Thank You for Curious George

Curious George, by H.A. Rey is a current favorite in our bedtime story routine. Little Miss has had me read it to her nearly every night this week. I picked up this particular copy from my local children's charity shop several months ago, but I hadn't noticed the inside inscription until tonight:

"February, 2000

For Curious - Lucas on your first birthday.

Love Aunt Fran & Uncle Marty"

A part of me is a little sad & nostalgic that this book was given away when it was an obvious thoughtful gift for a special little boy. But another part of me is very happy that it made it's way into our home so that Little Miss and I can enjoy it over and over again as a family.

So thank you to Aunt Fran & Uncle Marty (whoever you are) for the gift that keeps on giving!

New! Little Liberty & DVF for GapKids

I am so in trouble! 

Not one, but two of my favorite fashion sources are launching new clothes for kids.

Liberty of London (one of my favorite English department stores) is launching Little Liberty, their brand new children's department, on Feb 23 at their Regent Street store. According to their site, it's 2000 sq feet of clothing, toys, accessories and books for little ones. I must clear my diary now.

Here are some of my Little Liberty favorites:

Petite Bateau Striped Sailor Dress 

Barbour Rose Liberty Print jacket

Limited edition Liberty Bugaboo Chamleon. Win it here.

On March 15th, Diane Von Furstenberg is launching a collection for GapKids. I'm a huge fan of DVF's classic wrap dresses (can you say buh bye to mummy tummy?) so why not a mini version for Little Miss?

Here are some of my DVF favorites:

image via scoopcharlotte

images via downtownmagazinenyc

Oh, thank goodness for little girls and their little girl designers :)

Rainy Saturday Afternoon Activity

As some may know, a typical winter day here in the UK is cold, grey, wet & dreary. So what do you do with a restless toddler? Break out the craft supplies! Little Miss must have learned how to use a glue stick in nursery so I pulled some random bits out of the craft box and let her go to town.

All the colors were inspired by her outfit of course :) 

It's Spring Cleaning Time!

I am a huge fan of SimpleMom.net and have been following Tsh's helpful and inspirational stories since I became a new mom. I was so happy to see that she is running Project: Simplify 2012. The idea is to break down Spring cleaning into easy and manageable chunks for each week during the month of March.

I recently cleaned out my dresser and closet (using a similar process to this) and found the whole experience really exhausting. I took me nearly two full days and I ended up donating about 8 huge shopping bags full of stuff to charity. However, I am really grateful that I did it because now I can actually see and access all my clothes and even have room to buy more!

Anyway, I digress. I don't want to lose the organzing momentum that I have so I think this will be a great home project for March. I'm actually very excited to do this so crossing fingers that I follow-through!

Here's a quick breakdown of the to-do list:

• Week of March 5: Kids’ stuff—toys, clothes, and the like (really need to do this!)
• Week of March 12: Kitchen and/or pantry (maybe just the kiddy dishes and sippy cup cabinet)
• Week of March 19: Closets, countertops, and drawers (can you say junk drawer?)
• Week of March 26: Choose your own adventure—you pick your most-needed hot spot (I'm thinking my office/desk space or maybe my craft suppies)