Bonjour tout le monde I decided that I will be dedicating today’s posts to beautiful French products and will kick right of with Mini Labo’s fabulous items. They produce beautifully printed pillows, cuddly soft toys (or doudous, as the French call them), screenprinted posters, wall decals and even bags, badges and notebooks! The wonderful Mini Labo style includes ornate flower and bird prints with a vintage feel, but they also have signature fawn and dog designs among others.

Take a look at their notebooks and bags, so many beautiful designs to choose from.

Aren’t Mini Labo’s soft toys just beautiful? So colorful and cute, they include a whole range, whose creation was partly inspired by Alice in Wonderland (from top left to bottom right): le lapin d’Avril (the April rabbit), le chat sourit (the smiling cat), love cat, Simon and le nouveau lapin d’Avril (the new April rabbit)
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But Mini Labo also has beautiful pillows, the ‘il y a un arbre’ (there’s a tree) cushion is my favorite:

And last but not least, Mini Labo’s beautiful wall stickers,wouldn’t they look great in combination with the Roost birdcage lamp I blogged about earlier?

The whole collection is available at Mes habits chéris, one of the few French onlineshops with an English website. All of the doudous, except for the Simon the bear, can also be bought at Ahbookids.

The essence of a beautiful childhood and past, happy memories are bottled up in French designer Zoé de las Cases‘ beautiful products. This French brand combines vintage photos with colorful drawing and children’s handwriting, and the result is extremely adorable and extremely French! Check out these cardboard gift boxes, postcards, paper dolls, adhesive cardboard characters and magnets:

Available at Mes habits chéris. Magnets €25.00, cardboard characters €10.00, paper dolls €13.00, cardboard boxes €8.75.

I know it’s only summer now, but back to school sales start much earlier than fall. So if you want to spice up your kids’ school supplies and are looking for some really out of the ordinary bags with a French vintage feel to them, I have the perfect items for you here. And even better: there are also great totes, satchels and other items for adults, not just for kids! I bet the bigger ones would make great diaper bags, too!

Miniséri is a very young company, whose first collection was only presented in January 2007. They produce a range of children’s accessories, mainly bags of all kinds and sizes, from book bags to lunch bags, handbags, shoulder bags… They are all beautifully crafted, most are in leather, and many also have French prints on the top flap.

Available at Mes habits chéris. Big bookbag (grand cartable) €90.00, small bookbag (petit cartable) €65.00, mini bookbag/purse (mini cartable) €80.00 (leather) €49.00 (fabric)

Today we take a little excursion to China, as Asian inspired interior for the nursery will be discussed in the following posts. Hence, I am starting out with Kukunest’s lantern bedding. Available in various sizes – from toddler to queen size – this beautiful print of Asian girls at a lantern festival is simply adorable. And to add to its beauty, this bedding is also Öko-Tex certified, so you can be sure your little ones won’t have harmful chemicals rubbing on their sensitive skin! To match these beautiful 200 thread count 100% cotton sheets, I suggest you decorate your child’s room with Kukunest’s Lucky Dragon poster, a reproduction from a collage, size 18”x24”.

By the way, wouldn’t the Asian lampion wall decals from Anna Wand that I reviewed earlier look magnificent with these two pieces?

Available at Kukunest, e.g. twin bedding $119.00, poster $28.00.

It is always said that young children are the most capable of learning foreign languages, and that education should be fun. Language Littles are a product that really excel in both categories. These dolls are simply cute and sure to become a favorite among the kids for their sweet looks and cuddly softness. But more than that, children will also enjoy the audio functions of these dolls, as for example Ling will teach your child 25 words and phrases in Mandarin Chinese and English: When pressing her left hand, she will count to ten and list a few favorite activities, and when pressing her knee, Ling sais ‘I love you!’ Language littles are also available in a number of other languages, for example Spanish, Japanese and Hebrew, each doll speaks between 25-30 foreign words and phrases and is delivered with a translation booklet.

