Fresh from Sweden....

We just received the Pirum Parum poster designed by Elisabeth Dunker from Fine Little Day...It's so cute, you just want to hug this little pear!
Her friend the Apple Papple is back too (we have one press sample available at 15% off here)

Nous venons juste de recevoir les posters Pirum Parum dessine par Elisabeth Dunker de Fine Little Day...C'est tellement mimi qu'on a juste envie de serrer cette petite poire dans nos bras!
Son amie Apple Papple est de retour aussi (avec un echantillon presse disponible a moins 15% ici)

Another 14 (but good!) gifts ideas for kids

Yesterday, Julie from Kayatine sent us her new Mustache t-shirt for boys and Bow t-shirt for girls (trop cute!). As we've also received the Feather poster (the Meow one is almost gone!), I just thought I would compile a new selection of gifts for little people to include them.

1. White cotton dress 2.Mustache t-shirt 3. Doudou plush toy
4. The Old Oak's Last Dream print 5. Apple rug 6. Bow t-shirt 7. Angel babygro
8. Nelly print 9. Feather print 10. Royal Bird rocking chair
11. Mama's K aromatic modelling clay 12. Ball chair

Hier, Julie la designer de Kayatine nous a envoye ses nouveaux t-shirt Moustache pour garcons et t-shirt Noeud pour les filles (trop mignon!). Et comme nous avons aussi recu le poster Feather (il ne reste plus que 2 posters Meow !), je me suis que cela ne nous ferait pas de mal d'avoir une nouvelle compilation de cadeaux pour les petits, histoire de les inclure.

Loving this Royal bird...

and no... I'm not talking about Miss Kate Middleton who will marry Prince William of Wales next year but about this fabulous, eco-friendly Royal Bird rocking chair by Creme Anglaise who just landed in our little boutique.
Handmade out of wood from recycled pallets by French carpenter Jocelyn Costis in the UK, this gorgeous Bird-shaped rocking chair for children is simply eco-friendly design at its best and the perfect addition to a kids bedroom!
PS: Happy thoughts for the weekend will resume in Jan 2011. I'm still happy but now that the Xmas madness has started in our little boutique, I simply don't have time.

et la en francais il faut que j'explique ma blague a deux balles....En anglais, 'a bird', c'est un oiseau mais aussi une nana...Donc le 'Bird Royal' aurait pu etre Mademoiselle Kate Middleton qui va epouser le Prince William l'annee prochaine mais bon non, je parlais de ce fabuleux Rocking chair Royal Bird ecologique par Creme Anglaise et qui vient juste d'atterir dans notre petite boutique.
Fabrique a la main par Jocelyn Costis, un ebeniste francais vivant a Londres, ce magnifique fauteuil a bascule Royal Bird is tout simplement un example parfait de design ecologique et un must-have dans une chambre d'enfant.
PS: Happy thoughts for the weekend re-demarrera en Janvier 2011. Je suis tjs 'happy' mais maintenant que les commandes de Noel ont commence dans notre petite boutique, je n'ai simplement pas le temps.

and our own Halloween photoshoot...

This week, we also had our own Halloween photoshoot with two gorgeous five years old who were absolutely amazing! Between snack, watching Surf's Up, eating pancakes, laughing and trying over heaps of different outfits, masks and hats, we managed to shoot some gorgeous pics...May I dare to say 'gorgeous' after Sweet Paul's beautiful feature? Allez... oui!

1. Nelly The Elephant 2. Portrait 3. Portrait 4. London weekend print 5. woman STAR t-shirt 6. LOVE art print 7. Doudou Superstar cushion 8. Portrait 9. The Gruffalo mug 10. Portrait

(C) Photos BODIE and FOU

Very cute :-)

Whatever it takes to fly....they look adorable!

(C) Photo: jwlphotography Via Lotta Agaton via iiiinspired

Rockmafia

I think if Elodie and I hadn't had the mad idea to launch a cool website selling beautiful home accessories, we would have loved to have launched a cool website with beautiful children clothes and gifts....Besides the fact that clothing is a lot easier to pack and dispatch (waayyy eaasier...take my word for it), children brands are incredibly fun and creative to work with.
My latest love is Rock Mafia....

Rock Mafia is a French label set up by Elise Durand Wallon and Charlotte Desmullier, two childhood cops (short for copines in French and nothing to do with the police) who bumped into each other after years apart....
Elise, who had trained as a Lawyer had 3 children and Charlotte, fashion stylist, had a boy...The copines fall into each other's arms, shared fond childhood memories and decided to follow their dream: create a fashion label for 2-12 years old...Et voila!
Rock Mafia has a lovely Liberty dress which I know Mila would LOVE.
Personally, I'm loving this leather US army bag (for me) and this Sweat Franky which are a bit more rock'n roll but I have to wait for a few years now for Mila to wear this kind of things. When she was 3/4 years old, I could get away with dressing her up with skinny jeans now and rock t-shirts but now that she is 5, she has a very strong opinion about what she loves and Liberty it is...it could have been worse :-)

And I'm loving what they put on their site....

