Book Review: Usborne Garden Sticker & Colouring Book
As you know, I am an expert on all things gardening. And I am pretty good at sticking and colouring too so I was the natural choice to give my expert opinion on Usborne’s latest book, handily called “Garden Sticker & Colouring Book”. But did it reach my high expectations or did it crash into a sticky, scribbly mess?…
A brand new book from Usborne, but what did I think of it?…
Well, if you are already a fan of Usborne books like me, you will know that they know how to make a good book and, to be honest, this one doesn’t disappoint. Here are some of my favourite things about the book:
It’s got loads of pages in it. 32 to be precise so it will last for AGES!
Wow, there are a LOT of stickers to choose from!
The stickers are brilliant quality. I have some sticker books where the stickers are hard to get off and rip easily. These ones are much better quality and have a nice glossy feel to them.
Adding the bugs to their silhouettes was LOTS of fun
At the back of the book there are lots of bits to colour in which makes a nice change from just sticking. I love sticking but after a while it’s nice to do some colouring too. Plus I like that the flowers were proper flower shapes and not just a generic flower. There were foxgloves and echinacea and poppies and all sorts of pretty plants to colour.
Lots of pretty flowers to colour
There’s lots to learn in this book. It tells you the names of lots of bugs and birds, vegetables and some of the animals that come out at night (like Batty the Bat!)
They even have Primula vialii growing beside the pond in one of the pictures. This is the plant that our family business Vialii Garden Services is named after. Cool!
Look, a Primula vialii which is what our company is named after!
The book costs £7.99 which I think is AMAZING value for a book which will give many, many hours of fun. I have spent loads of time colouring and sticking and there is still lots to do. So for those rainy days when you can’t get outdoors in the garden then what better than to snuggle down with this book.
It gets a big thumbs up from me!
Available from Usborne Books and all good book sellers.
Hope you love it as much as me!
Lulu xx
It’s All In A Name
We are regularly asked how we came up with the name Vialii Garden Design. Some people think it’s our surname (we were tempted to change our names by deed poll as it sounds a lot more glamorous than Burt!) but the real reason is simple – it’s the name of one of our favourite flowers, the Primula vialii.
The beautiful primula vialii
Primula vialii is a striking plant with its poker shape and lilac base and red tip. They look great planted in groups and make a vibrant splash in the garden in early to mid summer. They work best as a woodland or bog plant and love to be kept moist and like partial shade. They are easy to grow and need little care. They quickly multiply and can be divided later in the year.
Primula vialii look wonderful planted in groups
So, once we had the name, we needed to come up with a logo. A friend of ours recommended Margaret Scott, a graphic designer based in Edinburgh. We met with Margaret to explain what we were looking for – we wanted the V of Vialii to look like a stylised Primula vialii. Very quickly Margaret came back with the fabulous logo which you can now see emblazoned on all of our designs, websites, stationery, uniforms, vehicles – you name it, we brand it!
Our Vialii logo
Finally, Margaret also created a stylised plant for us which we use as a footer on stationery, website and dotted here and there.
Our stylised Vialii
So there you go, a potted history (excuse the pun!) of Vialii.
All at Vialii