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Category: Life and laughter

How to make Harvey Norman-worthy furniture for your doll house
I KNOW that you’ve all been waiting for the follow up post to the grand doll house. You know, the one where I promised the equally grand doll furniture? Well, the wait is over. Brace yourselves – this post features furniture that even Harvey Norman would be happy to house. Prices will never be slashes on these little beauties.

Before unveiling the wonderful individual creations we made yesterday, there are a few things I know I learnt and want to share.
- I know I forgot an oven. Maybe it was a subconscious thing, because cooking dinner conjures up images of witching / arsenic / feral hour.
- I know that while you left beautiful comments on the grand doll house post (for which I was very grateful), you were surely humouring me when you said you liked the beer carton version. Right?
- I know I have a creative daughter. Despite being quite ill yesterday and wanting to just watch mummy make the furniture for her to play with, she did manage to make a car – unprompted and without assistance.
- I know this project would have been great for product placement. Now there’s an idea for brands!
So, I know that about now you’re itching to find out how to make the furniture. So here goes:
- Take an egg carton and a used toilet roll
- Cut out two of the cups from the egg carton and cover in coloured paper to make chairs. Cut the toilet roll in half and glue to a circle to make a table. We used a piece of foam from a craft bucket.
- Take a rectangle box (see the product placement photo) and open one end so the flaps become a bed head and bedside drawers. Cover with a piece of decorated paper for a bedspread. Fold paper over a straight piece of egg carton for a pillow.
- Take another rectangle box.
- Cover it in paper and draw on a sink, taps, cupboards and drawers.
- Use a Kinder Surprise toy container for a… loo. Yes, we don’t have an oven, but we have a dunny. And it’s in the bedroom. Let’s hope bowel movements happen in the mornings.
- Positioned right where people can see through the window. Classy.
- Assemble it all into the house and… ta da! Fit for a princess… who probably just wants to curl up in the bed right now and sleep. Poor little girl.
Does your child have a doll house – made or bought? Or maybe one of those cool two-storey car parks with a ramp?

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August 26, 2011
SLEEP CHALLENGE: The secret to getting your children to love bedtime

Ella as she was dressed at the beginning of the night.

STILL battling a feral teething, sleepless baby, I thought I’d tackle something more positive for this month’s Sleep Challenge. Like, how to get your children to love bedtime. Apologies if you just choked on your Weetbix. I say positive, because I’m pretty thankful the princesses are in bed by 7pm and happy to be there. What’s our secret?

It’s something we heard from some expert on a radio program a few years back and since adopting it, it’s turned bedtime around for us. Baby Holly is still a little young for this to be of any effect, but it’s ideal for three-year-old Ella.

Rather than throwing them over your shoulder, legs kicking and screaming so loud it makes the neighbours contemplate calling Family Services, we do the bedtime routine – milk, books and songs. OK, nothing new there. Unless, of course, you include the addition of jokes. Knock knock jokes to be exact. Humdingers like:

Ella: “Knock knock’’

Dad: “Who’s there?’’

Ella: “Ben.’’

Dad: “Ben who?’’

Ella: “You’d better go and ben-d down or you’ll spread Vegemite all over your face. Hahaha!’’

Not so thankful for those jokes. But I digress.

The key is then leaving on her night light and allowing her to read or play quietly until she’s sleepy. I know, not very groundbreaking. But it works. The idea is that kids should be allowed to go to sleep when they’re ready. They shouldn’t be forced to go to sleep when they’re not sleepy. This turns the whole experience into a positive one.

So now, we do our bedtime routine, tell her to read or play and that we’ll check in on her in 10 minutes. Sometimes when we go back in she’s out to it. Usually she’s upside down and wearing half her dress up box. But she’s in bed asleep, none the less. Other times she has all her “friends’’ (aka teddies and dolls) lined up in bed and a book turned outwards as she reads to them. She even does the “licking your finger’’ thing before turning pages.

Sure, there are periods where she keeps getting out of bed. “I need a wee. I need something to drink. I need… attention!’’ We just adopt the reward system – if you don’t get out, you get a reward at the end of the week. For us, it works.

