Nature.

This weekend I'm thankful for 1000 Homes of Happiness' Playlist for so many reasons.

For getting us out and about on what would be the only decent day of weather this weekend.
For allowing us to explore a place that we would normally just drive past.
For giving us reason to wander this magical place, that is pretty much in our own backyard.
For giving us this 'outdoor' mission and allowing the night-shift-working-Daddy-of-the-house some peaceful sleeping time!
For bringing things like gum nuts, bull ants, beetles, wildflowers, dragonflys and frogs to our Saturday. But most of all for allowing little hands and inquisitive minds to touch, see, hear and feel nature.

Nature - Yippee!

The count down

Almond Tree Frames Christmas Rules Card

(Come visit them at our December Woodend Christmas Fiesta!)

There is officially only:Days to Christmas Countdown

59 ^days 3 ^hours 41 ^minutes 50 ^seconds
left until this Christmass Christmas

to go until Christmas (at this very moment in time)...... eeeeeeeeeeek! 

This means shopping, shopping, shopping :)

Make sure you save some of your list though as we have two very special markets planned to finish off the year. We're ending 2011 with a bang!

If you're looking for gorgeous, unique, handcrafted and inspiring gifts for the little people in your life, our next two markets are not to be missed.

Sunday 13 November

Ballarat Sugar & Spice Children's Market 

(in conjunction with the Ballarat Baby & Kids Expo)

10am - 4pm.

Alfred Deakin Place, behind the Baby & Kids Expo at Ballarat's Mining Exchange Building.

Enter via Camp Street or Lydiard Street's Police Lane.

Sunday 4 December

Woodend Sugar & Spice Children's Market

(Our big Christmas Fiesta!)

9am - 1pm.

St Ambrose Hall, Corner of Ambrose & Templeton Street.

Hope to see you there :)

Rain.



Dr Seuss, The Cat In The Hat

Does your heart sink when you have to put layer upon layer of clothing just to go and check the letter box? Mine does! I pine for Summer during the colder months, I adore daylight savings and swimming and going barefoot and laying on the grass in the sunshine with my two giggling monkeys!... So these past few months when we'd get days and days of rainy-rain-rain, I'd find myself becoming very grumpy indeed... and I'm sure Ms Sugar (3) and Baby Spice (1) thought they were acting out the first page of The Cat In The Hat (which we have read on many a rainy day).

But not anymore! Thanks to 1000 Homes of Happiness' Playlist, I've been reminded that it's great to get outside, no matter what the weather! With this week's play theme being RAIN and Baby Spice blissfully napping (lucky baby!), Ms Sugar spotted a rainbow from our kitchen window... We grabbed our gumboots and umbrellas, and off we went to have a better look - and found not one, but TWO rainbows! We couldn't believe our good fortune!


We hope you can see the second (fainter) rainbow between the two trees!


We then went hunting for some puddles, who knew there'd be so much happiness to be found in a little pool of rain? It's just too hard to be grumpy with so much splashing and giggling going on!

So excited to for next week's playlist, we hope you're playing along too!

All Things Nice - Small Print

It's not long now until the Sugar & Spice Children's Market heads to Ballarat! On Sunday 13th November we'll be joining forces with the Ballarat Baby & Children's Expo to bring you loads of gorgeous market stalls, together with the wonderful and informative attractions of the Expo. So grab a cuppa and let us introduce you to another fabulous Ballarat retailer, the lovely Claudette from Small Print! (and for those planning to visit our Christmas Fiesta in Woodend on December 4, Small Print will be there too, yay!)

Are you more sugar or spice?
I like to think I’m a little bit of both, as it makes life more interesting!

What inspired you to start your own business?
A long time ago I realised if I spent my life working in an office, I’d be spending more time with my work colleagues than my family and I hoped one day I could turn that figure around and spend more time with the people I love, instead. While on maternity leave I thought it was a great time to start something I could do from home and fit around our family and Smallprint allows me to be creative and run the business around my one-year-old, Logan, while still getting lots of interaction with the community.

How did you name your business?
Although we can put hand and foot prints as well as drawings and writing on our fine silver pieces, the concept first began because of our main range, which is fine silver keepsakes made with loved one’s fingerprints – small prints… This then evolved to Smallprint!

What is your favourite piece from your own range?

I am currently wearing a cable chain necklace with a toggle and my son’s fingerprint on a heart pendant (similar to the one in the photo below) and I just love it as it’s nice and chunky. I took the print on Logan’s 1st birthday so I know that I have that day captured forever.

Where else can we check you out? (website? facebook?)

Our website is: www.smallp.com.au where you can see the full range or visit us on facebook, where you can see the events I’ll be at, photos and details of competitions I’m running. I’ve also just started a blog on www.thismum.com where I’m hoping to write more about my experiences being a mum and small business owner but I literally just put my first post up last week so watch this space!

Sand.

I don't know about you but my fondest childhood memories include one common factor.... the outdoors. Playing with all of the neighbourhood kids until the street lights came on, collecting shells at the beach, finding yabbies and tadpoles at our nearby dam, riding bikes, climbing trees.... the list goes on.

In an attempt to reinforce outdoor, free-ranging play with our little people we will be linking up with 1000 Homes of Happiness' Playlist each week. It's a great idea riding on the coat tails of a bucket list of sorts recently released by the WA Government. The concept is to tick one outdoor play theme off your child's list each week in an attempt to make them better, resilient, well-rounded, fit adults. We're in.... and we think you should be too.

1000 Homes of Happiness

Jackie and I will take turns each weekend bringing a little bit of the outdoors to our four munchkins. My Master Spice (5) and Miss Sugar (2) and Jackie's, Miss Sweet (3) and Baby Spice (1).

This weekend's word is SAND which is easy when you have a beach on your doorstep :) 

We live with sand and sand lives with us.... it is always there!
It piles on my floor when Mr Spice gets home from kinder and removes his shoes, bringing half the kinder sand pit with him.
It falls on the pizza shop counter when I open my purse to pay, because I seem to have a portion of the beach living in my handbag.
It finds its way everywhere but IN the sandpit in our backyard.
It was one of the first solids my little people experienced, much to my horror... pumpkin, sand, sweet potato :)
It seems to have swallowed every one of my tablespoons thanks to sandpit imaginative cake mixing.
It brings so much delight, creativity, cooperation and most of all fun to my busy babies.

Stay tuned for next weeks edition of the playlist :)

All things nice - Whimzi

Each day we are locking in more and more talented stallholders for our big Ballarat market (in conjunction the the Baby & Children's Expo, Ballarat). Sunday 13 November is promising to be a wonderful event. We are thrilled to have the gorgeous brand, Whimzi, retailing with Sugar & Spice for the very first time on the day. You can learn a little more about Whimzi and it's talented creator, Suzie, in today's 'All Things Nice' profile. Thanks Suzie!


Don't forget Ballarat peeps - this will be the last time Sugar & Spice will visit Ballarat for the year, so it's a perfect opportunity to start ticking off that Christmas list :)

Are you more sugar or spice?

I like to think sugar, but I think most people would say spice!

What inspired you to start your own business?

My mum taught me to sew and I quickly fell in love with creating beautiful things for my little person…which turned into creating for little people near and far!

How did you name your business?

It all started on a bit of a Whim!

What is your favourite piece from your own range?

During the cooler months I am all about our Signature Swing, but now that the sun is out I am loving our Bubble Gum Summer shorts & Tees.   So cool, stylish and sweet.

Where else can we check you out?

www.facebook.com/whimzi   

Twitter: whimzikidz 

www.whimzi.com.au

 Thanks Suzie!