My gorgeous new bike!

The Raleigh retroglide 7... what a looker! She rides like a dream, even on our miserable sidewalks, and she looks great. The seat and fenders have fancy art on them and the chain cover features a pretty flapper. We bought the bike at Erik's bike shop, a great place if you're looking.

It rides like a cruiser but shifts beautifully, smoothly and seamlessly even going up hill. It is large and elegant, like a Victorian aristocrat's penny farthing (bicycle of the past, if you're wondering.

Mine has a babyseat by bobike with an incredibly adorable little baby in it, wearing a ducky helmet. We rode for an hour this evening (past bedtime) and baby loved it! So did I. The bobike was the result of ardurous online shopping that lasted for weeks (and took up valuable blogging time!), but the details are too dull to post right now. I just love my new bike!

So disappointed in Fine Stationery

I ordered incredibly cute invitations for my son's birthday party, but after hours of hassle, it appears that Fine Stationery has let me down completely. Not only are the invitations not here yet, with the party on Saturday, but I didn't find out until Friday night that I would not get them until Tuesday! That meant I needed to run out on the day before Easter and buy new invitations, quite the hassle I was hosting Easter and naturally wanted a clean house... And I had to get random invitations that are not part of the theme.
Finally I ended up laboriously handwriting out a few dozen and dropping them in the mail, so I hope that most guests receive them by Tuesday. What a shame. If they had been honest from the start about the delay, I could have at least mailed out the replacement invites last Thursday! It is so tack to send invites out so late.
After hours on instant messaging with the company, I learned that I will need to ship back the materials to receive a refund. What a colossal waste of time and energy--and it means that I don't even get to have one for my son's baby book, after all of that effort! Not only that, but the customer service agent seemed really uninformed and was unable to provide contact information for the CEO, which is unacceptable, of course!
I have been a passionate advocate for this company, and now I have to say--don't use them! What a shame.

Summer island style

I love the site Calypso with its breezy summer looks. It makes me want to go to Playa Del Carmen and stay at La Lunata on Fifth Avenue, hang out at beach bars and shop for colorful lanterns...The whole vibe of the Calypso site, with its fun graphics, evoke an early-days-of-Banana vibe.

These linen pants and cute striped pullover would be so great for avoiding the sun while staying cool on a long day at the beach, and underneath a cute bikini...
O summer, will you ever come?

Pretty dresses

I found a few very pretty dresses for Spring and Easter. Modcloth has a pretty cake artist dress--not sure why it is called this. It has a great neckline, just like the one at White House Black Market, which I tried on the other day and ADORE. It is so incredibly sweet and pretty. I ended up getting one with straps because with baby, I am always up and down and don't want him getting ideas. But I keep thinking about it...

This is going to be about bicycles for a while

Yes, it's time to think about a new bike! I have a sleek mountain bike (that I rarely trailride on, but that's beside the point) that isn't going to be great for wedging a baby seat onto. So I started to think about a new bike. My ideal is $200 or less, but is that feasible these days, unless I get a Huffy or Schwinn that weighs a ton? I do need a light bike for hefting up into our rack and because Baby & his seat will add some weight to it!
So, just dreaming, I found this one. Ooooo, what a cool way to drop $850...
Though this will not happen...

Suspenders (braces) for baby

Baby is so skinny that he crawls right out of his little trews. So cute but I think that maybe he needs some suspenders. 

I started my hunt and found the hilariously specific company, British Braces, which sells all kinds of suspenders but seems very dodgy due to the large flashing pounds signs. And there is an American version called the Suspender Store. This store has a large photo of the nerdiest kids I have ever seen grinning like maniacs with large suspenders that contrast with their turtlenecks, just waiting to be beaten up on the playground. They do sell really cute baby suspenders, with rainbows and duckies and such. 

But again the website seems kind of strange. I mean, leather suspenders for cowboys? Hmm. 

More adorable elfin gardens

Spring is here! A long walk with baby revealed crocuses blooming, scilla covering lawns with blue flowers, so many green things making a valiant effort to come to life. The sun was bright and oh, it was wonderful. I arranged the lawn furniture and moved baby's little walker out to the patio. I also started to dream about my yard, which is currently dead and horrible.

I don't have any elves in my garden, but I can't help but feel that they might be moving in sometime soon. If your garden isn't cute enough, then maybe you want to fill it with more elf houses. I had no idea that there were so many places to buy this kind of thing, but apparently, it's not hard to find really cute elfin tchotchkes. After you finish playing with your elves, you can have tea at the toadstool table. 

