Lucky For Me I Have No Willpower...

...because if I did... I wouldn't know that I am the incredibly lucky winner of this awesomeness:

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! *does happy dance* I won the skully skully goodness, I won the skully skully goodness....!!!

Thanks go to the gorgeous witchie woman Mrs B & the talented Tara from Tarabu, I am just buzzing with excitement and am so, so glad that I am totally devoid of resolution & turned the computer on 'just for a second' after putting Punky down for a nap.

The awesomeness is threefold, like all good things are; 1. Skulls are my absolute, boney hands down, favourite thing, ever. 2. This is my first blog giveaway win (or anything at all interesting that didn't involve drawing or making something) and 3. I'm going to be Mrs B's bag twin!! lol

Oh yeah. Good times.

Modern Art, Punky Style.

Last week, I found these cool wooden stacking blocks at the oppy for $2, Punk really likes them & I have to say, I do too. I've found myself absent-mindedly playing with them while watching TV for example.

They are really interesting - on the four sides of the blocks there is a different theme, shapes, numbers, letters & pictures relating to the letters. Then, on the tops (or bottoms, depending on the angle lol) there are shapes cut out of the wood, and they can be placed inside each other or stacked on top of each other.

Seriously, a better $2 I have never spent!

Anywho, I was doing the dishes when I became aware that Punky was disturbingly quiet... so I came into the lounge to investigate & found her creating this lovely modern art creation, don't ask me to interpret the meaning, I fear it goes right over my head, but perhaps it's something to do with the elements....?!

Now that I've had a bit of a blog post splurge (for me... I know there are great, dedicated, daily bloggers out there who post happily every day & find it completely normal... I'm not one of them...), I am thinking of making the rest of the week 'low-tech', which means writing down any essential info I might need, like swap addresses for my atcs for example, and then staying the hell away from the computer.

Will let you know how it goes.

Vintage Book Illustration Love

I love books. Comic books, picture books, non-fiction books, biographies, novels, anthologies... I love them all.

The books that have a very special place in my heart however are vintage children's books. I have collected them for years. Well before Punky was on the scene, I would scour the dusty bookshelves of overcrowded op shops, searching for books that I remembered from my childhood, which then led to any vintage books with charming illustrations.

I love them for their history & the ideas & inspiration they exude. Particular favourites are Little Golden Books. I love everything about old golden books - from their tarnished spines to their beautiful back covers.

As a result, Little Punk has masses & masses of books, she has her big book shelf (see below) which has books wedged in on display but also piled in the cane baskets beneath, then she has another storage cupboard full to the brim, there are so many stacked beneath her cot that they are starting to spill out on all sides and at any one time there are probably 20 of her books strewn about the house.

There was a time that I would have been incredibly distraught at the thought of a child "messing" with "my" books, I mean, anything could happen to them! But since having Punky I have both become less materialistic & more relaxed in general, books are for reading, admiring & inspiring, and nobody needs beautiful, engaging things around them more than a small child, in my opinion.

Thankfully, she is generally quite gentle with the books, and the only books she's ever wrecked have been cheap board books that I could have cared less about. She is often found sitting quietly in her room, on her chair, "reading" & she brings us books throughout the day & sits expectantly on our laps to be read to. I love that she enjoys books so much even know, and earnestly hope that continues, for the rest of her life.

Precious Punky Paints Pretty Pictures...

Since Father's Day is fast approaching, I have been trying to think of present ideas for The Boy. I have found a gardening book that I think he'll be quite chuffed with, so today we broke out Punk's $5 easel & got painting. One painting we'll use to wrap his book, and the other we'll fashion into a sweet card.

Punk just LOVED the painting (please ignore that shirt... it is a pseudo art smock, I'll have to make her a proper one but I thought a shirt I had in the rag box earmarked for some tshirt surgery would do for this morning...), especially the couple of inevitable spillages. I would have preferred to do this alfresco but it is blowing a gale so much outside that I half expect to see Dorothy's house sailing overhead.

I only have myself to blame.

...for the cold, cold rainyness that is today.

It is entirely my fault.

What with whinging yesterday about being sick in the sunshine, now we are sick in the drizzle. (Hehehe... that reminds me of the Aqua Teens episode where Master Shake is "The Drizzle!"... I luffs ATHF...)

It's very cold now. And the rain is noisy. Waaaaaaaaaah!!! I know - I just can't be pleased, but we all like a good whinge now and then do we not, especially when we're sick.
*shnuffle*

All I want to do is go back to bed, bury myself under a mountain of warm blankets & pass out... but alas, that is not to be. All The Punk wants to do, with runny nose a-gushing, is climb furniture like a mountain goat & just generally get into mischief
.

I feel like, on days like this, I should know how to knit, or at the very least, crochet. Sure I can do garter stitch... but not terribly well, and even worse, with little to no enthusiasm, but it just seems like such a wholesome, warming thing to do in the cold...

...OK. Cue the spooky music... Punky is watching playschool & just now, as I was typing "knitting" the guy came on with some pretty knitting & is demonstrating how to knit....! Even TV hosts that look like Wiggles rejects know how to knit!!

My problem, or problems, with knitting are many. First of all, I am a very impatient learner. I'm all for a nice bit of instant gratification & knitting just doesn't give me that - sure I can knit a dodgey garter stitch scarf, but it's going to take a lot of time, and a little effort, and all I'm going to end up with is a dodgey garter stitch scarf....! So, then I look at pretty knitted things that I would just LOVE to own, but they are all quite beyond my basic capabilities, and rather than, you know, learning, I just give up in a huff. Even if I knew how to do all the fancy pants stitches I still don't think I would particularly enjoy it. It would be like sewing but you have to make the fabric first... way too slow and again delaying that lovely feeling of having created something yummy.

I get that the pride in completing a knitted project could be of a higher quality than the pride from throwing together a quick pinnie, simply because of the time & effort expended, but again I don't think I could apply myself enough to see if it was worth it. Give me lots of short burst of creative completion instead of a nice steady one any day...

I wonder, is there such a thing as Craft Diabetes...?! ;)

Ah... ignore me. The incoherent ramblings of a sick person. I am going to turn off the computer, find my fuzzy slippers & curl up on the couch where I can keep an eye on the rampaging Punk without having to... well... move.

ACHOO!

...that's right. We're sick. All of us. We're coughing, spluttering, sniffling & sneezing constantly... and, as if that weren't bad enough, today is an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny, warm & wonderful, and it's hard to enjoy it, being all sick & sorry for ourselves! It's much easier to be sick when it's cold & miserable & there is nothing to do but curl up in front of the heater with a nice cup of tea... not when it's nice & warm & the park is calling!

Anywho... enough whinging (for now... or more precisely for the blog, rest assured the entire Punky household will be whining quite consistently for at least a few more days...), and on to something fantastic... my awesome Japanese felt food pattern books arrived today...! WOOT!!

They are so beautiful... even if I am heartily doubting my ability to even vaguely get the gist of how to make anything from the Japanese instructions, pictures & all, I am still super glad I ordered them, they are just magic to look at.

They are called Felt Vegetables and Fruits & Handmade Felt Food & Goods Vol 2 from the 'Heart Warming Life Series'... they are entirely in Japanese & entirely adorable.

Scared of hideous failure thought I am, I will not be able to stop myself from attempting at least some of these gorgeous little felt masterpieces for Punky's birthday kitchen. I especially love the little fruits & vegetables, cut in half so that the seeds show.... *swoon*