Teeny Manolo

The winter doldrums seem to have grabbed hold of almost everyone I know.  I wish I could go around to everyone’s house with one of those special sun lamps and cheer them up. 

However, seeing as flying is kind of expensive and most of you probably wouldn’t trust me enough to give me your address (I’ve only stalked like, one person in my whole life.  OK, maybe three. I swear, only four) I think I shall simply start focusing on all things spring and spring-like.  It’s right around the corner, you know!

And even though these Peruvian hand-knit backpacks from Bla Bla could be used at any time of the year, they are so bright and fun!  How could they not cheer you up even the tiniest little bit?  If you aren’t cheered up by these, then I’m sorry to say that you have a hopeless case of winter blues.  You should avoid all human contact until March.  Or maybe April.

For Christmas, my mother bought my son a shirt.  And I liked it. If you knew the type of clothing that my mom normally buys for the Munchkin, you would topple over in shock, I assure you. I know I did.  My mom is great, but her fashion sense and mine? Let’s just say we both tend to do a lot of private eye-rolling.

After I had been revived with smelling salts, I managed to gasp out, “Wh-where did you get that? How much was it?”

When I found out she had bought it for eight dollars, out the smelling salts came.  Again.

And whom did I have to thank for such a nirvana of a shirt for such a great price?

Why, H&M, of course.  The house of fast fashion and famous celebrity collections also offers clothing for children from ages 0-14 years.  Yeeaaaahhh baby, I was so there.

Luckily, I have a store near me that carries the children’s lines, which not all do.  I went in, curious as to what I would find, as I think everyone knows by now that I find boy’s fashion Boring with a capital B.   And, because I love you all, I also looked at the girl’s clothing, even though I never do because I just get jealous. 

I saw clothing that was, in a word, awesome.  It was of high quality, had color combinations not normally found in bargain clothing  (hello, chocolate brown and baby blue for the boys!) and best of all, did I mention it was pretty cheap?  Two t-shirts could be had as a color coordinated pair for $9.90.   Pants ran around $14.00.  They also had turtlenecks, which I had been hard-pressed to find this winter, for some reason. Lots and lots of graphics as well. 

Alas, in my corner of the world we are already beginning to warm up, not that we were ever really cold to begin with, so turtlenecks just seemed a bit much.  None of the spring line was in yet, so I was unable to purchase anything because the Munchkin’s winter wardrobe is already covered.  That was unfortunate, because I really wanted to buy something.  Never had I been so upset at being so well organized. I am practically salivating for them to get their spring line into the store.

The clothing for girls was equally fab, and the infant clothing was even better.  I cannot recommend this store highly enough. To find out if you have an H&M near you that carries children’s clothing and accessories, here is a link to their store locator in the US. 

There is no online shopping for residents of North America, but if you’ve got a close friend in Sweden who’s willing to get the clothes to you, it might almost be worth it.

There is a trend which began in the UK and is spreading fast here in America for a collectible doll known as a “reborn.” They look like infants, and are extremely lifelike. Some of them actually mimic breathing and movement during sleep. There are women who craft these dolls and sell them from “nurseries” where prospective “moms” can survey their choices and pick one that suits their taste. When they find the doll they wish to take home, they have to pay what is termed an adoption fee, which normally runs into the hundreds of dollars.

And it seems that some women cannot get enough of them.

I went on Ebay, the to-the-minute barometer of popular items, and when I typed in “Re-born doll” the search returned things like baby clothes and pacifiers. But, as soon as I changed it to “Re-born baby,” I hit the jackpot. No less than 642 items, many of them actual dolls, or uh, babies, as everyone in the industry seems determined to label them.

I examined the listing of one particular doll, a preemie named Michael. While I admire the artistry that goes into the making of one of these dolls (I am just as determined, I have decided, to label them dolls) I can’t help but be a bit apprehensive about their popularity. What exactly are the people who buy these dolls looking for? Something they can pretend is real but without any of the actual pesky “growing up” thing that babies tend to do?

Doll aficionados have been around forever, and I know that certain types of dolls go in and out of fashion, as with any other collectible. But the way they are framing the creation and purchase of the reborns so similarly to actual babies gives me pause.

I am also refraining from any “Chuckie” references, because we are all about the high class here at Teeny Manolo. But dang, it’s tempting.

Below you will find a fairly creepy video about the creation of reborn dolls. The quality isn’t great, but hey, it’s YouTube.

Cigars are so Twentieth Century! The next time you welcome a blessed event/accident into this world, pass around something personalized, trendy, and highly nutritious.

Rice Babies:

Japanese Yosimiya is selling bags of rice printed with a newborn’s photo, name and date of birth. The bags are shaped to resemble a swaddled baby. But the key feature is that the bags contain the baby’s exact weight in rice.

