Nested

Zid Zid Poofs

It may be a while before your kids get a chance to travel to Marrakech, but that shouldn't stop them from lounging around the house in Moroccan style. Zid Zid, a business operating out of Morocco and the United States offers these "Mini Poofs" for lounging, sitting, crawling and most everything else a tot would do with a cushion. The artisan approach to the poofs captures the spirit of handmade Moroccan crafts with a child-centric design sensibility. We absolutely love the bird poof and elephant poof. Poofs are $78 and available at a variety of online boutiques, including Arte Bebe, Design Public and Modern Mini.

Wall Stickers by dVider

You can't blame us for not trying to be thorough when it comes to exposing Nested's readers to wall decals/sticker options. The other day we highlighted Blik's Threadless collection and today we want to call stickers by dVider to your attention.

Spell it Out!

Since we know just how much parents love spelling out their little one's name on the walls of nurseries and play rooms, it only made sense to highlight Spell with Flickr, an online utlity that will serve up photographs of letters based on the names you enter (here's the results we got after entering Nested).

If you're not happy with the suggested letter, simply click until you find the perfect one. Links to the original photos in their larger sizes are also provided -- this means you can print them out and frame them for your perfect wall art (assuming you're not running a commercial nursery, which, we assume most people aren't).

Threadless at Blik

Just when you think you've seen every wall decal option out there, Blik Surface Graphics has gone and added some Threadless-created/inspired wall decals to their collection! This isn't the first time -- last year this design created by a Threadless artist was added to the Blik store. However, it now seems that adding more designs, more frequently to the Blik store will become a regular occurrence.

Some of the current designs work better than others for a child's room or nursery. And since they're not intended solely for kids, that's okay.

We're really loving Nerd Berd, Alphabet Zoo and Insomnia for a modern nursery.

And like Threadless, the clothing shop, you'll be able to vote on which designs are produced next.

Yay for more options!

Shedding Some Light on Night Lights

Who would have thought buying a night light could be so complicated? After all, as long as the bulb keeps us from dropping the baby in the middle of the night, we're happy. We can only imagine that complicated is a good thing since it means that all of us night light shoppers have a lot of options. Here are some light we liked, some more traditional than others.

Gummilights by Jellio are molded to look like Gummi Bears, "but at night, the tiny LED's in their butts turn them into the coolest lights you could ever own!" We love Gummi Bears and can see the coolness of these little guys. But for $125 a pop, we might just have to stick to the edible kind.

If you really have to have a bear night light, we suggest My Pet Lamp -- TerriBear by Offi. It's available in six colors (Soft White, Mellow Yellow, Sky Blue, Sunset Orange, Hot Pink and Misty Green) and slightly more affordable at $59 from Design Public. For some reason, it comes with a washable marker that allows you to write on TerriBear.

A slightly furrier take on the animal night light, Twilight Turtle makes us feel really good. "Twilight Turtle projects a complete starry night sky onto the walls and ceiling of any room. Choose from three soothing color options – blue, green, and white – to create magical, tranquil environments that are ideal for helping children of all ages ease into a restful sleep." We're not sure Twilight Turtle will help you navigate a nursery in the middle of the night, but we love it as an option for older children needing a bedtime friend.

DonDon and Kam Kam Atmosphere lamps represent the more domestic type of animal in our lives -- dog and cat, to be exact. Coming in at $48 from Pokkadots, these lamps appear to provide more of the needed illumination a child's room requires, while still having personality.

Finally, from Pottery Barn Kids (and surprisingly not an animal in lamp interpretation), this fairly simple, but pretty flower night light. It'll do the job, but probably won't make any friends. At $19, sometimes you just need a light to do the job. 

Something to Make: Stencil Collage

When we purchased the Birds of a Feather Mobile by Helen Ige, we were put-off by the $69 price for a few moments. After all, your purchase seems to be nothing more than a 11 by 13 piece of walnut veneer and some string. When we saw that the bird and tree pieces are meant to be punched out of a piece of wood that can become a stencil, we thought, "okay, we can make *something* else out of this" and swallowed the price. That *something* that ended up being made is this piece of nursery art that was intended to tie all our nursery colors together.

Playspot from Skip*Hop

When Coochicoos and AT: The Nursery wrote about Skip*Hop's new product, Playspot back in June, we were happy to see the company's move into the floor space. These interlocking foam tiles are not only attractive in a fun and modern, but they're also intended as a surface for children of all ages.

Playspot is available for pre-order from Amazon (shipping August 10th), but it looks like you can buy it now from Skip*Hop directly.

Growth Charts

Not that we have any sort of emotional scarring or anything (of course not!), but we find it sad to think about all those growth wall charts that were painted over when it came time to sell a family house.

That's why we're convinced that every family should have a portable wall chart to document their child's growth.

Itty Bitty Ladybug, an online boutique specializing in children's products with Asian Flair, carries a wide selection of growth charts (see Asian-inspired charts) designed by Oopsy Daisy.

The charts are available for $64 and can all be personalized with your child's name, as well for no additional cost..

Tissue Paper Pom-Poms

We like the idea of hanging tissue paper pom-poms from the ceiling of a nursery or kid's room (or maybe as decoration for a baby shower). They're lightweight so you don't have to worry about them coming crashing down on baby and easy and inexpensive to make.

Over at marthastewart.com, there's instructions on how to make these tissue paper pom-poms with your own materials. Or, you can buy the kit with all materials including.

And on a similar note, according to Craftzine, a new issue of Martha Stewart Kids is on newsstands now.

Designer, Sort-Of

Something from the "yeah, it's from Wal-Mart, but do I really want to spend $400 on crib sheets?" department.

Last week, we wrote about the $71.97 Tulip crib bedding set from Wal-Mart that was making us question whether there was any association with Dwell Baby. The general consensus was that it was just a knock-off. Now that we've stumbled upon Orchard Park ($79.97), another newish crib bedding set that was clearly inspired by Dwell Baby's Motif Robin, it seems as if the knock-offs are in full bloom. But, really is that a bad thing?

We have both the Wal-Mart Tulip set and the Dwell Baby Garden Crib bedding, and frankly, the Dwell Baby bedding hasn't blown us away to be worth the almost five-times price difference (to be fair this is before multiple washings or any serious use). The Dwell Baby comforter, in particular, didn't look nearly as nice as it does in photographs (maybe we expected too much and thought there would be some embroidery rather than just a print).