Little Easter Nook

Here is the extent of my Easter decorating for 2010.

My super sweet next door neighbour Amanda gave us the little yellow rabbit candle, so I blew out the egg from three eggs and painted them in my water colour paints then placed them in this little basket with some raffia.

For this little corner I picked some yellow and white flowers from my back garden and used a little French egg cup as a vase and placed it next to my white bird.

This mirror is the first thing you see when you step into our lounge room so I wrote 'Happy Easter' with a little chick leaving an egg in my Chalk Pen.

And the pièce de résistance (NOT) is my first attempt at crocheting.
I made it last night and it is meant to be a little bunny.

I have been so inspired by my lovely friend Tina (Rubies Place) with all her beautiful crochet projects that I hunted around for my Grandma's crochet hook which I knew I had somewhere and I found my one and only ball of wool. I googled crocheting and after many false starts I got going and then didn't know what I was making.

Conversation with Glen last night:

Me: Look!!! I'm making something!!!
G: What are you making?
Me: I don't know, but it's something...
G: *smile*sigh*shake of head*

I decided to try and make my 'something' into a little bitty rabbit and do loops for ears. See how tiny it is it's about an inch. Oh well better luck next time :)

I will have to go up to the knitting shop up the road and buy some of the beautiful double yarn that Tina used in her latest project and maybe a 'How-To' book.

I think it's going to take me a loooong time to get up to Tina's standard but I will post some more of my comical attempts as they come about.

I hope you have a lovely Wednesday everyone,

Modern Paper Dolls

Did you love playing with paper dolls when you were a child? Dressing the little paper girl in different outfit combinations?

If you're like me and your answer is YES then.. Have you been to Polyvore?

I discovered it last year and had fun playing around with it and then had forgotten all about it. I remembered the site yesterday for some reason so I thought I would create my 'outfit for today' and show you!

This outfit is very much my style, I wish I could click my fingers like 'I dream of Jeannie' and be dressed and ready in this outfit for today. See it's complete with matching umbrella as it's currently raining outside.

You can actually buy each and every item on Polyvore and make your outfit dreams a reality. Unfortunately a simple outfit like this would set you back a thousand or two but that's the fun of Polyvore.

If you have a spare minute today why don't you loose yourself in Polyvore, I'd love to see your dream outfit!

Have a great day,

Flowers for our garden

Yesterday we spent some time planning the next stage of our front garden landscaping project.
I am tempted to show you before and after photos already because the change that has occurred will SHOCK YOU! hehehehe!

But I will wait till our new plants are in as the makeover will be even more amazing then. (I'm trying to make it sound very dramatic aren't I?!?)

Here are the plants which we have decided on, and will be putting in over the Easter weekend if all goes to plan.

Gardenias
Image via here

5 Magnolia Trees
Image via here

Lots of Lavender
Image via here

Hedges of Murraya
Image via here

We already have box hedges which we planted in the last stage and we have kept our two roses and the Frangipani trees in front of the house.

What do you think, can you picture it already???

Thank you for all your get well wishes, I am feeling SO much better today. The same bug seems to be going around and a few people have taken a week to get over it so I am very lucky it's only been a few days for me.

I hope you have a lovely start to the week today,

Feeling Paw-ly

Image via here

Sorry I been MIA for a few days, I've been feeling 'paw-ly' since Thursday night so have just been trying to take it easy and get over this nasty bug.

My mum was my guardian angel as always, she took care of Will all day at her place until G went and fetched him after dinner. I don't know what I would have done without her as Will is soooooo active at the moment. I think G would have come home to a house destroyed and me passed out of the floor if she hadn't taken him :)

I made it to the kids Grandparents and Special friends day on Thursday and it was so sweet all their little song and dance numbers and class room tour. I game them both canteen money which they were excited about - I used to love getting canteen money as a kid.

I will try and get around to every one's blog and catch up on all the news and say Hi.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Getting crafty

I was really sad when I discovered a permanent stain on one of my favourite jumpsuits of Will's that I was given as a baby show present. He always looked so cute in it and it's made of organic cotton so is very soft and cuddly. He has almost grown out of it anyway so I thought that I would re-purpose it for something special.

So during his afternoon nap today I made up this little soft kitty toy for him.
I had some left over wadding from when I made the blanket for his nursery and lots of buttons and embroidery thread in my sewing box.

I'm quite happy with the way it turned out even though it's not perfect and I haven't shown William yet but I'm sure he will like it.

I'm glad that I didn't just put the outfit into the rag pile, now I can treasure it forever and remember Will in his outfit even when he's a big boy. (I'm a sooky mumma aren't I).

