Bearded Lady

Because I live in the tropics of North Queensland, I often dream about cold weather, or rather fantasise about it and all the cool cold weather clothes I could wear. I have a totally awesome red raincoat (which is definitely not breathable and therefore totally unsuited to even the coldest days we experience here) that I love so much I will wear it around the house with the a/c set to perma-frost just so I get some use out of it.

My inappropriately warm clothing obsession also extends to hats. I have just recently donated all of my pre-loved beanies to good will and have only saved a couple that are just too awesome to throw out or that I actually wear (around the house with the a/c on).

But today I found these...


This is the coolest beanie I've ever seen! I don't care that I'm a girl, I'd wear it!

And then there is this one...


Perhaps not everyday wear, but you'd be a hit on Saint Patricks Day or maybe just for special going somewhere fancy occasions.

I also found this one. It seems a little medievil to me, but I do like the curls and handlebar moe...


You can even get ones with detachable mustachios, so you can mix and match to suit your mood!


Click on any of the pictures and it will take you to the lovely Etsy stores where any of these can be found.

I kind a like the idea of putting on a hat like this and going about my day pretending that I'm not a girl with a beard. But first I think I'll need to invest in a hat rack. Or better still a shelf full of those dummy heads on which to perch all my fancy hats! hmmmmmm....

Why everyone should like giants

I'm in the process of writing a guest blog piece (I'll spill the beans once I'm published *wink*) and have been fluffing about looking for inspiration when I came across this little beauty. I was mooching around researching what a fan will do for the object of their adoration, which is a bit of tangent, but i liked what I found.

I don't really know Kimya Dawson's songs that well, other than I Like Giants which got a fair bit of airplay a couple of years back on Triple J, and the Juno soundtrack. Back then I really liked the fact the song stood out to me among all the alternative punk and Australian hip hop that saturated the play lists (don't even get me started!!).

What I love about Kimya Dawson now is that her music and her artwork have inspired quite a few fans to create music video's (on you tube) for her songs. They are really something a bit special and a lot of work has gone into creating them.

It's a lot like the Caspar Babypants ones I featured earlier, someone has found the music so special and has been so moved by the lyrics or the ideal that they have put used talent into create a very personal tribute which not only goes directly to the artist, but out for the whole world to see also.

Scooter Heaven

I have an ongoing love affair with scooters. Unlike most people, it didn't start with endless reruns of Roman Holiday, but on a rental on Magnetic Island where I crashed a sum total of three times due to some dodgy brakes, but couldn't wipe the stupid grin off my face the whole time. After that I was totally hooked.

I'd actually always fancied myself as a bit of a hot chick on a motor bike, channelling my inner Pinky Tuscadero or just like Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2. But being a person of rather small and light stature, I didn't really want to be commuting about town on a pee-wee 50, so a scooter it was. A sleek and ultra cool Vespa was way out of my price range, so I opted for a Piaggio. More plastic, less storage, less prestige, but hey, it still sounds italian right?

So my misadventures see me scootering around town, getting burnt to a crisp in the tropical heat. Third degree burns on my butt when trying to ride in a skirt and then there was the time I got stung on the cheek by a very angry scooter hating bee! I loved every minute of it right up until when riding home from work in a storm a gust of wind caught me and blew me right into the side of a removal truck whilst I was navigating a round-a-bout.

The stories I heard back later were much elaborated and actually sounded much cooler (one I may or may not have started myself had me sliding mission impossible style right under the truck), but in all reality I just put my arm out, bounced off and wobbled the rest of the way home very shaken and doing about 40km under the speed limit practically on the footpath. After that I road my beloved scooter less and less and eventually we parted ways when I sold it too another scooter mad chicky with a pink leather jacket. I'm such a scardy cat :(

However I will always look back upon my scootering days with a certain fondness one has for miss spent youth, and when I'm a reckless old lady with little to loose I'll be back out on the highway on my scooter. I'm just hoping it won't be the type you can hire at the chemist.

Here are a few ways I can still get my scooter fix until I can live the dream once more...

Bike, Scooter, and Chopper Projects for the Evil Genius (Evil Genius)


This one will have you ditching the kids and planning a real Roman Holiday! It's a fun read as well as being a bit of a travel guide.

