Van Gogh’s Starry Night ‘Mini masterpiece’ – Galt Toys

Earlier in the year Galt Toys invited Ed Chapman, a contemporary artist, to use some of their art and craft products to recreate Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portrait.  Wanting to inspire the next generation of artists Galt has put together their ‘Mini Masterpieces’ series. They have six masterpieces by famous artists that will be available to download from their site. Last month Claude Monet’s ‘The Water Lily Pond’ got the star treatment. This month it’s Van Gogh’s turn with his painting ‘Starry Night’.

I love anything arty so when I was asked to help Galt out, I have to admit I was probably more excited than the two L’s put together, and they  were over the moon to give it a go themselves!

We were sent this wonderful Art Jar to help us create our mini masterpieces:

 

There is so much stuff in there it will keep us well stocked in bit and bobs for ages! It’s also very sturdy, apart from the label.  O managed to shred this while ‘helping’ me unpack! The Jar itself has held up to being rolled around and climbed over by a boisterous 10 month and I can guarantee it wont be breaking anytime soon leaving me with a trail of pom poms!

So before we started I printed out the outline drawing that Galt has available on their site. You can do the same by following this link.

You can also see Galt’s own step by step guide here.

The two L’s got to painting straight away.

LV starting his sky

After painting the moon, LM decided to start with the fire

I did have loads of photos but my camera was very naughty and deleted most of them, along with about 100 others so I don’t have more step by step photos.

While they were waiting for their paints to dry they went through the  Art Jar and dug out what they wanted to use to add to their pictures.

Here is what they each picked out:

LM opted for pompoms, glitter glue and thin paper strips

LV got more ambitious with pipe cleaners, a sticky foam ghost, glitter glue,

white fabric trim. He also chose some sparkly ‘angel hair’ from our own stock

 

Here they are with their finished creations. Don’t they look pleased with themselves? And so they should be, they worked really hard!

LV – 7

LM – 11

and these are the close ups:

LM, the true artist of the family, opted for a more realistic style. The red pompoms really set off the starry night sky!

LV is colour blind so his creations always look very, well…creative! I love the ghost floating above the village, I wonder if he’s been running amuck and upsetting any villagers?

Why not give it ago with your youngsters? There is a competition where the best entry can win their artwork printed onto canvas, along with a bundle of other goodies! If you can’t do it this month, there are another four paintings in the series. This really is great way to introduce the kids to some famous pieces of artwork!

 

 

Parenting is hard work! Part 2

Catch up with part one here

Yesterday I explained how we are trying to deal with the attitude problems that were brought to light after our parents evening last week. This post will be for how we are dealing with the following problems:

• ‘Forgetting’ school books
• ‘Forgetting’ to do/hand in homework
• Very poor handwriting and presentation
• General misbehaving

One of major changes we have made to our lives is one that most people seem to think is a punishment for us rather than them. They have been grounded. But instead of being locked away in their room to mope around, they have been grounded OUT of their bedroom. They have to spend their time in the living room with us as a family and the only internet use they have is while they are doing homework.  One of the benefits of having them with us all the time is that I can show them things that I took for granted that they knew. Like how to use your ruler to mark dots on your page so you know your lines will be straight.

Mostly though it has allowed us to talk more. I thought that they talked a lot before, come on they are teenage girls they really don’t stop talking! But I am now learning new things about them all the time. I feel a little sad that we didn’t try this before. Instead of everyone disappearing off it has brought us closer together as a family.  Maybe this shock to the system is exactly what we needed!

I have also allowed them outside. Now I know that this may seem totally against what being grounded is about, but everyone needs fresh air and some space, our living room really isn’t huge after all. There are conditions to this freedom mind. They are not allowed off the street and are not allowed to hang round with their friends, luckily our street is up a hill so none of their friends will ever be ‘just passing’.  If, in a few weeks they have started showing improvements I will allow them away from the street to go for a run, instead of going through the lanes around our house.

I thought I was doing a good thing by reminding the girls every day to do their school bags, plus getting them to sit at the dining table for roughly an hour every day after school to do their homework. Since they were coping so well in year 7 I stopped checking what they were actually doing. I thought by giving them independence and showing that we trusted them we were giving them what they needed.