I probably wont be blogging tomorrow as I'll be busy being a surrogate Grandma for my niece and nephew. They are have 'Grandparents and Special Friends Day' at their school tomorrow and I am very honored to be their 'Special Friend' for the second year in a row (as their Granny and Grandpa are in Sth Africa).

Last year when I was doing the class room tour in my niece's classroom her teacher was asking the kids to say something special about their grandparents. When she got to Megan she said 'Do you want to say something about your Aunty?' and Meggy said quietly 'Just... that I love her'! OOOOoooooooooooo, my heart exploded and I nearly shed a tear right there in the 3B classroom.

So I hope you have a great day tomorrow!

My lucky day!

Yesterday seemed to be my lucky day as I woke up to find I had received my first ever blog award! I was very excited when the lovely Hillary at a gal and her dog told me that I was one of the blogs she was passing this funny 'Master of Karate and Friendship Award' onto to.

But THEN the super sweet Nellie of McCarthy Designs gave me a Sunshine Award too! Wow, I felt/feel so spoilt! So thank you so much lovely ladies (Hillary and Nellie) for thinking of me, you made my day. Stop by their blogs if you haven't already they are both so lovely and such fun bloggers too!

So... I thought that what I would do is pass on my 'Master of Karate and Friendship Award' today and then I'll pass on the Sunshine Award in the next few days... is that breaking the rules? I hope not!

And the rules of the Master of Karate and Friendship Award are:

1. List 6 things you are a master in.

2. Pass it on to 6 bloggers you think are masters

at friendship and make blogging awesome.

This was tough but here goes... the 6 things I am a master in:
1. I am now a master at Keeping Calm and Carrying On
...when my little William decides to take his food and crumble it on the floor from his highchair, or grab the whole bowl of baby food and throw it across the room leaving a splattering spray of goop who knows where! This used to really stress me out and I could literally feel my heart rate go up and stress levels soar but I've now trained myself to take a deep breath and just accept that after every meal the dust pan and broom and the floor wiping cloth are coming out! Whether I like it or not :)

2. I am a master of disguise
Well not in the spy sense (although that was always a childhood ambition) but as in costume making for dress up parties! I love being invited to dress up parties for the excuse to come up with a fancy dress outfit. Glen and I have many a photo of us in all sorts of costumes and I can't wait for the day when the little party invitations come home for Will and I get to unleash my creative costume making monster on him. Hehehee.


3. I am a master of doing my makeup in 2mins flat
I find putting on make up therapeutic (when I have the time). My parents would laugh as I sat on the lounge with my makeup bag and played around with all my makeup bits and pieces putting on a full face of makeup just before bed 'because it's fun'. NOW my makeup application is usually within 2mins flat - for tinted sunscreen foundation, a little stroke of eye pencil and my 'absolutely can't leave the house without' mascara (my eye lashes are mostly blonde so I have to have my mascara).

4. I am a master at getting myself too busy
I know we all do it don't we? I find it's about every second week I will have invited too many people over, rsvp'd to too many things, which means I have more cooking, cleaning, travelling, shopping to do than hours in the day; as well as fitting in time for work, blogging and all my normal chores. One day I'll find the balance... I hope.

5. I am a master at shopping for presents
Well I probably don't always get it right and there is always going to be a better present out there for someone but I think I do a pretty good and thoughtful job of birthday and Christmas shopping. I also tried to make a lot of my Christmas presents last year which was really fun but also falls into the last category of 'getting myself too busy' hehehee.

6. I am a master of cuddles
I just love give my three boys - Hubby, Bubby and Minky (the cat) big cuddles and snuggles.
Cuddles are the best!

Who wouldn't want to cuddle this little teddy bear???

So now I pass on this award to 6 great bloggers:

1. Mirela at Melli's Design's
2. Jane at My Pear Tree Home
3. Louise at Illume Design
4. Sarah B at Molly's Maison
5. Nicole at Bubby Makes Three
6. Nellie at McCarthy Designs

Take part if you would like - but no pressure too.

Have a lovely day everyone!!!

Sneak Peak - new print

Hello friends, thank you so much for your lovely birthday wishes for my Dad. I told him to check out my blog and he was very chuffed.

I thought I'd give you sneak peak of a new design I've just finished and hasn't hit the My Sweet Prints shops yet.

I think it's going to be called 'Name Meaning Silhouette' but if you can think of something better please let me know.

Girl Version

Boy Version

Close up

The meaning of a name is a very significant thing and in most cases parents will take the meaning of their child's name into account when making that all important decision, I know we did with Will :)

I think it's very special too when I child learns the meaning of their name and maybe the reason why their parents chose it for them. Which is why I have included the little vintage inspired silhouette to represent the little child learning the meaning of their name.

The print can be made in any colour so that it can be customised to match their bedroom or playroom.

