Australian Story: an illustrated timeline . . . GIVEAWAY

Greetings all,
Welcome to the Australian Story: an illustrated timeline BLOG tour.  Author Tania McCartney has presented the history of Australia to children in such a clever way . . . bold images from the National Library of Australia's digital collection, a running timeline along the bottom of each page, dates & details highlighting this country's milestones.  The book instantly captures children's attention . . . from the chunk of Gondwanaland, dinosaurs & first plants.  Give your primary school aged child some perspective about where they fit in to life & they are the key to what happens next. 

 Things start to get really interesting when Indigenous people arrive in Australia & the land masses break off (good bye New Guinea) & hello Warrigal (dingo). 

 Never under estimate children's love of facts & figures, they'll be quizzing you. 

 Q: Which European disovered Australia first?? 

A: Dutch explorer Willem Jansz in 1606. 

Australia was called New Holland when James Cook landed in 1770 to claim it for Great Britain.  Then the first fleet came with Arthur Phillip & convicts on 26th January 1788 - Australia Day - first celebrated in 1838 with fireworks, lamingtons, Union Jack car flags & a BBQ, maybe not, this is non fiction.  Anyway, you'll ace Australian trivia after reading this book. 

 We were lucky enough to attend Tania's entertaining book launch at the NLA, where she read to the children & involved them in a human time line: my 3rd girl was Captain Cook & my son was a 1956 Melbourne Olympics team member!!

This book is filled with inventions, currency, sports, gold rushes, World Heritage sites & achievements, all the big names are in it too - explorers Flinders, MacQuarie, Stuart, Burke, Wills; Holden cars + Phar Lap, the world's greatest racehorse.  You'll have flash backs to childhood history projects & it's a neat quick reference guide, a book, who knew, you don't have to google everything!!  Tania McCartney, making history cool for children, 47B years, $24.95, order here. 

Want to win a copy??  Just follow this blog & leave a comment here, closes midnight Sunday 18th March.  Good luck, love Posie

our creative space . . . 'simple & effective bauble strings'

Greetings all,
Simple & effective is how i'm rolling this week.  I'm living on the edge with my laptop, it's hanging in there but i'm all set to transfer to the children's fancier laptop at any moment.  Just in case i suddenly fall of the blogosphere, i'm busy 'moving' & swearing.  Sorry for the sudden halt of blog love, visits & comments!!  

So here's a quick little Christmas decoration idea for you - i picked up these cute coloured felt baubles at Lincraft this week, half price = $2.50 for a set of 16.  I thought they'd look cute on twine, hanging around the house this season.

 I snipped off the silver strings & measured out a length of twine.  Then from the centre , i started tying the baubles at even spaces in each direction towards the ends, to create this bauble string.  They look like a rainbow of lights.

 I was catching up with a friend last night - she likes quirky crafty cool things, so i made her one & popped it in a shallow box (paper bag cut down).  Took all of 5 minutes, yay!!

I met up her between 4-back-to-back-children's-dentist-appointments & my son's junior choir concert. Deep breath, i was chanting my 'simple & effective' mantra. It was a Christmas Carol concert with audience percussion participation (i was on the triangle).  It was really was sweet but we were home late & i still had to pack the car for today's market. Naturally while i'm waving arms around ushering children into showers & jammies, of COURSE they were hungry again, even though they had post-dentist sushi, then sausages & snacks at the concert . . . my husband rang SO i'm juggling baskets of market goods over the bike rack & tail gate with one arm (& you know my hand issues!!) Simple & effective, i'll get there, maybe Monday??
Want more crafty goodness, check out Our Creative Space, love Posie
Stay tuned folks, next week i have some cool PR + giveaways for Donna Hay & IKEA!!  Follow the blog so you don't miss out, they will both be quick drawes, so they can be shipped in time for Christmas.

Ready Set Grover Wii game G I V E A W A Y & Lego PR

Greetings all,
Welcome to the Ready Set Grover Wii Game GIVEAWAY with a furry Grover control cover, yay!! 

 As you know, i'm all about health & fitness for my children, keeping them active & energised, not 'plugged in' to gadgets.  The one electronic gaming console we do have in our household is a Wii (Ok, it came free with our lounge television) but it's always fun & keeps them jumping about, or at the very least, waving their arms.  You should see my 4 play tennis doubles!! 

