The big kids are outside chasing the chickens (what’s left of them after the fox attacked this week in broad day light!) and the small child is playing with the trains and I am putting off doing other things… so thought I’d share some of the things I’ve enjoyed online this week.

Where’s My Glow – Weekend Whine
Noey LOVED Glow’s vlog, kept saying “oooh preeettty”.

Edenland – Being a Mother is not the Most Difficult Job on the Planet.
Just when you think she can’t amaze you any more, she does it all over again.

Pigtail Pals: Redefine Girly!
This blog is an interesting read for anyone who has girls in their life.

I think I might cook these Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars… and maybe this Cinnamon Sugar Bread. (In reality I am cooking these Pizza Pockets instead)

What things have you been enjoying online?
Share a link or two…

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Online Things is a post from: picklebums.com

During the week I flew up to Sydney to join the Kleenex Cottonelle Pin to Make a Difference event.

The idea was that everyone pinned as many sustainable living ideas on their Pin4Good pinterest board as we could in fifteen minutes. You can find most of the pins from the event here on the Kleenex Pin to make a Difference board. Unfortunately, 7 minutes in, Pinterest decided to block the event wireless so I didn’t get to pin much at all. So I thought I’d share some of my favourite sustainable living blogs and pinterest boards today.

Eat at Dixiebelle’s is one of my favourite green living blogs at the moment. Bec is your average every day suburbian mother, striving to live a more sustainable life. Her blog is down to earth, practical and full of great information as well as real life posts about being ‘green’.

You can also follow Eat at Dixiebelle’s on pinterest – so many awesome pins!

Little Eco Footprints is a long time favourite. Trish is really living her ideals. She is one of the most inspiring bloggers that I read.

Mini Eco has lots of great ideas for eco friendly crafts and things to make with and for kids. I really love these natural threading beads. You can find them on pinterest too.

I also really enjoy these blogs – Down to Earth, Edible Urban Garden, and City Hippy Farm Girl.

Do you have hankerings to be a little more sustainable?
Link me up with your favourite sustainable living blogs and pinterest boards.

{disclosure: Social@Ogilvy payed for my travel costs to attend the event. The ideas and opinions expressed in this post are purely my own.}

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Sustainable Living Links and Pins is a post from: picklebums.com

I think I may have an unhealthy obsession with bird houses….

I need a collection of these.
I’m pretty sure I could make a tea pot bird house.
We’ve grown gourds before but never done anything with them.
And I’ve just decided what the kids are getting for Christmas next year!

I am trying to mitigate the bird house thing with other garden pretties…

These beaded garden stakes look pretty, and easy enough for the kids to help make.

We’ve made spider webs like this one for climbing veggies before and they are always fun.

Our neighbors have a little pine forest so I think we could collect enough pine cones to make a lovely rain chain, but I’m not sure where we could hang it.

I adore this stacked rock sculpture… I need to start collecting suitable rocks now!

Of course all these things would look lovely… if we had a garden instead of a forest of weeds!

What garden pretties would you put in your dream garden?

{image by See-ming Lee via flickr}

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Lovely Links – Garden Pretties… is a post from: picklebums.com

Looking for some last minute gift ideas for the kids in your life? Lets get a little crafty and avoid the shops, here’s a list of ideas to help you do it!

1. Download some audio books and put them on an mp3 player, or burn them to a CD.

2. Make your own colouring book – We like these patterns and these imaginative colouring pages and we like to make our own from photos and drawings.

3. Make a newspaper sword – my kids are crazy about the Narnia stories at the moment and they’d love this for a bit of role play!

4. Make a special play dough set, my big girls made this Jungle Play Dough Set for their brother’s birthday.

5. Make an old puzzle into a magnetic puzzle!

6. Make a crystal tree! (we bought one of these last Christmas and it was a HUGE hit!)

7. Make or collect some dress ups.

8. Make a simple stone noughts and crosses set.

9. Make a catapult game.

10. DIY side walk chalk.

11. Collect some wood and make your own threading beads.

12. Print and make some of our puppets – Five Green Frogs, Five Little Ducks or Three Jelly Fish.

13. Make a hula hoop, or three!

14. How about a bug catcher necklace?

15. Bake them their favourite sweet treat.

16. Collect up some interesting shaped containers and make your own moon sand.

17. Make some marker paints.

18. Alphabet rocks for those letter obsessed kids like my four year old!

19. Make a sleeping bag for their favourite soft toys.

20. A set of pom pom magnets would be fun on the fridge!

Please leave a comment and add your own ideas and links!

