smaller

small something - the owl and the pussycat

The owl and pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat.....

Free papier mache boat pattern here from Ann Wood (or you can buy them ready made here)

Owl by Abigail Brown

Cat by Studio 13 (shop here)

small eats- table wear for little ones

Heath Ceramics is one of California's last remaining midcentury era potteries of dinnerware and tile.  There online shop stocks their own products as well as many other homewares and table wares made by ethical and small scale producers. Heath Ceramics are bringing out a new range of bright and beautifully made and designed table wear and topys for kids. You can see the full range here.

small finds- jack and jill toothpaste and brushes

This year in their stocking each of my kids recieved organic toothpaste and a cute toothbrush by Jack and Jill. The toothpaste comes in five delicious fruit flavors. The paste is 100 per cent natural and completely safe for kids, so it is not a problem if (or more usually- when) they end up swallowing it. Once the toothbrush is ready to be replaced you can snap off the head and recycle the handle in the compost. Jack and Jill is an Australian family run company but they ship all over the world. Small steps to a healthier world!

small gifts- coral and tusk

Lots of lovely new stocking stuffers and gifts at Coral and Tusk. You can also read our interview with founder and designer Stephanie Houseley in issue 19 of Small

small finds- vintage toys

If I was going to start another collection this is what I would choose. I love pretend play vintage toys.

toy telephone at Edmond (a great spot for all kinds of vintage treasures)

toy sewing machine

toy dishes and drainer

toy typewriter

toy cash register

toy iron

blue toy sewing machine

small finds- tooth fairy kit

My litlle girl has a wobbly front tooth- she has lost a couple before but the front teeth seems to make a big change in the way they appear, from little girl to something much more like their older selves yet to come. I love this tooth pillow idea from Moomah- and making it your self makes it even more special.

Moomah has some lovely prints and party invitations in their shop before. We have featured Jaqueline Schmidt- Moomahs arti drector amongs other things- in Small before (see the interview here). I love everything she does.

Moomah- creative art sapce and cafe for kids and parents: shop and website

small finds- donna wilson

Donna Wilson has new products out and everything is lovely. You can admire it all here and find her shop here

and if she has a boy!

I have always dressed my girl in boys clothes and the boys all have very long hair but for now I am being very color coded!

onesie by Kit + Lili

rabbit by rabbit rabbit softie

blanket by pink chicken

reuseable wall stickers from mae

toy bus made form recycled skateboards at boardgames

organic soap from babybear shop

booties by wooly baby

 

small shops- Specks and Keepings

Every issue I put together a couple of collages for the magazine. They always develop from an accidental find- stumbling across something that trips something in my imagination and makes me want to malke a whole page around it. Last issue I found Hillery Sproatt's embroidered dolls on Etsy and was inspired to put this Russian doll themed Small Something page together.Since the issue has come out,  Hillery has started up her own web shop which has much more than just her exquisite dolls.

I have now discovered that Hillery also makes beautiful fabric mobiles and etchings, and stocks in her shop gorgeous clothing for adults , lunch sacs, embroidered napkins, accessories and much more from some of her favorite makers and artists. The whole shop is now on my wish list. The whole shop is as perfectlly produced as the dolls that originally caught my eye.

Check out Hillery's shop, Specks and Keepings here and her blog here

small finds- string and sparkles

Three necklaces makers that have charmed me recently. Céline Sathal makes these lovely crocheted accessories for children and adults. You can get them here. Christine - the co- editor of Small- has recently started making and selling these vintage charm necklaces through her online and real world shop- Little Bean. This project developed from her interest in necklaces reflected in the Tresury of Trinkets story (photographed by Chris Plavida and styled by Sarah Tippetts) for the last issue of Small.

Recently Irene Hoofs from Bloesem Kids and her friend Vivien developed this adorable line of Swarovski crystal charms on bright neon threads closed with sterling silver clasps. Bling on a string! You can pick them up here.

small finds- 'round the campfire

elk tee from Barley and Birch

pants by esp no 1

campshirt by busy bees

fishing rod at the kids fishing shop

Blundstone boots

The Pocket Guide to Camping

....and when you get hungry you can whip up some Damper: a delicious and quick campfire bread

• 6 cups of self raising flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• a little warm milk (or water)

Method

1. Mix the flour, salt and sugar together into a bowl.
2. Cut in the butter until fine crumbs form.
3. Add milk slowly and mix to form a soft dough.
4. Knead lightly on a floured board until smooth.
5. Shape into a round loaf, brush with milk and cut a cross in the top surface of the dough.

