fawn&forest

Ahh, yes. The Tiny Tank by KLT works. We had scorching 100+ degree weather last week in Portland. Owen stayed cool (and cool!) in his KLT owl Tiny Tank in green. How stylin' is he?

The Tiny Tank is available in 2 colors (orange + green) in a variety of sizes. Even though Mr. O is only 7 weeks old, he sufficiently fits in the 3-6m size. Pure chunky goodness at it's finest.

And see those eyebrows? Man, the kid gives the looks! Reminds us of CNN's Anderson Cooper.... AC 360 "keeping them honest" look. Agree?! 

We're rounding out this month's selection of Forest Finds as August draws to an end. I have 2 more Q+A's to bring you, today with Kim Screen, the Good Stock genius. Although Kim primarily works in the preservation of family history, creating heirloom quality books, I just had to have a slice of her amazing work. Check out Kim's fill-in family trees, at once!

When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
A teacher, like my kindergarten-teaching mom.

You are essentially in the business of preserving family history. What is the most challenging part of this process?
Getting started on a book design is always the hardest. When I'm really stuck, you'll find me cleaning + organizing around the house or office instead (my preferred procrastination!) But once I've got a good grasp on the story and a solid start on the design, I'm unstoppable. I get totally engrossed in the book and the story I'm telling. 

What does the rest of '08 hold for you?
I'm exhibiting at my first trade show - a genealogy one in Philadelphia - and am slightly nervous. Ok, very nervous. I'm launching into weddings with a "wedding week" where I'll feature a wedding book a day on my blog to give brides ideas and inspiration. And if i can get enough examples I'll also do a "Christmas week" too. On a personal note, my husband and I hope to buy a house! Oh, and i just found out today that a baby announcement I did for my friend Joel McHale (The Soup) will be in People Magazine in September - fun!

i'm not kidding, Kim really is a creative genius. Check out her site, you'll want a book of your very own, guaranteed. Thanks Kim!

We like to have fun here at Fawn&Forest. And we like to give away free stuff. As in a free Binth Baby Book when you drop $1000 or more on that modern crib, sweet stroller or a wardrobe of clothes for your new kiddo. 

Total deal! Just enter binth into the discounts field at checkout to activate. Offer is good while supplies last or until September 30th.  

Eliot and I made pita bread yesterday. Not so sure it was the brightest idea to use the oven on a 100 degree day? It was great fun to get sticky in bread dough and work on our counting skills (3 cups of flour, 8 balls of dough...) despite the heat. Eliot was crazy thrilled to man the Kitchen Aid as it kneeded the dough for 10 minutes. Ten of the most exciting minutes. 

We followed the pita bread recipe from The Fresh Loaf. Simple recipe. The best part? The recipe actaully worked. The Pitas puffed up "just like pillows!! wow!" in the oven and tasted yums as well. The only part of the recipe I changed was that I used white whole wheat flour instead of the regular stuff. 

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

If you are using active dry yeast, follow the instructions on the packet to active it (see the note on yeast above). Otherwise, mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water (I had to add an extra 1/4 cup).

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, such as a cutting board, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes (or until your hands get tired). If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes.

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. I use canola spray oil, but you can also just pour a teaspoon of oil into the bowl and rub it around with your fingers. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it'll be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn't necessary (in the batch pictured here I removed them at 3 minutes).

 

Simple recipe from the Fresh Loaf. Very kid friendly. Long instructions. However, go to the Fresh Loaf for play by play photos. 

Anka is the ultimate in stylish, wood fold up + away baby turn toddler highchair. Part of the new Anka collection made by the folks who make Svan of Sweden.

Conveinetly enough, the Anka highchair has a handful of selling points: totally adjustable seat depth, tray and foot rest. It folds flat for those in the spacesaving mode and is made of sustainable hardwood. And so you sweet babe doesn't get any cooties the removable plastic tray is Phthalate and bisphenol-A free. Yay!

I really like how the Anka can be pulled up to the family table for dinnertime + drawing.  

Bebe au Lait (get it?) gets a big thumbs up. While I am a fan of print + pattern, I am a plane organic cotton + organic linen fabric (in the loveliest muted yet cheery colors) type of gal. And we're talking nursing covers! Did I ever think I would get excited about an organic linen nursing cover? Heck!

But oh how thrilled I was to see the latest shipment from Bebe au Lait as I had ordered myself the organic linen nursing cover in Peacock. Dreamy! The organic version has the same great features as the other Bebe au Laits: rigid neckline, generous sizing and adjustable neck strap.

And as my friend Sara demonstrated this past weekend, the Bebe au Lait also doubles as a cape if one is needed in a pinch. 

This is fun. Go to the Wordle website, type in some text (or copy + paste as I did from the fawn and forest homepage) and create a neat-o word collage-y type cloud! Words that are most prominent in the text show up the largest and the whole cloud is customizable -- font, layout and style.

A fun project: make a Wordle (or several) inspired by your kid's.... name, interests, favorites..... print out + frame in one of those cheap mats + frames from Ikea and you're set. Instant artwork like you know what's up. 

