Wisdom

Not the like that, my Wisdom teeth are killing me!!
I was supposed to have them out a few years ago BUT I chickened out fell pregnant with Stella! 3 years on, I still can't go in to get them done cos I am breastfeeding, so I have had to make a promise to my DH , to call and make the appointment, the day I stop feeding, maybe ...........
SO, even with a swollen face (yep, my cheek is swollen and inside my mouth, so much so I keep biting it!) I feel better today after my vent, see I knew this blog thing would be a good idea! I feel I have to mention too, everything seems worse for me at the moment, cos my darling Mum is away. Heaven forbid, she has gone to Melbourne for the week for a conference (with my Dad, and I do miss him too) but everything seems worse when you can't have a Mummy cuddle, snuggly cuddle or shoulder to cry on. Soooooo hurry up Mum, and how dare you leave us!! ;)

Craft for today was creating a crown. Nothing says yellow more to me than a crown and Stella loves them. We say the song,
Making a crown, making a crown, with a bit of this, and a bit of that, making it shine, making is shine, so it sparkles and twinkles all over , in starrrrrr light!!
We sang it for agggesss 10 minutes whilst she went on her merry way glueing and patting things down, and boy did she smile when it was finished.

Cutting out the crown

Stella glueing everything on it, some stickers too

Very proud of the finished product!!

 Another quickie , was a balloon man, where she had to stick on his hair.

Mr Balloon man (yes I know I need a new black texta!!)

He needs a good hairdresser!

I have made up our plan for next week, let me know if you would like me to do a post on it, don't want to bore every now do we?
And I will be back with MY craft project later, nothing like suspense!!

Don't sweat it!

I know I have said it already today, but I am trying not to sweat the small stuff. Its hard, but I am trying. What is also hard , is defining "the small" stuff, as when things are happening and you are having a bad day, small things can seem rather large.
I have had alot on my mind of late, mostly to do with the salon, but they have been significant enough to make me feel sick. Like physically ill. It takes alot to rattle me, but this week I have been shaking in my boots (Did I sound like Woody then?)
Snap out of it Liz, all these things don't matter, as long as your family is happy and healthy, but thats the thing, I am not so sure of it, poor Max has been screaming for a few days now, and yes, Poor Max, but poor Mummy too! It is heartbreaking when you child is upset and unsettled at the best of times, and there really hasn't been a reason for it, so I am worried about his health and am going to try and get another appt at the Paed soon, apparently there is a Locum here at the moment, might be promising. Its even more heartbreaking though when you have another baby that is a sympathetic crier, to her big brother.
I know I put a status on my Facebook page about twins , and I had a few comments from Mums of singletons, (its funny that I now call them that , when I didn't even know the word BT (before twins )) and yes, I know that being a mum of one child is hard work. Its a thankless job and being a Mum is the hardest job in the world, yet I believe its the most rewarding too. But I have to say, only Mums of twins, really know what it is like, 2 babies. At.the.same.time. Period.
That is why I am so thankful to meet such beautiful girls in the local Multiple Birth Group, they are gems.
Ok ok, I am ranting, having a vent, and I know that my readers like to visit to be inspired rah rah rah, I know this as people are saying it to me on FB. But I am no inspiration, just an ordinary Mum, trying to keep my head above water and make the best out of life, and I have bad days too, and today is one. So bad day, pi*s off!!

Right, no crafting or "Yellow" program was done yesterday as I was at the salon for the day and Stella went to daycare, so we were back on schedule today!


I got out our colours books and we had a fun time scouring them. I also picked up some counting ones at Crazy Clarkes

  Our first project was decorating a few little girls. I picked up this pack of girl cut outs and we decorated them with crepe paper and patty pans. I plan to get Stella to do 2 per colour we learn then punch holes and string them together in a chain.

I bought these from Wooldriges for like $8 for 24



Stella putting a dress on her little girl and her little audience watching!

 Our second project was making a duck. I just found a left over plastic plate , in yellow of course, and we glued crepe paper squares all over it.

Stella loves glue sticks and she is getting really good at using them too!

 We used a patty pan as the beak and I just drew 2 eyes on with black texta. She loves it!!


Using it as a mask and singing 3 little ducks at the same time!!

Simple , yet effective and fun crafts today, and Stella is really grasping everything which is soooooo cool!!
I even got the chance to Fertilise my garden and lawn and spray paint something , I will reveal in the next few days.
Happy crafting!

The big boy

I am sad. Very sad. Our big little boy is now sitting by himself. He has been more than able and strong enough to do it for a few weeks, but now he is really good. Its a sad day for a mother, especially knowing these are my last babies (hubby says so ) and I get sad thinking that. Don't know if I will ever feel the finished feeling, but 3 is a perfect number of children for us (we could end up with 5 if we tried for a 4th!!)

So here he is, our beautiful , smiley, cheeky boy Max;

At least I still have one little bubba, Lacey is still wearing some 000's and they are 6 months old!!

Clean Craft?

