Our Los Angeles Baby One-Piece was featured in Oprah Magazine‘s special edition of The O List: all products made in the USA! Be sure to use promo code OPRAH at checkout and save 20% on your order!

We love partnering with Blogshop, a Photoshop bootcamp for bloggers, to provide some locale-specific welcome gifts for the students! The above photos are selections featuring Maptotes from DesignLoveFest posts of the workshops: Vancouver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Chicago.

Our Miami Beach Tote got Fodor’s stamp of approval as one of the best summer weekend bags!

Michael:

Q: What was your favorite childhood activity with your dad?
A: I loved going to Padres games with my dad.

Q: What is one thing your dad taught you?
A: Have a sense of humor.

Q: If your dad was a fictional character, who would he be?
A: I can see my dad as a character in any Mel Brooks movie.

Q: What Maptote would you get your dad and why?
A: The dopp kit! My Dad is a dentist and he is quite fond of the dental artwork.

Rachel B:

Q: What was your favorite childhood activity with your dad?
A: Playing “mackees”. It was a game my Dad invented which basically consisted of a massive wrestling/pillow/tickling fight. He continues to play it with all the grandkids.

Q: What is one thing your dad taught you?
A: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Although I do sometimes.

Q: If your dad was a fictional character, who would he be?
A: Snake Plissken from Escape from New York (at least my Dad would want me to say that)

Q: What Maptote would you get your dad and why?
A: My Dad is from New York and has lots of nostalgia for the city. He would love one of the NYC shirts we have on sale. They are a soft nice quality t-shirt and would make him the coolest Dad in Boca.

Rachel G:

Q: What was your favorite childhood activity with your dad?
A: My brother and I would build massive snow forts filled with snowballs and when my dad would get home from work we would surprise attack him – which would inevitably turn into a huge snowball fight free for all until we were all exhausted and would go inside for some of his homemade hot cocoa.

Q: What is one thing your dad taught you?
A: The importance of being self sufficient/sustaining.

Q: If your dad was a fictional character, who would he be?
A: Wilson – the neighbor in Home Improvement.

Q: What Maptote would you get your dad and why?
A: I would give my dad a London beach tote because it is where he grew up and he loves over-sized bags to carry groceries!

Lizzie:

Q: What was your favorite childhood activity with your dad?
A: Exploring old building sites and digging up glass bottle artifacts from Camp Gordon Johnston, a WWII amphibious training site that was based in my hometown.

Q: What is one thing your dad taught you?
A: He taught me to think outside of the box: that with a little creativity, there’s nothing that can’t be fixed or figured out.

Q: If your dad was a fictional character, who would he be?
A: Definitely Macgyver!

Q: What Maptote would you get your dad and why?
A: I’d get him a NYC Bandana to keep his head cool when he is working outdoors and gardening.

For Memorial Day weekend I flew to Los Angeles (with my Rome tote!) to visit Noël, my best friend from home. Before I left, she sent me an SNL sketch to watch called “The Californians” and the instant I arrived in L.A., the direction jokes became all too clear! I don’t think there was a single conversation that didn’t end up mentioning a highway or neighborhood. It’s a good thing I brought Noël a Los Angeles Bandana because everywhere we went, she could take it off and show me where we were on the map! The first two photos were taken at the Griffith Observatory and the last three were taken at at El Matador State Beach. Did I mention the weather was gorgeous? I could get used to it.  :)  -Lizzie

We are excited and honored to be selected for the MoMA Design Store’s Destination NYC!  The Destination series focuses on products by designers in specific locations and this year all of the products that were chosen are made in the USA and specifically designed in NYC. Above are some photos from the launch party on May 18th. Destination NYC will be running until August so check it out while you can!

In her recently published book, Mapping Manhattan, Becky Cooper shares the curated culmination of a project that started back in 2009. Giving complete strangers the opportunity to “map their Manhattan,” Cooper walked the length of the island with hand drawn copies of a barebones map, handing them out to people she met along the way. The result is a wonderful array of love, loss, experience, and art that shows an intimate view into the hearts and minds of 75 New Yorkers.

This Store Spotlight features Gum Tree: a cozy shop in Hermosa Beach, California that carries home and gift items and also houses an Australian-inspired café. Owners Lori and Will Ford opened their business in November of 2008 and split their responsibility between the shop and café, respectively. Read below to find out some more about this great store!

Q: How would you describe your store aesthetic?
A: We carry an eclectic mix of products from all over the world. We are in an old house, and the shop is set up that way…you enter the living room where you’d find a couch piled with Thomas Paul Pillows, and a coffee table full of great books. We also have a dining room where we house a great selection of cookbooks and servers, Jonathan Adler salt and pepper shakers, hopefully the perfect hostess gift. We have a kids room with great baby toys and books and a bedroom area with soaps, lotions, candles, accessories and much more.

Q: What’s a fun or interesting store fact?
A: We’re housed in a 1911 Craftsman bungalow a couple of blocks from the beach in Hermosa. We have both a shop and a café in the little old house, and a great front patio with ocean view seating. My husband is Australian so there are little bits of Aus in both the café menu items and shop products.

Q: Tell us about your city/neighborhood. Why do you love it?
A: Hermosa is a funky little beach town just south of Los Angeles. The setting is amazing, but the people are better. A very eclectic mix of the old timers who used to party down at the pier when it was a haven for motorcycle gangs, mixed with tons of young people right out of college, and lots of families who come for the great schools and laid back beach town vibe.

Q: When not in your store, where is the next most likely place you’d be?
A: At the beach or Valley Park with the kids.

Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in your city/neighborhood?
A: Gum tree café of course! But we’re only open for breakfast and lunch so for dinner we love Abigaile across the street for a grown up experience or La Playita for inexpensive Mexican with the best view in town if we’ve got the kids.

Q: If there is one thing someone “must do” when they visit your area, what would you recommend?
A: A walk or bike ride down the strand. For the more adventurous, rent a stand up paddleboard from Tarsan and hit the water.

Q: What was your inspiration/motivation to open your store?
A: As long as I could remember I wanted to have a shop of my own. My previous job in product development and design took me on shopping trips all over the world and I had notebooks full of products I wanted to carry when I finally opened my own place.

Q: How did you come up with your store name?
A: My husband is Australian and when I was trying to come up with a name I was thinking of names of trees and plants, but nothing was sticking. we wanted something that conveyed a natural eco friendly vibe, and also that would work for our shop/café concept. I asked him for some Aussie slang words and after about 20 ridiculous ones he spit out gum tree, and it was perfect! I saw the logo in my head right away and never looked back.

Q: What’s next for you/your store? Any upcoming sales/events?
A: The summertime is busy with more tourists coming to the beach. I love to buy all the sunhats and bags, beach umbrellas and Turkish cotton towels. We’ve recently launched an online site and we’re very excited about the potential there.

Q: What blogs/magazines do you follow?
A: I follow Décor 8, Apartment Therapy, Beach Bungalow 8, Design Sponge, A Fashion Gal and a Fireman. I also always read House Beautiful, New York Magazine, and elle décor, and I am of course obsessed with Pinterest.

Q: Where do you find all of your products?
A: I love the New York gift shows and I go twice a year. I also do the LA gift shows and all the jewelry and accessories markets in LA. And when I can I go to the flea market, unique LA shows, and sometimes I get lucky during my late night blog trolling.

Here at Maptote we are just as pinsane as everyone else! Follow us on Pinterest for coolest map-inspired finds, the cutest puppies, and much more.

Check out our sale page for some recently added products such as these NYC and Brooklyn adult tees from a limited-run production. Once they’re gone, they’re gone!