Worst month of posting ever!

hello!
Yep, October has turned out to be the worst month of posting ever! Well, I did post less in April this year but thats cos we got married then went overseas for 3 weeks, so I can be excused there! Well, lucky us are going overseas again, YAY! Very shortly we will be sipping Mai Tai's and hula dancing in beautiful Hawaii! {cheering!!} Remember we visited there 2.5 years ago? Well, everytime I have been telling people we are going back they say "Hawaii Again?" Come on! It's been like totally forever! I mean look how short my hair is!
Mum and Dad are already soaking up the sun on the big island and will meet up with us on Oahu. I am so super excited! I have so much shopping planned (I have only packed 10kg of luggage- I can bring back 2 bags of 32kg each! YAY!), we are going on a dinner cruise and a luau and have pinpointed lots of delicious restaurants to visit and some of our faves to revisit! I am so ready for some relaxing on the beach and swimming with the fishes too! (Not in the mafia way {giggles}).
So needless to say I'm sure I will be better at posting all the news when we get back {wink!} seeing as there will be so much to share!
:) C

Teddy Bear's Picnic!!

Hi y'all!
Hope you had a fantastic weekend! I know I did :) and a tiring one too :) Firstly with Mum's Sale on the super windy Saturday, her sale went really well despite the wind so we were thrilled for her! Then on Sunday with my sisters,brother-in-law and niece and nephews at the Teddy Bear's Picnic at Rosehill Racecourse. It was SO MUCH FUN! Last year Will got me to Volunteer with him and we spent 5hrs making Playdoh balls at one of the Preschool stands, but as I was monotonously rolling the balls I watched all the little kids having the most fantastic time, and I thought "next year I'm going to get the girls to come and we'll bring Cooper!" Well, since it was on last year both Sienna and Xander have been born so it was a good time to get all the troop together and head off to the Picnic! If you haven't heard of the Teddy Bear's Picnic before, it is a fundraiser for the New Children's Hospital at Westmead (remember Sienna spent a week there earlier in the year?) it costs $20 to get in for each person over 1yr old, but it is truly worth it cos you don't pay for anything else (except food/drinks) once you're inside and the money is going to a worthwhile cause! There was a petting farm, a giant sandpit, face painting, hair spraying, an Ambulance, Fire Truck and Police car/motorbikes, a giant slide, jumping castles, spring-free trampolines, playdoh, Bunnings kids DIY stand, massages, dance shows, wandering characters (including an ancient "Clifford" costume that was totally pinned down the back with giant safety pins!), miniature train rides, miniature fire engine rides, and more! What a day! Cooper LOVED getting balloons and got a total of 5 during the day (though some didn't make it home) he gave Bandaged bear a beautiful hug (much to Felicity's surprise!) and he had no qualms bypassing the line for the Fire Truck and climbing straight up the ladder and into the front seat! Felicity said he must take after me with that {giggles!} Sienna loved to watch the miniature train rides, straining out of the corner of her pram cos she wasn't quite at the right angle to see! LOL! She's growing up so fast :) And Xander had the BEST smile on his face when Alicia put him on the Police Bike and the nice policemen held him for the picture! I tell you, those Policemen must have been the most patient people, the line up to sit on the bikes was endless and he still had a smile on his face! LOL!
Will's volunteer job this year was to be a wandering Character! I was bummed I didn't get to catch up with him while he was in the Myer Bear suit, but apparently he was sweating rivers {ew!} cos it was a beautiful warm spring day :) He would have been so funny as a wandering bear with those short legs and giant torso!!
There was so much to see and do there that we didn't even get to see and do it all before Cooper was pooped and it was time to go home! I can't wait for next year when Sienna and Xander are old enough to be interactive and really enjoy their day!
So next year when you see the Teddy Bear's Picnic advertised (it's usually this same time of year) I hope you can gather a collection of children and whisk them off to have some fun, cos it was a fantastic day and I loved it!! Going to leave you with a couple more fun pics of the day so you can be inspired for next year!
:) C
P.S. Sorry, can't seem to work out why these pics are overlapping, you'll have to imagine what Cooper looks like driving the Fire Truck... he's very happy :)

I'm here!