. . .  For campfire cooking place the loaf in your campfire, cover with hot ashes and coals and bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. You can use a dutch oven to bake the bread but it cooks perfectly buried directly in the ashes. Break off the hard black crust and slather the inside with butter and home made jam.

 

small play - karamba

Karamba toys are hand made by Magda Bielecka in Poland. Exceptionally quirky and full of character her little people are made to be brooches, puppets or free standing toys.

what inspires you to create your toys?
Ideas usually come unexpectedly pulling my sleeve and shouting at the same time: ‘ It’s my turn now, I’m to be sewn now! I sew KARAMBA! toys as a kind of continuation, advance and extension of my childhood.
I hope they bring fun and play to everyone who comes across them.

Karamba website and blog

small holidays - advent calendars

 

Advent Calendars are a great way to answer the "how many more days to Christmas" question. Here are four of our favorites, all reusable year after year.  We have copied the stories of how these designs came about from each site - lovely little stories.

Sweet Petunia "Twenty five 2" x 2" boxes have been decorated with Christmas retro feeling paper, then numbered to help you count down the days to Christmas. They are ready to be filled with whatever your heart desires. The boxes are attached to hefty chipboard and hung with a ribbon. The lids are fully removable so if you want to mix up the days for more of a scavenger hunt you can. The last thing we need is more mass produced advent calendars going into landfills after this holiday season. I believe that this will become a lasting part of your families holiday tradition."

Happy Thoughts Pdf Pattern. Emails within 24 hours direct to your inbox! So stylish no one will know you were last minute! Check out their super cool Christmas garlands and reindeer decorations too.

Peppermint Pinwheels "When I was little, my family had a handmade advent calendar in the shape of a Christmas tree with little hooks on the branches and a special little toy that was hung on each hook every day until Christmas morning. I remember how exciting it was hanging up my toy, knowing every day I was one day closer to Christmas. This year, I decided to make a new advent calendar. This calendar is designed to look like festive holiday bunting, but each of the 25 pennant triangles is a fully lined, button enclosed pouch, perfect for small presents or candy."

Nouveau Design "I remember my family having an advent calendar while I was growing up and I was always so excited to open a new window each day in December until Christmas. I have decided to make my own, featuring my digital illustration of some shop fronts, inspired by the quaint little shops in Amsterdam. Windows and doors are numbered 1-25, and reveal a tiny symbol of Christmas behind each one.
This calendar is printed on thick watercolor paper, which gives a nice texture to the print and a substantive quality to the overall piece. The print is then mounted with strong adhesive spray to a white foam core board. I have tried to make this calendar sturdy enough to be used year after year and hopefully it can become an anticipated tradition during the holiday season."

 

small finds- par avion

Airmail Mighty Wallet 

Airmail envelope purse

Vintage style air plane postage rubber stamp

Vintage airmail style envelopes

Vintage style airmail rubber stamp

Small finds- make bath time lots of fun

Crackle bath and green bath tint

Lalabee Oragnic Sweet Orange Bubble Bath

QED Customised scent Skin care - Bath bubbles

Handmade cotton Bamboo baby wash cloths

Lion washcloth puppet

Handmade rainbow soap sticks

Scrubbies bath toys and appliques -BPA and Phthalate free 

Small play- severina kids

Severina Kids is a beautifully detailed line of toys and objects hand made in limited batches in Madrid. They ship all over the world. Each series is photographed in its own enchanting hand drawn environment.

Check out their other items and the lovely layouts at Severina Kids

Small report- handmade toy alliance

The Handmade Toy Alliance is a great resource for anyone looking to buy ethical, handmade and safe toys for their kids. The alliance is a large group of toy makers, retailers and product manufacturers who are striving to protect and preserve handmade and unique children's products in America. 

Here is some background from their website:  In 2007 it was found that some large toy manufacturers who outsourced their production to China and other developing countries were selling toys with dangerously high lead content or unsafe small parts, unsecured and easily swallowed small magnets or made from chemicals that made kids sick.  Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.

The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act , or CSPIA  in August, 2008.  Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number. 

All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and to update their molds to include batch labels. 

