Lego!

We are Lego mad in this house. My boys eat sleep and live for Lego. I'm quite pleased really as they prefer it to computer based games. They do like the lego website though, especially the design games.

Did you know?

LEGO is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well".

During the moulding process, the plastic is heated to 232C until its consistency is that of dough.

In 2003 LEGO changed the minifigure's yellow facial colouring with a more authentic skin colour.

In 2006 the LEGO website had an average of 8,137,062 individual visitors a month.

If you built a column of about 40,000,000,000 LEGO bricks, it would reach the moon.

On average there are 62 LEGO bricks for every person on earth.

The LEGO Club has 2.4m members worldwide.

There are 915 million ways to combine six LEGO bricks.

Approx. seven LEGO sets are sold each second.

Laid end to end, the number of LEGO bricks sold yearly would reach more than 5 times round the world.

http://www.webuser.co.uk/websites/online-fun-blog/websites/393104/10-amazing-lego-facts

This weeks featured shop in the crafty folk ETSY team is 'Colour me Fun' .

Creating bright, fun, educational, and original crayons for children as well as the bigger "kids" in your life. Making styles from ballet slippers to dinosaurs.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ColourMeFun

I created this lego inspired treasury today and was amazed at the variety of items inspired by the famous toy. So tonights a lego night then.

The Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

I've finally finished reading this novel!

After reading 'The House of the Spirits' a few years ago I have been an avid reader of Isabel Allende. I haven't however found any in the same style, until now.

Yes, it was interesting reading autobiographical work such as 'Paula' and short stories from 'Eva Luna' but I love the family saga style novels best and this met all my expectations.

In 'The Island under the Sea' we journey with  Zarite, who weaves a tale of slavery across generations and continents. Zarite is a strong central character who shows amazing strength and love in times of crisis. There are also fun, colourful characters such as the loveable rogue 'Sancho' and characters that are so perfectly human in that they are complex and flawed such as Valmorian.I felt a range of emotions towards this character as the book progressed, disgust, anger, and pity to name just a few.

The story is initially set in Haiti and I found the historical details about the revolution fascinating to read about. Later the story moves to New Orleans and suddenly the French link to the city made sense!

This is a good old fashioned proper story and I can't recommend it enough.

Of course you don't have to read it in Spanish!

Every year as a child my parents always used to ask me what I wanted for Christmas and every year was the same. Book tokens! I think my mindset has changed slightly now though as no way would I pay full price for a book. I love the charity shop collections and prefer to read something slightly off beat than a blockbuster that everyone is reading.

So what to buy a bookworm for Christmas as well as book tokens?

WoodenNickelsJewelry  

Themed jewelry that tells a story

EpicDesignsDecor  
Wall art, graphics, stickers, home decor vinyl

RunningInPlace  
Handmade Scrabble® tile jewelry pendants and more!

Raffle Results!

Black Friday through Cyber Monday was a mad selling weekend and yes it was my busiest ever! I think I got all the packages to the right people and hopefully they have all arrived safely. I've been trying out some new ideas with packaging as in the UK the item has to fit though a hole to get a lower rate of postage. The postie recommended corrugated card instead of bubble wrap.He even game me a bundle to use. I hope this has worked out for everybody. Please let me know if not.

Anyway over the weekend anyone that bought an item got a raffle ticket and I have finally drawn them in a santa hat of course. (none of that newfangled number generator business!)

Numbers in!

Number out!

Daisy is on it's way to ticket holder 11

Thanks for playing everyone. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Remember blog readers can always use 'blog10'for 10% off purchases in my ETSY shop.

There's still time before last posting.