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Have you seen Follow the White Bunny featured on Soule Mama? Nicole Vos van Avezathe from the Netherlands has an Etsy store where you can purchase the PDF patterns to embroider these sweet creations.

Nicole also has a stunning blog where she even has free patterns to download – the most recent being a gorgeous Owl and the Pussycat.

The Gruffalo narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. ABC TV – 10.31 – Monday the 5th of April

Brooke who writes the gorgeous blog Pure and Noble has let me feature her creative  way of using the Charley Harper Memory Game as art. It looks so effective idisplayed n a simple white frame, don’t you think? 

You can also see more about Brooke on Bloesem Kids where she reveals that the favourite books in her house are written by Mo Willems.

Perfect for a Sunday night…

A while ago I was tagged in a game of sevens by Sandra who compiles the gorgeous and stylish Pass the Parcel. Sandra featured the seven books that inspired her as a mother and given that We ♥ Books is all about books and children I thought I’d copy.

My pile features:

Minus nine to one: The Diary of An Honest Mum by Jools Oliver – My beautiful blog partner and friend, Katie, lent me this book when I first had Ned. Jools, wife to Jamie, wrote this incredibly frank and funny book about her pregnancy and birth of their first child Poppy. Just like I had enjoyed having Kaz Cooke by my side while I was pregnant, I found Jools’ book so comforting as she writes about all the things I was feeling as a first time mum. There is a part in the book where she has just had Poppy and she talks about feeling like she is the only person in the world to be up in the middle of the night. She and a girl friend who was also a new mum decided that if they sent each other text messages while they were both up that they would feel a lot less alone. Katie and I also began to have VERY early morning text message conversations and I will never forget how that made me feel semi normal at such a strange time.

The book is also so beautifully published with gorgeous pictures of Jools, Jamie, Poppy and Daisy throughout. There are also some recipes in the very back. If you can, find the hardcover edition, it really is a very special book.

The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule – The SouleMama blog has always been a favourite of mine because of the simple ways Amanda uses to bring creativity into her home and family. I’m not a big sewer or have any real creative bent and part of this book and her blog is sewing but I like it more for the crafts and ideas she gives you for connecting and enjoying with children. I particularly love the chapter on ‘living’ where she provides ideas for sharing nature with children, about seeking and finding and fairies – all things Ned loves and I love even as an adult.

Buddhism for Mothers by Sarah Napthali - I love being a mum and I have a gorgeous boy however like most of my friends I worry about being inadequate- in motherhood, in my career/business and as a partner. I have only just bought this book recently and keep dipping into it. It’s so easy to read and see the benefit in her advice. I have long been interested in Buddhism and find that there is so much to learn from Buddhist teachings about so many things in life.

The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease – I have used this book as a reference for a long time. I first picked it up when I worked for children’s specialist bookshop The Little Bookroom about 16 years ago and at the same time used it for Uni in my children’s literature classes. This book is a classic, it is one part guide to reading to children and getting them to enjoy books and second pa

We’re very excited that We Heart Books was mentioned on Romona Koval’s The Book Show on Radio National on Monday…

Romona was discussing with Gideon Haigh and Andrew Wilkins (Director of Wilkins Farago Publishing) the standard of literary reviewing in Australia. Gideon Haigh has recently been published in the new journal Kill Your Darlings, which claims that the book pages of Australian newspapers and magazines have become ‘hodgepodges of conventional wisdom and middlebrow advertorial.’ They discussed the future of reviewing and the role that blogs may have…

Here’s what Andrew had to say:

The positive thing from my point of view is that there are now communities of people saying this isn’t enough and we can actually set up our own thing… The cost of setting up anything on the internet [means] you can actually produce a vibrant, interesting, blog – I’m thinking of Inside a Dog which does Young Adult fiction for example, We Heart Books, which does kids’ literature. These are people with no budgets, negative budgets, and yet they’re able to get good quality material out online and build a community of people who actually care about similar things.

We’re quite chuffed! You can listen to the whole interview with Gideon and Andrew here.

I just had to share this sweet illustration by Trafalgar  Square on etsy.

I adore the little rabbit perched on the arm of the chair. Trafalgar Square is illustrator and mum, Kit, she also has a rather lovely blog here. Check out her etsy stores section called Book Love for more sweet illustrations of readers.

Afternoon tea with a copy of the new edition of Shop 4 Kids, what could be better?

And this edition is even more super exciting because We Heart Books has been included as one of the sites that Shop 4 Kids LOVES – how cool is that!

There is also some of our most beautiful books included as well as all the best clothes, toys and essentials for babies and children and a really great feature on art for kids.

Beautiful heart garland made by Alarna from Little Jane St. out of  vintage storybooks. Stunning and perfect for today.

My beautiful book eating boy has just turned three and reveled in celebrations this week with a stamina that has been hard to keep up with.

I still have a fair way to go in terms of party organisation but I did manage to make some cute bunting for decoration out of some old Golden Books….

We have recently moved house and I found a great local OP shop that has a large collection of Golden Books all shelved together. They were in varing degrees of quality, some with sticky pages and others with scribble, so I didn’t feel to bad cutting them up for flags. As Golden Books are all pretty much the same size and format they are very easy to cut from one template and then I glued them onto some yellow ric rac.

We also had Ned’s favourite food - popcorn in these gorgeous bags I ordered from Etsy seller HeyYoYo 

and cute little tiger and panda decorations ordered online from My Poppet… 

And of course he did get some fabulous books which I will tell all about soon.