For small toymakers and manufacturers of children's products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business. 

The CPSIA  forgot to exclude the class of children's goods that have earned and kept the public's trust: Toys, clothes, and accessories made by small businesses where the owners are personally involved in the creation of their goods.  The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade children's products will no longer be legal in the US.

You can support these small businesses fighting to get the law changed and to keep real choice in kids products available to the public by remembering to support handmade when you are shopping for kids clothes or toys. 

The  list makes it easy find the alliance designers and retailers. Here are a few products we like starting with Small magazine's co-editor, Christine Visneau's line Baby Bean Vintage Daywear

Little Sapling Toys

Sarah's Silks

Pretty Dreamer

The Play Store -a wonderful online toyshop. 

Tactile Baby

Craftsbury Kids another great resource for natural toys and clothing. 

Small finds: old school

School seems like a nicer place these days but I think the stuff used to be nicer back then!

lunchbox

satchel

ruler pencil box

black globe

wall map

stapler

small art - a bright spot

Ecojet 

Marcus Walters- happy wheels

A new design by Petit Collage

Louise Cunningham

If you like surface pattern design you can always find wonderful inspiration on the prints and patterns blog

Small draw- color me!

 
1: The awesome collective 'Doodlers Anonymous' - the home for spontaneous doodle art- has put out their first doodle coloring-in book featuring the work of 29 artists from around the world.  

2: We love Moomah and the work of  their art director Jacqueline Schmidt so we are super excited about the new coloring book they have put out called 'Connect with your Neighbors'. You can read more about Jacquelines diverse practice in our in depth interview here.

3: Since we are talking about independent coloring books we have to do some shameless self promotion and mention the Small Magazine Coloring Book which features the first 12 contributors to the ongoing 'small draw' series in Small. You can also download these drawings individually by clicking on 'small draw' in the tool bar above each issue of Small magazine.

4: One of our favorite illustrators, Adolie Day, is soon going to release her coloring book through the gorgeous French papeterie La Marelle. We can't wait to see it!

Small Something - Fool's Gold

Gold Hi Top by Hummel

Glitter Belt by Crewcuts

Cloud Bracelet by Hop Hop Hop

20's Capette by Fiona Scanlan

Lounge Poof by Zid Zid

Small Something - Owls

Clockwise from top left:

Sleepy Owl Mobile by Alimrose Designs

Paper Banner by Famille Summerbelle

Owl Clock by Decoylab

The Hoots by Tsk Tsk

Owl Tee by Shirin NYC

Stuffed Owl by Tamar Mogendorff 

Owl Bag Craft Kit  by Sparrow Kids

Small Something - A few of our favorite things....

Red leather baby shoe by Chickpea
Fabric Cat by Jane Foster
Cappuccino Fabric by Anna Ka Bazaar
Girl illustration by Gemma Correll
Numbers T-Shirt by Winter Water Factory
123 Book by Charlie Harper

Small Something- illuminated and animated

 

Nothing quite like glowing animals to keep the monsters under the bed.

toadstools, rabbit, and duck from Pomme
glowing bear from 2 modern
illuminated duck from Urban baby
felt butterfly lamp Mixko
bunting Paper Flowers

Small Finds - chalk it up

nothing's permanent...
Mary Kate McDevitt mini goals chalk board- great for shifting goal posts.
Fiona Kate sticky chalk dots and square labels - handy and fun!
The Red Thread hand-painted chalk board egg- adorable!
Sam and Bellie  portable chalk board table mat- the perfect entertainment while waiting for dinner.

Small Something- we like bikes

Bike print tote by The Craft Pantry
Push Bike tee by Charlie and Sarah

Our dream bike- the Bakfiets (cargo) Bicycle from the Dutch Bike Co. Seattle. Check out the classic Dutch Work cycles and German Retrovelos too.
Schwinn Print tee by Happy Family
Lomo bike photography by Drip Stick

Small Paper - Frazier and Wing

We recently caught up with Heather from Frazier and Wing. We are always looking out for good mobiles here at Small and we have been charmed by her multicolored hangings since we first featured her work in our second issue of Small. Back then she used magazine pages for her creations but her new works are made of stronger papers in controlled color schemes. Her modern, poetic mobiles, hangings and garlands are available on her brand new, and very beautiful, website.

Frazier and Wing