Vroom with a View: In Search of Italy's Dolce Vita on a '61 Vespa


How cute is this coin purse? And in pink too! Available from Retrospettive on Etsy

This one makes me wish I'd pay more attention every time my Mum tries to teach me how to knit! Available from Leah Sutton's shop on Etsy

Handmade Heavan: Sushi Plushies

I have a new found obsession with Sushi. I have all my life been a very fussy eater, but entering my 30's has seen me break new ground in discovering culinary delights I would never have even sniffed before.

Whilst looking for something totally unrelated today, I can across these adorable little plush california rolls "Sushi you can hug". I don't know why I would possibly need one, but I think it would look oh so sweet smiling at me from my desk whilst I burn the midnight oil.

Hmmm, may just have to cancel the lasagna for tea tonight and go get some salmon nigiri instead. Lasagnas always better reheated anyway ;p

California Sushi Roll

Wasabi and Ginger

Find these and more at http://www.sushishirtsxd.com

A Fantastic Mr Fox indeed!

Happy New Year everyone! I'm finally back on the blogging bandwagon after a slight hiatus whilst full filling all those fairy door and sock monkeys orders Santa sent me to fill for Christmas. While it is wonderful to see my business grow and to receive such an enthusiastic response to something I create, it is overwhelming sometimes and I wonder who's bright idea it was to make my own products in the first place. But I'm back now after a nice little break, orders placed for more fairy door components and sock monkey skins and were off and running for 2010 :o)

As I probably say every year, I'm trying to make a concerted effort to blog more frequently from now on. My brain is full of bright ideas and things I can't wait to tell you, but my organisational skills quite often let me down and as my two girls are trying desperately to give up their day time naps, we'll not make any firm promises at this stage!

I do however have two wonderful kids albums to review and lots of books to talk about too! But first off let's talk movies.

Ben and I took the girls to see The Fantastic Mr Fox on Sunday and it was Fantastic indeed! Roald Dahl is arguably one of the best children's authors who has graced the planet and luckily most of his books which have made the transition to the silver screen have been well represented. I'm always a fan of the director who stays faithful to the original story and Wes Anderson (of the Darjeeling Limited and Royal Tenenbaums) does not fail. The stop motion puppet animation is delightful and fun to watch and is reminiscent of children's programs of old, think the Magic Roundabout before it went digital and was laced with french political innuendo and of course the Wombles before they had a make over too.

Of course the story is quite faithful, Roald Dahl's taunting rhymes are there but from a grown up point of view I could really see the actors behind the voices who were perfectly chosen for their parts, in particular George Clooney as Mr Fox and Jason Schwartzman as Ash. It's full of funny innuendo and jokes and the music is fantastic, we stayed back at the end to dance a jig in the isles (much to the amusement of the usher cleaning up the popcorn explosion).

Ben and I came away giving it a 4 star rating and it was high up the on the girls radar too as there were no overly scary scenes and the slap stick type humour was right up these toddlers alley.

Here's the trailer....



My only gripe is that here in Townsville it is receiving very little fan fare, only playing two sessions a day at one cinema. This often happens up here, I think we're still a big country town in a lot of respects and we miss out on a lot of small release movies, which is a killer for me cause I always want to see the small ones, but they never seem to make it this far north :o( We missed out on Ponyo last year as well as Coroline and the Tales of Despereaux to name a few. Ho hum :o(

Check out the official The Fantastic Mr Fox website here

Find at copy of the Roald Dahl original here at Fishpond

And hear the very funky soundtrack here Fantastic Mr. Fox [Soundtrack]

Sesame Street turns 40!

I remember getting in trouble in the second grade for having a "Sesame Street Education" because when I recited the alphabet I said "Zeee" and not "Zed"! and Mum tells me that whenever she turned on the TV when I was a kid I always thought it was time for Play School and Sesame Street, no matter what time of the day or night it was!

Now, I'm happy to tell people of my sesame street eduction and the fact that the Muppet's is my all time favourite TV show. Ella is in front of the box watching Play with me Sesame right now (excellent parenting!)

But when I opened up the google homepage today so see Cookie Monster starring back at me declaring Sesame Street was 40 yrs old! OMG. I just can't believe it. I still know all the songs, when I count something out for the girls I still do it like the Count does (One, Once chocolate cookie you can't have hahahahahah) and even though Baby Bear gives me an eye twitch I'll always have a soft spot for Grover (especially if he's got his Super Grover helmet on!)

