a little more link LOVE!

I know I'm posting pretty close to my last but... husband at work, baby asleep and a relatively clean house (combined with a little procrastination from waiting reading material) = chance for moi to surf the web! And thanks to a link from Poppytalk I have found a site that I just can't wait to share.

Fellow stationery lovers beware, I have been on the verge of hyperventilation for the last ten minutes while scrolling through the pages of London based Present&Correct.

A few handmade paper goods and vintage items are mixed in with P&C products--I want the old typewriter for me and the globe for my husband. I actually think I want everything. Here are some pics.

Yes, this time I will splash out £7.50 and purchase that little 'from the desk of' typewriter stamp.

And £1.85 is not bad for international postage either!

In love.

x

'Grammietime' and a little link love

Sophia is so blessed to have all four of her grandparents in her life. Growing up I so used to wish that I did. In my imagination I had a special connection with the grandfathers I never knew. If they were alive they would have smelt like peppermint and tobacco (The Parent Trap was my favourite movie), they would have let me stay up late and told me stories by the fire, taken me on adventures and snuck me treats after dinner (and blamed any mishap on themselves to keep me out of trouble from my parents). We would have had our own secret, conspiring relationship. :) Perhaps a little more Hollywood than reality. I can't describe, though, how grateful I am that my children will get to have this extra piece of fullness in their lives.

I was away from home at a conference this week so Sophia got a double-dose of what she has come to call 'grammietime' (you have to say it like Hammertime with no shortage of enthusiasm). A few of her adventures included:



The baking of butterfly cakes and yoyos. Dressed as a butterfly no less.























Snail studies.














Making animal shaped mini-pizzas.














And driving her thomas trains around a chalk track, complete with playgrounds, parks and ponds.














Super fun and precious memory-making! And we have more exciting grandparent time coming up this weekend with Opa and Grandma--what a blessed little bundle our girl is. That's all. Just thought I'd share.



As for a little link love, I couldn't not post this latest set of paintings by my mum. I just love them.









And, being the fan of paper lanterns that I am, when I saw these I needed to share. They are creations by the very clever Tif from Dottie Angel. She found a few lanterns at a thrift store, hung them outside until they'd faded to delicious vintagey shades and attached little tails using bits and pieces and scrap fabrics. Love.









Here are a few more images from her blog full of crafty goodness.



















Recently I've had a hankering to give crocheting another go (after a relatively unsuccessful attempt a few months ago). Here is Tif's 'how to' for this patchwork crocheted blanket. I just might be brave enough to try...









That's all for now. I'll be back in a day or two with a little more fun to share.

Hope you all have wonderful weekends!


x


p.s. I thought I'd attach these precious pics of Fia and her grandfathers. What I would have given to have had a few photos like these.

[note: thanks to mum and her talent for the Grammietime photos]

why I blog

It's nearly six months since I began this blog and in that time it has evolved into something quite different from my initial intentions (I'm going to have to change my blurb soon). My experimental blog on books didn't last. Books are a part, but not the largest part. As I have begun to share creative projects and day-to-day events, post links to inspiring sites and shops, experiment with cooking, sewing, photography, etc, I have found that my ever-evolving blog has become a way of both containing myself and enjoying myself. It is a strange thing--so personal and so public at the same time. Being a relatively private person by nature it has occasionally made me nervous. I have found myself wanting to write, beginning to write and deleting what I have written on a number of occasions.

Yet, recently I have been thinking that I'm just going to continue to embrace it. To post for no reason other than because I love it. Because it makes me happy. Because, when I read over previous blog entries and other peoples' blog entries, I am inspired to be more thoughtful, more positive, more creative, more loving, more vibrant and inspiring. Blogging reminds me, regularly, to love life. It reminds me to see, prize and protect those small moments at home with Sophia--the day-to-day stuff--in the way that I really want to. It reminds me to not let the months roll by only to look back and see that I've missed them.

I love comments and followers (thankyou so much to those who do) and get super excited when I see that international readers have spent a bit of time here. I am definitely a 'words of encouragement' sort. Those things give me such a boost, but they're not why I do it. I am not doing this for praise or to present a certain image. I am doing it because, at the moment, this little blog is something that makes me excited. I think Howard Thurman summed it up well:

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive.
And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

I love getting ideas through blogs. Being energized by other people. Learning more about what makes them excited or what inspires them to be creative. I have begun to imagine that I live in a world where we all feel free to share and be who we are without trying to fit some image or meet some measure, and without the fear of contempt. It may seem delusional--the world is full of sneers and scoffs and (in NZ) that tall poppy thing--but we can all choose not to fear it and even not to feel it. Bring that on, I say. Blog, I say.

This is a great entry by Kelle Hampton (my friend Emma and I are a little obsessed--yes, we may have chosen to read through three year old posts, and yes, we may have started from the beginning). I love this quote: by painting the sky, van gogh was really able to see it and adore it better than if he had just looked at it. I feel the same way as Kelle. That's really what blogging is for me. A way to 'love it more' and to 'delve for that beauty that would otherwise go unnoticed'.

So here's a little of this weekend's beauty. I am loving experimenting with photography. One day I am going to save my pennies and get a nice camera.



One of my absolute favourite things: little stripey legs.

Another favourite: brisk beachy mornings.

One of Sophia's favourite things: homemade beaches. That's what dustpans and shovels are for right?

This is that delicious golden light that falls at around five o'clock.

What is a rainy day without the baking (and eating) of cupcakes? Or eating the icing off the top at least.

Or a trip to Borders in full fairy costume?

The following photos are so Sophia. She loves cars. Of course she will find the one book with a pop out yellow taxi in it to drive around the children's section for half an hour.

And on one of those rainy evenings when we hadn't much else to do, we took off to the top of Cliff Road and discovered the statues. Sophia is, for some singular reason, also in love with Maori statues. She talks about and draws pictures of the ones we walk past at Omaha. Little did we know that Cliff Road is home to three statues! And all within hugging distance (yes, there were many kisses too). Sheer delight.

Well, that's all for now. Lots of love and happy blogging! (And, if you're tempted to start, I say just do it!)

x

P.s. I'll close with this: the look that the sight of Daddy arriving at the playground brings to a little face.