an awesome book

The title of this book says it all... this is an awesome book. One that I was lucky enough to be told about and now I have it coming to little pinwheel. Due to arrive by the end of November, your little people can enjoy a book that is all about dreams and dreaming big. Something some of us loose sight of. It is a book for all ages, and every generation will enjoy sitting down and reading a book of inspiration that is also beautifully illustrated.

An Awesome Book is based on the simple concept of dreaming big and is the inspiring debut work of Los Angeles writer and artist Dallas Clayton. It is written in the vein of classic tales by Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Maurice Sendak.

You can pre-order your copy now ready to fill the christmas sack!

the planning

One has to plan a trip away with their little ones and I am trying to fit in the planning with the everyday life. We did do a trip around Australia with Keely when we sold my husband's cafe, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve! Obviously her development has changed, so have her interests, and now I have one more child with me and I don't have an extra set of hands!

The best thing with Keely's development is she is really into craft and every medium of it. This makes for a lot of fun for me too as I love to do creative things. For our trip there are two things that I know we will be packing, one of them is our new book, The Milky Way's Super Galactic Zoo, for some drawing and imagination. The second will be our new friends from Craft Schmaft which have just arrived in store today! We will be making at least one of our little friends, a Mini Owl, a G-raf, or a Woof Woof.

We are planning on going to the zoo, aquarium, lots of playing at the park behind Federation Square and shopping (that is for mummy)! I am lucky as Keely loves to shop, so it will be great to explore and see what we can find in all the hidden wonders of Melbourne. It will be a super trip and I cannot wait to share my experiences! If it gets out of control at least mummy will have a craft schmaft friend to cuddle too!

going on a jet plane

I am a bit of an impulse person, quite like the excitement of doing something last minute and the stress that comes along with organising something with little time. Always more interesting when the whole impulse involves two little people on my own, on a plane and off to Melbourne.

Life is so busy and I know since starting Little Pinwheel it has made a huge turn in my life, I have learnt a whole new way of being a mum to my children at the same time as balancing my new business, our home, husband and my friends. I obviously have responsibilities when it comes to Little Pinwheel and that in turn takes away from some precious time with my children. In order to make this a small change for not only my daughter in particular, but for me too, I had to make time for Keely in different and exciting ways at the same time as living my Little Pinwheel life.

keely living the little pinwheel life, this is the part she LOVES!

Being a mum is a beautiful and wonderful time in your life, for me it brings me so much joy that I could have a whole army of little people to share my love with. For a mum that is working it brings a whole new perspective on how you look at motherhood and what it means to you. For me this has been a huge deal, especially as the business grows and gets busier. I have made a few changes and made some new routines to make sure that my children do not miss out on having their mum.

We love craft, I am a huge fan of the creative side of a child's brain. They have amazing imaginations and I feel putting a pencil, texta, chalk or paint in their hands and letting them draw, paint, stick and create is a beautiful thing. This is where I find my balance with Little Pinwheel and being a mum. Keely loves craft and as we have a concrete floor in the kitchen, this is where we do all our craft. My computer and work space is in the kitchen, strange I am sure, but I have a little area that is all mine. We do anything from drawing all over the floor with chalk to doing painting (on paper of course) to making and creating exciting christmas decorations and anything we can think of. This is a time where I can get a bit of work done and Keely still gets to have her mum right here with her. She also helps with packing orders, and this is also her time to ride around on her bike and have some outdoor activities.

There is only so much time you can spend at a park or beach with your children, only so much television I like them to watch and only so much time you can give them when you are a work at home mum. So for me I had to give my daughter some mummy time... only mummy time, no mummy-little pinwheel, just me, no home life distractions, just Hayley the mum.

Today I booked a flight to Melbourne, very last minute, for myself and my two children. (My husband will look after Little Pinwheel)! I felt like I needed to have some time with them and for me to have a mini-break. I almost did not do it as I had heard a lot of negative comments, about how hard it would be (this was the comment I heard the most), that I should just drive north and spend sometime on the north coast and rent a house for a few days....until I spoke to a dear friend who told me that if any mother can do it on their own with two young children it is you. That was enough to make me go home and book 3 tickets to Melbourne. (thanks matt) x

Now the adventure begins... one crazy mum and her two children will go to melbourne, and have the time of their lives!

keely's painting of a plane and the clouds, perfect!

