When coat racks give perspective

It's all quiet in the house and my only day off this week is looming large with piles of housework and even though I vowed this would not happen, it is exactly how I will be spending the day after all. All around me I just see the wanton destruction that a decade's worth of family life has done to this place. This house is a large-scale reflection of what is happening to my face and body. No amazing family holiday for us in some wonderfully exotic location this summer, I need to work just to be able to repair or replace all the broken stuff.

Our jug leaks and the automatic off switch is broken so if it hasn't already lost its contents all over the bench, it threatens to boil dry anyway and all the curtains in the bedrooms are just hanging by a thread from being left down permanently because the pull cords are broken. We've killed another broom and there's something stuck up the vacuum cleaner pipe that can't be coaxed out in either direction. My guess is that it is two years' worth of loom bands. Our entry, I'll admit, has never been a particularly welcoming space, but it's looking like squatters took up residence in there. The front door is swollen from months of wet weather and we have to kick the door sometimes just to open or shut it, which is always good for a bit of dramatic effect when someone knocks at the door. For the third time someone pulled too heavily on our poor coat rack, and three weeks later, it's still on the floor, in the same spot that it was when it fell out of the wall, just with a few more coats and bags dumped on it because it's still the coat rack. I will fix it, three weeks is more than enough of a clue that no-one else is going to do it.

Strangers can tell that children live here because there's a waterlogged soccer ball rotting in the overgrown garden. Somewhere in the corner there's a neglected pet bunny. Children also live here because there's a purple shoe in the lounge that I just tripped over to reach the half-eaten packet of Chit Chats I left out from binge-watching Breaking Bad the night before. I'm finishing off those biscuits as I write this. It's my coffee. A family lives here because there's a pile of washing to sort but never any clean, matching socks to wear and discarded rolls of toilet paper on the bathroom floor even after many patient attempts to convert the last person to finish a roll to put it in the bin. A family lives here because there are photos on the wall of a young couple filled with hopes and dreams for their future. If the grubby walls and marked furniture aren't proof enough of realizing those dreams, there are also some photos of babies growing up right before our eyes and if I stop and reflect on those images, none of the mess, the broken bits and parts that just frustrate me even matter. He tangata he tangata he tangata. A tidy house can wait. Except for the coat rack. I am going to fix it now.

A lesson in book censure

Nothing is more appealing to a curious child than a cupboard with a lock. More appealing still is knowing that the key to that cupboard is always kept in the lock, ready to be turned at any time when no-one else is looking. To a book lover, even more amazing than that is finding a pristine-looking book tucked in amongst all the important household documents. This was how I discovered, at age 9 or 10, 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'. When my mother found out that I was reading it, she wasn't particularly happy about it. She didn't want me to read it, but she didn't stop me. This is a very important lesson. Had she taken that book from me with no explanation given, I would have found ways to find it and not because I was an especially disobedient child, but because I would have been curious to know what was in the book to garner such a response from my mother. As it turned out, and perhaps just as my mother was hoping, I was far too young to understand any of the sexual content so I found it to be a very underwhelming book. In fact, I wondered what all the fuss was about.

Let's give our children more credit where policing books is concerned. To jump the gun with our responses to what we perceive will be damaging to them is to do a disservice to their intelligence. Over the past week, a young adult fiction book freely available to the public was banned from sale or supply in New Zealand after a complaint from conservative lobby group, Family First. 'Into the River' won Book of the Year and the Young Adult Fiction category in the 2013 NZ Post Children's Book Awards. It contains sex, drugs and obscene language. It also contains issues relating to racism and bullying. Aren't these topics that we should be talking to our pre-teens and teens about? I have not read the book, but now I really want to. I am not even the target demographic. This book was written for male teenagers, which is by and large, a difficult audience to reach. Surely something that encourages this demographic to pick up a book can only be a good thing?

Many of us may remember reading 'Clan of the Cavebear', 'Go Ask Alice' and the 'Flowers in the Attic' series, to name just a few. All of them contain confronting subject matter yet the overriding memory from these novels is not that they contained adult content but that they were powerful stories. The very fact that 'Into the River' is an award-winning novel demonstrates that Dawe's work has been judged by his peers to be a story deemed worthy of being told, shared and discussed.

The best way to get even the most reluctant reader to pick up a book is to ban it. With all the attention surrounding 'Into the River' over the past few days, Family First may have just done the complete opposite to what it had intended and actually promoted sales, given that it can still be bought from overseas websites.

