We all like wood toys, because, then, we can at least leave them out, show them off & not hide them like the plastics. Maybe that's an impractical perfect toy world?
Whatever the case, David Weeks' wood toy objects are not only amazing design-wise, but eco-friendly (made of sustainable beech wood) and non-toxic as well . Again, check to see if the plastics can say this!
And while the David Weeks' toy objects are not intended for small children (as all the small parts move & twist and could potentially pinch!) an older child would have a grand time twisting & turning Ursa or Cubebot. Also: dignified bookshelf decor?
The pricetags are not cheap, though you can bring a small Cubebot home for a teeny $25.
Shop David Weeks!
Happy Groundhog's Day!
All these blizzards & otherwise chilly weather & Groundhog-ish bits make you want to ... cozy up. At least for a few more weeks.
Top selling cozy items you wonder? Elks & Angels.
The Snuggle Pod.
The Snuggle Bear.
And... more! Shop now.
Thoughtful, luxurious, heirloom quality.
Designed by Noel Wiggins, these beautiful baby rattles are hand-tuned to sixteen tones and are available in gold, silver or hematite as well as 3 distinguished shapes.
My favorite is the Elongated rattle in hematite (above, back left).
I know a baby who would like one!
Shop Noel Wiggins!
Happy Monday!
This week's Gift Grab: 10% off the cozy wonder of Kata Golda's selection of felted wool gifts & toys. Each piece is hand crafted with the comforting look of yesteryear. The Gift Grab sale ends Sunday, December 12th, Midnight PST
Cozy! Click to shop Kata Golda.
Blocks & PlayShapes designed by Zoe Miller & David Goodman = Millergoodman = open creative play for children and adults! Did you play with blocks as a kid?
If you are wanting to give an extra special, thoughtfully artish gift, think PlayShapes! Playshapes are a modular set of 74 geometric wooden pieces can be endlessly arranged or stacked to produce hundreds of 3D creations, and can also be used as drawing templates.
Millergoodman is a part of the Holiday Forest Finds & would make a swell gift for the whole family.
Shop Millergoodman!
Happy Monday! Last week's Elks & Angels Gift Grab sale is now over! You can still shop their fantastic new collection, here.
What's up for week #3 of the f&f Holiday Gift Grabs? 10% off Brinca Dada's extraordinary (doll)house & furniture of your dreams! Brinca Dada is for the design minded parents with fun minded.... kids. Move your child's imagination into the Brinca Dada Emerson House & coordinating set of Classic Contemporary Furniture. Full of amazing-ness.
The Brinca Dada Gift Grab Sale ends Sunday, December 5th, Midnight PST. Get grabbing!
Happy Monday! Last week's barley & birch Gift Grab sale is now over! You can still shop their fantastic new collection, here.
What's up for week #2 of the f&f Holiday Gift Grabs? 10% off Elks & Angels' luxurious line of pure Australian sheepskin wares for the little ones. Elks & Angels is an emerging company, founded by Australian born Janet Kennedy Ault, who has debuted with a very.... cozy collection - featuring Snuggle Pods, Rugs, Slippers as well as the top gift pick, the Snuggle Bear.
The Elks & Angels sale ends Sunday, November 28th at midnight, PST. Shop the Grab Bag now!
products featured in this note... [click to expand]
kalon studios hut hut - wood
as low as $1,595.00
kalon studios hut hut - resin 5 colors
$125.00
Look! We recently updated KLT Works line of clothing & home accessories and have added some fantastic new products.
What's new? Marvelous screen printed mobiles featuring KLT Work's iconic imagery. I find the Woodland Creatures Mobile hard to resist, how about you?!
KLT Works has not forgotten our favorite domestic animals with their cute kitty and dog tees & one pieces as well as Mini-Plush Dogs, shown above, right.
All screen-printed images are from Kristin Loffer Theiss' original drawings in thread which she creates using free-motion sewing. So creative!
Click here to shop the entire KLT Works collection.
Summertime is in full swing. Parties out on the lawn. Kids running recklessly with popsicle. Time spent together. July & August's Forest Finds hit the spot, handpicked to take you through the lovelyness of Summer.
Party? With the Acme Party Box Company throwing a party has never been so... thoughtful, simple & chic! Not only do they have a fantastic selection of colorways & themes, Acme's party goods selection is amazing as well -- from full on party kits to buntings, table runners & crowns.
