Time is ticking....

Less than 12hrs left till the My Sweet Prints 40% off BlogSale2010 sale ends!

If you missed it yesterday here are the details:

As a way to thank the blogging community for all their support, I'm offering a sale which is not advertised on my shops but only on blogs, so please start spreading the news!

Take 40% off the price of any print from ‘My Sweet Prints’ till the end of June 2010!

To be eligible for the sale, put code ‘BlogSale2010’ in the ‘notes to seller’
section when ordering through either my etsy or madeit.com.au stores and
I will send you a Paypal refund, within 24hrs, of 40% off the price of your print!

NB: Refund on Print price only, does not include postage. Offer ends Midnight AEST 30 June 2010.
Offer only applies on the following stores: MySweetPrints.etsy.com and madeit.com.au/MySweetPrints

Please feel free to grab the image above and put it on your side bar and link back to this post or better still, blog about it - I'd love to get the news out there!

This is my first ever sale so it's a great opportunity to grab that special piece of art you've been wanting for yourself or a gift at a fantastically reduced price!!!

Thank you to everyone who has already posted about the sale or added to their sidebar, I've had a great response so far!

SALE HAS NOW ENDED

Have a lovely day,

My Sweet Prints - End of Financial Year SALE

The SALES are everywhere so I thought why not have one too!
So as a way to thank the blogging community for all their support, I'm offering a sale which is not advertised on my shops but only on blogs, so please start spreading the news!

Take 40% off the price of any print from ‘My Sweet Prints’ till the end of June 2010!

To be eligible for the sale, put code ‘BlogSale2010’ in the ‘notes to seller’
section when ordering through either my etsy or madeit.com.au stores and
I will send you a Paypal refund, within 24hrs, of 40% off the price of your print!

NB: Refund on Print price only, does not include postage. Offer ends Midnight AEST 30 June 2010.
Offer only applies on the following stores: MySweetPrints.etsy.com and madeit.com.au/MySweetPrints

Please feel free to grab the image above and put it on your side bar and link back to this post or better still, blog about it - I'd love to get the news out there!

This is my first ever sale so it's a great opportunity to grab that special piece of art you've been wanting for yourself or a gift at a fantastically reduced price!!!

SALE HAS NOW ENDED

Thanks for your help & support bloggers.
Have a lovely day,

Running

Image via here

I am a little bit stiff today but not as bad as I thought I'd be.
You see G and I went for a run yesterday evening while bubba was still at his 'sleepover' and I managed to keep up with G quite well. We did about 3kms (which is not that far but pretty good as I haven't run in months).

I hope to pick up my fitness a bit more now and we managed to get a 1yr old, three wheeler jogging pram on eBay for $36 which G collected on Saturday - bargain right!

I'm thinking of trying to cut out coffee as well... we'll see if that lasts longer than a day :)

It will be great if I can get my fitness up and get a bit more trim and toned ready for a little holiday we've booked for a couple of months time which will require swimwear attire (oh bugger).

Anyway, have a lovely day everyone and thanks for all the sweet comments yesterday!

Take care,

Thanks

I just wanted to take the time to firstly say 'Thank You' for reading my blog, commenting, emailing, just visiting from time to time, or reading every day.

It means a lot to me and I enjoy reading all your comments - so if you do read this little blog of mine but haven't commented before can I encourage you to even just say 'Hi' :)

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I also wanted to say a HUGE thank you to my Mum and Dad who kindly offered to have William for a sleep over yesterday to give us a bit of a break from our precious, gorgeous, delightful... but EXHAUSTING little bundle of love. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mum and Dad (and Kate, yes I didn't forget you lil'sis) I'm feeling much more human this morning and less zombie-like :)

So yes, just wanting to share the love this morning!

Thanks again,

A yummy recipe

On Tuesday night I made a roast chicken, there was a bit of chicken left over so I thought I would just serve the same the next night. But by the time that dinner came around G and I weren't really in the mood for it again and G suggested pasta.

Hmmm I thought, what do I have in the cupboard/fridge...

I had my stock standard staples of ricotta, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach and pecorino. So I googled these ingredients and here is the recipe I found!

