The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)
Friday, January 15, 2010
by Larabelle
I don't know if it's the bright collage illustrations or the holes that you can poke, but this classic book is wonderfully entertaining.
You can now buy official Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric in a range of prints, so I couldn't resist making a skirt out of it for my little girl.
Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever!
Saturday, January 09, 2010
by Larabelle

Big Red Hen & the Little Lost Egg (Margaret Wild)
Saturday, January 09, 2010
by Larabelle

I enjoy reading this book as much as my daughter does. It embodies the instinctive love a parent has for their child, regardless of who they might turn out to be. I think it would actually be the perfect book for adoptive parents to read to their child. My favourite line in it is when the hen says to the egg: "Do not be afraid. I am here. Waiting". I said much the same thing to my belly while I waited for Rowan to arrive.
As for Amelie, she loves the pictures and the description of all of the various types of birds that are mentioned in the story, especially if I use a different voice for each one.
The Poky Little Puppy (Janette Sebring Lowrey)
Friday, January 08, 2010
by Larabelle
This book was a gift for Amelie when she turned one, but at that age she wasn't ready for it. She always wanted to turn the page well before I'd read her all the words, and the text to picture ratio wasn't right for her.
Fast forward to age 2 and it's perfect. We've read it so much she knows it off by heart and quotes it often. If we hear a fire engine siren she will say "I can hear something!". Or if she's lost something she'll say "Where is in the world is that..."
It's beautifully illustrated, and I was thrilled to find that you can buy Poky Little Puppy fabric now. I'm chuffed that Amelie's favourite item of clothing is a skirt I sewed for her. To make it, I used a tute I found on the web here.
This lovely blog template
Friday, January 08, 2010
by Larabelle
Before I catalogue any more books, I just wanted to say how much I love this gorgeous blog template, which I was able to customize with my choice of images, with a bit of fiddling around.
For those who are interested, this is what you have to do:
- Open up the template's .xml file in Notepad, and find the banner jpg file. If you want to jump straight to it, it's here.
- Save that banner image to your computer by right clicking and selecting Save Image As.
- Open that file up in Photoshop. You need to put your own photos on top of the original images that are already there (or perhaps you could take your paintbrush and paint over the original pics with white to erase them, if you prefer, and then put your own photos onto the rectangles).
- Open up an image you want to put onto the clothesline in Photoshop. Drag it onto the banner jpg, which you also have open in Photoshop. Place it roughly where you need it to be.
- Use Edit/Transform/Scale and also Edit/Transform/Rotate to get your image to be on an angle like the original banner pics were. Tip: by holding down the shift key while you transform the scale, you preserve the perspective of the photo and it won't 'warp'.
- When you're happy with the placement of your photo on the clothesline, hit Enter.
- Repeat steps 4-6 with the other 2 pics on the clothesline.
- When finished, save that banner file as a jpeg onto your computer with a new filename.
- Upload the banner jpg to your photo storage website of choice (eg photobucket). Copy the direct link for your banner jpg.
- In the wooden fence template .xml file, opened in Notepad, search for "bg_header". You need to select the entire weblink (that ends in "bg_header.jpg") and replace it with your photobucket (or similar) direct link address for your customized banner.
- Save your template file with a new name eg Wooden-Fence2.xml.
- Load your Wooden-Fence2.xml file into Blogger via Layout / Edit HTML.
- Sit back and admire your work!
The Tiger Who Came To Tea (Judith Kerr)
Friday, January 08, 2010
by Larabelle

What's even more gorgeous is that you can now buy the book with a little porcelain tea set to have your own tiger tea parties! It's available from The Book Depository.
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