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our anniversary at the boathouse

Yesterday, 22nd October, was our wedding anniversary and we decided where better to go then where we got married. We put the little ones in the car and drove north to Palm Beach, only a 30 minute drive. Taj decided that he would not have a great sleep in the morning, so we were a lot earlier then what we thought we would be, more a brunch date!

The Boathouse cafe is located up at Palm Beach and is owned by one of our very lovely friends Bree. She was an interior designer and decided to make the move into owning her own cafe. What she has done to the place is divine, she has fantastic taste and not only an eye for interior styling, but a great eye for food! Coming from the restaurant business ourselves, well husband, we are very much into good food and a great atmosphere.

We had a great time hanging out with our beautiful children and it was nice to share with Keely where we got married and to help her memory of the day come alive again, as she was only 18 months. We actually got married on the beach side of Palmy, not the Pittwater side.... picture Home and Away and the lighthouse!

2 years!

This is a day I wish I could do over again and again! This week marks our 2nd wedding anniversary. Our wedding was so special, we got married up at Palm Beach on the beach and had our reception at Barrenjoey House. Our daughter, Keely, was involved and this made our day even better. To have your child at your wedding and on your honeymoon is something that we always wanted. Some people may think we are crazy, but our marriage is not only about us, it is about our children too, so why not involve them!

introducing....

It is no longer a secret how much I love craft for children, I have shared this many times. When I went to the Mathilda's market I met the lovely Claire from Craft Schmaft and I instantly fell in love with her little animals. The best thing about them is you get to create them yourselves, well your little people do! Claire sources beautiful fabric socks to use and the patterns are already cut and ready for you to create your new little friend. I am happy to say that we are receiving them for Little Pinwheel by the end of this month... so watch out for Craft Schmaft! They are the best stocking fillers and a great activity to do on Christmas Day or during the Christmas school holidays.

first steps

Today was a fantastic day, a day all parents love... the first steps! This morning I could not believe when Taj was standing up in front of me and he took one step and then fell into me. I first thought that it was my imagination, until I put him back to see if he would do it again, and he took 3 steps towards me and fell into my arms. (It makes me emotional writing about it)!

When babies have their first birthday, they really do start the next change in their developments, from a baby to a toddler and it honestly gets better everyday. The climbing has already started and it is not uncommon for us to find Taj perched on top of Simon's camera bag!

When I blogged about the beginning of Taj's life, from pregnancy to his birth and then his birthday and party I did not know where I would go next in the story. I guess when you have children they create a new chapter to your book everyday, and even in small pieces of a day they can create new stories to tell.

get the look-suri cruise in POLKA!

I am really not one for watching what celebrity children are wearing and putting the same outfits on my daughter or son, but when I heard about Suri Cruise wearing one of the lovely Polka dresses, I must admit I was a bit star struck. It was even better when I saw the photos and it was one of the dresses Little Pinwheel stocks, the Mini Maxi dress. There has been huge hype about the Mini Maxi and it helps that the images taken by the paparazzi are beautiful. This makes the media go wild for the photos and before you know it they are in every magazine and on every television station. I have almost sold out of the dress and I thought I would show you the dress along with other styles used with the same fabric. Polka is hot, most of you know I love it and now the world is loving it!

The Magical Milky Way's SUPER Galactic Zoo

I have been on the hunt for a great book to put on Little Pinwheel and I have found it, well I was lucky enough to have it recommended to me. I am a lover of good books for children and I feel this book is everything I could ever want for my children. It is not like any other book, this book is more about what they see in their own imagination. It is fun, unique and it will inspire your children to draw, paint or paste their own illustrations. Yes, they get to draw in their own book, they are the illustrators!

The Magical Milky Way's SUPER Galactic Zoo is not too short and not too long. The length is designed to keep little people entertained. It is created using uncoated paper, an ideal surface to scribble and sketch on. It is also staple bound, so the pages open flat for them to draw and paste with ease. Printed in Australia using 100% recycled paper, this book really has it all!