This has stopped. I will now be checking everything, every day, and giving them something to do if they have no homework. One of the tasks I’ve set is copying out poems or pages of books to try and get them to write neatly. And you know what? They actually have really lovely writing! It mostly just seems down to how they hold their pens. Who’d have thought?

The only thing I’m not sure how to deal with is getting them to take pride in their work. They will happily hand in work that is full of errors and scribbles or rubbings out. I’m hoping once they see how neat their work can look this will make them want to make it look its best.

 

Please keep your fingers crossed that our plans work. I’ll let you know in a few weeks how we are getting on. In the mean time, it’s always good to get other’s perspective on things so let me know if you would approach this matter differently. Or if you have any suggestions on getting them to take pride in their work.

Parenting is hard work! Part 1

So last week’s post about my 13 year old twins’ behaviour was a very heartfelt post. One that was written when my emotions were still raw. One that I possibly shouldn’t have written until I had calmed down a little. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to take any of it back, I mean every single word that I wrote. I just possibly could have worded things a little differently

Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who commented, it really made me feel so much better. This parenting business is bloody hard work and we all need to back each other up!

So after a week I feel ready to let you all know what we are doing to tackle the problems that arose, I have had to break it down into two parts as it was getting a bit long winded so in this post I’ll cover how we are dealing with:

• Being disruptive in class
• Answering back
• Being cheeky/rude
• Extreme lack of effort

So what have we done to tackle these problems?

Firstly, we talked a lot. Especially to Ff, she seemed completely in denial that she had any issues. Now if it had just been one teacher I could pass it off as a clash of personalities. But it wasn’t, it was every single teacher, although her English teacher really does seem to have it in for her (I may go into this in a future post). I spent a lot of time over the weekend pointing out to her (both of them really) how the way she talks could be deemed as rude. I explained how sometimes just changes in the way she said it, her tone of voice, rather than the words she is using, would make a huge difference. It felt like I was having a go at her all the time, but it was something that needed doing.

Now before I go on let me just get something straight. I don’t want to quash her personality in any way. She has always been a very spirited child, a rebel, always needing to be different to every one else. I’m sure the fact that she is one of twins has exacerbated this issue. They are both sarcastic and being extremely bright their wit is especially sharp. I don’t want to make her feel that she can’t express herself, just that there are occasions that it is inappropriate. She has to relearn how to talk to people with respect, after all this is what we taught them all when they were toddlers!

The next problem we talked about was being disruptive in class and their lack of effort. They are in the top sets for everything and always get good grades in tests and assessments. But their overall grade will also depend on class work and occasionally on how the teacher ‘feels’ each pupil has worked. Obviously the teacher will be less inclined to mark their work high, if their effort and behaviour is questionable. So although their grades have only dropped slightly now, if it isn’t nipped in the bud they could get themselves into real trouble. I think they are starting to understand this, but we are still in the very early days so I’m guessing it could go either way.

I’ll put the next post up tomorrow so you can see how we are attempting to deal with problems like ‘forgetting’ their homework and how they are being punished.

You can read the second part here.

Have you had to deal with badly behaved teens?How would you deal with teens who are acting this way? Let me know below.

Top 20 things I have found in my baby’s mouth

I wonder whats found it’s way in there this time!

Warning for all first time parents: If your child has gone quiet, your first thought should NEVER be ‘Oh aren’t they playing nicely’ it should always be, what are they doing/ breaking/eating/sticking up their nose or in their ear!

Having older kids with a crawling baby in the house can be a nightmare. No matter how much you baby proof, someone (and I’m not just blaming the kids here) will leave something laying around that is likely to end up in baby’s mouth. Obviously the more people in the house, the more likely this will happen. Add a seven year old boy into the mix and your problems treble!

Here are my top 20 things I have had to fish out of my son’s mouth over the last month or so, there are more but these things seem to find their way in there most often:

1. A googly eye
2. A pair of Lego figure legs
3. A shoelace
4. A Lego figure’s hair
5. Car keys
6. homework
7. The end of the phone charger, luckily not plugged in!
8. A piece of liquorice
9. A pebble from the beach
10. Batteries
11. k’nex pieces
12. a Lego figure
13. a rubber eyeball
14. an entire baby sock
15. hair bobbles
16. A Lego block
17. coins
18. mobile phones
19. rings
20. a nappy nippa

 

You might be seeing a slight trend in the Lego department. I can tell LV a million times a day to not bring his Lego downstairs but alas it always finds it way.  Although of course he never brings it, the Lego figures must magically come to life and carry the blocks downstairs before scattering themselves in pieces around the floor!

