New proof from the totally awesome Crafting Community weekend retreat for familes hosted by L.A. based installation artist Karen Kimmel. We were lucky to be there, but in case you missed the Kimmel Kids and The Art of Exchange action we have a very special, wait for it,  * gift bag * from the event that we'll be giving away to a lucky reader! Stay tuned for deets.

Flying a kite is liberating. It can also be a great way to introduce your kids to the idea of wind power and what it means to our future as an alternative energy source.

The handbound book, FLY ME, by Yoko Ono is designed to unfold to become a 30x36" kite. The pages bear individual messages of inspiration, such as "Imagine Peace" and "Fly", designed to attached to a hand-carved frame fashioned of oak from a sustainable forest in New York State. Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace Library is the publisher of the 2,500 books available for purchase.

On the DIY tip, FLY ME sparked reference of a great project I was recently introduced too, KiteBot. Their mission is to develop low cost, low complexity kite-based wind energy and the site offers (in their words) a fairly in-depth description of a (fairly) concrete implementation designed to be as simple as possible, but extensible, using mostly bicycle parts.

Oh the possibilities!

Vintage-esque Posters by Michael Myers

Very cool posters from illustrator and designer Michael Myers that add some punch to your kiddo's bedroom walls and surely some zing to story time. And no need to forego aesthetics. You can buy them here prices start at $17 unframed an go from there.

Love this new blog... I feel a friendship coming on... Here is the bio from Creator Florence Rolando about Pirouette

"The world of children is fascinating and the creation around them is very stimulating. Furniture, clothing, toys, design, trade shows, photographers, illustrators, books, decor...I aim to feature many exciting areas and topics on this blog. I hope that both people who work in the industry and consumers/parents who are looking for products, inspirations and a fun recreation will really enjoy Pirouette."

One of my favorite treats in my Google reader roster is Dallas Clayton's blog. His lovely musings are simple treasures that make me happy. I was very pleased to discover a new project of his, An Awesome Book. According to Clayton "it's for kids but also for adults and has caused 8 out of 20 readers to cry… in a good way." The book has been released through The Awesome World Foundation which was formed in an effort to promote children’s literacy by encouraging kids to dream and dream often.  To help make this dream a reality, the foundation's goal is to donate one book for every copy of An Awesome Book sold by Awesome World llc. See it to beleive it.

Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

You can also purchase some super neat limited edition kids t-shirts through the Awesome World Store inspired by fonts and characters in An Awesome Book.

 Alphabet T-shirt

Unicorn Kids T-shirt