finds for baby

Although it's not entirely unusual to see retro toys and kids' books popping up on Idle Needle every now and then, the difference now is that we are picking up kiddy finds for our little one on the way, and not just because I like to collect them.

A good example being the overexposed pile of somethings in the picture above - definitely not collectors' items and a year ago I wouldn't have seen myself skipping down the road with them on exit from the Red Cross store... You can probably guess what they are but I'll discuss them at the end of the post, once I  told you about the beautiful chalk board I found.

A chalkboard with added reading, counting and learning the time functions might be is a longshot sort of purchase for a baby that's just started kicking in the womb. To tell the truth I just melted when sighting this at the foot of a boring garish second hand plastic toys mountain. The count-your-ducks beads had me straight away, and I was sold even before I saw the price tag for two euros.

If you look closer under the white ducks at the bottom row, you can see the previous little owner Marjo carved her name in pencil onto the frame - I always find that to be a charming detail.

Since it's Finland where we live, you won't ever be able to set foot anywhere without seeing a few moomin characters around, especially in shops, thrifty ones not being an exception. I don't usually care for moomin merchandize, but this melamine Martinex bowl really appealed to me with its lovely condition, colours and tree-hugging theme. It also reminded me a bit of the look of my Arabia dish.

Again a little bit of a longshot purchase, but when baby gets to wanting to fling the dinner from the highchair, this bowl will be beautifully perfect.

And now for the more useful stuff for the more immediate future: rattling chewy toys and NAPPIES.

When you are a thrifty mum-to-be, you just cannot ignore four washable nappies in unused condition for 50 cents each, when buying one in a proper shop would cost 30 times more than that! Even used ones in a second hand shop normally cost more like 3-5 euros each...! So that's why I felt like skipping down the street with them, you know.

The Ambi Toys teddy rattle and chew toy mirror were a must I'm afraid. Well what do you do when they just sit there on the shelf abandoned, looking right into your eyes obviously needing a new home with a new nipper in it? I couldn't resist.