Keep up the good work Sesame Street, you rock!

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

Retail therapy

We're stuck at home today with the car in for a service and I'm trying to psych myself up for the bike ride into town later this afternoon to take parcels to the post office. Don't usually mind the ride, but it's hard work going up the hills with the two girls in the trailer yelling at you to go faster.

So I've been indulging in a little retail therapy today. Few early Xmas presents organised, looking for Father's Day pressie for my husband from the girls and for my Dad, but so far all I've found are things I want myself (surprise surprise :)

This fantastic necklace was on the front page of Etsy this afternoon. I just missed out as it got snapped up so quickly. I'm really into silhouettes and shadow themes at the moment.

Find the artist The Mymbles Daughter on Etsy and check out all the other awesome designs she does. I love all her Alice in Wonderland pieces too!

Speaking of shadow's, our Mermaid Seascape Shadow Puppet was featured in Shop 4 Kids magazine which came out on Monday. Super excited to see ourselves there, now we just need to get more in stock cause were already sold out :( Don't worry they'll be back soon!

Doodle Bread... the coolest thing since....

This is Doodle Bread. It tops my list as the coolest find I've made this week! Bread is my all time favourite thing to eat, and I can't wait to wrap my lips around some of this gastronomic delights.

The Doodle Bread products and concept was hatched by Rose Kane from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Whilst studying at Art Collage in London, Rose wagged school one day and had a play around with some dough in the kitchen. Voila, Doodle Bread!

A Doodle Bread kit comes with

• A Squisher
• A Doodle Shaper
• A Doodle Bread Baking Tin
• Big Doodle Mix
• Little Doodle Mix

There is a super easy and adorable tutorial on the Doodle Bread website to help you with your creations. Plus your encouraged to email in photos of your finished Doodle Bread and any new creations you come up with.

What a fantastic rainy day activity and a great way to get the kids involved and interested in the cooking too. All ingredients are as healthy as you want or need them to be and there are many recipes on the Doodle Bread Blog to try out too!

Priced at 22GBP for all of us on this side of the globe including shipping. Add another item to my wish list. It's getting pretty long now, I hope someones paying attention (cough cough ;)

Chocolate Vanilla Star Loaf!

Meet Me At Mikes....

I've just returned from the dentist, having just had my first ever filling, so feeling a bit sorry for myself. And hungry! I forgot to eat breakfast and now I can't feel my tongue and wouldn't it be a perfect day if I bit a chunk off that too!

Hmmmmmmm, need chocolate, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the dentist visit doesn't it!

My spirits have perked up considerably after receiving a lovely little gift from the postie in my mail box on my return! I ordered this last week on the sly from Fishpond, and I must say it has exceeded all of my expectations.

Meet Me at Mike's: 25 Fun and Crafty Projects

I am a huge fan of Pip Lincolne from Meet Me At Mikes! She is the Australian craft goddess, in a ultra cool non Martha Stewart kind a way. There are so many places you can find Pip's work, one of her many blogs, in her Melbourne shop which I am itching to visit or in Frankie Magazine.

I've made a couple of Pip's projects from Frankie, but her book is the icing on the cake for me. Gorgeous pictures, patterns included, easy to follow instructions, it's all just too cute!

I think my first project will be Butterfly Evelyn! (pls excuse my dodgy photo, doesn't do it justice). xx

Where the Wild Things Are

I adore kids books. It's the illustrations, it's the simple language and it's the imagination. If you asked me for my top 10 books of all time, they are mostly all children's books. They remind me of the simple joys of childhood and how I used to get lost in my imagination and games made up from the books I read.

Up there in the top 10 is Where the Wild Things Are from the legend Maurice Sendak. Did you know that it was first published in 1963 and that Maurice Sendak, who has just turned 81 has written and illustrated more than 90 books!!


Now I do remember reading this story as a young one at school, during reading time at the library. But I've become a fan from reading it to my own children. We probably borrow this book about every 2nd trip to the library to restock on new stories, despite the fact that we have our own copy too! At least this way they can both read along with me :)

It always happens eventually, that someone makes a movie from a popular children's story. I blogged earlier about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I think its often thin line on whether a movie does a book justice or not. I always like to read a book before I see a movie based on it. Just that my imagination suits me better than anyone else's does. But sometimes it helps you understand something if you see it from someone else's imagination perspective too.

