A Beautiful Day!

It was our good friend Kamal's wedding yesterday, and boy was it a beautiful day! Kamal and his beautiful wife Shohreh were married at the Baha'i Temple at Terry Hills in a traditional Baha'i Ceremony with Kamal's Dad and Brother chanting prayers in Persian while his uncle played this unusual flat guitar-cross-xylophone instrument! In their culture you are only engaged for max 3months so they managed to plan this beautiful day in a really short time! I admire them, being in the know about wedding planning as I am {wink}. The day was perfect, even though dark clouds kept whizzing over (man they move fast at Terry Hills! I forgot its up so high!) and we would be like "oh no, that cloud looks like rain.... oh, it's gone!" LOL! Their ceremony was similar to Christian ceremonies, with prayers and readings and vows (one line!) and signing the register. More like what I'm used in weddings then our friend Daniel's Arabic Orthodox Chrisitan wedding last Feb which was all in Arabic, with incence and constant chanting in Arabic, 4 priests, long golden robes on the bride and groom, henna tattooing etc! Very different! The Baha'i Temple was such an awesome backdrop for their wedding, it made for great pics! Ok Bridesmaids (aka sisters) this is for you: remind me to SMILE on the day! Shohreh was so nervous and shy that she kept her head down during the whole ceremony cos she was crying! So remind me, to put my head up and smile, at least every now and then, even if I am crying!!

So what am I doing today? Apart from posting all the wedding pics on Facebook (hehe) I am baking my birthday cake (a giant cupcake with the cake pan Alicia gave me for Christmas) and rocking my Wedding shoes while dancing around the living room picking songs for our wedding video!! LOL!

It's my Birthday tomorrow!!

:) C

Some things are meant to be..

Like when your Hair and Make Up artists double book and it's less than 3 months to your wedding! Two things happen... 1. FREAK OUT!! 2. Call Mum for support. She suggests contacting my sisters, I start with Google. Didn't help that I was at work at the time and dropped everything in my attempt to stop my fraying nerves and wandering mind dwelling on the nightmare that is not being beautified for our big day. "Do you think we might be able to do it ourselves?" I suggested to Mum. Her silence on the other end suggest we couldn't (though I think we might have given a red hot go).

But then I discovered Glam Van. It's a beauty parlour on wheels, fitted out with gilt mirrors, chandeliers, plush carpets and pink velvet curtains. Its boudoir meets work van, and it's coming to Alicia's place (where we're getting ready) on April 10 cos I booked it! Hooray {happy dancing around the room!} Who knew that something this cool existed? I didn't! When I booked the hair and makeup I went with 2 ladies who were at a small open day I went to, I didn't even look around anywhere else. So if it wasn't for them double booking then I would never have found this awesome experience! I think it's gonna be so cool to be pampered in this super stylish, glam diva van with all my sisters and Mum too! They'll pull up at the house at 7am and begin the easy task of making us look exceptionally beautiful {snigger} and zoom off again when we're done. And it was only a little bit more expensive than the first 2 ladies I booked. Plus they have totally awesome hair dos and make up on their site too you should really go and check them out. I'm so excited that we'll be having this fun little experience on the morning of our wedding! YAY!!

:) C

Crisis Averted.

(Initial Pic courtesy of www.30somethingdq.tumblr.com)

New Cupcake Book!

