Childrens bookweek recommendations

Sadly Kobe no longer willingly wants me to read to him. Instead I have to force "storytime" on him daily. I try to take him to the local library every fortnight so he can pick out a couple books & dvds to encourage reading what he wants to. To celebrate the end of children's bookweek, here are a few books that I cant recommend more, that don't bring out a tantrum when I mention "storytime".

1. The Mr Men range. I loved these as a child too. Kobe's favourite is Mr Bump. He would be Mr Destructive if was a character lol.
2. Bugs Galore by Peter Stein. Lots of illustrations of bugs & creepy crawlies that every boy is bound to love. Plus the words are rhyming. We stumbled across this book at the library. I don't want to return it...
The following books I found at opshops...
3. When Im big by Dick Bruna. Every page shows a person doing an activity like dancing, gardening, collecting stamps.
4. Mr Bear's apple tree. A brilliant book that children can count the apples on Mr Bear's apple tree which slowly disappear one by one as the hungry bee's eat them. The words are rhyming & it helps teaches Kobe to count.
5. Munch Bunch book series by Giles Reed about fruit & vegetable people. We have "learn the alphabet", "learn to count" & "learn the days of the weeks-months-seasons". Im slowly collecting any I find at the opshops/markets/ebay. I had these books when I was little & I wish I kept them. The only problem I had was the "learn the season", the pictures don't match Australian seasons but other than that, they are great!
6. Helping kids help themselves book range by Joy Berry. I have the original prints but they are still available to buy via her website. She covers topics like "lets talk about being greedy", "lets talk about being wasteful" & "lets talk about being destructive" amongst others. I find its handy to pull out whatever topic I need to discuss with Kobe & he has a better understanding by me reading it to him in a book than me lecturing him off in general. Seriously every kindergarten & preschool should have a copy of these books!

What are your children's favourite books or your favourite book as a child?

Happy Sunday friends!
Grace

Restyle: Dapper

For my last post for Restyle 2015, I roped in Kobe bear to showcase prompt: dapper. And boy did my boy bring it;)

I stopped into a RSPCA op shop last week & struck gold with this mini basket suitcase. Ties in perfectly with the lil one's dapper/preppy look. Plus I can store his craft activities in it (when its not a photo prop). Its national op shop week so why not venture into one & grab yourself a bargain, all while supporting a charity. It can be hit & miss but when you find something at a tiny fraction of what it would of cost new & its something you will use it's a good feeling.

 
Photographing a 4 year old is hardwork. You have a small window to take photos before they crack it, then within a matter of seconds they pull faces (& try to spit everywhere...)

...then the next second comes the fed up look...

...& if your lucky you will be rewarded with a winning smile (I will even ignore the annoying glare on the cat eye sunglasses). Kobe was definitely happier wearing these sunglasses. I heart them too.

What Kobe wore; Benjamin Button braces, denim shirt, denim jeans, mini basket suitcase/ op shop. Cat eye sunglasses, bow tie/ markets. Total outfit cost (including suitcase & sunglasses) $21.

Well that wraps up my take on Restyle 2015 until next year!

Happy Tuesday friends!
Grace

Restyle: Polkadots

 

 Now that Im in my third trimester & heading towards the homestretch of this pregnancy Im favouring comfort & mostly stretchy fabric. Originally I had a gorgeous silk polka dot dress picked out for the Polkadot prompt but could not get the dress over my bump (without ripping the seams) so will save that for my post baby body outfits. After rummaging thru my closet I came away with this vintage tie top which I layered, & I cant wait til its cooler & can team it with high waisted jeans (again post pregnancy).

 

 

Bit of a bland outfit so I chucked on my acid wash jacket & reflector glasses to give a bit of edge. Kobe is inlove with these leather shoes, he asks me to wear them everyday? Im tempted to let him run loose in my wardrobe & style an outfit for me for a day (stay tuned for that outift I may have a lil stylist in the making... but probably not, he is too involved in his recycling games).

 

What I wore; Vintage polkadot tie top & oversized stretchy top/ Opshop, Topshop leggings, reflector sunnies & Novo shoes/ markets, vintage acid wash jacket/ Ebay. Total outfit cost $77 (the jacket was a splurge at $50).

