Petit Collage is a line of modern sustainable kids decor offering eco-friendly and fun takes on mobiles, screenprints, and wall accessories. From Animal Alphabet Sustainable Screenprints to Adorable, Sustainable Kids Art to beautiful Bamboo Mobiles, Petit Collage items offer an extra special touch for your child’s room. Their bamboo mobiles are the perfect hanging art embellishments for a baby nursery or tot’s room.
2008 has been a good year for Inhabitots. After all, it’s the year this bouncing eco baby blog was born! Inhabitots is still very new, but in the five months we’ve been around, we have covered a lot of territory in the world of eco design for kids. From maternity wear to monster dolls, diapers to bike seats - if the environment and kids were involved, we were there. Here were the most popular Inhabitots stories of 2008, ranked according to traffic and comments. We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please vote below and let us know which ones were YOUR favorites.
Looking for a soft toy that your baby can grow up with? Organic Monsieur Tsé Tsé is so cuddly and adorable, your baby will want to grab onto him and never let go. He’s perfectly baby safe; made with organic cotton, embroidered eyes, and as designer Raplapla notes, “A smile that won’t fade.”
Facebook is a useful networking tool, not to mention a fun way to connect with friends, both new and old. However, like all things, Facebook is far from perfect. A while back, Facebook started deleting what they call “obscene images” from user photo albums. The offending images - breastfeeding photos.
It’s no secret that here at Inhabitots we adore our owls. If you have a penchant for owls too, or simply want to give a big hoot by keeping it ‘green’ this holiday season, then this post is just for you - chock full of beautiful, kid-friendly, eco-owl paraphernalia, perfect for gift giving.
Baby drool… isn’t it the cutest thing? Their poor little teething mouths can’t help but issue gobs and gobs of the slimy stuff. And let’s not even talk about dinnertime. So, how do you keep all this cute, messy mess off of that fancy schmancy dress? Bibeez! Fashioned from recycled T-shirts, ReTeez offers a line of one-of-a-kind, double-sided bibs that have that au courant, ‘upcycled pop’ look (think Jeremy Scott).
Appliqued shirts are all the rage in children’s clothing boutiques, but as cute as they are, they often cost a pretty penny, and if you want a one-of-a-kind design, it’s going to cost even more! Luckily, appliqued shirts are very easy to make, and they’re a great way to extend the usefulness of clothing and recycle old, worn-out garments. They also make great holiday gifts!
If you have been wondering how to dress your busy little elf for the holidays, look no further, as Upa Project has some super cute and colorful slip on booties for tiny scampering feet. Handcrafted from supple synthetic leather, these soft and pliable gUgU booties are a great way to lovingly protect soft soles while also allowing them to expand and develop naturally. Add to this the fact that gUgUs come in a rainbow of yummy colors, and you will not only have sugarplums dancing in their heads but on their adorable feet, too.
With their cute and cozy Hug-Me Sweater and Squeeze-Me Mittens, New York eco children’s outfitter Oeuf encourages cuddling during the cold winter season. While the Hug-Me Sweater features two mittens sewn like pockets into the front to keep little ones’ hands warm, the Squeeze-Me Mittens encourage hand-holding by offering an adult-sized mitten with a a tiny little mitten sewn into the palm for your child’s hand to slip in. Both are made of 100% alpaca wool, a renewable fiber that is strong, lightweight, and hypo-allergenic, and both of these adorable items are now available through the Inhabitat Shop.
Every time I spot a baby out and about in my NYC neighborhood, that tot is sporting some type of fuzzy animal ears in the form of a cap or hood. So I’m guessing its not just me who is smitten with fuzzy animal ears - there appears to be some sort of baby bear ear trend taking the nation by storm. Still, that doesn’t stop me from loving baby animal ear garb and dressing my tot (see above) up like a little bear every chance I get. Sorry folks, I just can’t stop myself! The above baby bear ear cap is hand-crocheted by the talented Mrs. Amy Molhenhoff, and it is just about my favorite thing ever.
Chilly winter weather is blowing in, and it’s time to protect baby’s tiny head and cute little ears from the cold. You can keep your tot ‘green’ and warm with these adorable nature inspired organic hats that fight the chill factor and keep her looking totally precious. The 100% organic cotton Finch on Light Blue bonnet above is a cozy and sweet option sized for a 9 to 12 month old. Keep reading for more adorable toppers…
After writing about parents converting to frugality by purchasing used items in the wake of the poor economy, various other money saving concepts have come to light. K-Mart and Sears have been promoting their revived layaway services this season, as a means for shoppers to escape the evils of credit card debt (there is no premium or interest on layaway items), and I’ve recently come across the novel website, rentAtoy, which encourages parents to say “bye-bye” to buying, and stack rented toys under the Christmas tree instead.
It’s the children in our lives who will inherit this planet from us, and as grownups, its our duty to keep it clean and green for their future. Kids naturally gravitate towards environmental stewardship, so encourage their ecological leanings this holiday season with these cute, fun, green gifts this year.
Eco cutey hipster Baby k* shoes were born out of designer Keiko Hirosue-Korolev’s desire to produce less waste in her shoemaking studio. She discovered that she could use fewer strips of raw materials by strategically cutting patterns for both her adult and baby shoes from the same squares of leather. “I guess next will be a collection of leather scrap jewelry,” says Keiko, half-joking.
