Keep the flowers, save the chocolate...I'll take a Waterstones window display this Valentine's PLEASE 💕🥹
What a gorgeous morning of self-love, book love, craft love and TREASURE! Thank you to the ever-wonderful @waterstones_swindon for hosting our Valentine's special Story Explorers today.
🐯🌊 I read My Mum's a Tiger and The Good Ship Bed before Pippin the Parrot swooped in with a message in a bottle, some hidden treasure and a bookmark craft to take home and decorate the stories we LOVE.
I relished the opportunity to dress in hearts, match my 6 year old and accessorise with solidarity too ✌🏻💕
Happy Valentine's Day!
#bookishlove #childrensstorytelling #valentinesoutfit #waterstones #swindonbusiness
🩵 From my family to yours, I can't wait to share another story of real life adventure with you.
🌊 The Good Ship Bed is the 3rd addition to our Really Rather Wild shelf, taking a warm and tender look at bedtime and bedsharing. As a family, we never did find the book that taught us the perfect bedtime routine, the one that explained how to deal with years of sleep deprivation, or the one that soothed the upset of a little one who just didn't want to sleep alone.
So, I've written something different. It probably won't solve all your sleep problems, but it will remind you that this won't last forever*, you're not alone and perhaps these aren't big problems after all 🩵
🐯 From families that celebrate the skin they're in, to families that create magic beyond their means. Single parent families, multi-generational families, really worn out sleepy families. I can't wait to add another book to the family and I hope you'll add it to yours too.
Set sail with us this November, pre-order your signed copy via our bio link now ✨📚
📷 Swipe for a look at some of our favourite family members
*6 years in and I'm still not in my own bed the whole night, but if I can function well enough to write a book about it then it can't be that bad ❤️
#TheGoodShipBed #MyMumsATiger #SearchingForARoarer #bedtimestory #kidsbookswelove #reallyratherwild #picturebooksaremyjam #inclusivebooksforkids #sundayshelfie #childrensstorytelling #childrensauthorsofinstagram #picturebookblogger #bedsharing #bedsharingbook
🍉❤️📚 Story Explorers x Swindon Palestine Solidarity 🇵🇸
A huge thank you to @swindonpalestinesolidarity for the wide variety of fundraising and awareness events you continue to put together ❤️ Today's Freedom Flotilla Fundraiser was abuzz with people from so many communities, coming together with art, story, food, music, and so much solidarity.
My books may have nothing to do with Palestine, but if selling them can contribute even a tiny bit then I'll be there every time. So pleased to be able to share some of my favourite picture books about Palestine and the importance of protest and using our voices too.
Thanks also to all the little Story Explorers who joined me to read A Map for Falasteen by @maysaodeh and @aliaabetawi before making your own map ships with words and wishes of solidarity as the wind in their sails ❤️🌊🇵🇸❤️
#swindonpalestinesolidarity #storyexplorers #freepalestine🇵🇸 #freedomflotilla #athousandships #amapforfalasteen #raisingconsciouskids #speakup
“Benim annem bir kaplan.” 🐅🤍
Eliz bunu herkese söylüyor. Çünkü annesinin çizgileri var. Ama annesi bir kaplan gibi yaşamıyor, sivri pençeleri ya da kuyruğu da yok.
Sonra yavaş yavaş anlıyoruz…
Bu hikâye aslında bedenimizi sevmek, bizi farklı yapan şeyleri utanmadan taşıyabilmek ve kendi izlerimizi güzellik olarak görebilmek üzerine sıcacık bir hikâye.
Eliz’in annesinin çizgileri, hamilelikte oluşan çatlaklar. Ve kitap bunu öyle doğal, öyle sevgi dolu bir yerden anlatıyor ki… çocuklara beden farklılıklarının utanılacak değil, insanı özel yapan şeyler olduğunu hissettiriyor.
En sevdiğim kısmı ise şu oldu:
Hayvanların desenlerini nasıl hayranlıkla izliyorsak, kendi “desenlerimize” de aynı sevgiyle bakabilmeyi hatırlatması. 🦓🐆🦒
Çocuklarla beden algısı, farklılıklar ve kendini kabul etmek üzerine konuşabilmek için çok kıymetli bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum. 🤍
📌 Sizce bizi özel yapan şey, tam da farklılıklarımız olabilir mi?
📌 Sizce sizin ruhunuz hangi hayvana benziyor? 🐆🤍
#çocukkitapları #bedenalgısı #ebeveyntavsiyesi #kitapönerisi #çocukkitapları
Swindon...some of the highest literacy needs in the country, but luckily also some of the best people working together, making it fun and giving choices!
Nabbed these slides from @literacy_trust national account to remind you that we have a local Lit Trust branch here in Swindon and they are always looking for volunteers to deliver story times, get involved in book hides, promote reading in your communities and MORE! Let me know if you want an introduction 🧡
Wild and fun ideas + great people working together to deliver them in the community = more engaged readers, writers and future happy, healthy humans ✨
🤔 What shall we dream up next...
🧡💯 Impossible to sum up the last week in one post or to show enough thanks to everyone in our local community who came together to help us pull this off, but hopefully this gives a glimpse.
Sir Sir David Attenborough... We dedicated a whole week to you, bae! Our King of storytelling, the voice of our planet, the (eco) vehicle for driving SO many touching, funny and inspiring conversations with Swindon school children from all around this blue planet. 🌎
4 schools, 250 children, 20+ great teachers, 250 birthday cards on wildflower seeded paper ready to bloom, 2 PowerPoints, 1 web page of Bee More David ideas, multiple small businesses doing their thing, 1 big birthday party, 1 town uniting and pledging to do their bit.