Fresh Scoop! KLT Works has been a part of fawn&forest for over 2 years. This month I'm excited to bring you all the latest & greatest from Kristin Loffer Theiss including her new mobiles, softies & tees. A real Forest Find...
Kinderville... ah-ha! Perfect for summertime, treats & little hands. Kinderville's silicone Ice Pop molds allow you & the littles to make homemade push-up pops. What could be more fun?
To shop the July & August Forest Finds, click here.
Just in time for Summer, P'kolino! Creativity bursts! Kid-sized play tables & art easels by P’kolino help kids tackle all their projects at an affordable price.
Other favorites? The Clothes Tree (above, middle) and the cozy Little Reader Chair.
To shop P'kolino, click here.
Affordable toys don't have to make your family room look like a daycare! Meet Kid O toys. Affordable (ranging in price of $10 to $14 with the blocks starting at $44), interesting (fractions! color matching!) and gooooood lookin'.
All Kid O toys are made of sustainable wood (even the books!) with non-toxic finishes and meet all USA and European safety standards.
Fun!
Today's project: wrapping paper... it is so fun to make!
Here's how to make wrapping paper with a potato stamp:
1. gather your children.
2. gather some paper (recycled newsprint, brown paper bags, kraft paper...anything that's large enough to wrap gifts)
3. gather paint. acrylic, washable paint is best. i'm keeping with the red/aqua theme and used aqua paint.
4. gather the potatoes.
5. learn how to make a potato stamp here.
6. using the potato stamp, print onto paper. children love the printing part, obviously... so let them have at it!
7. let dry! wrap!
Today's pick are an adorable clique of fabric dolls by Sophie & Lili - fun to play with and quite cozy on your little girl's bed.
Nothing quite like making a mess in the kitchen with your little ones as you bake cookies together. Children are excellent cookie makers (and eaters!).... which makes for an excellent weekend project.
Recipes? I'm a big fan of Heidi Swanson's cookie recipes, view here. We always seem to make a big batch of Grammy's Chocolate cookies and be sure to take a look at Smitten Kitchen's collection of cookie recipes. Yum!
The boys & I made the chocolate cookies (pictured above) from the book Babycakes -- wheat & gluten free (if you're interested.) They were amaaaaaaazing.
Today's pick will help keep the little bakers clean, a Dwellstudio coated apron which is available in a variety of different patterns.
Have a wonderfully cozy weekend!
Oh, delight! I truly love curating each month of the Forest Finds. For November I was inspired by materials.
The wool felt of the Little Red Caboose crowns and organic cotton & buckwheat in Honeydumpling's mats, pillows & blankets. All natural & non-toxic art supplies by Clementine Art! Thoughtfully deigned & non-toxic wood baby rattles by Timbur and colorful, fun paper placemats by Hello Hanna.
Have a wonderful weekend & enjoy your loved ones.
fawn&forest is excited to be included in Instyle Magazine's "Best of the Web" --as one of their favorite websites for shopping. Excellent!
Here's what they said about fawn&forest:
"Gorgeous and Green: Even if the goods wern't enviromentally legit, we'd still flip for this adorable collection of kid stuff."
Check out the November 2009 issue of Instyle to read all about it & get an exclusive 10% discount code.
Happy Friday! Just in: wood teething toys from Little Alouette. How awesome are they? I am totally loving the butterfly (pictured right). The babies, they will love these too.
NOW through the end of July all 10 Grain goodies are 20% off! That ..... is a fun sale.
My fav? Log Rocker. Turn it upsidedown and lay your kid inside -- just like a taco shell.
Fresh from the land of Switzerland, a bundle of fantastic new toys from Naef!
Naef is not messin' around + quite possibly may be older than your Granny! Naef was founded in 1954 by Kurt Naef and uses only high-quality woods from environmentally-friendly plantations in Europe.
And: "Naef play objects are fascinating because they function with clockwork precision. If the edges of a wooden brick are not manufactured to a fraction of a millimetre, the piece will not pass our quality control. As a result, the pieces all fit precisely together, whether on, into or next to each other. " (to quote Naef's manufacturing).
Spendy little buggers, but sooooo worth it. My favorite? Oh, it's a Dolio!
fawn&forest has teamed up with Cookie Magazine to offer you a super yummy "cookie dough" deal!
