Watermelon makes kids wee a lot, and Poo story

Warning this story involves kids poo and wee

Ok so i normally write about paper and things surrounding paper, but i have had one of those days and i think in order for me to let go of this day, i need to write it down!
So this morning at about 5am my husband bought our very sad 4 year old into our bed. He has nightmares quite a bit and i thought he had had another bad dream, once he cuddled in he went straight to sleep. I remember thinking YESSSS its 5am and i still have a couple hours sleep and i went back into a deep sleep with my little man cuddled under my arm!
My Husband left at 6am and he is working on the road until Thursday so i remember saying goodbye in a haze. Luckily for us our little man is one to sleep in so when my alarm went off at 8am i happily hit the snooze for 10 minutes! i started to get ready before he woke up as i knew when he woke up it was breaky and getting ready for kindy..He has to be there about 9:30 and then i can be to the shop before we open at 10:00am......SO at 8:30 my little sleepy eyed, bed head, beautiful morning boy that he normally is, woke with very rosey cheeks and tears in his eyes :( "Mummy Meine nose not working" AWWW poor thing had a stuffed nose that for some reason was also running, and a delightful cough. Now for Iggy to even mention that he doe not feel good is strange! He and my brother Sam(22yrs) are the only humans on earth that will not even mention or act sick even when they are very ill. I remember my brother was in hospital after an operation and clearly looked in pain, and when my Mum asked him 'are u ok dahl, should we get a nurse' he just shrugged and said ' nah its all good'...it was not 'all good' at all....they just never complain and just seem to suck it up, so when my little man had a tear running down his face, i knew he was feeling yuk!
We have all had this stupid cough/cold/body aching sickness all last week, so i guess it is Iggy's turn. Steve and I are the type of parens to keep Iggy home from kindy when he is sick cos well, we are caring, plus i dont want the other kiddies getting sick, cos that's just mean, and they all end up continually getting sick. This is where my dilemma started. My brother is stayng with me and was ok to look after him at night but had a training thing on in the day, My mum not only works for me but also has other jobs, my Dad was working on the other side of the city, my other brother works full time and his partner is at home but their little girl has been sick and clearly didn't need to get sick again and Steve is away!
So in the small time frame i had, i had no choice but to take him to work with me....BUT i needed artillery....i grabbed the beanbag, his crotchet blanket, luckily my husband had made his kindy lunch the night before so i took that in his kindy bag(THANK GOODNESS more about that later) and trains, track, colouring, sticker books, DVD's and my laptop!
I was starting sewing class tonight so i had my sewing machine, all my sewing bits n pieces as well as my work stuff and we somehow got out the door at 9:36 which is fine cos it takes 10 minutes to get to my shop so all good.
THEN as i was loading the car with all the bits, luckily i have a 4WD witha good boot i needed it today, i saw it....FLAT TIRE...oh my freaking goodness...c'moooooon.....its just a slow leak LUCKILY and i have a petrol station very close so i filled her up and off we went coughing and snotting all over the place.
1 minute later as we approached the Bilgola Bends traffic was stopped..FUCK, just perfect!!
it was backed up the entire Bends because they were sweeping leaves in Newport. Thank goodness for all the signs that people put up, u can have a little look at some signs we get to see every day at Round The Bends!!
So finally when i approached Mona Vale i was feeling a little less anxious as it was only 3 minutes to 10:00 which is annoying but not as late as i thought it was going to be. As i turned into the driveway(i have parking out the back of my shop) i realised this week they were starting reno's on the building which meant...tradies...tradies and their many vans and Utes and trucks taking up my fucking parking spots....bitches...there is nothing that pisses me off more than someone parking in my two spots that i pay shit loads of rent for every flipping week! i felt my heart start to race and pretty sure i went red not only in my face but my hair ends were sizzling. Luckily there was one spot in front of the fish n chip shops spot but they don't often have two cars there. I parked and tried to calm my soul, unloaded the car which felt like i was unpacking for a holiday there was so much stuff. Got Iggy out, who 'needed to be carried' of coarse, then asked the very lovely fish n chip man if it was ok if i parked in his spot and he was so happy as always and said 'of coarse', which seriously made my day and we then got in the shop!!!
Now usually Tuesday is the quiet day so this was why i wasn't too worried about Iggy being with me at the shop....but today, we started with 6 very lovely gals from Newcastle ready to shop!!!
