:

Ahh, the ol orange juicer!  How I loved these!

The capper, however is this guy. WOWZA! Never tangoed with him on the playground, but imagine how cool it would have been??

Oh Giganta, how we miss ya. Do you guys have modern playgrounds in your area or are there still some remnants of the glory days??

IMAGES: Props to scotamus on Flickr, who has THE BEST vintage playground photos, please check him out.
And thank you to neatocoolville for the groovy MickyDees shot.

Vintage Kiddo Retro Round Up.

Kiddo Style: Vintage,

Whew! That weekend just blew past. I thought I was going to spend it playing “Mommy jungle gym” which is basically me passed out on the living room floor as the Peach climbs all over me.  But instead it was chock-full of giggling, biking to breakfast, tag sale shoppinghanging with friends, seeing new babies, making this insanely good and insanely easy carnitas and finally seeing HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. But I did manage to take a little stroll down the eBay and Etsy aisle for some good ole fashion e-thrifting and wanted to share the best with you, my fellow vintage kiddo clothing junkies.   Awww YEAH! So, sit back, grab a cup of ice tea and let’s get to it, shall we?

Let’s start out with a true goodie.  Who doesn’t love a sassy plaid pony? And be- still my heart–with a googly eye! Why we do, of course? This is a snappy little vintage number with tags from “Cute Togs of New Orleans”. And it was originally priced at $108 according to its mid century price tag, so the $25 starting bid is pretty darn decent if you ask me!

With the summer still full of potential visits to the beach, I had to share this darling little orange anchor-covered swimsuit with the snazzy ties up front. Fancy!  I am certainly going to keep eBay seller Retro-fitgoods on my list for future buys.

And I can’t leave the boys out when it comes to swim-suits. Get a load of this cup of cuteness in the form of sun-spackled swim trunks. And a little button cute metal life saver for this belt buckle. I think my head just exploded from the kootness overload. From Etsy seller MissUFO.

I know my gal Alix always digs a good sailor-inspired outfit, so this one is dedicated to her…Straight off the good ship lollipop, this jaunty lil sailor number is full of 1940s retro pep. But at the same time I could see kicking it with a cardi and cool keds too.  And once again, big girl size of 8/10 and in beautiful condition to boot. From one of my new favorite vintage Etsy friends MidState Vintage.

I’m in love with these little shorts with a most charming jazz band refugee on the leg–tooting away on his clarinet to the delight of the wearer and everyone else around him. From Etsy seller, almalou.

Oh. My. Word. This is stupendous. And it’s in an elusive bigger girl size. It is a vinyl. vintage. go-go skirt. Roughly size 6-7. Although it looks nicely broken in, you know the little girl that was lucky enough to wear this was in Brady Bunch heaven and had matching white vinyl go-go boots to match. Yes, it is that awesome.  And it is $9.99. From eBay seller, Bibliowhizz.

I guess it is never too early to introduce your kids to those wonderful lifetime sports like tennis. You can get them started with this tennis whites-inspired onesie that will certainly separate your little gent from the hoi polloi. Tee hee!  From Etsy seller Prairie Path Vintage.

Sometimes you just need to call a spade a spade. Or in this case a rodeo a rodeo as it is called out on this terrific dark denim rodeo vest from our gal pal Miss Lish from Lishyloo. An easy addition to any boy’s (or for that matter girl’s) outfit.  Vests are so underrated, don’t you think? Unless your a certain young trick or treater named Wolfie…

The Peach has a head full of cowlicks which means that seconds after running a brush through her floaty blonde locks,  she looks like she walked through a wind tunnel. So barettes are certainly going to feature into her style in the near future as soon as she gets out of her fun “chockable” stage. But these vintage barrettes from the 1950s from Ebay seller antiquables are so cute that you just want to buy them anyway and put them again for future use.  I mean look at that swan one alone!

But before a bid you all adieu on this fine Monday, I leave you with this. But first some back story.

