I dressed myself & this is what I picked...

Chai is 4 and a half and is proudly wearing red and pink today.
She loves the ox top and always says "be strong, eat spinach!" when she puts it on..... if only she followed her own good advice!
Everything can be found at bpab! (Totally her choice, I promise!!)
Red Chalk Ox Top in red $44.00
Monstar Kids Pink Zig Zag Skirt $34.00
Red Chalk Leggings in red $22.00

Email me your photos of your munchkins wearing or playing with anything from bpab and we'll pop them up on our rainbow blog (so they get famous!!) and I'll send you a little present for your efforts. Yay!
* Include your postal address and name, age of child in photo.

reading papier mache

I got to this page and loved what it said! If you can't quite make it out, click on the pic. for a better view. Papier Mache is a bi-yearly on-line magazine you can read and not have to wonder what to do with when you've finished with it!
Yeah... I'm a sucker for mags, especially the home decorating kind and of course kiddo ones (being in the business...), but I have too many stacked against the wall! I've decided to give away my old ones - in tact. I'm scanning the pages I love (for ideas, inspiration, etc) onto my computer and thus creating a hefty folder of images to look at when I want to.... and save floor and wall space! Hooray!
So it's always nice to discover another magazine on-line, but I can't help curling up on the couch with a good glossy either.......... well now I have a guilt-free plan!

Eye Spy.... Beauty

These eyes say beauty to me.... they're Mat's and I love looking into them every day!
They're green and sometimes have a hint of orange-brown near the center of the pupil.
All us girls have chocolate brown eyes........ so Mat's are more mesmerising.


This week's theme brought to you by Sheep's Clothing.... thank you!
Click on the Eye Spy link to your left to enjoy more beauty.

Kiddie Craft: Make a Sparkly wand!

Grab some sturdy cardboard and draw or trace a star. Cut it out.

Grab some supplies to make the wands: silver foil (to cover the star and stick), a stick (use nature!), sticky tape, glue, glitter, coloured paper shapes (I had some stars already cut out from another project), ribbon (all for decorating the star).

Cut some silver foil twice as big as the star. Cut some slits in the foil to help you mould the foil around your star.

The front of a covered star. (The back doesn't need to be fully covered with foil)

Time to let the kids decorate their star! We used a glue stick to cover the front of the star.....

... with glitter and coloured paper stars!

Grab the stick and cut a wide bit of foil to cover it. Wrap the foil around the stick and mould into shape. I love how the organic shape of the stick adds some quirkiness to the look.

Place the stick onto the back of the star and use sticky tape to hold it in place.

Tie a ribbon (or stretchy lace as we've done here) around the stick, near the top and you're done!

Now time to play fairies, wizards and elves! Yay!!

The Organic Expo is on this weekend at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.(Victoria)
I'm going this afternoon to the trade only day.... gonna see what's out there, personally and for bpab.
What could be better than Organic??
Pop down to see all the organic goodies on offer.... lots more these days!

My plan is to drop the kids off to nanny and poppy's for the usual play-fest (read: chocolate indulgence to the max!) and leave the car there and take the tram in to the city. Aren't I a good girl? Hopefully it stays sunny for the whole day.....

Eye Spy.... something I should use

A glue gun! I've got a growing collection of broken things that need to be fixed by glue.... I just have to remember to ask my sister for a lend of her glue gun.... soon it seems!

Oh look - my trusty sewing machine! I should start using it on a regular basis. At the moment she looks at me adoringly from on top of one of the dining room tables, in the corner, where all the rest of my sewing stuff is, in boxes..... oh dear.

Blank canvases. Had been hunting these for a while and finally found some square ones at a $5 shop at a good price. Some will be for use for alphalfabeetroot letter wall art - but I've got other ideas for the others.... so I should use them then, eh??

Other things that directly come to mind that I should use:
vacuum cleaner
feather duster (while wearing a black maids outfit I guess)
my body (in a more physical sense.... it sits in the same position a lot come to think of it and would benefit from more physical activity) - so that adds:
my bike
stretching book
local walking track
sneakers....

my weekly planner.... I wonder where that is??

Wow, this is a really depressing eye spy! I think I need some chocolate....
Thanks to The Bird Bath for this weeks 'revealing' theme (don't worry, I'm not really that sad and I don't blame you at all.... really!)
Head over to Bug And Pop's for more procrastinating fun!

Right time to get off this computer (and comfy chair) and enjoy my Sunday, with my family. It's sunny right now. Lots of beautiful gifts to enjoy today. Enjoy yours. xx

Winner of Red Chalk item of clothing is.....

That's BELINDA! Yay!!
Belinda you get to choose 1 item from the Red Chalk range as your prize.
Thanks for entering AND twittering about this give away.

Thanks to everyone else who entered and promoted this give away.
I'll be leaving you a comment on your blog or something on a very special deal, as our way of saying thanks for participating! Stay tuned. x
(if you entered and don't have a blog, please email me at info[at]beyondpinkandblue[dot]com )

Eye Spy... favourite childhood party games

(pass the parcel at Chai's 1st birthday party, with daddy playing the music on guitar)

We've always loved throwing parties... for birthdays mainly. Since the girls have come along, we've had to all take turns on the party front, as they've become rather huge and 'themes' always come into the equation!
My favourite party games from childhood are pass the parcel and musical chairs. Funny they both involve moving to music. We still play pass the parcel at the kiddie parties.... it's become a standard I think.

Thanks to Princess Kristie Jane for this weeks theme (yeah... I'm late this week!).
Head over to Bug and Pop's for more players.

Happy Little Tummies yummy cakes

An old friend of ours has re-emerged into our lives and I found out that she makes these wonderful cakes!
Melanie makes and decorates cupcakes, birthday cakes and cakes for any occassion using certified organic ingredients, all-natural food colours and of course no preservatives or other chemicals. This means she can whip you up something that's GLUTEN FREE! (insert any other food sensitivity here)
Happy Little Tummies is based in Cheltenham, Victoria.
Looks like I won't need to bother making the birthday cakes anymore! Chai has her eye on this doll one already.....
at least I know the kids will be eating a good ol' "wholesome" cake and not running around like crazy scary monsters! You know what I'm talking about....

Recycling unwanted CD cases - TRD style

As Mr bpab is a musician, we've got millions upon gazillion CDs.... but not enough room to house them all in their cases. So ages ago we decided to slim line our collection and get rid of all the big plastic cases and keep the cds with their paper paraphanalia together in double sided slips. All nice and cosey now!!
But we then had all these CD cases to deal with......
Mr bpab came up with a brilliant idea and has made an ad for one of his tunes.
Enjoy and pass it on!



Check out more of The Ribbon Device and download their music... so you can save on plastic.

I want to know!

I posed this statement with the following questions in the July newsletter:

1. The BRANDS / PRODUCTS you love that we already have at bpab (and want us to keep stocking or order again, if it's out of stock at the moment)
2. Any BRANDS you want bpab to stock and why
3. Any products (specific or just general) bpab should be stocking for you. I know we have gaps and don't cover all categories, so it would be great to find out what our lovely customers would like us to have.
4. What's important to you- organic, fair trade, Australian made, imported, hand made, originality, colour(!)...

You can email me with some answers if you want. I'd like to have a bit of feedback from genuine customers (um and not potential suppliers.....) and have a bit of an idea what you want at bpab.
I'll be attending a few Trade Fairs in the next couple of months to see what's out there.
So over to you!