Our Little Book Nook

We love books in this house and have been reading out loud to our munchkins since day dot.
Books have become a very important and treasured part of our daily routines,pleasure and play.

We have books in most rooms in our house including bookcases in both munchkins bedrooms, so it was only natural that I looked in amazement at the beautiful spaces when I stumbled across the blog my little bookcase ideas and be filled with inspiration for our house.

I saw the opportunity to nurture our love of books and create our own special space to read, imagine, play, laugh, cry, relax, learn, listen and retreat into a world of books taking us on journeys of the book kind.

You can go anywhere you want with a book and some imagination and I wanted a space where we could capture this on the cheap.

Two weeks later I have started on our space and it's very much loved already, I tried to work with places and things we already had and let the creative juices flow :)

This is what I have come up with so far....

This is a corner of our lounge room (only carpeted room of our house), to the right of this space is a large L shaped lounge and to the left is our foyer.

The book shelf has always been here but the floor space has mostly been used for a space to store or sit toys. It didn't occur to me to take a before shot :( sorry.

Here is how we changed and added to the space:

• rearranged mummy and daddy's book so the bottom shelf was cleared for a selection of the munchkins books.
• Cleared the floor space and moved a large bean bag from another area of the lounge room for a comfy reading seat.
• Reused a woven basket to hold our library books, keeping the separate from the others and forward facing. These books get changed ever 2 weeks after our most beloved trip to the library.
• The munchkins helped me select 2 book buddies (Lou Lou the golly wog and Henry the Teddy bear) to sit on a basket along with 2 small baby blankets that are no longer in use now that our munchkins are a tad older. I assume the book buddies with change every now and again so we can read to new toys and share our book space with them.
• A homemade Dr Seuss cushion was placed in the space for comfort and another way to make the space as book territory, also adding colour and character. More cushions will come in time, I'm thinking some big floor cushions of some kind.
• A little peoples plastic playhouse has been stored beside the bookcase for an opportunity to incorporate our little people toys into our stories and to play out books (the little people are stored in a nearby toy box)
• 9 old mix matched photo frames have been saved from the world of dust and cupboards and been revamped with paint we already had. The munchkins helped select images from a few of their favorite books to place on the wall. A trip to Office works and $8.40 later we had some beautiful colour photocopies ready to frame and hang (using picture hooks we had).

So far this is the extent of the transformation but there will be more...I just don't know what yet but will update you at a later date.
An idea's are very much welcome but in the meantime we are loving our new space and I think our book time has improved and extended, less TV being watched (yay) and more imagination and dramatic play on a daily basis :D

Do you have a book space in your house?

Selected images for the wall:

Puff the Magic Dragon, The cat in the Hat, Koala Lou,

Ten Little fingers and Ten Little Toes,

Hairy Maclary and Zachery Quack,

Anamalia, Green eggs and ham,

Each Peach Pear Plum and Blinky Bill.

Miss Thalia enjoying the new space :)

Little man's Camping queries

 On a recent visit to one of our local second hand shops something caught my attention while I purused the children's books.

I often scan the shelf/table to see if there are any good old favorites or interesting reads for our little family.

On this particular day it was this book:
Just me and my Dad. by Mercer Mayer

At a glance and quick leaf of the pages it looked liked the perfect purchase-  a book centered around bonding time with Dad and a good introduction to camping, seeing as we are making our first family camping adventure with some   

friends next month.

Yes you read correctly, we are embarking on a tent sleeping, food prep lacking a real kitchen for a whole weekend with 2  food sensitive/allergic toddlers, only 1 of those who will be sleeping in the walls of a port-a-cot!

I'm actually not that scared though....I think?

When I get the food plan sorted I'll start relaxing I guess, as I am still getting used to the new recipes that are coming with the elimination diet.

Back to the book - I've added pic's of some of the pages so you can see the beautiful illustrations too

 Well it wasn't long before Declan and I had a read, in the comfort of the lounge all snuggled up ...Mummy started to read.

Declan was eager to hear about more about this camping thing that I had tried to explain to him at an earlier date and he wanted in on it.
So on we read both wanting to know what was coming next (Mummy hadn't read it before buying as it was only 50 cents!!!!! BARGIN).

All the usual camping activities unfolded on the pages-
picking the camping site, 'attempting' to pitch the tent, lighting the campfire, riding in a canoe, fishing for dinner, catching the prized fish, wildlife stealing the dinner and scrambled eggs................................EGGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Declan did a double take at the page, then looked at me with a very puzzled look.

"Mummy, not eggs....they make me sick!!!"

Mummy now realizing that Declan had put 2 and 4 together and got 10...getting very muddled and thinking that Camping means you eat eggs for dinner, obviously not a good reason for him to come camping!!

Mummy soon reassured him that even though in the book they had eggs for dinner, it didn't mean when we went camping we would have eggs. In fact we would be having much more tasty foods :)

Big sighs came from Declan and a resounding "Thanks Mummy!" *cuddles*

Declan still asks for the "camping book" to be read and he enjoys it even more, now understanding that he can eat "safe food" when we go camping.

He also reminds Mummy about his food requirements when we leaf over to the "egg page" :P

It's nice to see him becoming more aware of his allergies, even when someone hasn't pointed it out to him first.

In the last month or so he is also becoming more aware and talking about his besties (best friends) food intolerance's.

Most mornings at breakfast he will loudly proclaim that "Declan and For-Lia (Thalia) eat cows milk"

to which Mummy silently thinks 'Thank goodness for that!!'

Then Declan is quick to add that "Mummy, Austin doesn't have cow's milk he has special milk, cow's milk makes Austin sick!!"

I'm so glad Declan has a special friend that he can relate to on an allergy level, although the boys allergies are different, they have been around each other from birth and each understand that they are both special in their own little way :)

Yay for Declan becoming more aware of situations around food, as well as becoming more aware about "safe food" for friends!!!

Lets not forget a little Yay for second hand books.

Quick tips: (from Robin Stewart's 'Chemical free home' book)

• to disinfect a germy second hand book just pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds with a glass of water
• If books get wet place them in the freezer until the water crystallises and can be easily brushed off pages.
• If books have a musty smell: place bicarb soda in a fine sieve, then dust the bicarb soda lightly between the pages. Leave for a few days, then blow away bicarb soda and the musty smell!!
• If your book has mildew: Sprinkle with cornflour or bicarb soda and leave for a few days. brush clean.