Category Archives: Orla Kiely

Naughty or nice?

Was Father Christmas good to you? I must have been a good girl last year as he was very nice to me. I received a years’ subscription to Ancestry which will really help me with my family history research. I want to capitalise on the creative writing course I did at the end of last year so I’m going to make time each week to work on it. I was also given a subscription to Mollie Makes. I think it’s rather expensive for a magazine but I do love reading it and now I won’t feel guilty about spending the money each month! My husband treated me to the classic 1962 Volkswagen Camper Van Lego set which I’m itching to make and I also received a rather lovely new Orla Kiely handbag for my collection – the Daisy Stem print in yellow from the Spring 2013 collection.

daisy stem print

I love my new bag but I think it will be my last. My Orla Kiely handbag obsession has lasted 8 years which is a long commitment for me but my latest bag isn’t of the usual quality, it’s not even lined but was the same price as previous ones which were. Not sure it will last too long but Little Sis has plenty to choose from if she likes them!

This year I want to spend more time being creative both with the children and in my free time for myself. I think I spent a little too much time blogging last year. According to my end of term report my blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2012 and I wrote 447 new posts, which grew the total archive of my blog to 1,248 posts. That’s a lot of posts and I dread to think how much time I spent staring at the laptop screen. I’ve started a new blog for my baking obsession, baking counts as creative, right?

 

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Mumsnet and me

Over the weekend I attended the inaugural Mumsnet conference.  I applied to join the Mumsnet bloggers group when it launched but I never heard back, so you might wonder why I would pay money to spend a day with them.

Blogfest programme

conference essentials: programme, iPad mini and Orla Kiely

I saw it as a day off from my children and yes, I’d happily pay for that pleasure. When I saw my old blogging friend Liska she told me I looked radiant. Yes, I told her. I have a child-free day. I had make up on. My clothes were clean and I’d even brushed my hair.

There are some brilliant posts out there, check out the Big BlogFest Bloghop to see what you missed. Here are my highlights from Mumsnet Blogfest:

Seeing/hearing Caitlin Moran talk. It’s been a while since I’ve had time to read a column written by her but I knew she’d be funny, rude and inspirational. She didn’t disappoint and was well worth the price of the ticket alone.

I drank three hot cups of tea, three. From a cup and saucer.

Cupcakes from the Beverly Hills Bakery.Beverley Hills Cupcake

A stress free tube ride, negotiating escalators, and ticket barriers without a toddler and baby in a buggy.

A copy of The Times as I walked in. I sneaked out during lunch to read it, it’s been years since I read anything other than the back of a box of cereals.

Inspiration and tips from the photographers at Digital Bungalow

A goody bag which contained something for every member of my family. Lush goodies for the toddlers bath, a copy of Let’s Pretend it Never Happened by The Bloggess for me, and a new Boden umbrella, and Green and Black chocs for the husband.

The chance to see what all the fuss was about with the legendary Liz Jones. Quite frankly I still don’t see what all the fuss is about. She’s a bitter old troll who gets paid to write controversial pieces. She should also sue her plastic surgeon.

The Google+ hangout with The Bloggess who should have been allowed to talk a lot more. She was hilarious (even though it was 4am her time) and I can’t wait to read her book.

The content really was superb and focused on the importance of blogging for women who traditionally have no voice, and how important great content is. Friendly people, great food, brilliant location. Easily my favourite blogging conference of 2012.

London panorama

the view from Skyloft

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Orla Kiely board books

Last month two new books were published by the Irish fashion designer, Orla Kiely, in her range of cloth bound board books. Just like numbers and colours, creatures and shapes are two beautiful books for babies and toddlers.

Orla Kiely books

Shapes focuses on some of the most common geometric shapes and then places them alongside a common object or animal featuring that shape. I love the hexagon and honeycomb page, but there are also a rectangle and house, an oval and a ladybird as well as a star and starfish.

Orla Kiely shapes

Creatures shows her strong geometric-style graphics and patterns to illustrate a variety of animals, from monkeys to turtles, and ducks to giraffes.

Both books blend her iconic design with soft learning and first concepts. I love these books as they are unique and are very easy on the eye, no bright primary colours here.

Orla Kiely creatures

This is a lovely little collection for stylish babies (and mums!) and will look great on any nursery bookshelf. The toddler is drawn to these as much as any other book and I’m surprised just how much use we’ve had from them. He knows the colours book off by heart and I can’t wait for his sister to enjoy them as much as he does.

happy reader

 

Shapes and Creatures have a RRP £9.99, published by Egmont Press.

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