Mini Me – Copenhagen’s coolest kicks for kids

If Copenhagen has a particular destination ‘high street’ – not so much high street stores as delis, flower shops, bakeries and independent bookstores all beautifully wrapped in a local neighbourhood vibe – then Gammel Kongevej in Frederiksberg is it. This could, to Copenhageners, seem a little strange – because Frederiksberg is actually a municipality all of its own – but in truth it’s naturally lumped together with its city sister, and there’s no clear distinction between the two. Home to destination street Værnedamsvej, a Parisian-style corner of Scandinavia lined with cafés, small kids boutiques, interiors stores and Copenhagen’s Aesop flagship – Frederiksberg was destined to be chosen as the landing spot for Mini Me back in the spring of 2016.

One of the newest kids on this block, this sneaker store for little ones has chosen to lay its hat – or kicks – in one of the older-style shop spaces that are seen all over the city, and features a traditional opal glass ceiling punctuated with a grid of brass. With it its owners, who have an established background in adult fashion and respond to the large and growing sneaker culture in Denmark, resolved to ‘create a universe where parents and their ‘mini mes’ could find a unique yet refined experience.’ That experience is all amiable assistance, with store staff being knowledgeable with parents and their right-size-and-room-to-grow concerns, as well as appealingly smiley and engaged with kids. Most of all, they really, really know their trainers.

Sneaks are stocked in sizes from toddler to teen, and include both classic and current styles from Adidas, Nike, Vans, New Balance, Puma and more. The store’s wooden pegboard-style wall cladding has a simple, Japanese feel to it, and allows for flexible shelving and hanging rails hosting bags by Eastpak and threads by Finger in the Nose, Stella McCartney, Little Marc Jacobs, Kenzo, Bobo Choses and the home-grown Mini Rodini.

Centre stage sit cute platform display plinths with faces cut out of their fronts, topped by a giant Miffy light, its ears acting as hooks for caps.

Mini Me’s excellently curated collection can also be shopped online, and it ships across the world. Their sale is always worth keeping an eagle eye on.

Open
Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm; Sat, 10am-4pm; Sun, closed

Gammel Kongevej 94A
1850 Frederiksberg

+45 88 34 12 00

info@minimecph.com
minimecph.com

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’50 Cities of the USA’, a new fact-filled book about America’s cities

Following on from the success of their first book, The 50 States, the author/illustrator duo, Gabrielle Balkan and Sol Linero, have recently come out with a new book, this one featuring fifty cool cities in America. The book, 50 Cities of the USA, features fifty fact-filled maps highlighting popular places, monuments and cultural icons as well as famous people, food and inventions from each city.

It’s the kind of book your kids can devote hours to reading and still only scrape the surface — with loads of interesting facts and vibrant illustrations on each page. I recently sat down with Ivy (aged 8) as she explored the different pages. Initially she sought out the cities she knew (Seattle, Las Vegas and Los Angeles) before going in alphabetical order, discovering cities she had never even heard about before.

I loved watching her as she got to the page on New York City.  She pointed to the ballerina and read about the American Ballet Theatre. She saw pizza and bagels. She read about Fashion Week in the city and about the big museums, and she looked up at me and said ‘if I could live in any of these cities, I’d choose New York!’. Smart girl she is, right?

Ivy also enjoyed the ‘Can you Find?’ section at the back of the book which prompts the reader to find 50 different things throughout the book. Surprisingly, she remembered where she had seen quite a lot of the icons on the pages she had read, and she enjoyed searching for the ones she didn’t recognise.

50 Cities of the USA is a great book for bigger kids (I’d say from age 7 and up!). It’s available from all good bookstores as well as on Amazon (UK and US).

Be sure to follow our Instagram feed as we’ll be hosting a giveaway today including 3 copies of this book, plus the ’50 States’ book and the 50 States Activity Books. A wonderful prize to win!

Courtney x

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A weekend visit to the Efteling and Beekse Bergen safari park

The Efteling is a theme park in the south of the Netherlands and it’s (as far as theme parks go) really adorable. The heart of the park, the Fairytale Forest, launched 70 years ago in 1952 with beautifully designed attractions based on whimsical illustrations by Anton Pieck. Nowadays, the Efteling has expanded beyond the Fairytale Forest with many attractions like rollercoasters, adventure rides, a boating pond, a haunted house… Plus the famously clever, forever hungry paper gobbler ‘Holle Bolle Gijs‘, constantly proclaiming ‘Papier Hier’ (‘Paper here’) and, once you’ve stuffed him with some paper, ‘Dank U’ (‘Thank you’). Making for all the little children to gather all the rubbish they can find which keeps the park consistently spotless!

An expectable commercialisation has taken place as well. There are numerous restaurants and gift shops now. I do feel, however, that they are always designed and curated with just that extra little bit of taste and care. Overall the Efteling still breathes that same sense of beautiful, whimsical design as it did when I was little. (I wrote about the Efteling before here — how cute are those photos of my much smaller kiddos?!)

A day trip to the Efteling is definitely something I recommend to all families visiting the Netherlands if you can fit it in your schedule. It really is a ‘one of a kind’ theme park which not only the children will enjoy. If you have the time, I even recommend to spend the night at one of the Efteling accommodations and make use of the special entry for unlimited access to the park (and, extra cool, an early allowance 30 minutes before the park officially opens)!

Last week, We were in Brabant for ‘brabantnacht‘ — a one-time-a-year evening where attractions all over the province open their doors during the ‘after hours’. Efteling provided park access combined with an amazing performance of the spectacular open air park show ‘Ravelijn‘ followed by a three-course dinner at the Ravelijn restaurant. Walking through a nearly deserted, beautifully lit Efteling at the end of it all was such a magical experience by itself!

