City garden

Today a small sneak views of our garden. We have a small apartment in the North part of Rotterdam, but our garden is twice the size of it! We did all we could to connect the garden with the house.  One of the decks belongs to the living room, the other is a boy's department.  They can step from their room directly out and then through a small hidden bridge to their tree house. Everything is growing  like crazy . My husband is saying that we have a jungle instead of a garden. I like it this way! I'm not really a flower lady in my garden ;-) I'm big lover of different kinds of bamboo & high grasses. Japanese maple and birch are my husband's favorite. We also got hostats, ferns and a big fig-tree with a lot of fruits...

Recycled Denim

"…Denim is an incredibly beautiful base material that only gains beauty over time. The fabric is extremely strong while getting softer and gaining character after heavily use over time…" 

The fox, the anteater and the elephant are made from recycled denim. I found it at Shuka shop in Amsterdam, but its coming from a company called Maisonindigo.  They are based in the Netherlands. Their beautifull animals are hand made by people with disabilities. 

The second company is a BluBoxx created by a textile designer Jeannine Oberdieck. Her sustainable new toys are mostly produced from recycled material, also denim. The first prototype is a five-pice set of building blocks which is really looking like fun. I think its a fantastic idea…

 Inspired by all of it I made a small blanket for my son from old jeans and my husband T-shirts. 

He has only blue , grey and black -  perfect selection! ;-) 

Place : Hoek van Holland

We live in Rotterdam, which has one of the biggest ports in the world, but accully to reach the sea you have to drive around 35 km….what we do really often during the sumer days. 

From Hoek van Holland you can see all the big ships and containers coming from all over the world, which is excited not only for a 2 year old!  Believe me. I really like the character of this place, rough and different with a nice long beach. Today was really sunny and windy day, and we enjoyed a lot having a walk out there….

Ciccì Coccò

This is a true beauty! Cicci Cocco is one of the first children's books where photography was used. Maybe that's why Bruno Munari was so pleased to do the captions and rhymes to write for catching photos by Enzo Arnone. It was between the 70's and 80's. I love it so much….

I wish you a great sunny weekend…and many beautiful photo's - children are endless inspiration ;-) 

The Cicci Cocco book is available here : Corraini

Edizioni Corraini

Edizioni Corraini is more than just a publishing house. It is a place which carry amazing, regularly updated, collection. You will find choice of books on design, architecture, art, photography, fashion, illustration  from the best of international publishing, including North and South America and the Far East. There is also a range of small design objects and a selection of the best in children’s books! There is a special place for Bruno Munari at Edizioni Corraini. He took a personal interest in the activities of this publisher for over twenty years so his books occupy a special place in Edizioni Corraini catalogue. It is a pleasure to pay them a visit. 

A Home, my Home

" A Home, my Home " 

" ...Two walls and a roof as a shelter. 

A home warms the hearts of the ones that live in it and shelters when it rains;

 it’s the place where one happily returns and where one feels “at home”…" 

Sometimes books don't need any text, don't they?  

Do you like when the drawing expresses so much only with image? 

My children prefer stories to be read instead of only to watch the images. 

Especially my 6 years old loves looooong stories.…but I adore visual books a lot ;-) 

  " A Home, my Home " by Alessandro Sanna 

and " 123 A BOOK to SEE" by William Wondriska are for me minimalist beauty….

Available at Edizioni Corraini

Vintage wooden toys at MonkiVintage

Hans Bolling , Kay Bojesen and Kristian Vedel are the "kings" of wooden toy design from 50s-60s in Denmark. The Ducks figures made from teak by architect Hans Bolling become the classic figures and copied many times.  Kay Bojesen collection was bought by the Rosendal Design Group which is developing and producing it now. We can still buy the old original ones.  When I stopped by  MonkiVintage on Etsy I just couldn't leave it. I adore the beauty of the wooden toys and objects - original of copied  ( doesn't matter so much ;-) . The set of two sleek, simple and modern wooden figures really grabed my attention.  Animals from the zoo collection are so adorable!