What 'controversial' books did you enjoy reading as a teen?

Help! The Wolf is Coming!

If you are looking for a birthday or Christmas gift book idea for a toddler or preschooler, consider this board book by Cedric Ramadier, which quite literally, turns reading on its head. When we received our review books from Gecko Press a little while ago, this was the first one in the bundle that Aimee picked up. She was aged 5 at the time. She was drawn to it by its simple drawings which can tell a story within themselves but we discovered that this is also a very interactive book that engages the child with instructions for when to turn the page. The reader will find themselves tilting and turning the book every which way as the wolf inches closer.

It sounds very ominous, and yes, for sensitive children, it may well incite a little fear depending on the reader's tone of voice, but it is a great book to introduce them to the concept of building anticipation through a simple narrative. There is no better endorsement of this book than when my two year old nephew was introduced to the book just recently. He loved it so much that even after reading it to him three times, he cried when the book was taken away from him. Guess what he'll be getting for Christmas?

Reading level: All ages. Perfect for reading aloud to preschoolers.

RRP: $19.99

{Free Printable} Father's Day Kids' Quiz

Even though it's still wet and cold, I love that winter is officially over. It has been quite a rough season in the Paper Moon household and I am looking forward to getting back onto an even keel again. Spring is my favourite season; I love the promise of new beginnings, longer, warmer evenings and that my daughters were all born at this time of the year, which means launching into birthday party mode.

Father's Day is also fast approaching and for the last couple of years, it has become a little tradition for the girls to fill out a simple questionnaire for their Dad. Each year yields different responses as they get older and their relationships with their Dad develop. I still laugh at the answers my daughters gave the first time they did this. There are many questionnaires available on the internet; I first saw this idea on Mousehouse's blog and simply changed some of the wording on her Mother's Day questionnaire to make it more suitable for Father's Day. It's quite a revelation to see how children view their parents and serves as a great memento of this fleeting ride raising children.

This year, I decided to make a shorter version with more white space so Aimee could practice writing independently. Feel free to download my printable for your own personal use. Try it, laughs will be guaranteed.

Triangle crochet blanket

It has been a while since I have blogged about anything crochet-related but I can finally share a blanket I started over 18 months ago. I am not usually one to leave things unfinished for so long! Inspired by all the fabric triangle quilts I was seeing on the internet at the time, I started to make a child's blanket out of crochet triangles. It measures about 87cm x 114cm and is a mixture of acrylic and wool.If you are looking for a relatively quick project, this is not it. When I discovered that it takes me around 40 minutes to single crochet just one triangle, the enormity of the blanket project I was about to embark on hit me and I had to push through a few moments of ennui - and also downscale the size of the project to a baby blanket. It is now the second winter since starting this blanket and the cold nights we've been experiencing over the past few weeks have really been the motivator I needed to forge ahead and complete it.What I find with crochet is that I can never be sure exactly how much yarn I will need for any particular project. I used up some of the yarn in my stash and needed to buy more pale pink and grey only to discover that not just those particular colours, but all of the yarn I was using in this blanket has now been discontinued. Sad face. There is something to be said for not leaving unfinished projects languishing in a bag for over a year. It meant that I had to use the remaining yarn in my stash and resulted in enforced placement of some of the triangles where I would have otherwise chosen a different colour for greater balance. Similarly, the very simple double crochet border and pink single crochet edging was a result of not having enough yarn to work the border I really wanted to use. I had got almost two thirds of the way through the border before I realised I would not have enough yarn and had to unravel it all. In the end though, I am happy with the simpler edging so maybe this was just how it was meant to be.

Aside from how slow the triangles were to work up and running out of yarn, the other issue that I faced was finding the best way to stitch them all together. If I was more certain on colour placement from the beginning, a join-as-you-go method would have been ideal and I should have left long tails on each of the triangles to make the process even more simple. Since I had woven the tail of each triangle as I completed it, I put the right sides of the triangles together and slipstitched them. It results in a standard ridge-like join on the back of the blanket.In part because of all of the issues I encountered, I do feel such a great sense of satisfaction to have finally completed it. What are you working on at the moment? I'd love to hear from you.

The Bakehouse

A wonderfully evocative work of historical fiction, The Bakehouse by Joy Cowley is told from the point of view of Bert, a man in his 80s carrying a wartime secret. In the company of his great-grandson, he reflects on the events in Wellington leading up to one critical moment that changed the lives of several people forever.

