Children's Book Review

Here's a photo of my in my pj's on Christmas morning 2 years ago, extremely excited about the gift James and little Maggie had given me:

(yes, I made it small for a reason).

Here's a closer look at what I was holding:

If you're a fan of children's books, I'm preaching to the choir, because these are some of the greatest (and most celebrated) children's books in history, and you've probably noticed.  Roald Dahl, was an incredible story teller.  

If you've read these, and not some of his lesser-published books of poems like 'Revolting Rhymes', 'Dirty Beasts' and the Vicar of Nibbleswicke, read those ones - they're awesome :)  

When I was teaching, my grade 6 boys LOVED The Twits - boys and girls all love them :)  And we used his poetry books when we were studying poetry, which was a lot of fun :)

Here are some quotes from Roald Dahl, some from books, some from himself.  Recognise any?? :)

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” 

“Don't gobblefunk around with words.” 

“It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.” 

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” 

“Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!” 

“I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” 

“Two rights don't equal a left.” 

“We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.” 

“A little magic can take you a long way.” 

“I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice.” 

“Grown ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets.” 

“I've heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true.

“It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful.” 

“Here it is,' Nigel said.
Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY. That spells difficulty.'
How perfectly ridiculous!' snorted Miss Trunchbull. 'Why are all these women married?” 

“So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.” 

“Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And, now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever.” 

“You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of.” 

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.” 

“She might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don't let that put you off. It could be part of cleverness.
I am not, of course, telling you for one second that your teacher actually is a witch. All I am saying is that she might be one. It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible.”

“We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine.” 

“Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.” 

“All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that's where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it's full of your friends” 

As with Aaron Blabley, who I wrote about a few weeks ago here, there is an awesome Roald Dahl website set up which you can find here, and here's a screenshot of his title page:

Wasn't Quentin Blake a perfect match for Roald Dahl's stories??!!!  

“So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall.” 

Go and read a book :) - have a splendiferous day!!! :)

PS:  Has anyone read any of Roald Dahl's books for adults??

Laughter: the best medicine?

In about September/October of grade eleven, we had the semi-formal. When you're IN grade eleven, that's a really big deal. It's a lot like the formal (aka Prom) that you have in grade 12, but just a tiny bit less fancy: basically, your parents drive you, rather then hiring limos to drive you. Otherwise it's pretty much the same as the formal.

I remember being excited about the semi (unlike my formal - but that's another story!), and mum sewed me the most beautiful outfit. It was a long, full, gorgeous black skirt, and a really pretty midnight blue, fitted silk top. And depending where you were standing in the light and how you moved, the colours in the top all seemed to change. I really liked it :)

I'm pretty sure I was sewn into it on the night though - because we were running really late! (I'll interject here quickly and assure Mum that I know it was my fault we were running so late, since I never made decisions about what I wanted until the very last minute, lol!). I seem to remember that my date was actually in the living room waiting, and mum and I were rushing frantically around in her bathroom to finish my hair and makeup. I had really long (gorgeous, full, dark, not-full-of-grey) hair back then, and we'd decided to wear it out and curly with a dimonti slide I think. Once that was done, it was just my makeup that needed doing.

I don't remember clearly exactly how what happened next happened, but one minute we were shaking the liquid foundation bottle (with a finger over the top), and the next minute, I inexplicably had liquid foundation ALL OVER ME! All over my hair, sitting perfectly over both shoulders, and all over the front of my beautiful midnight blue top. In my memory, at that moment, time just hung for a moment, as we both just stared in horror at my reflection in the mirror. Our eyes widened, our eyebrows rose, and our jaws dropped.

And then, mum suddenly started laughing. And I don't just mean a giggle. It was one of those 'I have never laughed so hard in my life' kind of laughs. I started shreiking and wailing and panicking and getting into hysterics (naturally!), and that just seemed to make mum laugh even harder. I actually remember mum dropping to the floor of the bathroom and sitting there, holding her sides as she laughed! And everytime she'd look up at me, a whole new round of laughter would start up.

