WJWW Week 23

Hi y'all!
It's Wednesday again! Or should I say, already? This week is flying by! Almost December?! Who could believe it {staring at Calender in amazement}?



Here is Jaimeson's outfit for this week :) Doesn't he look so cute in a polo shirt & loafers? {love!}

T-Shirt: Best & Less
Shorts: Bonds
Loafers: The Children's Place (I bought them on our Honeymoon for Xander as soon as I got Alicias text to say he was born, cos we happened to be at Factory Outlets in Nevada! How convenient! And now they've been handed down to Jai!)

Oh and under all this he's wearing this:



Hehehe! Such a cutie!
:) C

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Christmas in the air...

So I was just thinking about Christmas and how much I love all the lead up festivites, the food & drink, the beautiful vistas of snow on old buildings... and how we just don't have that here in Australia! The only thing around at the moment to let you know it's Christmas is the rush at the shops and the Butterscotch Latte at Gloria Jeans (Good on 'ya GJ's, but it's no Pumpkin Pie Spice or Gingerbread Latte like at Starbucks! And where's my Christmas printed cup??!)
1. cinnabon-classic, 2. munich christmas market, 3. Disneyland christmas castle during the day, 4. munich christmas market, 5. Cocktail., 6. #322/365 - Gingerbread Latte, 7. [white Christmas], 8. 18/365, 9. Lighthouse
So I just did a quick trawl of Flickr and came up with this Christmas Mood Board to really lift my spirits!
1. Cinnabon- ooohh, the warm, sweet, delicious gooeyness of this Cinnamon scroll that really feels like you're eating Velvet. Oh how I wish we had Cinnabon in Australia!
2. Christmas Markets in Munich- I went on school exchage to Munich a few years ago now (eek!) and their Christmas Markets were just extraordinary. Not to mention, looked so beautiful under the backdrop of the Rathaus and with their fairy lights glowing in the frosty night air!
3. Disneyland all dressed up for Christmas- I've been twice to DL in the lead up to Christmas and it is just SO BEAUTIFUL! And they do go so over the top, it's awesome!
4.Gebranndte Mandeln- Sugar Coated almonds from the Munich Christmas markets. Hot, smell delicious and taste soooo sooo good!
5. Cocktail by the pool- Ok, this is probably our reality for Christmas at Mum and Dad's this year. And you know what, it doesn't brush up too bad beside all these other Christmassy things!
6. Starbucks Christmas printed cups- always beautiful and so festive! And look I found one that says Jaime!
7. Snow covered English village- oh so beautiful!
8.Pumpkin Pie- YUM YUM YUM. Thank you Costco for making this one a reality!
9.Connecticut at Christmas- such gorgeous scenery to take photos of. If only it snowed here at Christmas!!
What would be on your Christmas Mood Board?
: )C

Boardies

I have wanted to do a Scrap page on Willy and his enormous collection of board shorts. I mean, this guy could single-handedly keep Quiksilver in business. And it helps that he wears board shorts & a T-Shirt all throughout Winter too {shivering at the memory}. Does he not have an internal Temperature guage? Clearly its broken!
So a few years ago when I was in Hawaii with Will the first time, I bought this cool paper which is covered in board shorts. I thought "awesome, I'll do a page on Willy & his boardies collection!" That was Feb 2008. Clearly I work at a snail's pace. So I was frustrated at looking at this paper in my stash and not using it, so I did a page on Jaimeson and Willy on Jai's first ever trip to the beach. I figured it was a worthy subject for this paper that I've been hanging on to for years {slapping cheek for being such a hoarder} and I'm sure Jai will end up with as many pairs of boardies as Willy does! I mean, he already has had 4 pairs and he's only 6 months old!
:) C
P.S. The big green chipboard circle that the boat sticker is on... it was the last of a packet. "Oh Yeah"!!! for using something up!! {high five!}