So the day was busy but ok not too out of control, but a fatal mistake that was made today by me was giving Iggy at 10:30 some watermelon...if u are a Mum u should know, this is the fruit of choice to induces many many wee's through out the day!
I do not have a toilet in my shop, there is some in the upstairs office, and also some out the back near the car park. As Iggy only just turned 4 he cant just walk off to the toilet when needed, he needs his Mum or Dad or responsible adult to help! i was alone in the shop and Iggy by 12:30 had done 6 wee's...6 WEE'S!! i was lucky that at one point of the morning Jack(16yrs) who i used to be the Nanny for their family, popped in for a visit and bought me a sugar free redbull...LOVE YOUR GUTS JACK, and he took him for a toilet visit, but the other times we had no choice but to use a jar i had out back....now some of you may think this is gross, but if you are a mum i am pretty sure there has been a situation in your life where u have had to take your child to some strange 'toilet' whether it be a jar, or a bucket or a sink or wherever the hell you can find! Thank goodness for the sink and washing up liquid for cleaning and the fact he a boy and well its a lot easier, but man watermelon makes kids wee a lot.
So by 2pm Iggy was doing very well, he had snuggled on his beanbag and watched movies and played Thomas the tank games on the Internet and played puzzles and really been a very good little man. THEN i smelt something, there was a customer in store and for a minute i thought she had let one rip...trust me it happens a lot haha, but then i had a thought...Iggy has been very quiet for a while...as a parent we know that quiet means they are either asleep, doing something naughty or doing a POO.....OH GOD...the smell. I asked Iggy quietly, 'bubby, do u need to go to the toilet' his little face was a bit pale and he said 'nahhh i just popped' haha, so i was feeling a little bit relaxed, then i got chatting with a customer and a cute little face was standing next to me with those very big blue eyes and said 'mummy, i really need to do a poo'... i said 'can u hang on for two seconds lil man'.......'mmmmmmm' was all he said.....i think we were in the 'turtle head poking out' point and he couldn't hold on for any longer...the customer who was chatting with me clearly didn't understand the seriousness of the situraton and just gave him the 'awwww cute' smile face and continued to try and chat with me...clearly not a mother. She finally left and just as i was grabbing the keys to run another person was in the shop...Iggy was dancing up and down really needing to get upstairs. Luckily for me the customer that was in the shop didn't like smiling and didn't like that i said 'hello how you going?" to her and left...and then we bolted....i left all the stock out the front of the shop shut the door and threw Iggy over my shoulder and bolted....we didn't make it....i wrapped the undies up and threw them out....i wont describe the severity of what was happening but lets just say...THANK GOODNESS I BOUGHT THE KINDY BAG WITH SPARE UNDIES AND PANTS.... so now, we were dealing with this cough,snot, hot head, diarrhea situation...with no toilet access easily and only 1 spare pare of pants. the next 2 times it was going to happen, no one was around and i bolted and it was cool....at 4:35 my dad finally rang to say 'hey i will be there at 5:30' to get Iggy so you can go to your sewing class and i was being optimistic about everything thinking it was all going to be sweet, then a lovely lady was in my shop looking for cards and gifts and i was telling her Iggy was unwell and wow what a day and she was very understanding as she has 3 kids, and just as i was putting her sale through that cute little pale faced blue eyes angel was looking at me. The lady was so nice and helped me throw everything in her bag and grabbed things out of the way and pulled the door shut for me cos she knew it was time to run...THANK YOU LOVELY LADY IN MY SHOP AT 4:48pm today!
Iggy had already ran up the stairs ahead of me and as i was getting to the top of the stairs where he met me and he said 'my bum exploded in there' and laughed and i really had to laugh but i also realised his pant had been pulled up no wipe...that's our job still.....GAME OVER!!!
Usually i shut at 5:30, but for the sake of my sanity and my poor little mans bottom i shut up shop and cancelled sewing, because well Mums are probably the only humans on earth that can deal with 'poo' issues! there was no way in hell my dad would even know how to change a nappy when he was a baby let a lone deal with diarrhea and my brother can hardly get his washing done let alone deal with his nephews poo, NO this was a job only Mummy could handle today! So as we drove home dreaming of how wonderful that bath would be and the loads of washing to be done, just as we came into Avalon. Iggy fell asleep...with poo stuck to his bum and my car smelling delightful.

