rainbow birthday party
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
For baby D’s little party I had a rainbow theme, because rainbows are fun and colourful and bright, what’s not to love?
Posted in a little CELEBRATING
Baby D’s birthday
Monday, May 21st, 2012
My little sunshine turned one last week. Could it really be a year ago that he arrived, making his grand entrance to the world so suddenly and beautifully.
Some things about you my baby… you completely adore your older brother, no matter if he is grumbling at you and doesn’t want to share his toys, you want nothing more than to be where he is. You spend hours outside in the garden crawling around in the sand and the dirt, pulling up the grass and eating I don’t know what from the garden beds. You hold up your hand to your ear and make rahrah noises like you’re talking on the phone. You bite too often and too hard (which is why you were weaned many months earlier than I had planned). You have a megawatt smile, big blue eyes and a halo of blonde hair that is so fair it practicality sparkles. You have just taken you first wobbly walking steps, tentatively and with great care.
You had a wonderful time at your little birthday party, sitting on your Daddy’s knee while we all sang happy birthday, you smiled with glee and threw your hands above your head when we all said ‘hooray’. You’re beautiful and we love you and how much sunshine you bring into our lives.
if you liked this post, you may also like:Posted in a little CELEBRATING
phad thai
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
I wanted to share with you the recipe that my mum made us for dinner last night, it was as yummy as it looks…
What you need…
250g rice noodles
400g chicken thigh fillets, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
2 red chillies, thinly sliced
2 Tbs palm sugar
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs fish sauce
¼ cup sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbs lime juice
3 shallots, finely sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup snow pea sprouts
¼ cup fresh coriander, chopped
How to make it…
Soak noodles in boiling water until soft, drain.
In a wok, stir-fry chicken, garlic, ginger and chilli in batches until browned. Return to wok, add sugar, sauces and lime juice, and stir until slightly thickened. Add noodles, shallots and sprouts and heat through.
Check seasoning and adjust with more fish sauce if necessary.
Posted in a little BAKING
where I belong
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
making eggshell confetti
“Everyone has something to offer. Everyone. Own your strengths and talents. Ask yourself the hard, uncomfortable questions. When you find yourself in a situation where you are content and present – pay attention. This is where you belong”
– McCabe Russell.
Designing and making lovely things feeds my soul. Everyday I want to make something and be ‘creative’. Though I don’t really like describing it that way. Creative feels like an exclusive word, like, either you’re creative or you’re not. I don’t think creativity is the sole domain of artists and designers. Lots of people say to me, oh I wish I was creative like you. Which is awfully sweet but I then I ask them – why do you think you’re not creative? Oh because I can’t paint and I can’t draw, they say. Well to be honest, I’m not to great with the painting and drawing either.
There are so may other areas where creativity comes into play. If you spend hours in the kitchen mixing spices and adapting recipes you’re being creative. If you love to plant seeds and get your hands dirty, that’s creating. Perhaps you get a thrill from rearranging all your furniture until it looks better than before, I’d consider that a creative conquest of sorts.
Even if you’re really not creative, who cares? What’s more important is that you find where you belong. Can you think of a time when you are completely absorbed in what you’re doing. It comes naturally and though it may not be easy, it’s exciting and you enjoy being in that space. All the distractions around you fade into the background and time disappears. Maybe it’s gardening or planning your family budget, or restoring old furniture, or being outside riding your bike, helping people resolve their relationship problems. It could be anything, if you know what it is for you and it feeds your soul, nourish it and nurture it and feel good about it.
The quote at the beginning of this post is from a book I was given for my birthday called Desire to Inspire, I haven’t had chance to really read it yet, but I’m loving what I have seen so far.
if you liked this post, you may also like:Posted in a little INSPIRING
beau est mien open studio visit
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
beautiful is mine
I took a little time out from parenting duties today and went to a fabulous open studio. The beautiful and extremely talented French illustrator Magali Dincher creates limited edition colograph and screenprinted artworks using an old fashioned print press. Her studio is aptly named beau est mien.
I first saw Magali’s work a couple of years ago at the Fremantle Art Centre Bazaar and being a bit of a francophile I fell in love immediately. I have been dreaming of owning one of her prints ever since. This year I decided I should treat myself – as it’s my 30th birthday year and all – and I bought a romantic picture of terraced houses lining the streets of Paris.
Magali offers printing workshops in her studio where you can learn first-hand the techniques of colograph, screenprinting and linocut. Something I’m going to put on my things-I-really-want-to-do list.
Magali
detail from commissioned print – new york
admiring the many beautiful prints
Posted in a little INSPIRING
chalkboard artwork frames
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
On Thursdays while I am at work Ethan spends the day with his Omi (Grandma). They always go to the library and have fish and chips for lunch. At the library they listen to story time and then do a crafty activity related to the book. Today he bought home this great picture and I thought it should be displayed in his room. I drew some frames on the chalkboard to showcase his masterpieces. How cool is a chalkboard wall!
Posted in a little MAKING
Teddy bear pancakes
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
We’re on holiday in Brisbane visiting E and Baby D’s cousins, who happen to be more or less the same ages. Being on holiday calls for pancakes for breakfast and the big boys were thrilled when I made them these teddy bear ones. Yay for holidays!
I found the idea over at Mini Eco.