I have always said that the gorgeous Charley Harper flash cards would be perfect for wall art and neglected the Charley Harper Memory Game. Then I came across this spectacular photo and post on the awesome blog Made By White

These memory cards are so beautifully made, on strong, durable card and the reproduction of Harper’s art is so vibrant that they just beg to be used like this.

Thank you to Kelly from Made By White for the permission to use her photo.

I have enjoyed watching the clip below more than once this weekend. Anyone who loves books and the handmade will really appreciate John Carrera’s passionate journey to compile such a beautiful book.

Pictorial Webster’s: Inspiration to Completion from John Carrera on Vimeo.

One of the most beautiful things, I think, that arrived in our store at the end of last year are the Pictorial Webster’s Wall Cards - another piece of gorgeous publishing by Chronicle Books. Seeing the clip about Carrea’s process in making the book has only made me love them more.

See what Ohdeeodoh said about the cards last year here.

I ♥ this mug from gorgeous website - Generation Wonder. Sales of the mug go towards supporting the not-for-profit organisation Room to Read.

A little while ago I did a post on the current Myer Christmas Windows. On that post we had a comment from John Kerr the Creative Director who designs the windows and I thought it would be good to share his comment in which he explains the choice of theme for each year and how he goes about creating such master pieces….

Each year, the children’s book chosen is always quite different and in direct contrast to the previous years.

2008 - “How Santa Really Works” was visually very detailed and busy, whilst the 2009 season, in contrast, is visually quite basic, but entertains the audience using a combination of synchronised animation, lighting and narration.

It’s difficult designing a set of windows, which begin life as simple line drawings, which sit on a white page. The audience have an expectation for high detail, glitz etc. year in / year out, but this is not always possible, if I am to stay truthful to the chosen book.

Over the 15 years of designing & building the windows, I have tried to present as many varied themes as possible - the one underlining goal is to stimulate childhood reading.

Merry Christmas

John Kerr
Creative Director

I had also asked people to leave comments on their favourite Myer Christmas windows and I have since found that Myer have now listed on their website the theme of each window from 1956. You can see the list here and some even have photos -

I could not resist a post on this gorgeous dress I found whilst poking about on Made It this morning. I adore the Japanese fabric and the rest of Bear and Sparrow’s store is lovely too.

When I visited France, many moons ago, I loved seeing all the Little Prince merchandise and at any chance I sent a Little Prince postcard home. Today I found a lovely store called rougestore via Mathilda’s Market that stocks a whole range of beautiful Little Prince merchandise and now I just want everything!

My favourite is these party invitations, they are in French but how gorgeous.

They stock a whole collection of Little Prince as well as some great Asterix and Obelix bowls and mugs on their Big Cartel store. They will have the character ware at Mathilda’s Market in Hawthorn today and then have their equally lovely French linen collection at Magnolia Square in Brighton on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of December.

There were so many comments on Katie’s When We Were Little Post about Judith Kerr’s The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Everybody remembers that book with so much fondness.

There is an amazing museum in the UK called Seven Stories that is devoted to children’s literature and the latest exhibition is of Judith Kerr’s work.

Although I’m not planning a trip to the UK any time soon - unfortunately! Seven Stories is a lovely website to visit for anyone who loves children’s books.

This beautiful picture is called On Books and is by Melbourne artist and illustrator Charlotte Lance. Charlotte has illustrated many children’s books and you can see more of her art on her website here.

Her art is whimsical, graceful, warm and expressive.

Charlotte  illustrated one of my favorite intermediate novels Wiggy and Boa by Anna Fienberg. I also love her children’s t-shirt range  called BOYGIRL which is available in selected stores in Melbourne - you can find out more here.

The detail in this beautiful screen print of an original papercut called a Squirrel Village instantly reminded me of the lovely posts Katie has done in the past of Need a House? Call Ms. Mouse and the Alison Uttley books. 

Artist Cindy Mindy Pindy has some beautiful work in her Etsy store here.

Is this not the coolest doll house ever? Go and have a look at the rest of the amazing photo’s at the beautiful blog Sweet Sweet Life.  I found Amy’s blog featured on Bloesem Kids and fell in love with the photo’s of this house made from a pattern from Cookie magazine. Amy used only materials from around her house and made the most spectacular dolls house for Charlie and Lola to live in.

Everything is there and totally gorgeous right down to the little pile of books on the foot of Lola’s bed.

I adore this print by the very talented and clever Loobylu. The little boy reminds me of Max!

This print, in a limited number, is available from Lobylu’s Etsy store here.

Ideal Bookshelf 1 2009 / gouache & ink on paper by Jane Mount check out her other bookshelves on Etsy. I can see many of my favorites on here, what about you?

Thanks to Karen from the beautiful blog And so, I sew for leaving a comment today and directing me to her blog where I found this gorgeous creation…

I want this for my birthday cake next year! Karen’s three year old twin girls requested an Olivia cake and a Maisy Mouse cake, which you can see here, for their birthday. Isn’t she a star.

Have you seen the blog Cake Wrecks? It’s subtitle is ‘When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong’ and it really is hilarious. However a great friend of our blog pointed out to me a post that I had missed on Cake Wrecks - A beautiful post about story book designs on cakes.

My favourite is the Poky Little Puppy cake pictured above but there are many more designs featured here.

The Black Apple is perfection!

This print available in The Black Apple etsy store  and also have a look at the stunning book plates.