The year is 1943 and while New Zealand lies far from the front-lines, there are signs everywhere of the threat of war. American servicemen are prominent in the city and with news reports updating the steady march of the Japanese in the Pacific, 11 year old Bert, with the help of his sisters Betty and Meg, decides to convert the disused and largely forgotten bakery hidden in the hills near their house into a bomb shelter. There, they encounter a young Kiwi soldier who has deserted the NZ Army and so begins a game of subterfuge with very real and devastating consequences for them all.

The story itself is compelling, with the threads of loyalty and betrayal running through the heart of it yet if the book is dissected further, there are so many linguistic features and themes that would generate great discussion in a classroom setting including the effects of war on ordinary people, the role women played during this time, the relationships between family members and the issue of morality when confronted with a complex, adult problem.

Given this is the centennial year of the landing of our troops at Gallipoli in WWI and classroom learning this year has focussed on conflicts and life in New Zealand during wartime, I knew my eldest daughter would have an interest in this book. It does not disappoint.

Reading level: 9-13 (note: adult themes relating to sex, while not expressly stated, are contained in the book)

RRP: $19.99

Released: August 2015

Thank you to Gecko Press for sending us a copy of this greatly anticipated novel for us to review. For your chance to WIN yourself a copy, head to Gecko Press's Facebook page. They are having a month of giveaways to celebrate their 10th year in publishing. The timing could not be more perfect!

Styled Canvas Challenge: Breakfast in Bed

Would you look at that? Almost July already, which means it has been nearly 30 days since I first started umming and ahhing over whether to take part in Styled Canvas's new monthly styling challenge. You already know that I love watching home makeover shows like The Block franchise and if you follow me on Instagram, you'll see that I've enjoyed putting together a few scenes for the 7 vignettes series that is run by Jen from Interiors Addict. One of the criteria for this particular styling challenge was to borrow at least three items from businesses, friends or acquaintances to use in the photos. Part of me was excited about the concept (I even had a list of places here in Wellington to approach) but most of me was intimidated by the thought. Would homewares stores be happy to lend me some of their products? Expensive products. To little old me. A jandal-wearing, messy up-do non-stylist driving a car with a dent in it. Would I have to wear makeup to go and see them? Would I have to hide the car? It was too much for me to cope with. Mel's whole idea is to push people out of their comfort zones so I may be brave to approach businesses next time. Unless it's laundries, because no-one deserves to see the shambles that is where we wash our clothes. So, I was quite relieved to find that Mel had relaxed her criteria which made the decision easier to join in for this month's Breakfast in Bed theme with items I already own or borrowed from other parts of the house.

The theme Breakfast in Bed has been taken to mean breakfast pillows, in part because I wanted to do something a little different from a scene of enjoying breakfast in bed. I tend not to have hot drinks anyway so this probably a better reflection of what a relaxing Sunday morning would look like for me. I read blogs and spend time on my own one. I have also been going through some photos and thought they'd be a good prop.

I've never shown my bedroom to you before, it's quite a personal space after all. Or in my case,  generally very untidy and just a bit grim. That charcoal duvet cover is so old and sunfaded now and really needs replacing but you'd never know in these photos. We don't usually have that many pillows on the bed either, I borrowed some from the lounge and then wrapped up another pillow from Sienna's room in some of my favourite Leanne Culy rata fabric for this photo. Photo styling hack 101.

It's quite a grey wintery day here at the moment, and there is nothing better than being snuggled up in those flannelette sheets when the weather is cold. Red is one of my favourite colours so you'll often find it sneaking in somewhere in the rooms of our home. The woven bag on the floor was a gift from my husband. It had been laying forgotten in the wardrobe and that book has been sitting on my nightstand for a while, gathering dust. My favourite item in the room is the Infratherm lamp that my husband bought me many years ago. I love industrial pieces and the warmth of timber together.

Usually, the space above our bed is empty because I am still waiting for the money fairies to deposit great lumps of cash under my pillow so we can go and buy a Julie Heffernan or Jane Mogensen artwork but here in the real world, we just put up a fabric map of Europe with packaging tape. I plan to turn that fabric into a floor cushion one day.

So, there is your little peek into my bedroom, taken from angles that hide the floral mattress base, all the cardboard boxes of children's art and old schoolbooks stored under the bed and deftly ignoring the other side of the room that looks like a student flat. Don't forget to check out the other entries for this month and maybe I have given you some courage to have a go interpreting next month's theme when it is revealed, or if you're quick you can join in for the Breakfast in Bed challenge. Entries close tomorrow.