Wheel of Colour

Hi there! This is just a quick post to share my good fortune with you. Months ago while randomly searching PBK on Ebay I came across Pottery barn kids awesome colour wheel puzzle. The puzzle being offered was in good used condition and was won by some other lucky soul for more than I could spend at the time. To say that I love colour would be an understatement and while in school I spent many hours mixing and painting to get Itten's colour wheel just right. Seeing the puzzle It was love at first sight and I mourned the loss of the puzzle for quite some time... and gripped about it lots to my dear hubby...

Johannes Ittens Colour Wheel

Well, what can I say sometimes the gods of ebay laugh at you and other times it's smiles all around!! I am now the proud new owner correction My daughters are the proud new owners of a brand new mint condition Pottery Barn Colour wheel puzzle complete with canvas storage bag! Me loves it!! won for just $13.05! I do my Happy dance every time I look at it! It's beautiful and even better in person. After all it's only fitting for MY daughters to own such a puzzle, it makes my designer heart skip a beat to hear my two year old perfectly pronounce Fuchsia, Magenta and Chartreuse! the joys of parenthood!

PBK Colour Wheel Puzzle

Grannimals

On the occasion of our daughters birth we received many fantastic and thoughtful gifts. While we appreciate all of them there are some that will withstand the test of time and will forever be cherished. Gabin the zebra is that gift. Gabin the zebra is an adorable little knit character from the Grannimals wooly family collection by Latitude Enfant. The Grannimals are made to mimic the lovingly handmade toys and dolls our doting grandmothers of yesteryear would knit for us. I had such a bunny knitted for me and a knit hobo that I still cherish today and is proudly displayed in my own daughters nursery. These knit cuties are charming with a more modern flare.



Each Grannimal comes ready for gift giving wrapped in it's own display "shoe" box, it was so nice I seriously thought of leaving him in the box. I can definitely see these being collected and hoarded for years in someones closet... I still fantasize about one day owning the whole mint condition collection in their boxes myself! For now though Gabin is for cuddling, playing and whatever else my toddler decides to throw his way, so long as he makes his way back to his display spot every night!

I did mention that I love the Grannimals right? now on the back of every box is a picture of all the other adorable Grannimals available in the collection While I'm generally not a sucker for this kind of "collect them all" type of advertising I really couldn't help myself with this one and I seriously would have bought them all but reality and a budget kicked in... so just two more! It's amazing what you can get away with postpartum...




We added Mona the cow and Hugo the Hedgehog my personal fave to the mix..



Latitude enfant has several different lines of sweet cuddly puppets, toys and doudous (dolls for the anglos...) for children and babes alike. They've definitely got my two thumbs up for design and craftsmanship, I dare you to resist their charm!

Reduce Reuse Recycle

The three "R"s have been literally branded into my long term memory by a certain science teacher in gradeschool... I honestly doubt I'll ever forget the phrase... it does however take a little more to consciously live by it though....

We are a family of juice drinkers and carton tetra packs pile up pretty quickly in our home, being bulky they take up a lot of room in the trash and are far from bio degradable... We've found a fun way to reuse almost all of the cartons by turning them into playroom building blocks/bricks etc. This tip should actually be credited to my mom, she was a daycare principal for many years... and we had a whole wall of milk carton blocks!

These blocks are light weight and great for making towers, building forts and igloos, giant dominos, indoor bowling, you name it! and best off they're free!

You can make them out of juice or milk cartons. Start by cutting off the angled top creating an open ended block. Once you've rinsed the cartons with soapy water (to prevent icky sour milk smells) and let them dry thoroughly, take two cartons and push one all the way into the other to create one block! If you're feeling especially creative you can paint them, wrap them with funky paper or your childs drawings, or try filling some with a handful of dry rice, beans, or pasta to make a percussion instrument!

Now all we have to do is find a way to reuse those discarded tops... I'm open to ideas.