 My son was sent Ready Set Grover to test drive, it's aimed at preschoolers to promote healthy habits like nutrition, hygiene, rest & relaxation - still valid for 7 year olds!!  He waved his Wii control magic from the lounge after a particularly exhausting weekend.  The game makes you do exercise & it tells you all about healthy choices, with a handy little booklet too.  It even includes Toothbrush Time, hello!!

 Want to win 1 of 3 Wii Ready Set Grover games with the furry Grover control cover?? 
Follow this blog & leave a comment!!  Simple.  Extra entries if you spread the word.

 While i have your attention . . . we've been collecting the Ninjago Lego. Lego + Ninjas = awesome in my children's world!!  I picked some up at the local toy shop's 30% off sale.  Look at their faces, we have the complete set now (there are many more scary figurines).

 Better yet, One Green Bean sent me an advanced copy of the Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu DVD last month, it's a spin off from the Lego, brilliant!!  Lego + Ninja + Animation = totally awesome.

The official word: "Universal Pictures release LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu . . . follows the story of four apprentices who must master the art of Spinjitzu: an ancient and powerful martial art where a ninja moves so fast his actions turn into a tornado.  The young apprentices must also master the elemental powers of Lightening, Earth, Ice and Fire in order to defeat the evil Lord Garmadon and his skeleton army . . . Now Gamadon's brother, the heroic Sensei Wu, must gather four young men and train them in the ways of the ancient art of Spinjitzu . . . stand against the dark power of Garmadon and his evil skeleton army/  if they fail, the four weapons will be list and Ninjago doomed forever."

Available in stores now for under $20 for the most fun 45 minutes of entertainment!!

Thanks everyone, good luck with the Wii Ready Set Grover giveaway, closes midnight Sunday 6th November & 3 randomly chosen winners will be announced.  Love Posie



Thanks Lego, One Green Bean & Sesame Street!!

things i'm loving & i'm grateful for 'Spring giveaways'

Greetings all,

As a take a blogcation to rock my fluoro socks off at my niece's 80's themed 21st this weekend . . . i'm leaving my blog to host a giveaway.  Things I'm Loving & I'm Grateful For . . . are being able to offer lots of giveaways . . . sponsored/ Lego/ IKEA/ handmade from my own hands. Take it away blog.

While making a bunch of patchwork pencil rolls for last weekend's Handmade Market, i made a special Babushka fabric one for this Spring giveaway with tiny bunting flags.  Ahhh.  Fancy the latest copy of Mollie Makes magazine??  I'm so delirious, i picked a copy from the newsagent & my subscription issue came in the mail, so where better to share (including linen pouch project)??  Toss in some stitching & mending books + gift tags & you've got yourself a crafty giveaway. 
Just follow this blog & leave a comment, to win Mollie Makes, 2 craft books, patchwork pencil roll & gifts tags.  Entries close midnight on Halloween, 31st October 2011.  Extra entries if you share on your social media, go nuts.  Random draw, good luck!! 

 Spring cleaning my September giveaways, i have some winners to announce!!
3 lucky randomly selected followers have each won a Lego Hero Factory scary dude.  Congratulations . . . Rachelle from Prim & Pretty blog,
Mel from Loved blog & Ally from Everyday Miracles blog.

 The latest Riley adventure in Tania McCartney's exciting series of children's book is Riley & The Grumpy Wombat in Melbourne + a coordinating pencil roll . . . the hand picked winner is . . . Greta from Topography & On Top of a Lilypad blogs in NZ.  Yay, lucky girl.  Let me know who Tania can autograph it to.

I have a few more giveaways up for grabs, from Wii games to more handmade goodness, follow & enjoy the ride.  Good luck, love Posie

launch your children into outer space with this MEGA LEGO G I V E A W A Y

Greetings all,

Oh yes, it's MEGA Lego G I V E A W A Y time.  Launch your children into outer space with $500+ worth of Lego!!  There are 2 complete Lego CIty NASA Space sets to giveaway. 

Are you ready for the count down??

 Control centre ready for launch sequence.

 Have we packed space food sticks??

 Look at all the complicated Lego computer screens.

 BLAST OFF!!

 The gorgeous folks at One Green Bean & Lego sent my 4 lucky children the complete range of the latest Lego City NASA Space to test drive . . . 4 boxes of rockets, launch pads, trucks, moon buggies & astronauts.  Oh boy have they been having fun, playing together, helping each other build & set up all sorts of space launches, landings on the moon, excellent.  The boy even follows the instructions - yes, I am even creating a future man who actually reads instructions, my gift to the world!!   