The perfect stocking filler for Christmas (I bought one for Keely), and a great addition to the bookshelf. A book they can keep. The story is beautiful and it will have their imagination go wild.... There's nothing else quite like it in the galaxy!

super duper ITCH!

This is huge news from ITCH and is hot off the press, well from Jodi, the creator and designer herself! ITCH is having a competition for all those little people out there to create two new characters to join the ITCH team for Summer 10/11. So, all you little creative people put your thinking caps on, grab your pencils, textas, chalk, paints or any medium you wish to choose and draw till your hearts content. Be creative, imaginative, cool, sweet, unique.... run wild with that imagination. There is a catch, only small and that is no help from mum or dad. I think that is fair enough and really when it comes down to it, a child's imagination is so creative, we should let them be the ones to create what every ITCH child will be wearing on their tee shirt next summer.

Email me at hayley@littlepinwheel.com.au for entry forms. Make sure you watch out for ITCH week on Little Pinwheel, it is coming!..... one little secret is Little Pinwheel will have the WHOLE range from ITCH, but I am sure there will be more!

to view the super duper competition click on the image and it will go big!

the party!

The lead up to a kids birthday party is quite full on for a mother. There is so much to think about; do you do a theme, what food to have, who do you invite, where do you have the party and the most important, what cake will you do? Also how far do you go for a little ones party? Being a child that went on many family picnics, holidays down the coast and lovely low key birthday parties and having the best memories of all of this, I opted for low key. I first thought of a theme for a one year old and being a boy, I thought that I should really make it a "boy" theme. So I decided on a monster party. Once I decided on the theme it all really just fell into place. The invite was first to be done and was sent out to our family and close friends. Then it was onto the cake.... the main focus of any child's birthday party. One thing I kept in mind was that it is about the little people, so the visual aspect of the cake was very important. Being a creative person, I decided on making the monster I did for Taj's invitation.

Keely helped me make the cake (good old Betty Crocker mud cake-probably should say I made it)! It is so nice making little projects for the bigger kids when it comes to organising a party. I also got Keely to help me make party bags. I sourced some cool monster paper from my favourite shop Pulp and we got the glue out and made the kraft bags into the monster theme. The party bags had craft projects for the little ones, smarties, small pack of natural lollies and a tattoo from Mini Stylista.

For those of you planning a monster party, there is not much out there when it comes to the whole monster theme. So I went for colours to base my theme off. I had the help from the lovely girls at Details Details who sent me the best pack of party goodies to help out with Taj's party. This was a beautiful act of kindness after our websites had server problems last week and were down for 3 days. They knew that this took up so much of my time, that I had not had anytime to organise the party accessories, so to my surprise I received a beautiful package in the mail. This included paper lanterns in monster theme colours, which we hung from the trees.

The rain held off on our outdoor party and as you can see from the photos we all had a wonderful time... especially the birthday boy!

the birthday boy

There is nothing better than a first birthday, what a beautiful milestone and lovely day to celebrate! For a mum it is a lot about her, as the emotions and memories of what a year ago on that day meant as you welcomed your baby into the world.

Our day was spent working around Taj. We did have grand plans to go up to Palm Beach and have some lunch, but Taj decided he was too excited and only had an hour sleep in the morning, and dad was not home from his morning jobs. So instead we went down to one of our local cafes on the beach and had an early lunch.

The morning was the best... nothing like having your birthday boy in his jammies opening up lovely presents. We bought him a divine wooden bike by Sirch, a German made bike made from plywood. I am a huge fan of wooden toys and love the fact they get passed on to the next generation. I ordered it from Top3 by design and they couriered it to me so he would have it in time for his birthday. They have really divine gifts and their customer service is lovely!

He also received the coolest bag from Meeabee. It is so cute, with lions and giraffes all over it and the fabric was found especially for Taj, thanks Jacqui! It is what we call, his "man bag." Then to our surprise, a man knocked on the door with the biggest bunch of balloons from Taj's grandma!

I love reading to my children too, so we also bought him a book, Waddle Giggle Gargle by Pamela Allen (love her books). Taj also received some cool clothes from Itch, right in time for his birthday party on Sunday. That in itself is a whole new story as I am going to attempt to make a monster cake!