Wee See

I was recently in the MoMA Store in Soho and saw they sell Slinkys. I’d forgotten what beautiful objects they are. A wave of nostalgia washed over me as well as a curiosity of what the story was behind its invention. So I Wiki’d it! Reading it was a reminder that perhaps the only thing keeping some of our simple ideas from becoming great, life-changing ones, is believing in them and following through. Inspiring.

“In 1943, Richard James, a Naval mechanical engineer stationed at the William Cramp and Sons shipyards in Philadelphia, was developing springs that could support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas. James accidentally knocked one of the springs from a shelf, and watched as the spring “stepped” in a series of banana spilts, to a stack of books, to a tabletop, to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright. James experimented with different types of steel wire over the next year, and finally found a spring that would walk. [His wife, Betty] dubbed the toy Slinky (meaning “sleek and graceful”), after finding the word in a dictionary, and deciding that the word aptly described the sound of a metal spring expanding and collapsing.”

“Grey is out. Gloom is gone. It’s time to live our lives in colour. The Let’s Colour Project is a worldwide initiative … to transform grey spaces with colourful paint. A mission to spread colour all over the world. We are working together with local communities across the globe, rolling up our sleeves to paint streets, houses, schools and squares.” What a great concept. Love it! Learn more here.

I’m so jealous. Seeing this is has me hugely inspired to save every penny so I might some day be able to build my dream house. It will most definitely have a secret room.

I sure wish I had discovered this before our storage space flooded and soaked all our books. Koshi Kawachi creates these beautiful works of living art that I can’t wait to try with my daughter at some point soon. Very cool.

Over the years I’ve stumbled on some great pancake creations on the internet (such as the glorious rainbow ones shown above). But no one has given me a greater appreciation of The Griddle Arts than Jim (Jim’s Pancakes). He’s taken things to a whole new level. Below are just a few of his masterpieces. Congrats, Jim, you win.

London-based artist Daniel Eatock is doing some really fun work. I mean, REALLY fun. His website is a playground of inventive exploration. It’s hugely inspiring to see how he refuses to be defined by any single medium or line of thought. Many of his projects immediately spark ideas for activities to do with kids.

The piece below made me want to start saving all my daughter’s old Crayola markers so that we could turn them over on a paper towel one night and see what beauty awaits us in the morning. I leave you with what isn’t exactly his headiest work, but probably the funniest.

This awesome video from the band OK Go is buzzing around the internet right now.
It reminded of a post that I’ve been wanting to do about attempting a similar Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction with your kids. You can find a whole slew of similar of other attempts on YouTube.

A good friend put together a smaller scale contraption with his son, Asher. He was kind enough to let me share it with you (Thanks, Jeff!). As is the case with any video I’ve shot with my daughter, it ends with “and now can I watch it?”. Have a look:

Oh, and remember this? This was Pee Wee Herman’s morning routine, which includes an elaborate breakfast making machine:

And here are several other OK Go videos that are pretty ridiculously great… Also potentially great sources of inspiration.

Many of you have probably already seen this, but now it’s accompanied by a soundtrack by Sigur Ros. Your kids will love this story.

Whoa, would this make the most amazing baby blanket or what? I wonder if the artist, Rebeca Raney, would be willing to take such a commission. What if I promised her work would be drooled over? She currently has a show exhibited at the Mountain Fold Gallery in New York through February 20th.

A very cool lo-fi animation by this graphic designer living in Singapore. I can imagine trying a (far more simplified) version of this with my daughter once she’s a little older. Maybe you wanna give it a try? If nothing more it’ll make your kid excited to get to the playground and jump around.

These beautiful images by Grant Hamilton sure seem like perfect inspiration if you’re about to paint your kid’s room (Or any room for that matter). Not sure it’d be possible to capture the beautiful subtleties in tone of a Polaroid, but it sure would be worth a try. To watch a Flickr slideshow click here (treat yourself to full screen, you deserve it).


Some questions you’d probably ask Grant if given the chance are covered in Josh Spear’s brief interview with him from back in ’08.

Okay, perhaps terrifying for your child if actually encountered on the street, but in this little YouTube player I bet it can be appreciated for the incredibly smart, fresh (minus the air) idea that it is.

From Sour’s first mini-album Water Flavor EP. The cast were selected from their fan base from all around the world. Each person was filmed purely via webcam. Beautiful.

Loving the idea behind Draw Like a Monkey TV on Vimeo. They’re collecting videos of various artist’s in the act of drawing. Having been inspired by watching my dad draw while growing up, it seemed like a particularly wonderful thing to share. Check it out.

I was going to save this for another day, but since both posts I was contemplating involved chalk… It’s a chalk two-fer!

They don’t sell shoes like this at Payless, but, they should.