craft monday

Welcome to the first monday column on craft! I am really excited to be sharing our craft with you every week and to also share your craft too! Yes, that means you can send me an email with your craft ideas, your images of completed projects you may have done with your little ones, even craft they may have done at school that will give other parents ideas on craft. I want this post to be fun, inspirational and a place where you know you can come to when it is a rainy day.

Last week was the first week of Autumn in Australia so I instantly had a theme to work with. I do like to try and have a theme for our craft. Although of course there are days where I just give Keely the paints, crayons etc and let her do anything she would like to do. So I am sure there will be weeks on this new column where I share some of the things she has drawn or painted with no direction from me.

As I am receiving lots of stock for the new winter ranges for the shop I have lots of boxes hanging around. I had a piece of cardboard that I picked up, I collected the crayons from the cupboard and handed Keely them. I explained to her about Autumn and how the leaves change colours and fall off the trees. I told her how beautiful and colourful they can be before they turn to brown. I drew outlines of leaves and asked if she would like to colour them in the way she thought the leaves would look in Autumn. Once she had coloured them in we cut them out and stuck them to some green paper. We then went outside and collected some sticks, which we glued onto her Autumn picture.

This was simple and it was a great activity to do as she could reflect on what she thought Autumn was and how she thought the leaves would look as they changed colour.

The next day we went out and collected leaves and found lots of lovely colours, yellow, red, orange, green and of course brown. It was nice for Keely to see how the leaves had all fallen off the trees and how they start to turn to brown once they fall on the ground. This in itself is a great way to spend some of your day as they are out in nature and learning at the same time. We have the leaves here at home, we are yet to do something with them, but I am sure they will be stuck to paper; simple yet fun for the little ones.

silent saturday

I have decided that after many emails that you would all like to see more craft to do with your little ones and to see what we do for our craft every week. As we do quite a bit of craft I thought I would start a column on the blog every monday that shows our craft. The craft column will give you some inspiration, it will show you some of the easy things we do, if it just be painting, drawing, gluing or even being a bit more creative by collecting or buying elements to do our craft. Plus I would love anyone to join in, share what you do and email me with some of your projects!

So Silent Saturday will remain the same for the moment and be a chosen image to welcome you into your weekend. Sometimes I may throw in an extra post, but I am trying to give myself the weekend off with the blog.

Today I would like to show you that we have all grown up in the Little Pinwheel family with our new image added to the blog. This is also the beginning of a makeover on the blog and it will continue to have changes added in the coming weeks. There will be a new logo that is being created by a lovely friend of mine, who is super creative and talented. This logo will be the new face of Little Pinwheel! I cannot wait to see it myself and then share it with all of you. I wish I was getting a makeover!

the rat race

Have you ever stopped? Have you ever looked around you? I mean have you ever really stopped....taken the time to really look at what is around you?

Life is busy......It is busy if you are a parent or not a parent. It is how we live, we are busy, always on the go; in our movements and in our minds.

Today I stopped. I really stopped. I dug my feet in the sand and I stopped.

As you know I love people watching. I love to soak up what others are doing, watch their body language and to imagine what their lives are like. It is something that makes me stop; it allows me to stop.

Have you ever taken the time to just be? Let yourself relax, sit, stand, and just be you? The you with real thoughts. The only thoughts being happiness, thoughts of how beautiful things are. How amazing a bird is? Watch how it spreads its wings and shows you what complete freedom is really like.

Have you ever really put your feet in the sand? Really put them there? Have you ever gone for a swim and felt the water completely cover you? Have it really make you feel cool and weightless?

Today I stopped. After nights of sleep deprivation, a busy life (super busy life), being a mum and being on huge life journeys. I stopped. I really took the time to just be. Clear the head and soak up the simple and beautiful things around me. It is a nice feeling, one that brought me peace and happiness.

As I write this I am now thinking about my day, the things I need to do. It is busy, very busy. I am glad I took this small part of my day to just be and to have some real me time.

Try it..... you won't believe how good it feels to be you; just you.

the little boy & my coffee!

