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Picture Book Release: Bright Blue Balloon

So so excited to let you all know that my first picture book, Bright Blue Balloon, is now available in paperback on Amazon.
It is also available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Blue-Balloon-Moralee-McLardy/dp/1712549200/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=BRIGHT+blue+Balloon+Book&qid=1577108496&sr=8-1

Kindle

Owen and Carson win something special at the carnival…

A bright blue balloon. “It floats on its own and has a long string.
Oh, what a wonderful thing to win!” They have so much fun with their bright blue balloon until it accidentally floats away. Little do they know they will see it again in an unexpected place. In order to save it they make something using materials from the recycling box.

Join Owen and Carson on a great adventure and bring the bright blue balloon home.


Bright Blue Balloon is a picture book aimed at young children (but can be enjoyed by all ages). It has rhyming text and brightly coloured illustrations.

Featured

Tell yourself you CAN


Tell yourself you can, you’ll believe it eventually.

Tell yourself you can’t, you’ll believe it instantly.

It takes time to believe in yourself

A daily check-in of mindset,

Regular meetings,

Charts and the like

A flitter of light amongst the shadows of doubt.

It takes time to believe in yourself,

A daily check-in of mindset

Until eventually…

No meeting required,

New habit acquired

Tell yourself you can, you’ll believe it eventually.

(C) Lisa Moralee McLardy

Thanks for reading and visiting brightblueballoon.com
We would love to know your thoughts in the comments below

Featured

Craft: Honeycomb Pumpkins for Autumn & Halloween

Autumn is in full swing and you know that means an excuse to do crafts –  to be honest any excuse will do!

In April we made  decorative Easter Eggs out of honeycomb board. The kids had such a great time making these. They were made from recycled materials and made little mess. We couldn’t resist making pumpkins for Autumn and Halloween.

Materials:

  • Honeycomb board
  • Seperated corrugated cardboard – cardboard box which has been peeled
  • Construction paper / magazines / newspaper / paper for recycling
  • Garbage bag twisites
  • Sticky tape
  • Scissors
  • Pen
  • Green marker (or any one you choose)
  • Glue
  • Honeycomb Board
  • Corrugated Cardboard
  • Separating Corrugated Cardboard
  • Construction Paper / Tissue Paper
  • Garbage Bag Twisties
  • Tape / Marker / Scissors / Glue

Directions:

  1. Draw a pumpkin shape on one side of the honeycomb board
  2. Cut out the shape
  3. Peel paper off one side of the shape
  4. Tear small pieces of construction paper (or magazines, newspaper etc)
  5. Crumple the small pieces of paper and place in the holes of the honeycomb board
  6. Cut a strip of corrugated cardboard (wide and long enough to go around the pumpkin shape, we used one strip for the pumpkin and a smaller one for the stem)
  7. Glue the corrugated strip and place around the pumpkin shape, add some sticky tape to help secure it to the shape)
  8. Take two a garbage bag twisties and colour it green (or any colour you wish)
  9. Tie one garbage tie strip around the stem of the pumpkin
  10. Twirl and attach the second garbage tie
  • Draw pumpkin shape
  • Cut out shape
  • Peel off one side of honeycomb board
  • Tear pieces of paper, crumple and place in board
  • Mix and match the colours
  • Cut a strip of corrugated board, glue and stick around the shape, secure using sticky tape
  • Colour in two garbage bag twisites and attach to the pumpkin stem, then twirl the second one and attache to the stem

Both boys (and I) really enjoyed making these pumpkins. Most of the materials were used were recycled. Clean up was pretty easy as it all went into the recycling box. It also gave the boys an opportunity to be creative with the colours they chose. Carson chose to make a purple pumpkin and Owen added black construction paper to make a Halloween pumpkin face.

  • Halloween pumpkin
  • Purple pumpkin

We would love to know if you make your own honeycomb pumpkins. Take a photo and let us know in comments / Instagram @bright.blue.ballon / email abrigthblueballoon@gmail.com

Happy crafting x

Dinosaur Weekend!

I have been meaning to post about our 🦖DINOSAUR WEEKEND!

Last weekend we randomly decided to make our weekend dinosaur themed. It began while reading one of our favourite books about dinosaurs which lead to crafts, a library visit to find more dinosaur books, drawings, playing with all the dinosaur toys and more.
The kids absolutely loved it and kept coming up with ideas to add to our weekend theme. And in a way it helped to minimize those post holiday blues. Hubby and I even watched the Jurassic World movies 😂

Swipe to see some of our activities:

🦖Craft:
– Dinosaur puppet using coloured paper, glue and a paper bag

🦕Books:
– Lift-the-flap Questions and Answers about Dinosaurs from Usborne books
– Mr Men Adventure with Dinosaurs by Roger Hargreaves
– The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter
– Step into Reading Jurassic World Dangerous Dinosaurs adapted by Courtney Carbone
– The Dinosaur Atlas by Don Lessem

🦖Drawing:
– Followed tutorials from @artforkidshub – Followed drawing instructions from The Dawing Book For kids 365 Daily Things to Draw: Step by Step from Woo! Jr Kids Activites

I have made a new hashtag #ourweekendtheme om @instagram
Feel free to join in and please tag me if you do so I can share in stories. The idea is to have fun with it and not feel the pressure. Keep it simple or be extravagant whatever provides the most fun. Choose your own theme or join in with ours.


We will strive to have a different theme each weekend 🙂

Thanks for reading and visiting brightblueballoon.com
We would love to know your thoughts in the comments below
Image and text
(C) Lisa Moralee McLardy


Happy JanYOUary

Happy JanYOUary lovely people!

May January be your JanYOUary.
Remember it’s ok to make time for self care.
An opportunity to make moments and carve out time for you!

5 minutes here and there to:
🔹Have a cup of tea/coffee
🔹Do yoga
🔹Write down your thoughts
🔹Read a page or two
🔹_____________________
🔹_____________________
🔹_____________________

I have added a few blank lines for YOU to fill with your thoughts and self care plans. 💜💜💜

Thanks for reading and visiting brightblueballoon.com
We would love to know your thoughts in the comments below
Image and text
(C) Lisa Moralee McLardy

I have a little dream…

Sometimes it takes longer to start then it does to finish.

We all have dreams that nag us. And it’s easy wait. To procrastinate and wait for the perfect time or moment to start.

But if you start today, even if it’s just 5 minuets then the journey begins and you will be on the path, the path that has a finish line.

I have a little dream

I have a little dream

It whispers in the morning “Please make time for me,

Just a little moment,

While you have a cup of tea.”

I make my dream a promise “Let’s check in a two”

Then I go about my day,

Listing things to do.

It’s all so very busy

And soon enough it’s two.

My dream is right on time,

But I’m nowhere to be seen…

I have a little dream,

It shouts in the evening “Where were you?”

I say “I’m very sorry,

Tomorrow is anew.

Let’s arrange a meeting,

Just me and you

I’ll be there, let’s make before two.”

My dream says “Will you really?

You’ve promised for a while.

I’ll only wait so long,

Make some time,

Don’t let it pass you by.”

Thanks for reading and visiting brightblueballoon.com
We would love to know your thoughts in the comments below

Image and text (C) Lisa Moralee McLardy

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