 

Getting excited that I have 2 months til bambino 2# is here. Luke is on a mission to find a bigger family car as the one we have now is way too small. We are mostly set, just need a couple of practical things & to sort some space in Kobe's room which will be a shared room once bambino 2# is sleeping thru.

 

 

Happy Thursday friends!

Grace

 

PS. I found the cutest dapper outfit all ready for Kobe for Prompt 25; dapper:)

Restyle: Animal prints

 

Well Im not a fan on how Restyle is running this year. Instead of every blogger posting daily op shopped outfits based on the daily style prompts. Each blogger gets one look each which is posted on Telstra Perth fashion festival Instagram. I was really looking forward to what they chose to wear each day. Oh well...

I was a bit slow catching on Restyle this year. This past week I have been super tired choosing sleep at night over editing photos & blogging updates. Hence this mish mash of prints was probably more suitable to Prompt 13: mixed prints but I can tie it in to Prompt 19: animal prints.

When I saw animal prints, my first thought was DONT do head to toe & look like your on safari or lost in a remote jungle. Im all for a pair of wild printed pants so when I saw these Peter Morrissey for Big W pants (still with tag on) in an op shop last week I bought them. (I was looking for a preloved baby bath support ramp but got a little sidetracked in the clothes department, oops!).
And because I like clashing prints, I chucked my fringed scarf over my denim top & added painted wooden earrings.

What I wore; Denim Co shirt & Peter Morrissey for Big W/ opshop. Gim Renoir Scarf, earrings & Novo shoes/ markets). Total outfit cost was $32.

So technically the Restyle challenge is op shopped based however my whole outfit was secondhand & Im proud to reuse clothes that would otherwise end up in landfill.

Is anyone else doing Restyle this year?

Happy Wednesday friends!
Grace

A four year old's ice cream party

Kids parties are so wasteful (but super exciting!!!) & pro-plastic & Kobes was no exception. We tend to make conscious decisions in our day to day life to minimise wastage however celebratory parties are the exception.

I decided to go low key this year. I was going to skip a birthday party but Kobe asked all excitedly for one, & with baby brother due soon I thought why not have one to celebrate him while he doesn't have to share my attention. I held it during the week which catered to mums & kidlets who didn't have work or daycare/school that day & Luke took the day off to help with set up & packaway.

Not everything went to plan. The fudge cake I made in haste the night before was left a little to available for small sticky fingers to poke & crumble. So I had to make a mad dash down the shops in the morning to buy a premade cake & topped it with ice cream lollies. The rainbow jelly in orange slices turned out to be too much effort cleaning out the orange skins to set the jelly in so I settled for plastic cups (which were washed & recycled afterwards). The heart shaped bird seed hangers we made to go with the party favours didn't set & crumbled.

Overall it was a relaxed affair with a few games chucked in for fun; I made a donut piñata which Kobe could pull a tab & out came the goodies (I enjoyed watching the kidlets make a mad dash to the goodies!), pass the parcel (with recycled wrapping paper & also catalogues lol) & "where does this go into recycling/rubbish" game (I use to play this game with Kobe all the time & surprisingly 2 of his mates were avid recyclers:)). I think the best part was when I cleverly asked all the kidlets to put on their ice cream cone hats if they wanted their lolly bags. Perfect solution to get some happy snaps of the kidlets wearing them. Man they looked cute! The only downsize was the cones were real cones which crumbled easily but I guess not a worry once the party was over as could feed to the birds.

 

And to offset all the plastic & junkfood used for the party we gifted potted flowers as party favours.

 

Kobe really enjoyed himself (plus I enjoyed making all the crafty touches) so it was a success in my eyes.

 

Happy Monday friends!

Grace

Perth fashion festival; Restyle 2015

 

Well PFF Restyle totally snuck up on me this year. Basically a group of creative Perth bloggers are chosen to represent a charity & style up a thrifted outfit (from that charity) to depict each day's theme. I would of loved to have been super organized to do the outfit prompts daily but will stick to mixed prints (edited* animal prints), polka dots, dapper (Kobe) & florals (Instagram only) plus donate a bag of clothes. 

 

For a bit of Restyle inspiration, I thought I would share my favourite looks from past Restyle bloggers.

 

 

 

Hannah from In the dress up box blog is an opshop guru. She finds the most amazing thrifted bargains weekly & has a talent for finding funky sunglasses. She also organized a high tea with friends & ended up with 8 garbage bags of clothes to donate back to Red Cross.