I wonder how I will feel about the Spike Jonze's take on Where the Wild Things Are when it's released in October? The trailer looks promising, let's hope the best bits aren't in the ads ;) But just between you me and the wall... I think I'm going to like it!



Here's another great site to check out too! It's called Terrible Yellow Eyes and it's artwork from Maurice Sendak fans who are captivated as so many of us are by the magic of the Wild Things.

Image by Joel Furtado

Alice in Wonderland

There have been some very cool images floating around about the new Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland which is due out next year. It stars all the usual Tim Burton fav's Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter etc. And from the images released, looks as though it may be a little truer to the original masterpiece than the more popular Disney versions have been in the past, as well loved as they may be. It's due out in March 2010, better book a babysitter now ;)

Tell me if its just me, but I think Mr Depp is looking a little Beetlejuice here, what do you think?

Anyway, I've been noticing quite an Alice trend happening amongst crafty types around the net. There is much love of the original illustrations and these are reproduced on T-shirts, tote bags etc. But I quite like the stuff that is based on the idea, and a new piece of work is created from the Alice theme.

This is the Whimsical Alice In Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party Chandelier from whimsicalcollections.etsy.com. At $425US it's a little pricey, but it's pretty cool don't you think?

I really like this Story Book Cotton Tape. Don't know what I'd use it for, but I want it all the same. lillalotta.etsy.com

Alice in Wonderland Paper Playset from Fantastictoys.etsy.com. I've commented on Tim's extraordinary work before, and this divine playset is based on a miniature scale model he made based on the original illustrations. WOW!


Oh Oh Oh. I didn't look to hard before, or maybe not hard enough, but I've just found a trailer for the new Alice in Wonderland movie...

Win a framed FallDownTree Print...

As promised as part of our birthday celebrations I have a few goodies to give away :)

I've just posted on Facebook a fun little question prompted by my daughers revelation this week that when she grows up she wants to be Wolverine! I have other thoughts about Wolverine, but considering she only knows the cartoon version, I'm guessing she wants one of those hot yellow suits!

I used to want to be Mikhail Baryshnikov. I thought that the boy ballet dancer were better than the girls cause they could jump higher and didn't have to wear tutu's! My husband had recurring Superman/Greatest American Hero/ET fantasies (probably still does).

So my question to all our facebook BFF's is .... What did you want to be when you grew up? Or are you still holding onto your fantasies Peter Pan style in the hope that you can still reach your dream?

This fab framed FallDownTree print is yours to the fan with the comment that makes us all wish to be young again! You can leave a comment here if you like if your not on Facebook

Kids Movies....

This is hardly a hump day suggestion, as most of us probably do this everyday anyway, but I was feeling a little rant like about the movies on at the cinemas lately, this seemed like the next best thing.

I really wanted to take the girls to a movie and have been hanging for the school holidays in the hope that something suitable would make it to the cinemas. But everything these days seems to be too violent, or has "scary themes" (whatever that's supposed to mean) or is a story about how two best friends/parents and children/you fill in the gap, get separated and are very sad and upset and have to go on a quest to find each other during which there is much danger..... blah, blah, blah! does that sound familiar to you or it is just me?

My girls are still too young for these kinds of movies and the ones we've attempted to watch in the past that appeared suitable on the posters and in reviews and have a G rating, left us with endless questions on why the characters where so distraught and why did their friends leave... it goes on and on and on.

So as we don't have a home theatre, we are making a makeshift one for ourselves today. I'm all stocked up on popcorn, have some special cups with straws just like at the movies and I've thrown a couple of sheets up over the glass doors to block out as much light as possible. We've dragged out loads of comfy cushions and a rug or two and we're all set for the show to begin.

Today's screening is Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses. Just between you and me, if I have to watch this again, I'm going to poke myself in the eye. But Abby's really into the whole evil stepmother figure at the moment (the lesser of the evils according to her) and after the intermission we will be screening a Care Bears anthology to keep all members of the audience appeased.

At least there's coffee on tap at this theatre and they probably won't notice if I go downstairs and hang out the washing either!

Knitted dissection...

This was on the Etsy homepage this afternoon...