We stayed in the newest Efteling hotel ‘Loonsche Land‘, which is located in a lovely forest-like setting and has an outdoorsy, natural concept to it. Our hotelroom (suitable for a family of 6! It’s not often you come across these kind of rooms!) had a functional but lovely interior including handmade wooden beds. (We have also stayed at one of the ‘themed rooms’ at the Efteling Hotel before — totally over the top but such a fantastic experience for families!)

The next morning we drove a short 30 minutes to arrive at Safari Park Beekse Bergen. I had only been to the Beekse Bergen once before, as a small child, and only had vague memories of it. But I do remember my dad telling me about the time when he visited the park with my mum in the 1960’s. They were both in their 20’s and just dating (driving a Citroen 2CV in typical 60’s style!). As they were driving through the park, monkeys climbed on the hood of their car and pulled out the entire tubes leading to the window wipers!

Our kids enjoyed the drive through the park a lot. Instead of taking our own car (and risking the wellbeing of our window wipers!), we stepped in one of the safari busses, which was a great choice as it was very educational. A ranger on board gave loads of information on all of the different animals we would see along the way, while handing out props and drawings to explain everything in even more detail.

Different angles of the park can be discovered by a boat safari and a safari on foot. We ended up seeing zebras, hippos, ostriches, camels, rhinos, cheetahs, giraffes, lions, buffalos, all sorts of deers — and more!

Our ‘brabantnacht’ weekend visit to Brabant was definitely a big adventure, and a memory we will treasure for a long time to come!

xxx Esther

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Our living room… some photos

Before the summer, our beloved sofas (which we had for more than 12 years and which had been passed down to us from friends who used them for over 20 years before us!) well, died. The covers were completely torn and the springs were so bad you basically ended up on the floor when you’d sit down. Tamar and I decided it was about time for a new sofa!

We ended up buying a huge petrol-blue corner sofa from Ikea. We had to hack the corner piece though — the corner of our living room is not on a 90 degree angle. So we sawed and sewed to make it fit perfectly.

To break up the big blue surface, I got some sheepskins for the corners and a bunch of fun pillows and throws. The entire exercise made for a whole new look of our living room!

It’s funny to see how much more time our kids spend on the couch now that we have this big corner piece. They love lounging there in the late afternoons, reading their books or comics or playing a game together. And, now that it’s too cold to spend our evenings outside, we watch a film (or an episode of ‘The Voice’) together on Friday evenings, all cozied up on the sofa together with nibbles and drinks and tons of blankets. So nice!

To introduce some colour and to give a place to some of our ‘treasures’ (mostly Pim’s!), we installed a few orange Vitra shelves above our sideboard. I love this pop of colour on the wall! And then I like using plants to add colour and freshness as well.

Most of the other decoration consist of art made by family of friends, or by the kids. And then there are the children’s toys, of course.

Another fairly new element in our living room is this big Danish shelving unit from the early ’60s. A lucky find on Ebay, as it fits the wall and our house so perfectly! It’s the perfect storage unit combined with bookcase combined with desk. Cool looking, but very functional too. (The designer of this unit is Olof Pira.)

I hope you enjoyed this little ‘tour’ of our living room : ).

xxx Esther

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Bonnsu Miniware: Beautiful Bamboo Dinnerware with a Suction Cup!

I’ve been looking for a decent dinnerware with a suction foot ever since Tila was a baby. I’m a big Baby Led Weaning advocate so I let my kids eat on their own from the start but plates really fly from the table almost every time I go away from the dining table even if only for three seconds! I did find a couple that should work but they were either made of plastic, wood or just a torture to look at.

But finally…after so many years of searching, they found me! I was so happy when I received an email from Kandee of Bonnsu to introduce me to their new kids’ dinnerware line.

The first thing you can probably notice is that is looks gorgeous! I just love the beautiful pastel colors, the glossy look and the simple shapes. But that is not all – they are also completely eco-friendly! They are made of three natural ingredients: 40% bamboo fiber, 40% vegetable starch and 20% resin powder. The suction foot is made of food level silicone and is completely detachable, which means that after your kid grows out of it he (or she) can also use the dinnerware without it. Wait, there is more to it! The bowls and plates are also dishwasher and microwave (!) safe and can sustain up to 284F(140C)! And the last but not least – the suction cup really, actually works! My 1-year-old plate-throwing baby Tisa tried her best but failed at taking the bowl off. You should see my satisfied smile.

I was too excited not to order a few for my tiny online boutique, or if you’re from US you can also order them from their own online shop.

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Baby Book, a gorgeous baby journal by Peep’s Paper Products

A baby book is such a beautiful way to document baby’s first year. Did your mother make you one? I still have mine! It has been lovingly filled out with information like my first smile, my first teeth, and who came to visit me after I was born… There are newspaper cuttings of the day I was born and the name tag I was given in the hospital. Adorable 70’s style illustrations are used to decorate the pages, making this book a true record of that time and age, and of me! I have always loved this book growing up, and still do.

The beautiful Baby Book by Peep’s Paper Products reminds me so much of my own baby book! I can just imagine myself filling it in with as much dedication as my mum did 40 or so years ago. Perhaps our baby will look back at his or her baby book in 40 years as well, and smile at the gorgeous safari watercolour illustrations and the photos plus information I will have entered, like the first bath, first smile, and the price of gasoline in 2018.

The Baby Book is made of all natural materials: bound in Japanese asahi cloth and printed on Mohawk superfine paper. The cover is luxuriously stamped with gold ink. This book comes in a gift box and is made to last over 300 years. It surely will become a true family heirloom!

xxx Esther

PS Babyccino’s team favourite baby shower gifts!

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