Page: 3 | Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh

Cast Metal Animal Bookends

Looking for something to help keep those board books standing? We like these bookends in the shape of animals.

Aiden is still a cub, but Lauren threw him a lion party fit for the king of the jungle: Our little lion fan was turning two and in honor of that roar that changed and grew over the year we had a Lion Party! The invitations invited everyone to "swing by for a roaring good time!" The party included a complete repertoire of lion food and favors.

How To: Knit Bird Mobile
by Meg Bakewell, Knitty

We have lots of love for all the bird mobiles you've made using Spool Sewing's softie pattern, but there's still love to go around and today we're sharing some with this adorable knitted bird mobile pattern. Oh, and did we mention it's a free pattern?

Happy Birthday Sawyer

Name: Sawyer (aka Bubba)
Birthday: First
Greeting: Happy Birthday, Monkey Man! We are so blessed to have a baby as funny and wonderful as you in our lives. I'm looking forward to all the fun stuff we're going to do in the coming year. We love you very much!

(Click through to see Sawyer in all his glory and find out his favorite present!)

Jack's "Suzy Homemaker" Play Kitchen

We thought "Suzy Homemaker" was just a fun expression, but Angela scored a vintage stove by this name at an antique shop and created a little play kitchen for her son Jack to go along with it.

Sprucing up the House for the Holidays

The home takes center stage during the holidays, and we've been doing a little freshening up here and there to get things ready before the actual decorating happens. Below find our ideas as well as a few from Parenting.com...

Prudent Baby Makes Pretty Placeholders

Over at Prudent Baby, they've been busy making these repurposed baby-food jar soy candles. Sure they're great as just a candle, but during party time, they'll be pulling double duty as place cards. Click on through for more on what you'll need to make your own.

Inspiration: Shared Nursery on a Budget

Many of our readers have their kids share a room, whether out of necessity or otherwise. We like this beautifully decorated shared nursery done a budget.

Party Idea: Valeria's Cupcake Celebration

This is such a fun, simple idea. The beauty is all in the execution. For her tenth birthday, Valeria invited her closest friends to come over and help her celebrate by making the birthday cake... or in this case, cakes!

Meet Maya of MayaMade
Big Blog Family*

Name: Maya Donenfeld
Location: Upstate New York
Web site: Maya*Made

We love the fact that one of Maya's mottoes is, "Finding beauty in each day..." If you've been to her site, maya*made, or have read us oohing and aahing over her work, you know she certainly lives by that motto.

Interview and more photos, below the jump.

How To Handle A Christmas Birthday While Traveling?
Good Questions

Q:My daughter will be two on Christmas and I am trying to come up with a fun, simple, and yet memorable way to celebrate her birthday. The problem is that we do a lot of traveling around the holidays. This year, we will be staying with some of my husband’s family in Minneapolis and it seems a little impolite to ask them to let us host a birthday party at their home on top of all of the Christmas preparations that will be going on.

Customize Your Stationery with Olliegraphic

This is the perfect time of year to be thinking about stationery - party invitations, holiday cards, thank you cards as well as gifts. Olliegraphic offers a personal touch with customized stationery in two ways: you "build" your look from preset choices or they'll customize it for you "from scratch!"

Why Not Stage A Food Fight?

Please let me start by saying, I was never the dress wearing prim and proper type child. I was more of the tromping through the creek and making mud pies kind of girl. So when I came across the above image over at LMNOP this morning, it made me smile and immediately created a need for a food-fight themed party. Idea after idea on how to pull it off (with or without the mess) are waiting after the jump!

Hot or Not? BCelebrated Memorial Website

There's a lot about this that makes sense, and a lot that just sounds so strange to us. Basically, you create private pages with special messages for loved ones, as well as add your contacts so that someone can "activate" it and let them know of your death and services.

How About Skateboarding in the Living Room?

When I picked up this birthday present (for my husband, a skateboarder & gamer) I had no idea that I was purchasing a Yves Behar design....but but I was. This new controller (just launched yesterday - we preordered) looks and feels like a skateboard sans wheels and makes your carpet into a full fledged skatepark.