Painting is often the best solution to a listless rainy day. Our kitchen table gets covered, jars filled with water and we are ready to go. ...

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Miss H is a fan of the original Wizard of Oz. It is her downtime after lunch and a low key way to unwind.  When it came to planning her party there was no question, it had to be an Oz party.  You can see that the lion put in a guest appearance too. I am quickly typing on a  European board.  Where...

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When Hazel told me she wanted a Wizard of Oz party, I envisioned dainty hand coloured invitations.  I started sketching.  It turns out there is a difference between what a child wants and what a mum wants a child to want.  It wasn't helped by our printer spitting the dummy. So, the night before the invites needed to go out, I was left...

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I stumbled across this postcard while researching my home town.  It seems an appropriate way to announce I'm about to head away on a holiday, to Paris amongst other places. This Saturday, my sister and I fly out to spend some time in Paris, before meeting up with Dad in Oslo. In a sense, we are retracing the steps of a longer trip...

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Old atlases and ancient geograhies set my heart racing.  I dream of taking a scalpel to old maps and turning them into something new.  However, I end up falling in love with each one that comes home.  It turns out both my husband and my mother grew up with a copy of the battered oxford one on the top.  My latest addition is...

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My hand is always high in the air when someone is offering to give away quinces.  While we have a tree, we are years away from bumper harvests.  Above you can see miss H carefully guarding last year harvest of 1.  This year we were up to 3, inelegantly dumped onto the wood heap below by a cold blast. Despite our own quince...

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See It, Like It, Buy It. I have an aunt who travels with this mantra of efficiency and excess.  When Mum and I saw these casserole dishes, in a local vintage store, we just knew they were coming home. In the name of team work one went home with Mum and the other is currently in our fridge, holding the most retro fresh...

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Does anyone remember when the marble game mancala was huge? I remember my little sister teaching me how to play about 10 years ago.  It is a genius of a game and I'm sure it has numerous variations.  Little E and I play it a lot.  The box it came in was getting a little battered.  When Nin sent me a lovely bundle...

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We appear to be having a perfect storm of IT problems in our house.  From rainy tablets to fried hard drives and folded providers.  It's the kind of thing that would be almost funny if it was happening to someone else.  Please bear with me while we get things sorted. ...

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