Of course in spite of myself, I started laughing a little bit too (not too much though - I mean, I was covered in foundation!). And as Mum finally finished laughing and stood up to 'fix things', I remember her explaining to me (as I demanded to know WHAT could possibly be so funny!) that sometimes things just go so terribly wrong that there's really nothing you can do but laugh (she might not have used those exact words, but that's the gist of what I remember).

Dad was duly summoned and dispatched with a message for my date that he'd better make himself comfortable. The top had to come off, be hand washed and then 'hair drier' dried, and my hair had to be washed out as best as we could in the sink and then re-dried and curled. It took a while, but there was no other way around it.

I remember having a good time with mum that night, and that in the end, it all worked out just fine (my date may not have the same memory, but he's not the one writing this blog).

I have often thought of that night over the last several years - especially when things go terribly wrong! I'm really grateful that laughter was mum's first response. I often remember it when I find my eyes widening, my eyebrows rising, and my jaw dropping, and it's a lesson that has served me well on more occassions than I can count.

Because when it's between laughing and crying, you might as well laugh. In any event, you'll have a better time cleaning up a mess! :)

xo Tammy

strawberry picking

In our little corner of the world, Winter/Spring is the perfect time of year for strawberries. They are pretty cheap per kilo in the stores and they are a favourite of our kids. My two will eat a punnet easy at a time! So what better than taking the kids to a strawberry farm to pick our own strawberries??

It's not a long activity, but one that is perfect for little attention spans. When you head to a strawberry picking farm, you are given a big kilo punnet to then go and pick the RED only strawberries at your hearts content. You are charged per kilo, so you can pick as many or as little as you like!

Even little 2.5 year olds love getting in on the action.

The particular strawberry farm we go to up the Sunshine Coast has strawberries that are huge!! They look like they are on steroids, but it is just the type of strawberry. Not only are they big, but they are super juicy too. They also have a cute little strawberry shop on the strawberry farm where you can buy other strawberry type foods and little knick-knacks. There is also a playground for the kids and an eating area.

Strawberry picking is obviously location specific and in South-East Queensland there are plenty of different strawberry farms you can go picking at. Have a look on google to see where there is one close to you! It is a family activity I highly recommend for all ages!

Monday Motivation

"A ship is safe in harbour, but that's not what ships are for"

 - William Shedd

Picture from http://www.legallawyers.com.au/legal-topics/admiralty-and-shipping-law/maritime-law-in-australia/

Small Wood-work Projects

Our daughter Abby designed a coat-hanger holder for me as a Christmas present one year, when she was about six or seven.  Her Dad helped her to make it, and Abby painted it.

(I should have thought to put some hangers on to the rail, I'm sorry!)

This is 20 years old now, and it is one of my favourite things.  So handy!  We fortunately had a spot for it in the laundry and I have never had to fight with a mass of jumbled hangers since!

Abby's Dad is not necessarily the handy-man type, so I reminded him a few days ago of how nicely he had made this with Abby - and asked him if he would be interested in joining me in more woodwork projects?

My reason for asking was that I had just seen this adorable little girls kitchen on a great DIY Blog I came across:

How cute is this?!  I'd really like one!  And, as far as I can see, totally do-able for most of us.

(Go to the Young House Love Blog (highly recommended) to see more photographs and to read the simple directions.)

Looking around on the same great Blog, I came across this dollhouse that I'd also like to make:

Isn't it great?  It's a bright and funky interpretation of a classic.  Instructions for this house and furniture here and here.

Another project in Blog-land that recently caught my interest was this coffee table...

Which reminded me a little of these rescued-wood items I saw for sale at a Home Show recently:

These hand-cut, sanded and painted chunks of wood would make an interesting small project too.

I like the idea that Sarah, over at Cursive had, of giving these white wood rocks with a message hidden inside, listing the reasons that make that person special, along with a card listing what she wrote.  I imagine that you could drill a hole into the rock and slide in a rolled note, then plug the hole with putty.  Interesting, attractive and meaningful too!