Via Coochicoos. 

In a recent re-order of Organic Teething BonBons by Dress Me up, Tressa included her Organic Blanket + Burp Cloth set as a gift for our new little Owen. Tressa is super sweet + thoughtful, so I knew she wasn't trying to totally scam me (ha!). However, once in hand, Iimmediately thought : we gotta carry this. No question, the blanket + burp set rocks.

I was surprised at the weight of the creamy organic fabric, much heavier than you would expect. A pleasant surprise + crazy soft. Tressa's detailed free hand stitching is incredibly simple + totally stunning. The gal knows how to sew a straight line + fancy leafy bits too! Available in 2 colorways: Lima Bean (lovely greens + browny-olives) and Robin's best (pictured above).

And as the recipient of the Dress Me Up Organic Blanket + Burp set, it makes for a lovely gift.  Thanks Tressa!

Meet your (kids) bed's new best friend: Hali. The Hali nightstand by Argington compliments the Argington Ayres twin bed quite wonderfully with it's spacious cubby + roomy pull out drawer. You know where else the Hali would be nice? As a side table next to a rocking chair in the nursery. 

Argington has also recently introduced the Rhodes kid-size chair. For some reason it reminds me of chairs from grade school, except cooler (duh) and with a more organic shape. And while Rhodes would be nice by itself, it conveniently fits with the Giza play table.

Free, well not quite. But you can download your very own Hermes Kelly bag...the paper version! It would certainly be fun for your little girl, and admit it, you too.  

The Hermes Kelly is available for download in 7 beautifully illustrated versions, my favorite is the one above. Though, there is also a blank version, which would be a lot of fun to decorate with an excess amount of glitter glue, right?

Thank you to Summer (yes! not often do I run across another Summer!) of Design is Mine blog, who has also started another blog called Design Freebies... which is where I found the link for the paper Hermes Kelly. 

Total textile joy: Plover Organic's line of crib quilts! Organic + whimsical + totally unique. Today's Q+A is with the very intriuging Marisa Kula Mercer, one of the very talented ladies of Plover Organic. Plover has taken a very refreshing stance on textiles, transcending trends + time... creating heirloom quality quilts + bedding with a fantastic feel-good + do-good option: organic cotton. 

When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be everything at one point or another! Singer, writer, dancer, bank-teller. They all had their allure.

Watermelon Granita: another amazing recipe from Jennifer Carden (author of The Toddler Cafe). The perfect Friday night treat! Thanks Jen!

You were in the store and the watermelon looked tasty and it was on sale. You wrestled it in to the car taking care not to let it roll around the trunk. You cut it into triangles and the juice ran down the kids faces, it was delicious but now you have half an aging melon taking up most of your refrigerator.

What to do now? I know tossing it seems like a waste so why don't you make it into a sweet, refreshing snow coneish dessert. You don't need a fancy ice cream maker, just a fork and container and a bit of time.

Make this to taste, depending on the sweetness of your watermelon, it does not have to be overly sweet, really it should just taste like fresh fruit.

I really like to use simple syrup, sugar and water melted together but you can make this with regular sugar, substitute in 1/2 cup granulated for the simple sugar. If you have an oversized fork, use it to rake the mixture. But don't leave the fork in the freezer and then lick it when it is frozen, my mistake...ouch.

Watermelon Granita
4 cups seedless watermelon chunks
1 C. simple syrup (recipe below)
Juice of 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Puree until smooth. Pour into a 9 x 13 inch plastic or glass container and freeze for 1 hour. Rake mixture with fork and freeze for another hour. Check it a few times to make sure it is not turning in to a solid block. Rake and freeze for one more hour. Rake and serve in cups. It should stay granular indefinitely.

 

Simple Syrup
1 C. sugar
1 C. water

Bring the water to a boil.
Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water.
Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat.
Allow to cool completely.
 

Recipe, text + images from Jennifer Carden. Be sure to check out Jen's book + blog!  

New to fawn&forest, Polkadot Papoose baby slings!  A classic take on the pouch style sling with fresh new fabric and a very thoughtful design. They're reversible!! Double style = double value! Polkadot Papoose "fuses classy cute with sensible chic, for a shamelessly adorable modern take on mankind's oldest accessory". 

My favorite Polkadot Papoose sling s "Adele" (pictured above, right), love the grey + gold with a touch of pink. And that pocket? Officially a binky pocket but unofficially could hold a myriad of other small items (credit cards, cash or toy car). 

The other fun bit? Tara of Polkadot Papoose names each sling after a character -- Marianne from Sense and Sensibility (above left) and Adele from Jane Eyre (above right). Totally fun!

Even if your kids are past the baby crib stage or you no longer have need for a rocker, you just HAVE to click and check out the new Nurseryworks American Collection. It has a bit of an attitude + I am totally lovin' it.  