December Daily Album

I just realised I'll be able to start scrapping in my December Daily album by this time next week, so I'd better get posting about it, hey!
For the last few years Yvette has scrapped a "December Daily" album, which is a page a day in December {duh, slapping hand on forehead} with a photo and some journalling. Not a full-on novel of journalling, or a whole wedding album full of pics, just a nice simple "one picture, with a few sentances" kinda thing. I have LOVED looking through her albums over the past few years, but seeing as my December life up until now hasn't been that interesting (read: work, put up tree, work, bake, work, etc etc) I haven't found it that inspiring to scrap about! Now I have Jaimeson I'd like that to change, and having the December Daily book to fill in will inspire me to get out and do more Christmassy things, and record them too! I never usually scrap Christmas pages, I have no idea why {looking confused} so this will be fun!
One thing I Love about Yvette's album is the collection of mis-matched pages that she uses. I think it looks really cool! And it encourages you to look through the whole album cos it isn't just more of the same. I'm totally working on that same idea with my book. I started with a black chipboard Basic Grey album I got on sale at Spotlight for $5. Not bad I thought, cos I loved the shape and it had about 6 or so pages. Then I went through my mountain of scrapbook supplies and pulled out all the Christmas theme items and have created a "kit" of them to reach for during December when I will be scrappin like crazy! I went through the kit and pulled out all the tags and papers that I thought were page-worthy and I punched holes and threaded them onto the rings that came with my Basic Grey album. I shuffled the pages around a bit til I was happy with the layout and voila! I am ready to embellish come next week! Well I couldn't help myself either, and I have already decorated the front of the album :)
My fave double spread ready to be embellished is this green sparkly Top Note cut-out (a Stampin Up die) and opposite it is a clear acetate square with a black frame. I chose those two pages to be for the December 14 layout cos that's Willy's birthday! I do love that giant red spot and the funky holly leaf papers too. Well, I love it all. I'm very excited for December to be coming so I can start my album!
:) C

Op Shop Swap Parcel Arrived!

Hi y'all!
Happy Friday! And it is an especially happy one, cos my Op Shop Swap parcel arrived from my partner Lotti! Thank You Lotti, I love it! {hugs!}
For the first time ever I participated in a Swap! I was encouraged by Yvette and our recent spate of Op Shopping, to take part in the Op Shop Swap being held by Jody Pearl from the Reinventing Fashion blog. And it sounded like fun! The swap consisted of 3-5 items, including something handmade and something Christmas themed. Lotti got my parcel earlier this week, you can read about it at her blog Lotti's World, and I got her box of goodies in the mail today!
She sent me some awesome Christmas Scrapbooking supplies (which will totally come in handy for my December Daily album- oh I still have to post about that one!), a gorgeous Frog Softie called "Finnigan", isn't he the cutest? {cuddling him!} He's even wearing the sweetest little pair of boardies, Just like Jai has! And the sweetest little leaf-shaped ceramic dish. It is just beautiful!
Thank you so much Lotti, I had lots of fun shopping and making things for you, and I love what you sent to me too!
And now that I've had one successful Swap experience, I'm participating in the Vintage Sheet Swap over at The Love Supreme. Yay!
:) C

WJWW Week 22

Rain Rain Rain Rain! I guess it's better than stinkin' hot, right? And luckily our local pool is indoor and heated so we'll be toasty warm at Swimming Lessons today!Here is my little Jaimeson looking spunky as usual!

Bodysuit: Beau by Bardot (from Aunty Lil)
Shorts: Walmart
Shoes: Vans

How awesome are the headphones printed on the bodysuit! I LOVE them! What a cute little DJ! And if you're ever in the US and at Walmart can you grab me some more pairs of the Faded Glory denim shorts and jeans, they are the softest softest pants ever and he has lived in them! But I'm up to my biggest pair, he's gonna grow out of them soon! I guess we just have to go to Hawaii again then! Yes please!

