Mini labo: adorable soft toys, decals and more
June 25, 2008, 10:31 pm
Filed under: Accessories, Stationery, Toys and games | Tags: , , , , , ,

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)
.

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.



Colorful retro: Petits démons music boxes, bumper pads and more
June 18, 2008, 5:44 pm
Filed under: Decor, Fashion | Tags: , , , , ,

In case you look for some funky, colorful 60s and 70s inspired design for the nursery, I have just the perfect company for you.  Petits démons, which by the way means ‘little demons’, so they surely have some charming kids in mind :P, produces unique pieces in vibrant prints, but also has delicate pastels in store, should you be less daring.  Among this French company’s collection, you can find tetrahedron shaped music boxes, baby bunting, crib bumper pads, festoons, bibs.. you name it.


If you are as much a fan of the movie Amélie with Audrey Tautou, or Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, as it is called in the original, then you really have to get one of these lovely music boxes. So far, I’ve never come across one that played part of Amélie’s score. I just love this movie’s soundtrack, it is so beautiful and playful, and so utterly French, I could listen to it almost every day (little hint, if you don’t know it yet, check it out at Amazon e.g.), and La valse d’Amélie is one of my favorite pieces of the album. I can’t possibly express in words how delighted I am that this piece is available on Petits démons music boxes (along with a few other ones). Now this is really a melody that I don’t mind being played over and over. After all, the sound of the music box should not only be pleasing to baby’s ears, right? Anyway, I was digressing, so here are some more pictures:

Unfortunately though, Petits démons being a small company, it is actually not that easy to find any online stores that stock their items.  On the other hand, that is exactly what increases their products’ charms to me even more, because you can be almost certain nobody you know will have the same items in their nursery, so it’s not like buying from Ikea and everybody who comes over knows the name and price of your furniture! However, enjoying a quiet Tuesday evening and eating tiny spoonfuls of chocolate cake batter (yummy), I decided to check out all the retailer information Petit démons provides on its website to see if there is also an English speaking webshop available.  Luckily, French store Pop-line is just what I was looking for, since I don’t like to present products without giving information about how to obtain them. Music box 42.00€, bumper pad 76.00€, small bunting 72.00€.



Cuteness packed into crochet and polka dots: Franck & Fischer

We continue our Danish tour by moving further along to Franck & Fischer‘s adorable creations.  The company was founded in 2004 by fashion designer Annemarie Franck and businesswoman Charlotte Fischer.  Due to their wonderful child-friendly designs, inspired by vintage images and childhood-memories, in addition to the fair-trade production Franck and Fischer uses, the company has been able to estalish a wide reputation in such a short period of time.  Among others, the product range includes soft toys, bags and pillows.

And now, before I rattle on even further, just take a look, because you really have to see these charming faces.  They do create vintage and child-hood souvenir items to perfection, don’t they?  Just so precious and absolutely adorable, each and every one of them!

Available at Scandezign, e.g. crochet rattle$23.00.



Maileg’s baby rattles: Vintage toys from Denmark
June 4, 2008, 3:51 pm
Filed under: Toys and games | Tags: , , ,

I am sticking with Denmark for inspiration for a second post.  What could be more fitting with a pretty vintage inspired crib than vintage soft toys?  Luckily, Maileg has just the perfect design!  Soft cotton, sturdy made and well filled, and adorned with embroidery and/or knitting. Here are some of their adorable baby rattles:

and some sweet bunnies from their Brother and Sister product line:

All available at CottontailsBaby for 10 £ (rattles) and 11/21 £ (bunnies)