Its a knitted biology frog from The Crafty Hedgehog and I think it's pretty cool. I also love her knitted fetal pig, which I can think of a few people for whom this would be an appropriate gift (I do move in some unusual circles ;-)

Made me smile anyway!

Hump Day Helper #6: Space Explorers

OK, so this week it's not something crafty, but rather a great site for kids who are into the final frontier... Space!

This is a long story, but my almost 4 yr old Abby has her own version of the Why question that toddlers seem to love to much, particularly when she's in the car. She either asks where everything comes from, or how old everything is .... where do traffic lights come from? how old is fly spray? and every answer you give her prompts another.... the fact that i always answer her questions often gets me into a lot of strife and a 20 minute Q&A session that I usually get out of by saying, we'll look it up when we get home! My favorite is when she argues point blank that I do know the answer, I'm just being difficult by telling her I don't know. As flattering as it is that she thinks I'm the all seeing oracle, I just don't have answers that roll off my tongue about where gravity comes from!

Until now that is! Abs was absolutely fascinated by the recent space shuttle trip to Hubble and because I didn't have the answers or quick wit to answer her many, many, many, many space questions i followed through on my promise to look it up!

Thank the stars for the NASA website. It is very cool and has lots of interactive games and activities that appeal to even the youngest of space explorers. We are a big fan of the Buzz Lightyear Game and Space your Face gets a few giggles too! But the depth of info and images on here is just amazing. Who knew you could watch live NASA TV? Well worth a look and there are some colouring in pages to download too!

Moss Fairies

All week i have been promising myself that I'd be more consistent with my blogging, and I keep falling off the promise wagon! This time i can blame it on the fact I've had my nose in a book I can't put down. I've finally succumbed to curiosity and am reading Twilight to see what all the fuss is about. I'm about 3/4 done, saving the last little bit for my hair dressers appointment in the morning. I must say, even through it is a little predictable and the whole irresistible vampire lover thing has been done to death (pun intended), I'm quite enjoying reading a book I can whiz through and doesn't make me think to much. I tend to get hooked on series's once I've read the first (note the stash of Janet Evanovich books under my bed), so no doubt I'll be off to get the sequel sometime tomorrow too!

On a completely different note, I found the most adorable Fairy terrariums on Etsy yesterday.

This is by Doodle Bird Designs and I need one soooo much. I can't believe how adorable these are! Not to sure how I'd go finding moss growing here in Townsville though?


Gnome washing day! I'm speechless....

Find Doodle Bird Designs here on Etsy!

KidStyleFile Annual Reader Survey

The stellar blog site KidStyleFile has launched their 2nd Annual Reader Survey and it's running for the full month of June. There is a prize pool totaling $12,000 up for grabs, so that's worth a few minutes of your time I'm sure!

Plus as a feel good bonus, Angela (the talented and gorgeous blogger extraordinaire) who runs KidStyleFile is donating 50c from every completed survey to the Make a Wish Foundation! Now that's an awesome show of charity for a very deserving cause.

The Annual Reader Survey is great as it gives you a chance to give something back to KidStyleFile so they can keep their finger on the button when it comes to style, whats hot and where to get it. And it also helps out businesses like Monkeytail and Wellington so I can find out buyer trends, favourite brands and what I might be doing wrong (or hopefully right) when it comes to giving my customers what they want and deserve.

If your not already a member, I recommend signing up for the KidStyleFile weekly newsletter. It comes jam packed every Tuesday with great savings, competitions and reviews from businesses you may not have met before. There's the occasional special deal from me too which is exclusive to KidStyleFile readers!

Have fun and good luck!

Best things come in Small packages...

Do you read Small Magazine? ... No! ... Well you should! I look forward with eager anticipation to its release each quarter and am yet to be disappointed.

I think its attention to crafty goodness for kids is what appeals to be most. I love that I find something in each issue that I've never seen before and goes on my "Most Wanted Wish List". Such as one of these "Paper Airplanes" from paperpod.co.uk. How cool is this....


The photography is nothing short of stunning... I love this image from page 120 of Issue 10, you may recognise the Little Hero Super Capes


This is an image from page 7 in the Days of Summer piece. Artist divine Tutti Shafir's illustrated photo shoot!


So what are you waiting for? Go get your fix now! www.smallmagazine.net