Posted in a little BAKING
Vintage Mecca (aka the Woolloongabba Antique Centre)
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Oh my. Today I discovered a treasure trove of epic proportions. If vintage and retro gets your heart pumping, this place could quite possibly give you a coronary. The Woolloongabba Antique Centre is a huge 1500 square metre warehouse in Brisbane jampacked with thousands of items from years gone by. They have all your expected vintage wares. Wooden crates and apothecary bottles, records and brooches, furniture and signage and some stunning frocks that could have been taken directly from Betty Draper’s wardrobe. I spent a good two hours wandering around in a daze, it was so much to take in.
It’s a great set up. There is so much stuff in there, I thought, how could they possibly have the time to source all these goods? It would be a full time job for sixty people, then I realised that’s essentially true. It’s an unusual and very clever set-up. The floor space is divided into dozens of little rooms without doors or walls that all meld into each other. (Kind of like Ikea, but without the one way traffic). Each piece of floor space is rented by a different vendor, but they aren’t manning the store all the time. So as a customer you are able to shop at what looks like one giant store, but it’s really a multitude of retro and collector stores all under the one roof.
It is a destination that really needs hours to be appreciated. Make a whole morning of it and have a cappucino and a little baked cheesecake at the 1950′s inspired café (it’s worth popping in for the coffee alone, the barista has skills). If you need respite halfway through, there is a mini theater up the back where you can rest your tired feet and watch an old black and white Elvis movie.
It was my birthday yesterday and my brother and his lovely girlfriend gave me the best present ever, a credit note to buy what ever I wanted in this store. I was so overwhelmed with trying to take it all in, I looked at a thousand things and couldn’t decide what to take home. I have given myself an excuse to go back for another visit, like I needed an excuse!
Posted in a little THRIFTING
taking the plunge – into blogging
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012
Taking the plunge to start your own blog is exciting and a little daunting. I remember when I first created my blog and I thought, I’ll just start it for friends and family to keep up to date with the kids. Then I got my first comment from someone I didn’t know and I was so thrilled. Wow, someone cared enough to read and then comment on my blog!
I was chatting to a friend this week who is just starting out with a blog and it got me thinking about when I first started and how I have learned a few things along the way. I don’t always follow my own rules, but if I was a better blogger I would always keep these things in mind…
Starting out…
I can only vouch for wordpress as I haven’t used any other blog system. I have no complaints, I love it. I chose it because I could build my own theme to get the exact look I wanted. Having said that wordpress is brilliant even if you don’t have the skills to create your own theme, there are so many great free themes out there you can use to make your blog look fantastic. An added bonus for me using wordpress was that I was lucky enough to be ‘freshly pressed’ that means I was selected as a featured blog on the home page and overnight I went from 30 hits to 3000. I don’t think you can plan for it, it was a lucky break that sent lots of people to my blog, but if I can get on there, I’m sure you can too.
If you don’t know how to design your blog, start with a simple and clean template and a nice header. If you aren’t sure about something then remember the rule – less is more!
On the content…
Have nice photographs. I’m a visual person and when I look at other blogs I am much more likely to stay and read if there are pretty pictures to look at too. Unless you are a writer and your blog is a writing outlet, then photos would be secondary to the text, but as I’m not much of a writer, pictures are my thing.
For that reason, carry your camera with you, everywhere you go. You never know where you’ll see inspiration. I keep my camera in my bag and if I don’t have that there is always instagram on the iPhone.
Write about what you love and it will come easily. My blog is about documenting my crafty activities and inspirations and it’s a personal journal of the time I have with my kids while they are small. Sometimes I sit in front of my laptop and think, it’s been a while, I really need to write something, but if I’m not feeling it, I put the laptop away and come back to it later. If your heart isn’t in it, spend your time doing something else.
Sometimes I have ten ideas for blog posts in a day and no time to write even a sentence and other times I am drawing blanks all week. So when I do have that golden opportunity of ideas plus time, I sit and write as may posts as I can and save them. Then later in the week when I haven’t got the time but I want to post, I can just press publish and the work is done.
To get more traffic…
Use good tags, these are keywords that describe what you are talking about in your post and this is how people will find you through a google search.
Connect your blog to facebook, when you write a new post it will appear in your newsfeed and let your friends and family that you have written something new.
Add your blog to your email signature.
Start a pinterest account and pin some of your favorite posts. Shameless self promotion is, well, a bit shameless, but if you have something like a tutorial or an idea that you think is worth sharing that other people will like, than go for it, pin away.
On being a good fellow blogger…
Read other blogs, and if you like what you’re reading, leave a nice comment! Even if your intention is to just write for yourself, it’s so nice to know that someone is reading and appreciating what you blog.
If someone has left a comment for you, go and check out their blog.
Always credit any images and content from the original source and put a link back to it. Ideally use your own original content.
Happy blogging!
if you liked this post, you may also like:Posted in a little INSPIRING
Easter
Sunday, April 8th, 2012
Happy Easter everyone!
We had a very lovely Easter Sunday at a friend’s house. She organised a sweet egg hunt for the kids and they got such a thrill searching all over the garden for the shiny coloured eggs and rabbits and filling their baskets.
She also has the most adorable Easter decorations. I never knew anyone to decorate their house for Easter until I met her and it’s so nice. Though it’s really difficult to buy nice decorations in Perth, of course she got them in Europe. I have seen some cute felted Easter bunnies on Etsy.
Posted in a little CELEBRATING
