Have an egg-cellent Easter weekend, oh and happy Earth Day too!

Le Creuset has created the Strawberry Tea Collection — including cake stand,  jam jar, tea plates, mugs, silicone muffin cases in a beautiful rose color –  in support of Breast Cancer Care UK summer fundraiser, Strawberry Tea. Lovely tea set for a good cause — sounds like a sweet deal.

With the gift-giving season just around the corner, many will be on the lookout for unique and functional gifts for children. The Emerson House by brinca dāda is as much a gift for kids as it is for parents with discerning tastes. Beautifully made, it blends into most modern home settings. Add a couple of pieces from the Classic Contemporary furniture line and it will be hours of fun for imaginative young minds.

Emerson House

Emerson House draws inspiration from Richard Neutra’s Desert House and A. Quincy Jones’ house for Gary Cooper. With seven rooms including a living room, kitchen, dinning room, library/office, master bedroom, bathroom and child’s bedroom, it features many distinguishing architectural features like glass corners, minimalist cut stone fireplace, scored hardwood floors and recessed LED lights powered by solar panels. Emerson House measures 18”x21”30” (H-W-L) and is built at 1:18 scale.

The house is easy on the environment with only non-toxic and lead-free wood stains and paints. It also recently won GREENretailer’s 2010 Eco-Choice Award for “Most Innovative” New Product.

Classic Contemporary Furniture

The Classic Contemporary furniture line from brinca dāda is the perfect complement to both Emerson House and Bennett House.

The line’s clean and sophisticated aesthetic mixes classic modern design with contemporary “in fashion” highlights. In the words of the designers, “The key was to work on every detail to add an extra dimension of authenticity to this dollhouse. We used American black walnut stain as a common thread, giving a contemporary feel to each room. We then added color as accents, but also as an attraction to children’s sensibilities.”

Classic Contemporary offers furnishings for seven rooms and is fashioned from high-quality woods and non-toxic, lead-free stains and paints.

Visit brinca dāda for more information on Emerson House, Bennett House and the Classic Contemporary Furniture line.

It’s the time of year where everything is decked in gold and glitter. Ah, don’t you just love Christmas packaging? Hédiard Magi’s Coffee and Christmas Sencha Tea, tins designed by Camille and Roland Toupet.

This delightful, thoroughly enjoyable book aptly titled An Awesome Book! by Dallas Clayton is just the perfect thing to brighten up anyone’s day.  It’s filled with pages of colorful child-like illustrations that made me smile:

The message is simple but really inspiring — don’t be afraid to dream. It’s one of those rare books where having finished reading the whole thing online (the entire book is available to read online), I still want to get a physical copy of — to hold and hug and read to sleep every night, lest I forget how important my dreams. Would make a great Christmas present for both kids and adults. Buy it at the Very Awesome World website.

And the lovely sequel, An Awesome Book of Thanks, is pretty darn awesome too.  It’s about gratitude for all things big and small, good and bad.

You can also get an unsigned copy of An Awesome Book of Thanks! for less at Amazon.