Win Vintage Nursery Cards From Traditional Toys
By Christa TerryThose of us with babies, who are expecting babies, or just have a baby-like sensibility when it comes to decorating have probably spent at least some time contemplating what exactly makes a beautiful nursery. Is it chic and modern nursery furniture? Adorable themes, like circus animals or life under the sea? Or is it the decorations themselves? I like to think you can do a lot with accent decor in the nursery, particularly seeing as how in five or seven or nine year’s time that bouncing baby is going to think of themselves as way too mature for cartoon representations of marine life.
What can you do, right? I suppose you can try to lean as much as possible toward timelessness by choosing nursery decor that isn’t too babyish. Think vintage drawings rather than modern cartoon characters. Right now I’m loving nursery cards from Traditional Toys — they’re perfect for baby’s room but classic enough to make it easy to find a place for them when Little Johnny and Jenny decide they’re just too grown up for that sort of thing.
The cards, which come ready to hang with coordinating organza ribbons feature the artwork of Jessie Willcox Smith, who enlarged the appreciation of children in American popular culture by her enormously sympathetic representations, Maud Humphrey, one of the most popular Victorian illustrators in America and an early suffragette, and Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann.
Like them? They could be yours! To win a set of these very pretty cards for your nursery (or hallway or bathroom or bedroom) leave a comment on this post describing either 1) the origins of your name and why your parents chose it or 2) the origins of your child’s name and why you chose it. On Monday, November 23 at noon EST, I’ll use the trusty random number generator to pick a winner. Good luck!
November 20th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Nursery nostalgia is wonderful. I bought the “Land of Make-Believe” poster for my grandson a few years back. It’s great over a changing table for language development.
http://www.jarohesslomb.com/RDI_%22Land_of_Make_Believe%22/Welcome.html
November 20th, 2009 at 9:00 am
I was named for an Allman Brothers song, ha. My name also peaked in popularity the year I was born, which was definitely not the year the song came out!
These nursery cards are adorable!!
November 20th, 2009 at 9:49 am
My parents thought Ashley-with-a-y looked like a boy’s name. 35 years ago, I guess there was some ambiguity there. So I was named Ashlea-with-an-a, about 10 years ahead of the funny spellings of popular names curve.
November 20th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I was named after a character on All My Children that my mom liked at the time. *Not*, as most people ask, the plantation in Gone With the Wind. My son, Quinlan, was named after a jedi in the Star Wars book series. My husbands suggestion.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
My parents wanted something a little old-fashioned and uncommon, but not out in left field, either. They settled on Elaine after an old family friend on my dad’s side.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I was names after Dorothy in the wizard of Oz, as my grandfather loved the song “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”
I really love the idea of nostalgia, especially in the nursery.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:06 am
I was named for my maternal grandmother since I was a month and three days late just so I could be born on her birthday!
November 21st, 2009 at 9:33 am
we chose nathan because it was the only name we both liked where we didn’t know someone who was a jerk with that name.
my parents were originally going to name me christine, but settled on kathleen. it was a takeoff on my grandmother, katherine.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:19 pm
My name comes from Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. My mom was an actress, and she loves literary names.
I love those Raggedy Ann & Andy illustrations!
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
My name is Ukrainian, the English and Greek version is Helen. I was named for my Aunt.
April 14th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
WHERE CAN I BUY THESE????
April 14th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
There’s a link to Traditional Toys right in the post, Laycee. Second paragraph in. Enjoy!
October 9th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
I was named after Kara Kennedy,the only daughter of Sen. Ted Kennedy….My mother has always been obsessed with the Kennedy family. I love my name and always have! I absolutely love these cards and hope to hang them in our new nursery!!!