Book Week 2011

I had high hopes of posting this on the Friday this happened. Or at least on the weekend after. Here I am, in September and I am sure this happened in August. I am so tired at the moment I can't be bothered looking up the right date. Better late than never. Life has been full lately. Trips to the big building (Royal Children's Hospital) with Amelia and since then sick kids and sick kids and just for good measure, sick kids.

Esther and Ellamay's school celebrated Book Week.

Ellamay went as Pippi Longstocking. We recently read the Lauren Child illustrated version. The kids loved it. I am a fan of Lauren Child. Her work is so dreamy. (I'd love to decorate the kids rooms completely inspired by her work.)

I had to wire up Ellamay's hair and I started early in the morning because we hadn't managed to have a trial run. Fortunately, it worked.

Esther decided she had to be a skeleton. Not exactly story book motivated. Don't know if she has read a book about skeletons before. Whatever. It was a last minute decision. She just wore black clothes and I cut out a skeleton from white card and we stuck it to her with double sided tape. Is there nothing that stuff can't do! I had quite a few comments about how much work I had put in and being clever, which is all very pleasant to hear but I had to correct them. "I love the internet!" If you would like to print a skeleton to cut out (and wear) here is a link to where I found it.

Amelia was dressed up for getting messy at daycare, but insisted on wearing a crown. She wasn't so keen to talk to the principal.

So there you are. Completely late. But I had to post something to tell you we are still around. Posting may be pathetic for another couple of weeks. Can you believe I have had kids home for 2 weeks now because of this nasty virus that has settled on our house and now it's time for 2 weeks of school holidays! Sigh. How am I going to entertain them!?

New books

I have been hitting the online shopping a little bit lately. Okay. Just the bookdepository.com. I am loving it. These are my most recent purchases. I love making things from felt because it can be (in theory) so quick and easy to stitch up. I have seen these books around on other blogs too. And I am influenced by what other creative people are saying is good. :-)

Felt Friends from Japan - I really want to make the deer on the front. Only its head though so I can make a new deer head for the office wall :-)

Fa la la la Felt. Tis nearly the season and I would like to make some of the decorations in this for our tree and also as gifts.

Palm-Size Softies. I think these would be such cute things to make.

Illustration School: Let's draw happy people. I love this book. I have never been much of a drawer and and I would love to be able to improve this. This book has step by step instructions and I am determined to work my way through the book and draw it all. There are two other books in this series as well which I will own one day too :-)

I should probably admit too that I have some more books to add to this list. I did get a great crochet book for my birthday and I have some kids craft ones too. I'll share them another day.

In keeping with my effort to declutter our house, I have had to cull some books on my shelf to allow space for the new ones. So far some recipe books have been given the flick. I had bought them years ago because they were pretty but have never used them. I ended up taking them to a friend who loves to cook. At this rate I will have to get more ruthless though.

Do you have any suggestions for books that I should consider for my collection?

Err... 31 again

It happened again. I turned 31. Actually, I turned 33 but I have decided to stay 31 from now on. It doesn't seem anyone is that convinced my plan will work. Whatever. I am not really that worried. If you see my hair suddenly change though - you'll know the few grey hairs I have got the better of me and I've started colouring. :-)

I had a perfectly wonderful day. I woke up to Tim remembering to wish me happy birthday (you only forget your wife's birthday once in your lifetime!). After the kids gave me all their precious creations (I must remember to get some of the pictures on here), the kids had their breaky and we hurried off to school and daycare. I went to town because I booked myself in for a hair cut. That is such a treat. I love to doze off while I get my hair washed. I love the smells at the hair dressers and all the snippets of conversation you hear. And most of all I love how lovely my hair feels when I come out of the hair dressers. I get the hair flick thing happening then :-).

Anyway, I managed to wander some little shops around the hair dressers too. And bought myself a little bird ornament for my growing random collection of cute things. I met my great friend for lunch and we sat and ate chicken wraps while we chatted before she needed to go grocery shopping. I picked up Mum then and we went to Spotlight to buy some random crafty/sewing things.

When Tim got home from work, Tim and the girls carefully carried out a gift for me. It was a new laptop! Spoiled! :-) That kind of distracted the rest of the night then. Tea was late. It was an easy tea and yummy sponge cake for dessert (and candle of course).

So all in all, a great day.

Here are some of the goodies I got for my birthday...

Notice the quilt under the books? My sister-in-law made that one for me. It is so toasty and pretty. I snuggle under it every night on the couch while doing Amelia's physio and after she has gone to bed.

Some cake books, one new, one vintage. The vintage one is so great and shows how to do all manner of icing techniques. When the kids are bigger, I hope to get back to some serious cake decorating again.

Also, I put out the call for buttons for my birthday. I didn't care if they were old or new, I just wanted buttons. I have a slight obsession. Well, I think I have got more than enough buttons now. Although, maybe buttons are like chocolate and you can never have enough?

The buttons are a whole other post :-) So there you have it. It was such a great day. I loved it.

Can't believe we are at the weekend again. The weeks are going by so quickly at the moment. Stand by for a very buttony post coming up soon. Enjoy your weekend. Stay warm (or cold if that's what you need :-]

Dancing Doodles book

I bought a couple of these books for Esther and Ellamay when they had their grommet operation back in February. They have been pretty popular, even though I think they don't quite get the concept yet.

I bought some more copies to go with the notebook and pen roll holders I have been making up for birthday presents. So far they are going over well. It's great to hit on something that is popular with kids. I just hope they don't all get sick of getting the same thing by the end of the birthday's this year :-)

You can find the Dancing Doodles book here. There are a variety of other books in the same style which I think would be especially suited for older kids maybe. Or grown ups. I did my fair share of colouring and drawing when I was stuck in hospital for weeks waiting for Esther and Ellamay to be born. One of these kinds of books would have been just the ticket!