Style Lush

Adorable Kid Gift: Boogie Monster Dance Kit

by Lawyerish    

For Christmas, my mom sent our daughter the Boogie Monster Dance Kit, and we have had such fun with it!

 

The kit contains a book, a music CD and a set of Boogie Monster legs:

Yes, they are shaggy orange leg warmers.  And my kid says, "Put on my Boogie Legs!" whenever she sees them.

The book is a fun read with a nice rhythm to it, and the text suggests different moves for the child (and parent, if you're so inclined) to try as you read along.  The CD is a fun, non-grating set of songs to help you and your little one get your groove on.

It's a great way to spend some time with your favorite small person doing something active without even having to leave your living room.  I think kids age 18 months to 4 years are especially well suited to the Boogie Monster's ways.  Give it a whirl!

(Photo credit: bn.com) (and my own)

Elephant and Piggie: Willems wins again

By Lauren

We are big, big fans of Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny series around our house. My two-year-old son insists on reading the books more frequently than any others we own, and he sleeps with a little stuffed Knuffle Bunny of his own.

We were delighted, then, when a family friend gifted him with three new Mo Willems books this past Christmas. Willems' Elephant and Piggie books are perfect for young readers, but are also delightful to read to the pre-reader set. My son is particularly enthralled by Should I Share my Ice Cream?, which he refers to as the "ice cream book."

As with all Willems books, the characters are delightful and the stories charming. Best of all, though, they're the sort of books that never seem to get old. Highly recommend.

Recordable Books

By Jen

We live far from all of our family (we move a lot), so we try to find ways for our three year old to keep in touch with her relatives.  Now, this is particularly tricky since she often refuses to talk on the phone.  And by refuses, I mean runs screaming out of the room. 

So this year for Christmas and her birthday, we asked for recordable books as gifts.  Have you seen these?  You can record the story and then it plays back as you turn the pages. 

{Image from Amazon.com}

There are light sensors on each page so that the book knows which page to play.  Some versions include music that plays before or after each page. 

We have several of these from various relatives and my daughter asks for them by which person reads them.  I'm trying to get one from each of our immediate relatives so that we have a complete set.  (Ahem, Grandma and Auntie Ashley.)  We've also recorded one and sent one as a gift to my godson for his second birthday.  I let my three year old help with the recording and I am told that he adores hearing her "talk" to him, especially the part at the end where she tells him that she "yuvs" him. I also think they are great because they are a gift that cannot be duplicated.  Even if you get the same book from two different people, the recording is going to be different and make the story unique.  Most of the books have a dedication page where you can talk to the recepient, but even if it doesn't have an official one, you can record a personal message on the first or last page. 

These are perfect for faraway relatives and also great for children who cannot read yet themselves.  The stack we have has bought me some precious making dinner time.  They are also a wonderful gift that doesn't clutter up the house.

Do you have any of these for your own family or have you given any as gifts? 

The Night Before Christmas: A Bedtime Shadow Book

by Elizabeth

I looked for weeks for a new Christmas book to add to our collection this year, but I never looked at any of the Night Before Christmas retellings because we usually just read the story to our kids from a Christmas story collection we have. 

Then a box of gifts for our kids showed up and one of the gifts had a tag that said it could be opened before Christmas, and inside was "The Night Before Christmas Bedtime Shadow Book."

I am not normally a huge "book gimmick" person, but you guys, this book is SO cool. And my four year old loves flashlights, so that makes it extra fun. It's a little hard to describe, but each page has a bit of the story written underneath a clear circle that you shine a flashlight through, and then it projects a large verision of that picture onto the wall. So cool!

I love the simple graphic nature of the book itself and I think reading through this at night and shining the pictures on the wall is going to be a really fun Christmas tradition for us and our kids. I think today is the last day you can order stuff from Amazon to get it to your house in time for Christmas but I am sure these are available in brick and mortar book stores if you want to run get one at the last minute! It's a very big hit at our house, that's for sure. 

{Photo credits:amazon.com}

Note Prints: Art on Sheet Music

by Christina

Not long ago I hit up a local indie craft fair and came across some prints on sheet music. I bought 3 sheets and let me tell you, I was holding back. This stuff is amazing! I played the flute for 8 years and the images are incredible, so I was instantly drawn to them. I have two hanging in my living room and one in my dining. They make me so happy and they are so inexpensive! They are, after all, just sheets of paper run through a printer but they are interesting and when framed well, in my opinion, art. Here are the three I have. Available here.

They're all over Etsy. You can get them in color and on pages of old books. I am so in love with this idea, I want more! Like these two.

So fun! Don't you think?

(personal images and collageorama via etsy)

Thanksgiving Books for Children

By Lisa

Moving right along, aren't we? Yesterday was Halloween and my mind is on Thanksgiving.  

My older son is about 3 1/2. It's the right time, I think, to start discussing the meaning of important holidays and Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorites. All the fun and eating with family, no requirement to give gifts. Love it!  

