little house

Brian Wildsmith

caitlin — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:45:48 +0000

Funny how you hear about someone once and then all of a sudden they crop up everywhere. Such is the case of the British children’s book illustrator Brian Wildsmith.

I first came across him via Sarah from Banquet‘s Pinterest, and then this counting book appeared on one of my favorite new blogs Atelier Pour Enfants.

File under “inspirational.”

Animated Gifs—stereoscopic style.

caitlin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:00:33 +0000

It’s no secret that I love animated gifs (see one of my first posts). From birds to celebrities these little Internet gems that people continue to make never cease to make me smile (except when they’re creepy and weird of course—as many things on the Internet tend to be). Below is one of my recent faves.

The New York Public Library has recently launched the most creative use of this old technology (gif making)—the Stereogranimator. A combination of the stereoscope and the animated gif. The results are totally amazing and really fun.

Browse the gallery, or you can create your own. Awesome job (as usual) NYPL collections digitization crew!

The dinosaurs have taken over

caitlin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:28:26 +0000

The Barbies seem to be on Vacation (headed to Hawaii for winter I think) and the dinosaurs have moved in — much to our delight.

Their constant presence in our living room has inspired some research into early depictions of dinosaurs (more on that later) and came across this unbelievable film “The Lost World” made in 1925.

Wow.

inspired/forced by the snow

caitlin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:36:50 +0000

Ada hasn’t had a hat all winter. Well to clarify, she has a hat, but not one she’s willing to wear. So, given the fact that there was a dump of snow this morning and more on the way I decided I’d better make something happen. Inspired by this pattern found in a Martha Steward magazine years ago, and a pile of grey fleece I’ve had sitting around for ages, I pulled this together!

To be honest, I’m quite pleased with myself. Yet to be determined as to whether or not the princess will concur.

Art world inspiration: Hannah Höch

caitlin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:57:37 +0000

I have always admired the work of Hannah Höch—one of the few women associated with the Dada movement and a pioneer of photomontage. As we’ve been thinking a lot about collage over here (for a new product that is proving very difficult to manufacture nicely and cheaply) Höch has been on my mind a lot.

Grotesque, 1963

I would love to get my hands on either of these two books. This one Picture Book should be quite easy (thanks Amazon). A collection of collages and poetry that has recently been translated into English.

The other, Album, is a personal scrapbook of sorts. From babies to botany to sports, Hoch clearly had a wide range of inspiration for her work from within fine art and pop culture. Right up my alley! Thanks Hannah.

lego for girls

caitlin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:08:45 +0000

There have been a lot of blogs and articles talking about the launch of Lego’s new product Lego Friends (otherwise known as Lego for girls). Not wanting to get my knickers in a knot until I had a chance to actually see what it was all about, I delayed judgement. Well, consider my knickers completely and nearly irreparably tangled: boobs, beauty salons and bakeries, all in shades of pink and purple. It just seems so necessary and totally depressing.

But then I also read this blog post in gizmodo and although the title of the author’s post is gets under my skin (here go the feminists complaining again!) I think he has a good point. That is that kids can do the same thing with with these objects of brutal gender stereotypes that they do with all the Harry Potter and Star Wars sets — throw out the instructions and build whatever they want. Once you get rid of the stupid doll (which is shockingly skinnier than any other lego character ever) that comes with it you can simply have some pretty pink, purple and aqua to mix in with your red, yellow and blue bricks.

Still lame. And far from this awesome ad from the 70s, but maybe not a complete deal breaker?

Plus, it totally does remind me of this hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch from years ago.

New year, new growth.

caitlin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:41:40 +0000

Happy New Year!

Ponderosa pine seedling found on a Christmas day walk in the Okanagan.

Thanks Scout!

caitlin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:17:19 +0000

We are listed as a “super cool gift idea” on the Vancouver magazine/blog Scout.

Thank you!

Holiday shopping

caitlin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 15:44:00 +0000

For those of you in Vancouver you should definitely do your holiday shopping at Toque at the Western Front, next weekend (Dec 9 & 10th). Friday night you can even do it with a drink in your hand.

We will be there, along with old friends Banquet and Sonja Ahlers, and a new favorite, jewelry maker Anita Sikma (I’m really hoping one of these ends up in my stocking).

Blocks are good for you!

caitlin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:56:56 +0000

Or so says this interesting article in the New York Times.

At the very least it does confirm what we have always felt, and why we’ve continued to make these things—that with a few simple and consistent shapes kids can learn about proportion, math, architecture, aesthetics and actually (hopefully) have fun while they’re doing it.