Available in 8 friendly colors, Max’s Mudd is food grade (gluten free and vegan), organic play dough. No doubt we have all eaten our fair share of that “other” play dough (I still have fond memories of the salty (toxic) taste and smell) – but for our healthier and greener generation, we now have delicious and safe Mudd.

Even the containers are “high-quality food grade,  recyclable, reusable LDPE #4 and PP #5 containers. They are compliant with FDA, EU, and CA Prop 65 restrictions on lead & cadmium. They contain no traceable amounts of Parabens, Phthalates or BPA.” (Gosh. Almost as edible as the play Mudd itself!)

Though still a choking hazard for the under two’s – Max’s Mudd, under supervision, seems the perfect art supply.  It seems unlikely to end up on your walls, or make any curious pets sick. And what could be easier to clean up after?

I have forsworn the use of markers in my home until my child is 18 – so I’m glad to see that in addition to soy crayons, my budding artist can make Francis Bacon like renditions of his family in play dough.

Ceci n’est pas Play Doh.

Finding, unique nursery art is a tricky business. Especially if amplified primary colours aren’t your thing.

Via Small Magazine, are beautiful prints by Mint Parcel, that are subtle and darling for a more muted and calm nursery.

Having lived in Florida, I have a fondness for the sweetugly Manatee…

And doesn’t everyone adore a Koala?

And whales are for more than just pants…

The only creature that I would love Mint Parcel to feature that it doesn’t – is a hedgehog. How can you have a platypus, but no hedgehog?

Hedgehogs are way cuter.

All prints are available on Etsy.

In a few months I’ll need to update my son’s “infant” nursery, to reflect his mature “baby” phase.  I had a bit of  a struggle deciding on The Green Nursery: Part Two – as I don’t want to buy anything “new” or Land of Nod Art’ish. I needed something green, unique enough and classic. Preferably with elephants, which seems to have emerged as a motif.

Voila! Babar!

I loved Babar as a child, and was always quite confused when the elephants at the London Zoo were – well – nekkid. And on all fours. I found them quite primitive as compared to the lovely family of post colonial pachyderms that I would of liked to have invited to tea. They seemed so much more fortunate than that poor Dumbo and his mum that I would see at Disney World when I visited my Florida based grandmother.  It was all about verde clad Babar.

Luckily, on a print search, I came across these delightful, original 1930′s Babar prints that won’t cost an arm and a tusk. And though I know that they were ripped from a beautiful book that should of been left unviolated – they are as they are – and it is the ultimate recycled and green nursery “art”.

Vintage prints make gorge nursery decor – and are worth saving for the grandbabies. Best of all, they are often less spendy than that Made In China stuff that you’ll find at all the big traditional stores.

Vintage advertising posters are likewise interesting and nursery suitable.

Again, many are far less expensive than that boring, falling asleep “art” you have seen a thousand times before.

This lovely bit of pre-war commercialism is only $55!

So if you are a green mum that hasn’t many Benjamins left over after buying that whole house water filter – consider vintage prints for Juniors nursery.

Just not Babar.

I’m trying to be unique over here.

Bon weekend!

Because I forgot to marry Bill Gates, and cannot afford to have the house re-painted in VOC free paint once a week, I’ll never allow markers in the house. (I know, I know, I’m mean, mean mummy.)

However, for those parents who enjoy Jackson Pollock, Clementine art now offer natural markers, in addition to non-toxic play dough and paints. I doubt that they smell as delish as those crack for kids markers I loved as a child, and inhaled like a newly minted test off the mimeograph machine (oh, that purple magic!) – but our kids, hopefully, won’t have the waste dump of chemicals in their breast milk, or have the low sperm count that my generation has.

Great gift for an in law that you may loathe that has an immaculate all white Ian Shrager inspired house.

You know, the one who washes her kids hands 50 times a day as to keep the Shabby Chic slipcovers safe….

You know you want to.

Happy Weekend!