When I was a little girl, I was completely obsessed with my cousin Cheryl’s white rabbit fur hand muff–it was the stuff of dreams, I loved it so much. But I don’t know how I feel about the doll head fur muff from eBay seller fantasticfinds828.  It looks to be more the stuff of nightmares.  There is something so Freudianly wrong with it, but I can’t put my finger on it.  Gentle readers–any thoughts?

Tee hee! Happy Monday!

Modern Kiddo Odds and Ends.

Uncategorized

Hi friends! Just a few little things I wanted to tell ya:

1. DRAW! PILGRIM GIVEAWAY ENDS TONIGHT! $50 GIFT CERTIFICATE!

We are soooo happy to have a $50 Gift Certificate for Draw! Pilgrim’s shop as our latest giveaway. She is a genius graphic designer and her prints and cards are sooooo cute. If you love retro 60s/70s graphics, you’ll love her.  ENTER HERE BY MIDNIGHT PST TONIGHT!

2. ROOT FOR THE CUTE!

I kind of hate pimpin’ ourselves out….buuuuuuut I’m going to do just that. We have been nominated for a SocialLuxe award (Best Eye Candy, doncha know!) and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Can you take a sec to vote for us?? VOTE HERE. (I should tell ya that this one does require you to verify you are a real person and you’ll have to click a link they email to confirm. ) Voting ends July 11 (and you can vote once  a day!).

“What do you think the boy should do?” “Why Miss Alix, I think he should VOTE VOTE VOTE for Modern Kiddo!”

Aw shucks. That *is* polite!

3. UM, VOTE ONE MORE TIME PRETTY PLEASE??

OK, last one, I promise. So we’ve been on the Top Mommy Blog listing (we were #1 Style/fashion blog…whoo hoo!) but they have re-calibrated the listings (as they do a few times a year) and alas….we are back on the bottom end of the list. And it’s a little sad and lonely down there! This one is even easier to vote for. You can click that sassy brown “Top Mommy Blogs” button on the right or just click RIGHT HERE and then click the “Click to Vote” link.  It literally takes less than 10 seconds. Unless, you know, you are on some old skool dial up business. You can vote once a day. YAY! You are THEE best!

4. REAL LIFE, BABY!

So this week you might have noticed that Dottie and I each posted about something more personal (La Dotser wrote about her awesome bike ride and I wrote about our super fun but hot-as-hell 4th of July). It’s a new feature we are trying out called “Real Life”. We did it once before when I posted about taking Wolfie to the SF MOMA and ya’ll seemed to like it. So we thought this could be a fun way to get to know Dottie and myself a lil’ better! We hope you guys dig it…

5. SPEAKING OF YOU….

It sounds cheesey, but we really DO care what you guys think and love getting feedback or suggestions from ya. You can always email us a hot tip at Alix[at] modernkiddo .com or Dottie[at] modernkiddo .com. And if you are feeling bashful, we have this super short poll you can take (seriously if it takes you longer than 2 minutes I’ll send you some cookies, mmmkay? It says 5 on the poll but seriously ya’ll, the questions ain’t that deep and they’re multiple choice!).

CLICK HERE to take the poll! YAY!

You are THEE BEST, my lovely readers. Have a rockin’ weekend.

Meet Cam! Our Weekly Kiddo.

Weekly Kiddos, ,

Happy Friday everyone.  Let’s just jump right in, shall we? This week we have the adorable Campbell. Oh little Campbell, what a cutie you are! We don’t get that many boy submissions for Weekly Kiddo (hint hint, ye momma’s of boys) but when we do they are CUTE as can be. This little man lives hails from Hotlanta and is a big boy at 3 years old. His mama is the super lovely Danielle of Thompson Family Blog—a fantastic bloggie filled with gorgeous photos and boat loads of inspiration. She is wildly creative so it’s no surprise that her little guy dresses amazingly. These first two photos are from when he was a liddle kiddo, but he was so stylin’ I just had to show ya. Let’s begin!


