Showing posts with label book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book. Show all posts

20.4.11

Growing Bookworms.

Punky is a bookworm. She can’t read yet, but that doesn’t stop her from “reading” every night before bed. She chooses a selection of titles from her ample supply & bunkers down for some cosy book action.

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She has A LOT of books. When her room is all tidy & all the books are on the shelves & not stacked in piles of varying heights throughout the house, I almost need a hammer to get those last few books in there.

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Her book collection started well before she was born – on oppy runs I would come home with children’s books that reminded me of those I had as a child or those I used to read when staying with my Gran.

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I can still remember the very first book I read to her – she would have been about two weeks old & I lay on the floor with her & held “The Cat in the hat comes back” above us. Her eyes were drawn to the high contrast pages as I read.

We could spend all day reading books over here. Some days we’ve come pretty close – my throat gets sore from reading aloud but Punk still sits quietly, listening, looking. Suspence joins us now – sturdy board books only – but he is all about the mashing & grabbing & chewing.

The Boy says Punk doesn’t need any more books, ever, but I don’t think you can ever have too many. Each new book is an adventure, the start of fond memories, something to hold, to admire, to get lost in, to share… that’s why yesterday when I saw this book being practically given away I grabbed two copies.

planetyawn

Illustrated by Emma Magenta, whom I knew from The Peril of Magnificent Love & written by one of my biggest girl-crushes, Toni Collette, this hardcover picture book is as quirky as it is delightful, the story of a naughty yawn who won’t share & on another level a cautionary tale about what we are doing to our environment.

illustrations

So I said I picked up two copies? One has been read & re-read to Le Punk thrice already, the other is for you.

If you’ve a little person who would enjoy Planet Yawn, tell me in the comments the name of your favourite children’s book, the book that every child just has to have on their bookshelf – Punk’s on the lookout for new reads.

I’ll pick a winner at random in a few days, happy to post this gorgeous book anywhere you happen to be. xx

14.10.10

Thankies….!

Look what arrived for me yesterday….

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A fabulous more-than-just-a-cookbook from Amy…

…wrapped in…

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ROBOT PAPER!

As if I weren’t already stoked enough to have won a copy – it’s little touches like that that melt my cold stone heart & make me adore blogland & it’s lovely bloggers anew.

mousse

AND there was even a personal recipe recommendation; chocolate mousse… mmmmmm….. chocolate….. Huh? Oh. Yes. Sorry.

Read all about this beautiful book over here – there is SO much packed into this sturdy little book that I think I’m going to need some time to get through it all, but get through it I will for it’s right up my alley. Thankies Amy – I LOVE IT!!

What sort of thing has been gracing your snail-mail-box lately? Prizes? Presents? Hideous little letters with nasty plastic windows…??

21.4.10

What I’m Reading…

What do you know, I actually finished The Mother Tongue, mostly because I was a wee bit obsessed & reading it every chance I got… highly recommend it, if you have any interest in that sort of thing.

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Now I’ve moved on to Air Babylon - ‘twas quite a popular book when I used to work at Borders & sounded interesting enough – a sneaky behind the scenes look at airlines & airports – so when I found it at a garage sale for peanuts a few weeks ago picked it up.

Pros; I found it at a garage sale, it’s a no-brainer.

Cons; Not nearly as scandalous or interesting as I’d hoped.

Now I don’t know if I’ll be done with this one by next week – I don’t feel compelled to read it, even though it’s the sort of book one should be able to manage in a few days, plus a trip to the Library may see me with something I’d prefer – or then again, knowing my Library, it may not.

Read any good books lately? I am always up for new recommendations!

7.4.10

Mmmmm Books.

(Not to be confused with the 90s song from those girlie-boys, “Mmmm Bop”)

books

Yesterday was a lovely day for books. A trip to the library both reminded me why I should go more often AND why I don’t – I stumbled upon things I wouldn’t find browsing online, but the books I actually searched for were all at far away branches which would require a $2 transfer fee & generally results in my being $2 out-of-pocket AND bookless, because by the time they send me out a letter saying the book is in, I’m reading something else & promptly forget about the letter, then the next time I go in I’m told the book was sent back a month ago & that will be another $2 for no reason, please….

I digress.

Anywho, so I got a bunch of lovely books from the library & returned home to a satisfyingly weighty parcel which contained The Crafty Minx. Will tell you what I think of it when I get a chance to look through it properly… right now I am a little too engrossed in Eats, Shoots & Leaves… which is packed full of interesting facts & amazing examples of punctuation that I forget the minute I read, but I feel somehow enlightened all the same…

7.3.10

Ooh La La!

Oh I got me some nifty opshopped goodies last week – MORE cases, if you can believe it, and the retro-est lot of linen you can imagine, but it’s all at Le Cottage and I, still, am not. Nope. I am still here, with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs. All boxes & little things are over there, waiting, and all furniture & big things are over here, waiting!

I don’t want to complain… ah hell, yes I do. It’s one of my favourite things! The Boy drives me C R A Z Y – everything is always “tomorrow” or “next week” or “later”. Usually it’s to do with things like putting the car in for a service, or mowing the lawn, but right now it is to do with MOVING and I kinda want it done NOW. He’s being cheap – not wanting to shell out for a removalist, so I have to wait until he has time off work & his boss can help him with the big stuff… and really, who knows when that will be?! He also has to put the fence up at Le Cottage – lest we have a rambunctious dog & several bewildered chickens rampaging downtown….

I digress. (…deep breaths…)

I do have one oppy find with me here & it’s nice. Oh yes. So nice.

“The French Chef” – Beautiful book in fantastic condition, printed in Japan but no publish date…? The illustrations are DIVINE.

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It has also told me that scrambled eggs in French are actually Oeufs Brouillés, so next time I am feeling lazy & make them for dinner, I can pretend I am actually just feeling… French.

For more thrifted goodness head over to Sophie’s for Flea Market Finds (…when she get’s out of bed… oh to have gone out on a Saturday night!)

22.1.10

My Place And Yours!!

Woohoo!

Here it is!
I hope you’ll play along! (And you might want to get a cup of tea, this is a long one…)


Since this is the first week of My Place And Yours at Punky & Me, I get to choose the theme, nice.


So. Influenced by the bombsite that is my house right now, some packed boxes, some empty boxes and muchos mess, I looked around in desperation for some aspect of my place right now that I didn’t want to hide under the rug (there’s an idea for you, future Theme Queens) and kept drawing blanks.

Usually I love my kitchen, my copious amounts of rarely used cookbooks, my vintage kitchen knick knacks, my teapot collection… but right now…. teapots are packed & the rest is a shameful mess, so that was out.

I gave up & plonked on the bed to get a little further through my book when it hit me…

The theme this week folks is “What I’m Reading”. (I swear I tried to think of something more catchy that meant the same thing but my brain just would nae be in it…)

Books are not made for furniture,
but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

At the start of the month there was much talk of resolutions, a common theme I noticed while doing the blog rounds, happy in the knowledge that I wasn’t participating in the negative cycle that lapsed resolutions can become, was ‘Read More’. As much as I am against resolutions, I think that one is worth keeping.

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Right now I am reading ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ by David Sedaris, it is SO FUNNY. I got it for Christmas from The Boy’s little brother (I shall not be re-gifting, although it sort of already has been… he always reads the books before giving them…!!!), along with another of his books ‘When You Are Engulfed In Flames’ I read that first, although Me Talk Pretty One Day was written first, and loved it.


It made me laugh out loud. I love when a book can do that. Lots of books can amuse you. Lots of books can make you think “…that’s funny!” but it is a little rarer to find a book that has you giggling like a nutter while your other half is trying to sleep.

I’m almost finished the book, I’ve been on a bit of a reading jag lately and have another book in the wings already, waiting for the curtain on this one, but I am enjoying every page, especially the one below, which has given me my new favourite word, and that I shall endeavour to slip into blog conversation at the first opportunity.

whateverishly


What are you reading right now
…? Is it a book? A magazine? A blog? What do you wish you were reading? Where do you wish you were reading it? Is it a library book? Was it a gift? Are you enjoying it or persevering?