:) C

Mitchell Road Antiques

Hi y'all,
Sorry to bore you with more Vintage finds, but I'm really keen on collecting Retro Homewares at the moment, and I am excited to talk about it! {bouncing on chair!}
Last week Will and I went on a Mercy-Dash to the city to check up on his Dad who hadn't answered his phone for 3 days (crisis deflated- turns out his phone was on silent & he didn't know, and he also didn't know how to check for the 80 missed calls from Will and his bro!) On the way home we had a little time so Will asked me if there were any Op shops I'd like to stop at. What an awesome husband {hugs!} Well, I had just learnt about the Mitchell Road Antiques centre at Darlinghurst while googling for second-hand homewares in Sydney so we popped by for a look. TALK ABOUT AWESOME! This place was like a giant Op-Shop that only has all the good stuff, and none of the crap {smirk!} But unfortunately it charges for that privilege, with the homewares I was interested in, being priced somewhere between expensive op-shop and ebay prices. Which really, I didn't think was too bad! I mean, some stalls have ridiculous prices, but you just laugh at them and move on.
I could have looked around for hours but we only had 40mins, can I tell you, I totally made use of that time! The centre is divided into little "shops" which are just a little horseshoe-shaped space rented out by a particular person & they fill it with whatever vintage & retro things they like. You could really tell someone's style after even a quick glance at the shop & I made a bee-line for all the people who had kitchenalia and homewares. And I came up trumps! {crown being placed on head, scepter being thrust into hands, gown laid on shoulders} I felt like the Queen of Pyrex! I found the 2 biggest Pyrex "friendship" (I think) bowls at one stall for $14 & $12 each, then after wandering around a little more I found the smallest one at a different stall for $8! Score {high five!} I was jumping out of my skin with excitement at having found 3 matching bowls! My first set! (though I imagine it should have a 4th bowl, like all Pyrex sets. Doesn't matter, I like the set of 3!) Aren't they just the most BEAUTIFUL colours! {heart them}. Then at the same stall I found the smallest bowl, I found this "flame" pattern Pyrex mug, to match my other Flameware! {yippeee!} It was $7, so that was a little on the expensive side, but I only have a ramekin in the blue flame pattern, so this is a lovely addition to that collection!
And then, back at the first stall I found a Kelco plate! That's right, a KELCO PLATE! Who knew they did dinnerware??!! It was $15 which I was prepared to pay seeing as I hadn't seen a Kelco plate before. I was just like a kid in a candy shop, I was sooo happy! It's the tulip pattern again, and it matches both my Olive Green and Orange Kelco cups, cheering!! {party hooters going off}. Can you tell I was a little excited?
Anyway, this place was HUGE, the whole top floor of an old warehouse/factory, and we hardly scratched the surface of the stalls we looked at, and we didn't get around to at least half the stalls, so I'm definitely heading back there again! {smiles}... hmmm..what am I doing tomorrow.... {wink!}
:) C

More Vintaging

Hi y'all!
Happy Saturday :) I am going to Miranda Fair today to meet up with Mum (and possibly AJ and another Aunty and cousin) for a spot of Christmas Shopping! I am nearly finished and hope to have it all knocked over in a week or two. Hooray!! {full-time hooter going off in the background}
Talking about shopping, Will and I have hit the Op shops a fair bit lately, with limited success. Well, I feel successful, which is great, but we have been to an awful lot of Op shops and they haven't all yielded retro delights! That's the fun thing about Op shops, it's so hit and miss!
So I did have a bit of success recently at Vinnies at Auburn where Will spotted some Kelco!! (Yep, I had missed it on the shelf {smacking forehead with back of hand} luckily I had Will!) I got the 2 orange saucers and the orange and white cup from there. They were the bargain price of $1 for the lot, cos the cup has a big chip out of the opposite side (which I don't look at anyway} so big {high five} for the score! At the same Vinnies I saw this sweet ramikin with orange slices on it. I thought it would go really nicely with my Kelco so I got it too (it was 50c). Since then I have googled it, it's Arabia Ceramics, made in Finland, and found out it is the bottom half (missing the lid) of a Marmalade Jam pot. And get this- people are trying to get $45 for them! What the???!! We saw a Arabia Ceramics Plum jam pot with no lid at Mitchell Road Antiques this week for $45! (more on Mitchell Road in another post...) and HERE is an orange one like mine, on etsy for almost as much. I got mine for 50c! {blow me down!} Good thing I buy things that I like, cos apparently I have expensive taste and I don't even know it {tongue in cheek!}
Then we were having lunch in Glebe and we "popped down" to their local Vinnies and I spotted the olive green Kelco cups! No saucers this time {frowny} I had never seen the pattern before I found the orange one at Vinnies then I found the olive ones in the same week! They were the bargain price of $1 each. Sweet!
Will and I went on an Op Shop spree in "The Shire" last week too, going to Salvos and Vinnies at Sutherland and also Salvo's at Menai (I did wave in your general direction AJ!) I had been wanting to get a cut glass vase and I found this one at Salvos for only $5 and it had the name "Grimwade" etched on the bottom. I do like vintage stuff with a history so I bought it, and a quick google search showed me that Grimwade was a 1920s-1930s release by Crown Glass in Sydney and that it's so significant that there are even pieces at the Powerhouse Museum! Noice!
I was pretty stoked with my finds {puffing chest out with pride!}, let me know if you see any Kelco cos I'd love more (don't worry about where I'm gonna put it Mum!)
:) C

