She's a Wonderful Artist!

It's not our weekend with the kids this weekend. (We had a big weekend with them last weekend - Pictures will be up soon!) However, Dean had opportunity on Friday to go see Miss Poppi after school on Friday. This, of course, was much to her delight. (You see, last weekend, she had suggested Daddy come have a coffee with her. Ahhhh... she is an Aussie!)

During school, Poppi made us some lovely artwork! Dean was so pleased. Even if he only got ONE pretty picture and Tara got TWO. It makes perfect sense that this would be the case - more than once has Poppi declared herself "Tara's girl". (Doesn't that just tug at your heartstrings??? I mean really... How sweet is that sentiment?)

We'll just use the blog here as a virtual 'Fridge to post Poppi's art. We hope you all will enjoy!

We're Ready For Christmas! Are you?

Well, we've done it. We've gone rushing out with all the other crazy parents in Brisbane and hit every mid-year toy sale to be had. Well, mostly. And we're ready for jolly ol' Santa and all his cronies come December!

Whew. It was an interesting experience. We definately HAVE to get a tree this year. (Last year, we just had Christmas bauble garland suspended from the ceiling lamp. We'll call that being artistic.) Braving hoards of parents like us looking for a deal to help fulfil the wishes of little ones was a new experience for sure. But, despite the craziness - it was fun. Hey - we got to play with all the goodies along the way!

Some of the highlights? (Can you guess which is for Hunter or Poppi?)

A brilliant idea

Earth Napkins is a start-up business of a very dear childhood friend - Amy. Amy is a Greenie and we love what she's doing to promote a lifestyle of environmental responsibility.

Inspired by the website Ideal Bite (of which I am a member as well), she decided to more thoroughly embrace the idea of reduce, reuse and recycle by breaking away from mass-produced, tree-killing paper napkin (serviettes).

Plugging into her own creativity, she set out to design some fun and colourful napkins for her family. And then the idea to make her new craft a business was born.

Paying homage to the inspirational women in her life (including yours truly, moi!) she has created collections (sold with baskets) named after each. Check out the Tara Basket!

Online purchase options are available! And, I'm sure if you ask nicely, she'll even ship internationally! :-)

Kids of Today

Are amazing! Not only are they more technologically savvy than we could probably ever dream of being, but they've got this whole Communicative Inclusive sense of Community down pat!

Up here in Queensland, down on the Gold Coast, are two kids - Hannah and Luke - who are working with the power of the web (and thanks to a little creativity from a Canadian man) to help out a really great charity - Youngcare.

Their idea? Trade-up their beloved pet rock, Oscar, for a special car to be donated to Youngcare. Their inspiration came from someone who cleverly traded up to benefit himself (and probably starting a economic revolution). They've decided to give it a go in a more selfless manner.

Already they've been featured in the national media. Already companies are lining up to support them (a little insider birdy told me a Wallabies sponsor wants to trade a signed jersey).

I'm so inspired! Hope that you are, too!