If it weren’t 9:30pm on a Sunday night I’d be racing to the lumberyard right now. How cool is this? And with as much as my daughter loves picking flowers, I can’t imagine I’m not going to be able to get her excited about building one with me. A designer named Brian Johnson is the brains behind the idea. He sells them on Etsy, but also invites you to do-it-yourself. Seriously, how late is Home Depot open?

First up, tegu, a beautiful set of wooden blocks that they’ve somehow managed to embed with magnets. You simply can’t make anything unattractive with them. We could’ve spent all day building stuff if we didn’t have to get back to our own booth.

Check out this amazing new pop-up book from Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud. Available from Amazon.

While on the subject I thought I’d mention something we were recently gifted. Normally we’re opposed to anything with a forced structure when it comes to kids’ creative activities, but this blank pop-up book “kit” is really pretty fun. It’s still a blank canvas, but with a few elevated surfaces on which to unleash their imaginations. Also available from Amazon.

I was both delighted and horrified to learn about this interactive exhibit at MoMA. Delighted because, well, it just seems great. And horrified because we didn’t learn about this in advance so we could have arranged to have Wee See projected on one of the walls! We’re so happy MoMA sells our DVDs, but man, what a missed opportunity. Anyway, looks like a worthwhile activity for the kids if you’re in New York sometime before the end of August.

Incredibly fun packaging, designed by Hasan Partners of Finland. Their site is also really great, check it out.

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.

We’re so thrilled to be featured in the latest issue of lmnop magazine. If you aren’t already familiar (how could that be?), what better time than now? It’s packed full of awesomeness and never disappoints. Sign up and download it here.