This is the very definition of a cute idea, and could, in fact, be improved only by including matching donations to the food bank. Mind you, there’s alway some killjoy who’ll hand it back, asking for something more Atkins-friendly. Oh, well. It’s good to find out who the bad fairy is before the christening, I always say.

Interestingly, at a price of $32 US (3500 Yen) this puts rice babies at an average of $4.27 per pound, whereas white rice sells for $2.52 a pound, and live human babies apparently sell to the State of Texas for around $66 per pound, although the production time is longer, giving a rather pitiful net return on investment of only $0.07 per hour of production time.

Obviously, you’d be better off convincing all your trendy friends to become pregnant and give you rice babies instead of growing real ones of your own. Lower in fat, too.

Ah, I remember this. I remember the horrific Eighties adult fashions. I remember the scar-like Eighties makeup. I remember the casually trauma-inducing toupée incidents. I remember the catchy, meaningless dance hits by soon-forgotten Eurotoddlers.

Relive again those golden days of yore with Jordy, le petit phenom du rock.

Lyrics and translation over the jump… (more…)

If you didn’t get this for Christmas, hurry and get the 5-disc HD DVD set of Planet Earth from Amazon, it’s on sale as well as being eligible for Super-Saver shipping.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. The photography and cinematography are absolutely stunning, breathtaking, and all sorts of other positive adjectives ending with -ing.  The stately intonations of Sir David Attenborough add some wonderful narration.

Both adults and children will be spellbound watching this.  Although it does contain death, since there is no way a documentary about nature could not feature the hunted and the hunter, it is not done in an off-putting manner.

This video will give you just a slight taste of the wonders that await you.  And please, don’t think of my sudden YouTube fascination as slacking off so much as just enjoying the holidays!

Now there were some guesses on this contraption that made me jealous that I didn’t think of them first.

Awesome Mom came up with this gem:

It is an electronic high five machine. For those times when you do something super cool and no one is around to high five you.

I can’t even tell you how many times that exact thing has happened to me.

And Brian’s Babymomma submitted this classic:

A personal space keeper for those long bus rides during commute hours?

As highly entertaining as those are, the actual purpose of the invention is an “Anti-Mosquito Hat” for, well, keeping the mosquitos away. But kudos to the young inventors, blessed with such creativity.

Now, if only I could recruit them to draw up some blueprints for a laundry-folding machine…

In my travels far and wide across the vast internets, sometimes I come upon a picture that just begs to be exposed to the widest audience possible. 

This one, for example:

You are looking at an actual product, invented by a couple of bright young boys in secondary school.  This is the prototype which they are looking to patent and sell to “any company willing to produce it.” 

Ah, the eternal optimism of youth.  Why can’t we bottle it up and sell that?  I would buy some.  And you would just have to wait your turn, because I would totally be the first one in line.  Even if I had to cheat and pull the old “look over there!” trick, because the jaded Glinda could use a litle optimism.  Don’t tell me you wouldn’t fall for it.  You know you would. 

Any guesses as to it’s actual purpose?

Sometimes I wonder, how are other countries dressing their kids?  I decided to check out Japan, because the Japanese are no slouches in the fashion department.  After a few minutes hours of research, I found the Narumiya Company, a popular high-quality clothing manufacturer in Japan that produces a couple of European-inspired clothing lines. Upon first glance, I fell in love with them.

I mean, how could I not?

The designs are so cute, I want to have a daughter, like right now, so that I can buy these for her.  The above are from their Pom Ponette line for toddlers.

But then I went to a different portion of the website, and found these from another one of their lines, Mezzo Piano.

I adore these looks, they are a bit over the top, but I love them just the same. I mean, it’s a photo-shoot, right?  Things are allowed to look a little different in a photo-shoot.

Now we are getting into really artsy territory with the hat o’flowers, but look at that ribbon! I can ignore the headdress because of that brown ribbon.

Erm, I’m starting to get a little uncomfortable here. I keep reminding myself, photo-shoot, things are allowed to be, uh, different.  She’s depressed about her grades or something, that’s all!

This photo is definitely not ichiban in any way.

But do you see the embroidery on the skirt of the blue dress? I’m almost willing to forgive the fact that the two models look like the black-sheep cousins of Alice in Wonderland, ready to smack her around a little if she doesn’t meet their demands to give up some of that mushroom stash. 

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, these clothes are not available here in the US and have limited distribution in Europe.  At an average of 12,000 yen, these clothes are a bargain.  That’s about 100 US dollars, and listen, I thought of the idea to get on a plane and buy them and bring them back here already.  My finder’s fee is about ten percent if you beat me to it.

But I’m just not sure I can get past those Lolita-inspired pictures.  What do you think, are those exploitative or are you willing to look past the advertising because the clothes are so fab?