Stuff We Love – Page 4 – The Creative Salad

The New Game Obsession

Our daughter tends to approach her activities with gusto.

When she was two years old she discovered a love of puzzles, assembling 100 piece puzzles on her own, with me there for company (and to serve as the occasional gatherer of “all the black and white striped zebra pieces,” for example, as directed by the little miss.).

Almost four years old now, she has applied that same sense of zeal to mastering a variety of games: Solitaire, King’s Corner, Uno, Triominos, Scrabble, Qwirkle Cubes, and Checkers.

We play the card games everywhere: at the doctor’s office, in restaurants, in the back seat of the car, while we’re out and about (on our android phones when there isn’t a flat surface on which to play!).

She’s not just fooling around either, she’s actually really good! She strategizes, holding cards until playing them benefits her. Creating variations to make the game more challenging. I’m certainly not that focused despite my love of winning.

And each time she kicks my ass, she kindly reassures me, “Mom, it’s okay. We can play until you win too.” Gee, thanks, honey. “Okay, let’s play!” After all, she’ll be heading off to college before I know it. And games are fun!

The Perfect Gift for this Mama

I never thought this day would come.

My husband and I, as avid readers, love being surrounded by books.

But in our very small house,
and with our limited book budget,
it doesn’t make sense to accumulate any new books.

And so when I learned about ebook lending from our library, I jumped on the Kindle bandwagon.

And here we are.

Reading has never felt so light or comfortable. (Yes, I am one of those readers who typically reads really long–i.e. heavy–books.)

Heart!

Shown above: Kindle Touch 3G, BUILT Kindle and Kindle Touch Slim Neoprene Sleeve, Verso Clip-On Reading Light for Kindle, and Pegasus by Robin McKinley.

Sofee & Lenee + Special Discount

My friend Dorothee recently opened up an online shop called Sofee & Lenee – German Kinder Accessories, featuring fashionable, practical and high quality children’s products imported from her home country of Germany.

Sofee & Lenee sells the newest and most popular German baby and children’s accessories including hats, mittens, socks, tights, bibs, sleep sacks, rainwear and dinnerware.

I had the opportunity to photograph our daughter and her friends wearing Sofee & Lenee products. Imagine eight kids running around for four hours while I shot 1,200 photos (yes, I went way overboard!). Featured in this post are some of my favorite pictures from the shoot.

All of the Sofee & Lenee products are adorable, stylish, and so well-made. What a relief to know that you’re getting something of high quality made in Europe. (The few items that Sofee & Lenee sells that are manufactured outside of Europe, all conform to the more stringent European standards and most are tested and certified by Oeko-Tex Standard 100!)

I particularly love the mud pants and rain hat for rainy outdoor fun! I found it interesting that the mud pants are worn over your rainboots to ensure that no water or mud gets into your shoes. Brilliant! Here in Northern California where it rains for five months of the year, these mud pants will be a godsend. (Yes, we now own a pair!)

I’m excited that Sofee & Lenee is offering Creative Salad readers a 15% discount on all orders placed in the next ten days. Simply enter the coupon code “creativesalad” at checkout. Offer valid through December 10th, 2011.

Additionally, Sofee & Lenee offers free shipping on orders of $99 and over! For those of you living in Sonoma County, California, local pick-ups are always free.

Visit Sofee & Lenee on Facebook for news and updates. Shop online at SofeeAndLenee.com.

Thank you, Dorothee! We wish you the best of luck with your new business. We’re absolutely charmed and delighted by Sofee & Lenee!

Record Player Tunes and Memories

Did you have a record player when you where a child? One of my treasured memories involves my sister and me dancing around the house while Beethoven’s Eroica played on our record player. We had many beloved records that we loved to listen to (more on that later!), but this particular one was our favorite. When we placed this record on the turner, we would transform into ballerinas and gracefully (dramatically!) bob and dance around the den, completely entranced by the music.

Our daughter now has her own record player (many thanks to the in-laws!) and is quickly forming special memories of her own. She can change and play the records entirely by herself (how empowering!). She can choose what she wants to listen to entirely on her own, selecting one of the dozens of records of children’s music that once belonged to her great grandmother, a nursery school teacher.

To my great surprise, I found that many of these records are familiar to me. I too owned them as a child. Imagine my delight at discovering that twenty years later I still remembered all the lyrics to…

Sesame Street Sing-Along,

Burl Ives’s The Best of Burl’s For Boys and Girls,

and, of course, the beloved Mary Poppins album staring Julie Andrews.

Do you remember these records from your childhood?

Affordable Art Prints

The wall above our bed is completely blank.

I know, it looks TERRIBLE!

I’ve been trying to decide what type of art we would like to hang there. Here are some possibilities from Etsy:

Featured above:
1. Slow breathing by Samantha Finch
2. 2012 Mountain Calendar by Pam Lostracco
3. Leap 33 by Roz Young
4. Glamorous Women in Greys, Golds and Reds by Kristina Laurendi Havens
5. Lake Waters by Samantha Finch

I’m leaning towards prints 4 and 5. Color wise I think they’d go nicely with the paintings on the wall at the foot of our bed (clearly, those two paintings both need to be rehung):

(above, the left painting is a portrait of my grandfather, the right was painted by our friend Sandy Urban)

Which affordable art prints would you go for?