We all know that mum that glittered in a fabulous city  for a few years, in a great (tiny) flat, on an amazing street, that she stumbled home on, night after champers and laughter filled night, shod in impossibly high two week salary shoes, and clad in sample sale couture…the best days, nights and mornings of her life.  Until baby, of course.

She now lives in the Midwest, or the “nice” ‘burbs somewhere out East, and actually puts money into her 401K.  She has a savings account.  And flats.  And knickers that are not meant to be seen.  Ever.

Doesn’t she deserve a shower gift that reminds her that she used to smell like 4am smokey bars, and not organic formula spit?

A wee homage that will actually work in a nursery – as heavens knows she forewent sports or fairy themes for something bolder and more graphic.  (Like that Art Director she once dated from Munich….)

Red Letter Words makes these word canvas  blocks that she will love, and  can use to teach her little one her favourite words like “London”, “SoHo” and “Rome”….

Ah, if only you knew mummy before her breastfeeding bra….

Few would argue that little ones have the most magical of imaginations (when not deadened by hours of mind numbing media that creates this Stepffordian shared One Brain that gives me the willys).

But there are films that are now made by our smallest creators, that I think are worth a mention.

From Little Creatures Films:

“Little Creatures is a film production company that invites 3-10 year old children to collaborate with filmmakers to produce imaginative live action films told in the children’s voice. These movies are shot on location in various natural settings, with the children’s spontaneous interactions recorded as dialogue and their own poetic descriptions of their actions recorded as voiceover narration. Through all of these videos run threads of mystery and wonder, the representation of childhood as something beautiful, poetic, and profound, and the beauty and power of the natural world to inform young children’s play and storytelling/myth-making.  Little Creatures films are a response to the recent overflow of interactive media on the Internet, the advent of digital television, and the gross lack of media education for young children, particularly within the pre-school, kindergarten and first grade age group.  The films aim to help develop children’s play into deeper realms of problem solving and multidisciplinary learning by encouraging them to spend more of the crucial phase of early childhood development in spaces that they create from the ground up, from the most authentic and less contrived cultural stimuli possible.”

Do you have a future Capra or Fellini in your house?

Hanging on the wall in my bathroom is the first message I see, and need, every morning:

I can’t imagine anyone more worthy or in need of this message than a new mother.  Lucky for her, these posters are available in a rainbow of other colors, including pink and blue:

and

From whence this brilliant message, you ask?

Source

This message got a small island and her fearless inhabitants through the war.  I promise that it will get you though the next two years.

As you were.

We all have smells and tastes that transport us back to our very own temp perdu – Play Dough is one of those for me.  Nothing catapults me back to being four at St. Andreas school, and the field of daffodils that surrounded that crumbling Victorian pile, quicker than the taste or smell of good ol’ Play Dough.  I may not yet have a child in pre-school, but if I did, he’d have more than one canister of non-toxic, food grade Soft Dough. 

It seems that the old fashioned Playdoh isn’t toxic (bless them), but it ain’t food grade, or organic - so you may opt for a food grade brand, if your wee one, like I did, takes the food shapes literally.

Another item I would send my boy to school with would be fab pebble shaped non-toxic crayons. I feel more artistic just looking at them.

It seems that these crayons are not only groovy looking, but much easier for wee hands to grip.

And on what should the little chitlins use these crayons, and all the other delicious non-toxic art supplies?  An enchanted cottage, of course. As every childhood should have an enchanted cottage and magic coloured pebbles to go with.

Just make sure that they have thier pockets full of local, organic, gluten-free bread crumbs first.

My ex-boss just brought this beautiful site to my attention that makes gorgeous, simple, play things.  What I love about them, is that they explain the finishes and materials of each item in simple English (unlike Melissa and Doug toys). From ride-on trucks, to art easels (to use with non-toxic art supplies), to hide away to read structures, Community Playthings can supply an entire  – very artistic and imaginative – childhood.

They do have a few pieces that feature plastic or vinyl, so read the details, but all in all, they use hardwood, with non-toxic finishes.

Organic beret sold separately.