Sweet Little Boy

I love my little guy!!
Here we are this morning, playing & rolling around like it's going out of style. Pretty soon he'll be crawling & I'm gonna never keep him still enough to take pics!
Look at his chubby little hands. What a sweetie!
:) C


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Harking back 19 Months....

Hi y'all!
Sometimes when I am not feeling too inspired to Scrap our holiday pics, or when the Mojo isn't flowing, I turn to our Wedding pics to scrap. They are such beautiful pics (don't ask me who our photographer is cos I will NOT recommend her, just enjoy the pics for the beauty that they are and lets never mention the photographer again... it's long and painful story....) The pics always make me smile at the memory of our gorgeous Wedding Day! I have pulled out from my stash all the Wedding-ish type papers and embellishments and have them all in one place like a "kit", so its kinda easy to do wedding pages. I just pick up my kit and go!
My how time has flown, and how much has happened in the 19 months since our Wedding! It was a beautiful day & I wouldn't have changed a thing about the day. (Except the personality & post-wedding dealings of our photographer...)
How sweet is that big Martha Stewart Doily edge punch! Love it!
:) C

WJWW Week 21

More hot weather here lately, but Jai and I were lucky to have spent a long weekend at Granny & Papa's where we swam in their pool sipping on cold drinks & nibbling on poolside snacks! So nice! Luckily we missed the 37 degree day that it was at home on Monday! Hooray! {punching the air with one fist}.



Jai has taken to sucking in his bottom lip & creating a "Cabbage Patch Kid" face! It's too funny! He gets that from Will, you should see Will's CPK face on his licence. I burst out laughing every time I see it {holding tummy from laughing pain!}. No honestly, it's the most ridiculous face & cos it's a gold licence he's stuck with it for 5 years! Lol!

So here's what Jai wore Wednesday:

Bodysuit: Bebe
Mr Van Houten (the owl): made by Mummy :)

Sorry for the yellowish pic, I took it on my iPhone when the lighting was not so good!

So what are you wearing today?

:) C

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Model Parenting

It's important to have a good old giggle sometimes. And this is easily achieved when you have both a tiny trolley and an even tinyer little boy to fit inside it!


Look at the sweet little Chinese thing we picked up at Bunnings today {belly laugh!} I'm not sure we're gonna win any Parenting of the Year awards with this little bit of fun; but man I laughed myself silly, and am still Laughing at the pics! {snort!}


:) C
Happy Weekend!
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Latest Op Shop Find!

Hi y'all!
I left Willy with Jaimeson this morning & dashed off to my fave Op Shop- Chester Hill Salvos.
I had quite a successful trip- netting a Christmas present for Willy cos they had 1/2 price paintings! Hurrah {people cheering in background}. Hope he doesn't read this! I think we're pretty safe, he only reads it out of pity after I ask him if he's read my blog lately. Lol. Guess I just won't ask him!
I also found these gems:



Aren't they the coolest!! I just LOVE that font! Now Salvos stores are pricier than Vinnies- at least around the Greater West of Sydney where, I swear, I've been to almost every op shop in existence! There's not many more to cross off the list! Have you noticed Salvos is more expensive than Vinnies? Anyway, it's a 2-edged sword, cos you've gotta pay more, but there is a better selection cos the eBay re-sellers haven't fleeced the store of all the good stuff cos the profit margin is too low! {smirk} These gorgeous canisters cost me $20 and I was pretty happy with that! They were inside each other & initially I thought it was just the flour one, so I was ecstatic to find the other 2 inside {happy dance!}