The Naef Animal Puzzle is part of Cookie Magazine's june/july '09 "cookie dough" deals. Visit Cookie Magazine's website and sign in or sign up to view the special discount code to receive 25% off at f&f!
yum.
Pirates are super cool. Who doesn't want to play pirates? For the over-zealous mom/aunt/grandma/friend who loves kits: the Pirate Kit by Miss Natalie!
The kit includes a bunch of pirate-y goodies, including an eye patch, booty bag with coins and a treasure map. Wow.
I am happy to be friends with Tressa of Dress Me Up. I recently placed an order for her new Organic Soft Blocks. A few days later she sent me this picture of her husband and daughter pulling my order on a sled in the snow! How fun is that?
Santa gave baby Owen the Organic Soft Blocks for Christmas. They are a hit with the baby. And fun for a 3 year old to throw, evidently.
You can find the Organic Soft Blocks here.
Thanks Tressa!
The Log Rocker by 10 Grain really does epitomizes “play potential”, a ride-on toy like no other. And what is it? Not quite a sea-saw (but it could be) and not quite a rocking chair, motorcycle or balance beam, the Log Rocker is just a lot of fun.
I can also see the Log Rocker being turned upside down in my house, perhaps made into a launching tunnel for cars + monster trucks. And turned on it's side, I can see Eliot pretending he's in a taco shell. No?
The interior of the Log Rocker is available in the classic red and also the Small Paul pattern by Paul Frank, shown in images above.
The LIKEaBIKE mini we ordered for Eliot was astonishingly simple to assemble. All that is needed is one super excited kid who loves to help and a mom or dad who doesn't like to read instructions! The LIKEaBIKE mini arrives almost completely assembled - all that is needed is the handle bar piece to be attached as well as the sweet hand grips.
To adjust the seat height, a few twists of an allen wrench + you're set!
Let the kids go crazy with a Yoodo!
The Yoodo by Offi is a modular system made of extra-heavy weight cardboad designed for kids to build a fort or otherwise secret playhouse... just throw a sheet over the top? Remember that?! The Yoodo construction creates fun places for the kids to crawl through, create windows (puppet show?) or just makes some off the all race car (that perhaps would be the case in our house....).
The Yoodo kit includes 16 big + little pieces and is currently on sale for $29. And while the red + white is nice, I'd be tempted to let the kids loose with a few markers and some stickers to really sweeten it up.
Too cool. Eliot is thrilled with the LIKEaBIKE mini he received in the mail this week. It's just his size + he doesn't even mind falling over! So far he's sped around in the grass. Must get a helmut for his noggin for when he braves the pavement. Eliot has foregone the LIKEaBIKE name and is calling it his "big brother bike" for the time being.So sweet.
Another cool thing? I found this cool Japanese site (via Minor Details blog) where you can very simply make your new pictures look old. I know there are other sites out there that do this, but this one is fun.
Happy Friday!
Summertime is right around the corner, thankfully. The kiddos are sure to have all that sun-induced extra energy, begging to be spent. Why not?
We've had fun zooming around the yard (and house!) with the Sibi Max push car and the Lorette trailer. What have I learned? A 2 year old butt does not fit into the Lorette trailer, no matter how hard Eliot may try. And with a bit of imagination, the Max car is a motorcycle and it goes "fast" (which, sorry to say, the Max does not....).
Both the Max and Lorette are made by Sibi, an old-time German woodworking company founded by the Sirch Family over 300 years ago. Made of solid birch and ash with non-marking Eva rubber wheels, both pieces are incredibly well made and quite stylish.
And a lot of fun to chase the dog with.
As my son Eliot just turned 2.5 years old + the weather is (finally) looking nice, a bit of LIKEaBIKE action is most certainly in order. We have our eyes on the mini, as the seat height is shorter (starts at 10") but still adjusts as your child grows.
"The LIKEaBIKE is a unique bike for children between the ages of two and five. A lot of fun and highly beneficial for the development of their motor skills and sense of balance. A LIKEaBIKE has no pedals. When first trying to ride, kids play with their LIKEaBIKE as they would with a hobbyhorse. They become familiar with the saddle first, carefully sitting on it. Soon they start to walk with it, then run. In no time the little rider becomes more confident and by pushing off, picks up speed. If the bike starts to tip, kids instinctively regain their balance with their feet.