This rockin’ jumper ensemble is from  Etsy seller Katrina Kaye. That little tufty of hair kills me!


How cute is this look? Just like Cam’s mama, we’re big fans of the Scandinavian inspired prints from Smafolk at Ittikid.


This adorable retro-repro Beatles shirt came from our fave big brand, Target.


A few weeks ago we did a designer spotlight on the amazing Mirjam of  Kinchi so I was thrilled to see Cam sportin’ the Kinchi too!

How cute is this kiddo??

I fell in love with this little shirt—it’s rather reminiscent of one of my fave Euro brands, Oilily. How cool to find out this came from Etsy seller Little Overcoat and is entirely recycled and reworked. Fabulous! The sweet fedora style hat is from Target (men’s dept.). Wolfie has a bunch of hats from the grownup dept too—what can I say, he’s got a big ol noggin’ just like his mama!


Aw, the littlest cowpoke is wearing a totally vintage cowboy outfit. LOVE THIS! His dashing big brother Cooper is making a guest appearance as Harry Potter. Danielle, your boys are too much fun….so cute!

Aw, here is the lovely Danielle with her little man. Such a sweet pair.

Danielle tells us that Cam is a total sweetie. He is really into playing with toys like cars and animals, but his absolute favorite these days are trains—especially Thomas the Tank Engine. When snack time rolls around his favorites are chocolate and popsicles. Cam is very close to his big brother and loves to run around and laugh with him. It’s pretty clear this is one sweet little boy. Cam, we luv ya!

Dottie's Kraft Korner: Summer Crafting for Kids.

Art + Design, Crafts + DIY, ,

“MAAAAHHHMMMM… I’m bored.”

Are there more nerve-wracking words to be uttered by a child?  I think not!

This of course is usually said in a very nasal voice on a very rainy day after every jigsaw puzzle in the house has been finished, the stack of World Magazines have been read cover to cover, and the only thing on TV is marathon of Inside the Actor’s Studio.

What to do? Well, CRAFT of course!

I’ve rounded up a few dandy kiddo crafts that would keep your wee one busy for perhaps an hour or two. And allow you a bit of free time to attack your own crafts or take well deserved nap. Oh, that sounds so great, doesn’t it? Or get a massage. Or get a mani/pedi while getting a massage. A girl can dream.

I remember picking up stones on walks as a kid.  Usually that was the extent of the fun. But oho–not if you take this very clever idea from Maya at Maya Made, who has this grand tutorial on making these stone dolls. Aren’t they adorable?

Our darling Allison over at Petit Elephant shared her dandy recipe for making sidewalk paint that looks so cool and easy that I might have to try it out for myself, regardless that the Peach can’t even hold a paint brush yet.

If ever there was a time to make a fancy fan, it would be during this heatwave back east. And this pretty fan tutorial looks so easy and breezy from Zakka Life.  Heck, you could prolly make enough for the whole family even. I’m sure they would appreciate that. And perhaps you can eat all of the popsicles needed to create it as well to cool you down, eh?

Sometimes, you gotta go old school and return to your own childhood for some of the best craft gems out there, like the old turn-the-milk-carton-into-a-birdfeeder trick.  No hot tub time machine needed for this blast from the past. But it still is great today because it involves recycling something that would be landfill and turning it into something that helps nourish wildlife. I like this version with the Moorish architecture undertones.  And this version with the little shingled top is so button cute.

This last craft might need some parental guidance, but it  just begs to be done for summer.  Make your own fishing poles from Imagine Childhood by way of the Crafty Crow.  Hmmm… looks like you have to drink a bottle of champagne to get that cork.  The things you do for your child…

So, even if rain isn’t in sight yet (as much as it is begged for like it is back East right now) just remember these craft goodies for later in the summer when you hear those dreaded words…