Wee See

This great series of 26 typographic chairs was designed by Roeland Otten. I’d love to walk through a room of these with my daughter and have her identify each one.

UPDATE: By crazy coincidence, Tina, at one of our favorite blogs (swiss miss), also posted some great type seating today, check it out.

I’m digging these seats made of sliced rolls of wool created by Danish designer Lene Frantzen. How beautiful would story time be if each kid had one of these to sit on. Although I must be reading the price wrong, right? They appear to be kee-razy expensive. Maybe there’s a cheaper alternative? Very cool stools too.

Original stories by charming children. 50 new ones added each month. Hopefully this evolves, it’s a really fun idea. Perhaps the kids could compliment their stories with original drawings so it feels a little less robotic? Of course, reciting their stories from memory would be the best solution, but I probably couldn’t even do that myself.

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.

Check out these beautiful indoor/outdoor chairs. Attractive patio seating is hard to find so I was excited to see these. Imported from Africa and available from A&G Merch. Made out of a super durable nylon. Large – $169, Small – $99.

Diggin’ these swimsuits from Du Pariel. Available here.

If you don’t know about Mo Willems, you’re missing out. His books are smart, clever and break all the right rules of children’s books. For example, why does the main character have to be a bunny or a mouse? Why not a naked mole rat? He’s had a New York Times Bestseller, received several Caldecott Honors and even won 6 Emmys from his days as a writer and animator for Sesame Street. We love him, and you will too. Get ‘em here.

I’ve been sitting on this post for months because it didn’t seem fair to get people excited about trying some of these fun ideas and then not be able to get outside to do it (without risking hypothermia). Well ladies and gentleman, Spring has sprung!

Quite a few years back my wife, looking for a gift for her 10-year-old (at the time) niece who was visiting us in New York, bought the activity book called Tricky Pix (by Klutz). They had an absolute blast. These are a few examples of their efforts.

Apparently there’s also a book for video tricks. They’ve got some samples on their site. Both books are available from Amazon (Tricky Pix / Tricky Video).

German photographer Jan von Holleben has made a career out of this kind of playful camera trickery. His images will undoubtedly provide you with plenty of ideas for trying some creative stunts with your kids.

Perhaps these ads by Kindle (Ad #1 / Ad #2) were inspired by his work?

Some really great thinking going into the designs over at boon. If you’re not familiar with their baby gear it’s worth your time to check them out. And once you’re beyond the bottle stage, I bet that grass would feel awesome on the feet after a long day.
Just kidding. Sorta.

I’ve given several of these as gifts. I keep hoping someone will take the hint and buy one for ME! Available at The MoMA Store.

Not cheap, but certainly beautiful. From Kaiku. Available here.

Love it! Available here. Be sure to poke around the rest of The Spoon Sisters store.

This is slightly off-topic, but it’s important for us all to be discussing. As a parent I find it particularly alarming. The first video is from a great TED talk by Jamie Oliver and the second is from the Oscar-nominated documentary called Food, Inc..

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.

Thud. Another great click-tivity created by Rafaël Rozendaal.