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20 Last Minute Gifts You Can Make For Your Kids. is a post from: picklebums.com

I don’t know why, but I always get the urge to bake things at this time of year. It’s a little crazy considering it has just started to get hot here, and we are crazy busy, so standing in front of a hot stove isn’t exactly relaxing, but still…. there is something about Christmas that urges me to cook!

Here are some things I’d like to bake this year, though in truth I’ll be lucky to make even one or two things from this list. Still… it’s nice to dream big and make fanciful plans at this time of year too!

Gingerbread Madness!
Gingerbread and Christmas go hand in hand, but you don’t have to make gingerbread men, or even cookies…

Black Berry Gingerbread from Mt Hope Chronicles – And of course our berries are just beginning to ripen!

Gingerbread Cheese Cake Bites from Created by Diane – Gingerbread on the outside, cheesecake in the middle… oh my yum!

Fun and Easy for Kids to Make and Eat.
I have kids who love to cook, so I always try to save recipes and ideas that are quick and easy so that they can really get involved…

Rock Candy Lollipops from Science Bob – Edible science, how cool!

Fairy Fudge – This is our version of Rice Krispy treats and I think if you used plain white marshmallows, christmas sprinkles and cut them into star shapes (inspired by A Pretty Cool Life’s Valentine Rice Krispy Treats) they’d be perfect for Christmas!

Cookies! – Our favourite ‘Hundreds of Biscuits’ recipe is easy enough for small people to help with and makes enough cookies to give as gifts to everyone! Try choc-chip and crushed candy cane!

Bake a Gift!
We love to give home made, home baked gifts.

Rhubarb Fizz – Last year we made bottles of this sweet pink fizzy drink to give to friends and family and it was a hit!

Raspberry Swirl Marshmallows from Mowielicious – So pretty and so delicious, but I don’t know how you’d wrap it!

Raspberry and Nectarine Freezer Jam from Simple Bites – With the summer fruit now in season this is the perfect time to make this east jam as a gift. Get the kids to colour in one of our printable Christmas labels and your gift is good to go!

Smores Pops from Tip Junky – I am just trying to work out what biscuits I could use for these as we don’t have graham crackers here and I’ve found plain sweet biscuits just too sweet. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Something Special for the Big Day.
It’s always nice to make something special to share on Christmas day, but I try not to go too over board and keep it to something reasonably simple that I am not likely to muck up!

Meringue Cupcakes with Raspberry Curd from Whisk Kid – Having recently mastered pavlova I reckon I could manage these.

Festive Fruit Salad from Babble – The blog says for Fourth of July, but with all the stars and red and white it looks like Christmas to me and perfect for a hot Aussie Christmas day.

Chocolate Raspberry Forest Cake from Chocolate and Carrots – This cake looks divine, but what I really like are the chocolate trees! With great instructions and photos these would make any cake look like Christmas!

Are you baking some special holiday treats?
Do you have a favourite recipe or link to share?

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Twelve Things to Cook This Christmas. is a post from: picklebums.com

Are you making your Christmas gift list? Do you wish you could give some more eco-friendly gifts?
Here are some ideas for eco-friendly gifts you can make. Three ideas you can make for the kids, and three ideas the kids and you can make for adults.

For the Kids…

Tree House.

We made this tree house for my big boy’s fourth birthday this year. We used off cuts of silver birch from a tree my brother had removed and put it all together with a couple of screws and a hot glue gun. This looks much more complicated to make than it is, it was actually lots of fun, and with inspiration from Childhood101 and Irresistible Ideas for Play I am sure your kids would LOVE to get this on Christmas morning.

Tree Blocks.

A little easier than the tree house, we made this set of round, random shaped, wooden blocks from small pieces of gum tree that would have been fire wood. Sliced into rounds, the kids helped sand them smooth and we made a cloth bag to store them in. That was more than three years ago and I know that those blocks are still being played with today.

Box Projects.

There are so many things you can make for your kids from cardboard boxes! Christie from Childhood101 is the box project guru and she’s made everything from kitchens to cars!

For Adults…

Teacup Succulents.

When I first saw this post at Epheriell Designs I knew I wanted to do it. I’ve been quietly collecting second hand tea-cups ever since. So simple and yet so pretty, and if you already have succulents growing they are very easy to propagate. A great gift for aunts and grandmothers!

Home Made Edible Goodies.

A sweet home made treat is always a winner as a gift. Last year we made Rhubarb Fizz using rhubarb from our garden and recycled champagne bottles (you’ll need to buy new stoppers) which was a great success. Or you could make your favourite muffins or cup cakes and pop them in this cute packaging using a recycled egg carton.

