For your budding artist, Kate has praise for this welcome upgrade of classic grade school desks: “Our 17-month old daughter has become increasingly interested in arts and crafts over the past few months - encouraged by her wonderful daycare teachers - so we started stocking fun art supplies and decided that it would be a good idea to have a designated art space in the apartment, both to foster her creativity and independence and to try to preserve our floors and furniture from stray marks. Many companies sell desks and chairs for toddlers, but they often are large and require more space than we have to spare in a city apartment. Fortunately, the Offi Doodle Desk provides the perfect solution: an all-in-one seat, desk, and storage drawer, the Doodle Desk is a good size and shape for little artists, while being stylish and space-efficient enough to suit most parents. Available in sky blue and orange, the Doodle Desk features a pine veneer which is remarkably easy to clean: most child-friendly markers and paints wash right off."

If you’re looking for something to do during today's snow day, easy kid’s craft activities are possible with minimal or recycled materials. Paper plate crafts or sock puppets are good options; the latter can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. We’ve found that two features (e.g., eyes and ears, or eyes and a tongue as with our fleece snake family) are enough to render an animal likeness that kids love.

Moms are the ultimate multitaskers; at the park the other day I met a mom who was knitting some groovy socks while looking after her son. I used to be an avid knitter, but I had never seen anything like the little knitting pouch wristlet she was working from and I had to try tracking one down. A super stylish option is the GoKnit Pouch from KnowKnits ($18; available at KnitPicks.com). Made of lightweight, ripstop nylon fabric (in hot pink, lime green, or turquoise), this pouch has a loop that can go over your wrist, belt loop, or purse strap and includes an interior snapped guide loop to keep your yarn in order. Measures 6 inches in diameter by 8 inches tall.

Pursuant to my last post, Auntie Sha-Sha has renewed my faith in the fact that elegant, hand crafted ornaments can in fact be made quickly and glue-free. Sharon made a fleet of amazing bell cranes (shown) for Laurel, and confirmed that they were simple to put together. Fold a paper crane using origami paper. Thread ribbon through the top of a bell (she used 1/2 inch bells and 1/8 inch satin ribbon, about 16 inches long). Hold the ribbon ends even and together and tie a knot about 3/4 of an inch up from the top of the bell. This knot will sit under the belly of the crane (to fix space between the crane belly and the bell). Thread the ribbon ends through a needle with a large eye and insert needle in existing hole in the bottom of the crane and poke a hole through the top point. Pull the ribbon all the way through and tie a knot at the end. For non-denominational cranes, you could forego the bell (leave a longer ribbon end under the belly and snip to separate), or replace the bell with a different trinket (e.g., snowflake, dreidel, photo).