Just a little side note to totally gross u out..... on Saturday, i got some dinner supplies from Thomas Dux and thought i would get a little treat for Steve and Iggy. Steve being Canadian i bought him some Root beer and Iggy a cream soda, the fancy clear kind. For some reason Iggy wanted his Blue and Green, so i put a bit in his cup and put like 1 drop of green food dye and he loved it and when he was finishing off the rest of the bottle he asked Steve if he could have it blue.....so instead of 1 drop, Steve got a little food colour crazy and well Iggy's mouth was blue even after i brushed his teeth....soo yeah, did you know that if u give kids too much food dye their poo goes like paint green for a week.....yeah that's what I'm dealing with today!!!

Iggy is going to hate my guts when he reads this when he is older haha...hello future Iggy, Mummy loves you!

you can buy Cream Soda at Thomas Dux don't food dye

National Stationery Show 2011 NYC

As most of you know, i headed to New York city recently to attend the National Stationery Show, or the NSS as us paper peeps like to call it ;). I somehow managed to book our apartment only 10 blocks from the Javits centre where it was being held, and on the first day was happy to walk even though it was raining, but walking in New York is the best way to see the amazing city it is! So after my 10 block walk in the rain, i was all of a sudden confronted by a huge line of people...GREAT...everyone was dressed like they were going to dinner and i thought it was a little strange that people would wear heels to a stationery trade fair, when the whole day all we do is walk around. Soon i started to see flowers and presents and kinda realised i was not in the right spot, despite the HUGE flashing sign saying Javits centre. I was clearly at the wrong entrance and thought that if i got past this very very very long line i would hit the right entrance. So i started to make my way past the people and worked out it was a Graduation day and these were the families waiting to get in. After nearly every single person in this line of at least 200 people stared at me(i was getting used to the looks, the entire city had been staring at me and my 3 yr old for the previous 3 days, i somehow stand out in NYC) i ended up at the bottom corner of the Javits centre nearing water. I looked left and i did not see an entrance. There was no way i was walking past those staring eyes again, its ok when a person checks the hair out every now and then but when a mass group of people do it, its a little daunting. So i walked the long lonely wall. it took me forever to walk around the entire centre and finally i had arrived at the entrance... if only i had gone left at the long line of people instead of right, the entrance was all of about 10 metres from them! I blame Tony and Guy and their awesome haircuts..So once i was in i stopped for a coffee because i seriously needed a sit down. I was going to get a quick email check in and give my back a little rest before the big day of walking around and then a lady sat at the table with me. Now she was lovely, but she was also a talker....like a full on talker, one of those people that you cant get a word in to excuse your self and clearly wasn't taking the hint that i really needed to get going. so after 40 minutes of trying my hardest to leave, she told ME " You have to go, I just have so much work to do"...damn why didn't i rudely butt in at minute 7 with that one, and off i went!
When i was in, i was on a mission. If u ever come to a trade fair with me you will see i turn into a sort of friendly robot! i am by nature polite so i always say no thank you and smile when being pushed by people to come look at their products, and i am quick, but when i spot something i like, it can sometimes take me a little longer to leave!
I really like to chat with the creator and find out a Little bit about the background of them and their creation. I think its really important for shop owners to know where their products come from. I mean the humans behind the products most importantly!
So after lots of chats with lovely people and looking through many many products i wanted to show u a little of what i found!
I will be getting new things soon, a few people called me last Monday to find out if the new products had arrived!?!? I only got back the Sunday, it does take a little longer than a day to get products from America :) so i promise we will have new things soon enough, but u will have to wait a minute or two!!
for now enjoy a little of what i saw!

Smock is starting to pop up a lot in Australia and although i don't stock them(yet!?!), i wanted to show u their papers! its such a lovely product range and their invites are just amazing. and so so many! i think they are truly leading the letterpress world in the States.





What a very cool product line Viva Greetings really is!




Sometimes simple things are often the most visually stimulating! I had to take a little pic of Paper Boat Studios display! how lovely is it!


