finger paint

turn this...

into this...

with these make your own finger paint instructions

tiny house

I am a total sucker for anything tiny. I think it is my way of modifying my hoarding tendencies with out presenting as too much of a weirdo. You can collect a lot of tiny things before anyone seems to notice. When I was a child I had an wonderful dolls house with tiny books with paper pages that turned and tiny wax candles in candle holders. But my favourite thing was three tiny bricks about the size of sugar cubes that were made of real brick. I couldn't believe it real bricks but so so tiny.
Through a series of events I found work as a  model maker making miniature things for film productions, it was a perfect job for me and I still use those skills in things I do now.
Over the years I have dreamed of moving into two tiny houses I have seen in my neighbourhood, it seemed to make so much sense, like a free standing one bedroom apartment with a garden. At the moment I have a huge urge to move house, this one feels like it is falling down around us and I just want some element of change. Maybe this is the answer, part gypsy caravan part cosy house how great would it be or would you go bonkers?

and speaking of jelly...

There must be some sort of jelly syncronicity going on I just saw these paintings by Arnout van Albada on the always reliable blog The Jealous Curator

honey lip balm

turn this...

into this... 

with these make your own honey lip balm instructions

Angus and Celeste

I keep seeing these beautiful jelly planters everywhere at the moment and thought they needed a moment to be admired. They are made by a very creative couple and are just a small part of the beautiful things they make.

Apple love

A strangely wonderful series of events unfolded last week which seems almost too impossible to be true. It involves computers and hard drives so tune out now if you like.
I have a back up hard drive plugged into my computer and it was tweaking out a bit so I reformatted it and saved everything again. The next morning my computer was acting strangely so I restarted it and nothing happened, just a blank blue screen staring at me. I lugged the thing out to the car and somehow managed to gauge a massive scratch into the screen on the way. Trying to be upbeat I convinced myself I could just not look at that part of the screen as I drove it to the Apple shop. The computer was out of warranty and out of Apple care extended warranty and the hard drive was broken and maybe every single photo of my children lost!! Yes all those blurry sentimental ones.
After some anxious pacing of the store and a bit of whispering behind the counter they told me that lucky for me the hard drive in my make and model was faulty and had been recalled but unlucky for me the recall had finished in April so I wasn't covered, but maybe I should call Apple and see if they would do anything. Anyhow long story short they fixed my computer, the manager at apple gave me a big apology for any inconvenience and an offer to help with any data loss, it was all free, yes free with a brand new hard drive no loss of data, as I had backed it up the day before purely by a stroke of luck, and the scratch on the screen turned out to be dried oats from the kids breakfast and washed off, can you believe it!!? I can't, these sorts of things don't happen to me at the moment.

Ants

I took the children to see the most wonderful puppet/performance art piece on the weekend. It was by the Polyglot theatre. There were three people in human sized ant costumes and piles of bean bag "crumbs" scattered all around. The children ran around feeding the ants and helping them build paths and nests with the crumbs, learning to communicate with them in a haphazard organic way. They almost became like worker ants busy with tasks that kept shifting and changing. Unfortunately my two year old had just spent ages climbing backwards down a long flight of stairs while I waited at the top and just as he got to the bottom the first ant appeared right next to him, he was terrified and I couldn't stop laughing poor boy it was bad timing. I didn't have my camera unfortunately so here are a few photos I found on the web.

tiny flags

turn this...

into this...

with these tiny flag instructions and template

tiny flags template download

If you would like to download the template to make your own tiny flags please click here.

the road is home

I have just found this photographer Nirrimi Firebrace's beautiful work. The images are so lovely and she has a gorgeous blog of her life and adventures with her partner who is also a photographer and her daughter. It is worth a look and quite inspiring not to mention she is just 20 years old but she has been taking photos like these since she was 14. Wow

game changer

first good photo in four years

Just before my first son was born I bought a new camera a Cannon G10. A few of my friends had them and found them to be fantastic but no such luck for me. It seemed as though the light meter was broken and the shutter speed. Every photo came out blurry and it was impossible to take any good indoor shot even in a bright room. Needless to say the babies arrived and I have millions of crappy blurry photos of them and all their milestones. I sent the camera off and got it fixed twice but each time it came back the same. Finally, almost four years later, this week I called the shop I bought it from to see if the warranty was still valid. Apparently if you return it for the golden third time you are entitled to a replacement camera. Alas the warranty had expired but by chance the woman on the phone said maybe try a faster memory card.....What? Why had no one had ever mentioned it before in all my countless attempts to get to the bottom of it no one told me and I feel like an idiot that I didn't know. Well I got the new card and last night took the best photo I have in years in low light, inside with my new ultra 10 speed memory card woo hooooo!!!

priceless moment of my two sons meeting 

each other for the first time, 

blurry as all get up damn it!!

Pom pom

turn this...

into this...

with these tiny pom pom instructions...

Turning Two

My youngest son turned two and was so super excited it was his birthday. We gave him a scooter which he loves, and I made him a super deluxe cardboard kitchen with three modular parts. A stove with turning knobs, a fridge with freezer and fridge section and a sink with cupboards under neath. He loved it and straight away made us all coffee and sausages for breakfast.