I was very lucky to receive a copy of Rachael Oglesby's new book 'Crochet Boutique: 30 simple, stylish hats, bags and accessories' to have a look at. Rachael is a very talented crochet designer and her projects are very current so I was happy to learn that she also has a blog called Softspoken that I'm excited to go and explore. 

Anyway back to the book, although I knew I'd love this book from the cover I find the best way to review a crochet book is to dig straight in and try one of the projects...

These are the books we've loved over the past month and here's why...

I was very happy to receive a copy of Everything Oz: The Wizard Book of Makes and Bakes by Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech to review. I love the idea of creating craft books around well loved tales and I have often referred to their last book Everything Alice for crafty inspiration so I knew I'd enjoy it.

I was keen to give one of the projects a go straight away and Monday being rainy and grey I set out to find something that Lulu and I could do together and as we happen to have an abundance of hay following Oli's cowboy party the 'No Brainer Scarecrow' seemed like the perfect project...

Here's why...

World Book day is nearly here again (March 1st), Oli has already come home excited with his £1 book voucher, so I thought I'd do another book post.  Last year I went a bit crazy trying to pin down my favourite book EVER and completely stressed myself out! This year I've kept it simple by selecting the favourite books we've read this month - much easier!

...Well not really but as today is world book day and being an ardent book lover I thought it would be a great opportunity to share a couple of our favourite books. Our home is filled with books and I couldn't be without them, the children have also, to my delight, grown to be enthusiastic book lovers.  We have bookcases in most rooms (small piles of books can usually be found in those without) and I've got to the stage now that a book only makes the bookshelf if it is truly special; those that don't make the shelf I swap with friends.

I thought for a while about which book I could call my favourite and decided I couldn't possibly narrow it down to 1 or even ten; I cherish novels alongside cookery books, history books, plays, poems, travel books...the list goes on.  So I thought for this post the children and I would pick one book each from our favourites to share...