Beyond proud, beyond energised to keep going.
It's been a heavy, overwhelming and often depressing few months (years) but as I (slightly tipsily and slightly swearily, sorry) said on Friday night, we too can have such positive impacts on our community and planet when we come together to use our voices. Just Bee More David.
To my partner in Attenbae crime, @ivo_graham thank you for bringing the energy, encouragement, and big orange heart to this project. Swindon is lucky to have you in the pack 🐯
Thank yous:
The White Horse Federation
@the_croft_primary_school
Rodbourne Cheney Primary School
@gorsehillprimaryschool@droveprimaryschool@createstudiosdigital@tomjarthur@minutemanswindon@angelamayersillustration@brunch_club_swindon@honeywellbakes@thepencilnerd.co@littlegreenpapershop@twigs.communitygardens (coming soon)
👀 There's a LOT I don't understand about politics (don't get me started on how I think that's by design) and the fear of getting it wrong or outwardly, publicly supporting and encouraging a cause without fully understanding it is scary.
But I DO understand people and community.
I've been lucky enough to meet these people in various community settings and I've lurked in the WhatsApp group for months (and I don't looooove a busy WhatsApp group). What I've experienced is a sickening amount of support, positivity, passion for their town, its people and our planet, SO so much hard work and (for me) a sigh of relief that there are people like me and my family out there trying to represent us and the things we care about.
Repi, Rosie, Tom (and so many other people) it has been so inspiring to watch you go about your Green Bean campaign with fire and positivity, when we all know there was PLENTY of shade you could have thrown at opposition.
I'm sorry I didn't feel confident enough to go full campaign but I do feel confident in you and I hope that whatever happens today, you keep that fire and positivity because our town and towns all over the country need it.
I don't want to tell anyone how to vote, just that you must. Confident to say I'll be voting for people that happen to be Green 💚💚💚
@swindongreens@swindongreenpartykingshill@repi.rafike@tombutcher1990@swindonyounggreens@thegreenparty
Attenborough Week is almost upon us!
100 years of Sir Dave and Swindon MUST celebrate. We'll be working with schools every day this week (can't wait to share more about these workshops 🐝) and then @ivo_graham and I will be going full Dave Rave with our friends @createstudiosdigital on Friday night.
If you'd like to join us, final tickets are up on the Create website, let me know if you want the link and I'll also put it in stories!
The ultimate storyteller and the original wild one, we love you Sir Dave! 💚🌍
#attenborough100 #attenbae #swindon #childrensstorytelling #reallyratherwild
❤️🐻 A HUGE thank you and a big bear hug to anyone who donated a ted for the bear amnesty today, you the bears-t! ❤️🐻
I was so pleased to take 35 teds with me to the Kingsdown Crematorium 60th anniversary as part of the @wiltshire_treehouse picnic. The bears will be labelled up ready to bring untold comfort to a child attending a service there. I saw SO many cuddly contributions today, what a difference they will make 🥹❤️🐻 If you have a future clear out, please do consider them as they'll keep taking them!
📚 I read Searching for a Roarer and loved sharing with the children that this book was dedicated to my dad. You wouldn't really know, but there are nods to him throughout the book... The limb difference I've spoken about before, but he also worked nights and I always remember him drying things under his arm like this...@amble_draws did a gorgeous job of recreating this in Maleri's mum!
It was a privilege to have the strength and support to share my story in an emotive setting like this today. I know I wang on about community, but there really is a lot of love and care out there when we know where (and dare) to look, share each other's stories and offer up a (teddy) bear hug or two. Swindon shone in the sun today because of community...and very hardworking compassionate women ❤️
I've wanged on again, but do swipe to the end for my next fundraiser with Treehouse, my first grown-up workshop eeeeek! Share more soon ❤️
#wiltshiretreehouse #kingsdowncrematorium #teddybearspicnic #raisingreaders #swindoncommunity
I'm not Grace and she's not Ivy, but she IS Emily, the owner of beautiful beautiful florist and home fragrancer @graceandivyflorist and her first ever high street shop opens TONIGHT in Shrivenham.
Not only can you go and have a cute and cosy wedding consultation there or pick up some beautiful dried bunches, Emily is also stocking LOADS of local makers and gifts and will soon run a variety of workshops 💚
📚 I went to drop some books off today and it's like a treasure trove of all the wonderful indies I've met at markets over the years! There's also an adorable book swap phonebox outside but I didn't take a photo of that as there was a lady in there.
I DID take a photo of this funny sign and was pleased to be there for the moment Emily triumphantly tore down said sign, poo alert is OVER! Sorry Emily to add this to an otherwise delightful carousel.
Please support your indies if you can, and go and visit this gorgeous shop if you're anywhere nearby!
#graceandivy #supportsmallbusiness❤️ #shrivenham #cotswoldswedding #cotswoldflorist
Promised myself I'd be better at marketing this book, alas, distracted as ever. So when wonderful wonderful people do it for you, without your knowledge, it really means something ❤️🧡
Thank you to @thelittleliterarysociety for this gorgeous review of The Good Ship Bed in the very cool @theshelf.review magazine.
Thank you to fellow Kate author @katerafiqstudio for drawing attention and to @letterbox_library for taking the snap!
Can't remember if I've shared that reference image (keep scrolling to the middle), but yes this is my real (and very lucky) life, so when @angelamayersillustration wants a reference image, we happily and easily oblige 😂🐯🧡💤
#thegoodshipbed #bedsharingbook #bedsharingbook #authorsofinstagram #shelfmagazine