So what do you think? Be honest...

Friday's wedding & Happy Birthday Dad

We had a lovely time at our friend's wedding on Friday. It was such a beautiful occasion and the bride looked stunning!

They had an orange theme which came together beautifully.

The top right pic is of my best friend holding 'William's future wife' baby Isabella, her husband, her mum on the left and me on the right of the picture.

Sonya (the bride) is such a generous person that instead of the normal DJ's or Myer gift registry she set up an Oxfam Unwrapped registry where you could go on and purchase things like A Goat, Seeds for planting, Clean Water, Medical Kits, Build a Bridge, Vegie Garden etc etc. How Generous is That!

They also continued that theme by purchasing one of these Oxfam Gifts and leaving the card which Oxfam produces as a thank you on each table at the reception in place of the normal Bomboniere. I thought this was such a lovely idea that for an event in which so much money is spent for the one day, that they thought to give back to others.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

I also wanted to say a BIG HAPPY 55th BIRTHDAY to my wonderful Dad for today!
We celebrated on Saturday together but Will, my sister and I are also meeting up with Mum and Dad today for lunch which will be so nice.

Time for me to brag about my Dad...
My Dad's the Best. He can fix anything. He drives really fast. He taught me music, cars, electronics, fixing, mechanical stuff, drawing, jokes, yummy food. My Dad and I are twins; we love the same food, we smile and laugh the same, same eyes, same sense of humour, we love gadgets, old movies, playing the piano and guitar. My Dad is so cool cause he works in TV. My Dad is the best Grandpa too. I love my Dad!

I hope you have a great day Dad, and everyone else too,

Going to the chapel and we're...

We have a friend's wedding to go to this afternoon so I thought I would post some wedding inspiration pics from Martha Stewart Weddings. This Cherry Blossom theme is beautiful. How magnificent is that Cherry Blossom tree?

This one is a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme which Martha herself designed for the couple.

I'll take some pics of the wedding today and post them sometime next week.

I hope you are having a great Friday my friends.
Take care,

Wedding

Ministyle

If you haven't checked out the website MiniStyle before then you've been missing out!


MiniStyle is a children's lifestyle boutique offering local and imported brands for the mini adult in your life!

All images via ministyle

Check out the gorgeous clothes, jewellry, toys, stationery... they just have the most unique range of products you could go crazy on the credit card.

And now there is one more reason to go and check out Mini Style because I have some very exciting news!
My Sweet Prints is now stocked on MiniStyle!

I was contacted by MiniStyle's lovely Penelope and she got the ball rolling and now I am very excited and so pleased to be apart of such a beautiful online store!

Sometimes I can't believe that I started My Sweet Prints only 5months ago as so much has happened.

So I just wanted to share my exciting news which has definitely cheered up my not so happy 'nursing sick bubba' week.

Have a wonderful Thursday,

Will's 1st Birthday party plans...

So I've been waiting my whole life for this.... my first child's birthday party!!!! YAY!
And we've decided to do a 'Going on Safari' theme. Because it ties into his room theme, and because we have so much Sth African stuff we can use.

Here is the party invitation I made, doesn't Will look so grown up in the photo!


My friend Oli has been doing cake decorating courses and has kindly offered to make the cake! She will come over the day before the party and we will mould the little animals together. This is a pic of one of the cakes she saw on the Internet which we will try and copy.


Here are some of the supplies I have stocked up already!

Toilet rolls you ask? Well I'm going to make binoculars out of them for the kids to spy all the animals which will be 'roaming' in our backyard.

The plastic animals will go on top of cupcakes which will be on my three tiered cup cake stand. And there will be lots of green jungle streamers hanging everywhere.

Here are the other ideas:

• Cardboard arrows pointing different directions, saying 2000miles to Zimbabwe etc on front door post
• Zebra table cloth
• Brown and green crape paper vines with leaves
• Green balloons
• Green Plates
• Animal noises to play on ipod as you enter the party
• Photo booth
• Snakes and other jelly animals in blue jelly
• Dress Safari (shorts, khaki, beige colours)
• Do a braii & have Sth African snacks
• Make animal crossing signs and Elephants next 2km etc
• Hippo in blue pool
• Animal prints drawn on driveway
• Pic of Will & Happy Birthday on TV screen saver
• Green streamers hanging from french doors
• Sth African table cloth on round table and drinks table
• Borrow little kids cars and write 'Safari Tour' on cardboard box stuck to roof.
• Giraffe around the palm tree
• Blow up crocodile in fish pond
• Make Binoculars out of toilet rolls and stuck together with black electrical tape and black plastic ribbon for around neck
• Green jungle cake with animals, grass and water.
• THE CAVE!!! tape boxes together and cut doorways to each box inside. Inside hang crape paper and glow sticks from the top of the boxes to give a spooky effect, stick tree branches on top of the boxes, and something to cover the entrance to the cave.

