Arrietty

Yesterday morning we went to see Arrietty at Cinema Nova.
(How comfy are those cinema armchairs?!  Wonderful.)

It's based on Mary Norton's fantastical book 'The Borrowers'.

It was so... enchanting.... sad but... beautiful.  How I'd love to slip
into that secret world with it's towering flowers and tiny teacups...

Oh, I do so adore the beautiful animation work of  Studio Ghibli.

Afterwards we enjoyed italian hot chocolates and macarons at Brunetti's

(a Melbourne institution when it comes to cakes) and Ari found another

Robert Crowther Pop-Up Book at the plaza bookstore for $10. Bargain.

I spent the better part of today helping at Ari's school and am just about

to pick him up and head to Swimming lessons. Happy Monday everyone! 

xoxox

These are a few of my...

favourite things.

Chocolate Creative

Vintage Potholder

Vintage Quilt

emma lamb

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

emma lamb

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

At the moment I am loving these muted colours, the repetition of pattern

(as in crochet and patchwork), anthropomorphic images &  natural linens.

Oh dear! Another Friday came and went without a 'favourite things' list. 

 Perhaps this needs to be a more random post feature on my blog.... xox

chocolate chaos

in the chaos of life 

it's easy and understandable 

our yearning for neatness & perfection 

Artwork by Jonathan Gray Stock (or Daddy)

...give me the beauty of imperfection...

  

i want to live 

& hear the laughter in my soul 

at the sight of 

a cross-eyed cookie-crumbled 

chocolate-smeared snot-covered 

child

words by

♥ flobberdewotsky ♥

maker's of playful children's wear

-------------------------------------------

sweet chocolate fudge sauce

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp water

3 tbsp dutch cocoa powder

3 tbsp brown sugar

1. Place ingredients in a small saucepan.

2. Heat over low heat until combined.

3. Serve over rich vanilla bean ice-cream.

4. Hear the laughter in your soul.

and ENJOY xox

Funny Bones

Speaking of spooky...  the Funny Bones book series is in 

constant demand come bedtime reading at the moment.

I enjoyed reading the original book Funnybones when I was Ari's age. It 

had just been published then! I love Janet and Allan Ahlberg books. 

Peepo & The Baby Catalogue were among the first books I read to Ari.

Allan's stories are funny and cute and Janet's illustrations are delightful,

and what's more their books are fun and entertaining for parents to read.

It's worth noting that the first Funny Bones book was created by the 

Ahlbergs & illustrated by Janet but the rest of the series (created later)

 were illustrated by André Amstutz. I think possibly this was due to 

Janet's illness, as André's illustrations very much keep with her style.
Janet Ahlberg died from cancer in 1994, aged just 50.  So sad and 

such a tragic loss for the world... for children and their parents alike.

Recently Ari and I discovered the animated Funny Bones series ↓

The series was created in Wales in 1992 and there's 12 episodes in all.

You can view the rest of the episodes here

"Down the dark dark stairs, there is a dark dark 

cellar, in the dark dark cellar, three skeletons live..."   

Images found via Open Library

Books available through Amazon

spooky rumpus

I made Ari this skeleton costume to wear to his little friend
Marlon's Spooky 5th Birthday Party last week.

It was hot, windy and uncomfortable costume-wearing weather
(hence the grimacing photo face... ah, you thought it was part of the spooky skeleton act, didn't you?) Ari insisted on dressing up though,
and he had a blast wreaking havoc with the other little frights.

He does make a rather cute little ghoul (despite the grimacing),
wouldn't you agree?

Update: J pointed out that there's a marked
resemblance to Beetlejuice going on here ↓

We are HUGE Tim Burton fans around here.

I think we may have Ari's Halloween costume.

Happy Valentine's Day

A coffee at The St. Kilda Galleon Cafe 

(You can step inside with Google Maps this is so cool!)

These are a few of my...

favourite things.

Elisabeth Dunker

Lanapelana

Wink and Me

Sabine Timm

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Bellalulu

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Well this Friday almost came and went without a 'favourite things' list.

Between getting ready for school, jam making and piles of laundry,

picking up an order of preserving jars (yes, we're still harvesting!) and 

getting caught in a traffic jam/ summer thunderstorm on the way back, 

picking Ari up from School and driving him to Circus Class in town, 

stopping off afterwards for pizza and a movie at a friends' house, then

coming home to a blackout...  Friday just about up and disappeared!

Now there's five minutes to Midnight and I've a cool drink in hand, my 

little one's nestled snuggly in his bed and I'm ready for Dreamland too.  

I just finished finding all the links for these lovelies and I do hope you 

like them. I'm listing my favourite things every Friday. I'd love to know
what your favourite things are, if you'd like to play along on your blog.

I hope everyone's enjoying a most wonderful weekend thus far.

We're hoping to fit in a picnic at the Botanical Gardens if the weather's

obliging and some time in our own garden planting late Summer seeds.

I'm hoping to spend most of next week making in the Studio...

I can't wait to share some images of what I've been madly working on!

xoxox

Chris Silas Neal

I really love the beautiful simplicity of these works

by commercial illustrator and artist Chris Silas Neal.

find more work here ↓ at

The Studio of CHRIS SILAS NEAL

These are a few of my...

 favourite things.

 Ariel Gray

Fine Little Day

Donna Wilson

The Black Apple 

Things that make me happy.

Things that I love.

Things that I'd love to own.

Things that I do own.

Things that I enjoy.

Things that I enjoy doing.

Lucky Boy Sunday

Things that resonate with my sense of aesthetics.

Every Friday I will be listing a few of my favourite things 

in a new series of posts. Some of them are already listed to 

the left of my blog. Some of them are listed in my link lists 

of shops, blogs, places, books, recipes, sites and resources.

Most probably, they will all find a place in these posts and 

I hope that you'll enjoy sharing these lovely things with me.

Feel free to play along on your own blog if you'd like,

I'd love to know what your favourite things are too! xo