 

What things have you found your child eating that they shouldn’t? Or is yours one to stick things up their nose or in their ear? Let me know below.

 

Someone is not amused!

This is LM’s ‘I am not amused face’:

Uh oh! Someone’s in trouble!

So as you may know it was LM’s birthday on Tuesday. On the Wednesday we were having a builder friend come round to give us a price on some work that we need doing in the house. We were trying to get the place looking halfway decent, which I’m sure you all know is like fighting a losing battle when you have kids! So while I was cleaning the bathroom Dadi took it upon himself, whilst tidying the living room, to pop all of the balloons that were getting under his feet.

Nothing was said when she got home from school, but when we sat at the table to eat our tea she started having a go at me. ME! saying that I was cruel for popping all her balloon when E&Ff’s were left to burst by themselves. Why am I always the bad guy? You can be assured I set her straight and dobbed Dadi in right away!

Luckily for Dadi he was on afternoon shift so wouldn’t be home until well after bedtime. But LM was obviously not happy to leave it till the morning and decided she needed to vent her frustration and wrote him a very sternly worded letter.

wouldn’t want to mess with her!

It reads:

Father!

I am writing this letter to complain

about the fact that you popped my birthday

balloons only after one day (stern face picture)

I am not amused by your behaviour!!!!

I would like a face to apology and

a chocolate bar for compensation!!!!

Please do NOT do this again (E and Ff had theres for a week)

Yours sinserely LM

 

Being ‘that mother’ who looks at everything as a learning experience I noted that apart from some minor spelling mistakes she wrote this very well and managed to show how she was truly feeling. Honestly though? I had to try not go giggle at her as she tried to think of big strong words to use as she wrote it.  But even she could barely keep a straight face while I tried to take her picture.  It took a dozen attempts for her not to burst into chortles while trying to look stern!

What was Dadi’s reaction when he got home? Do you think he felt terrible for upsetting his youngest daughter. Do you think he was awash with guilt and lay awake all night thinking about it?

Did he heck, he laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. Plus he kept giggling to himself and shaking his head until bedtime. I believe he did apologise half heartedly the next morning and swore not to do it again but alas poor LM still hasn’t had her bar of chocolate.

 

Have your children ever been annoyed at things you have done? Have they ever written you a letter or just ‘had words’ with you? let me know b

 

I’m a failure as a mother!

What do you when your well behaved children turn out to be the exact opposite?

Today we had E&Ff’s parents evening, they are in year 8. Every single parents evening up until this one has been nothing but praise, they both work well, do good work are a delight to have in class.

This time was so far from the flattering reports I’ve had until now I was speechless. I sat there through each meeting being told they both do their work. Are getting decent results in their assessments but then came the negatives. E is very chatty, more interested in socialising. But Ff, Well what can I say? Ff’s behaviour in every single class is basically appalling. Time and again I was told that she was cheeky, to the point of being rude. She answers back. Neither of them take much pride in their work, often forget their books and have appalling handwriting.  Their English teacher was especially scathing.  I felt like I was the worst mother in the world.

The last teacher I spoke to was their science teacher.  Ff actually isn’t too bad for her but being a science lab her class has the advantage of being laid out where there is minimal opportunities to chat with friends.  I told her she was the lucky one and recounted some of what I was told.  At this point I didn’t even realise she was deputy head of year, but I was so grateful she was.

Not trying to make excuses for her behaviour I tried to think of things that could explain why she is behaving this way. Ff has always struggled with her hearing. She is no longer under ENT but still has slight hearing loss and struggles in noisy situations. We also, in the last few months, found out that she has inherited Familial Hypercholesterolemia (hereditary high cholesterol) from me.  She claims it doesn’t bother her. But maybe subconsciously it does?

