fruity and loopy

before christmas, our fruit was homeless. mangos, bananas, pears and kiwis would roll around aimlessly on our counter top before wobbly settling on the drab skin-colored tile surface. fruit is supposed to brighten up a kitchen, but ours was far from looking like a still life, it was just still there.

my mom, who has always been keen on having a bounty of fruit on the kitchen counter (i think she equates a kitchen without a fruit bowl to a woman without lipstick), found this scenario a bit depressing. she also found the perfect solution just in time for the holidays: the fruit loop fruit bowl, handmade with a single piece of chromed steel wire, designed by anglo-swiss duo dan black and martin blum (http://www.black-blum.com). it was a christmas miracle for the displaced fruit!

i wonder if my mom will ever get me to wear lipstick on an regular basis.

three toddler toys

so, christmas is near, and i just wanted to share these three awesome toys that coco loves. who knows? maybe santa reads this blog!

1. sirch sibis max (http://www.sirch.de) ride-on vehicle: german engineering for toddlers. coco got this as a gift from our friends/co-workers from the architecture studio where panzón and i worked in barcelona (http://www.tonetsunyer.com) when she was born. we put it inside of a suitcase and stuffed it with clothes when we moved here three months later. it's been parked in our living room, making a great decoration piece, for two years and coco's finally playing with it, giving ofe the frog a well-deserved rest and taking her for an occasional ride in the bottom compartment, of course.

2. plan toys balancing cactus (http://www.plantoys.com): this colorful and non-prickly cactus reminds us of mexico, which is why we affectionately call it "el nopal". it helps coco develop different skills, while being eco-friendly and looking beautiful in its many configurations. it also sits proudly on a shelf in our living room.

3. bilibo (http://www.bilibo.com): "what is it?", everyone asked at coco's birthday party, as she unwrapped it. actually, the only downfall to this toy is wrapping it, which i did clumsily with paper and an oversized bow. anyway, no one really knows what it is, except probably for its swiss designer, but kids know what it's for - anything, really. like stacking, spinning, storing, siting, sliding... oh, and it looks sculptural, too!