Beloved books

Danielle over at sometimes sweet recently posted about books she loved as a child and it got me thinking about my childhood favourites.

Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree stories circa 1950's

While I was still in primary school I collected a set of Enid Blyton books called Enid Blyton Rewards. They were all hard cover editions of around 200 pages with line drawn illustrations. I remember thinking how fantastic I was to have read all 48 titles several times over. I was also very lucky to have inherited quite a few older editions that had belonged to my Dad and my Auntie when they were kids. These included the Faraway Tree stories, Secret Seven stories and a beautiful set by Johanna Spyri and Charles Tritten called Heidi, Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children. Sort of a Swiss Anne of Green Gables... another set of books (and movies) I loved.

Then there was the complete works of May Gibbs, Blinky Bill, The Hobbit, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz series... the list goes on and on.

What books did you love?

My Place and Yours - What's in my bag?

this is what's in my bag...

Bag- Mimco marble button bag, one I'd always lusted after and finally picked up in a sale!
Purse- Diana Ferarri, purchased mainly as I loved the flower.
Notebook- My work notebook that I've been sketching in lately and wanted to take home (so I can transfer the sketches to some nicer paper, ink and scan).
Book- My current train novel, Inkspell.
Beauty items- Coco Mademoiselle purse spray, Natio lipgloss and Udderly Smooth handcream (apparently wonderful for crafty ladies as it's not greasy and soaks in quickly).
Misc- My new Guess sunnies (prescription), work security pass, blistex, D&G glasses (am sooo shortsighted), baby wipes, tissues & bandaids (spot the mummy), a measuring tape (no idea why, although it did come in handy today), cinnamon mints and a hairclip (just in case of bad hair days).

Now you know what's in my bag today, what's in yours? Play along over at Punky & Me and so we can all discover your hidden handbag secrets...

it's Friday, I'm in love...

... with these lovely kokka fabrics as they have that gorgeous, natural linen look to them. Then there's the added bonus of brightly-coloured little critters.

button bobby pins
Originally uploaded by alittlereddress

A friend from work had one of his little girls starting kinder yesterday and had so very sweetly gone out shopping at lunch time on Wednesday to buy her some surprise hairclips / hairties. Unfortunately he didn't find anything special so, feeling inspired I decided to pull out some of my cute kokka fabric and make some hairclips for her. Even though they were too late for kinder (I gave them to Dad this morning) I hope she likes them just the same!

I know there seems an awful lot of hairclips there for one little girl... when I start making these little buttons, I find it terribly hard to stop! Hee hee! I made nine sets. Two found a new home with my friend's little girl. What do you think I should do with the rest of them?

photo booth fun...

Do you love photo booth as much as we do? I love looking at everyone's expressions after the photos have been taken, not to mention who manages to sneak their little faces into the shot unexpectedly! These were taken a week ago. I was happily reading through your blogs when I was set upon by not one, not two, but three small people who just wanted to take photos on Mummy's computer... who am I to argue?

cross roads to jericho

The quilting group I belong to is doing a block swap over 12 months with a block called 'Cross Roads to Jericho'. It's kind of exciting to send your bits and pieces of fabric out into the world and not know what's happening to them. The plan is that after 12 months we get our blocks back and have a huge show 'n tell. I won't put any names to my photos just in case any of my stitchy friends read these posts, but I think the fabrics speak for themselves.

I decided to put in two lots of fabric so that I would get back 24 blocks. That means each month I have two blocks to complete. These blocks were blocks five and six for the swap... I didn't think of photographing any of the blocks until now and did so in a bit of a hurry. I promise to do a much better job of it next month!

February's SS&Q block swap!

I'm still amazed at how the same block can look so completely different! My fabrics are all varying shades of blues and reds and while some people have very strict instructions on how you put together their blocks, I've left mine completely up to the individual stitching it. They get to decide which fabrics to put with which and can use more than one of each of the three tones (light, medium and dark value fabrics).

I think these fabrics are my favorites so far in the swap! Shhhh! don't tell!

I haven't done a lot of patchwork (or machine sewing for that matter) so it's a little nerve wracking to chop into and sew someone else's favourite fabrics. I hope I'm doing ok!!

bokeh

Don't you just love to learn new things? I do. I was reading through a fantastic photography site today as I'm trying to brush up on all of the photography know-how I learnt three years ago as part of my Advanced Diploma of Photography. Unfortunately I put my schooling on hold after the first semester as I didn't feel that a full-time working mother of two was doing justice to the course. I hope to take it up again sometime in the (not too distant) future when my babies are all a little bit bigger and maybe when I'm not working full-time... pipe dream? Maybe. We'll see...

By TraciM (you know I love those ruby slippers!)

Anyway, while I was clicking through the Pioneer Woman's site I came across the photography term 'bokeh'. I'd never heard it before a few days ago while reading a tutorial about it on another blog just recently. Thinking it was more than just co-incidence that I read about bokeh techniques twice in a few days, I decided I should find out more about it.

By Miz Booshay (just gorgeous twinkle lights!)

Bokeh for those of you who haven't heard of it, is an adaptation from a Japanese word meaning blur or haze. It's a term is used to describe the quality of the areas in the picture which are not in focus. I've been pronouncing it 'bow-kuh' but my web research swings between that and 'bow-kay'... six of one and half a dozen of another I guess. However you say it, I think it's lovely and will endeavor to achieve more bokeh in my photos!

baby girl bokeh by Kylie @ alittlereddress

It's a first!

Today was my beautiful, little Gabriel's first day of school. I can't believe he's five already! Over the past week I've felt pretty emotional about him going, but also 'butterflies in my belly' excited for him too!


A self-proclaimed 'big school boy' Gabriel is still in that wonderful transition between being my little guy and being super independent and grown up. One minute he's draping himself on me asking for cuddles and professing how much he loves me, the next he's battling it out with his brother at Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii. He also still cries at the drop of a hat, so leading up to today I was expecting him to completely lose it, but he was great! A little apprehensive and holding my hand when we first walked in to class, but once the crowd of doting parents had started to thin, he was ok. As for me, I think I was feeling so harassed trying to organise everyone and their new books/uniforms/lunches/stuff that I didn't have time to cry! Maybe I'll save it for later when I'm on my own, looking over the rest of the photos I took this morning...