Send Teegs To Mexico

Being part of the blogging community, you get to know really awesome people. Like you. And you. And you dear reader.


AND like Tegan. I 'met' Tegan of Ink & Spindle fame - gosh, must be at least four years ago. She is vivacious, tenacious, enthuasiastic, uber talented, intelligent and beautiful to boot. And she's funny.

Teegs has the opportunity to travel to Mexico for a traditional Mexican textile artist residency. If you can help fund her trip that would be so super ace. You can pledge as little as $1 to help her on her way.

I will let her video do the talking, because she is good at that too. Very eloquent. WOOT!

Click here to help send Teegs abroad and continue her learning and her art-making.

LEGO Celebrates 50 Years In Australia

Fifty years ago, a man named John Peddie landed in Sydney carrying a briefcase of LEGO. I don't know whether he brought any clothes to change into - Sydney can be humid, it's wise to travel with spare clothes. But nope - John arrived with a suitcase of LEGO to introduce us Aussies to the humble brick.


John, who is still a member on the Australian LEGO Board of Directors said: "The brand name LEGO comes from the Danish expression 'Leg Godt', which translates as 'play well'. When first arriving in the country, this was my mission, to encourage Australia to 'play well' and it remains the same today."


To celebrate the 50th anniversary, LEGO are hosting a series of events all inspired by the iconic LEGO bricks. There are loads of ways to become involved - which we will be doing our utmost to be part of! We live and breath LEGO. It's part of our daily routine - and that's about to ramp up! 


Did you know that every Australian owns an average of 70 LEGO bricks? We have much, much more. In fact we've probably got about 70 Australians worth of LEGO. That's a heck of a lotta LEGO.


Meanwhile, you should totes check out the website, because I just have the hunch something is brewing over there. Something good is brewing. 


This is not a sponsored post. I love LEGO. You love LEGO. We can all LEGO love together.

LAMB

You really must check out this new clip made to advertise lamb for Australia Day. Featuring Melissa Tkautz. And the Justice Crew. It's solid gold.

Support Your Local:: Shop Loyal

I am one of those people that loves bookshops. I love the smell of them. The look of them. I love spending time in them. I love meandering down the aisles, picking up books, flicking through them, finding hidden gems, smelling those crisp new pages, those new images. I love my kids being able to look at books, find new favourites. Explore classics. Feel those pages. I've got so many happy bookshop memories, and I remember where most of my books are bought from, which holidays, who I was with.

But apparently, you're not going to be able to do that in five years time if we keep spending like we do. I'm not going to be able to do that. You're not. My kids aren't. No one can.

Pip wrote about this a month or so ago. About supporting local booksellers. (I can't find the link but if you do, it's worth a read).

And we're all too aware of the demise of Angus & Robertson. The loss of local jobs. The loss of livelihoods. And the loss of books.

But it's not just books that are going to be burnt if we continue to spend our dollars offshore.

It's all our local sellers that are hurting. Losing business. Losing their livelihood.

And you're there thinking - well I save dollars! I like a bargain. I like mail!

Ever wondered why all our retailers seem to be on this endless merry-go-round of sale after sale after sale? Oh yeah. Because we're all too busy online shopping and receiving the cheap thrill of a parcel in the mail.

And if you think it's ok to peruse the shelves of a local retailer - scout out the goods - and then go home to Google and buy it online? Think again. Show some integrity! As my sister so eloquently puts it here - you're using and abusing locals. Your neighbours. Your friends.

So despite the fact I couldn't find the book that I wanted on the weekend, and I could go online and buy it in a snap, I've called a local bookseller to order it in. It does cost a little more, but it's worth it to help keep someone's livelihood afloat. I'll miss out on mass consumerism happily, and enjoy the things I buy local, in the hope that my kids, your kids and our fellow Australians can keep on experiencing the happy joy of the smell of a bookshop, or that cute little shop you so love to visit.

Or if the lure of that parcel arriving in the mail is still there, indulge in some ace local shops that I know can more than fill the void:

- ecobabe

- Calico & Ivy

- Georgie Love

- The Children's Bookshop (Jodes is right, I visit here weekly, amazing selection - they have a bricks & mortar store, but you can order online and over the phone)

- Little Pinwheel

- Style Milk

Spend how you want to spend, but if we all thought about where that money goes, the end outcome, and the thought that if we don't spend local, we're going to move closer to a recession and less beautiful local shops to peruse, then we can all spend smarter.

image via