So here's the story of the Cupcake book.
I loved this cupcake book when I saw it in Borders, but it was $35 and seeing as I use my Woman's Weekly Cupcake book constantly and it satisfies my needs, I figured I didn't really need a new Cupcake book. But it kept haunting me... I imagined myself making all the delicious cupcakes and their interesing Buttercream frostings (sorry Yvette, they're pretty much all buttercream, but they are delicious!! Maybe you'll like my buttercream!) It has different recipes to my WW book, ones like Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream, Pecan and Marmalade Cupcakes, Malted Cupcakes with Marshmallow Icing, Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Icing... and honestly I couldn't stop thinking about it. Then Borders emailed a 30% off coupon! I was so excited, I printed it off on Monday before work... then I drove to work... and had a car accident.. and didn't have a car... and so missed the Border's special. D'oh! But on Saturday I borrowed Will's car to go to our Wedding Florist's appt and stopped at Target on the way home... what did I find, nothing but the Cupcake book! And it was only $15!!!!!! Yep! I was SO happy! I came straight home with it and made the Coffee Cupakes with Coffee Buttercream, and they were SUPERB! And I also had the chance to break out the Avanti Cookie Press/Icing Gun I got off ALicia for Christmas, oh man was that so much fun! The first 2 I iced pretty much looked like dog turds on the top of the cupcakes (gross imagery, but it's totally what they looked like) but then I got good. And I got really good! I had fun thinking up designs! I made the snail spiral, the icecream top, the tiny peaks and also a snake swirl across the top. I was laughing and icing and giggling and having so much fun. Will was so confused at my excitement and joy, after all, it's just icing, but the sense of accomplishment and delight at the finished product was amazing! They look just like store bought! Plus it was fun to be a 007-esk, Icing Gun Diva! "Stop! Or I'll ice a swirl on your forehead!" LOL!
:) C
P.S. Must stop taking pictures of self in daggy house clothes with bed hair. Even if it is patriotic.

Hang on Mr Puffy!!

Can you believe it got to 42.3ºC here today?! That is total skin melting heat for all those poor people at the Big Day Out today! Ouch! My skin would have crisped in about 0.2 of a second. But now a cool change has come over and it's only 22.5ºC, what a drop! The wind is blowing quite gusty and poor Mr Puffy is hanging on for dear life to the bottlebrush tree, look at him crouching and his feathers flying in the breeze! He was riding that branch like he was pirate on the high seas. Yes, Mr Puffy is back!! You might remember him from this post or this one. He has been hanging around since before Christmas, it's been so nice to go out to the verandah to read my book and have some company! He has even been sitting on the verandah railing while I sit out there, it turns out we're good friends {chuckles}. He does love that particular branch a lot (2 words, that's for you Y!) and it's cool cos I can see him as I sit at my computer and blog about him. I haven't seen Mrs Puffy or baby Puff around much though, I guess they've flown on to better pastures, trees, I mean :)

Wow, 3 posts in one day, it's a record!

:) C

Pink!!

Another Sienna page! Well, she is so darn cute :) Totally brand new in this pic! And it's fun to break out my baby girl stuff (seeing the last baby girl I had to scrap was Tassy and that was many years ago now!) So I guess that why so much of my baby girl stash is OLD!! Like this Kangaroo and Joey BG paper (with the baby face). Are they even around any more? I don't think so. I also broke out my jar of pink and purple eyelets for this page and happily banged away, probably to the Neighbours' exasperation, while watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (yes I was late, but I couldn't NOT watch that movie, I watch it every Christmas!). I forgot how theraputic banging eyelets in is, now I know why men do DIY.

So the OLD on this page is the 2 BG papers, the pink lace paper, the eyelets, the lace paper strip and the tab. I found the crochet flower in my stash so who knows how long I've had that. I have about 5pkts of them so now I've found them I think I'll use them on every LO! LOL!!

Hope you're having an awesome weekend!

:) C

Card Makin' Fun!

Felicity and I had a card making day last week (or was it the week before? 2010 is a blurr already!) which was so much fun! Now that she's super busy with a toddler and a new baby it's hard to find a spare minute, so I was so happy when she wanted to use that spare minute to make cards! I love this Choo Choo set from SU but I really haven't used it that much! I'm gonna make more of an effort cos it really is so cute! I thought it went well with the brown grossgrain cos the black stitching looks like tracks! Cool!!

I also love the boy stamps from my Hero Arts acrylic set. I hadn't used the Little Prince wording before but thought it looked pretty cute paired with the sweet lion (no menace on that face!) and the crown stamps. I have a really hard time stopping myself from using Bling on boy cards, I solved this prob by buying orange bling. Thats boyish right?! {sniggers} I think it looks cool!

