New shoes

I love receiving parcels in the mail and the parcel that arrived this week was doubly nice as it was full of shoes! If only I received more parcels like that :)

Summer may be gone and the weather is getting (ever so slightly) cooler but I decided that Ava and I needed to try out Saltwater Sandals. I'd been coveting a pair of Saltwater Sandals for quite a while now (for both Ava and myself) but had never gotten around to buying them. At $65.00 a pair for the children's sizes they just seemed a little too pricey for fast growing feet. Like most things however, Saltwater Sandals are a fraction of the price in the US - that fraction being a little less than 1/2.

As much as I'd like to support local stores I just can't bring myself to pay the extra money when I know how cheap an item is overseas. Even factoring in the international airmail charge the shoes were still only around half the price they are here. So an order was placed with meandmyfeet.com and within two weeks a box full of shiny new shoes arrived.

Ava and I in our new Saltwater Sandals

Now that Ava and I have our Saltwater Sandals I know first hand what all the hype is about. First of all they are so comfortable. Ava usually complains that her shoes rub or hurt her feet and always wants to wear socks - definitely not going to let that happen with sandals young lady! She has been wearing her Saltwater Sandals all day for the last two days and I haven't heard a single peep out of her about her feet. I too have been wearing mine non-stop and my feet feel great. New shoes and no blisters? That never happens!

We haven't tried them out at the beach yet but from what I hear Saltwater Sandals are supposed to be super repellent to the leather-shoe-trashing properties of salt water - hence the name, I guess. I've inadvertently trashed more than one pair of leather sandals at the beach in my time so it's good to know that my new sandals are not going to suffer the same fate.

My favourite thing about Saltwater Sandals though is the fantastic range of colours they come in and their cute retro styling. Aesthetics triumph over all!  I couldn't decide which colour to buy for myself so decided to go for two pairs - one red and the other black. At USD$35 for the adults sizes I figured, why not? Ava of course didn't have to think twice about the colour she wanted - pink, of course!

Come next summer we'll be stocking up in all the colours of the rainbow!

Mummy & me shoes

Matching shoes - we just need extra tiny ones for Lola :)

Ava's sandal's in the colour Fuchsia

Stella's Little Project

Thanks to the fabulous LMNOP online magazine I came across a competition run by Stella McCartney Kids called Stella's Little Project. The aim of this competition is to get kids involved in the launch of Stella's new range by giving them the opportunity to have one of their drawings featured on a t-shirt. The "brief" for the competition is to draw an animal that would only appear in dreams. 


The competition will be judged by popularity vote and there will be two winners (one boy and one girl). The two lucky winners will have their drawings featured on a t-shirt in the Stella McCartney Kids range. The winners, along with 100 runners up in each category (boys and girls) will receive the t-shirt as a prize.


This sounded like the perfect project for my little artist so this afternoon Ava worked on a few drawings and ended up with three entries into the competition (as pictured below).


Under each drawing there is a link to the voting page for that particular drawing. 
Ava and I would love it if you could vote for her!

Alien Goo Goo

Vote for "Alien Goo Goo"

"Le Snail Royale"

Vote for "Le Snail Royale"

Lola Pegasus

Vote for "Lola Pegasus" 

Mathilda's Market

Yesterday we went to Mathilda's Market for the first time. I'd been planning to go for quite a while but kept missing it when it was in Adelaide. I'm glad I finally made it as there were so many nice things on show. If only I'd had more cash on me!

My favourite item at the market was the Story Book Bunting below from Owl & Pussycat.  Such a cute idea and so simple - I wish I'd thought of it myself! The talented girls at Owl & Pussycat take vintage children's books (mostly Golden Books and Disney Read Along Book & Tape/Record) and turn them into beautiful bunting perfect for children's bedrooms or playrooms. The bunting is presented in the original book cover.

Story Book Bunting

Friend Book

Ava loves drawing pictures and making cards for her friends. This is quite a good activity that keeps her occupied for a long time and that she can do on her own without any supervision - until she needs to write her friend's name. That's when I have to become involved and help out with the spelling.

As Ava is always making cards and pictures for her friends I feel like I spend half my time spelling one name or another to her. I decided to make her a "friend book" so she doesn't need my help spelling her friends' names.

I chose clear, close up photos of Ava's friends to feature in her book and tried to make them as fun as possible. As a result most of the photos are from birthday parties and there is an awful lot of face-painting featured! Under each photo I typed the friend's name. I decided to make the book with one friend per page to avoid any confusion over which name goes with which photo.

I laminated the pages to protect them from the inevitable drink spills or "accidental" texta marks that appear on everything. Once laminated I bound the pages with hinged rings. I chose the hinged rings instead of alternative binding methods so that the book can easily be expanded as Ava makes new friends.

Here are some shots of Ava's "Friend Book":

Flying Ducks

Recently Ava drew a picture at preschool of a landscape (castle and trees as usual) with a duck flying in the sky. The duck reminded me of the kitsch ceramic flying ducks from the 50s, 60s and 70s (as below).

Kitsch-a-rama!

I thought it would be cute for Ava to create her own set of flying ducks to hang on the wall.