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The countdown to Christmas is a fun activity when you live with young kids. You have all November to craft your own. In fact, if you wish to get the advent house or the bucket advent calendar you have no other choice than making your own since they are out of stock at John Lewis. They may get more since you can leave your email but I would not count of that.

For the house, you could start with a paper or a wood house model. Get a good supply of card boards and foam core to add details to the house. Use paint, gift wrapping paper,and small ornaments to decorate every window. It could be a fun weekend project for the family.

The bucket pennants is easier to reproduce than the advent house. Sadly, I am not sure that you will save money by making your own. To make your own, shop for 25 small decorative buckets, look at scrapbooking items to craft the date tags, and find a festive large ribbon.

Feel free to send me pictures of your advent calenders. Do you follow the advent calendar custom? If you follow it, do you put a toy, a treat or an act/goal to your kids?

SOURCING:
+ Christmas Advent House £30
+ East of India Bucket Advent Calendar £25

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If you are looking for a baby shower gift or a wonderful small Christmas gift for new parents, this could be it. A night light is a must when you live with babies and young kids. but savvy-design parents wish for something more than a basic night light.

Crafter Rachel Weber of Fog and Thistle hand mades these adorable papercut night lights. They all reveal a new element when you turn them on. The elephant is accompanied with a small bird. A baby monkey join his father on the tree. A spotted giraffe is next to the floral pattern giraffe.

I am sure that you will envy Rachel for the following. She appeared on Martha Stewart show where she demonstrated how she assembled one papercut night light.

You have the choice between a regular 5 watt bulb or pay a little extra to get one with a super energy efficient 1.3 watt LED light.

Giveaway

You have the chance to win the papercut night lights of your choice by entering the giveaway on blog of Fog and Thistle. Drawing will takes place next Saturday at midnight.

MORE:
+ Papercut Night Lights on Etsy $25 USD, personalized models $27

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We never have too many pumpkin carving stencils. These are perfect for a young family. The images should not scare young children. The skull could go with the spooky chic Halloween table I presented yesterday. Download them at HGTV Canada.

+ photos: HGTV.ca

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The kitchen is the hub of the house. For that reason, it must be a place where it feels comfortable for the cooks and the rest of the family. More and more kitchens integrate areas for kids to do their homework and play.

The two most common area of frustrations in a kitchen are storage and the sink area. The good news is that clever and affordable organizers for your kitchen cabinets are now easily accessible. Current kitchen design rules put an emphasis on drawers fitted with several types of organizers. I still think that nothing beats a walking pantry but it is not always possible to integrate a big pantry.

Dividers, trays, plate holders, boxes and containers mean that everything is at reach in your drawers. You move the containers on the counter while you are cooking and replace them inside the drawers once you are done. Wooden boxes are practical for potatoes, onions, and dry foods. Basically, we bring the best ideas from a restaurant kitchen to our home.

For me, the carrousel, which is a modern version of the lazy susan, is a must for a corner unit. I like it because everything is at reach. It is more appropriate for big objects, like pots and pans.

Waste Sorting System

With recycling and composting, we need to plan for a waste sorting system. We want bins that are easy to reach but out of sight. Plan a shelf for your compost container as most are not stylish.

Sink Organizers

From cutting boards to cover plate and rinsing baskets, the sink accessories aim to make our life simpler. I never succumb and buy any. Do you use them?

Gathering the plates, glasses and cutlery after the meal in a tub reduces the number of trips between the table and the sink. Ideally, the bowl should be on a wheeled cart. Something like the BOHELMEN washing-up bowl would be perfect, assuming that is strong enough.

Two sinks is a must but if you live in an apartment, you may not be that lucky. The rinsing tub is intended to help you wash the dishes if you only have one sink. It seems like a good concept. The Dish Drainer, if it fits into your sink, will eliminate the need to wipe water from your counter.

I do not know if it is only wishful thinking but I imagine that if I had a kitchen where everything is neatly stored and is easy to reach, I would find no excuses to avoid cooking at the end of a long day. But one thing is sure, I would feel more relax cooking.

SOURCING:
+ BOHOLMEN Rinsing Tub $14.99 CAD
+ BOHOLMEN Dish Drainer $6.99
+ Rationell dividers for drawers $20 for 6
+ Rationell Corner base cabinet carousel $120
+ Rationell waste-sorting system $8.99 to $56.94

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This everyday tabletop is refreshing. It shows that you can be playful and look refined at the same time. The look is ideal for serving lunch or breakfast to your family.

They are more reasons why I am showing you this product. I associate multiple purposes with sustainability and space saving. With smaller city homes, more people are looking for double-duty objects. The Isak Breadboard can  become a placemat, a trivet to protect your table for the heat, a cheese board or a cutting board. And did I mention that they look great. Plus, the laminated compressed wood of the Isak Breadboard are harvested in sustainable Scandinavian forests.

The two patterns, Landsby and Leaf, work well together. Each breadboard comes packed in a reusable 100% cotton tote bag. It is practical for picnic or if you are really fancy when you bring your lunch.

SOURCING:
+ Isak Bread Board, Landsby or Leaf $40 USD
+ Isak Landsby Bread board £22
+ Iittala Kartio Small, Stained Glass £11 for a set of 2 glasses
+ Iittala Kartio Tumbler $17 USD for 2

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Many of you like the idea of a chalkboard but cannot live with the mess that chalk does on our floor. This product delivers the liberty to write on the wall without the mess. What it does is to turn any surface into a whiteboard.

Idea Paint has many applications in our home from the kids bedroom, to a message board on the kitchen or to keep track of your to do list in your home office. What do you think?

You can watch this video of their kiosk at Dwell on Design 2009.