And then I made this third card. Totally not normal colours for me (are these normal colours for anyone?!) But as I started making it and it came together I realise I don't make (or send) enough encouragement cards. Sometimes people need to know they're doing a great job (at a new sport, or instrument or baking!), or there is a whole world ahead of them (like starting High School- that's you Jami!, or a new job) and not just get a card from you on their birthday or Christmas. I wish I sent more cards. Maybe I should work on that this year. I sent one to Mum on Monday for encouragement for our Bridesmaid's dresses cos it's the world's trickiest pattern with the world's lamest instructions. I'm sure she liked getting it in the mail, I love getting mail. Right... I WILL try to send more cards this year, 2010 the year of the card sending!

:) C

Heads Up!

It's my Birthday in 12 days, just thought I'd throw that in....

A Little Owie!

Hi!

I am a little owie in my neck and back today, cos I was in a car accident yesterday on my way to work. {sad face} A P-plater didn't give way to me on a roundabout and ran into my car on the passenger side front bumper area and pushed my car along the road. Then she reversed off me and sped off! I was in shock and just sat there with my mouth open! I rolled my car down into a side street out of traffic and pulled up and called the police. Do you know no-one even stopped to see if I was ok?! There were heaps of cars around, and even pedestrians and not one person stopped or came over to the blubbering shocked driver (me) sitting on the side of the road. I didn't get the Number plate of the other driver either cos she sped off. I couldn't believe that no-one thought to check if I was ok. Jerks! Luckily Will was at work around the corner (I was like 2 mins from Work... almost there, argh!) and so followed me home in case my car broke down on the way, and took me to the Dr and looked after me. Good ol' Will!

In other news... how do you like my new Ribbon Jar?! Being a Ribbon Jar is not what I bought it for, but the purpose I want it for is in a few more months so in the mean time it will lovingly store all those loose ribbons I have piled up in the way on my desk! Cos I do have alot of ribbons! In fact I already have 2 tall ribbon spindles (that Dad made me from a long piece of dowel with a square wooden block base- genious!), a wooden box with holes where the ribbon is fed out of, a plastic ribbon drawer from Craftainers with ribbon cards (kinda like DMC floss cards) and also a divided tray with about 20 ribbon rolls on it. So I'd say, I have a fair few Kilometers of ribbon! You can't have too much ribbon after all, can you? How big do you think this jar is? Scroll down to see....

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Is it bigger than you thought?! LOL {giggling} It's huge! And it was only $13.50 from Hot Dollar at Rhodes, which I think is a bargain. I can imagine it at Christmas filled with baubles or a little Christmas scene with fake snow and little houses! Oh so cute! Excuse my Bed Hair and Pyjamas, but if I'm off work today I'm not getting out of my comfy clothes! The bummer is Will is at work 12hrs today, so he can't come and cure my boredom! I'll have to rely on DVD's instead!

:)C

Adventure Cooking...

Ah, good old Adventure Cooking.. where you have a brilliant kitchen idea but have no idea if it will turn out in real life! Today I turned to Adventure cooking to try out these cool Top 'N Mix Caramel Coated Butterscotch chips made by Dollar sweets that I found in Coles yesterday. I have a few American recipes that call for Butterscotch chips, but the ones they have are like Chocolate chips only butterscotch flavour. These ones are more like tiny pop rocks in butterscotch flavour that you're supposed to sprinkle on Ice cream. Anywho, I pulled out the old family fave Peanut Choc Chip biscuits and went to town with these little beauties. (Also I used crushed peanuts in the recipe cos I didn't have any whole raw ones hanging around at home, and the crushed peanuts worked a treat). I divided the mix in half and to one half of the mix I added the choc chips to the mix and sprinkled the butterscotch chips on top before I placed them in the oven and the other half the mix I added 1/4C butterscotch chips instead of the chocolate chips. Here are the choc chip ones and you can just see the little sprinkles of butterscotch toffee on top where they melted as the cookie cooked. The cookies were good, they didn't taste much like butterscotch though, every now and then you'd get a bit of toffee consistancy but it wasn't much. And this second pic is of the cookies with the butterscotch inside. How do you like the flower pattern they baked in? LOL! I used a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the mix onto the baking paper to see how that would go. The cookies turned out massive, but they are so chewy and moist as the butterscotch chips spread their sugary deliciousness as they baked. They are a little undercooked in the middle of this "flower" but that just adds to their delicious chewyness. You can taste the butterscotch way better in these guys. I reckon this is the go-er! Though next time I might lessen the brown sugar and add choc chips as well as the butterscotch chips in the mix. Yay, this Adventure Cooking worked out well! Now to take them to work and test them on my work friends {wink!} though I suspect they'd eat almost anything {giggles}.
Have a great weekend! I'm going to Wollongong to give Mum a little encouragement in making our Bridesmaid's dresses and I think I'm going to try on my Wedding dress again too! Cool!!
:) C

First Christmas Page!

