I stopped writing...

…for a while. It has been Easter. My mum has been visiting. And the baby has entered the phase I call “don’t you dare put me down even for a second” and has been glued to my (or my mum’s) hip for almost the entire week. I think it is soon time to start using the baby carrier on a daily basis. The 4-year old is calling it the “baby bag”. He is really into bags right now. He put everything he sees in bags, so why not a baby he might reason. It is something with small children and bags. They love to carry things with them and most often they don’t even care what they carry or what bag they use. In our house plastic bags and small wallets are the favorites. But, even if my son and many kids with him couldn’t care less, there are really cute children bags out there. My favorites right now are the cute children’s suitcases from Bigso. The monkey prints are adorable! However, if I want to make my son super duper happy I have to get the fishing bag with toy fishes and fishing rods from Oskar and Ellen. Here below you find them and other cute bags from Swedish designers. 

From the top: Bigso, Oskar and Ellen, Camilla Martelius, Kids Concept, Lapp på lapp, Johanna form och design, Micki, Klippan Yllefabrik design by Bengt Lindberg and Skip Hop by Amvina.

Bug Time!

I suspect we got an unwelcome visitor in our house; this years first mosquito. Our 4-year old has a few bites on the hands and face and unfortunately he will soon have plenty. I truly love the summer but I really hate those dreadful bugs that come with the hot weather. It is not only the mosquitoes I dislike, even though they top the list as they leave that mean itch after them, but I hate most bugs that love to find there way into our house. Even though my son gets badly bitten by mosquitoes every year he doesn’t seem to be bothered by bugs. I can’t say he loves them and thank god he hasn’t yet started to collect them and kept them in jars. But he seems to be able to coexist with them without being freaked out or killing them. Maybe being annoyed by bugs is solitary an adult practice? Plus, bugs are generally somewhat beautiful. This year many Swedish kids clothing labels have put bugs on their clothes, and it looks fairly nice and, I must say, very summery. Look for yourselves! From the top: Cmig, HM, Kade, Lindex, Småfolk, Snoffs, Mini Rodini.

Bake with Me

In a couple of days my dear mum will come and visit us from Sweden. This morning I was trying to plan things to do together supplementary to the lamb scented Easter Sunday in our garden. On the top of my list I put baking cinnamon buns. Not something that you imagining doing when on holiday in Greece, but something I’m longing to do with my mum. It might sound silly and housewifely, but baking with my mother makes me feel happy. It is the whole process that brings me joy, from preparing the dough, to spreading the cinnamon butter and feeling the heat from the oven to see the buns swell and then to take that first bite of a hot bun. The keyword here is to do all of that together. When I share the cinnamon-bun-practice with my mum I travel back in time and I’m a little girl again. Sometimes it feels good and therapeutic to lose that “mother apron” that is so tightly tied around my waist. For me those moments are precious. Truthfully, since I left home and became an expat far away from my Swedish family, those moments are like fuel for me.

I have come across this fantastic Swedish company Bombadill that makes toy-cakes and food. In their range they also have cinnamon buns. I’m seriously thinking of getting a couple of those and some of their other pastries to my son’s imaginary café in his play house. They will go very well with his make-believe coffee and tea made of dried grass. 

Lovely Keyrings for Big and Small

I just had to show you these fantastic keyrings from renowned Swedish artist Lisa Larson. Cute, eh?

Sleep Tight Little Baby

I’m very happy the baby likes to sleep in the pram; it makes it easy to take those walks to the playground that the 4-year old loves. Now when the spring is here and the summer waits in the hallway I think I will invest in some nice beddings. When it comes to beddings for the pram there are not many cute designs to choose from here in Greece, so I will try to order some of these from Sweden:

palidesign

 Klippan Yllefabrik

 Gunila Axén

 Duktiga Annika

Play with PLAYSAM

I just had to share with you these fantastic toy cars from Swedish PLAYSAM. These three cars are an example of Swedish design when it is at is top. The unique design, the minimalistic shape and color makes these cars desirable not only for kids but adults too. PLAYSAM that was established in 1984 by Carl Zedig has through the years received several design awards for their toy cars. 

Time to Eat

Today it just hit me that my little baby boy who just came in to this world will start to eat real food very soon. It is about 2, 5 month left until he is six month old and will get his first spoon of baby cereal or tasteless mashed potatoes, but still it feels very soon. I really hope his first encounter with solids will be a positive one. I never had any problems feeding my older boy, he ate everything and he still does. He eats everything from curries, risotto with truffle oil to seafood pasta and octopus. The only thing he doesn’t like is beetroot and so be it. So, I have my fingers crossed that baby brother will follow his footsteps. Anyhow, I thought about buying him a new set of dinnerware. As all smaller siblings he has mostly hand me downs so I thought to get him something new. Here are some I really like! 

Gense, Design by Karin Mannerstål

 

Svensk Tenn, Design by: Ingegerd Råman

 

Isak, Design by Sandra Isaksson