why kids are fantastic

Reason number four billion and twenty seven why having your own kidlins is fantastic.....

they make SPECTACULAR (free!!!!!) studio assistants!


Here's my Sassy boy throwing books into the little (rain water) stream next to our bush....

... and it's not just that he can chuck the books into the water just right
(ahhhh the undefeated discus champion).....

... he can then run full pelt over slippery rocks and up a muddy hill
(ahhhh that's my champion cross country runner) to get out of shot.....

....and what's more he's willing to throw and fetch and throw and fetch
(over and over again)


Now who wouldn't go through childbirth for that!


meantime my darling EJ goes on a nature hunt......

.... and found this little froggy between some rocks
(it's no bigger than a man's thumbnail) - what eagle eyes she has!

I love creating things it's true -
but our two kidlins are without doubt the greatest creation I'll have take part in.....

the book faery...

I have just been visited by the book faery (ok....by the postie....) and lookie, lookie, lookie, at the wonders inside the royal mail bag (no kidding - these arrive in a separate white and black bag stamped 'royal mail great britain' - postman pete at cobargo just loves 'em)

Inside the big box in the big bag was....

.... a stunning version of Thoreau's 'Walden' - with pictorial slipcase, bound with grey leather and silk, silver gilt pages, lovely B&W photos (one folds out.... soo decadent! soo delicious! sooo drool-worthy!)

and did I mention it's rather LARGE (that's my wee hand holding on with delighted pleasure)



and also inside the box in the big bag was a little book.... about a big subject - 'The English Language' by Robert Burchfield

and then there was the lusted for (but oooh soooo difficult to procure down here at the creek).....
2 volume set - The Oxford Companion to the Book....

I have so wanted this from the moment I read some of the blurb:

The Oxford Companion to the Book is a unique work of reference, covering the book, broadly conceived, throughout the world from ancient to modern times. It includes traditional subjects such as bibliography, palaeography, the history of printing, editorial theory and practice, textual criticism, book collecting, and libraries, but it also engages with newer disciplines such as the history of the book and the electronic book. It pays particular attention to how different societies shape books and how books shape societies.

....... read more

and got even more excited (if possible) by a review for the set.....





So of course rang up my local booksellers (marvelous, patient, ever helpful creatures at Candelo Books) who rang everywhere trying to get a set..... only to told at all ports that the back order is now into the 3rd printing (scheduled for later in 2010)..... and there's nothing at Amazon UK or US either

so just imagine my delight when I noticed the Folio Society were offering a set FREE with any qualifying order (gasp!!!!) - I now have all four beee-yut-i-ful bookies for less than the price of the OCB (that's not available anywhere anyway....)



*ahhhhhh* (contended and slightly superior sigh)
thank you book faery (aka my now empty bank account)

under the weather...

My boy child is home today eeeeeel. This is such a rare occasion - Sass is in his third year at school and only been absent 2 days since starting school.... and even then he wasn't totally, yucky eeeeeeel.... Boots, the big cat, decided he needed a bit of feline support and has tucked himself up under my Sassie boy's chin (well I like to think that Boots offering feline support - rather than imagine that the fat cat is trying to smother my child!)

ahhhh poor boyo - hopefully a day in bed (under the care of the cat) will do the trick...


In and around kiddie care I'm still fiddling with booky things (mostly reading and attempting to do some more writing at this stage) - and still playing with circular coptic-bound beasties.... here is the latest......

created from pages of 'the green kingdom' volume of the Childcraft set....


Completing the tiny coptic circle in the centre was AGGHHHH!!!! (much swearing required to get this one to come together - the inner diameter is only about 15mm).... I've mostly been using the making of these as a form of meditation - I've often said that I do most of my thinking with my fingers...... (I'm very much a process-oriented arteeest) and making these has been a nice antidote to all the high-falluting reading and writing I'm currently in the thick of.....


Time to get a drink of water for the eeeeel child - and make sure that he hasn't been smothered by his nurse-cat (sick kiddies certainly put art and study and life into sharp perspective!)

a whole lotta blogginess....

Whenever I have a few minutes up my sleeve - you know the sort - not long enough to sink your teeth into a meaningful bit of work.... too spotty to get into the garden.... too good to waste on stuff like housework - (yeck) I like to follow the trail of blogginess to see where it may lead me. I start out at a nice blog and then follow post links or sites on the blogroll to see what I can see - its always good fun (even when you stumble over a true horror!)


Some of my fav creative-type places this trip included -
scissors + paper rock!
edizioni
little jane st.
tam's little illustration diary
ink and wit
the habit of being
and my fav of favs.... information is beautiful

(no doubt I'll feel compelled to add one or two of these to my blogroll sometime soon - I couldn't resist adding this pretty one already...)

but I think I prefer stumbling over farm/garden-type places like....

farmama
farmhouse musings
the good life down under

ahhh they're all a bit of fun in their own way!

I think as I stumble around I keep hoping I'll fall over the definitive site - one that inspires and delights, uplifts and educates, shares my multiple and diverse loves and passions on one site and constantly adds great new stuff...... and as I wander I also get to wondering about my own little place in the blog-world...


I suppose its not by accident that I've been roaming around the blogosphere - given that I've been pressed into service (joyfully and voluntarily mind you!) assisting with Living Artist Projects (I was 'volunteered' to set up their blog and fb page..... hey did anyone out there catch the living artist short doco on oz tv ABC1 a month or so ago? what a hoot!) oh and I'm still plugging away with my other bloggy projects (including art--and--about and something I've not mentioned here - my designated HDR project blog, codex infinitum... but I'll talk about that again another day....)



and also for another day will have to be some more of my circular booky bits ....

for now its time for me to get outta here and get on with things!!!!!