A ' lovely ' Afternoon Tea

On Friday, seeing as though it was Valentines Day, I threw a little afternoon tea for my family. 

I was a lucky girl and received some gorgeous roses from my husband (only the second time in 11 years) so they made the perfect centre piece. Everything else was just a bonus! 

Some cute place mats , red spotty paper plates and serviettes (I bought them last week on sale for 50c , so I bought a stack for events, cyclones and camping) and little milk bottles with love heart straws (bought on clearance from Typo a while ago and I put them away).

They all combined to make a very cute afternoon tea!

The kids were so excited and could not wait to sit down for their special little treats but we waited until Dad got home and it was so nice to do as a family!!

I had made some yummy Orange cakes (using THIS recipe) in the Thermomix for a play date/morning tea that morning so we had some left. A cute cupcake wrapper and topper from a kit from Woolworths and they suited the day perfectly.

And every year I like to make a love heart cake for the kids as a special Valentines treat. This year was certainly no different and I went with a simple chocolate cake , with butter cream icing. Pink of course!! Some heart sprinkles, a few cake toppers and ta da!! Yummo!

We had some very happy and chatty kids on our hands!! It was so lovely to all sit down at the table and chat about our days. The conversations the kids have always seem to make me smile and laugh! Love 

Valentines Contact Hearts

As a part of our Valentines Craft sessions, we did a few of the good old Contact Hearts!!

If you have been a follower of the blog for a while, you know that I have done these many many times before. I love that the contact system can lend itself to so many different themes and crafts , each with great outcomes!! 

They are always a hit in our house, because they are pretty and sparkly and can go on display on our sliding doors (as a stained glass window type effect).

Lately I have been setting out the craft supplies and using these cheap plastic white trays from Kmart, to try and help contain the mess!! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't .....

A little chopped up tissue paper in your choice of colour/s , some heart confetti (Woolworth had small packs in their Valentines area for a few dollars) and some chunky glitter (from our craft stash).

Sprinkle sprinkle, stick stick, fix the contact . Repeat repeat repeat! 

Ta da!! Pretty, sparkly hearts on our door!! (excuse our tropical back yard and totally professional phone reflection, at least its reality right?!)

And seeing as though Stella was at school, I knew she would be sad to miss out , I created a tray for her to do when she got home. Easy peasy!

Did you do any Valentines crafts? Perhaps something different than the norm? I am getting a little bored of these ones and must make an attempt next year to think of a newbie!!

Happy Saturday Peeps!! 

Valentines Class Gifts

So .... tomorrow is the big V- Day! 

Valentines Day is either a day you love or loathe! 

I personally love it, not because I receive flowers or gifts or anything (my husband conveniently doesn't believe in doing that!) but because its a day that you show you care for someone. 

Show you love and appreciate them, their friendship , or just a day to .... be nice. 

This year I was organised enough and found a few printables that I love and knew they weren't going to be too involved in pulling the gifts off. 

So tomorrow , Stella will be taking along some cute pencils that I decorated with washi tape (they are from Woolworths for just a few dollars for a pack of 25) . With some tags that I found HERE.

Seriously easy , yet so cute and I am sure the kids are going to love them!! 

I just printed the pages, cut out the hearts and Stella wrote her name on the bottom. Make 2 small slits in the sides and thread the pencil through. Done !

We also happen to be going to a friends for a play and swim so along with some fresh Orange muffins (they are delicious, I may have tried one already!) , I thought it would be nice for the other kids to take some small gifts for their friends too! 

Whilst browsing Pinterest , I found this printable HERE and thought it would be a cute idea. And I mean, what kid doesn't love bouncy balls?

I only had white paper so I just printed them out and let the kids colour in the slogan area. 

I backed each tag to some coloured card stock and trimmed with a little washi tape , popped a bouncy ball in a clear bag and stapled the tag to the top. 

Voila!! Cute as anything !

And again, for just a few dollars (the bouncy balls came in a pack of 6 bought from Woolworths in the Party supplies area)

They are going to be so proud and happy to hand out these to their friends! 

And we can not forget a little something for Stella's teacher either!! 

Again, Pinterest came to the rescue and I found THIS printable . 

However I decided to just use the tag from the printable and not the full patterned wrap, so I just cut around the slogan circle and stuck it on some coloured card stock that I had cut to the width that I wanted for the jar. I then covered over the paper with some clear contact so that it is more durable. 

The Back to School clearance sales at the supermarket meant that I picked up some coloured pens for $2 and the gift is complete. 

Practical , thoughtful and gorgeous! Every teachers dream, right?!

Gift giving doesn't have to take a lot of time , nor cost a lot of money. 

But the thought is there, and that is what matters most! 

A Valentines house

I know it feels like Valentines Day was forever ago, but I thought I may share our house full of LOVE.
We seem to be having a run of bad luck around here, dodgy thumb for me being held together with stitches and glue , a broken washing machine and its sad to say but we are waiting for the 3rd thing in the bad chain of events.
BUT..... better late than never , right?!