 

 

Angie from Lovethread blog knocked it out of the park with her carefully curated outfits, outfit locations & photographers. She puts the P in Professional. Plus I attended her high tea which she raised funds for Esther women's shelter. She also auctioned off most off her Restyle outfits to support Anglicare charity.

 

 

Jenelle from Inspiring Wit blog showed us mere mortals how to style thrifted clothes to look effortly sheek & chic.

 

Looks like Restyle this year is looking bigger with more bloggers getting into the action (some previous Restyle bloggers too). Im definitely keen to check out quirky dresser Andrea of What's the Goh blog & vintage pin up Ally of The Vintage Valley blog this year.

 

Happy Tuesday friends!

Grace

 

Living without a credit card 6 months on & with baby 2# on the way

Well we made it to the 6 month mark of getting rid of the credit card. It wasn't a decision we made lightly but Im sure glad we did. And guess what? Even thou I HATED receiving the council rates, Lukes phonebill & the electricity bill all within a couple days of eachother, we managed to pay them off in full without relying on a credit card. It was lovely to not have to stress (for once) on where to find the money to pay it.

I shared a few tips on how we save money in this post. I have a few more tips. The definite key is to stick to your budget. So if you haven't got one, make one!!! Otherwise if you live outside your means your going to end up in massive debt (we have friends who have over $40K owed on credit cards, the interest on that would bankrupt us).

Keep motivated. I find the following sites are so inspirational.
Down to earth is a blog run by Rhonda who is the grandma of all things simple living. She practises what she preaches. I find it motivating to see what she creates as opposed to just reading words about what you can do to lead a simpler life.
The Minimalists- food for thought in a consumer driven society. I took up the 30 day minimalism challenge but only made it to day 16...
Ecoburbia is more based towards a sustainable lifestyle. You can view Shani Graham speech on taking a street & building a community.

Also hit up these articles to get you into gear; Zen habits "financial care" (except I wouldn't invest any savings but that's me), I did my own version of this Inked in colour "buy nothing new" project & I think kudos to the city family of Free our kids who in this post went to live in an off grid community for a week. (Honestly Im not sure if we would make it past day 3).

Ask friends for advice, my neighbour had a winner about taking advantage of "kids eat free meals". I never even knew Cicerellos (Fremantle) had a Tuesday offer of kids eating free. Sizzler has a Sunday kids eat breakfast deal free (offer for WA & QLD until 30/08/15 with a paid Adult breakfast). A few ladies from a Facebook budget group Im in let me know about Hogs Breath cafe has kids eat free on Monday nights with a purchase of an adult meal over $20 (at participating cafes). Outback Jacks (Fremantle, Whitsford & Cannington) offer kids meals for $5 (conditions apply).

Make use of your local library. I discovered a paperback swap at the local library so I can swap a book I already own (that's been collecting dust on the shelves) for another one (or I can just borrow one instead). I put all the new release dvds I want to watch on reserve (sometimes the waitlist can be over a month). Plus they offer free kids activities throughout the school holidays. Do you know they also offer free internet sessions? I recommend booking so your guaranteed a computer.

Accept hand me downs gratefully. With having another boy, I have most of Kobes old clothes to pass on as hand me downs plus some thrifted vintage finds (like the sweet threads above in the photo) I picked up at the markets for a couple bucks. My kind neighbours mum also passed on a box of hand me downs. Even thou both my boys will be born in different seasons, I should have enough to dress baby 2# for atleast his first year. Im still hoping friends & family will gift sensibly like nappies, wipes & hooded baby towels if they wanted to get something for the lil one ofcourse.

Know that there will be challenges. Going credit card free hasn't been without drama. Our kitchen sink clogged up with stinky lard which I had the pleasure to unclog (I was being stingey not calling out a plumber). Im leaving the laundry sink for Luke to unclog...Yuck yuck yuck.

I now find Im more savvy with buying things I will use everyday & which will last a long time & I try to avoid any fads.

Start small. Could you cut out a bad spending habit for a week/month like chocolate, coffee, cigarettes, clothes? Just remember saving just $20 a week can lead to an extra $1040 in your pocket a year:)

**If you are seriously struggling financially, there is a FREE financial service for Australians where a financial councillor helps you work on your debt.

Happy Monday friends!
Grace