If there is ever an ethical and wonderfully happy brand to check, make sure its Ecojot. When i was in New York 2 years ago, i actually bought a set of two Ecojot notebooks which i still have on my shelf and when Little Paper Lane was being thought up, Ecojot was on the top of my list of products to adorn my happy little shop! I have had them in the store since day 1 and will continue to, especially after seeing the new goodies on its way!! if u have a spare second also check out their Give program. With the sale of each 5x7", jumbo journal and all eco sketchbooks, we will donate a school workbook or pencil to a child in need. - BUY 1, GIVE 1. We are so happy to be able to contribute in supporting kids in developing countries and u can too! just come and buy a notebook :)



What a visually esthetic stand this was to find! What can i say?!? just rad...check out Spitfire




I was so very excited to see Yellow Owl Workshop because i have been stocking them from the day we opened at Little Paper Lane and although our friends at Telegram are the Australian distributors now, it was so wonderful to meet and be greated with a big warm hug and hello from my friend Evan who i had only met via email. Evan handles all the emaily stuff and when i first started getting their products in, he was always so very happy and helpful and made everything so easy, even though products needed to come across the seas. I always managed to get the products in about a week...which is amazing!! it was also awesome to see the new goodies we would be getting soon enough!!



One of the most pleasant and colour soothing stalls was from Gold Teeth Brooklyn. What a happy little stall to visit. I had had a little chat and browse through the cards earlier in the day and even Evan from Yellow Owl Workshop told me to go back and look again :) i think they were a crowd favourite and they were for sure some of my fav cards and i will be trying my hardest to have them hit our shores soon!




Throughout the whole show stalls would be adorned with wonderful paper works of art! These lovely Paper roses were made to showcase some of the papers on offer from Soho Paper



I would have to say that one of my very favourite products of the show was these adorable Tooth Fairy Mail bags from Wild Horse Press. They come with 5 little letterpressed envelopes that you use for when you loose a tooth.....I hope it doesnt take too long for these little babies to be here!



I was Lucky enough to meet with the one and only Ed Roth and got to have a little chat to him about his awesome stencils. We have the Stencil book instore, but watch this space as we are hoping to have a few of these stencil packs in store in the near future


I will be posting about 'The Paper Runway' that was put on by sponsors Kates Paperie. I was lucky enough to visit their Lafayette store...but more about that soon :)

New York and Stationery

I am very excited, as i am off to New York City tomorrow morning!!! I have been lucky enough to see the bright lights of this fantastic city before, but, this time its not only a holiday, but also a hunting trip! I will be attending the National Stationery Show and couldn't be more excited! what could be better than NYC and Stationery? Plus i get to take my Mum who is the hardest working human on earth as a HUGE thank you for all she does at Little Paper Lane and my lovely little Iggy will be with us just to make it even more fun!
So in honour of NYC and Paper thought i would show u a few little amazing papery treats

These amazing little gems come from Daisy Lew which i found on the Behance network, which if u can ever have a browse through is a must!! I thought this was a perfect post to show you before i leave for the big Apple















Photos from Behance Network

My heart wanders book signing at Little Paper Lane

We are so thrilled to be included in Pia's wonderful new book release and we so hope that you can make it in store to meet with Pia and have a chat about her journey at Little Paper Lane
If u are interested in purchasing a copy of the book please pre order by emailing me jayde@littlepaperlane.com.au we will also be giving away a lucky dip on the day to say Thank you for coming in to visit :)
If u would like to see more about Pia and her amazing books and life check out her website HERE she is such an inspiring person!

Paper Runway

I am quite passionate about a few things in life. Two of these things have been combined and i could not be happier...Paper and Magazines, what an exciting combination!
This week we celebrate the Launch of Paper Runway . And with great big happy open arms we say Welcome!
The creative masterminds behind Paper Runway Nikki Buckland of Paper Scissors Rock Stationery and Maree Oaten of Little Branch have been working day and night with many sleepless nights and endless research to find us the most amazing Paper discoveries and have even included little ol me in their first issue which i couldn't be more happy about!
Thank you to the girls so much and if u want to read Paper Runway online have a look HERE. You can also purchase Paper Runway online or at Little Paper Lane

Photo's from Paper Runway


Every week Paper Runway will be giving readers the chance to win some wonderful papery goodness! The first week 3 very lucky readers will win a wrapping paper set by Mae, which includes 9 sheets of wrap! We stock the wrap in store and can i say it is absolutely divine! You can see more of Mae's creations HERE


If u love creating, be sure to enter the Envelope making competition in conjunction with Hello Sandwich! You could win a Hello Sandwich Gift wrap Zine! for more details check out Paper Runway Giveaways. Don't fret though, if u miss out on winning you can always buy a copy at Little Paper Lane