Is there such a thing?
Well we proved that there was today at our house.
As a continuation of colour Yellow week, we did some more craft. It seriously was so easy, even the craft misfortunates would be able to do it, easy peasy!
First, I found the big roll of clear contact that I had bought on clearance at Spotlight, I knew that I would put it to good use. ( I try and pick up craft items cheap if I can , that way you aren't reluctant to use them)

I cut a square piece out and removed the backing and placed it sticky side up. Stella then started putting all the items from the container , on the contact. We had wool, beads, paper cut outs, flowers, feathers,

 but you can use anything you like really, as long its in the colour range!

This is a great craft session to do if you don't like mess or you child is that bit young for glues.

Such concentration!!

Our audience. Just to show that having a baby , shouldn't deter you from crafting with your child, they were happy to watch. Its all in the timing!

So proud of her finished collage! I simply cut out another square to match, and placed it on the back. You can use it for a window card, placemat, or just a leadlight for the window.

As we have done here;

Our Yellow table is getting more full by the day

I have a few projects of my own on the go at the moment with some sewing for the next Baby and Kids Market, coming up mid November, so I will share with you soon. I have just made some gorgeous kids cooking aprons, perfect for the little helper and they will be at the market too!

I hope I am not boring everyone with all this kids craft but its apart of my day to day life, and thats what my blog is about. Its so fantastic to hear that I have stirred a few people up and encouraged them to start getting active at home with their kids. I have been sharing Ideas with a few friends, and its just so exciting! I do think too, that it doesn't matter how busy our lives get, we need to make time for our children and they everyone with reap the rewards  when they start school. We have a rule in our house, the TV is turned off between 10-3 , as when I was heavily pregnant with the twins, I didn't have the energy to do much, therefore the Tv was on all the time. Its amazing now that its not, how Stellas Imagination is running wild, her role playing is so vivid and our house has the most gorgeous quietness, besides some background music (or Playschool Music).

Hope everyone has a good evening, hmm what to do now that I am up to date with One Tree Hill and have to wait to Wednesday to view the next episode, sad case, but true.

Yellow

Its "Yellow" week in our house this week.... But why?
After some careful consideration about sending Stella to a structured 3 year old program at a few of our local schools next year, we have opted not to send her. Don't get me wrong, I think she is a smart little cookie, but hey, thats my job, I am her Mum. I do think that she needs to do something next year to keep her stimulated or she is going to develop some naughty habits , purely out of boredom, but I just don't think another year of school is it. I think that 10-12 years of it , is more than enough for one child and it is my last year with her after all, before she starts kindy and that saddens me. Why would I want to give that up?
Don't get me wrong, I am all for them if you feel your child needs it, but I just don't think mine does. We go to Playgroup, swimming, music, Mothers Group, she goes to Daycare, her grandparents and then we are active at home too, that makes for one well rounded little girl.

Sooooo instead, so that she continues to learn and flourish , and so that she is up to speed when she hits kindy, I have started theme weeks in our house.
To co- inside with her "In the Garden" dress up day for Music last week, we did a bug theme ( will post on that tomorrow once the photos are edited) and this week its on the colour Yellow ( an easy one for us as we have lots of left over yellow things from the Christening). Each week is going to be different, sometimes a colour, sometimes an animal, or number , or just about the alphabet or something , but each week different and equally as exciting for her. We all know how little minds can thrive on knowledge and any way they can get it.

Today I started by showing her something of the colour Yellow. The first thing she thought of was a Wiggle!! But she said Murray, not Sam.
Next I asked her to look around her toy room and find other things that are yellow aswell, and we put them all on a small coffee table , this is going to be our theme table from now on.

We then did some craft, some simple glueing crepe paper , patty pans and simple (BAD) drawings by moi!
Stella LOVES doing craft and making things, so when she was sad it had finished, we made a bird out of a milk bottle and crepe paper.

I have lots planned for the rest of the week but I am always after ideas, so if you have any goodies, please feel free to share ;)

Next week we are going with the letter "S" as the theme. Stella knows it by sight, can find it even in the smallest of ingredients labels on things and knows its the "s" for Stella , so its a good way to start out with letters.

I am just hoping by the end of our educational weeks that she has a better understanding of her colours, letters and animal ranges, and if she doesn't we have had fun in the process!

Hmm purhaps I should have done teaching after all!

Flattered

I am seriously flattered, and stunned and so many other emotions at the moment too, but those are the ones that come to mind when I look at the stats of my blog!!
150 viewers the day I posted last!! 150!! Holy macaroli! Thankyou so much for those that are viewing, I am flattered, I do hope that it you are enjoying my blog, I know I am enjoying putting it together.
So things have been FULL ON here this week.

My beautiful babies are getting big;

Well a few weeks back, sorry I have run out of time to photograph the finished product, I bought this letter "S" (Stella knows its S for Stella) and I wanted to tizzy it up for Stella's shelf in her room

I simply spray painted it white ( I have an obsession with spray painting everything lately) and then glued some gorgeous scrapbooking paper to the front . Voila!

