a few of his favorite things

While it seems a bit hypocritical to write about simplifying and needing fewer things in one post and then to feature "things" in another, I thought it might be fun to share what we thought was important enough to pack in those 7 boxes. 

The little boy in this apartment is still smitten to have his old toys back.  Here are a few of his (and my) favorite things:

This wall looked so bare before the shipment arrived.  I love how much the quilt warms up the room.  It's the 100 good wishes baby quilt from Red Envelope.  According to the ad copy, the inspiration for the quilt is based on a Chinese tradition (how ironic).  The quilt has 100 words on it: virtue, compassion, knowledge, joy, and so on.  The Paddington bear was mine when I was a kid and the blocks belonged to Chris. 

I made the fabric garland from a "candy bar" stack of Oliver + S City Weekend fabric.  It was an impulse purchase during one of my last days in the states -- I just couldn't resist a sneak peak at the not-yet-released collection.

I kept it super simple and just folded each fabric strip in half and sewed them to a strip of bias tape.  I made two for our dining area with a different fabric collection.  It's a fun and easy project that can really brighten up a space.

One of the hardest packing decision for us was which books to bring to China.  Books were a big part of our house and our lives.  But books are heavy.  Really heavy.  We could have easily filled all seven boxes with books.  In the end, we were cutthroat about it and shipped only one box.  I love that he now has a little stack of books in his room:

The day the boxes arrived, after playing with nearly every toy (and likely being overstimulated), I found him in his room, like this:

He is a very active boy but he also loves to sit down and read books.  He has memorized some of them and will "read" them to me.  He's very proud that he "knows" the words.  He also loves games and we were all glad to have these back:

We are big fans of eeboo games and puzzles.  And the Feeleez game is great.  He loves to figure out what each face is feeling.  He would probably play matching games all day long if he could find someone willing to play that much.  Another of his favorite toys is his train set (such a boy!), which is back in action.  Many adventures will take place on this mat, I'm sure.

Surprisingly, one of the things he was most excited about was his tea set.  After we unpacked the boxes and ate lunch, it was time for a nap.  About an hour into naptime, I heard a noise in his room.  I went to investigate and found him on his top bunk, playing with the tea set.  The noise I heard was one of the cups falling on the floor.  I took it away and told him that he had to take a nap.  He burst into tears.  When I asked him what was wrong, he said "I really want to have a tea party and I can't." 

And, just in case you were wondering, even superheroes enjoy a tea party:

PS: I was tickled to see that the Oliver + S Sketchbook shirt I made last week during the Kids Clothes Week Challenge was featured on Elsie Marley!  See it there?  In the bottom row of the second set of pictures?  I only wish I had taken a better picture of the shirt!