Super sweet tutorial from CurlyPops. Link to tutorial.

Oh this is lovely. Link to tutorial.

I have always loved the idea of a willow house and seeing this one mentioned recently on the crafty crow got me thinking about other outdoor living natural structures for play.

Sunflower playhouse
Sally’s living willow house a year on
A very pretty willow house about to start sprouting
We made a sweet pea teepee last year – try it will any climbing vegetable – here is how [image from here]

The title enough had me giggling and then I saw the cover. From the home page click on “let’s have some fun” then click on “printables” and download the “cuttin kate drawing and activity booklet”. Link.

Link, via Craft Gossip.

Using Sarah Jane’s templates and your child’s paintings. Link, via BloesemKids.

I love the contents of these field bags – discussed at the camp creek blog and tutorial for making them over there too. [you'll need one of these notebooks for your field bag]

Does this include your fur kid’s artwork? ;-) Lovely idea, great gift for the grannies! Link.

AND for us big kids. Part 1, link and Part 2, link.

The Dangerous Alphabet by Neil Gaiman (Author), Gris Grimly (Illustrator), published by HarperCollins (April 29, 2008) and Bloomsbury (May 2008) distributed in Australia through Allen and Unwin.

‘The dangerous Alphabet’ appears to be a great idea and a very clever book – but perhaps a bit too clever for its intended audience.

The illustrations and the poetic nature of this book are excellent, it is visually a gorgeous book. The idea of two children with their pet gazelle who travel through a maze deep underground in order to solve a mystery, would certainly give the impression that this book is a winner. And it has received rave reviews from acclaimed authors who have said things like “delicate horror of the finest fairy tales”, “weird, and frightening” and “a fascinating and disturbing story that frightened me nearly to death”.

Alphabet books are intrinsically aimed at pre-readers and young children, and while I don’t doubt the cleverness of this book – it is not appropriate for the age group that would be interested in an alphabet book. If this is meant to be a book to help teach children the alphabet, it definitely misses the mark.

About the reviewer: Paul has been teaching primary school students for 20 years and has two young children of his own.