Created as books for children that were to be low cost and high quality so as to make literature accessible to children of poorer parts of the US. Random House US have a great website devoted to Little Golden Books where you can find some great printables and activities as well as more history of the series.

SO you all know how much Katie and I LOVE Golden Books! We have written about our love on the blog numerous times – you can find the collection of our Golden Book posts here.

Now the wonderful Jackie from My Little Bookcase has issued a challenge to the blog world. She wants ideas on how to up cycle Golden Books that have seen better days and she invited us to take part.

We have been collecting very old and bedraggled Golden Books for a while now so we have a fair collection…

This is just a little pile!

Most of them have pages like this….

Scribble!

Or look like this….

Very grotty!

So we have been having fun using them as bunting. The first lot of bunting I made was for Ned’s 3rd birthday in his favourite colour – yellow.

Then I started to make some that we sold and also used as display at Magnolia Square...

I think I have a soft spot for the  Christmas bunting because it just looks so Christmasy!! There’s nothing better than displaying your love of books around the house – they are my favourite accessory.

We have also been using our collection to make gift tags for our online store orders. This has been really fun, because even in the tattiest book you can find the most divine illustrations to use on a parcel…

The print is also available on a tote bag…

Wouldn’t that be the perfect library bag?

The Little Fox creates dreamy and whimsical artworks many of which are book related. Including this gorgeous painting of The Owl and The Pussycat...

Drool over The Little Fox Etsy store here and read The Little Fox blog here.

Lou and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last night – has anyone else seen it?

It felt like the end of an era in so many senses. Lou and I have seen almost all the films together along with another dear friend. As the years have gone by and lives have got busier, I think the release of each new film has got more and more exciting for us! Coming out of the cinema last night felt like the conclusion to a long tradition.

I loved the film – powerful, touching, it hit just the right note of the drama and tragedy of the action, without labouring it. And it felt like you could sense the off-screen comeraderie of the three stars, and a definite sadness on their part that it has all come to an end. (Anyone else think those last scenes were not necessary??)

Otto fell off the couch and hit his head (above his left eye) on the coffee table a few months ago. Bit hard to see but I reckon his (temporary) scar is a bit Potter-esque, don’t you?

And yes, he is a poser. He thinks by squinting his eyes he is smiling. 95% of our photos of him are with his eyes closed.

Someone’s Been Sitting In My Chair

Library Day

SMALL WONDERLAND from KEITARO SUGIHARA on Vimeo.

And Keitaro’s website here.

And today we made our own caterpillar from half an egg carton following this wonderful tutorial.

He was really easy but fun and as you can see both the caterpillar and Ned found the fruit very tempting….

A penguin, according to Oliver, is easy to draw because they are just made up of three parts – ‘Head, Body and USELESS WINGS‘.

The Guardian continues to delight me with their devotion to reviews on children’s books and other children’s culture. They present their book section online so it is extremely appealing and engaging which is so important. The children’s reviews are insightful and they always pick great books, not high brow and not mass market just nice books.

They publish reviews by readers and have a great interactive program for children to subscribe too – a great innovation in a country where reading amongst children is on the decrease. `

This tutorial by Oliver Jeffers is part of a series they are presenting on illustration which has so far included; Nick Sharratt, Rob Steen (illustrator of the Flanimals by Ricky Gervais) and Alex Milway (author of an intermediate series called The Mythical 9th Division).

Children have been invited to send in their creations from the series and the Guardian are also featuring them online. What a fantastic concept.

We have been spending a lot of time in the garden lately. We have set up a vegie patch, planted some flowers in pots and have been enjoying the feeling of satisfaction that comes from having things grow.

I was delighted to come across the Yates May Gibbs Sweet Pea Fairy seeds and think I will have to spread some of these around. Although they won’t come up until Spring I can’t think of anything more gorgeous than a whole tribe of  little Sweet Pea Fairies in the backyard.

I think this is such a wonderful idea by Yates and the funds raised from the seeds go towards charities; the Northcott Society for Crippled Children and the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. And what a lovely way to combine reading an Australian classic and learning about nature.

We are very excited to again be supporting the Little Big Shots International Film Festival for Kids and giving away to our readers 10 double-passes to the festival!

We LOVE that there is a film festival especially for children and that some more of our favourite picture books have made their way to the big screen! This year the program includes the beloved classic The Gruffalo (we mentioned the trailer when it first screened on TV on our blog here) as well as Rob Scotton’s Splat the Cat and Mo Willem’s Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.

One of the films I would dearly love to see is Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, one of my favourite picture books and the film adapation recently won this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

Soooo…. we have 10 double passes to give away to Package 3 of this year’s festival (which includes The Gruffalo and Naked Mole Gets Dressed) to one of two sessions on Thursday 9 Jun 2011 at 9:50 am or Friday 10 Jun 2011 at 11:30 am.

If you would like to win, please leave a comment on this post (or on the competition post on our Facebook page) before Wednesday 1 June. In your comment, please let us know which film(s) from the Festival program you are most looking forward to seeing and which of the two sessions above you could attend. (We will draw the winners at random.) Good luck!

The skirt is comprised entirely of the illustrations from Golden Books sewn together with metallic gold thread, and the bodice is made from the books’ foil spines. Can you imagine? Having glimpsed how carefully Lou curates the Golden Books bunting she has done for We Heart Books, I can only imagine how painstaking this cut and paste would be…

Here are some shots of the garmet under construction…

Go to Boston-based fashion designer Ryan Noveline’s site for more breathtaking images…