Awe, what a cutie! Here is my First Christmas page, and it's Sienna's First Christmas too! Oh she is just the cutest in her red and white headband! I never end up scrapping any Christmas pages cos the pics are always so full-on and the pages end up even more fuller on! But this pic is just so beautiful and serene. I love it Fliss, great work! The OLD on this page is the Christmas tags, the 3D Snowman and tree stickers, snowflake brad & rub on. It was fun digging through my stash to find some cute Christmas things! Sometimes I forget what I've got {heheh, time to clean out!} Don't you love the gift PP?! It's so cute! And the red spotty is one of my current faves. They're both Kaisercraft. They've got some great papers out!
Hope you're having a great week!
:) C

First Page of 2010!

Hi y'all!

Just a quickie today (and to point out I've changed my blog banner, cos it's a new year! Can you believe we are 11 days in already? Will and I will get married in just under 3 months now! WOW!! It is flying by. I can't wait {making an excited face!}.)

I hadn't scrapped anything of Sienna until 2 wks ago, what a slack Auntie! But once I broke out my beautiful soft pink papers and pretty embellishments I was inspired! I have had this PP for ever and it is just so beautiful, I didn't know how I was going to use it and still be able to see the beauitful floral pattern but I think it worked well with this big pic of Baby Sienna! The paper reminds me of Grandmas and so when Sienna was born and her middle name is after my Grandma, I thought it was fitting! I have had the glittery "baby girl" since before Cooper was born, so it's nice to have a baby girl to use it for! The OLD on this page is the lettering rub ons, the lace paper, PPs, ribbon, lace and felt flower :)

Have a great week!

:) C

Honeymoon plans!

YYYYEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

The Honeymoon plans are in Full swing with our Airfares booked with V Australia (only $1070 return to LA- can't beat that!), New York and Washington Accommodation booked and deposits paid... but the piece de' resistance (spelling?!) is..........

WE ARE STAYING 2 NIGHTS AT THE BELLAGIO IN VEGAS!! {crowd cheering while I do a magnificient happy dance around the room} Happy happy happy me! I have wanted to stay at the Bellagio ever since I first visited Vegas in 2004. Then every time I watch Oceans 11 or another one of those Casino movies I always wish and wish and wish that I could stay there. When I visited Vegas in 2006 I watched the Dancing Fountains endlessly and marvelled at the indoor garden display and those glass leaves on the roof, hoping to come back one day with my suitcase to check in! So Will and I will be spending 2 glorious nights in the comfort and luxury that is the Bellagio. {sigh}. How awesome is getting married. Not only is it the most special day of our lives, but then we get to holiday afterwards at the happiest place on Earth! (Did I mention we're also going to Disneyland!! YAYYAYAYAYAYAY!) ! LOL! Can't wait! Can you tell I'm slightly excited?

:)C

Last Pages of 2009!

Hi!

Well before the year squeezed out it's last bit of air, like a balloon whizzing around the room above everyone's heads, I managed to belt out my last 2 pages of 2009!

The first one is Will at Anna Bay back in Feb 2009. I had fun making the crazy title out of rub ons (they're cheap ones from the crap shop, but they look great here!) I'm also super happy to have that Basic Grey paper out of my stash. Honestly, why did I buy so much Basic Grey when it's not really my style, and never really was my style! Luckily it paired well with the diamond paper and the super bright pics of Will! Where is that sunshine this summer?! The OLD on this page is the PPs, the stitching rub ons, the Gone Surfin stickers, journal shape (a giant red chipboard dot!), the MM saying stickers and the word rub ons. So everything actually, I should have just said that.