Or perhaps you could type up your message on thin paper and decoupage it to the 'rocks'.

This image (using these wood rocks) comes from here.  I like the gold paint splotches on the simple vase..

If you like sanding and painting (or covering) small blocks of wood, then this idea from Martha Stewart for some children's play blocks could be a good project.  (You can see the 'JOY' blocks that Abby made in a similar manner, in the Patches of Heaven Blog banner above.)

These colourful painted blocks, decorated with paint markers, are here,   Simple, quick and fun!

Grand-parents would love these original artworks, recorded on wood with a wood-burning tool and coloured in with watercolour paints.  Directions to make this interesting keepsake box (and some better photos) are here.  

This would be a fun project to do!  (I still like colouring in :)

Perhaps I should ask for a jig-saw or a router for Christmas...

20 Fun Halloween Food Ideas!!

(You can read about the actual Halloween Birthday party here.)

So this post was kind of accidentally deleted a while back, and I'm redoing it, so if you notice it's different or I left something out, feel free to chuck it in!! :)

In October last year we threw Tammy a big Halloween/birthday party, and had a LOT of fun doing food and decorations, which is kind of novel for us here in Australia where it's not celebrated by that many people.  Here are 20 of the fun foods we made for the party :)

1.  Test Tubes!!  I ordered these test tubes off eBay, filled them with small lollies and stuck them in oasis (very cheap from Sam's Warehouse).  Then we labelled them the yuckiest things we could think of that might  work with the shapes of the lollies - kitty litter, rat kidneys, kidney stones, mucus, etc.  We placed quite a few of these around the place...

2.  We added a little extra colouring (red cordial) to the family punch recipe and served it in a cauldron with some floating eyeballs and inviting signs :)

3.  Baby Mummies!! I saw these on a blog somewhere, using Hershey's chocolate bars.  We don't have them in many places here though, and I don't really like them, so I used a bunch of different fun-sized chocolates.  You stick the eyes on little rectangles of black cardboard, and then affix them with strips of ripped white fabric that you wrap the mummies in and tie them off at the back.  These were super cute, loved them! :)

4.  Normal stuff seems gross when you stick yuck signs in it and cover it in toy cockroaches ! Sadly by the time I took this photo, everyone had stolen the cockroaches for Mum's cool Scavenger Hunt game which you can read about here, but it was shudder-worthy!

5.  Tammy's lovely friend Lauren made these AWESOME cupcakes - they're sweet little owls, I loved them!!  Nothing like something which fits into the party theme and TASTES delicious too! :)

6.  And while we're on the subject of fitting party theme + deliciousness, the cake Jonny and Jessima made was AMAZING!!  The most delicious cake EVER - chocolate, with a layer of chocolate cream in the middle and chocolate ganache for icing.  And I don't even know how they do the shapes or the icing or the nose so well!  We just should have served it on something less perky ;)

7.  Jonny and Jessima also made these spider cupcakes :)  They were delicious right down to the licorice legs! :)

8.  'Edible Monsters' - Choc Mint Slice biscuits with bits of marshmallow and red licorice for eyes - yum!! :) Is it possible that getting the eyeball of an edible monster was on the scavenger hunt list also??

9.  Beautiful Lauren who made the owl cupcakes also made these gorgeous Halloween cookies :)  So fun and cute!

10.  Lots of lollies work as Halloween treats - like snakes :)

11.  And now for some more of the savoury foods - The fact that we burnt this depressed-looking bread cob only made it more in theme... at least that's what we're saying now ;)  Adding faces to foods just makes them look like cute monsters :)

12.  Witch Swamp Dip - Tammy LOVES guacamole (as you can read about here), and so we used that for the 'swamp', and then carrot sticks and almonds stuck on I think with cream cheese made it a little 'witchy'.  

