The New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) hit the Big Apple last week and our NY writer Jacqui Weidman was on the case once again. It’s trade show season over in the USA right now, so you might have seen Jacqui’s coverage of Playtime New York last week.

This is the first year the NYIGF included a Baby & Child section and it was crammed with well-designed, innovative, sophisticated and fun products for babies, toddlers and kids. Jacqui told us she noticed two general trends at the fair; environmental sustainability or nurturing creative instincts in children. Here’s Jacqui’s post about what she saw:

I love the new Seedling line from Kid O. Seedling is all about encouraging children to have a passion for creative thinking and problem solving. There are fourteen different kits and they range from Good Things for Girls, Design Your Own Superhero Cape, Design Your Own Nine Piece Block Puzzle and Create a Wooden People Family. Each kit contains all the tools and materials to spend hours building and exploring each theme. I can only imagine the hours of rainy day fun these will provide.

Hape displayed two new award-winning toys made from eco-friendly bamboo and packaged in recycled craft paper. The label was printed with soy ink. One is a stacking game of bamboo rings for kids aged three and up and the other a toddler-focused set of colourful building blocks. Hape had a number of larger imaginative play toys that were intriguing, including a rocket ship, a doll house and a store and cash register. I know my kids could have spent hours there!

Tegu is a toy line featuring eco-friendly blocks with embedded magnets for creative building. The blocks are beautifully crafted from Honduran hardwood, Mahogany and tinted Mahogany. Some sets come with a durable industrial felt carry case. Easy, simple and engaging toys which we’ve featured before and it’s great to see some new lines.

Apple Park debuted its new collection of baby toys including soft blocks, finger puppets, soft rattles and teething toys. Also launching were the first in a series of hardcover picture books about the Apple Park pals. All are made from organic, sustainable and recycled materials.

I love Eeboo and have always adored their storybook-inspired graphics and sweet, engaging games for kids. They have a new puzzle collection that’s very exciting. Often puzzles that have one hundred pieces don’t have kid-friendly images but Eeboo’s fun and challenging collection of puzzles have great pictures which appeal to kids. They’ve also just launched a line of greeting cards and Good Habits and Daily Chore interactive charts.

One of the most exciting things I saw was a new travel product for kids called Look Out World. It’s an award-winning city adventure series in the form of workbooks and DVDs that follows characters as they explore cities across the world. The first one is Look out World New York, with London, Paris, Sydney, San Francisco and Washington DC expected soon. The idea is for children to watch the video before their trip and use the workbook while in the destination city.

Auggie is a new bedding collection for babies and kids from Canada comprising crib sets, duvets, quilts, pillows and sheets. The collection features simple and stylish patterns embroidered and printed on Indian cotton. Auggie bedding is simple and sophisticated, complementing any modern nursery. It was tricky to get a good shot of the products due to the lighting but that’s what life’s like on the road! The collection will be available online from January 2011.

Along with all of their great products, Skip Hop debuted a redesigned range of playmats and soft toys. The Treetop Friends activity mats and plush toys featured nature-inspired graphics and textures and a slew of developmental activities. We are huge Skip Hop fans and have featured many of their products in the past.

For years, Oxo has been my go-to brand for kitchen tools and now Oxo Tot has arrived! On display was a wonderful range of items for the youngest Oxo customer. They have a full range of sippy cups with interchangeable lids, home snack cups, training plates and silverware.

Oxo also has an amazing range of drying racks and flexible dishwasher baskets, bottle brushes and nipple cleaners as well as the Sprout high chair. They have translated their amazing product lines into kid and parent-friendly kitchen tools, baby food storage and making sets and clean up items. Oxo Tot is a brilliant product extension from a great company. For more information on these Oxo Tot products, check our last post from December.

Dwell Studio continues to add great products and patterns to their established signature baby and kids lines. At NYIGF Dwell launched a new crib set for girls called Zinnia Rose as well as new nappy bags and changing pads. Also showcased were new picture frames, puzzles and stamp sets all in their signature prints and updated in Zinnia Rose.

Dwell Studio also introduced a new layette line in their bold prints which includes bodysuits, playsuits, pants hats and booties – they make great gifts stuffed inside the new nappy bags. We feature Dwell frequently here at Babyology!

Jonathan Adler is an amazing interior designer who started off as a potter and has developed his homewares collection to include dishes, linen, furniture and amazing accessories in bright fun, retro colors with a touch of whimsy. He has just started a children’s line called Jonathan Adler Junior which includes a junior chair and sofa, bookends, growth charts, rugs and a wide range of room accessories. They are bright and playful with a touch of 1970s sophistication.

The original modern wall decal company WallCandy, have a few new kits, most notably their Polaroid-style frame decals. They have a space for written captions and include tape and tack stickers for effect. Another new range is Race Me, with racing cars, tracks and stop and go signs to create a race track around a young car fanatic’s room. In addition to chalkboard shapes for drawing on, they now offer write-on shapes for whiteboard markers. We’ve covered WallCandy’s chalkboard decals before.

That’s the best of the best from the New York International Gift Fair! We hope reading our roundup is as fun for you as writing it was for us.

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