Category: shopping

Queen Bee Creations

Rebecca Pearcy, the creative mind behind Queen Bee Creations, used to be based in my hometown. When I was growing up I would see her bags and wallets in shops downtown and really liked them but they were far outside my meager teenage budget. I love her pieces but even now they still cost more than what I usually spend on a purse.

A couple of years ago N surprised me with one of her bags for a birthday present. I really love it and use it to tote around my stuff with I’m out without E and don’t need a diaper bag. The bag is really durable and because it’s vinyl it’s easy to wipe clean (a must after woodworking class). It’s distinctive without being too cutesy-looking and I get quite a few compliments on it.

A quick search on Etsy turned up some other sellers that work in vinyl but I think I still prefer Rebecca’s designs.

Boon Bath Pods

Bleh. We are all officially sick in some way or another. E has a normal cold, N is recovering from a super gross sinus/throat infection (complete with ruptured eardrum!), and I am in the beginning stages of what N had but am desperately trying to fight it off with zinc and orange juice. I haven’t taken any new pictures of E in a while but will try to get some this weekend.

But in the mean time…have you seen these bath storage pods by Boon? They come in frog and ladybug styles. I think they’re cute but more importantly, smart. The scoop detaches so you can scoop up bath toys and let them drain dry and get them out of the way.

Once E outgrows the sink I’ll probably get one for the tub. I love Boon products; E’s highchair is made by them and it’s great.

Yummy Breakfast Keychains

I’ve started collecting these lately. Afterall, who doesn’t need keychains of adorable anthropomorphic breakfast foods?

They’re designed by Heidi Kenney of My Paper Crane and made by Kidrobot, purveyor of Japanese-style limited edition toys such as Dunny and Munny collectibles. The keychains are sold blind-box so you don’t know what’s inside until you open it and some figures are more common than others.
The only store around here that carries them is the music store at the mall. This means that N is semi-supportive of me collecting them because he knows that if he picks up a keychain for me then I’ll be too excited to care about how many cds he bought.

Everybody wins!

Flensted Mobiles

After E was born I wanted to get a mobile to hang over his crib. I thought about getting one of these Tiny Love mobiles but they seemed really huge and a little bit frightening. Babies supposedly love them, but if I was going to be spending $30-40 on a mobile I wanted one that E could enjoy for years.

I looked around online and found these mobiles by Flensted and I fell in love with them. After much agonizing I ended up getting the balloon mobile for over E’s crib and the owl mobile (owls reading books, so charming!) to hang in my office.

The mobiles are a little pricey if you consider just the raw materials involved, but they really are lovely in person. E is fascinated by his and frequently implores me (unsuccessfully) to lift him up high so he can bat at it.

Flensted also seems like a great family-run, family-friendly company. Their workers assemble the mobiles by hand in their own homes instead of in a factory. As some who works from home, I don’t mind spending a little bit more to support a company that allows other to do the same.

Paraphernalia Necklace

Meet Captain Haddock, pirate.

N gave me this Paraphernalia necklace as a Christmas gift and I’ve been wearing it every chance I get. I like the 19th-century style of the illustration and how it’s whimsical without being cutesy.

I hadn’t heard of Paraphernalia before but now I’m really enjoying her aesthetic. Her pieces range from the strange to the delicate. You can see all of them here. Some of them are pretty huge and larger than something I would wear but there are a few I have my eye on including this one, this one, and especially this one.

Table Toppers

I am a big fan of these. I don’t consider myself a germaphobe but the idea of E eating directly off the table at some of the restaurants we frequent (like the slightly dodgy Ethiopian place we went to on Friday) grosses me out. So I carry these with me.

They’re a good size and have adhesive strips at the top and bottom that allow them to stick to the table pretty well. E is then free to eat his finger foods and I don’t have to worry about him knocking a plate to the floor. When he’s done I just pull the whole thing up and throw it away on my way out.

Amazon has them in a couple of different package sizes and patterns, but the price usually works out to about 50 cents a placemat.

***Update***
I saw that Target carries these now.

Great for eight and up

We gave my nephews this video microscope for Christmas. It was a big hit. It lets you zoom way in on things and then take digital pictures which you can download onto a computer. They had fun zooming in on things like skin, hair, and carpet and being simultaneously amazed/grossed out.

It’s list price is $80 but Amazon is selling it right for $18. It’s a great deal. I know everyone’s pretty much all shopped out by now, but it might be worth snagging now and hiding away for your science-loving kid’s birthday.

Books for the toddler set

I’ve been pretty good about not going overboard on toys for E this Christmas. He’s too young to care and so I just got him a few small things. But I’m a total sucker for good kids’ books. E will have these three waiting for him under the tree; the first two from us and the last one from one of his aunts (Thanks, Gwyn!)

Lovely, lovely stylized animal illustrations.
Apparently it’s now sold out at Amazon but it’s worth tracking down elsewhere.

Introduce baby to sushi. There’s a whole series for introducing your kids to wonderful foods they will probably refuse to eat: Dim Sum , Mexican, Italian, Jewish , Soul Food, and Indian.

Delicious contemporary art. Great paintings.