Who'd have thought?

Recently, we took the boy to Michigan for a week in a family cottage on the Big Lake. It was so fun for him and not exhausting for us, and it was really nice to get out of earshot of the most recent unpleasantness in Washington. I finally got some sun, the man and I took a sail on the Sunfish and several exhilarating dips in the cold-ish lake, food was plentiful, Jupiter loved the water and sand with a zeal I could only have hoped for and we managed to not let him get crispy, family was family (the good and the not so good, as ever), and Jupiter discovered cuckoo clocks.

The cottage has one traditional Black Forest carved style clock with a little yellow bird that pops out and coo-coos on the hour. Even if we didn't know the hour was approaching, Jupiter would hear the first coo and immediately drop (throw, even) what he was holding and demand fervently to be picked up to better see the clock. Every hour.

So when we got back home I decided to look into getting a cuckoo clock for our house. I wanted one that would fit our 50s modern eclectic aesthetic but thought the chances of finding something like that were pretty slim. And while the tasteful options for under $100 were indeed virtually nonexistent, I stumbled upon quite a few modern and whimsical appropriations of the cuckoo clock form. Most are Italian, so perhaps there is some sort of quirky cuckoo thing going on over there. Unfortunately they are all really very outrageously expensive, so I will not be enjoying one in my house and Jupiter will not be racing into the living room every hour on the hour. But I can admire them, and here are a few of my favorites:

by Diamantini Domeniconi

a digital combo by Reddish

 Gazebo by Barbero Design 

Two by Ilya Titov