While surfing the net for kid’s toys, I keep coming across monsters!  They are seriously cute, although I’m not sure who loves them more, the parents or the kids.  Here are some of my favorite monsters I’ve come across:

Mr Moustachio costs €40 and is available at La Maison de Lola

Terry and Tina, Bunny Blue and Albert, £34, £35 and £47 respectively, from Thorsten van Elten.  They also offer a Make Your Own Monster Kit for £12, no sewing skills required.

The Freche RevoluzZza Monster: Monster Ribu Mollo is €34 from Revoluzzza’s DaWanda shop (DaWanda is the German equivalent of Etsy).  Revoluzzza also offers a pattern and detailed tutorial on how to sew your own Revoluzzza monster for free.

Who knew? The Opel car company sells monsters too.  The C’MON Red costs just under €20, and even has a matching little bro for your keychain.

Mr Happy costs $25 at CurlyQ Cuties.  You can also design your own monster with them, choosing from various colors, designs and body part shapes, for $25.

Uglydolls are available for $20 each from Uglydoll Shop

Egbert the Noisy Not-So-Scary Monster costs under £15 at The Monster Factory or $30 at F.A.O. Schwarz

And for creative types with deep pockets, F.A.O. Schwarz also offers a Make Your Own Monster kit for $249.  They send you the kit, your child (or you) makes a drawing, and the designers at North American Bear Co. will create a one of a kind stuffed monster for you.

Do you have a favorite stuffed monster for scaring up fun with?

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While looking for cute, high-quality, melamine dishes to use as toddler tableware, I ran across a company in Denmark not only making fabulous cups, plates, bowls and more, but that also has a conscience, Rice. Their products are designed in Denmark, then manufactured in third world countries by employees who are treated fairly and are not discriminated against for any reason.  For this, Rice has earned the SA8000 certification from Social Accountability International.

Now, you’re probably wondering, why melamine dishes?  Recently, Oliver has taken to throwing his dishes on the floor.  Since replacing our Ikea dishes everytime one is broken is not something we want to do often, I started talking to friends.  Everyone has the plastic Ikea children’s dishes, and pretty much everyone complained about how they got scratched up and worn looking over time.  I did a little research and found that melamine dishes are unbreakable, scratch-resistant, dishwasher-safe, and as far as unbreakable dishware goes, are probably slightly safer chemical-leaching-wise. They just aren’t microwave-safe, but I generally try not to microwave anything in plastic containers anyways.

In addition to the melamine tableware though, Rice has a lot of other really cute products:

Square Natural Raffia Basket

Square Pink Miss T Pillow Cover
Soft Toy Horses

In addition to stuffed animals, adult and children’s tableware, baskets, floor coverings, pillows, aprons, and kitchenware, Rice also gives back:

Rice and The Danish Refugee Council are working together raising money to African refugee families.

This year it is a so called ONE to ONE project — meaning that when you buy 4 special designed Rice melamine cups you give a refugee family in Africa exactly a large 20L. jerry can and a wash kit.

You can search for retailers in your country on Rice’s website.  I wasn’t able to find any shop in the US that carries Rice products, but I did find a site in Germany, Takatomo.de, that is in English and German, and offers worldwide shipping.

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