Flower sugar giveaway over at Retro Mummy

This is quite a huge giveaway I must say. Twenty fat quarters of the entire Flower sugar range by Lecien are up for grabs. Just head on over to Retro Mummy's blog and you'll find all the details there.

photo care of Retro Mummy

If only there was a giveaway for more free time so I could actually sit down and do something with it!

Number one on the wishlist!

Anyone who knows me knows I love books. One day I would love to have floor to ceiling bookshelves, maybe even with a sliding ladder! Lately I haven't had that much time for reading the books I like. It's mostly been 'The Gruffalo' or 'I know a Rhino' and books about shapes and colours, alphabet and numbers, all for a good cause of course but I am hanging out for a good read that is not in rhyme and lasts longer than the odd magazine flick in the bathroom (sometimes it's the only place you get a bit of peace!).

Browsing through a few gift idea blogs to get some suggestions for others (I swear!) I came across the most amazing book and I WANTS! It is the 'Pictorial Webster's, a visual dictionary of curiosities'.  It features over 1,500 engravings that were used in the Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century and they're fantastic! 

Picture from here

 

I found it on Amazon as part of a deal where you also get some rubber stamps featuring some of the same pictures and a set of fancy flash cards to match. I already have one of the flash cards, the letter V which I found in Store & Co a while back so it would be nice to have the whole set. Now all I have to do is leave a browser window open featuring said find and hopefully Big V will take the hint!

Picture from here

Best Friends

Little G has these two figurines, one is an echidna and the other is a rabbit. She tells me that they're best friends and then shows me how they kiss and hug. She often asks me to take photos of them and she'll arrange them and then stand back and say cheese waiting for me to take the photo. 

Echidna and Rabbit having a cuddle

She takes them on trips around the house, often using her shoes for their cars.  She makes little tents under chairs for them to sleep and will rush off to the washing pile bringing back some socks or face washers for them to use as sleeping bags and blankets.  She shares her food and drink with them, making little eating and drinking noises when it's their turn.  When we go to the car she'll ask where they are and then want them to sit with her in her seat.

It's the coolest.

A good day

Our weather of late has been a bit hit and miss. In true Tasmanian fashion you either get glorious sunshine or an absolute downpour sometimes within minutes of each other. This makes me very hesitant to go for bike rides in case I get caught out and have to be a poor bedraggled thing peddling madly to get home, not to mention that I'd also be toting an even more poor bedraggled thing in the seat behind me. I'm sure Little G would not appreciate a cold soaking. 

This pic is not actually from today but it is us!

Today we thought we'd chance it. We left quite early and headed off to Nutgrove park and made it there in record time. I love riding my bike but these days there doesn't seem to be as much time for stuff like that. My brakes had gotten a little squeaky, which shows it really has been a while since the last outing!

Only one mishap on the way back and luckily not a big one. Little G had been given a bikky to munch until we got back for lunch and I was peddling away when I head a little voice exclaim, "Oh no!" I stopped to see what was wrong and about five metres behind us was the bikky, I must admit I thought, "10 second rule?" and then considered how many dogs poo along this stretch of path and immediately dismissed it.  Little G was not happy with the decision of course and the rest of the way home I could hear her saying, "Bye bikky, bye bikky." in the saddest of tones.  Oh well, some dog or bird will get lucky.

In love with...

This project table and stools especially for little people.  It's made from plywood that is produced from a renewable species of Birch and is FSC certified and comes in a choice of four colours, all of which of equally lovely though I think I'm partial to the green, red, green.

 

 

 Unfortunately I think it will be yet another penny saving exercise :(

Bike ride to the Park

It is such a lovely day today. The perfect day for a bike ride to the park.  Rosie, Pippy and I all donned our helmets and headed off down to Nutgrove to have some fun in the sun. 

With the clocks moving forwards for daylight savings I really thought I'd have a bit of time to get back and have lunch with Pip before nap time, which usually is around 12:30-1pm. Here I was thinking she wouldn't be ready to go to bed until 1:30-2pm and surprise,  surprise as soon as we got in the door she started fussing and grizzling for her dummy (a very sure sign of tirdeness!) so I put her to bed and within a few minutes it was lights out. Nothing like a good ol' bike ride to tucker her out! Ah, the serenity!

Long time no see

Hello and hello. I haven't been in blog land for such a long time, to read or to write. There has been a huge amount going on in my life and I think (fingers crossed) that it's finally settling down. I have thought about being brave and blogging about it all but I'm not sure I'm quite there yet. I know I don't have to but I've never liked the fact that I have a tendency to shy away from difficult subjects as if they don't exist. One step at a time though, it's going to take more than a spare minute and those are in high demand at the moment.

However, I do not want to start blogging about poopy stuff when there is awesomeness to share! I finally picked up my new computers today. That's right! Computer times two! Woot! Woot! 

We've done the deed and replaced our old chug-a-lug laptop and desktop. Big V is TOTALLY over the moon because it means he gets to play the new Starcraft game. I am over the moon because my old laptop was slowly but surely turning in to a big hunk of electronic poo. This new and shiny piece of joy has been made by magical genies and blessed by rainbow dwelling unicorns (they would have made as well as blessed but you know, hooves aren't great for delicate work). It runs like a dream and the keyboard has just the right amount of clickiness! 

I am in love *sigh* and things are A-O-K.

image from here