PS. This post was inspired by a Twitter conversation about what time your children go to bed, with Lina from Mother’s Love Letters, Megan from Writing Out Loud (whose daughter “asked’’ to go to bed at 6.30pm last night), Alli from Motivating Mum (who responded with “What! I wish!’), Kirsty from Mummy To Five (who has five in bed by 7pm) and Sarah from Whisper Mum’s The Word. It was then taken to Facebook, where it exploded.

The consensus was 6.30-7.30pm. A few were 8-8.30pm. Some moved sleep times later as their children got older.

Read more from the Sleep Challenge.

Linking up with the lovely Kate Says Stuff’s Thankful Thursday. Click on the link to find out what others are thankful for this week.

August 25, 2011
Alphabet Photography Challenge – T

T is for Toys. How many T’s can you count?

Photo by Hege Nolan

Hege is a South Melbourne-based photographer. She’s been taking photos for a long time, but hasn’t taken the plunge to leave the office and do it full time. She is currently shooting with a Canon EOS 50D, with a couple of different lenses and a speedlite. You can find see more of Hege’s work on Red Bubble.

If you would like to contribute a photo to the Alphabet Photography Challenge, a series of posts aimed at being a “look and find” activity for children learning the alphabet, please email.

Linking up with My Little Drummer Boys’ Wordless Wednesday. Click on the link to check out more photo posts.

August 24, 2011
Cherish your cherubs: Recording my princesses’ lives
Best friends and sisters

LONG-time readers may remember the Happiness Project I took part in, courtesy of Naomi from Seven Cherubs. She’s now started another project, this time titled Cherish Your Cherubs. It will run over six weeks with a different weekly task – record, remember, interview, praise, write and affection.

The assignment for this week was to Record what your cherubs are like right now. Naomi posed some questions to think about before writing, but I thought I’d just answer those questions directly.

Here they are:

Ella, nearly four years old (just ask her), intelligent, funny and a giggle pot. She possesses great empathy and love towards others.
1. Her interests: singing, dancing and talking… lots of it!
2. What she likes: She is obsessed with ABC Reading Eggs, which is an online tool to help children from 4-7 years read. She was flying through it, until our free subscription ran out. Looks like I’ll be subscribing!
3. What she dislikes: Baked beans.
4. Favourite food: Steak. Yes, expensive taste.
5. Favourite game to play: Snap, which is actually Fish. I taught her Snap, then called it Fish, now she refuses to accept it’s not called Snap.
6. Favourite saying: Other than “I’m huuuungry’’, she ends nearly every sentence with “OK?’’ (said with a slight drawl) For eg, “I need something to eat, OK?’’, “I need to go to the toilet, OK?’’
7. Favourite song: Justine Clarke’s I Love To Sing and Play School’s Put Your Finger On Your Finger On Your Finger – just that particular verse… over and over again.
8. Favourite television show: Despite hearing quite a bit of “to your stations, Octonauts’’, I am rather happy to say it’s still ol’ favourite, Play School.
9. Favourite book: This changes too frequently, mainly because we go to the library most Saturdays. Today it would be Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy.
10. Favourite friend: Definitely her baby sister. She loves her like she loves no other. As far as non-related friends, she has a bestie at school (aka child care) who she keeps inviting to come for a sleepover. When I ask where she’d sleep, she replies: “my bean bag’’.
Holly, 10 months old, happy, easy going and pretty adept at meeting the physical milestones early. Loves to give kisses.
1. Her interests: Dancing and singing. Can you see a theme here? Already, she rocks it out when music plays and starts making a “ahhhh’’ noise.
2. What she likes: Boobie juice and the sight of mum, dad or her sister first thing after waking up.
3. What she dislikes: Sleep… still.
4. Favourite food: Steak. Where do these girls get their taste from?
5. Favourite game to play: Peek-a-boo.
6. Favourite saying: “Dad dad’’. Although, I am proud to add that today (what timing, hey) there was a clear and distinct “mum’’. Yay!
7. Favourite song: When her sister sings Put your finger on your finger on your finger.
8. Favourite television show: OK, so she’s not old enough for TV just yet, but she has been known to become a little glued to the box when Toy Box comes on.
9. Favourite book: Growl. Eeerytime the word “growl’’ is read, she responds with “grrrr’’. Cute.
10. Favourite friend: Her big sister. Clearly. Apart from when she gets in her face too much and then she doesn’t want a bar of her.
What traits do you love about your cherubs? Can you relate to any of the above?