"When we are little, we want to be grown-up and
when we are grown-up, we would like to have stayed little..."

so true and so cute...

Rock Mafia....c'est ici

Mini and Maximus

So tonight, while staring at my imac with envy, Mila (5 years old) told me that when I get old and become a grandma, she will have all my things and her husband will get all her papa's things....

Well, I'm glad the whole logististic of passing our assets onto our child is now sorted...

Mini and Maximus is a US kids label that works each season with different artists to come up with a fun, gorgeous and eco-friendly collection.....C'est super mignon!

The story of a hat....

A day trip to Biarritz....the men off to a rugby match, the girls off shopping in town...
Un coup de foudre for a hat from Galeries Lafayettes, followed by hours of fun shooting Mila and her ice-cream...

I'm now officially on holidays for the week. Have a great week!

PS:
Mila wears a cashmere dress from Zadig & Voltaire, black boots from Cos and woman hat from Galeries Lafayettes

Double jackpot in Junior magazine

It's like the Jungle in Brook Green...first comes, first served! This weekend I managed to get hold of the last copy of Junior magazine at my local newspaper, although I could save myself some grief and get a subscription. It would work out a lot cheaper!
Anyway, we've hit the jackpot this month as Junior kindly featured not one but two of our products: the ABC poster ByGraziela - a Collector's classic on page 91 and the Kathleen Hills Egg cube (great for Easter) on page 25.

I don't buy Junior magazine regularly but they have a really great section at the end of their mag with all the plays, museums, workshops you can take your kids in London.
Each year, as a working mother I feel the pain because Mila is off school for the whole month of April and trying to do things to keep her entertained and challenged for 30 days is not easy. Even if she has the most formidable French baby-sitter (one that makes us pancakes..yum yum), we still need to come up with some ideas. Luckily this year, Steve's parents are flying from New-Zealand so between them and the list of great things to do with kids, hopefully we will be fine.

We've been GRUFFALO-ED again!

Yes, we've been GRUFFALO-ED again truly and we love it....
After the lovely Gruffalo mug, the Gruffalo plasters and the Gruffalo chunky pencil set for creative little hands, we have now added the Gruffalo lunch box (how cute is this?!) and the Gruffalo money box to our range of little cute things for kids.

Born from the imagination of Julia Donaldson with fabulous illustrations by Alex Scheffler,
The Gruffalo is now a timeless classic and a publishing sensation that has sold over four millions copies worldwide!

BODIE and FOU Gift guide Part 4: Christmas Gifts for children

Here is BODIE and FOU Gift guide Part 4: Cool gifts for cool kids....
As you know, we are not massive fans of Barbie or Ben 10 themed toys for children. It doesn't mean that our girls don't have a few Barbie dolls they managed to get from their grandparents (and Mila was adamant about having her Ben 10 birthday cake earlier this year!) but there are a lot of young and talented designers who have designed cool, fun and contemporary toys and gifts for kids which we rather support.

From top left clockwise:

1. Doudou by Kayatine: £15 each
2. Alphabot art print: £38
3. Charlie and Lola soother: £5.95

4. Robot pencil sharpener: £9.99

5. ABC art print: £22

6. Charlie and Lola dinner set: £17.95

7. Wooden plane to suspend or display: £42

8. Floor cushion that glows in the dark: £62.50

9. Apple rug and Bunny rug: £98
10. Grow height chart: £30 Available in red here
11. Le Rounard cushion: £36.50

The 2nd issue of Papier Mache is out....

The 2nd issue of Papier Mache is out....This is going to be a lovely Sunday, full of inspiration and creativity....I was totally in love with the first issue and looking at the second issue, I think this is going to be a nice and steady love story... This issue is also available as a pdf so you can print it off and read it in bed....

Have a wonderful, relaxing and inspiring Sunday!

Noix de Coc' Advent calendar & cushions now at BODIE and FOU

Do you remember me mentioning that after we featured this gorgeous Advent calendar by Noix de Coc, the French designer and ourselves received several emails from customers interested in it?? Ok well at first, I didn't really pay attention to the level of interest and just forwarded Noix de Coc's details to our customers. I had just mentioned it on the blog because I liked it and I thought it was a beautiful and unusual Advent calendar. But then we got a long message from Francois, one of Noix de Coc founders, then more emails from customers and then finally Francois and I talked....
We realized that we both had received a lot of enquiries for this gorgeous calendar but Francois explained to me that although their beautiful Advent Calendar was stocked in various boutiques, no one was stocking it online so we agreed to add it on BODIE and FOU (here) to help out all our customers who were trying to track it down...