Gorgeous prints

How on earth did I just discover Amy Butler tonight? Her gorgeous patterns adorn bags, quilts, and more. I'm a huge fan. The bag at left is available at Endless.com

Wonderful dolls from Petitcollin

Petitcollin is a marvelous dollmaker. France's last surviving doll-factory is 150 years old and still producing lovely dolls to cherish, like Colin. He has a blue sailor suit, too. So charming! I had a boy doll who has more or less survived. This was Peter, Heidi's friend, and made by Effanbee. So far this doll has not been reissued, which is practically a first for my childhood toys. Fisher Price, for instance, has even reissued the original rotary dial phone I used to play with. We don't even have a home phone, so that's pure pandering to people like me (of course baby has one, which he adores). However, little Colin here would be a lovely replacement. 

Garden Accessories

What do we do now that Smith & Hawkin is gone?

Let your little helpers start to cultivate their green thumbs by giving them this cute watering can. And if you need new tools, you might want to look into this cute wicker carrier, which comes with tools (maybe low quality? The whole package is only 30-some bucks).
 Protect your manicure with super-cool gardening gloves that come in many colors and sizes are available at Gardener's Supply, a charmless but useful resource. They also sell handsome and colorful plastic tubs.
Pretty gloves can be found at Little's Good Gloves. And, if your patio or garden is so hot (and secluded) that you have entirely given up on fashion, you could wear one of these weird neckties that are full of supposedly cooling crystals. It comes in stylish colors like "dinosaur."

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Lovely nightlights

There is nothing more comforting to a child than a friendly nightlight. In baby's room, the nightlight is a little toadstool painted with flowers, animals, and a few little woodland sprites. Light shines from windows in the stem and in the cheerful red cap. It is possibly the sweetest lamp that I have ever seen, and it was designed by White Rabbit. (What a great name for a company).
I love that kids rooms can be so whimsical, and it's great that there are such easy, pretty ways to make a small space charming.

This light--known officially as the Bramble--can also be found with a blue cap, though mushrooms look best with red ones (I think), or in a pink version called the Dewdrop.White Rabbit is best known for its award-winning and utterly adorable white rabbit night light. There is also a charming owl, and cute little china cups.  I don't know of any U.S. brick-and-mortar stores that sell this, but I would not be at all surprised if Target or some other major retailer stumbled across these lights one day soon. For now, this is internet shopping at its best.
For a more grown-up space that needs some subtle illumination, a store named Unique Decor Online has some terrific items made of glass, metal, and other objects. They seem to be the kind of nightlight that you stick in a socket.

Sleep Sacks for Baby

Baby is outgrowing his cozy sleepsacks so I am on the hunt. He is a tosser-and-turner, often ending up lengthwise or turning to face the foot of the bed. That means blankets end up far away from him, all bunched up in a pile. (At 11 months, he's not likely to smother in his bed, which is the fear that leads lots of people to put infants in the sacks).

The softest ones are the Swaddle Designs zzZipMe Sack, a dooming kind of name. The fleece on Baby's has stayed incredibly soft and comfy for more than six months. They have double zippers, so you can go up or down, which is handier than it sounds for getting baby bundled into the sack at night. They also have pretty, soft colors and matching swaddle blankets. Sadly they don't come in sizes above 6-12 months.


I am impressed with the Smart-Dream sleep sacks, which are 100 percent percale cotton (like nice sheets), and they come in sizes up to 18 months. They also have subtle but cute decoration, like the cute little sheep at left.
Baby DeeDee sells sacks that look adorable and comfy and warm. But too warm for summer? It's hard to tell. These are available at Amazon (where else?) and at Baby Deedee.com.

Halo Sleepsacks pretty much own the market, and we have a nice big one with applique farm animals that Baby stares at in fascination. The polarfleece doesn't do a great job in the wash: like most polarfleece, it gets kind of clumpy. However, they have hilarious versions for big kids whose feet stick out the bottom. They look like mushroom costumes.

Dwell Studios have interesting graphic prints. I also have towels and washcloths from Dwell and they are very absorbant. But I think that the graphics are a little bland and the colors slightly odd. Very stylish but not quite my style.

Aden and Anais has marvelous soft muslin bags. I already have these washcloths and they are fabulously soft. They have a single-layer version for summer but, though it is April, it is barely above freezing. My only issue is that the patterns are a trifle banal for such lovely material and I hear rumors that they are less than sturdy. Yet this is what I ordered--suckered in by softness--and so time will tell!

Agatha Cristie

I have been an Agatha Cristie fan since the 1980s, when serialized versions of her stories appeared on Masterpiece Theater. They are periodically updating these with a variety of elderly British actresses, but as for me, Joan Hickson personifies the character. Miss Marple is so appealing that you can visit the Miss Marple Store at Amazon.com, amazingly enough.
It's so impressive the way that Christie not only lived a perfectly fascinating life, but also wrote so many fascinating stories. Read about her life in Mallowan's Memoirs: Agatha and the Archaeologist. Hercule Poirot may be the least convincing detective ever--it is hard to imagine a Belgian refuge policeman with a detailed knowledge of English nursery rhymes--but people seem to like him, too.
These days, it is possible to visit Christie's house, Greenway, and buy tea towels that depict the lovely Devon estate.