The second page is from Yvette and my trip to Pancakes on the Rocks when she came up for Will and my Engagement party. I somehow feel I should have done this page better, it doesn't convey the absolute deliciousness and excitement that accompanies a trip to Pancakes. I may have to whip the page out of my album tomorrow and cover it in heart shaped brads. That would satisfy my need to express my love for Pancakes I think! Yep, there's definitely not enough on it. What do you suggest? The OLD on this page is the photo corner, tab and berry sweet tag, the word stickers and stitching rub on. I am totally adding more to this page tomorrow, it's annoying me to look at it right now! Stop looking at it people!! (ha Mum, grammattical reference to your earlier email).

Happy Weekend!! I've got an exciting one planned- Dinner at Thanh Binh Vietnamese at Newtown Sat night with work friends then a NY BBQ Sunday (1 wk late!) with a different bunch of work friends~ Yay! I have a life this weekend! I'd also like to squeeze in some Tivo and Scrappin/Stampin. I'm feeling inspired right now but seeing as it is 1:35am I should go to bed!

:)C

New Year's Resolution 2010!

Due to the success of my 2009 NY Resolution (to use up 20% of my Patterned Paper stash over the course of the year) I am repeating the Resolution again! This year I only have to use up 42 papers plus any extra I buy in 2010, compared with last year's 54 (which ended up being 97 cos I bought more and had to use them up too in my self proclaimed "Rules" for this resolution). I think 42 is a well achievable goal! I also have to use up about 600g of scraps (weighed on the kitchen scales cos I ain't gonna count the scraps one by one!) Keep your eyes peeled for some updates over the course of 2010! It feels like such an achievement when I use up papers and get to put a big red X over the number on my chart! I love it! And now my paper box actually closes, although I do have other papers hanging around here and there... :)

And to prove that I did manage to squeeze in some scrapping late in the year, even though I didn't blog it at the time, here is a page to show it! Sorry bout the dodgy pic! It is about Cooper having a go "In my shoes" with Granny. I remember loving to wear Mum's red platform 70s High Heels from the dress up box when I was a child. Does Mum still have them? I wish she did :) Cooper loved holding Granny's hands and trying out my pink patent flatties! Look at those cute tiny sausage feet!

:) C

A Late Birthday Post for Willy!

December came and went so fast and I didn't even post about the awesome Birthday dinner we had at I'm Angus Steakhouse at Cockle Bay. Oh my gosh... was it ever delicious! Will is a steak man. You know how there are people who love fine dining, the tiny tastey morsels of amazingly constructed expensive "coutour" foods, perched in the middle of giant gleaming white plates? Will is not one of them. The one time we accidently went to a Fine Dining Restaurant (Elio at Leichhardt) Will nearly died at the 3 tiny morsels that were presented to him as a main course. I don't think you could have seen a more sad/deflated/disappointed face than the one I was presented with across the table that night! So.. I figured Will would love I'm Angus, afterall it refers to steak twice in the name, can't be too bad then? And we were by no means disappointed! It is pricey (like $35-$45 for a steak and chips) but it's at Cockle bay so you expect to pay that. And the meat was DELISH. The best part for me though.. the Onion Rings! If I didn't think I'd turn into a big fat fatty I'd eat Fried Onion Rings and Ribs at every meal. Yep, I mean it... Every Meal. I was honestly born in the wrong country, I should live in the US and eat their delicious food all my life. Actually come to think of it I was born in the right country for my waistline (and prob diabetes too) cos if I did live in the US I would weigh about 150kg. No joke, then I'd have to go on Dance your Ass Off and admit to eating Onion Rings and Ribs at every meal. Back to the rings.... HEAVEN! They were giant, and battered in the lightest batter (I'm Angus is owned by Nick's Seafood and I think they use the same batter as for the fish.. it's awesome) and I accessoried mine with a plate of Ribs (only $26- that's a bargain for I'm Angus) and Will and I shared a Greek Salad (also delish). Will had the 500g T-Bone which he stripped bare in the "I am Will, and no meat shall conquer me" way. See the seriousness with which he approaches stripping the bone of every last tasty morsel. He did stop short of sucking the marrow out, but thats only cos he was full... Imagine... Will, Full! I can't wait to go back there :)