I would love to do a lolly bar with green and chocolate coloured lollies in beautiful glass jars but a) I know my friends would kill me when their kids stuff themselves full of sweets and go crazy b) glass jars for kids parties = emergency room visits.

So that's the plan. Lets see if I can find the time and energy to pull off all these ideas but I know I'm going to have heaps of fun organising. The average age of the children at the party will be about 4yo so I think they will have a great time with those activities and the Dad's will have fun chatting around the Braii (Sth African for BBQ).

What do you think? Do you have any more ideas for me?



P.S. Thank you so much for all your comments and feed back about my 'canvas BUS SCROLLS' little business.
And an update on Will - I took him to the doctor yesterday and the poor bubby has Croup :(
He has a miserable cough which hurts him and sounds awful and is so tired and grumpy (as you would feel) so hopefully with the medication the doc has given me he will start improving soon.

canvas BUS SCROLLS

Thank you all for your lovely Anniversary wishes and comments. I was showing G last night and we were very touched!

Poor bubby Will is really not well at the moment... we all had a very sleepless night as he was coughing and snuffling. We pulled out all the stops... vapouriser, elevating the cot mattress, baby Panadol, Vics baby balm and lots of cuddles. So I'm going to make it a quick blog post so I can try and get a nap in while he sleeps :)

I just wanted to let you know about something new I've been doing!!!

You probably remember my lovely customer Jenene from Brisbane? The one which I did the Italian prints for? Well she and I had been working on a canvas bus scroll for her home and she just got it delivered the other day and it turned out so well, see pic below!


So I've decided to add canvas bus scrolls/destination scrolls etc to my repertoire and I've set up a little website here with information and a contact form etc.

You see, all the canvas bus scrolls on the market are VERY expensive which is why Jenene thought to approach me to make one up for her, so I thought I might as well let people know that this is something I can do!

I'm not planning to put a lot of time or money into advertising or marketing but I thought I would just put it out there in case anyone is interested. Here is the little red London bus logo I designed and there will be a link on the right hand side of my blog which links to the website.


I'd love to know your thoughts or feedback as I have literally just put this all together very quickly.

I hope you have a lovely Tuesday (aren't the weeks flying by?) and I'm off to get some sleep.

Anniversary day out

Good morning! Welcome to another week! Will has a little sniffly cold today so we will be staying quiet and warm.

Here is a little update on what we got up to on Saturday for our Anniversary.

My wonderful parents came over at 9.30am to babysit William for the day, aren't they the best! And Will put on his charms for Grandma and Grandpa and they had a lot of fun apparently.

Then G and I headed to Balmoral for breakfast at Bathers Pavilion which was Luuuuurrvvly. Yum! We both had the Eggs Benedict which was delish and sat back 'bathing' in the sun light through the big bi fold doors sipping our coffee watching the swimmers and people walking their cute little pooches.

Image via here

Image via here

We took a stroll after our brekky along the Balmoral promenade and the weather was just perfect!
Then we decided to take a drive up to North Head in Manly which is the headland on the north side where the sea comes into Sydney Harbour.

Here is a photo I took with the crappy camera on my mobile phone. Stunning hey!


G (hubby) is an ocean swimmer and swum 11kms from the harbour bridge to Manly wharf two years ago and there is another swim he is planning to do which goes from Manly beach around to Manly wharf through the heads and you swim around past this spot. *chills* I said NO WAY!

Then we went to Manly and got ice creams and wandered around for a while just enjoying the novelty of not having a baby in tow.

We headed back home in the afternoon and G gave me some beautiful roses.

Here is a dodgy photo of them on my kitchen bench.

Then he cooked a yummy Butter Chicken for dinner, very spoilt. It was such a lovely day!

I hope you have a great Monday and I'm starting to plan Will's 1st birthday party which I will blog about later this week :)

On this day 6 years ago....

...I married my wonderful husband, who is now also the most wonderful father in the world too. And we have had six fantastic years of marriage and I look forward to MANY MANY more my darling!

We were married at Chatswood Sth Uniting Church - the same church that my parents were married and also where I was a flowergirl for my aunty's wedding. My Grandfather who was a Uniting Church minister married us which was soooo special. Our reception was at the stunning Manly Golf Club. We honeymooned on Tioman Island which is off Malaysia for a week then went on to South Africa where we had a mini wedding celebration at a resort in the Drakensberg Mountains and stopped back in KL on the way home for some shopping.

We have had a great day today celebrating but I will post about it on Monday :)

I hope you have a great weekend,