Reading Rocks: Little Ray of Sunshine

As today would have been the 76th birthday of Roger Hargreaves (RIP), I thought it would be a good day to mention the wonderful Mr. Men and Little Miss books, of which he was the writer and illustrator. Even the Google "Doodle" today features Little Miss Sunshine, among others!


You get a different character each time the Google homepage reloads. These are some of my favourites...



Images via Google

I loved the Mr. Men and Little Miss stories myself as a child, with their friendly, engaging characters, colourful illustrations and funny little stories. This year is also the 40th anniversary! You can see the full spectrum of misters and misses here on the Mr. Men website.

Image via Wikipedia
One of my favourite charity shop finds (as an adult!) is this cheerful ceramic piggy bank:


Mr. Men & Little Miss wiki lives here.

Sock Pals!

Here's a couple of fun Easter break projects, suitable for small kids and big kids alike! :D

You can use an old sock (maybe its partner has been eaten by the sock monster?) to make a sock friend:


...or even a sock pet! Choose from snake, sock dog, crocodile and even a doggy draught excluder:


The possiblities are endless, if you have as many socks lying around that are no longer in a pair or have holes in them as I do. Check out the Pet Pooch Gallery too!

Reading Rocks

These Reading Rocks posts seem to have fallen by the wayside a little. Oh dear! I do, however, have plenty of favourite childhood reads to share and recommend coming up over the next while. I've decided I am going to do them on a monthly basis from now on.

Image via Wikipedia
Something which prompted me to start this up again: I saw an interesting article on Dick Bruna, the creator (writer and illustrator) of Miffy in the FT Weekend Magazine - read it here.

I've loved Miffy for a long time, I think probably because she is so cute! She's also very curious and inquisitive, which makes her very appealing for anyone with a child-like sense of wonder. Her Dutch (for Mr. Bruna is from Holland) name is "Nijntje" which comes from the word "konijntje" and means little rabbit.


Miffy at Keukenhof via Miffy UK
Every image of Miffy is lovingly hand illustrated by the man himself, using very particular colours and a clean, neat style. It's no surprise that this bunny has become an enduring icon, celebrating her 50th anniversary a few years ago - I was lucky enough to see the dedicated exhibition when it came to the National Library of Scotland in 2007.


Miffy is 50 via NLS
The official Miffy website is great too and definitely worth a visit, as it's highly interactive and extremely child-friendly:


You can learn all about her, play games, print off colouring-in pages and even watch short video clips.

Spring is here!

Flower & Bird Hairslides by Penny Masquerade
This week, it has really started to feel like springtime, hurray! The daffodils have properly opened up in my garden and everything. I do love the succession of colour in the garden around this time of year, starting with the snowdrops, then crocus, now the daffodils and soon my beloved tulips will be in bloom. ♥ So, in celebration of this lovely development, I am sharing some cheerful spring-inspired things I found on etsy.


Bunting Birds by HWR Designs


Felt Flower Pattern by Little Crickets


Baby Hare Soft Sculpture by Dragon House of Yuen

Happy Valentine's Day!

What a lovely sentiment! Very appropriate for today, I thought :)

You can find more knitted awesomeness (including the pattern for these utterly adorable lovebirds) over at Mochimochi Land.

Dinosaur Mania!

If you like Dinosaurs, well, you're in for a treat.

The Age of Reptiles Omnibus is here! It's just been published and it's a full-colour book packed with lavish, imaginative illustrations of the land of dinosaurs, including plenty of the 'bitey' carniverous ones.

Image via Comic Book Resources

I bought it for my dinosaur-loving other half's birthday. Suffice to say, he loves it! Mind you, what kid didn't grow up loving the idea of a wild dinotopian world before we humans came along? Even now, I believe dinosaurs have a fairly universal appeal.

Image via Comic Book Resources

The stories were created by Ricardo Delgado (a development & storyboard artist known for his work on X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Men in Black and The Incredibles to name but a few!), and orginally published by Dark Horse as a mini series in individual comic format. The books have even received Eisner awards for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition and Best Limited Series.

Image via Dark Horse

Find out more about The Age of Reptiles here and also here.

Sugar, Spice and All Things Nice

I just wanted to share the lovely treasury list I've had my WildKittens baby shoes included in. It's curated by Ziggy and Friends on etsy, a fellow member of Team McEtsy!



You can see the treasury here - and the handmade baby shoes are in my WildKittens etsy shop.