13.  Mum's AWESOME cheese rat :)  This was a highlight, and I want her to write an entire post about how she did it.  Maybe for next Halloween :)  Love her 'Eat My Rat', too :)

14 - These were so cute! :)  Dad's homemade bread rolls 'stuffed' with ham and salad :)

15.  Not being much of a cook, I was stoked with how these meringue 'Troll Bones' turned out - I'd seen them on lots of websites and ideas blogs, and they were pretty easy to make!!  For the 'Thickened blood' I just whippped cream like crazy and added red food colouring :)  Dad pointed out that I should have called it 'Clotted Blood' - next time ;)

16.  Bless Horace!!  And his poor entrails, which I think we forgot were boiling and they burst! Which made them look even less attractive and more in theme!  We picked Horace up at a cheap shop.  

17.  These are butter cookies - basically really easy shortbread cookies, cut into sticks instead of circles, with almond slivers pressed in before cooking to be the fingernails of the witch's fingers.  Next time we'll cut the fingers even smaller (they grew a lot in the oven!) and maybe wait until they are fresh out of the oven (still soft) to push the 'fingernails' in, because they cracked in the oven.

18.  Something about eyeballs!!  Boiled eggs with olive eyeballs - yummy and savoury and easy! :)

19.  Monster Munch! - Sorry not a good photo, but nuts and pretzels and chips and a few eyeballs :) 

20.  And a classic, pumpkin pie :)  Mum expertly piped the cream spiderwebs onto them and they looked fantastic!!

So there's some food to get us started, and you can read more about the party planning side of things from Mum, here :)

My Someday Place

This is Machu Picchu

It's a pre-Colombian Inca site at the top of these mountains in the Cusco region of Peru.  It sits 2,450m above sea level, and it's that place I'd like to visit 'someday'.

You can get there by railroad, or (and this is what I'd really love to do 'someday') you can spend 4 days hiking the Inca Trail to get there.  Apparently it's not the worlds toughest hike, although it's not 'easy' either, especially because the altitude will really take it out of anyone not used to living/hiking at such an altitude.  

I think it's the 'adventure' of it all. A hiking experience like that would be so different to anything I've ever done, and this beautifully mysterious place would be so unlike anywhere that I've ever been.  And I imagine that after some incredibly difficult days it would give me a wonderful sense of accomplishment to finally reach the top and wander through the lanes of Machu Picchu (no doubt dodging the locals who will catch the train up to sell me souvenirs).

And 'someday' when I'd visit, I'd really like to combine the trip with a cruise down the Amazon before hiking the trail, and then finish with a snorkeling trip out on the nearby Galapagos Islands.  Amazing!

Do you have a 'someday' place?

xo Tammy

i am my own creator

I have this inner desire to create.

I like to do things with my hands and create things of meaning and of worth, for myself, my family and others. Not necessarily a masterpiece like Leonardo DaVinci, but to create something that didn't previously exist.

To think of yourself as a creator of something, I think is quite profound. I had never thought of it being anything simple from cooking a meal to something grand as growing a child inside of you.

But upon reading "The Remarkable Soul of a Woman" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf my perspective on 'creating' changed. I like it when he says:

The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter your talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that didn't exist before ... Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfilment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganised matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty ...remember that you are a spirit daughter of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn't it remarkable to think that your very spirit is fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God?

His words are so true "Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfilment". I do always feel proud of myself for the thing I created. Perhaps that is what drives me to keep creating?

In my somewhat small time, I love to do little projects. Whether it is making a little record book of events and pictures for the children, paper craft, sewing, Christmas craft or something I saw on a favourite blog, I love making something of worth. Of course with these projects, I set out to make something on purpose. But what about the day to day things we do, where we are creating? I believe we are continuously creating, even if we don't recognise it. Making a meal from raw ingredients is creating. Making up fairy tales to young children is creating.

Creation comes in all shapes and forms. My creations may not be on a grand scale, like my Heavenly Father's (this earth is so beautiful!), but they are mine. I'm grateful to be a woman, and that I have been blessed to create - in all its shapes and sizes. I'm grateful to be a daughter of a loving Heavenly Father who has blessed me with many talents and abilities, to help me find joy in this life. I hope we never put ourselves down for what we think isn't much of a creation. We can all create and there is no right or wrong way to do it!