This teacher told us that she would like Ff to want to change, to ask to be moved to the front, or away from friends. To take responsibility for her own actions.  But if that doesn’t happen I can get in tough with her and ask her to do it instead. What I don’t understand though (but didn’t think about till later) is why they have waited until so late in the year to let me know there is a problem, I have had a couple of notes to say she was being disruptive in class but nothing that could have warned me about this. She has changed so dramatically since this time last year I feel let down that we haven’t been told the severity of the situation.  As it is even though her work is being done and she should meet her targets for all classes apart from English.  What if I was unable to go to this parents evening, for whatever reason, would I not have been told until this time next year?  What will her grades have looked like then when her marks will affect her sets for GCSE’s?

Now I have to explain a few things about Ff, she is the master of back chatting, always has a cheeky retort for anything and is sarcastic beyond measure. She has very strong opinions, believes anything she thinks is right and will battle to the death defend her viewpoint. We have noticed an increase in the back answering the last few months at home and thought we had gotten it under control. obviously we were wrong.  But we are her parents and she is a teenager, what else should we expect?

Obviously school is somewhere that teachers expect good manners and well behaved children, they have a classroom that they need to keep in check and have a right to expect respect.  Any amount of sarcasm and back answering to them will be seen as rude, which it is! I am not defending her actions, but I can see how her mannerisms could really rub people up the wrong way as it does me!

I have been in tears on and off since last night confused as to where we went so terribly wrong and not quite sure how to tackle the situation.  We have removed all phones, computers etc and they are grounded but where do we go from here? How can I make them want to behave well?  It’s all well and good having a go at them all the time but that obviously hasn’t worked until now and natural consequences can only go so far, I can’t allow Ff to screw up her entire education just so she learns a lesson. E’s punishment will last less time due to the lesser issues but she also has major areas of improvement too.

So I’m going to go and dry my tears, try not to think about what a failure I seem to be. Any advice on how I can approach this will be gratefully received.

Happy Birthday to my baby girl!

On Tuesday we celebrated LM’s birthday. She is my third child and my youngest girl. I cannot believe that she is now an eleven year old! In a few short months she will be going up to the Comprehensive School and starting a whole new part of her life.  No matter how old she get’s though, she will always be my baby girl.

Being as she was in school on her actual birthday we decided that we would do something on the Monday instead as it was the Bank Holiday. We always allow our kids to decide what they want to do to celebrate their birthdays, we rarely have big parties.  Last year she wanted to go swimming. This year she wanted to have breakfast in the Harvester. LM is a very picky eater and won’t go for a real meal there but loves their breakfasts!  She had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup.

She then wanted to spend the day in St Fagan’s National History Museum of Wales.  If you are ever in the South Wales area, I recommend taking a visit. Being as it a museum it’s free to enter and you can spend the entire day wandering the grounds. There is an old manor house (that they call the castle) that has some beautiful gardens and a huge pond.  The kids always love wandering through the house, which is decorated to how it would have been at the end of the 19th century.  They love the fact that one of the bedrooms is bigger than the entire downstairs of our house and claim they wouldn’t mind sharing a room if it was that big!

Another thing that the kids always look forward to is buying the freshly made bread that they make in a traditional bake house. Sadly as it was bank holiday it was quite busy so they had sold out by the time we’d gotten there. But they were quite happy when we all had ice-cream instead!

On her birthday she was up early to open her presents before the older two went out to their bus at 7.30am. We sort of have a tradition that our kids get certain gifts for certain ages, like a mobile phone when they are allowed off the street when they turn eight. The birthday before they go up to the comp we decided it was a good idea to buy the kids their own netbooks so they can do any homework they are set. A lot of it is computer based so this has been a great help to them, more importantly they are not hogging the main computer as it is attached to our big TV! E&Ff are now gutted that hers is a touchscreen one and theirs are not. Strangely it was the cheapest one I could find!

 

Do you think she likes it?

She only had a few other small presents, like a one direction notepad and a moneybox(also 1D) You’d think with all the mess in that picture that she’d had a ton of presents, nope she’s just messy!

Of course, being as it is her last birthday in primary school she had to take a cake in for her classmates, so we had to buy two cakes! Here she is with the one we had at home to finish off the day:

Make a wish!

 

How do you celebrate birthdays? Do you go all out with big parties or prefer to do an activity like us?

 

Let’s talk cloth: It’s real nappy week!

Have you ever considered using cloth nappies? Well you are in luck, as this week (Monday April 28th till Sunday May 4th) is Real Nappy Week!  All over the country there will be events organised to raise the awareness of real nappies and hopefully get those who are curious about cloth but wary, to give it a go.