Read more Cherish Your Cherubs: Record posts.
August 23, 2011
Grateful for the moment things go wrong

THIS week’s Grateful For post was all planned out in my head. It was going to be an absolutely cracking read – as always. However, something happened last minute today that made me use the word “grateful’’ in a sentence. So I’m posting about that instead.

OK, let’s start from the beginning:

End of June: Ella’s child health nurse played some fun eye games with Ella before dropping the bomb – Ella was slightly vision impaired in her left eye. Probably not worth a whole post, but that’s what you got.

August 4: We were given a referral to a specialist, who happened to be on holidays. So we got his registrar. After the saddest face I’ve seen on Ella in a while after having drops and bright lights flashed in her eyes, we were told the news I’d been dreading – Ella would need glasses.

August 10: Finally got around to getting her to the optometrist to choose what were going to be “pink glasses like Rhapsody from The Fairies’’. I had fears it would end up looking more like Esme Watson from A Country Practise. However, I couldn’t find the prescription. I swear, it wasn’t me. Like a kid who lost her homework, I had to call for another. I mustered up the courage, only to be told that (for reasons I won’t go into), Ella would need to be retested. *sigh*

August 17: The female specialist revealed Ella was slightly long sighted in her left eye. OK, a little more information is good. With these results, the senior specialist then came in and said he’d like to see her himself two days later. OK, should I now be worried?

Yesterday: We played doctors and nurses, putting “raindrops’’ (Ella’s term) in patient Ella’s eyes for much of the day (there’s nothing like a bit of role playing to make the real task easier). That night I scored the wishbone from the chicken at dinner. “What’s your wish, Mum?’’ Ella asked. “I can’t tell, or it won’t come true,’’ I said.

Today: After successfully getting the “raindrops’’ in both eyes and making it to the specialist without too much panic, 10 minutes later he announces my wishbone wish had come true: “Ella doesn’t need glasses’’. What? Seriously? I have been through all that and now… nothing? More correctly, we had the choice to give her glasses and see if it improved the slight prescription she has or do nothing. After 90 seconds of silence, he then said: “I don’t think we’ll worry about glasses.’’ Ahhhhh, such relief…..

She will have to return in December for another check up (will keep you posted) but for now, at least, it seems glasses – and the Esme Watson look – are not a part of her life.

So, the moral of this story is that sometimes when things go wrong they can actually turn out to be something you are truly grateful for.

I’m joining with Maxabella Loves to share what I’m grateful for.

August 19, 2011
How to make a doll house from a cardboard box (take 2)
I KNOW sometimes you post an innocent little doll’s house made from a cardboard box on your blog and it becomes one of your blog’s most searched items via Google. I know that I’m really wishing I hadn’t actually made that doll’s house out of a … beer carton. Yes, there’s been some hugely disappointed Google searchers land on that post.

So, finally, I’ve found some time to upgrade the doll family from its humble abode into a nicer and bigger home – this time via a much classier postal box. Which, quite frankly could have been used to send off a parcel and save me money. But anyway, Google takes precedence.

So, if you came to this blog looking for a doll’s house made out of a cardboard box, here it is:

If you want to see the old one, then make sure you’re sitting down before you check it out. There’s some nudie action happening over there.

Anyhow, here’s what I know about building a grand doll’s house fit for a princess (as opposed to a bogan, as the beer carton house was):
- Take a Bx4 postal box (430mm x 305mm x 140mm) cardboard box.
- Take blank sheets of paper, a ruler and pencil and draw lines horizontally across each. Then make vertical lines between them to make bricks (see photo). Glue these to the entire outside surface of the box.
- Cut a door into the front of the box and draw, then cut out, a window.
During the weekend, we’ll be attempting to make some furniture for the Little Princess who has taken up residence in the grand doll’s house.

Do your children play with boxes? What have you made together?

I’m linking up with Yay for Home as part of Things I Know.
August 19, 2011