The Blog Catchup

Wow .... I didnt mean for that to be such a long blog gap ! 


It was a very busy Oct, Nov and Dec, a lot of cards and clay tags were sold and a couple new stockists found me so all'n all I was very pleased and grateful.  Hope you had a great Christmas and New Years, here is a few snaps of the last couple of months for me.


A new big bed for the little guy, (he decided it was his Santa Sleigh) with snow decorating for his "snow cave" and "sleigh". Apparantly Santa even came and picked him up on the first night in his sleigh bed, he went to the workshop and was in charge of dolls and robots, such a great age.

A visit to the man himself, ... one of many, we (maybe me) became a bit stalker-ish by the end of Dec, not sure who is the bigger kid at Christmas.

A visit to a couple of vinnies shop to stock up for the christmas day table.  Last minute decision for my husbands family and a couple of friends to come to ours for lunch. I really enjoyed finding this loot and of course hosting Christmas Day, even though I forgot to put out the rice salad and bon bons.

This is a Kris Kringle present for Anna a lovely girl from my other part time job.  Our rules were under $20 and handmade.  I was telling her one day how this would probably be the last year I can get away with being able to be selfish and decorate the tree on my own, I normally have a theme that I stick to, mega coloured busy tree's are not my style.  Next year I will have to let go as Master 5 will be into it.  Anyway Anna said she loves a tree with so much mismatched stuff on it that it is crazy messy, so that is what we gave her.  Sticks, wire, and loads of stuff, nail polish, chocolates, jewellery, booze, paints, a hatching penguin, toy dinosaurs, ribbons, clay tags and god knows what else were tied on by myself and the little guy, I really struggled with its mish mash of no structure, but she loved it ! and proudly took it home on the train, I did offer to drive her with it, but she is such a fun girl, full of life, she thought it would be funny people trying to figure what on earth she was holding.  Follow your dreams in 2012 Miss Anna. 

A little baby for christmas, my husbands step sister had a beautiful little girl on the 23rd, congratulations Allison and Murray.  When we got the news Sam and I were at the shops and promptly went to the girls section of Myer and Sam proudly picked out her first little dress. 


Hello and welcome to the world Ivy Harper Slee. 

This is Christmas Eve, and its the photos you never see on a blog, or is that because your not supposed to put them on your blog ? Oh well, there was MESS in every room of the house.  At this point I was freaking out a little to get everything done I wanted and having it all look like what was in my head. We only even had the new table we bought as our christmas present delivered on Christmas Eve, did I mention the pav is yet to be made, I had a deadline of 6.00pm so I could spend this special night with the little one watching a Santa movie ... The clock shows 4.00pm aaarrrrrgh !


The Pre Christmas M E S S !!

Nana's Pavlova recipe, didn't take a shot of it with cream & berries on top, but it turned out ok.

I did manage to get to my 6.00pm deadline so now for the nice christmas photos .... 

And not forgetting the snow marks Santa left behind, and yes that is a dog poo right in the middle of it ! Nice one Wilson.

Hope you all had a great Christmas, now there's a Holiday blog to catch up on.  Off to pour a wine as I look out to a amazing view of the boats on the water, our last few days of holidays at Clontarf Beach, photos to show soon of how spoilt we have been, house and dog minding for a friend, and she thinks we are doing her a favour ? 

More Christmas & Newspaper Taxi

A couple more christmas designs available.

The street party was originally designed for my own street this year, last year we had a great time.   Funny how you can spend a whole lifetime in your house and not know the people down the street, or do I spend too much time in the house designing quirky reindeers perhaps ?

Think this is me secretly wishing I could sew a quilt.  

The Street Party

Introducing Newspaper Taxi  "We LOVE Mail competition"

I cant even remember how I came across this blog, but am grateful I did and is now on my 'Blogs I Stalk' list.  And to make it even better the owner Stef has a boutique vintage store in Newtown. Think I will be popping over for a personal visit in the next couple of weeks. 

So anyway what I wanted to share is her great giveaway of stationary. 

So, my desk is covered in packs of christmas cards, so there is a couple of packs on their way.

Hope you can join in, be quick it closes Friday the 4th November 2011.  You have gotta pop over to her blog and check out all the amazing stuff she has received.  

Personally I would have trouble letting it go, its going to be one AMAZING prize !

Christmas & So Soon !

I am sure I will say what we all are thinking ... 


"I can't believe its only 2 months till Christmas" here are some new designs will a couple more to come, and some freebie giveaways very very shortly !


Merry Christmas, sorry carried away .. thats a little bit too soon isn't it.