Since then, I've found out a lot about Noix de Coc'....Do you want to know what I've learnt?
Well, Noix de Coc's is a family business (like Kayatine, another beautiful French label for children and ourselves!).
It was set up by Corinne (the creative brain) and her brother Francois (the entrepreneurial brain). They've designed gorgeous things for children around the language of 3/4 years old children...you know when kids start talking but they don't pronounce the words properly?
Isn't that super cute?
Kids are hilarious are that age.... They've got all these grown-up words that come out in the wrong way and it's just adorable...I remember when Mila was 3 last year, she was saying 'kiken' instead of chicken...or spectacle was 'pestacle' and canapé (sofa in French) was 'cacapé' and she is still staying 'the Haircoiffeur' a franco-kiwi mix of hairdresser and coiffeur.
I wish now I had written all her little words that got me in stitches, they were so cute and funny.
It's also how Elodie ended up being nicknamed Bodie when she was little and couldn't pronounce her name.
So Noix de Coc' designs have super cute names mispronunced by children such as 'Le Rinoferoce' cushion for 'Le Rhinoceros' and 'Le Rounard' cushion for 'Le Renard' (fox). The 'Peur du Loup' floor cushion was inspired by children who were a little bit scared of wolves so Noix de Croc' designed a cushion with a drawing which glows in the dark and now children love watching TV lying on their floor cushion.
And the good news is that they are all now available on B&F because we thought they would make a great addition to a contemporary (Barbie/Ben10 free) child bedroom.

Perfect gift for baby....

This is one of our best-sellers.
I bought it first 6 years ago when Bodie was pregnant with Lily and we have now some really cool shots of Lilypette in this gorgeous babygro. Then we launched B&F so I sourced it for the shop...It's often like this...We fall in love with something then try to source for our online boutique. Last night, I just played around with photoshop and loved how this cute Angel babygro looks in a polaroid format....It comes in 3 sizes (0-3 months, 3-6 and 6-12 months) and is also available in pink here

Really loving the Doudou cushion Superstar....

Last September, I introduced Kayatine which is a new brand of gorgeous gifts for babies and toddlers launched by Julie Lepage-Chartier and her mum.
Julie and I have been in touch a lot recently because we are getting a lot of interest for all her Doudous. She was very happy when I told her we got Doudou Lila featured in a German magazine and she said that she recently got an order for 100 Doudous for a shop in Ireland - isn't fantastic after such a short time!! I'm thrilled for her but I know that Julie is working really hard so it's well deserved!
But today I want to show you the Doudou cushions she made...I'm absolutely loving these two Doudou Superstar red and Doudou Superstar yellow. Look at them!! Aren't they adorable??!
The Doudou cushions are made to order in France so delivery times will be about 2 weeks so if you want one...give yourself plenty of time to ensure your receive in time for Christmas!

Halloween in London & Barcelona

It's kind of funny how your opinion on things change when you have children. I was never against Halloween but never felt the need to celebrate it either. In fact, being French, my view on it was just total indifference but Mila and her friends were getting so excited that we joined the fun. My friend Mel organized a Pumpkin-carving party on Saturday afternoon. When she told me she had got hold of a big plastic cover to protect the table and the floor, me - the ignorant frog - thought 'pourquoi?' since Steve had carved a pumpkin the week before and it wasn't a messy job...and then I saw the result and I was blown away. I mean look at these...aren't they fantastic!! ??

Guillaume downloaded a few free pumpkin stencils, then got the girls to draw on the pumpkins and with a bit of help..... here are the fabulous pumpkins by 4-years old Clara, Matilda and Mila !!!
Then at 4pm, we all headed to our friend Tanja's who had organized a fabulous party where another 10 children + parents went - which was a really sweet way to meet everyone in the neighborhood (who said that nobody talked to each other in London?) - and then we all went around the block to ring people's bells.
So now if you ask me what I think of Halloween....I will say it's great! It's really good fun and even better when you can do it with a lots of kids and parents and for the scrooges who think Halloween is just commercial, I would just say a couple of pumpkins, plastic mices & spiders and spooky sweets are hardly going to break the bank and like it says on the Mastercard TV ad...seeing your kids having so much fun: priceless

Bodie (the other half of B&F), Christophe and Lily also celebrated Halloween in Barcelona....Isn't my niece gorgeous in her skeleton outfit? :-)

And I'm just adding these gorgeous Halloween invitations from Marta Stewart I've just spotted on The Beat that My Heart Skipped as a reminder for next year. These ‘Skeleton Invitations’ are created using simply thick card, a skeleton template and silver or white ink pens and pins so their arms jangle about! And you can get the Owls template from here (Rohini: love your Owl mail joke btw :-)