the sketchbook project

my thoughtful friend kate gifted matilda with her own sketchbook project journal for her third birthday. the concept for the project is genius. you purchase a notebook, fill it up and send it back and then the journal travels the globe where it can be "checked out" and then ends up catalogued in the brooklyn art library. matilda has just recently become obsessed with painting and i happen to believe that she has an amazing eye for movement and color. creative gifts are the best. here are some other creative gifts for kids that i love:


1. tegu magnetic blocks/ 2. scary hands/ 3. scribbles/ 4. water symphony bath toy/ 5. chalk board place mat/ 6. huggle pod

lovebugs 4.0

just had to share a few of my favorite photos from this year's lovebugs (a collaboration between seed factory and our labor of love). this is the fourth year of the series. you can see the rest here. i love how our labor of love perfectly captured matilda's hilarious expressions. no shortage of personality.

for previous lovebugs click here!

a big thanks to whitney, jesse, and heidi for making magic!

banner red bed

i mentioned earlier this week that we had finally transitioned til to a twin bed. i've heard so many horror stories from friends and customers about taking their babies from their cribs to toddler/twin beds. my mom told me to wait as long as i could! i have to say that i think waiting until matilda was older was a good move, granted she never tried to climb out of her crib which would be an entirely different story. this weekend we picked up the iron bed i slept on until i was 13! it was white when i was tiny and then once i hit middle school i begged my mom to paint it black which it stayed until we painted it banner red for matilda. i have such an affinity for red. it just makes me happy. back to the bed, my mom told me that it originally belonged to the candler family and was being stored by my great grandfather and they let him keep it. it still has the orginal clay feet. i love it.

we had the bed all set up and ready to go and then at 6:30 sunday night (bedtime is at 7) and then we panicked and sam ran out to get a guardrail. it's been three nights and i still panic she'll fall out. sam ended up grabbing this guardrail from babysrus (didn't see it online). it's wooden and technically to be used to convert a crib to a toddler bed but it still works with a twin. not quite as hideous as those mesh things but we will fo sho be craigslisting this bad boy when she's done with it.

sweet dreams so far and no getting out of bed just yet. knock.on.wood.

how was your experience when your little person went to the big kid bed? did you jump right to a twin/ full or stick with a toddler bed?
matilda was definitely concerned about her crib and where it went and tears might have welled up in my eyes when sam broke it down and took it out of her room.

sources: the sheets were an amazing score at a garage sale way before matilda was even in the picture (secretly hoping for a little girl to sleep on them), the green pillows are "vintage" anthropologie, the monogrammed pillow is from pottery barn, the duvet is from target, the bedskirt is shabby chic for target, and the adorable dolls are blabla.

ps you can find me over here today!

books we love: little owl lost

little owl lost is matilda's newest book. i picked it up for her at the shop for her birthday. i snagged the only copy but i have a feeling they'll order more. chris haughton's take on the classic, "are you my mother?" follows poor little owl after he falls out of his nest and can't find his mama. don't worry his friend squirrel helps him out.this rascally squirrel leads little owl astray, but don't worry it all works out in the end! are you as obsessed with the color palette as i am? kinda want to do a whole room around those colors...

*also thanks to everyone that filled out the survey! it has been so interesting to get your feedback. i've read each entry and much to my surprise... there have been quite a few. woohoo. thank you for the encouragement and for being honest. i've been sort of baffled by two very different groups of people who read my blog and how to make everyone happy. not possible, obviously. i'll be brainstorming ways to creatively keep a good mix while staying true to myself...