 My mother used to find me asleep in a pool of Lego on my bed - our boy sleeps with Lego too.  He has ALL my childhood Lego which my parents so lovingly kept, waiting for the day i had children (which was the 2 big years between me leaving home to get married & having our first child in my early 20s).  They still have my Uni text books, ha!!  The children love all the Lego they inherited, from my brothers' 1960s truck pieces to my 1980s Fabuland Lego animals. 

 This full set is fantastic, with so many parts to play in the space missions.  Your children will be launched into outer space & beyond (if they're into black holes, time warps & all that geeky space galaxy stuff).

 It's a WHOLE lot of Lego to win . . .

 boxes & boxes . . .

 & hours of fun with your imagination.

Want to win one of two sets, valued at $279.96 each??  Just follow this blog & tell me what Lego means to you, who will be the playing with this amazing prize??  Extra entries per Blog/ Twitter/ FB mention of this giveaway too.
Good luck everyone, winners drawn Sunday 29th May at 9p.m.  Love Posie

snuggle down with this IKEA G I V E A W A Y

Greetings all,

It's IKEA G I V E A W A Y time again!!  Yahoo.  As Australia starts to get chilly in Autumn, it's snuggle time.  What better way to embrace the looming Winter months than with some pretty new bedlinen??

 Remember that really fun IKEA sleepover i was lucky enough to attend a few weeks back, sleeping over night in the bedding department at the Sydney IKEA store . . . well i can assure you the bedlinen is beautiful, comfortable & well priced too.

 The good PR people at One Green Bean & IKEA would love to offer 3 sets of ALVINE KVIST percale bedlinen sets to my followers.  Each set includes a queen 200x200cm Quilt Cover & 4 Pillow Slips, valued at $89.  Yes 3 to GIVEAWAY.

Make sure you're a follower of this blog & leave a comment at this post, simple!! 
Extra entries if you advertise this giveaway on your Blog, FB or Twitter too. 
Lucky winners - all 3 of you - to be drawn 9p.m. on Sunday 8th May (Mother's Day) - a nice back up gift just in case you don't fair well in the Mother's Day gift stakes!! 

I'd love to know which room in your home this beautiful bedlinen will liven up & who will be snuggling down under it.  How do you stay cosy in Winter - under a doona, next to a roasting fire, hot chocolates . . . I can assure you, i miss my husband more than ever in our brrrr Canberra Winter, he's my giant hot water bottle & chief hot chocolate brewer.  Good luck, love Posie

the 'tangled' web of boys versus girls & MOVIE TICKET G I V E A W A Y

Greetings all,

Yippee, Disney has made one of my favourite fairytales, Rapunzel, into an animated movie, Tangled - my children will love to see these school holidays!!  Nuffnang have kindly sponsored this promotion & giveaway . . . click here for the Tangled trailer.

The Official Word . . . Walt Disney Pictures presents TANGLED, an action-packed, swashbuckling, animated musical comedy about the girl behind 70 feet of magical, golden hair.  A princess stolen from her parents’ castle as a baby, Rapunzel (voice of MANDY MOORE) is locked in a hidden tower longing for adventure.  Now an imaginative and determined teenager, she takes off on a hilarious, hair-raising escapade with the help of a dashing bandit (voice of ZACHARY LEVI).  With the secret of her royal heritage hanging in the balance and her captor in pursuit, Rapunzel and her cohort find adventure, heart, humor, and hair… lots of hair.  With original music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater, this comedic re-imagining of the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale comes to theaters in Disney Digital 3D™.

With 3 big sisters, my son is well informed of what girls can do better than boys, they keep telling him!!  Sure it's a genderless society for children these days but how much fun is it to play good old fashioned boys versus girls games??  To test it out, in the spirit of Tangled, i devised some events, games & competitions for my family, to see who are better, boys or girls??

First up was . . . Target Shooting, nerf gun versus IKEA-cups-in-the-hallway-shooting-gallery-style. I figured with my son teaming up with a professional soldier, it might take all 4 of us girls to try to beat them!!

 We didn't, the boys won & had way more fun that us!!

Round two . . . Cup Cake Decorating. This was an individual event & highly competitative, Daddy was the judge.  

My son won, another victory for the boys!!
Word on the street is that my son had tipped Daddy off & asked him to vote for the cup cakes in the blue wrappers, foiling my blue-for-boys, pink-for-girls secret theme!!

Third event . . . Lego Building, who could build the tallest tower the fastest??

The winner was our eldest daughter, Boys 2: Girls 1.
Ding ding, round Four . . . Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Spinning around, blind folded & heckling, this is much harder than it looks!!

Some tails went a little haywire after spinning the children around, this was another victory for my son, Boys 3: Girls 1.

The final game . . . Plaiting our very own Rapunzel's Hair!!

Sorry ladies, my husband won this!!  In our family, the boys are just better than girls, so we're happy for them to do their best at cake decorating, shotting play guns & plaiting hair, we can be ladies of leisure!!

Did someone say G I V E A W A Y . . . two of you lucky readers will each win a family pass of 4 tickets to see Tangled!! Just follow this blog & leave your favourite boy versus girl game in the comments for your chance to win, you will be judged so have fun, drawn 5p.m. on 9th January 2011. Click here for terms & conditions.

Still want more, check out the Nuffnang Community Contest & participate with your own blog post about a personal funny boy vs girls experience for your chance to win $500.  Details on the site.  Good luck everyone!! 
FYI this movie is getting rave reviews, did you see the Tangled 'voices' Mandy Moore & Zachary Levi on The 7p.m. Project last week, ah, i love Mandy, she's so gorgeous - they were a huge hit!!  Then David & Margaret rated Tangled 3.5 & 4 stars repsectively on The Movie Show on the weekend.  Enough said, go see it, adults will really enjoy it too!!  Love Posie

IKEA book G I V E A W A Y not the catalogue, but a fantastic lifestyle BOOK!!

Greetings all,
This month we were invited by One Green Bean & IKEA to tour the Sydney store & check out their IKEA Family programme.  Yes please, as we move every couple of years & have a large family who quickly outgrow their furniture, we often need quick fixes for different shapes/ size/ style houses & IKEA hits the spot. 
Quick IKEA history lesson . . . the flat pack concept originated from founder Ingvar Kamprad when a customer couldn't fit a new piece of furniture in his car, after opening his first concept store in Älmhult, Sweden in 1953 (which is still in operation today).  Da dah, genius!!  Personally i love swivelling an Allen key & creating furniture, it's fun & empowering!! 

The official word . . . IKEA Family programme - the ultimate flat pack fan club, tee hee!!  It's free to join; member discounts; bottomless coffee; donation to UNICEF or store’s nominated local charity (we chose Bear Cottage) with every swipe of your IKEA FAMILY card; store-to-home insurance; extended 12-month return policy on all purchases; meal offers; quarterly magazine & more like home furnishing seminars and events which will be family gatherings you’ll actually want to attend.
& the book . . . available from mid January in Australia, featuring an assortment of home interiors & design titles, as well as a selection for the little ones . . . which leads to the . . . 

G I V E A W A Y . . . follow this blog & leave a comment here for your chance to win 1 of 10 copies of the gorgeous Beloved Homes books before it's even available in IKEA stores.  Value $29.95 but only $19.95 for IKEA Family members, ah, another benefit!!

 . . . gorgeous colours which you've come to love IKEA for . . .

 for we non Swedes, it is in English

 . . . of the 9 families featured, the couple with twins were my favourite . . .

 whimiscal bedroom for twin girls

 . . . love the painted floorboards . . .

 as we're dreaming up our own home, i love the idea of some black walls, or a chalk board wall, not sure where or why or how, but it seems like so much fun!!

 The homes aren't necessarily full of IKEA furniture, more personal life-style ways with creating a home using vintage, modern & eclectic pieces

 . . . what a lovely outdoor room . . .

 i can imagine this chair in late afternoon sunshine, ahhhhh . . .

 you can tell they had fun making this book!!

 Next time you're in IKEA sign up or join on line!!

 Or like most adults who are happy to hand technology over to their children . . . 

 or let them loose in the tap department??

 After some 'room planning' in store, don't forget to feed them at the cafe . . .

 no, we don't know why our 3rd daughter drinks orange juice from a brandy balloon either??

 We used to live close by to an IKEA when last living in Sydney & the children always knew if we went, it was also for lunch!!

My girls went for fish, meat balls & fruit salads, my boy had pasta & a brownie!!

We could settle quite nicely into a Swedish family, as we very much involve our children into our lives, always dinner together as a family, games & outdoor activities.  Did you know . . . it was really foreign to the Swedes to create a high chair with a table, as they have always pushed a baby in a high chair up to the main table.  I couldn't agree more!!

Thanks to Mark, the Sydney store IKEA Family manager, we really enjoyed the lunch, tour & chatting away to you.  Good luck everyone, the odds of this giveaway are pretty impressive, winners drawn 3rd January.  Love Posie