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Baby’s First Year

Love.  Love.  Love.  These once a month photo newborn shots projects are such an amazing way to show the phenomenal growth of your baby through that first year.  I look at these and I just get excited about all of the possibilities of different ways to show that growth.  I love that you can make something so profound with the simplicity of  a single white chair with something textured like a special blanket or hide draped across it with a frame placed in front of it for the age.  (You can always photoshop in the age later.)  Or you could use a large basket which starts with a one-month-old sleeping to go through the months of sitting up, crawling out and stepping out.  One of the groups that I love the most from the photos below is the father holding his daughter through the months.  I would love to see something like that with a father holding his child, but shot from below so that you can see his hands and whatever the sky or ceiling is doing to show the passing of time through the weather – blossoming trees, falling leaves, puffy white clouds in a bright blue sky… Be simple and awesome.

(Oh, and at the end of the year, you can turn the photographs into a calendar for presents for friends and family… awesome!)

Here are some of the best from the interwebs. (Click the pictures to get to the originals.)

 

 

 

 

 

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Modernist Furniture for Kids

I love furniture.  In particular, I love really well made furniture that has a point of view.  Which is why I love this neo-modernist movement and how well function, aesthetic and ecological impact is being combined.  Not only do many of these pieces have multiple functions that grow with children, but they are also made with wood from sustainable forests & non toxic finishes.

I love this caravan crib that’s inspired by old timey circus wagons.  I love the colors and  how they contrast with the maple.  Then when you don’t need a crib anymore, the top lifts off and it’s a toddler’s bed.  Plus, it’s fully sustainable and made from domestic Maple (FSC Certified) with 100% non-toxic, food safe materials and finishes.

 

I like this little crib listed on etsy because it’s hand crafted and relatively original.  I’ve never seen anything like the storage space under the bed which seems rather practical for kids and adults alike.  I also like that it has handles for easy movement so that it becomes a walking crib.

This funny circular crib is a full crib that you can take off one side to become a toddler bed and then both sides come off to form two chairs.  I think the thought is rather awesome, even though it looks like the end product would be the most uncomfortable chairs ever…

 

While it’s a bit unclear how adaptable this stokke-tripp-trapp high chair is for growing children (and I would love for it to turn into a step ladder or something) I love all the colors and the clean lines of the design.  I think it would be an great sculptural object in any modernist or eclectic home.

 

Love, love, love this find on Etsy.  It’s the Measure Me Stick. It’s bright and attractive, teaches kids the measuring systems and you can write on it – which then makes it a transportable memory keeper for your family.

 

Since rocking horses are so last century this is the ekorre rocking moose. It’s clean lines and bright colors would be welcome in any home.  I can just see a little girl in striped stockings being photographed on this.

 

If you ever want a super shiny hand made pink dinosaur rocking horse… You can get one.

 

This fabulous little toddler crib comes in two colors white and orange.  I just think its so fun.  The edges are all rounded so there’s very little to injure yourself on.  (For some reason this is a huge issue for me with beds. I seem to injure myself on them a lot.)   When your kid has outgrown the bed it converts into this cute full sized chair.  I love that.

 

Classic modernist chairs that are Kid sized!!! InMod has a whole bunch of them.  I want all of them.  (This particular chair is called “Yolk” rather than the original title of the original Arne Jacobsen name of, “Egg Chair.”  Love!

In case you haven’t heard me gush enough already in this post: I love the Giddy Up chair!  It looks like it might have all the contours to be a great chair from several positions.  It’s either inspired by or completely rips off Eero Aarnio’s 1973 Pony Chair but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a total classic.

Aarnio: “A chair is a chair, is a chair, is a chair … but a seat does not necessarily have to be a chair. It can be anything as it is ergonomically correct. A seat could even be a small and soft Pony on which you can, ride or sit sideways.”

 

I love the simplicity of this activity table and chairs.  You get the feeling from looking at it that it could last for years and look like new.  The parts are very basic and sturdy and look like someone would really have to go out of their way to break them.

 

 

This was about the coolest bunk I could find.  It’s the Argingon Uffizi Bunk Bed and it does have some sort of Swiss army knife of bunk beds thing going on.  There is a desk, there are a couple of book shelves, two beds and a bench/toy chest that you can buy as well.  These beds are also made of wood from sustainable forests and low VOC paints.

 

And then there’s this little guy…

I’m sure he’ll get swooped up quickly – and there is only one of these vintage rocking horses that isn’t anywhere close to a modernist aesthetic – but he’d look so awesome in some kind of open/brick/glass loft space that I had to include him.