Available from Genius Babies for $39.95.

I will end today’s edition with the wonderful, whimsical items by Wu and Wu’s Dumpling Dynasty. For example, check out this beautiful pigtail set filled with a mirror and comb, as well as vintage hair accessories.

Or take a look at these charming explorer and baking kits, that come with a vintage-style metal torch, magnifying glass, metal compass, string with knot-guide and notebook and pencil, or in the case of the baking kit, with a set of celebration candles, rolling pin, wooden spoon, three metal star cookie cutters, cupcake cases and recipes.

But Dumpling Dynasty also has beautiful Chinese inspired bags and mugs, along with some other great vintage kits, they even have a first aid one!

Available from Dumpling Dynasty, kits and bag for £14.00, teapot and mugs set for £20.00.

I know, by now it’s probably getting annoying for those stopping by daily, but for the ones who haven’t read it yet:
SunnyKidstyle has a new URL: http://www.sunnykidstyle.com
Please bookmark it, because in about a week I will be switching servers.
Thanks a lot! :)

I finally came around to write about wooden items as I had actually planned to do yesterday, and I have just the perfect item to beginn with, the Moov by Dutch company Berg Toys. This is a fabulous wood, steel and rubber construction toy that lets your kids create a scooter, a racer, a carver or a trike, all from the included pieces, and they don’t even need any tools or srews to do this! All vehicles are fully functional and have steel axels, wooden boards and pneumatic tires and can be assembled easily. This product truly promises endless fun for 5-12 year olds: Build your favorite item, play with it until you get tired, disassemble it and start over again!

Available at Hamleys, £189.99. For other retailers check the Moov website.

Next in line I want to present some of Plantoys’ Plancity collection. These wooden quality toys in the shape of for example trains, planes and car parks are simply beautiful with their modern, simple design. I especially like the express train with its straight lines and realistic appearance and magnetically connected carriages, as well as the city station with its arched roof and the possibility to combain Plantoys railroad and street systems. But they also have other great products apart from the Plancity range, such as their musical band which develops coordination and concentration.

Plantoys has such a huge variety, you really need to check them out for yourself. Whether you are looking for vehicles, dollhouses or play kitchens, all their products are well-made and beautifully designed. Even better, Plantoys’ products do not only have educational value and provide many hours of happy playing, they are also eco-friendly, wooden toys with longevity that do not run on batteries, are great choice for sure!

Available at Moolka, musical band $49.99, water blocks $24.99, city station $79.99, sit n walk puppy $18.99, express train $14.99.

I will end today’s focus on modern wooden toys with a peek at Swiss company Momoll’s toys. Their products really have a minimalistic edge to them, quite undertandable, when considering that Momoll’s intention for the Playtower Thing 3 was to design a multifunctional playhouse whose design would be appealing to boys and girls alike! But Momoll also produces other beautiful items as well, such as the Playtower Ding 4, doll house furniture, the Lili play kitchen or the RayRay doll house, which can be collapsed when not in use, and is hence especially suitable for small apartments, where space is scarce.

Both playtowers have a simple structure that can be assembled and disassembled easily and whose modular construction opens up the possibilty to extend the playsphere by adding an (almost) infinite number of additional floors. Additionally, both sets have a designer facade of either colored plexiglas or silk-screened birch plywood sliding walls. The minimalistic design opens up a child’s creation, because it is not limited to one environment: The playtowers can convert themselves into car parks, hospitals, skysrapers… whatever the kids imagine them to be.

Available either directly at Momoll, at US shop Spunky Sprout (RayRay doll house $352.00, Lili play kitchen $440.00) or UK shop Little Fashion Gallery (RayRay doll house £160.50, Lili kitchen £165.00, plexiglas playtower £157.00).
Yes, the prices are a bit higher than standard doll houses and wooden toys, but then you have a true multi-purpose designer toy with superb looks and great functionality, which is designed, developed and produced by hand, all in Switzerland, a country known for its quality craftsmanship!