I will be celebrating by starting this little series of posts I think I will name it ‘Let’s Talk Cloth’ all about my experiences of real nappies with my two youngest . Yes that’s right only my youngest, I confess, I was once a disposable user.

I had always planned on using cloth, I’d even bought some terry squares from Mothercare when I first found out I was pregnant. That was until I had my first scan and found out I was having twins. I chickened out.

Then when our next was born just two years later and with the thought of having three in nappies I baulked again.

Now if I’d have had the internet all those many moons ago giving me access to items other than thin terry squares, blunt pins and plastic pull-up pants I may have stuck to my guns. But the sadly the lure of disposables was too great.

So roll on another three years, yes we crazily had four children under five, and we now had a computer with internet and only the baby would be in nappies. This was going to be our last baby (until we decided to have O of course but that’s a different story!) I was experiencing quite a bad pregnancy(again a story for another time) so I spent a lot of time sitting trawling the internet to take my mind off it.

The whole world of cloth nappying (is that a word?) opened up in front of my eyes. Things like nappy nippers, fancy PUL wraps, wool covers and fleece liners.  I was sold, there was no way was I going back to disposables! And you know what? I loved it! From nervously wrapping that first muslin on my tiny newborn right through to wrangling the chunky unbleached terry squares on my big, fidgety toddler I truly loved it.

Choosing to use cloth nappies can be a scary and overwhelming experience but there’s so much information out there now. A quick internet search will bring up plenty of sites offering up this information but I recommend you go visit the Go Real website for all the advice you will need and more!

There are also plenty of savings to be had with many online retailers having special sales and offers just for this week.  I will be stocking up on some bamboo wetwipes and investing in some night nappies as O has decided he would like to become a heavy wetter, but only at night!

I’d love to hear from you if you use cloth, or have any questions about cloth. I will be writing more in this series soon, let me know what you want to read about.

How we found out our son is colourblind

As a toddler LV was never one to sit and colour. This came as a shock to me after having three girls who could be kept occupied for hours with a new colouring book. He enjoyed painting but looking back I think it was more the messiness rather than the result that attracted him. I never considered it an issue though. I just figured he was a boy so why wouldn’t he be different to the girls?

When it came to learning colours he was consistently getting them wrong. But being as he got some colours right I didn’t concern myself too much. I also thought that having to learn them in English and in Welsh may be why he was a little behind although he could spell his name and count to ten in both languages it was an obvious barrier. He was an August baby so was barely three when he went into full time school. I figured once he started it would all fall nicely into place so stopped badgering him about it. It was a relief for us both I think.

Once he started school and without him needing to kept occupied for all the hours that they girls were out of the house I didn’t really give it much more thought until it was nearing Christmas. One if the activities they had been doing was a colour table. Each morning all the children would bring in an item of that weeks colour. In return they would get the most prized possession for a three year old. A gold star!

I must admit when they were little school mornings were manic. There were four children aged three to seven who all needed help with something. I would often be sending him off to the toy box with one sister to grab something the right colour while I was strapping the other two into the car.  On more than one occasion I have seen me having to drive round the block to run in and get something if we had forgotten completely and there wasn’t anything the right colour on the floor of the car.

Nearing the end of term it was ‘purple week’.  Mornings were getting less stressful as we got used to the routine and I actually remembered to send him to get his item early. I had to send him back three times with blue toys. I kept repeating myself

‘This is blue, glas. We need purple, porffor!’ After the third failed attempt I said ‘Look, here’s a barney toy, why don’t you take that?’ But he refused,

‘Na Mami, I need porffor, Barney is glas!’

‘No love, Barney is purple, you need purple.’

Then everything changed, it was as if a cloud had been lifted and that big lightbulb over my head suddenly pinged on with the frustrated uttering of four little words from a confused three year old.

‘But purple is blue!’

I opened my mouth to say something but wasn’t sure what to say. I just hugged him, smiled and gave him back one of his blue blocks and drove them to school.  I sent him with his blue block to the colour table and watched him place it amongst all of the purple cars, blocks, bunches of plastic grapes and a myriad of other objects. He smiled proudly at himself and went to play.  I caught his teachers eye and asked for a word.