Are you looking for the perfect earth-friendly baby shower gift? Maybe you’re starting to collect ideas for holiday baby gifts? Either way, the beautiful BabyBam Collection has got you covered. Or to be more accurate, the BabyBam Collection has got that baby you’re thinking of covered (and lathered) with their wonderful bamboo and organic cotton clothing sets, bamboo soaps, and organic balms.
Brian Driscoll’s pull toys are sweetly handmade, eco-friendly gifts for babies and tots. Artist Brian Driscoll lovingly crafts each of his toys with select native woods of Ash, Cherry, Aspen, and Maple. These 100% lead-free toys have rounded edges that are sanded to a baby-safe smooth finish, and topped off with non-toxic mineral oil. Driscoll views his toys as “small sculptures,” and he hopes to instill an appreciation of art in children as they enjoy his creations.
Babysoy clothing for babies and toddlers is devastatingly cute, and smartly crafted from one of my favorite foods: soy. As a vegetarian, I have always appreciated soy as a source of protein, but I underestimated the possibilities inherent in soy, and I’m delighted to learn about its life as a fabric in the Babysoy clothing line. Not sure what gift to grab for the tiny eco-fashionista in your life whose wardrobe is brimming with clothing options? Gift her with Babysoy… her parents will be ’soy’ happy you did.
Earthentree toys are stunning, natural, exquisitely beautiful toys with a colorful backstory. Earthentree is based in Kirkland, Washington, however, each toy is handmade by an artisan in a community in South India. Deepti Shanker, the owner of Earthentree, was raised in this same artisan community of Channapatna, India, to which she now maintains close ties via her business. Earthentree toy-making techniques are over two centuries old, and oftentimes artisans have learned and inherited their skills as they were passed down by previous generations of family toy-makers.
Will you be celebrating your baby’s first Christmas this holiday season? Make it extra special by starting an eco-holiday ornament collection for him or her to cherish for years to come. Earth-friendly holiday decor items and tree ornaments are popping up just in time to trim your tree. One of our favorites is the beautifully simple Baby’s First Christmas miniature toy ornament from the Little Sapling Toys’s shop at Etsy.
One of the main ingredients of the holiday season is delectable food. Families and friends gather over feasts to celebrate and enjoy home cooked meals and traditional dishes. Babies should be treated to the same savory, lip smacking meals; and we’ve whipped up some delicious homemade organic baby food recipes that may be cost effectively made from the same ingredients you’re bound to have on hand while preparing your festive dinners.
We all know from The Velveteen Rabbit and Toy Story, that the second we leave the room, toys come to life. Swinging from table lamps, sliding down rocking chairs, and jumping on the bed, toys never quit when it comes to showing their playful side. Lana Organic stuffed animals are wholesome creatures with animation woven through every eco fiber of their being. One need not turn their back on these 100% organic cotton toys for them to energize a child’s room with liveliness.
In Japanese animation, the bigger the eyes, the cuter the character. But in the hands of Dutch designer Rogier van Zijp, characters can be just as cute even if you don’t see their eyes at all. Cheekeyes, van Zijp’s latest creation, is a collection of handmade animal characters. With their closed eyes and blushing cheeks, each character seems to be experiencing a moment of deep, delightful thought. Whether those thoughts are blissful nirvana, (see Mr. Hippopotamus above) or a little bit cheeky, (see Ms. Triceratops below), Mr. van Zijp never lets on.
Once thought of as a case strictly for charity, reusing clothing items has become an integral and environmentally savvy facet of green parenting. Now that Goodwill clothing is ‘hip’ (the D.C. stores have a Goodwill Fashionista on their payroll), and we are witnessing the advent of the ‘frugal teen’, can a shift in thinking among parents who once turned up their noses at the idea of hand-me-down or gently-used options for children be too far behind?
Here’s a bird’s eye view into Little Lark, a company featuring adorable one-of-a-kind, eco-modern clothing for kids, and boasting environmentally conscious practices as well. At Inhabitots, we are birds of a feather who flock together with folks we believe are doing their part to create sustainable, compelling wares which both decorate and preserve our planet. Little Lark, based in Portland, Oregon, has us singing their praises for their beautifully designed, environmentally thoughtful kids clothing.
The eco-friendly WoodPecker Walker from Plan Toys carved a niche in my heart with its precious features, and quickly became our baby’s favorite companion. Crafted entirely of sustainable wood, this walker is as beautiful as it is functional. Two playful little woodpeckers perched at the front cheerfully peck away, making a charming clacking sound as the walker is pushed. The sound they make is lively and frolicsome, encouraging babies to ‘walk on’ down the path to a green lifestyle.
After scaring my newly-pregnant wife with the dangers of toxoplasmosis (I swear I thought there was something to it), we permanently shipped her cats off to her parents’ house, and I settled in to what I thought would forever be our comfortable pet-free home. And then came my son. My son wanted a dog. Really that should read, ‘My wife wanted a dog to replace her cats, and suggested the idea to our son figuring that his incessant querying would break me.’ Well, it didn’t. My winning question to him was, ‘Who’s going to pick-up the poop?’ Disgusted, his only response was, ‘Not me!’
Email This Post
|
Stumble it! | Hugg this | no comments