"Cant wait to see you this Christmas" 

"Sending Big LOVE this Christmas"

" M E R R Y   C H R I S T M A S "

" The Reindeer Tree "

The Pirate Adventure

The Pirate Adventure !  My little man turned 4 today, and it felt like his actual birthday would never come, we had a pirate party for him two weeks ago, and I think I started preparing for the (what turned into an event) at least 3 weeks before that.  I really enjoyed the theme of black, white and red.  Happy Birthday my beautiful boy I hope you enjoyed your party as much as I enjoyed creating it x mum-ma x


The Invitation ......

The FRONT

The BACK

Address Card #1

Because most of the kids were from kindy they were hand delivered.

Address Card #2

And an address card for those that needed to be posted. 

mmmmm, Am I sure I really want to invite 25, 4 year old pirates with swords to my house ?

The Cake ......

I found a silicon pirate ship for the cake and used food dyes with fondant icing which was a first for me, but just like playing with clay, I pushed it into the mould to make imprints and a bit of cutting, rolling and painting I was quite pleased at how easy it was.

The Pirate Ship ......

I saw this idea somewhere on the net (but couldn't find it again to give credit sorry).  


But basically a trip to your local hardware store for three pieces of dowel, a couple of buckets, a piece of black fabric, and string.  Out with the power-tools I drilled a bracket to the underside of our dining room table to hold the first piece of dowel in place, carefully trying not to drill all the way through, otherwise that will be a story for future dinner parties. (you could always just have three pole's standing straight up if the drilling is a bit scary)  The other two are just poked in a bucket full of dirt (wet to add weight), then tie some string and add some bunting (the striped ones are just wrapping paper cut into triangles.  The others are what I just designed on the computer.  Super easy and super cheap.  


Now its just getting permission from Master 4 that it can be taken down, thats the hard part !

The lollie bag ......

Kicking myself for not remembering to take photos of the table all set up with the food etc, I also forgot to take pics of the take home gifts for the kids.  I used empty tennis ball containers and filled the bottom with cannonballs (jaffas) and topped with pirate bits and pieces, pencil, bubbles, cards and gold coins.  This was the left over one that doesn't even have a lid left on it and their were more jaffas in the bottom, but you get the general idea.  I cant stop thinking of the great pic I didn't take of all of the 25 of them lined up together. 

Decorations & Games .....

Decorating was easy lots of stripes, bits of garden netting, we had a treasure hunt after a mystery Pirate phoned Sam to tell him there was a map buried in the garden.  He had to lead his fellow pirates around the house outside, finding a parrot, sword and scarf for the final clue to find a treasure box full of chocolate coins and pirate rings. 

Phew, Pirate Adventure 

 The End 

Black & White

I have had a bit of a black and white making phase going on the last couple of weeks, my very good buddie is turning 40 soon,  her invitations were quite easy to design, she loves black and white, simple geometric shapes and a splash of red ! Hope she didn't mind sharing her age with everyone. (Thats what friends are for .... right!)

My little guy is turning 4 soon, and we are having a pirate party, so after a bit of a bedroom make over, I decided to do some DIY fairy lights in a pirate theme


Take some paper cupcake cases (I did a two on each and offset them a little), some pirate stickers, cut a small x with a sharp art knife, poke your light through - DA DA! There is some fantastic cupcake cases around at the moment, especially girly ones. Let me know if you give it a go. 

PS: If you have a pirate ship I can borrow let me know


PPS: Thank you wonderful Mac and your history button, I have a list of all the blogs I stalk that I accidentally deleted, just have to spend some time to load them back up.

OH NO !

Big fat Whoops ! Silly Silly delete button - I take it back !

I accidentally deleted the list of all the wonderful blogs I follow. 

Come back how am I ever going to find you all ! 

Weekend AWAY!

Last weekend we took an extra couple of days off and headed to Millthorpe in country New South Wales, its always been a quant little town we have passed by or had a quick stop from trips to and fro visiting family in Cowra many a time.


My husband booked the accommodation and I must say its one of the best stays I have ever had.   I walked in to this fab cottage like I was walking in the pages of my favourite design magazine.  It was styled to perfection, the awaiting local bottle of vino and cheese plate and chocolates was just the beginning of all the little gourmet treats to eat and to soak in the extra large bath with.  The owner Belinda also had gone to the effort of a little money box gift and gingerbread man for our little one. 


After arriving, I made everybody stand outside with luggage in the cold while I took photos before they messed up the place.  In passing my husband mentioned that Belinda might own a local shop it turned out to be a lifestyle/design/homewares shop.... OH PLEASE are you kidding, you could not find me in a more fitting place.


I did'nt get to return to the shop and take some photos from the inside so I highly recommend that you go for yourself for the great accommodation and experience of Millthorpe and Belinda's shop to molly www.tomolly.com.au 


Thanks Belinda ! You spoilt us rotten. PS Sam named the soft toy George and tucked him in bed when we left, maybe George has a brother in your shop that might like to move to the city as they became great mates.

www.hockeysaccommodation.com.au

www.tomolly.com.au

Millthorpe, New South Wales, Australia