Try it yourself!

The Christening again....

Ok, so more on the fantastic day we had on Sunday for our babies Baptism.

During the week I was tryinng to get prepared by pre cutting and punching all of the cupcake toppers , lolly bag toppers and signs.  I knew I would not have time on the weekend as we were so busy with other things.

So this is how my dining table looked;

The basic glass jars are from Crazy Clarks, and the yellow plates and crepe paper from our party shop.

The jars were filled with Banana lollies, choc coated sultanas and Lemon Fizz to add to the look and go with the them, not to mention the sweet tooth guests!

I made the paper bunting, simply by punching out the scollop flowers, my punch is a Stampin' Up one, and using a variety of different scrapbooking papers, I then just sewed them all together on my sewing machine, it seriously took less than 5 mins!! Even Noel was amazed, and it was so so effective!

I am pretty stoked with the way the table turned out and looked on the day, and the guest were pretty amazed too, its amazing what a llittle bit more effort can do!
The lanterns were all from our local party shop as the Crepe paper Pom Poms I had ordered of Etsy , didn't arrive!

All the food on the sweet table, apart from a fruit platter! I made;

Passionfruit biscuits

White choc and Pineapple muffins

Mulberry and Coconut muffins

Choc chip cookies

A chocolate cake

Cupcakes

Banana and Date muffins

AND my sister made a scrummy choc coconut slice

Not to mention all the mini Pizzaz (homemade by my Dad)

Chicken wings

Sausage rolls

Sandwhiches

Volivants (sp sorry)

At the back on the right are the Lolly bags, I just used simple plastic bags with a tear of seal , ( I got off Ebay for something ages ago but they came and weren't the size I wanted) and added a piece of scrapbooking paper folded over at the top, staples and added a scolloped circle punch out of my labels I got made off Etsy. They are all the yellow and brown cake toppers and labels you see all over the food. So simple, cheap and yet so effective. The creators name is Stephanie from Anna and Blue Paperie , you can find her Etsy shop HERE. She was so quick and easy to deal with, I am most certainly using her again! You simple purchase the template for a custom design, and you get to pick the little picture, the sayings and the colours from her large range , then she sends you the file and you can print as many times, on whatever you want.

I did some on paper (for the lolly bags ) and some on card (for cake toppers) and I did them double sided but you don't have to. I just placed some double sided table on the reverse of one after punching it out (you don't have to punch them but I did) then put a toothpick on then the other piece down and voila!

Gorgeous!

Cake toppers are the perfect finishing touch!

So there you have our gorgeous set up, I was so please that everything went well, with all the kids behaving so well and the day going off without a hitch, my little precious poppets deserved it!

Some of these ideas are mine, most of them are others I have seen on blogs and around the place, regardless, next time you host a party or gathering, try a simple, cheap finishing touch to make everything that big my special ;)

I will share more photos of the twins and our family soon, once they are edited!



The Christening

I'm baccckkkkk! Sorry I have been AWOL, but preparing for such things as Christenings take all the time an energy I could spare last week.
We had a beautiful day on Sunday, surrounded by our friends and family to help us celebrate the christening of our cherubs , Max and Lacey. They both looks gorgeous is matching outfits, Max wore a little all in one with a sewin in waistcoat and Lacey wore the long gown, both made out of the same material.

The ceremony was a light hearted affair, even though it was in a catholic church, as the Father was a real character and puts everyone at ease. We held a morning tea back at our place afterwards and it was great to catch up with everyone and for them to see the babies .

It turned out to be a hot day, so the drinks were cold and plentiful and my baking was a real hit!

The sweet table, bar a fruit platter.

I had tried to premake most things and freeze them or make last minute as I had to work all day Saturday and then went to a friends engagement party Saturday night , so time was not on my side, as usual.
More pics and details tomorrow!! For now, its off to bed with a stinker headache for me!

A bomb site!

My kitchen is seriously a bomb site on daily basis here at the moment. We I am in full swing of preparations for Max and Lacey's Christening and morning tea this Sunday.
Yesterday I had choc chip cookies, chocolate cake, mini muffins (for salon) , baby food and dinner all on the go at the same time. Call me mad , but its the way I roll, all or nothing!

 Yes, I bake for the salon too. Every person who has a tea or coffee , also gets a bite sized treat made by me. The sweet of choice this week is Orange mini cakes with chocolate icing.

Organised chaos

 On a finishing not tonight, a new addition to our home, "Our Family Rules", something I want our family to always remember and live by, so its in the main living area.



The Quilt

As promised, the picture of my quilt, finished!!
I LOVE IT!! Its totally "me" and I can NOT stop looking at its loveliness draped over my lounge!
My mother in Law did an awesome job and its something I will truely treasure forever and a day!

Isn't it special? And its made with the gorgeous Anna Marie Horner Fabrics!!

And guess what?!

I bought a kit in the local patchwork fabric shop this week, and she is now making that too!!

Spoilt!