Have you ever shut your eyes and opened them to realise that your baby has turned into a little boy or girl? Over the last few days I have noticed this in Taj. I remember when it happened with Keely when she was 18 months old. This time it is either happening earlier or maybe as I know he is my last baby I am taking a lot more notice of his changes, from his development and his appearance.

Their faces change so much around this time. They really do grow into themselves and the little personalities that had already come out at the age of 6 months have now become huge personalities. I can already see that he is going to be super cheeky. Just yesterday he was in the back of the car with his newly opened sultanas, having a giggle to himself. As I turned around he was laughing as he placed another sultana in his ear! When I had stopped he had 4 sultanas squished in his tiny ear. Of course his actual ear hole is tiny and wouldn't fit a sultana in it, but he was able to squish them in and have that whole of his ear looked like a giant sultana!

I also had him wake last night screaming as he is cutting about 4 teeth at the same time. My poor buddy has cut all of his teeth all together. He seems to do at least 4 of them, not just the one or two. As I held him after giving him more pain relief, I felt so many emotions. Looking down at that little person is incredible. I am not sure if you ever stop pinching yourself that they are yours; I still do it with Keely and she is 4.

I am looking forward to seeing what sort of a person he is going to be. I already know he is going to be super cheeky! I don't ever become tired of looking at them and watching how they grow and become these little people. It is an amazing and wonderful thing to be a mother. Yes, it is hard work when you don't get any sleep and end up having them in your bed all night with you, but when they give you so much back all of the sleep deprivation does not seem to matter. Plus I am not sure how we do it, but we get through our days. As I was told last night in an email, "there is always coffee!"

Yes there is.... and lots of it!

people watching wednesday

I received a comment on my blog last week on my People Watching post. This post was about how you can perceive a person by how they shop for their food and what they buy to fuel themselves. (The comment has not been published).

The comment instantly made me feel awful, guilty and misunderstood. It led me into thinking how we can misinterpret people. We can believe they are something they are not.... by looks, by body language and in my case through the written word.

I know coming from a family with an overweight sister, a brother that was a bit slow, but not disabled in anyway, that people were quick to judge, to comment on us and to see us how they wanted to. Just because a person is overweight or they are less attractive then the person sitting next to them does not make them less a person. They have a heart, feelings and you will find they are the most beautiful people you will ever meet.

I worded something last week that was taken the wrong way. I was seen as judging others and not watching them. For this I apologise as this was not my intentions or is not part of me as a person.

We all like to believe someone else has the "perfect" life. Because someone walks around in the latest designer clothes, or a Mercedes key ring they are classed as well off; they have the money so they have the happy life. And the person who walks around in a comfy pair of trackies and an oversize tee shirt, (that is me today), they are classed as poor or average.

We were, and still are a family that was average, we struggled at times, but we never missed out on things. I do look at some of the things my mum did for us and I wonder how she did it. How did we go to every school camp, wear the surf jumpers and have nice shoes on? (Don't ask me why, but when I grew up, nice shoes were the thing)! We were always renting, never owned a property, until my mum was in her 50's, the last 5 years of her life. But people always perceived us as owning every property we lived in. I am not sure why, maybe it was because every house we lived in mum made our home.

They say every family has a dark child, and ours was my brother. He dropped out of school young, he mixed with the wrong people and got in trouble with the law. My mum did so much for him, took him under her wing and helped him build his life up. He has lived off welfare pretty much all of his adult life. Being a close family we would help him with his shopping as he would always buy for convenience. He would buy the ready made dinners. We taught him that there are meals he can make that are not only easy, but have plenty of veges and meat in them. He could eat well on a limited budget. Mum was English so she had some great ideas for dinners!

People judge people every day. They perceive us to be bad parents, good parents, people with the perfect life and the list goes on. No matter how we live, how we dress, how much money we all have, we are all people. We all have hearts, feelings and we are all trying to live the best life possible. We just have to have the confidence in our choices and believe in ourselves and know throughout life we will all be judged on our decisions we make and perceived as people we are not. I am far from being perfect, like most of you, even all of you, I am doing the best I can to be a loving mother to my children and to live the next chapter of my life.