Paper is the Music of my Heart

This is quite simply amazing! i cannot seem to stop looking at it. I just stumpled upon The Makerie tonight(Thank you Pinterest) and am quite inspired by what i have seen! This masterpiece was commissioned for an event that has been established for emerging photographers,film-makers, artists and musicians to showcase their talents! Quite clearly the stand out talent is The Makerie





Images from Behance network who are the proffessional platform for The Makerie

Origami kusudama flowers

SO for the last couple of weeks i have been sitting making paper flowers for my shop window display! its has been so easy and fun to make and i thought you may like to have a go! I found the instructions at the Folding Trees website and they were so simple to do! the only thing i would suggest is using a hot glue gun, even on the little flowers! i did a few with double sided tape and they were OK but some just couldn't handle it and the hot glue gun was the saviour!
Try it with different sizes as long as its a perfect square you cant go wrong


My shop window display at Little Paper Lane


Photo from Folding Trees website

What its worth!

For a little while now i have been seeing a lot of items that i sell in my shop, which are from small boutique suppliers, in a lot of large chain stores! 1 particular chain store that on the surface likes to look and feel like a boutique Paper shop, but is in fact a massive chain owned but another massive chain that has 2 other chains stores...We are talking MEGA CHAIN...now i personally dont usually have the biggest of problems with chain stores, I dont often shop in them, but i do find myself browsing around when i have no choice but to hit the *eek* Mall..... When u have a 3yr old, Target and Big W really are very handy sometimes!!
Soooo my point....I am getting to one i promise...is that the two days ago while reading one of my very lovely home magazines i came across a product page with a product that i have instore. This particular brand is usually reserved for indi shops and boutique retailers, so I was quite shocked to see it was 'available' at said paper chain store!

So firstly i was a little taken back at the fact that my supplier would want their product in such a shop, but more importantly i was completely shocked at the price it was being sold for! It was being sold for 10c more than its wholesale price! I actually would be ok with the product being sold in this shop, cos its only 1 product and the brand has sooo many wonderful amazing products for us all to have in our shops, BUT, why is it being sold for almost cost price?
Firstly, straight up the brand is cheapened, it makes the product seem like its just a cheap little novelty gift, when in fact its a wonderful piece of stationery. and Secondly, how the hell are the rest of us little guys meant to survive when products are being sold for pretty much wholesale price? I mean i would LOVE to sell every product everyone for wholesale and the world would be covered in flowers and everyone would sing to each other and no war would ever happen....but its not reality! I am passionate about my Paper shop and i dont do it for the money that can be made, but money does need to be made! Rent on the Northern Beaches of Sydney is the highest anywhere and i really need to eat at least once a day!
So how on earth can these giant companies do this?
I do try and look at it from a customers point of view, and most people, especially in Australia where we are one of the most expensive country's to live, i can see that people want a good price for things. Small boutiques offer beautiful quality producst and in most cases rare items that cant be bought anywhere else. If people continue to stick with teh giant mega chains then small boutiques wont exsist, and everyone will be walking around in the same clothes, have the same interiors in their houses and loose their indivduality and rare items will be so hard to get, the cost will be so extreme only the ridiculously wealthy will be able to afford things that right now are in reach of almost everyone!
Try and support yoru local boutiques and yoru local boutiques will support you!
The reason i felt i needed to say something was because i read a wonderful article by Pip Lincolne from Meet me at Mikes, that is all about the big online companies selling books for less than wholesale....even her own book, that she cant even buy for as cheap as some companies are selling it for....She is the AUTHOR! go have a read Meet me at Mikes Blog Here





Photo from Pip's Meet me at Mikes Blog Here is available at Little Paper Lane forthe price its worth :)

Su Blackwell

I just discovered this phenomenally talented woman Su Blackwell and had to share with you the beauty of the art she creates! i have not seen any other Paper sculptures quite like them!
Take a look at her website for more amazing Paper wonders!







Photo's are from Su Blackwells website here

My type of place!

Just having a little browse through BellaMumma's Blog and stumbled upon this cute little place of loviness. I do like a bit more space normally but i think if i had a little cottage that looked like this i would be a very happy girl. It may get a bit squishy in the bed with the Loud Canadian and Mr Iggy and Jet the cat, but man Jet and Iggy would have fun climbing that ladder.