One of our readers, Rochelle, wrote to us a little while ago asking whether we could recommend any bookends for her baby daughter’s bedroom. I’m always on the lookout for cute bookends for children, and had lots of fun compiling this list…

I do love the Roebuck Studios bookends, which we have stocked in our store in the past, and often have as part of our display on our stand at Magnolia Square. Unfortunately, I’ve just heard that Roebuck Studios is closing on September 6 2010 – get in quick if you love these ones as much as we do.

Love these silver elephant bookends from Moroccan design company Zid Zid Kids, available in Australia from Little Living.

The Coocoon Couture bookends are ubiquitous these days, but with good reason – awfully cute and a perfectly natural look. Available in Australia from Bebe.

For older kids, I like the look of these ‘Flight to Mars’ bookends from These Creatures, spotted by Ohdeedoh at the New York International Gift Fair last week.

The jury’s still out for me as to whether leather or fabric bookends are REAL bookends, but there are certainly lots of gorgeous examples.

Leather artist Sandy Vour makes an array of bookends – I think her mice are my favourites. The Elephant is from MoMA.

There seems to be an owl theme! Fabric owl bookends from Etsy’s Aprilfoss and Li’l Magoolie pointed me in the direction of the leather owl – available in Australia from Urban Baby.

And speaking of owls, it’s taking some serious effort to resist this stunning set of bookends by Mexican designers Neko! The bookend’s vertical is magnetic and holds the owl and branch, making it look like it is suspended…

Let us know if you know of any other bookends for a child’s room!

It’s a cold and grey day in Melbourne today, I was feeling quite melancholy until I saw this on Etsy…

I’m cured – how gorgeous! I wish I had those legs and those skirts. It is a print of an original oil painting created by the very talented Canadian artist Janet Hill. If you need a ray of sunshine just check out her stunning work in her etsy shop and be swept away by her amazing blog.

Speaking of Wombles! Do you remember them?

They were a huge part of my childhood and absolutely classic 70’s animation. I don’t think I do remember them as books as they were originally created by Elizabeth Beresford in the late 1960’s as a series of novels. The message of the Wombles about recycling and cleaning up parks and public spaces couldn’t be any more relevant today – I wish they’d replay the episodes as I’d love Ned to see them.

Do you have any Womble memorabilia at home? Some of the original books maybe? We’d love you to share some pics with us.

Watch this incredible clip of Shaun Tan talking about his collaboration with Andrew Ruhemann on the film of his beautiful book The Lost Thing which recently won the Grand Prix for Best Short Film at the Melbourne Film Festival (among many other worldwide awards)…

And here is the trailer for the film, which unfortunately I missed at the Festival and will be eagerly awaiting Madman releasing on DVD…

We heart books recently sent an envelope to Pip at Meet Me at Mikes for her Envelope Project.

We used an old dust jacket of Where the Wild Things Are to make an envelope and there it is, in the window of Mikes…

Pip is running her project for six weeks and has been receiving envelopes from around Australia and around the world. She asked for the envelope to be filled with goodies that are light and interesting. Here’s a little sample of what we sent her…

Lots of gorgeous book related fun stuff that we hope the eventual winner of all the envelopes adores. The project finishes at the end of the month when Pip will draw one envelope and the sender will win everything!! Super exciting and a lovely way to share some fun with fellow bloggers.

You can read more about the project and see more photos of the huge number of other envelopes on Meet Me at Mikes.

Beautiful new mixed media prints by Lisa Golightly using vintage children’s book pages available in her etsy store kiki and polly.

I finally had a chance to do some baking with some of our fabulous Moomin Cookie Cutters. As usual, the batch got eaten before I had a chance to ice them, and while these two probably aren’t the finest specimens, but I was lucky to rescue them for the photo.

The characters of course come from this book. Magical, whimsical, philosophical – and universally acknowledged as a great read-aloud – Finn Family Moomintroll is perfect for snuggling up with to read together… I really love this production too – check out these beautiful endpapers and the exquisite drawings by Tove Jansson.

The We Heart Books store also has limited copies of this stunning Moomin picture book – the first published by Tove Jansson.

The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My has recently been re-released by uber-cool Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly. Luxuriously thick pages have beautiful die-cut pictures, tantalisingly revealing a hint of what’s on the next page. This is one of those books that’s so gorgeous that you want to use as a display piece on a shelf or mantlepiece!

||All these treasures are available at the We Heart Books store.||