This little house....

I've been mentally writing this blog post for about three weeks, then I've been squirreling away under a mountain of fairy door orders, I'm finally getting around to posting...

My brain is always full of crazy ideas that rarely come to fruition. Abby, my eldest, turned 4 a few Tuesday's ago and I wanted to make her a gift this year that she would really love. Now this is a bit of a long story, so bare with me for a sec :)

Abby has these little dolls that live in her pocket that she calls her "Pocket Peeps", and I swear she came up with that on her own! Anyway, these two little dolls used to be mine back in the day. They have a metal ball bearing inside them which used to make them slide down a ramp from a school bus. No idea what happened to the bus, but the peeps made it and some 30 yrs later are once again seeing the sights from a pint sized pocket.


So the Peeps have travelled the country with Abs and have even caused her to be frisked at the airport when they set off the metal detector. Now that's a funny sight seeing your 3 yr old made to empty her pockets and take off her shoes and belt.

So in my Internet travels I came across these awesome little wooden dolls on Etsy you can paint yourself. So I bought a family set about 4 months or more ago with the intention of making her a family of pocket peeps. Mostly cause the originally are getting a bit rusty cause she literally takes them everywhere and they occasionally go through the washing machine.

Here are Abby's own personal Carter Family Pocket Peep's!


After feeling pretty pleased with myself for my first attempt at making these, I thought they needed a house to live in, so off I went in search of a tutorial on how to make a small, fabric, portable dolls house. I found a fantastic tutorial on UK Lass in US blog, and voila the Pocket Peeps have a home.


You can get all the supplies you need to create your own Pocket Peeps from a lovely lass on Etsy called Goose Grease and the tutorial for the house at the UK Lass in US blog! I'll be doing another one for Wellie for Xmas or her birthday too!

TTFN!

Threadless Kids

Being a serial t-shirt wearing family I'm surprised I haven't stumbled across this before now. Threadless is a US based tshirt label company who really do produce designer shirts. except rather than be a designer label, the prints are designed by some pretty cool artists with their finger on the button of whats hot and funky in tshirt design.

There are several arms of the Threadless company brand, Threadless as they simply put "the best tshirts in the world"; Threadless Kids for your baby onesies and kids T and hoodeis; Typetees which is the best in slogan t design; and Select which are artist limited invite only designs.

T's start at US$18 each, but there are heaps on sale as well. Shipping to Australia from $9US

Here are a few from my shopping basket today :o) early Christmas shopping of course ;p

Ladies and Jellybeans..... The Flannery Brothers

A while back I received a fantastic surprise in the mail. A copy of The Flannery Brothers brand new CD Love Songs for Silly Things. It took me a while to get it into the CD player to have a good listen, but when I finally did, I was kicking myself I hadn't done it sooner! There isn't a song on here that didn't have me tapping the beat out on the steering wheel (first listen was on the way to ballet lessons :).

The album has a 50ish feel with a little Beachboys and the Muppets thrown in. Each song really is a love song for the silly things that Dan & Michael Flannery love the best. And you can't help but find a little adult appreciation in the lyrics.

The unanimous favourite for my husband and I is the second song "best pillow in the world". As adults we can so totally relate to the importance of a comfy pillow, Abby just loves the infectious beat and yelling the chorus really loud!

Ella however now eats broccoli since we started singing "broccoli yet" at the dinner table. The irony is a little lost on 2 1/2 yr olds, but I could kiss the Flannery Brothers for helping us over come another vegetable obstacle! She even does the coolest broccoli dance.

And there is no better start for a 5 o'clock boogie session than "Let's Start Dancing". What an awesome opener to this album.

Love Songs for Silly Things was only released in July 09, but it already has a swag of awards under it's belt. 2009 Preferred Choice from Award from Creative Child Magazine, "One Wasn't Enough" won the 2008 Lennon Award in the John Lennon Song Writing Contest, a 2008 Children's Music Web Award and honourable mentions in the International Songwriting Competition. Not bad for a first album.

Visit the Flannery Brothers website to hear a songs from the album and see footage from live performances. You can get your mitts on a copy of Love Songs for Silly Things at iTunes in Australia.

They Might Be Awesome Giants!

Plus, in my eTravels, I've discovered that another wonderful book from the two John's will be out in November. Titled Kids Go! you can pre-order from Fishpond now. This gem will feature illustrations by Pascal Campion and contain an animated DVD. Visit the TMBG website for more details :)

Kids Go!