Famille Summerbelle

Malin Lundmark

I really love the poetic work of Swedish designer Malin Lundmark and how she gives a magical twist to ordinary objects.

1. Mr Hide. A playful, functional piece for the kitchen table which hides the accessories at your breakfast.
2. The cup-on-the-hook lamp. A coffee cup has become a lamp and has jump up onto the hook!
3.Vira. A lamp made out of glass and looking like a spool. The cord is kept around the shape and you can roll out the length of the cord that you need.
4. Marble lamp.
5.The pot lamp.A green cord is climbing like a flower on the wall and creates a pattern. On the top small terra cotta pots make the shades which spread the light further on the wall.

Height Charts

SOme of my favourite Height Charts:

I love this funky tailor's measuring tape from Graham and Green (H232 x 21cm)

Wall stickers 'Measuring Souvenir Berlin' and 'Measuring Plant' by Domestic.

Children's rooms 'London-Paris-Stockholm'.

Today was like Christmas again. A big parcel from Japan arrived at the door. I love it! I always get very excited when a parcel arrives, but even more when it's from Japan. It was our order of books from our favorite shop in Tokyo:Gallerie Doux Dimanche.
It's also a small publishing company called Paumes owned by Fumie and her husband who is a photographer and took all the photos for their books.
'Edition PAUMES is a small and dynamic family run Japanese publishers, working in close contact with artists and designers in Europe on different editorial projects. With a poetic and original approach, édition PAUMES explores the environments of those who stimulate the creative industries, and in doing has produced a set creative "bibles" that overflow with inspiration'.

We had the chance to meet Fumie while we were in Tokyo last October. She introduced us to her fabulous shop and to her book collection. Galllerie Doux Dimanche is now our first retailer in Japan selling our Family Trees and we are now the proud retailer of their books on Children's rooms.

If you are an interior lover and are looking for ideas to decorate your child's bedroom, then you will love these books.

The ones we have selected feature well-styled, creative and original bedrooms from real people living in different cities. Each room is unique with a personal touch (hand made toys, paintings, blankets...). At the end of each book you get a City guide of the best shops for kids and the best children's books.

The books are written in Japanese but it's really not a problem as there are so many beautiful images to look at for hours.

If you'd like to get your hands on one of these books, then you will be able to see and purchase ('Children's Rooms London', 'Children's rooms Paris' and 'Children's rooms Stockholm') exclusively (in the UK) at Kids Modern show in Dulwich London on Sunday 15th February.

Happy Birthday Pom!

That's 'Pom' dancing at the front (apparently his head was as round as an apple when he was little hence the nickname!?!). Yes, that's me on this left :) and our cousins. Marc you rock. We knew how to party in the 80's.

Bubble

Quickly before going to bed....some images of last weekend at Bubble Trade Show. The show was in its 2 year in London (it has been running for a while in New York). We were exhibiting Famille Summerbelle first collection last January- our first trade show, so we were very excited! This year the show was much bigger with bigger brands like French Connection, Petit Bateau, Pepe Jeans...and less small designers (i guess because of the difficult market situation). Nevertheless it was a good show. Lots of fab clothes and shoes. Personally I'm more interested in interior designs, so this is my selection:
Honeycubes from Superspace is a combination of a child's furniture and a toy. The flexible design of Honeycubes gives a number of ways to use the cube; as giga building blocks that challenge their way of building, balancing and playing, as a quiet place for reading and storytelling, and as a flexible storage system.


Ophelia had fun colouring the Tick Tock Snow wallpaper by Minimoderns. They have a great range of wallpapers and cushions available here.

Paper garlands

Some of my favorites:

from Tord Boontje.The metallic garland is available from Habitat.

Mexican garlands from the online shop REfoundobjects:

The Fabulous Garlands by Sophie Cuvelier. Each garland is unique and hand made.

Paper Artists

I just wanted to share with you 2 incredible paper cut artists that I discovered via PaperForest and Krisatomic
The first one is Chris Natrop, and American paper-cut artist. I love the scale of his installations and the shadows of the paper on the walls.

Kako Ueda is a Japanese artist living in the States. She does similar large scale paper installations, like a story alive on the walls. She also draws and paint on her paper cuts. She must be so patient as there are so much tiny details in her work :)

Julie

Tim Walker

Some very beautiful images by fashion photographer Tim Walker. These are some pictures from his latest book. His photos are always very theatrical, imaginative and tell a story.

This weekend we're off to Bubble Kids trade show. I'll do a post about it next week.
Have a good weekend!
Julie

PAPERgraphic

I came across the wonderful work by Russian artist Yulia Brodskaya via OhJoy blog.
Her work is so delicate and bursting with colours. All made in paper. Check out the Papergraphic illustrations she made for G2 (Guardian). So stunning!
Julie

Mama Magazine

A huge Thank you one again to Emma Cassi for styling our 'Tree' cushion in the Dutch Mama Magazine.

Another parcel from Japan!

Whilst in Japan we put together a package of bits and bobs to send home - trying to keep our suitcases as light as possible. Well that was two months ago, and after a long boat journey our big box arrived safe and sound in England last week.

One of the great things about our trip is that coming home you get to open lots of boxes. And all of our stuff feels like new. I highly recommend every so often just boxing stuff up so that you can open it again a few months later!

Anyway THIS box was full of things we bought or were given in Japan.

These two books (Recettes des Mamans a Paris & Children's rooms 'Copenhagen' are a present from the Galerie Doux Dimanche in Tokyo. You can purchase all their amazing books online here.
We are very proud to say that Galerie Doux Dimanche is our first Japanese retailer!

We bought this book 'Sparkle & Spin" in Japanese for Ophelia in a fantastic kids bookshop in Tokyo called CrayonHouse

A present from Japan

It was such a lovely surprise to come back home and discover a parcel from our friend Takako. The envelop was covered with very cute 'Hello Kitty' stamps and inside a book on Chiyogami papers: wonderful decorative Japanese patterns, perfect for inspiration. Thank you so much Takako!

Vogue Living Australia

Wow! this is also a huge honour to be mentioned in Vogue Living. A big Thank you to Danika for featuring our hand-screen printed "Kissing Birds".We were traveling between Australia and New Zealand when we've been ask to send some pictures of the wallpaper and it's so nice to come back home and get a copy in the post!

Bonpoint

Well, this is the must see in Paris: the renowned Parisian clothing house Bonpoint at 6 rue de Tournon in the 6th arrondissement. This 17th century townhouse is entirely dedicated to the Bonpoint art de vivre (1000 square metres) and you can also come for lunch with your immaculately dressed (well of course in Bonpoint) little angel in the downstairs cafe.

From the moment you step over the threshold, Bonpoint offers a feast for all senses. Each room has a theme, and they have a delightful wooden playhouse where your little angel can quietly do a nice drawing sat in a designer chair while you shop around.

You just want to buy EVERYTHING, the t-shirts look so smart and chic, the colours are always incredibly beautiful and the cut is perfect. But then you spy the price, check twice to make sure you read it properly, and oh yes this stunning little t-shirt for your little angel costs more than one you could ever find for yourself...Okay maybe a hat for this cold winter...€60...euh maybe not today.

The socks are affordable (in the sale)....and the packaging is exquisite!

Julie

Bonton Bazar

We fell in love with the window display in Bonton Bazar, 122 rue du Bac (next door to the Bon Marche in the 7th arrondissement). Bonton Bazar is heaven for kids bedrooms. You can buy lovely retro painted cots and lots of interior accessories (bed linen, posters, lamps, toys...)
Bonton has 4 shops in Paris (click here to find out the addresses) and sells exquisite children's and baby clothing (there is a separate baby shop 'Bebe Bonton' 82 rue de Grenelle next to their bigger one). The clothes are a similar style to those in Bonpoint but a bit cheaper and better suited for every day running in the park.

Julie

Petit Pan

We're just back from our Xmas break that we spent with our family in Paris. It was lovely to catch up with our relatives after our long trip.
Simon and I left Ophelia with 'Manou' (that's her French grandma)for the day and went cycling (on the Velib') to see some great kids shops in the Capitale. We love cycling in Paris but on that day it was soooo freezing cold. It was lovely sunshine but it had been snowing days before and the thermometer was showing well under zero!
This is some our selection:

I have mentioned Petit Pan on the blog before. I really love this shop located 39 rue Francois Miron in the Marais (4th arrondissement). Great hand-made kites and wall lamps (like the ones above) and lovely colourful outfits for the little ones. They have also opened -not long ago- a haberdashery shop (few doors down in the same street) where they sell fabric by the metre and lots of buttons, little bells, papers and mini kites.I bought some buttons covered in fabric to be sewn on Ophelia's coat. I highly recommend this place.
Julie

Milk Magazine France

...et voila les images!

Milk Magazine Japan

It is so nice to come back home and discover that our latest `Learn For Fun' prints -Mouse in the House & Numbers (Count the Sweets)- are on the cover of Milk Japan.
This photo is part of a brilliant photo shoot styled by Emma Cassi to be seen in the current French Milk (i'll show you some pics in the next few days).
Julie

The end of the beginning

Happy New Year!

This is an overdue post to round off our world trip, but since it's so late I thought I'd make it a short(!) round up of the year.

We started Famille Summerbelle in February 2008. Whichever way we look at it, we've had a great start - we've learnt lots, we've made some great new friends (with plenty of good advice), we've got bags of inspiration for 2009 and we've even sold a thing or two. We really hope that we can make it our future...

Our only real sad news was that we lost Julie's uncle Mike. He has left a very big hole, but I guess that just goes to show how great he was. I'd like to be missed as much as he is.

So this trip we did....it really was as great, inspiring and fulfilling as we tried to make it sound. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, for a few very good reasons:

1. It doesn't cost anything like as much as you think. Once you factor your every day living costs (especially for folk like us who live in the city) it doesn't work out much different. If you can rent or sell your apartment then it's possible to even make money as you go. The flight costs a bit, but that isn't so different to any long haul journey.

2. Nothing much changes whilst you're away. Even in a massive financial crisis like now, it seems life at home carries on the same (which is reassuring!).

3. Technology is brilliant. Skype, email (and blogs!) can help keep in touch with all of your loved ones - AND continue to run a business!!

4. I got to spend a lot of time with my family. I'd rather do it now than make up for lost time when I'm 65.

5. Traveling with kids is a real joy, and lots of people are doing it (yes, you read that right!). We met plenty of families along the way and they all said the same thing - it's not just easy it's great fun. Every train trip, every bus ride was an adventure and were we on our own I can't imagine it would have been quite as much fun.

6. Decisions now feel easier. Or maybe not easier but much more fun.

7. It makes you want to do it again. Not every year, but soon...!

Someone in New Zealand recommended to me a book by Tim Ferris called The 4 Hour Work Week. If you have even the slightest urge to change your life and take on an adventure I highly recommend it.

Here's to 2009 and the end of the beginning...

Simon