Our entry way buffet

Ollie Rose heart garland across the mirror (above)

Salt dough hearts from last year, seen HERE

Our button hearts from last year , seen HERE

Some 'love' based books to read in the playroom.

Our sideboard in the dining area also received some 'lovely' goodies (pardon the pun!)

The heart ribbon garland was back again, simple and easy. I made this last year, see more HERE

Some more love based books in a cute love heart basket.

And some photos of my beloved.

Still 'love' these XOX letters that I spray painted last year.

And I didn't let the day go by without some yummy muffins to snack on.

I love decorating for seasons and occasions but I do love when the house is back to normal and

clutter free too!!

Roll Painting

If there is one thing that most kids love to do, is paint!! And in my experience (and a daily occurrence in our house) they also seem to be interested in Toilet Paper and toilet rolls!! Hmmm nice

Whilst Stella was at Kindy the other day, and my DH was sick in bed, I decided we needed to do something rather fun and a bit special. I usually like to reserve our craft and painting time to when Stella is at home, but as Max and Lacey are getting growing up, and Stella is bringing home lots of beautiful artwork from school, I figure its OK to do a few activities without her.

I saw this cool idea on Pinterest and seeing as though the kids enjoyed when we did it for a Valentines Day activity, I knew they would like doing it again.

Toilet Roll Paint Stamping

All you need is;

 a few toilet rolls

 ( Weird to say but I try and buy the ones that when empty, leave a clean roll , not with some paper still stuck to the glue!! ewwww!!)

Water based paints in a few colours of your choice

Plain paper or card stock

Art Smocks

Optional- Wipes or a flannel on hand for the little messes!! Ohh they will happen alright!

Simply cut the ends of the toilet roll in a pattern or design of your choice and even bend a few in a shape (like the love heart) . As above

I even left one just as a plain circle.

I put a few different colours on a paper plain for each child. I like using plates as they make for an easy paint clean up when you just chuck them!

And let them stamp away

And our Finished artworks;

When they were finished, I also let them stamp a large piece of brown paper each, off a roll I have in the cupboard. To use as pretty wrapping paper in the near future.

Why not put your paintings to good use and share the love?!

Once they had completed their stamping paintings, the area was quite clean and not much mess had been made, until.....................

I thought it was a good idea to paint a few plates red, for an activity we will be doing next week.

There was red paint for miles!! Thankfully its water based paint!

Sheesh

Handmade Hearts

Another post full of some handmade goodies you can do at home to tizzy up your house for Valentines Day!

I had all intentions of doing this post yesterday, however Harvery Norman had a 9c Print Sale and I managed to get 1500 photos printed , a pretty good effort for one day , so cheap it was hard to refuse, and I am very ahppy that my New Year Goal of getting all our photos from the past few years into albums, might actually happen this year! Never fear, only 100 odd were from this year, the other 1400 were from our Europe Trip we took in 2009, and its been fantastic to sort and look through them all. Now to get it into an album to enjoy!

Last week was full of lovely crafting sessions with the kids ( and alot of back and forth to school etc ).

We began the Handmade heart task by painting using toilet rolls. I saw this idea on Pinterest and loved it! Minimum equipment needed and so cute!

The kids had a ball, and it was a very hot day, so a perfect inside activity.

Hmm our boy Max, he has the BIGGEST personality ! Wears a hat, everywhere, all day , to bed, to the bath , at craft time, and he loves to get dirty!

While we had the paints out, we also did some hand prints in the shape of hearts.

These are Stella's.

Another day, another heart activity. I picked up a pack of mixed pink buttons in Spotlight the other day, and thought of this cute activity.

I simply drew a heart on the page, painted on some PVA glue and the kids went for it! (Alright , hubby and I were helping, and realised the best way was to help cover the outside line with buttons and then the kids filled the inside.) Some are upside down, there are spaces, odd shapes etc, but I think they look great!

And this is where dear Max's heart has found a home, by the front door, on display, as his real heart is , always on his sleeve!

I just cut out the heart and glued it onto a piece of red card and placed it in a frame, it looks really effective in person and any colour buttons can be used to suit your decor.

And then today, an impromptu activity, more hearts ( is it getting old now? You can NEVER have too much love I think!) . I just cut out hearts from some pink card, and the kids glued tissue paper (scrunched into balls) onto the top.

And then we stuck some little piece of tissue paper aswell. Now to think of what to do with them!!

Finally, some DIY decor that I am LOVING in my home at the moment. During the trip to Spotlight last week, I picked up some chipboard 3D letters, and later spray painted them in red and white.

Another Pinterest idea and I think they look great on our bookshelf to add some love!!

Its amazing what some glue, paint and tissue paper can create!

Speaking of love........

Beautiful Angus Frankie xo