My life has taken a huge change, one I am sure will shock some readers as I have been perceived as a person with the "perfect" life at times. I have made a choice that will change my life forever. One that I am sure I will be judged on; we are all entitled to our own opinions and perceptions.

To the lady who left the comment, thank you for opening my eyes to others' perceptions. It has been an interesting week to see how people watch others, even how they watch me. I have enjoyed having your comment in the back of my head, a comment that at first was perceived as negative is really a positive comment.

Taj was playing near a road this week. He plays there everyday. He hangs around the water tap down the beach and it is a couple of meters from the road. Two ladies walked past me, kept looking back at me and then pointed at him as to say that he is too close to the road. I was not afraid to tell them that I am a good mother and he plays here every day. "Don't worry I am not going to let him play on the road with the cars!"

keely launches little pinwheel in to autumn

I received the Sudo winter range on Friday and after packing all the pre orders I waited for Keely to come home in the afternoon to shoot the girls range on her. She was quick to model for me as she loves to try on all the new clothes. Of course she asks what items are for herself.....what girl wouldn't ask what she can have?

Sudo is known for its fabulous fits and I believe they have the best fitting children's jeans. Their denim is fabulous quality and they look great on any body shape. I would love the Claudia Carrot leg jean in my size...please! Actually I would have the whole outfit Keely is wearing.

The photo shoots are fun and I have always enjoyed this being part of our Little Pinwheel way of doing things and displaying the outfits. I only wish Taj was big enough for the Sudo boys range as it is fabulous. But next week I have three of Keely's boyfriends who have put their hands up to do some modeling! I am hoping for two more, Keely's very special boyfriend, Oliver, who models every season and his brother. Now that is a lot of boyfriends for a 4 year old!

The final image chosen to launch Little Pinwheel in to Autumn.

little pinwheel ventures to kids in style

Over the last few days there has been a trade fair for little people in Sydney. It is where we as retailers get to go and have a look at all the new ranges for the next season. When I say next season, I mean next Summer, even though we are only just going into Autumn today.

It was a great day for me as I got to leave the little ones at home, hop in the car, turn up the tunes and venture over the other side of the bridge. It is always interesting going over to the city. I find I have to drive differently. There is no cruising around, you need to use some aggression with city driving in Sydney, otherwise you will be on the side of the road in tears!

Most of the labels I see do private showings away from this event. Kids In Style is a great place to find new labels, discover existing labels and to just get amongst the vibe of children's fashion and accessories.

I had the opportunity to catch up with a few people I have only ever spoken to online. It was very nice to meet them in person. It was also lovely to know they are even better in real life. I bumped into Jenny and Ian from LMNOP magazine, which is always nice. I am lucky enough to be seeing them again soon for them to shoot the POLKA babies summer range on Taj. He also did the shoot for this seasons POLKA, with a few other adorable babies.

I personally only went to KIS to meet up with one agent to see if I could get 2 new labels for the website. I was very lucky I was able to get one and I cannot wait to share it with you closer to next summer. It is going to be a fabulous addition to Little Pinwheel!

It was nice to see all the new items available and coming from Lark. They have such a great range of products for little people. There is also a lot of new wooden toys from Sevi, lots of pretend play, which I just love. I saw the new fabrics coming for Stella Cove swimwear and they are divine, such gorgeous swimwear for babies and children. The new Heavenly Creatures range for Summer 2010 is as beautiful as always. I cannot wait to get it in store, although I still have to get this winter in store! I am stocking boys next summer!

The best thing about today was it was all about me, I got to shop around, talk to people and be in the Little Pinwheel world. It was interesting to find how many people knew me from reading the blog. I kind of felt a bit naked with all of the personal things I have been sharing, but it is nice to know people can relate to my experiences I am facing and to also see that I am a regular mum doing the best job I can do for my children.

This week is going to be a great week on the blog, I have a few posts I really want to share. If you have not already, please help me with my Silent Saturday Project. I would love some themes to photograph throughout the week to share with you via an image or images to launch you into your weekend.