Golden moments

On the weekend I went to a local market and picked up 30 Little Golden Books for just $6! Only 20 cents each! I used to love Little Golden Books when I was small, and although some of the language and design is dated, they are great representations of the time in which they were published - especially ones from the 1970s about cars! Some of the books, such as Raggedy Ann and Andy, have cool vintage design that I'll use to decorate my daughter's room. It's great to re-use and recycle kids' books (although personally I still have all the books from when I was little and I plan to pass them on to my daughter!).

Brown paper packages tied up with string

I always love getting a parcel on the front doorstep and one of the advantages of living in a country town is that this happens quite a bit because I shop online and get things delivered. Of course the disadvantage is that you can't buy everything in Ballarat - despite some very good shops. Anyway, today I went for a walk and returned home to find a lovely box on my front doorstep wrapped in brown paper. It was from a shop in Melbourne called My Poppet, which I've never actually been into, but that sells very cute kids' stuff. Today the delivery was four cute coloured melamine cups beautifully wrapped in pink and green tissue and in a vintage-style skipping rope box.

I should also add that country living has other advantages too - everyone says hello when you walk past, the postman handed me my letters this morning, a shop I went into today gave my baby girl a free pair of socks, and I can walk to cafes, the train station, the lake, shops, the library, and the cinema all within 20 minutes! Having been a city girl all my adult life, I do find some things hard to get used to - today I saw a tractor driving down the street and someone carrying horse saddles. Ballarat is actually a country city and is quite big so this was unusual but it does remind one of the farms and properties not very far away.