So with that, I've looked around (ahem, Amazon) for some Thanksgiving books that are age appropriate. Here's what I've come up with:

 

This looks nice right? It has good reviews and the emphasis is on being thankful, which I like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like this one because it focuses on why we are thankful and to whom. Nice message.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book is probably the most historically accurate. It also appears to be an award winner! Only downside may be that it's more of a chapter book, so better for older kids.  

So, which book(s) would you get? Or do you have another one you'd suggest? Do share!

 

 

 

 

 

{photo credits: amazon.com}

Zombie Awesome

By Beth

Ok, I know this is not a book blog, but I have no sense of style whatsoever and have been writing for this here style blog for a while now, so I thought I would write about something I actually know about.

Zombies.

Actually, zombies are rather in style now, aren't they? Sort of the anti-vampire? So, hey, here's my totally stylish post about zombies.

I recently read Feed by Mira Grant. It is Book 1 of the Newsflesh Trilogy, and soon thereafter read Deadline, which is Book 2 of the same series. It is totally zombie awesome. First of all, bloggers are hugely influential reporters and opinion makers and make actual livings doing it (go bloggers!). Second, a virus that renimates the dead has swept the world and is still wreaking havoc while society struggles to exist with the new reality that Grandpa can have a heart attack and then hop up and try to eat you. The characters are great, the premise is unique, and the plot is an absolute page-turner. And it has one of my favorite parts of any book, the point where something happens that makes me want to search out the author and kick her in the teeth because how could you let that happen?

Anyway, if you want to jump on the zombie train, I recommend Feed as a good place to start.

(Photo credit: Amazon.com)

Your Birthday Book: A Keepsake Journal

by Emily

My son turned five on Monday. That means we've had five entire birthday parties for the kid - and for the life of me, I can't really remember what we did for each one, though I'm sure we kept it small (we have a tiny house) and made it mostly family-centric. And every year, right after his birthday party (JUST LIKE I AM DOING ONCE AGAIN), I regret never buying this adorable little birthday party scrapbook and filling it out for him.

The concept is simple - for each birthday, there's allotted space for photos and a few notes, for example, who was invited, gifts that were given, what kind of cake the birthday kid ate. What I like most about it is that it doesn't make you feel like you have to write a BOOK about the day - some simple rememberances is all there's room for anyway. I love what the little blurb at barnesandnoble.com says about it: "This is not anything like a baby book. It’s a birthday book! It was born from the simple idea that birthdays provide the perfect annual opportunity to preserve a sweet moment in time as your child changes from year to year."

I love that! The perfect annual opportunity to preserve a sweet moment in time. Yes. YES.

As your kids get older, the book provides some quick interview questions, too. This is actually one of my favorite gifts to give when I've been invited to a baby's first birthday party! The price is really reasonable, too - you can buy it almost everywhere (Amazon, B&N, Target) for under $10.

Ok, so now I'm tempted to go ahead and buy two and fill them out for both kids even though we've gone through seven birthday parties already.That wouldn't be lame, would it?

[photo credit: barnesandnoble.com]

Bookcase trends: Rainbow or Neutral

by Christina

This is gorgeous!

So pretty. It's a rainbow, it's bright and cherry and how in the world do you find a stinking book when you are looking for one if they are organized by color? Am I right? So this has been going on for a while, a few years maybe, but now? Now people are doing this!

I get it, it's neutral and quiet. It looks sort of nice and libraryish, but really? Really? What if you need a book? What if you're in a hurry,, like, say, someone calls you from Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the answer is in one of your books BUT WHICH ONE! WHERE IS IT? Okay, so, pretty unlikely scenario. Is that show even on anymore? And I'm sure you can just look it up online. Whatever.

The reason I'm writing about these is to get your take on them.Do you like this trend? If so which one, rainbow or neutral.( Have YOU read ALL of your books? Cause, dude, good luck...)

(Images via pinterest)

Book Exchange Club

By Janet

A few years ago, I was in a fabulous book club. The best thing about the club was how low-key it was--no reading deadlines, no staying up all night to finish a book before the monthly meeting, no reading books you are not interested in. If you are looking for a reason to get together with a group of gal pals on a regular basis, and you like to read, here's an easy solution.

1. Decide on a time and location. Meet every first Tuesday of the month at local cafe, for instance. Find a place to go out so that nobody has to cook or clean. 

2. Everyone brings the book(s) they read in the previous month. 

3. Go around the table, allowing each person to give a brief synopsis of the book(s) in their stack.

4. All the books are put in the middle of the table and get divided up to go home with someone new. Just let everyone call dibs on the books that strike their fancy. Don't get the book you want? Don't worry! It will return next month to be placed back in the center pile!

5. Eventually, after a few months, the books will make it around to all the people who are interested and then they go home with their original owner. 

{Image via Not on the High Street}