Spaghetti with Cherry Tomatoes, Ricotta, Spinach and Pecorino
By Bill Granger from bill's food

via here

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 750 g Cherry Tomatoes
• 4 Garlic Cloves sliced
• 1 Red Onion thinly sliced
• 1 handful Fresh Oregano
• 100 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 500 g Fresh Spaghetti
• 50 g Baby English Spinach
• 200 g Fresh Ricotta
• Freshly Ground Black pepper
• 75 g Pecorino Cheese grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF/Gas 4).
2. Put the tomatoes, garlic, onion and oregano on a baking tray and drizzle with the oil.
3. Roast for 20–25 minutes or until wilted.
4. Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente.
5. Drain and toss with the tomato mixture, spinach and half the ricotta.
6. Divide among serving bowls and top with the remaining ricotta and some freshly ground pepper.
7. Serve with the grated pecorino.

It was deeeeeeelish! I used Penne rather than spaghetti and I tossed some of the roast chicken shredded into the pasta too. We grow oregano in our vegie garden so that was fine and I used a brown onion instead of a red which was perfectly fine too!

It's gone into my recipe folder and I can see it being a family fav from now on so I thought I'd share it with all you lovely ladies!!!

Have a terrific Friday,

Questions & Answers

This week, the super sweet Mirela of Melli’s Designs tagged me to play along with a fun little game where you give answers to the following questions. So here I go...

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
My favourite cities in the world are Edinburgh, Paris and anywhere in Switzerland but as they can all get a bit too chilly in winter I think I'd have to come back to Australia for summer and I would choose either Noosa or the Gerringong/Berry area. But you know, I'm such a happy Sydney girl I'd be just as fine staying where I am :)


2. What is your favourite band?
I don't really have a fav band but looking through my iTunes the ones I enjoy the most are, Jason Mraz, Kate Miller-Heidke, Michael Buble, Bic Runga, Duffy, No Doubt, Elton John and some ABBA thrown in for good measure :)

3. If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?
I would like to be, not one person in particular, but someone who works with the AIDS orphaned babies at the Watoto Baby Village in Uganda. I love babies and Watoto is a charity that Glen and I love. Two of the little Watoto choir members stayed at our home for a night during their tour a few years ago. My heart cries for all the forgotten children, esp in Africa.

4. Concert or Broadway show?
Broadway show for sure!!!

5. Theme song for your life?
I don't know, that one's way too hard.

6. Would you choose a fancy dinner at a nice restaurant or a picnic in the park?
I'd choose fancy dinner at a nice restaurant, I love eating out and not having to cook or prepare food (feels like that's all I do sometimes) which is why I actually don't love picnics, also because I've got fair skin and I burn in 2seconds flat.


7. Favourite place to shop?
I love little boutiques, gift shops, antique shops and markets. Anywhere where you feel like you could stumble over a treasure!

8. Favourite movie?
I think my all time fav which I've seen more times than I dare to remember is 'The Sound of Music'. Oh don't get me started....... here I go...... 'the hills are alive, with the sound of music....'.

All images via here

I'd like to tag the following bloggers for this game. There’s no pressure whatsoever to join in but I’d love to read your answers to these questions too!

Jenny at The Five Year Project
Lisa at Ledamae
Ann at My Villa Life
Trish at A Dream House for Trish

Thanks for reading my Q&A, I hope you have a lovely day,

Mother & Son outfits.... oh dear!

Do you find that you dress your child in a similar outfit to you and you didn't even plan it?

I do. I think it's because I'll be in a certain mood for a certain colour or type of outfit and once Will and I are dressed and ready to go out the door I realise that we look very matchy-matchy but today has to take the cake... have a look at us fooling around with the 'photobooth' camera on my Macbook.

Seriously, I didn't realise what I'd done! I got Will changed into his Navy & White strip top and navy trousers with his navy and white leather moccasins (soooo cute) then put him to bed for his morning sleep.

I then went about getting myself ready for the day, dressing in my Navy & White strip top and jeans.
When he woke I went into his room and looked down at us both and thought 'I better not be doing this when he's 16 or he'll kill me'. hehehehe.

Do you ever do that too or am I a freaky mum?

What I'm loving today...

I am loving Real Living's July issue, came out on Monday and it's one of those issues that you devour every page.