Hi Y'all!
We had a fabulous time in Grafton, it was so relaxing to go to sleep in the total dark (it NEVER gets very dark here in the city), wake up and hear the mountain of birds in the morning, take a walk around the veggie patch and visit the chickens {sigh}. It was perfect! My friends were busy trying to convince Will and I to move into the empty house at the end of their street! If only.... {daydreaming out the window}. Will would take a little more convincing :)
I am such a slacker though, the WHOLE WEEKEND I did not take ONE PHOTO! How could this be?? We were so busy running around town, helping get the baby shower ready, and the baby shower went so super quick I didn't get the chance to take out my camera. I mean I didn't even get a pic of Vicki pregnant! I'll have to email and get one sent up. I am so slack!! The only pic all weekend was one of me eating a Hank's Chocolate Eclair that Will took on my phone, but I can't seem to get it off my phone and onto the computer. BOO!
I was just about to make White Chocolate Chunk and Macadamia Brownies for Mum's sale this weekend, but I realise I only have one egg and the recipe needs two. How annoying! Better go make something else then :)
Happy Thursday! It might be a Subway night tonight I think!
:) C

Baby Shower Road Trip!

Will and I are off on a Road Trip to Grafton tomorrow! YAY! Back to my home town. That means Hanks Pies, a small chocolate Moove and a Fresh Cream Chocolate Eclair (best EVER! If you're ever in Grafton you have to go to Hanks Bakery- it's in the Main Street- Prince St- near the National Bank- you'll totally thank me forever), it also means Jacaranda flowers all over the car wherever you park it and singlet tops and thongs, cos it's always warm there. Hooray! {cheering}. And it means the day off work (also Hooray!) It's my old friend Vicki's Baby Shower and I've just baked Macadamia and White Chocolate Chunk Brownies for her, and now have a Pear and Walnut sandwich cake in the oven- I haven't made this one before and I ad-libbed the recipe a little so if it turns out I'll take it to Grafton, if not, Will and I will enjoy it! LOL!
So I made this card for her yesterday. I bought the elephant paper from Fantasia a couple of weeks ago and honestly it cost like a million dollars. No wonder I never buy papers in Australia any more! It was really $3. Can you believe it? I bought 3 papers and it cost me $8.50 and it's not like they play a tune when you press them, or they magically fold themselves into an origami crane. They're just flat paper. It's just that this one has a bit of gloss on the occasional elephant. $3. Whoa. But I was the sucker who bought it. Cos it's just so cute!! The bunting flag stamps are one of my new sets from Stampin Up called "Party This Way". Love them! I stamped them on baja breeze card in pacific point ink, stamped letters on with daffodil delight ink, strung them on some red string and stuck them on the expensive paper and voila! Well, I didn't want to cover up too much of that paper after all! Hope she likes it! I think it's sweeeeet!
:) C

Diggin' out some old pics...

I haven't printed pics for Scrappin in about 6 weeks, what the?!! How could this have happened? This means I'm working through the pile of pics I have stashed all around my scrap space. But actually this is a good thing as the pile of photo envelopes keeps sliding off my desk and all over the floor cos it's too high! I guess it's time to use some up then!
So rewind 18 months and I've done some pages of Japan (incidentally it was the first photo envelope I reached for and felt inspired- Hooray! Thanks Mr Mojo!) And it's also good cos I have some scrappin supplies that are particularly asian inspired and I was keeping them for pages of Japan, but hadn't gotten around to doing Japan pages for ages. So yay, they are out of my stash now! Do you like Will's outfit? He was trying on the Complementary Traditional Gown and slippers in our hotel in Tokyo.. though he didn't quite get the placement of the belt right! Hahahah, my own Ninja. Or Mr Miagi!
Then I dug out this old PP, which was helpfully located at the front of my paper keeper these days with all the other "I can't believe you still have that paper" papers and I had a pile of pics from the Ginkaku Pavilion (spelt it wrong on the LO- honestly I really think it should have 2 "L's") in Kyoto. Now this was a truly beautiful serene place, I loved the raked sand garden, the traditional ponds with little bridges and the amazing walk through the mini forest. There was no grass but an amazing moss lawn, we even saw an old man sweeping the leaves off the moss lawn so there was not one hanging around, out of place, on the ground. Amazing! Such a beautiful beautiful place. I'd love to go back to Japan! {sigh- day dreaming out the window}. I had fun going to town punching out all the butterflies from my Japanese book paper! Hehehe, fun!
Happy day-after-the-long-weekend! Another good reason to work nights- my working week still wont start til this arvo. Yay!
:) C