Seed Packets

If you are a gardener how about collecting some seeds from your favourite plants and giving them as gifts. Tipnut lists lots of great printable seed packet templates in all kinds of designs, you’re sure to find the perfect one to print out, fill with seeds and give as a gift.

If making your own presents is not your thing, or if you run out of time (like I seem to do each year) then you can still give an eco friendly gift. Itty Bitty Greenie has a huge selection of eco friendly products that make perfect gifts. With a focus on ‘eco-fabulous finds for kids’ Itty Bitty Greenie has lots of lovely toys, clothes and accessories… and I know a few adults who wouldn’t mind one of their drink bottles or cool new Goodbyn Bynto lunch boxes!

Win an Itty Bitty Greenie gift voucher worth $100!

Entries to this competition are now closed. Winners will be notified ASAP.

Itty Bitty Greenie is giving Picklebums readers the chance to win a gift voucher to the value of $100 to be spent in their online store! Now that’s a lot of Christmas shopping!

To win pop on over to Itty Bitty Greenie and take a look at their range, then leave a comment on this post telling us what you would buy and why buying eco friendly gifts is important to you this Christmas. The lovely Donna from Itty Bitty Greenie will choose the most, creative, funny or interesting answer to win the gift voucher.

Terms & Conditions
You must be an Australian resident to enter and provide a valid email address.
Entries are limited to one per household.
Entries close 6pm AEST Saturday December 10th 2011.
The winner will be contacted by email and announced on this blog post on Monday December 12th 2011.
The winner must contact me within 4 days or the prize will be re-drawn.
The winner’s contact details will be passed on to Itty Bitty Greenie and the prize will be organised directly by them.

{Disclosure: Itty Bitty Greenie has been a paid side bar advertiser on Picklebums in the past. I was not compensated in any way for this post. The views expressed are purely my own. }

{Images: Box toys image used with permission from Childhood101. Teacup succulents image used with permission from Epheriell Designs. }

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Six Eco Friendly Gifts to Make and an Itty Bitty Greenie Competition! is a post from: picklebums.com

Have you decorated for the holidays yet?

At The Pickle Farm, we don’t break out the Christmas decorations or put up the Christmas tree till the first weekend in December. So we’ve still got a week or so to figure out how we are going to tackle the problem of Christmas tree Vs climbing chaos-making toddler. Anyone got any ideas?

Since it is pouring with rain here today, it seems like the perfect day get our craft on and make some new Christmas decorations too. Here are ten terrific Christmas decorations to make. Some of them are a little tricky, but most of them are easy enough for small hands to help with.

1. Toilet Roll Stars: We have a huge box of toilet rolls that I was saving to plant seeds in, but sadly our veggie garden is a lot behind schedule this year, so this simple idea from Muffin Tin Mom seems like a great way to use them up.

2. German Paper Star: I didn’t make the one in the photo above, I bought it from Ikea and liked it so much I looked up how to make them. These are tricky even for adults, but once you get the hang of them you can make loads of them for the tree.

3. Stick Stars: I like stars…. and these ones from sticks are simple and effective.

4. Sewn Paper Ornaments: Elsie Marley shares simple patterns to make cute decorations using scraps of paper sewn up the middle. This would be a great project for my beginning sewers.

5. Modern Paper Ornaments: These simple hanging ornaments are easy enough for everyone to help make. You could rule lines on the paper fist for beginning cutters to practice following and then it’s just a matter of arranging them and popping in a staple or two!

6. Circle Streamers: Another sewn paper decoration! Martha calls these New Year’s decorations but I think they’d be just as lovely for Christmas.

7. Pine Cone Ornaments: A family trip to collect pine cones would lots of fun and these ornaments are simple and beautiful.

8. Twiggy Christmas Trees: I love these. A little bit more involved to make since you need a drill, but so cool!

9. Button Trees: Using pipe cleaners to thread buttons onto makes this a really kid friendly craft.

10. Paper Lantern Ornaments: How About Orange has lots of great Christmas tutorials, and this is one of my favourites.

Are you in the mood to make some decorations?
Got any ideas, crafts or links to share?

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Ten Christmas Decorations to Make. is a post from: picklebums.com

My big kids love listening to audio books. We listen in the car, on ipods while waiting at appointments, and while falling asleep at night. We have a small selection of audio books on CD and have borrowed CDs from the library, but there is an amazing selection of spoken stories online, many of them free to download.

Here are five of our favourite, free, audio books for kids…

The Wizard of Oz from podiobooks.com – Morgan (and Noey and I) has listened to this loooong story over and over and over in the last few weeks. Initially I was devastated to find out that the ‘ruby slippers’ were glammed up for the movie, and it’s taken me a while to get used to Dorothy’s ‘voice’ but this is a great story, read with fab voices! And did you know that Dorothy doesn’t go home for agesm there are several more books about her adventures in Oz!

Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass from LibriVox
We’ve not listened to this version of Alice in Wonderland yet (we have a different version) but the Through the Looking Glass recording is awesome! A huge cast reading this classic story makes it one of our favourites.

Rikki Tikki Tarvi from Stroy Nory
This is a long time favourite with everyone at The Pickle Farm. And when you are done with Rikki Tikki Story Nory has loads more great stories to download.

Tales From the Forest
We can’t pick just one favourite story because all the ‘tales from the forest’ are great. All the stories are read by Rick Clarke and include some Beatrix Potter favourites, classics and new stories.

Love You Forever by Robert Munch.
If you don’t know this story already, be warned, it may make you cry (as will the story on the website about how the book was written), but my kids all LOVE it. Read by the author Robert Munch who has a fabulous, expressive voice this is a great introduction to his work and there are heaps more of his stories to download at his site. Some others we like are The Light House and Andrew’s Loose Tooth.

Are you an audio book listener? Maybe you like podcasts, for kids or adults? Link me up to some of your favourite free resources.

{image created using Spell With Flickr}

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5 Fab Free Audio Books for Kids. is a post from: picklebums.com

Glowless – Where’s My Glow
“I’m a massive fan of Adele and while checking out her video clips on Youtube the other week I found an amazing parody by The Key Of Awesome. If you’re a fan of Adele and know the life sapping addiction that is Angry Birds, you’ll love this (and all the other parodies they do”

Kate – Puddles and Gumboots
“It’s so hard to pick just one favourite song, but I had to go with this one as it is such a happy feel-good song.”

Kim – Frog Ponds Rock
“My favourite song at the moment is “Pulse” from the album the Devils Elbow, the artist is Aussie band ‘The Mess Hall’”

Eden – Edenland
“Lose Yourself by Eminem (uncensored)”

Maddie – Lil’ Magoolie
“Cold Play, Don’t Panic”

And one extra song from me….

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Five Bloggers’ Favourite Songs, Plus One. is a post from: picklebums.com

So I got over my guilt and had a fabulous day at the Problogger Event yesterday. My head is filled with information and ideas and especially people. I listened to, learnt from and met some wonderful people. Here are a few fabulous blogging people that you should definitely check out…

Sonia Simone – Remarkable Communications and CopyBlogger
I mistakenly went into the wrong room for the first break-out session at the PBevent, and what a fabulous mistake to make! I listened to Sonia share fabulous, understandable, usable ideas about writing content and building trust. She filled my head with possibilities and ideas…

Chris Garrett – chrisg.com
I went to the Blogging Critique Workshop run by Chris and listened and learned while two brave bloggers allowed their blogs to be picked apart. It could have been a terribly soul destroying activity, but Chris offered excellent advice and ideas without belittling or cutting anyone down. For someone who is heavily into readability and user friendly design at the moment, I loved this session.

Tahlia – The Parenting Files
Tahlia was one of the brave bloggers who put her blog up to be critiqued by Chris, and lucky for me that she did, because I learnt a lot. Also lucky for me I got to meet and chat with Tahlia too!

Rachel Divine – Sesame Ellis and Rachel Divine Photography
I’ve followed Rachel on twitter and her blog for a while, so I already knew she was awesome (she has twins, she has to be awesome!), but it was lovely to meet her face to face and now I really really want to buy her latest e-book – Click, How to Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Kids (I think it will be a Christmas present for myself).

Maddie – Li’l Magoolie
With her fabulous blue hair I spied the fabulous Maddie early on, but it did take me almost the entire day to pluck up the courage to say hello, and then to track her down, but I’m so glad I did. A beautiful person with an equally beautiful blog.

Karen – Miscellaneous Mum
Karen is one of my favourite Aussie Bloggers, a fabulous writer, and someone I look up to. Plus she let me twist her arm and convince her to join us for some Karaoke after the PBevent, the perfect end to a great day. Karen has a new Miscellaneous Press project on the go and is asking for submission for An Equal Task: Celebrating Australian Women’s Writing. If that sounds like you, please check it out.

I met and chatted and learned from so many other great people a the PBevent, way too many to list here, but they were all fabulous and it was a pleasure to meet you all! And once again I was totally blown away by the down to earth, professional, lovely ProBlogger himself, Darren Rowse. He and his team should be congratulated for a fabulous day of awesome blogness.

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Lovely Links – Blogging People You Should Know. is a post from: picklebums.com