Let's play: From dusk till dawn

A place for fire, storytelling and playing - the perfect stage for a kids world, where real life and imagination play equal parts. This big fireplace is located in Trondheim in Norway and my heart alway jumped a beat when I discovered it at the wonderful Playspaces blog. It's designed by Haugen/Zohar architects and was designed and build on a limited budget, and by recycling materials. It's cozy and cute and warm and magical, and who wouldn't wont to go inside and play or just sit down and listen. It's a bit like a mixture of a indian tent and snowhouse, and it also reminds me a little bit of a Hersey kiss to be quite honest.

There is more to life then meets the eye, and nobody understands that better then kids.

The structure in inspired by the Norwegian turf huts and old log construction. It's made out of 28 pieces of naturally impregnated core of pine that are placed with various spaces to assure chimney effect and natural light.

Kids room: The Enchanted Bedroom

I dreamt of a fairy-tale bedroom when I was a kid. A place where the imagination could run wild. Actually I had a very nice bedroom with a fun bunker bed, but it didn't stop me from daydreaming. While picking the things for this post, I searched for things that had an Tim Burton and Alice in Wonderland-like aura. Mysterious, dark, weird and fun, and of course magical.

Image above from left:
1.A night stand by Josefine Hellström-Olsson
2. Shadow light by Tord Boontje
3. What it is It isn't - a chest of drawer by Ontwerpduo.
4. A papercut butterfly by Helen Musselwhite.
5. Forest canopy bed from Anthropologie.
6. A print of a white raven by Candace Jean.
7. Hedgehog pillow at Renegade Handmade.

Music: Because it's tiny and cute

It's hard to resist the charm of U900, the japanese ukulele duo. The music, the cute voices and the crochet caracthers will steal your heart. Happy monday!

Don't get cold: Warm underwear

I was thrilled to discover these warm underwear for children from Ratdesign although I'm sitting here waiting for spring to arrive. It doesn't mean I would like to get rid of all the warm winter clothes. But who am I kidding anyway, in my part of the world we can use warm undies all year round, everyday in the winter and for camping trips in the summer. These are called Hlýjar which means warm.

The bright and bold colors of Ratdesing's underwear are welcoming twist to traditional kids wool underwear. They are designed by Ragnheidur Tryggvadottir  in cooperation with Svanhildur Sigtryggsdóttir, who knits them in a machine but does the little crochet wool lace lining by hand. 

The Icelandic designer Ragnheidur Tryggvadottir is Ratdesign and she's also designed a coat rack called The black sheep. As the name suggest is a metal cutout in the shape of a sheep head. You can check out Ratdesign on Facebook and a new homepage will be up soon, you can see it here. 

Thank you Ratdesign.

The Magician next door: Helen Musselwhite

Imagine a world made out of paper - a delicate world, full of wonders, creatures, fairy-tales and magic.  A captivating world that fascinates you and mesmerizes. Luckily a world like that exists in the artwork of Helen Musselwhite, which is drawn to the texture and feel of paper. She is an artist living in Manchester, that works from home, where she cuts out different kinds of paper and puts together layers of her cutouts creating a whole new world in 3D full of live and imagination. She is the Magician next door. 

"By the use of bold colour, strong graphic line and familiar images I create highly individual and visually appealing pieces of art that make an instant impact. My work has a distinctive hand crafted quality that pays respect to all forms of mid century design, folk and ethnic art, as well as current and future trends ."

"Influenced by the natural world each piece is manipulated to become an intriguing place, a glimpse into another world of fiction and fairytale."

Her beautiful glass domes are on display at the Rostra & Rooksmoor Gallery through February.

You can see more of Helen's work here.

Come sail away

Come sail away with me on one of Mummysam's boats. They are small wonderful fiber sculptures made by Samantha Cotterill. Each one tells a story and each will take you away in one way or the orther, at least inspire your daydrems. They will be exhibited soon at Renegade. And check out Mummysam's blog right here.

Kids room: Happy nostalgic charm

Mette Helena B. Rasmussen is a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, a painter and an interior stylist among other things. She can easily decorate a kids room and fill it with color and patterns without making it seem too cluttered. She does articles and interior styling for different interior design magazines in Denmark, Norway and Sweden among them are magazines like BoBedre og BoligLIV.

"I love colors and I believe that colors influence us in many way - and are therefore important in our homes. And I believe that children love colors!!! And because of that I'm not afraid to use all sorts of colors and patterns in children's rooms and I have fallen in love with retro vintage wall papers. I love the nostalgic charm and happy colors and patterns."

 "I love my work because I use all my creativity and imagination. And I like to inspire people and make them happy with new interiors."

"My style for children's rooms is inspired by vintage from the 50's, 60's and 70's. But for "real homes", kitchen and so on my style is quite different. Since I had my own daughter - Villa Malou 3 years old today - I have been into making children's rooms all the time."

Did I mention that Mette Helena was an interior designer on the Danish TV show called Welcome Home, where she redocorated a lot of homes? You can see her TV work right here.  And you can see more of her work here. - Thank you Mette Helena

Educational: Magic tree

This little magical cardboard tree will start to bloom if you simply water the base of it. Crystals in all colors will come to live and cover the tree, turning it into a tiny colorful magical plant. How wonderfully cool and magical toy. You can buy this one here, at Cox & Cox or you can be adventurous and create one youself. All you need is table salt and a few ingredients available at the grocery store. That should be a wonderful inspiring science project. The instructions are right here.

Kids room: Handpainted tree

I love this idea of the tree and the birdhouses above the bed. This is an image from Design Sponge: a sneek peek of Emily's Henson bungalow in Los Angeles. Emily Henson is a prop stylist and decorator, and she used to work as a Display Coordinator for Anthropologie where she once made a lot of birdhouses out of cardboard boxes for a window display. After the display was taken down she was reluctant to throw them out, so now they decorate her home. 

 

Image from Design Sponge.

The idea of the birdhouses and the tree is simple and something you could easily do with your kids. 

Shopping:Keeping warm

It's still snowing in my part of the world so my mind is on warm sweaters. I particularly like these Icelandic wool sweaters from the Farmers Market that are a redesigned versions of the traditional Icelandic sweater. The designers and the couple, Bergthora Gudnadottir and Joel Palsson have their kids help them out with the children sweaters by trying them on to see if they are comfortable and soft enough. They are mostly sold in Iceland, but there is an online store in New York that also sells them, right here.