The Nurseryworks American Collection, designed by Lawson-Fenning for Nurseryworks, includes 5 new pieces: a Spindle Crib,  Canterbury Changing Table-Dresser, Empire Rocker and 2 headboards, the Harvard and the Vale. Nurseryworks' new collection combines:

The principles and craft of mid-century California and Early American furniture.... The result is a comfortable modernism with subtle connections to the past; pursuing values like, warmth, character, even sweetness...Tufting, turned wood spindles and the wing-back all are a nod to our past, but updated in a playful modern way.

Plus, Nurseryworks has introduced a new velvet fabric for the rocker + headboards that comes in 3 lovely new colors: delft, lilac and rosette.

I am thrilled to announce the very talented Jennifer Carden (author of The Toddler Cafe) will be contributing recipes to the Notes! Excitement! Her first contribution brings us a recipe for Homemade Corn Tortillas. Enjoy + thanks Jen!

I know you are thinking,  homemade tortillas for breakfast why bother? Well my job is to get kids interested in food and this is faster and more fun than you may think! Make the tortillas, fry some eggs add cheese and black beans and you have a meal.

You do need a tortilla press but, a few sheets of parchment and a rolling pin or two baking dishes will double as a press just fine. If you have a Mexican market near you you will likely find an inexpensive press there. You can pick up a bag of Maseca too. You can find this in the ethnic isle of your grocery store too. I use Maseca, code name, masa harina..... just add water, it is that easy.  Now get the kids working it is just like playdough.
 

Follow the recipe on the bag, I add a bit of salt and a squeeze of lime juice :

Combine masa harina with water.

Mix with hands until dough is moist but holds its shape. Add more water if needed.

Let dough rest for 15 minutes. Divide dough into 12 balls. Dampen your hands slightly with water.

Using a tortilla press or two flat baking dishes, press dough between two pieces of waxed paper to a 6 inch round. Carefully peel off the top sheet of paper.

Place tortilla, paper side up, on a hot ungreased griddle or skillet. Gently peel off remaining paper.

Cook for 30 seconds or until edges begin to dry. Turn and cook until surface appears puffy. Repeat with remaining dough balls.

Keep warm in tin foil in a low oven.

 

Kit+Lili: it's in and it' up. The spunkiest modern baby rompers + onesies you've ever seen. My favorite is the navy blue dot romper with orange trim (shown above, left). Total style. 

I will note the sizing on the rompers runs a bit small -- the listed size is 3-6m or 6-12m. And while Owen is not a huge baby, the 3-6m size fits him well at almost a month old. The onesies on the other hand seem to run a bit big.....?  

We were blessed with a 'dinner train' after the birth of Owen. 8 spectacular dinners in total. If you know someone who just had a baby, skip the flowers and take them dinner (and dessert). Now that the dinner train is over, I am left with a pile of casserole dishes + otherwise. I have this idea of giving the dishes back to their rightful recipients with a thank you note and homemade cookies. We'll see how ambitious I get, but doesn't that sound nice?

So when cruising around the food blogs last night, I found these peanut butter cookies at my favorite food blog, 101cookbooks.com. They are a twist on a classic peanut butter cookie with only 7 ingredients. And they look delicious!

And perhaps it's old news, but TasteSpotting is an excellent spot for find new food blogs.  Have you been?
Images above from 101cookbooks.com. 

The bold + graphic throw pillows by Boodalee are just so happy. The concept behind Boodalee's bedding + pillow collection is visuals from around the world + beyond. These pillows capture just that in a nutshell -- images as the universal language! 

Concepts aside, each Boodalee pillow is the ultimate flip-able pilow, featuring a design on each side. The pillows obviously coordinate well with the bedding set they were inspired by but are kickin' enough to look sweet in the family room too.

Complete Boodalee collection can be found here. 

The A-Z Animal poster,  designed + illustrated by Tara Hogan of Ink+Wit is one of those products that makes me want to have a brick + mortor shop too. Yes, viewing the print on your screen, it is quite evident the illustrations are spectacular and the colors are so with it. But after beholding the A-Z in person, the details and thoughtfulness of the actual print far exceeds what you see on your screen.  The details are delicate, the grey has a silver shimmer and the composition is playful yet sophisticated. 

When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
An actress.

Nature plays a major role in your work. What is the most compelling aspect of working with nature and organic forms in your work?
Spontaneity and the interaction of animals and botanicals.

What does the rest of '08 hold for you?
I am working on a numbers poster similar to the animal alphabet poster and also a new elephant print where part of the proceeds will benefit an elephant sanctuary. In addition, I will be creating the very first roll of children's wallpaper for INK+WIT. And, hopefully, a trip to Tuscany in October.

So looking forward to Numbers poster + wallpaper! Oh yeah. Thank you Tara!

Rockabye Baby Lullaby Renditions is the ultimate in buying for that new mom + dad. Does baby know or care who Bjork is? Probably not, but Mom will surely get a kick out of her favorite Bjork songs in lullaby form! Available in 7 renditions from Coldplay to U2, Nirvana and No Doubt.

And a special fawn&forest feature? You can hear a lullaby sound clip of each rendition, when each title is clicked on. Sweet! And as Rockabye Baby put it: cherub rock for a new generation..... awww.....