Your take on this theme can be whatever you want it to be, and I want to see it! You can take a quickie photo without getting up, you can draw a picture (…that gives me an idea… I’d love to see a diorama. Go on. Make a diorama!), you can trek to the library and take covert snaps, whatever, wherever, you’ve got time!

Share your link below, we’ll be playing all week!


(If you’re new to My Place And Yours, Pip’s original post about it is here.)

Housekeeping:

As for next week’s theme… well – what shall it be…?! I loved Pip’s idea of a Theme Queen, I loved visiting ‘The Queen’ and seeing why she chose what she chose, but with disappointed if I couldn’t play along because I just didn’t have something to do with the theme, because playing along is what a meme is all about, and the more the merrier, no?

So, I’m going to be choosing the Themes & the Theme Queens a little differently. We’ll see how it goes at least, if it does nae work then we’ll try something else… we’re resourceful and crafty after all!

If you would like to be next week’s Theme Queen, then all you have to do is play along this week & comment here (in le comments, not the linky box... thanks Tracey... hehe) with what your theme would be. I will choose a theme from your suggestions that I think is fun & inclusive and will announce the Theme Queen in the new meme post on Saturday, which will be a nice surprise for everyone.

Pip said it all here;

Each week we'll have a new theme. The theme will be a place/perspective : out the window, in the top drawer, down the lane, at the post office, in the kitchen, at work, your cafe, under this, behind that, inside the other... whatever. Just a kind of common place or perspective we all will have. I don't want to take the fun out of it by suggesting too many - think about the things we do each day and the places we go, or utilise and go from there!

Sound like a plan? Good’o.

Let’s play!

(..and thank you Pip for this shiny meme, I really do like it a lot & hope it will thrive here!)



Two Birds….

designityourself 

….with one stone.

So I have this book. It looks good. It kinda sorta even looks doable. I think it’s going to help me with a couple of things.

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Now I don’t know how much notice you take of these things, but a bright orange, retro styled, rather lovely button has appeared in my sidebar, as if by magic. The magic, and the button, is from Isis, and it signals the pledge that I have made to myself, and the ethics I seem to have fallen into, since signing up for Wardrobe Refashion some months ago. I know I didn’t actually refashion very much, or make anything much wearable, but I didn’t BUY anything new either. And since getting out of the habit, I haven’t yet felt the urge to get back into it. In my opinion, if one can make it through the Boxing Day/January sales without buying so much as a singlet, then the clothes buying retail monkey is completely off their back.

Isis created the Ethical Clothing Pledge for herself, but it’s such a grand idea that several other people have joined her, including me. A pledge, to me, is a much more personal decision, which requires much more personal action, than a ‘challenge’. Taking a pledge means that you honestly believe to continue that which you have begun, while taking a challenge means, at least to me “let’s see what happens”.

Here is a copy of the pledge for your consideration:

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T H E _ E T H I C A L _ C L O T H I N G _ P L E D G E

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I pledge to only wear clothing that is one or more of the following:
1. Pre-loved
2. Handmade (preferably by me)
3. Reconstructed
4. Made with ethical / environmentally friendly materials
5. Made by a company with strong ethical policy & workers' rights
* Companies with environmentally friendly practices (such as cutting down on waste/energy/water) get brownie points
* If I get one little inkling of sweatshop labour, I'm outta there!
* Above all though, I think the most important thing is reducing the amount of things we use in the first place. Not purchasing ANOTHER piece of clothing just for the sake of it is the biggest statement we can make.

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My lovely new book is going to assist me in making my very first piece of clothing since taking the pledge, and that first piece of clothing is also going to fulfil the requirement of this challenge. It all seems to fit so nicely & neatly in place, that I may very well mess up the entire thing.

I’m going to try to work slowly through the book, doing each project as it comes & trying hard not to get scared of making new things, which sometimes happens. I have actually realised that the world is not going to end if I mess up some sewing, but some personal fulfilment could very well result out of completing something I didn’t think I could do.

Who knew?!

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