And don't you just love the cover? Very striking and mod but also relaxed and chic. It was styled by the super lovely Marie Nichols who I have blogged about before here and shot by my old colleague (I worked on RL as advertising designer/art director before having Will) Chris Warnes.

Here's a peek at some of the mag...

YUMMO... (get the recipe for these beauties here)

Loving that grey wall behind the bed!!!

So yes, if you haven't got yourself a copy yet then go and do yourself a favour :) hehehe.

Oh and William said to say thank you for all the lovely comments about him yesterday and that he agrees, he should be on higher wages and that he is now getting around with sunnies on his head 24/7 so as to maintain that professional look :)

Have a lovely Wednesday,

New Print for My Sweet Prints

It's been a busy few days, with a new design I'm about to launched called 'Apple of our Eye'.
Here it is, take a look...

Green Apple version

Red Apple Version

I wanted to create another modern, simple design and I think this would look very cute in a nursery or young child's room. Especially with the Woodland, Tree, Apple, themes that are becoming very popular in children's decor and design at the moment.

What do you think???

Now available for purchase via:
etsy or madeit

And I have to tell you, it's just lucky I have my little assistant to help me out when I'm busy. Take a look at William hard at work...


Have a lovely day everyone!

Wonderful Weekend

We had such a nice weekend!

On Saturday we decided to invite a few neighbours around for an impromptu dinner party.

Mardi round the corner made a beautiful Thai pumpkin soup - going to get the recipe! It had ginger, coriander, coconut milk... Mmmmm....

Then I did a big chicken stir fry with mushrooms, bok choy, baby corn, capsicum, broccolini and egg noodles. And also a big cabbage noodle salad to go with it.

It was so much fun, we all ate out on the deck, there were 7 adults and 6 children and we all just fit outside around the outdoor dining table and we used our new outdoor heater which was fantastic.

After dinner the kids went into the lounge and watched Shrek the Third (we have a digital recorder with a few kids movies recorded for these type of occasions) they were very happy in there and it was so cute to see Millie, Lucy, Imogen and Sylvie all squished up together on the one lounge with Minky (our cat) lying over their laps.


Here is a pic of the gorgeous Jonquils from our next door neighbour, they smell sooooo nice and have filled the whole room with their beautiful perfume.

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Sunday morning I got baking as we had our Mothers Group 'Baby's 1st birthday' celebration lunch at one of the other Mum's beautiful big home in the next suburb up.
All our bubs have turned 1 within about 6 weeks of each other from April-May. So we celebrated with a roast dinner style feast.

All the baby's (probably can't call them baby's now) got given a present, and Will was given two books with touchy things on them. He loves these type of books as he is very hands-on. Here is a pic of my little man drinking his bottle on my lap and looking at his new books at the party.


I made biscuits for dessert in the shape of hearts and the number '1' in pink and blue icing. The ones above aren't them, they are the second batch I did with chocolate icing later on in the evening.

And here are the bespoke biscuits I made especially for Glen :) 'I heart GB'
hehehehe... you'd think I was 12 y.o. or something wouldn't you!

So there you have it, a fantastic weekend!
What did you get up to???

Customer Pic - 'Morning' Bus Roll Poster

I thought I'd just share a pic that a lovely customer Caroline emailed me this week. I did a customised Bedtime Bus Roll Poster as a 'Morning Bus Roll Poster' for her a little while back.

Caroline decided to tweek my design and get a 'Morning Routine' poster made up for when her husband needs to get their girls ready in the morning. It's a little point of reference to make sure everything is done before they leave for school.

Don't you just love 'First Stop WEE'!!! So cute! (And how cool is the retro school clock above it)!

I get such a thrill when I see that my Bus Scroll designs are being used by happy families all over the world!

I hope you're having a great weekend,

Party theme ideas

Thank you so much ladies for all your expert advice yesterday on my birthday party plans.

I'd love to say that I've come to a decision but I think I'm even more torn now :)

I put together a very quick moodboard of the theme ideas I have for each option.

Sit down dinner at the Sailing Club, would be natural earthy/beachy tones and textures.
I'm thinking a hessian table running over white table cloth with white river pebbles and tea light candles sprinkled down the tables and interspersed with green and white flowers. A few white paper lanterns hanging and the invitations and wooden fans by Illume Design.


