What’s hot + what’s not

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Hello! It’s What’s hot + What’s not time *again*! Luckily my interests are so fleeting and fickle I have enough stuff to manage to get these lists together weekly. Are you taking part with your own list this week? If so, don’t forget to leave you link in the widget below. I will come and say hello!

HOT

Zinc – my favourite store this side of my parent’s house. While sometimes I feel a little like I am living in a shopper’s desert, a quick visit to Zinc in Toorak Road, Burwood (or is it Glen Iris around there?) to use a gift certificate and to dream of Christmases to come  always restores my faith in the Eastern suburbs. Yesterday I finally replaced my (exploding sunscreen filled) wallet with a gorgeous thing from Elk. Very nice.

Halloween! This year we have a cindy-lauper-style rockstar and a bottom-of-the-dress-up-basket fairy princess.

Count down to NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. Are you taking part this year? The first year I signed up was 2000 and it was a complete failure. I look back and think to myself… what was my problem? I had all that TIME! This year time *will* be my biggest problem, but I want to get back into my daily writing again and this is as good an excuse as any. I have a new book to start so it seems like perfect timing.

Related – The NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program. Just like NaNoWriMo but for kids under 17 years and with the opportunity to set reasonable word count goals. The word count recommended for Amelia’s age group is 300-3000 words. Hmm. Wonder if she’d be into it too.

Related – the Office of Light and Letters is hot. I loved reading the history of NaNoWriMo and am so impressed with the vision and the energy and the passion of the people involved in running it and their charitable organisation, the Office of Light and Letters. Donate to a great cause, or if that’s a stretch, use GoodSearch for all your NaNoWriMo searching and choose the Office of Light and Letters as your charity – GoodSearch is a brilliant idea – 50% of the company’s revenue is donated to designated charities.

What I wore today in drawings – the blog and the flickr pool. Gemma Correll is one of my favourite illustrators and she has started such a great meme. I think I might have to get in on the action. Also, just for fun – today is an All Gemma Correll day in my etsy faves over there in my sidebar.

NOT

My energy levels are not hot. My immune system is not hot. It’s boring, and annoying.

Sleepless nights – so, when do kids start sleeping through the night? I was hoping 7 would be the magic number but it seems not.

Forgetting to take snaps for my “life long project” of dinner photography. I missed every dinner while we were away and then there was the gastro so now am out of the habit enough to only keep up sporadically.

Yumeji Graphics

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Favourite new book – Yumeji Graphics.

“This book focuses on the graphic works created by legendary Japanese artist and designer Yumeji Takehisa. It included his illustrations for books, editorial designs for magazines, drawing, typography and more.Takehisa (1884-1934) was a painter and pioneering graphic designer during Taisho era and early Showa era in Japan.”

Spy girls

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There are spy girls creeping around our house wearing advanced technology bracelets. Look down and you might find a tracking device has been planted on your sleeve, or your pants.

Also — The Quilt Project is now online. We went along last night to the showing at the (magical) Abbotsford Convent and it was quite moving. Kirsty’s amazing – and so was the quilt.

What’s Hot + What’s Not

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It’s time again for this week’s What Hot + What’s Not. It comes around quickly – take part if you feel compelled and leave your url link in the little widget at the end of my post so we can come and see you hots and nots.

What’s Hot

Around the World with Mouk by Marc Boutavant. Recently translated from the French is this fabulous children’s book which is totally hot in our house this week. Every page is a huge explosion of colour, activity and cute characters. Mouk travels from Lapland to Africa, from Australia (Kangaroo Island specifically) to Japan. The whimsical characters are a little Moomin-like (and spot the character reading a Moomin book in Lapland!) and the huge spreads with so much to explore remind me of some of Richard Scarry’s big books from when I was a kid. According to the Chronicle Books blog, the American version will be released in the Fall… so… now-ish? If you have a child in the right age group for this which is probably 3 – 10 (or a illustration freak of any age) — this book would be an AWESOME christmas gift as it is big and glossy and has a slightly puffy cover and has removable stickers in the back. So good. You can preorder it at Amazon, or get it at Readings.

Pimm’s: We went to Byron Bay with a UK lad who introduced us to the joys of Pimm’s and lemonade. I gained several kilos from sipping on these. So our new celebratory cocktail is Pimm’s on ice, with a top up with lemonade, with slices of orange, lemon, thin slivers of cucumber and a sprig of mint. So pretty and so delicious.

Holztiger wooden animals: I bought a shark and a dolfin back from Byron for my girls – because not only are they absolutely gorgeous but can go in the bath! Lily’s shark has become a bathtime terror. “Holztiger toys are all handmade using maple, oak, beech and birch and make use of water-based acrylic paints.” We got ours from the beautiful My Toy Shop in Byron Bay. The fox is sitting on my bedside table.

Trop Jr: “The Worlds Largest Short Film Festival for Kids! By Kids! A recent addition to the Tropfest program is a short filmmaking competition open to kids aged 15 years and younger. 2008 was the first ever Trop Jr, 8 Finalists premiered their films to a live audience at the Crescent Precinct, across from Sydney’s Domain, before big Tropfest.” — this year’s signature item (a theme or something that needs to be included somehow) is “DOT”. It’s time to put all those video cameras.

Also: Teddy’s new nose, blue playdough, our new avocado and lemon trees, Flash Forward and Hydralyte Liquid.

What’s Not

Gastro! First Lily, then my parents, now me… who will be next?

Coming home from our holiday to an exhausted and sick family – and all the associated stress and guilt. Not hot at all.

My Mum looking after Lily as I vomited etc. on her birthday – NOT HOT! Happy birthday Mum. :(

Blergh. Hopefully next week’s not hot will not be about vomit.

My Place and Yours

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Pip’s started a meme – My Place & Yours… with a new theme every week. This week is “On the Shelf”. I found these two sweet little kokeshi dolls in a gorgeous shop in Bangalow called Little Peach. They have joined my handmade girls on top of my radio on the shelf above the sink. They make me happy.