5/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, every week of the year...

Quote of the (following) day...

S: I wish this family wasn't mine.

Quote of the day...

S: I love you, you're still my favourite mummy

4/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

FURTHER TRAVEL TALES: Tanami Treasure

In a near forgotten past and in a life before children, there was a young girl who wandered without bags under her eyes but with a bag on her back. Here she returns to notes she made within the haunting beauty of the Australian outback, recalling an encounter with Aborigines.

3/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

My new clay pencil holder!

2/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

...choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

The Nutcracker - Our first ever ballet

LIFE AS IT IS resumes

The house was finished on the 23rd of December and we moved back into the kitchen on Christmas Eve. Talk about cutting it fine. Fortunately, the tree had gone up the week before just as soon as the newly laid floor was down. The sight of the children decorating it all by themselves for the first year ever was enough to catapult me into the Christmas spirit that had been missing up until then. Of course, things remained undone, such as the mistletoe which never made it to the ceiling, and the fresh wreath that never found the front door. Not to mention the lack of decorations about the house - sparse in comparison to Christmases gone before. But the point is, after eight weeks of extension build and alterations, we got there. And Christmas 2015 was indeed one to remember. Together, in our beautiful new home.

Hello Nature - A book review

Just want to mention this book that I've come across recently, 'suitable for all nature enthusiasts over 8'. A book that is packed with fascinating facts and brilliant activities, and if it could, would fit perfectly into the green science and nature wedge in Trivial Pursuit.

Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti is all to do with drawing, colouring, making and growing, and answers fantastic questions that children are bound to ask along the way, such as... What is the difference between a frog and a toad? How are snowflakes formed? Can you identify a tree from its leaves? And Fia's personal favourite: Why do snails make slime?

Nina Chakrabarti urges children to explore the weird and wonderful things they can find all around them. Perfect for all enquiring minds, this book is a breath of fresh air - bringing the outdoors inside.

The paper used, and the size of the book, along with the doodle style illustrations, give it a rather wonderful 'scrapbook' connotation. If I'm honest, it's the sort of year long diary I wished I had created in childhood, (or in 2015).

Simply exquisite, don't you just love Laurence King for making the ordinary, extra-ordinary?

Priced: £12.95
Written by: Nina Chakrabarti
Published by and available from: Laurence King
© 2016 Nina Chakrabarti

01/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...