The LIKEaBIKE was designed with a keen eye to your child's safety, so you won't find any sharp edges on it. The gap between the frame and the fork, moreover, is filled with felt, so your child's fingers can't get pinched there either. The felt also prevents the front wheel from making sharp turns, a common cause for mishaps with young riders of regular bikes." (Paraphrased text from LIKEaBIKE).
Available in 7 different models with a lovely selection of accessories, such as a wooden kick stand + sleek saddle bag. Both images from Flickr. Image on left via here, image on right via here .
Now all we need is a helmut.
Happy Earth Day to you with the last installment of little bits of green. Next to making a recycled egg carton buggy mobile with the kids, hugging a Kata Golda softie friend is a happy way to celebrate.
Handmade using plant dyed wool felt + a lot of love in Port Townsend, Washington by the Kata Golda crew. Using plant dyed wool felt creates those lovely soft + natural hues and is quite eco-friendly to boot. Each animal is then completely hand stitched with hand embroidered facial features and detailing. And to step it up even one more notch, each animal can be personalized with a child's name.
In regards to sustainability, Kata Golda animals are instant heirlooms. They're the animal friends that will never go out of style and will never see a landfill. And will still make your kids smile in 30 years.
As a company, Kata Golda donates 5% of all proceeds to local elementary schools for art supplies, books and organic gardening.
And for more Earth Day kid's craft projects, click here.
Enter the green world of Naef toys. The objective for Naef toys is to produce play objects that unify quality design and superior Swiss craftsmanship. All Naef toys begin by specifically selecting woods that will not shrink or warp and will remain durable over time. All of the painted products are made using non-toxic varnishes or clear coats and all woods are harvested from sustainable forests in Europe.
The Rainbow, pictured above was designed by Heiko Hillig for Naef and can be used as a playful sculptural what-have-you, a tunnel for toy cars to zoom through and even used as a xylophone, offering endless combinations of sounds. Bonus: the kids will even learn their colors (something we are still working on in this house....).
Naef toys are objects of learning as play "uses one's sence of site, touch and sound to interact with an object while experiencing the changes in light and shadow, proportion and rhythm, depth of field, etc."
True, Naef toys tend to cost a bit more green. But dig it: quality design + sustainable craftsmanship that transends age + time the whole family will surely enjoy. As one customer said recently, "I do not buy the plastic fantastic."
Puppies, bunnies, mice and bears. Boys + girls dressed in the cutest little clothes. Each animal by Kata Golda is handmade of plant-dyed wool felt, sewn with love + embroidered with the sweetest expressions.
Measuring 12" short, each animal can be personalized with your child's (or your!) name, as shown above. The animal set as well as a few other Kata Golda goodies will be soon be available in the toy category. Sweet!
A Speesees Organic Friend would be an excellent gift for a new Mom.... and baby! Made of super soft 100% organic cotton sherpa and filled with lavender for the loveliest smell + lentils for nice weight + floppiness. Safe for baby as the eyes are embroidered on + certainly fun for toddlers to throw around + cuddle with.
I appreciate the color palette Speesees has used. The friends are available in a muted mustard yellow, oaty natural and not too bright orange (much more subdued than in the product photo). Each friend measures about 8" in length for extra coziness.
Meet Storm by Esthex. He's is soft + stuffed. A bit peculiar + totally lovable. His helmet is removable as is his cape + belt. Yes, Storm would look nice on your son's shelf or sit politely as part in the Esthex collection, but he is really just ready for the action. Ready for the imaginative adventures you child will surely take him through.
Storm has noodle-ish legs and awkward arms + is ready to fly. Beady eyes and no mouth or nose but surely he can talk. He may get a bit dirty and perhaps be used as an unofficial teething toy (minus the accessories). Storm is the kind of softie that will be your child's friend...forever or until he stops playing with stuffed animals.
Made of reclaimed wood + salvaged bits, the EF wood rattles are a treat from nature. It's fun to discover something so simple yet so meaningful. Although it is a rattle and perhaps will receive more attention from a slobbering 6 month old, I still have our walnut rattle on the end table. Eliot still picks it up almost everyday, perhaps in attempts to throw or chase the dog with. We live in a time where 2 year olds say "I type on my email" that an injection of real wood + and the natural sound of lentils shaken inside a small piece of wood is refreshing. It's one step closer to rescuing your child from nature-deficit disorder.
Handmade of solid wood, hollowed + filled with lentils or beans to make a beautiful sound. Available in walnut, myrtle or maple and measure roughly 5x2 inches.
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