Cupcaked to death...

Hello!
I didn't think it was possible but I may not want to make cupcakes again for a while... but I certainly am enjoying the left overs! It was Mum and Auntie Julie's 60th Birthday party on Saturday and I made 90 large and 30 small cupcakes to adorn their cupcake birthday tree. I filled every decent sized tupperware container I had, plus borrowed 2 from Felicity and even had to buy a couple more! When I finally iced them and had no other containers to put them in I put them in baking trays to transport! Ingenious {patting self on back}. My cousin Megan's friend owns this cool acrylic cupcake tower so we filled it with as many cupcakes as can be squished on. That, it turns out, is only about 70, so I ended up not even getting to put them all out! Then, because there were other desserts too, only about 60% of the cupcakes got eaten so I sent some home with Mum, Yvette and AJ and I have a mountain left over! Anyone want to come over for cupcakes? I have 4 flavours to choose from- Coffee with Coffee Buttercream, Vanilla with Lemon Cream Cheese Icing, Strawberry swirl with Pink Vanilla Buttercream and Chocolate Mudcake with Dark Chocolate Ganache ! Once again my work friends "score!" some baking {cheering}.
I may have just sneakily eaten a cupcake while preparing dinner- mental note- eating a chocolate mudcake cupcake is not pleasant when your hands still smell like freshly crushed garlic. Ew! I wondered what that odd smell was.
So... Happy Birthday Mum and Auntie Julie! I'm so glad you had a wonderful time at your party, I know we did! And I hope you enjoy your leftover cupcakes too!
:) C

Happy Birthday Felicity!!

Hope you have a super Birthday Felicity! Here is her birthday card, hope she likes it! Also hope she doesn't read this post within the next 2 hrs before I meet up with her and get to give it to her! We are going to Rouse Hill for a foot spa & Pedicure {cue dreamy music!} followed by lunch. Luckily I had a hypo this morning which woke me up nice and early {sigh} so I should make it on time... it's only 7:50am and I'm totally not usually up for another 2 hours! It's cos of my night shifts, not a giant case of the lazy's. I'm thinking I still might have time to nip back to bed for a little snoozie.... oh sounds good!
I broke out my Butterfly punch for Felicity's card, which I hadn't used for ages and went to town punching them out of some of my fave spotty and stripey papers. I wanted them to look as though they were flying out of the card, therefore it can't go in an envelope or they'd get squashed! I kindyglitz'd their bodies and stuck a jewel in the middle so they are nicely blinged! I love how it turned out :)
Also, here is what I came up with for Mum's Birthday Card with my new Awash With Flowers set! Do you like it? It's fun to do some 2-step stamping :) I started with the "watercolour" image which I stamped in Groovy Guava (retired) and Daffodil Delight (one of the brand new colours) then stamped the outlines with Rich Razzleberry (returning "in-colour") I can just imaging stamping a whole beautiful garden with these flowers! They are sooo pretty and so much fun to use :) I blinged it up a bit with kaiser pearls and punched the SU sentiment out with my SU scallop oval punch. And the flowers are stamped on the SU top not die cut shape. It's my fave shape! So this was a fun card to make, can't wait to try more cards with Awash with Flowers!
Happy Friday!
:) C