Happy Friday! We’re thrilled by the recent news that our Hello Books won the Creative Play of Year Award with Creative Child Magazine, and our Paper Dolls won the Preferred Choice Award! To celebrate, our giveaway today is your choice of a Hello Book and a Hello Paper Doll set. Simply say hello in the comment area of our blog or facebook page to be entered. We’ll pick a name at the end of the day, have a great one!

One of our favorite clients, kiwi crate, generously extended a ‘friends and family’ offer to us & we’d like to pass it along to you. Personally, I love these crates, I buy them for my kids & highly recommend them. Jina & I worked on next months crate, and honestly, it’s pretty cool.

You can read all the rave reviews on their facebook page, but here is a description from their website: Our crates are filled with materials and inspiration to encourage creativity and curiosity. Projects cover a number of developmental areas through art, science, imaginative play. For kids ages 3-7. Simply sign up and an engaging new crate will be delivered to your door each month.

Email us directly for the offer, it expires shortly. info@hellohanna.com

US product only

TGIF! My kids have been busy crafting & cooking since summer vacation started, it’s been a whirlwind of activity in our home. We figured things might not be so different in your homes, so today we have a cupcake theme giveaway. Comment or say hello here on our blog or on facebook and we’ll enter you to win a copy of our yum yum bakery activity book, and a box of sweet stands. A winner will be announced at the end of the day.  Have a great weekend everyone.

I don’t know about you, but getting my kids to eat healthy food is a daily challenge in my home. My kiddo’s are super picky, so getting them motivated to dig in takes some work. I started a Bento Living board on Pinterest to gather simple ideas to make food look cute & engaging. If you come across more ideas be sure to let me know! You can find me on twitter, facebook, pinterest and instagram!

We’re thrilled for our friends at Kiwi Crate for the launch of their Party Store. We had the honor of helping them with product development of their 6 new party packs – wings, wands, comets, rockets, dolls and capes. Each product comes in it’s own super sweet box (a mini-crate) complete with everything you need to create a perfect project. The projects are simple and open-ended, so kids can feel successful and proud with each finished craft. Kiwi Crate also uses great, top-notch materials. They take their time to source the best pens, inks, paper and unique materials for their crates. Their Party Crates would be great to have on hand for party guests to do an an activity, or to give as take home gift once your party is done. Personally, I’m stocking up for summertime play dates, you can never have enough Kiwi Crate in the house.

Needless to say, when Jina & I travel to NYC, one of our favorite things to do is eat our way through The Big Apple. How can you not? With a culinary treasure around every corner, it’s fun to taste your way through town. This trip we focused on the Lower East Side where Jina’s brother Henry lives with his wife Sandy. They were fantastic hosts, and introduced us to places we normally would’ve walked by had we not been told how great the food was. Here’s our short list:

a. Cocoron – the most amazing Soba noodles we’ve ever had – combined with a fun, educational presentation.

b. Cathcart & Reddy - formerly known as the Dessert Truck – seriously amazing Brioche Donut Squares filled with Nutella. Yum.

c. The Lobster Barn – a classic NYC restaurant +  lobster is always a must.

d. Cheeky Sandwiches – try them all (we did), not one will disappoint. Our favorite was the braised short rib sandwich.

e. Il Laboratorio Gelato – a-maz-ing.

f. Eileen’s Cheescake - the perfect bite

g. Asia Dog -  our favorite was the Ginny, hot dog + kimchi + seaweed flakes

One of the best things about being a product developer, is seeing how others use your products. I just started a Pinterest page dedicated to the images I find around the internet using our products. If you have a photo you’d like to share, let us know!

Jina & I are back in the office after a long, fun filled week in NYC. Attending the National Stationery Show has always been a highlight in our year, and this year did not disappoint. Thanks to Jina’s bother Henry, and his wife Sandy, we made our home away from home in the Lower East Side. Though our commute was a bit longer than previous years, it was worth the epic food crawls we were treated to each night upon return from the show.  This week we’ll share some of NSS favorites, and our NYC shopping & dining highlights. The image above is of our ‘mini paper chain kit’, due to launch this summer. It was a bit hit at the show, and we can’t wait to get it up on our website. Happy Tuesday everyone.

We’re here! In 3 short weeks we’ll be packing our bags and heading to NYC to debut our new products at the National Stationery Show – yippee. Until then, we’re taking a bit of a blog break to make sure we get everything done in time. It’s been a busy month of preparations, working with new clients, styling photo shoots, designing and building our upcoming booth, and designing a new website due to launch in July!

Last week we styled a beautiful shoot with our friends, Katrine & SAW, can’t wait to share the images with you. This photo is of Jina & I, having a little fun at the end of a long day.

We’ll be back soon with news & highlights from the Big Apple.

Sometimes I come across a product and wish I had developed it, and this Muji meets Lego product is one of them. I grew up with 2 brothers in a family of engineers, so no need to say that Legos was a significant part of our play growing up. Truthfully, I don’t think we ever ran low of ideas building castles, cities, mountains, or whatever our hearts could dream of – but adding paper to our Legos never came across our minds. I love how it opens the door to EVEN MORE creativity. I also think it adds a feminine touch to Legos which I think is nice as well. There are 6 packs to choose from.