How do you like Will's birthday card? I made it using the cute little Hero Arts Cling Asian boy and girl set I got off Etsy. He "play hates" it when I do something Asian, or if I tape all the shows about China on TV, he'll be like {sigh} "uurrgghhh, Ay-shun {insert Asian Accent} but I'm not Asian" LOL! But secretly he loves it, so he loved this card :) Don't you think this little guys looks like Will? Big head and a square body {belly laughs} LOL! I like his orange Asian PJ's!

:)C

The Spirit is waning...

Bare with me... I had written a nice long post with nice pics from Christmas and then my internet dropped out and I lost it all, just as I pressed "Post". Can you imagine?!! {tearing hair out}. And no, "back page" doesn't work. GRRRR... So I'm going to try a condensed version.

Here is Mum and Dad's tree with only part (yes there was more) of the presents visible under the tree. More sprawl off to the left under the window. My family are not in the habit of buying Gift Cards, presents are our thing so the poor little tree can't possible crouch over them all! The first Christmas Will spent with my family he walked into the family room and stood there with his mouth agape. "Are they all presents?" he asked.. "Ah, yes Babe, we didn't just wrap up empty boxes!" was my reply! {giggles}.

Our family also seems to like wrapping the presents beatifully in colour themes. Yvette's gifts she wrapped in the bright green with red journal spot tags, Alicia's were all red and white, Mum and Dad's were silver with Black ribbon etc. So pretty! It makes giving and receiving Christmas presents all the more special when they are wrapped so beautifully!! How pretty is this one from Mum and Dad, it even has a beaded Dragonfly tied into the ribbon! Mine were wrapped in silver and ice blue. I've already bought my paper for next year too (love the 50% off Christmas sales!)

So wanna see what I got? Here is my traditional pic of all my presents on my bed. The coolest thing is the Cake Tin that Alicia got me that bakes a giant Cupcake! I love it! I can't wait to try it and I am gathering some decorating ideas for making it for my birthday at the end of the month (Jan 31, mark it in your calenders people!) She also gave me a Piping kit along with it too, that's gonna be fun! Some other fantastic gifts I got are: Scrapbooking stuff (I've already used the 7 Gypsies stamps Y!), a gorgeous Toiletries bag with bunnies on it, beautiful tea towels and placemats and a whole bunch of cool DVDs off Willy.

It was a wonderful Christmas, I love you family!

:) C

Happy New Year!! 2010 here we come!

Happy 2010 Everyone!!

Wow, a new Decade already, how quick did the last one go? It seemed to go much quicker than the 2 before that I've experienced. Hmm... thinking of what this Decade will bring... well just looking at this year the plan so far is a full one!: a Wedding for Will and I (in just over 3 months!), Honeymoon, Alicia and David's Baby, Mum & Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary, Mum's 60th Birthday, trip to Hawaii, Sienna's First Birthday... and that's just what I can remember off the top of my head! 2010 is shaping up to be a busy, but fantastic year! I hope it is just as fabulous for you too!

We managed to squeeze the family (minus the boys) onto the lounge for a Christmas pic- the first time we've all been together for ever! So here is Mum and Dad, us 4 daughters, 2 Grandaughters and Grandson. It's so exciting to see our family growing too with Alicia's little bump (barely visible at 16 wks, who knows where she's hiding the little peanut, she's wafer thin herself!) Notice the little squirt in the middle not smiling? Cos she's got a Candy Cane stuck in her mouth! Nice!

We got lots of family time in too seeing as the rain kept us cooped up in doors, but who can resist Dad and his competitive spirit in everything from Rummykub and Take Two to having a Blow Fly Killing competition with me (which he won, I'm happy to concede that one!).

My internet has moved from Fly in my Ointment to Thorn in My Side.. I hope it doesn't graduate to Pain in my Ass {grrrrrr}! (Thank you Dukes of Hazzard). More Christmas spirit later... plus I'll post some Pages I've done lately!

:) C