making a hard play for the "Best Aunt Ever" award

My nephew Declan's birthday isn't for another couple days, but since yesterday was our last night all together in Colorado, we decided to celebrate.  (Did I mention we're in Colorado for the holidays?  We are.  It's lovely.)

Since cakes don't turn out that well here at high altitude (at least not when I make them) and I had some left over sugar cookie dough in the fridge, I decided to make him a giant pop up bulldozer birthday cookie.

I just cut the parts using a template and then assembled them with a TON of royal icing.  It was really easy, I swear.  The only hard part was trying to pipe the icing with 3 kids trying to sit on my lap or steal a taste (I didn't really mind). 

I decided to make a bulldozer partly as an homage to last years cake, and also because...

after the candles were blown out, we had a demolition derby.

The kids took some of the parts home with them this morning.  Can't wait until next year.

birds of a feather

I know I have a problem liking dead bird things but,


how cute are these lamps from the Conran Shop?

well shod

My niece Riley is turning 2 next week and I got her a cardboard play house (she doesn't read blogs, it's safe to tell you). But if she were younger, I'd get her these adorable booties from Poppy and Peony too!

Aren't they cute?

well loved

Amy was wearing the cutest skirt the other day and when I asked her about it she told me it was made by Preloved.

Preloved refashions vintage fabrics and garments into super cute clothes for women and kids.

I love this onesie made from 3 old tee shirts.

And these adorable little stuffed dogs too.
check out their online store here.

famous

see that handsome fella modeling Maptote's great new onesies? That's Chiara and Jon's littlest, our godson Baby Cade!

Could he be any cuter? Nope, I don't think so.


And what about those onesies? Adorable! They come in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Paris and NYC Icon versions and in sizes 3-6 month, 6-12 month and 12-18 month. 100% cotton and made in USA!

Check out Chiara's blog to see more from Cade's photo shoot with Kate Mathis, and lots of other wonderful things. (especially Cade's older brother, Jackson.)

(btw, see that blanket Cade's lying on? I made it. :) )

boxed in

I love this project, Shoebox Living where 125 kids between 8 and 10 were given a shoebox and asked to recreate a room in their home or a room where they spend a lot of time. (one kid did a pub because "I spend a lot of time in a pub.")

Be sure to check out the whole project. The boxes are great and the descriptions are amazing- sweet, funny, and sometime a little sad.

if you want a 4 year old boy to love you, bake him a dump truck cake

I know I said that I was going to do food posts on Mondays, but I can't wait.
Tuesday, my nephew, Declan, had his 4th birthday! So, naturally, I baked him a dump truck cake.
(I think Jackson had a similar cake at his birthday party last summer, but I can't remember.)

I made a 4 layer chocolate cake (because he's 4), filled it with chocolate filling,

and covered it with whipped cream and smashed up Oreos.

Finally, I topped it off with a bulldozer, some construction cones and a dump truck.

My favorite thing about the cake, aside from photographing it like it was a Martin and Munoz snowglobe,

and watching Declan add and move toys around, was that it was super easy. The messier it looked the better!  (Which was good because I'd snowshoed 9 miles earlier that day and was WAY too exhausted to do anything fancy.)

Wait, I take that back. My absolute favorite thing about the cake was that Declan loved it!
Happy Birthday little guy!

Good gracious, Ignacious!

Here's a gift idea for the tiny archi-geek in your life, Iggy Peck, Architect. It's a great story about passion and perseverance with a good, albeit sometimes tongue twistery, rhyme scheme.
But the best part by far is David Roberts illustrations, especially the ones on graph paper (I love graph paper).
Plus, saying the line, "Good gracious, Ignacious!" is almost fun enough to make you want to run out and buy a cat just so you can name him Iggy. (maybe that's just me.)

wrong turn

My search for fabulous/affordable gifts for my nephews and niece is headed in the wrong direction- at least price wise. But how awesome is this mini Model T?

big tent

They are well out of my price range, but I love these handmade indoor tents and think they'd make a great gift for my nephews and niece.
I love the fun mixed patterns (the top one is my favorite).
Maybe I can get confident enough on my sewing machine to try and make one for them between now and Christmas. I've got 22 days, right?

available here.

take off

I decided to make all my Christmas presents this year until I realized that it was going to be hard for me to make something for my almost 6 and almost 4 year old nephews that they would actually like.
For example, no matter how nice a pair of mittens I knit them, they aren't going to care.

So, inspired by Courtney's post about paper airplanes, I am thinking about getting them this Electric Plane Launcher kit. Using gears and motors kids can assemble something that can make paper airplanes fly at 30 miles per hour.

Maybe I should get them a paper airplane book while I'm at it. Then we can make some paper airplanes together!

What's not to like about that?

OLBAPI!

I just found out a friend of mine from grad school, Sarah, and her friend Joanne have an Etsy store!

They make gorgeous hand made pillows and quilts and just about the cutest stuffed animals you have ever seen.
I'm in love with Florence the Dog with Backpack and Doggy Bone.

check more of their great stuff here.

Halloween

As far as I am concerned it's way too early to think about such things, but how cute are these baby Halloween costumes from Oeuf?

I usually have a hard time getting motivated to get dressed up on Halloween but always feel lame for showing up to parties without a costume. I think I could handle putting on a hat and some socks so I kinda wish these came in adult sizes.


I think I could fashion something for myself because they remind me a little bit of the little bear outfit I knitted for Jackson a couple years ago when he was a baby.

I still have the card Chiara had made on my bulletin board because I love it so much.

play house

I gave my nephews Colin and Declan this darling Nume cardboard playhouse. A few years and a little sister later it was a little worse for ware and when they moved, it ended up in the recycling bin.

They still talk about it, love it and seem to want a new one, but I don't really want to just get them the same thing again. I thought about getting them a teepee, but when I saw the cardboard playhouse, Villa Julia by Javier Mariscal, today, I thought it might be the perfect thing.

Isn't it cute?

via dezeen

rubber band

Aren't these animal shaped rubber bands cute?  wouldn't want to make a giant rubber band ball with these babies.

available here.

well dressed

Steven caught me looking at 3.1 Phillip Lim's kids clothes the other day and realized (again) that we are going to need to win the lottery if ever we have a daughter.  

that jacket on the top left is so cute I wish it was in my size!  

play house

Annie, Colin and Declan are on their way home (sad face) and I think that Gus and Ollie already miss them, either that or they are a little glad that no one is chasing them around.  Actually, it's probably a little of both.  

I think Colin and Declan would love one of these handmade willow play houses that I saw a little while ago on frolic.

They mad me think of the work of artist Patrick Dougherty whose work I love.