+ Idea Paint for the Home
+ via a Guy Wasakawi’s tweet

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Cutting and building a paper model is a great activity that you can do with the kids. There are a lot of free patterns on the Web. You may wish to stop first at a printer for a better printing job on cardboard. Keep an extra copy in case you ruin a piece while building your haunted house paper model.

You can stop at assembling the model. But you will get a bigger Wow factor if you do a few extra steps. Look at the impressive carving job of Ray Keim. He added moss to key places on did his Skoolhouse. For the piece de resistance, Ray carved several Potka Pods as decorative pumpkins. You do not have to carve them. Simply, putting a few Potka Pods will elevate the results. You could also deposit on the floor small pieces of hay and hang spider webs.

Ray Keim produced many paper models. His latest addition is the Bates House Paper Model. Visit Haunted Dimensions for downloading the kits and getting inspirations on how Ray and other people have decorated their paper models.

Cute but simpler

Another model that I like is the Haunted Church with cemetery by Paper Models. This one is for sale. They give you the choice of downloading their model or opting for a printed kit that they will ship to you. The Printed Kit is available in 3 dimensions.

WHERE TO GET IT:
+ The Skoolhouse Paper Model Kit by Ray Keim
+ Haunted House Paper Model $9.95 – $24.95

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Earlier this year, I told you about Maman, Bébé et Café, a coffee shop in Montreal that was more a community center for parents than a typical coffee shop. (October 4th, 2009 update: A friend told me that Maman, Bébé et Café has closed their door.)

It seems that Toronto are catching up with two new kid-friendly cafes opening in trendy neighborhoods with a good concentration of strollers. Lil’ Bean N’ Green opens this week in Leslieville with a fun play area for kids. You can read on BlogTO that Leonor Filipe opened the Gingerbread House Family Café in the Junction three months ago with a similar goal of providing not only food, but a social service for parents at loose ends.

I like the idea that moms and dads have spaces where they can hanged out with their babies and toddles while meeting other parents. I think we will see more of these places once they figured out a viable business model.

About the Play Fee at Lil Bean N’ Green

Some people complained on BlogTO about the fact that the play area is not free at Lil Bean N’ Green. As an entrepreneur, I see why they are doing it. The store owner pays to set up the area. They have to pay the rent on for a retail space in the city. They have a business to run and they can not survive on having moms with kids hanging there for hours while buying one coffee. After all, maintaining a playroom costs more than supplying Wi-Fi. Finding the right price to charge is the challenge.

I invite you to read the post on BlogTO to learn more about these 2 family-style cafes.

MORE:
+ BlogTO’s review of Gingerbread House Family Café
+ Images via BlogTo

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We all looked for easy dinner recipes. Sunset magazine prepared 20 fall dinner recipes that are colorful and look tasty. My favorite ready in 30 minutes recipes are:

+ Quick Scallops with Peppers and Corn – photo by Paule Hible
+ Chicken, Bacon, and Blue-Cheese Sandwiches – photo by Leo Gong, Randy Mon
+ Chicken with Tomatoes, Apricots, and Chickpeas – photo by Iain Bagwell and food styling by Dan Becker
+ Almond-crusted Chicken – photo by Annabelle Breakey  and food styling by Dan Becker

Chick here more recipes ready in about 30 minutes on the Web site of Sunset.

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Anne Schultz of Hello Hanna sent me an email to introduce her awesome playful placements for kids. They will keep your kids occupied while you are preparing the meal. I think it is a great idea since you probably notice that kids enjoy very much playing with stickers. My nephew and niece are doing it all the time.

For a party or a day-long play date, it is a fun activity that is quick and fast to set up. Plus, on the back of placemats, their is an activity area. You can vary the activity each time or let you kid draw what they like.

Four pop-up characters with their own sheet of stickers are packaged in set of 8 placemats. Kids can choose their character and dress it the way they like. I like this product for the peace of mind and its creative value.

Get-set placemats is available in three themes: robot, animal jungle and girlie dolls. You could also buy a set for home that you use on Sundays. The placemats are printed on heavyweight uncoated paper stock. Therefore, they are not reusable.

The gals behind Hello Hanna, Anne Schultz and Jina Choi, are moms living in San Francisco, California. They used their knowledge of early-child development to to spark kids creativity.

SOURCING:
+ Get-set placemats $14.95 USD

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Goop and Goob is a new baby and kids store for the modern design-conscious parents that opened in Squamish, BC. For the rest of us, we can order online with free shipping on orders over $100 (see details on their site).

Before I talk about the backpacks and lunch boxes, let me introduce a cool stroller, the Bumbleride Indie. They say on their Web site that Indie combines the off-road ability of a multi-terrain stroller with the lean agility of an urban jogger. It has a multi-adjustable reclining backrest. For added comfort, Indie comes standard with rear suspension, a height-adjustable handle, large storage basket and removable cup holder.

Back-to-School Gears for Young Kids

Since we are at the start of the school year, I am showing you their adorable insulated lunch boxes by Dante Beatrix. She designed them in heavy-duty laminated canvas for super easy cleaning and kid-proof durability. A name tag and a zipped pocket are at the back. Juju the Bettle is too cute.

Goop and Goob also carries an interesting line of backpacks that will be perfect to carry books and other school essentials. The Little Kid backpacks by Dante Beatrix are from the same collection than the lunch boxes. The penguin is one of the lovable creatures of Maakun Forest.

SOURCING:
+ Bumbleride Indie Seagrass $599 CAD
+ Dante Beatrix Lunch Box $34.99 CAD Juju (bettle), Esther (rabbit), Fei Fei (panda), Nigel (shark)
+ Dante Beatrix Little Kid Pack-Senior Gomez $42.99 CAD
+ Bus Backpack $47.50 CAD

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