A very cool way to create memories

Wendy Tsao came up with the idea of creating a priceless memento for her son when he drew a self-portrait at the age of four. She transformed his drawing into a soft toy, a very faithful version of his unique likeness. Now anybody can order a soft toy based on their children's drawings or any other drawing, via the website Child's Own Studio. Here are a few examples:

Promising young artist

I love the delicate colours in these paintings:

They are the work of this 5-year-old autistic little girl called Iris Grace:

A star is born!

This child has talent!

Dora's granddaughter drew herself drawing herself. She's only six! 

Some cute children to brighten up the day

Three funny videos of adorable children. Enjoy!

The curse of the permanent marker

... and a possible solution:

Adorable with attitude

There's a thing on Facebook about a little boy called Anthony who's sick in hospital. The little guy loves dogs, so his parents created a page on FB asking people to post photos of their dogs on their page so they could show them to Anthony and cheer him up. The appeal went viral and Anthony is getting photos of dogs from all over the world. Somebody posted this picture of chocolate Labrador Jake with his new companion, Piper. Jake looks puzzled, but little Piper is full of attitude...

The colour of my dreams

This poem was written by Peter Dixon, an old friend from the time I was involved in early years education. He's a senior lecturer in education and also taught in elementary school. His focus is on creativity, which he considers essential in any field of study. Sometimes parents tell him that their children are not going to be artists, so why waste time on all the mucky painting and modelling? He replies that without art, the brain is not functioning to its full potential and the result is often a mediocre doctor, engineer, lawyer, you name it. Not everybody is "good" at art, but it's a shame not to exercise the creative part of the brain! I hope you enjoy his poem.

THE COLOUR OF MY DREAMS

Getting emotional...

Mrsgunka shared this video and I became quite emotional watching it. The music is upbeat enough, but the children got to me... Thank you, MrsG.

Adorable babies

Perhaps not so adorable after all...

Playing hide-and-seek (2)

We had a game of hide-and-seek with dogs the other day. Today we'll play it with some toddlers...

Good memories

I came across the work of a childhood friend with whom I lost contact many decades ago. There was a little gang of four, two boys and two girls. The boys were brothers and the girl was another neighbour. All our parents worked in television, as actors or writers, producers and directors, which rubbed on us, so we were always dreaming up new scenarios for our adventures.

The older brother and I used to produce magazines together when we were between 7 and 10 years old. We would spend hours drawing, colouring and doing all the text by hand. Our magazines had only one very precious copy of each issue. My friend pursued a career as an artist.

The younger brother was killed in a road accident when he was 13, the family moved away and that's how we lost contact. I'm still in touch with the girl, but we grew in totally different directions, so we're not bosom buddies anymore.

My friend is very versatile and illustrates children's books, but he also has some collections on other themes. Here are some examples of his "Vases" collection. I really like them and had to share them with you...

Shall we dance?

Pet therapy

There are anti-depressants without side effects! Take six without any fear of an overdose: