Charlie & Lola

Höjdarna

In The Night Garden

Pingu

Miniscule

Shaun The Sheep

Some “new” kid’s tv I found myself captivated by, watching with Tilja. Fun doing it a second time around;)

I just got Meomi’s (design duo based in Vancouver and San Francisco, who produce wicked graphics, characters and books) book Color Cloud Seeding in the mail from their publisher Rojo.

It’s wall to wall rich color pattern, scenery and characters, and it’s a real eyeful.

I like. I like a lot.

I just got Meomi’s (design duo based in Vancouver and San Francisco, who produce wicked graphics, characters and books) book Color Cloud Seeding in the mail from their publisher Rojo.

It’s wall to wall rich color pattern, scenery and characters, and it’s a real eyeful.

I like. I like a lot.

This weekend, while we were out shopping – in Stockholm – for bigger winter boots for our daughter, and a calendar for my wife, I came across these new swedish design notepads and books.

Designed to be easier on the eyes, and environment – the grey paper is lined with white lines. 

I really like the series. Something about the grey paper is very calming, and the white lines very subtle. It’s all very classy, and hip – that orange is vibrant and cool.

Whitelines® – the new writing paper.

Very quirky, funny, and well formulated shorts about nearly everything under the sun, presented by a guy with far out hair.

My kinda guy.

I like the animations, by Benjamin Goldman, too:)

Great and Telling Tales
Benjamin Goldman

Stephen Colbert gives us a taste of his special take on the holiday season, complete with special guests and lots of songs. Start yourself off with his intro up there^.

Feist appears as a guest, sings a song too, but I liked this earlier appearance better. Dunno why I thought it was part of the christmas special, before I watched it – must have been the red tie:)

Swedish Matroshka also have a funky idea to organize all your need in a one room apartment. Split level, and a lot of rolling pieces this time – lots of spots to sit too!

Matroshka

I have a thing for very organized self-contained dwellings, and this looks brilliant.
I can just imagine an empty space in a corner of a loft, a very bare studio apartment or even a whole budget self-service hotel being decked out with these flatpack kits.

Just add some kind of plumbing, a toilet and a shower, and a few outlets, and boom, you’re set!

Maybe some chairs, a mattress, some drawers too?

I even like the prototypes – made in very thick cardboard.

Louwrien Kaptein

When I visit Italy, and this has been my third trip in the past six years, I feel good about most everything.

“Why is that?”, I found myself wondering as I pushed Tilja through parks and paths for her afternoon nap, back here in Stockholm. I think I have found a few reasons:

People acknowledge you.
It seems very simple, but what a world of difference it makes to be somewhere where most people look you in the eye, say “hello” (or “ciao”), or even just nod your way.
If you have a child, you can count on 3 to 10 times the interaction.
You are there WITH the Italians. They draw you in, if you let them.

Italians don’t drive crazy.
They drive like experts. Not once in 10 days did I hear an argument between drivers, and rarely an unneeded beep of the car horn. The traffic is unbelievable. But there aren’t traffic jams. Cars, trucks, busses and scooters weave around each other like dancers. They stop for pedestrians in good time, let each other pass or merge without complaint.

They walk the same way.

The food.
Everywhere you go – the food is brilliant. I overheard an Italian reply to his British tourist friend’s question, “Is it any good?”, about a dish on a restaurant’s menu, by saying, “We ONLY do GOOD”
True, true.
Well… except for the meal I had at a tabacchi, once. But that was to be expected from a tourist trap like that.

The scenery and sun
You simply cannot beat ancient ruins, huge trees and gardens, huge open skies, winding streets, cliffsides, water, wicked cool classic cars, the warm temperature, and all the well dressed folk.

“No problem!” approach to problems
Italians all seem to be handymen. When we arrived at our rented room on AnaCapri, and found we hadn’t ordered a crib for Tilja, the owner came down to the room, heard our “problem”, said “No problem!”, and began to turn the armchair in the room into a makeshift bed.
Tilja never slept better.

These are a couple of handy tote bags from Flip and Tumble.
We usually take a few plastic shopping bags and a canvas totebag with us to shop for groceries. Inevitably the plastic shopping bags begin to show some wear and tear – and do just that, in the end – tear. These two designs make taking a bag with you more fun and handy. Not only will the shopkeepers stop giving you a funny look for pulling out bags from their competitors, and stuffing their groceries in them – but you can stop that insane amount of plastic being thrown out for no good reason. Reusing the bags, as I mentioned, is good- but you can only do it for so long. These could be used for shopping items other than groceries, as well.

The canvas bag we have is good and sturdy, and has done it’s duty time and again- but it isn’t something we take with us everywhere. It just isn’t compact. The Flip and Tumble bags, I imagine, could be taken anywhere.

I wouldn’t mind having a loopt or two in my pocket at all times.

Flip and Tumble