I explained the blue block and asked her please to give him a star even though it was the wrong colour.  As I talked it was as if her lightbulb had flickered on too.  She had noticed herself how he was still unsure of some colours, she told me not to worry and that she would do some little exercises with him.

By the end of the week I was handed a sheet of paper with all of these coloured squares.  The idea was that she had coloured in one square and he needed to pick the right crayon to colour the square below. No names of colours were mentioned at all. He had some right but there were definite issues with some colours.  I will try and dig out these sheets(he ended up doing a few that year)and show you all.

By the time they broke up for Christmas I was sure he was colour blind, or colour deficient to call it by it’s proper name.  I had to stop the girls pestering him to tell them the colour of things, even though I was fascinated myself. It was another six months before he was due to see the eye doctor for his glasses and they confirmed he probably was even though he was too young even for the children’s tests.

But he kept smiling though it all(by the way he thought his navy school jumper was black until he was six!)

A lot of Wenglish gets spoken in our house, this is a mixture of Welsh and English in the same sentence, sometimes even the same word! Just so you don’t think I’m typing gobbledegook in this post you will find three words na=no, glas=blue and porffor=purple.  Hey I bet you never thought you would learn some Welsh today did you!

I will be writing some more in depth posts in the future about life with a colour blind child, if you have any questions let me know below.  I’d love to hear from you also if you are colour blind or have a colour blind child too.

Word of the week 2/5/2014

I have really struggled to find a word that sums up our whole week. But one thing that all of my children have in common this week is:

I know ‘You’re grasping at straws there Katie’ I hear you exclaim, but bare with me. Almost each day this week has had a foot related issue!

On Sunday E and Ff reminded me, after more than a week off school, that they needed new school shoes as theirs were broken. This involved me arriving in Asda at 3.30 with announcements blaring over the tanoy that ‘The store will be closing in 30 minutes’ if you have never had the misfortune of clothes or shoe shopping with teenage girls I envy you. I had two 13 year olds who were insisting that there must be something better somewhere else. After 20 minutes I thrust the two pairs that they were least disgusted by at them and managed escape.  O had to go out with just socks on his feet and without his little soft leather shoes on as one had disappeared.

Monday LM played football. Okay that may not be a big deal for some, but LM suffers from a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome-Hypermobility Type.  This means that she is extremely flexible in pretty much all of her joints making them unstable. She can literally fall and twist her ankle whilst standing still! She also suffers a lot of pain due to this condition. I won’t go into the finer details in this post as I have some planned for the future but needless to say her exploits on the football field left us with a very sore and teary girl by bedtime. We found one little shoe in the toy box.

Tuesday her legs and feet were so painful that she had to miss a day of school, I kept her dosed up well with painkillers.  Tuesday was also the day that LV came to us at bedtime complaining that his foot hurt. When I looked at his big toe the edge of his nail had cracked and the skin was red and swollen. It took me 30 minutes to clean it up and to trim some of the nail that was sticking up and catching in his socks. The last thing he needed was to rip it out when he pulled hi socks off! We thought we had found the other shoe, alas, someone had merely moved the first one so O was still shoeless.

Wednesday. Hurrah! We finally found the other shoe and O’s little toes can stay warm outside again! It was slowly being eaten by the sofa so I’m pretty lucky that I lost those keys and was looking there! LM twisted her ankle coming down the stairs which led to another bout of tears and round of painkillers. I checked the boots that she has from the hospital and found that she has bent out the stiffners again, these are supposed to help keep her ankles straight, which might explain the extra fally downness(not the scientifically accepted term) she’s been experiencing lately.

Thursday, O really is finding his feet. He’s been pulling himself up and cruising the furniture for a while but in bounce and rhyme he was actually walking whilst holding my hands, he doesn’t have the balance for just one hand but he was really trying to march around saying hello to everyone and break my back in the process. I think he’d had enough by the time we’d gone into mothers and toddlers and was happy enough crawling at lightening speed everywhere (and I mean everywhere) again.

I am writing this on Thursday night but I have big ambitions for my feet tomorrow. I plan on putting them up for a rest. Of course O will probably have something different to say about that!

Do you have one simple word that sums up your entire week? Pop on over to The Reading Residence every weekend and join in with this great linky!