crochet

(Picture 1: Yvestown)

I've been wanting to try my hand at crochet for a while, to make a blanket to match the one my mother made for me when I was a baby. Charlie is in love with my mother's blanket, and rubs it on his little face while he goes to sleep. I found this great tutorial (How To Make a Crochet Blanket Part 1) at Yvestown today. Maybe I need to finish off some other projects first though...

happy 3rd birthday

Happy Birthday Ollie! (The poor Stegasaurus cake - I had trouble with cake crumbs in the icing, and then it barely survived the car trip, so I didn't mind when four sets of fingers reached in to grab icing and pull off spines even before the candles were blown out).

Gulliver's Travels

Book those tickets to Valencia, we're off to the playground!

(Picture 1 and 2: Playscapes, found via Handmade Charlotte)

roar!

"I am having a dinosaur-rex party" Ollie said as we talked about him turning three. Let the dinosaur romp begin!

I thought about the illustration plates from the encyclopedias we had at our house when I was a child, and then found some jpegs that kind of reminded me of those. Printed on textured card, with mailing labels inspired by Erin Jang (definitely go check out The Indigo Bunting - Erin is super talented), these invitations are being mailed today!

things the internet has taught me

3. How to turn my child into an octopus.

Thanks to the magic of Martha and her "in-house crafter", I stayed up late the night before halloween to make an orange octopus for Charlie, and then thought that Ollie would love one too. My, they certainly turned out cute. The directions told me to put stuffing in the legs and head, but I didn't. I figured that if I didn't, these costumes would be in and out of the cupboard and worn like capes for a few weeks to come - and I was right.

Stella wanted to be a cat. Not just any old cat, she realized when she saw the sparkly tiara in the store, a Princess Cat. And Thomas just loves to dress up as a pirate. There once was a time, when he was 4, when if queried about what he wanted to be when he grew up he would say without hesitation "a pirate". You gotta have goals, my friends.

1. when in...

...Canberra, we stayed at Hotel Realm. So deliciously comfortable. I particularly love the bholu wool felt, hand stitched throw, whose price is affordable (*adds to wish list*).

(Pictures 1,2,3 and 4: Hotel Realm)

an ed emberley halloween

Halloween = Ed Emberley + pencil + paper.

This is the only Ed Emberley that my library has anymore - where have all those great books gone? There must be copies out there somewhere... Remember the one where you add details to ink fingerprints? And the "Big Green Drawing Book"?

Happy Halloween! (There are more of these pages if you are interested!)

added to the blog list - grain edit

(Picture 1 and 2: grain edit)

I just came across this great blog. Not only is it jam packed full of fantastic design from, and influenced by, the 1950s through to the 1970s, if you go and leave a comment on this entry and subscribe to their RSS feed, you could win a whole heap of cool stuff - alphabet blocks, supurb prints and a rather cool t-shirt. Oh, how I would love to win! Make sure you check out the How To/DIY section so that you can make your own bird like the one pictured above. I'm off to make one now...

maude

She is hip and loves to drive her baby blue convertible at sunset wearing her oversized sunglasses and a headscarf. She attends cocktail parties poolside in the desert, where she drinks Mai Tai and listens to jazz.

She currently lives in Darwin, but her little sister still lives locally, and is very much loved. Happy travels Maude.

saturday - cornflower blue

In a house with four children, three of which are boys, there just happens to be lots of blue. Ollie's wardrobe currently contains the most, and the cutest, amount of blue. The little boys also have a lovely Flensted mobile in their room - Ollie loves aeroplanes.

Thanks to Fiona for suggesting Crayola Cornflower Blue - I really like this one too.