Cocktail party at home, would be an elegant black, white and turquoise theme (well it is the Pantone colour of the year). I would have lace accents from the cupcake cases, lanterns and star bursts, lace doily bunting, lace wrapped vases and candle holders to the invitations and thank you present boxes, again by Illume Design. (Many of you know my wonderful friend of 25yrs Louise of Illume Design, but if you don't, then take a look at her gorgeous online shop and equally gorgeous blog )

I've had some great ideas on how I would cater the cocktail party without too much fuss and hastle and I think I would do Engracia's great suggestions of getting the teenage wait staff to help with the clean up and Lisa's suggestions of the cocktail machine (or I'd just do glass jugs of help yourself cocktails) so I'm not as daunted by the cocktail party anymore.

So that's how far I've gotten...
What do you think, which theme do you prefer???

Thanks so much again ladies, I love blogging, it's like getting all your girlfriends together in one room to help brainstorm without the logistics of babysitting, setting a date three weeks in advance, and you can do it in your PJ's :)

Have a great Friday,

What's the best party you've ever had?

I'd love to know, what's the best party you've ever had???
You see I'm turning the big 3-0 in a few months and figured I better start thinking about what I'd like to do to celebrate.

I'm tossing up between two ideas at the moment:

1st idea is to have a cocktail party style shin-dig at home out on the deck.

Positives of this idea:
I can decorate to my hearts content, have control over the evening, it will be held on the deck and should be lovely spring weather. Could get some teens from down the road to wait and serve.

Negatives of this idea:
It's a bit of work for me, I don't want to be in the kitchen for half the night and I'd love to just chill out and chat and enjoy myself but I just know it will be like 'Oh Janette, where's the ___', 'Oh Janette, where's the bathroom', 'Oh Janette, someone's just spilled something everywhere, where can we get something to clean it up'... etc etc. :)

Images via here

2nd idea is to have a dinner at a little known sailing club in Manly. People would just turn up and order their meal from the bistro and we would put a few hundred on a bar tab.

Positives of this option:
No fuss, no clean up, no running around, no cooking, beautiful location.

Negatives of this option:
Wouldn't be able to decorate or minimal decorating, not as much control over the evening.

What do you think??? What would you do? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help ladies!

A corner of my home

Good Morning! I thought I'd do 'A corner of my home' post as I haven't done one in ages.

Today's corner is in my hallway, it's the little collage wall between the bathroom and spare room/study. You might recognise my Bedtime Bus Roll Poster, Classic Chairs print, I made a mini version of the Hometime and Cities print as well as a little print that says 'Faith Hope Love' in grey and pink. The little wall decals I bought from Typo.


I designed the 'Classic Chairs' print to match our hall runner which you can just see in the bottom of this pic.

So there you have it, just a little post on a little corner.

I hope you have a lovely day and don't forget that the Madeit Giveaway ends tomorrow!



p.s. My blogger has been playing up since yesterday. I can write comments on other blogs but it doesn't want to let me publish them : ( Is anyone else having blogger probs too?

Velvet

What's your thoughts on velvet?

My initial thoughts on velvet are the memories of my parents brown velvet lounge suit in the good lounge room from when I was a little kid. I'm sure big brown velvet lounges were HOT STUFF in the late 1970's early 80's but it's not a great visual to have stuck in your head whenever you hear the word 'velvet'.

I've seen some velvet lately used in interiors and it's turning me around.
Check out these beautiful rooms...

How plush does that velvet lounge look and the colour is amazing! (love the pops of pink and the wall colour, and the detail on the fireplace too).

Again, the velvet makes this grey colour look incredible, look at the way it picks up the light.
The black butterflies above the bed are cool, but they would scare me like a swarm of insects were going to attack me in my sleep :)

That blue of the bench is beautiful and I love the way it links to the colour of the chandelier too, really looks great with the pink and white.

Very soft and feminine little skirted stool. It also softens the cold, stark, shininess of the mirrored dresser table.

So what do you think? Have I reprogrammed your brain from any bad velvet memories too?

Have a great Tuesday everyone,