House of Cards
Several posts back I rounded up some craftastic ideas for playtime with paper. Only I somehow forgot to mention a huge hit in this family: The Eames House of Cards. 
I'd never seen these until my aunt sent them for a Crabtot birthday. They're fab to play with and easy on the eyes of any chic-mod-mommy too! The set consists of a series of cards with images on them, from geometric patterns to snapshots of vegetables and buttons.
Crabtot adores them and they've distracted her quite a bit during our move. They're super-fun to assemble on the floor of an empty house or a temporary abode. It doesn't hurt that they're compact and easy to take to Grandpa's vacation apartment In Crabtown, where we've been stashed for the past few weeks while we wait to depart for Crabcity.
Come to think of it, a house of cards probably isn't the best toy to play with when you're taking a kid from her home and moving her someplace else. Luckily Crabtot doesn't seem to pick up on the moveable house metaphor. And while our actual move has tweaked her vibe somewhat, she's unfazed when the Eames paper walls come falling down and she has to start all over again.
Mostly she just likes scrutinizing the patterns, and designing new bedrooms for herself. Preferably with dark-pink walls.
But of course.
*If you spring for these, get the medium size. They're relatively easy for small hands to grapple with, and also heavy enough to support some small doll furniture or a weentsy dish of jelly beans or whatnot, as you build "floors" and "bedrooms."
Hey -- I found some of those at a second hand store -- kids loved them...now if I can only remember where in the *#@^! they ended up...oh to have a maid...