I also was on the search for Pyrex & they had a gorgeous set of 3 orange casserole dishes with a sunflower print on the lid for $45 but they had (annoyingly) written "set of 3" in black texta over the top of the sunflower pattern on all 3 dishes!!! Arrrgh !! They did that to my other plain dishes & I couldn't get it off all of them. Why can't they just write it on the plain glass underside instead of ruining the beautiful pattern!!! Again... Aaargh! I did still drop a little hint to Willy about them, cos while I wasn't prepared to pay $45 he might buy them for me for Christmas {wink}. Then I'll try all my best black-text removal techniques!
I ended up spending $80 at Salvos!! Imagine how much I got tho, pretty happy!
: C


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What Jai Wore Wednesday Week 20

Hi y'all!
I'm sipping a Mai Tai while basking beside a resort pool {mind wanders off further in this day dream!} hope you're also keeping cool on this stinkin' hot day! I'm really sitting in front of a fan with the blinds shut and am still sweatin'! Lol!
I met up with Felicity at Costco this arvo cos she hadn't been yet. Their Air Con was blasting so it was HEAVEN!! I forgot how hot it was outside til we got out again & my cool outer skin melted instantly! {sweltering at the memory!}



Here is Jai boy in his super cool nautical outfit playing with the little boat softie I made him! So cute! I love nautical, I guess it's one of my fave clothing styles. And Jai rocks it pretty well I might say!

T-Shirt: Marquis
Booty Cover: Cotton On
Boat: made by Mummy!
Star & Crab musical toy (on right): hand me down from Tassy (did u know it got passed to Jaimeson, Yvette? He LOVES it!)
Owls: Skip Hop
Bee: Bright Starts
Play mat: Bright Starts

:) C

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Amazing, Excellent Hands

This post is for you Mum.
Mum loves Jaimeson's Hands. She says they are sooo expressive. Jaimeson is amazed with his hands too. They offer him many minutes of entertainment (and at this age, minutes of entertainment is quite an achievement!) He wiggles his fingers in a super slow-mo way, like coral ebbing and flowing with the tide, gently touching them with his other hand. He stretches his hand out wide, he's been doing that since birth when they say babies mostly have their hands balled up in fists. Not our Jaimeson! He used to have his fingers spread wide like he was "talking" to my boobs during feeding. Telling them a secret! LOL! He is super-quick at grabbing stuff, especially plants, when we're out exploring the garden. He is fascinated by his hands! He even sneaks a thumb in his mouth these days when he's tired or hungry. And even sneaks it in while he's feeding when he thinks I'm not watching him! Cheeky boy!
This morning I managed to catch a picture of him intrigued by his hands. Such a gorgeous boy!
:) C

Tiny Holiday Feet

Hi y'all!
Are you sweltering? It's steamy here {peeling sticky legs off plastic chair}. I do enjoy summer though, despite the sweat! Jaimeson is getting used to it too I think, we'd both like a swim in a pool right now {dreaming of taking a dip in a sun-soaked tropical pool with a Mai Tai in one hand. LOL!}
Well, if I can't be at the beach, at least I can scrap about it!
It has become tradition for me to take a pic of our feet whilst on holidays. You might remember I even had some foot pics on the Gypsy Feet blog
Well, I haven't stopped taking foot pics, and was even more excited to have Jai's little feet to take pics of while on our Beach Holiday too! Look at his sweet chubby little leg in there too! I have been hoarding those cute little Doodlebug tag stickers forever {someone slap me} so Hooray for using them! And I like the "pop" the yellow strip of paper gives to my aqua background. So summery!
Time for an icecream I think!
:) C
Here's my little man from the other day. Such a happy boy! Sorry for the grainy pic, but I take most of my pics of Jai on my iphone, so they don't always turn out the greatest. But I do capture the best spontaneous faces via iphone! Don't you just want to smoosh your lips onto those cheeks? I do! Pity he's sleeping right now... {wink!}

A Silly Page

You know when you look at a pic and it just makes you laugh? That happens to me a lot, especially when I put Jaimeson in silly hats like this one! It's his "Bruno Mars" hat, as it's come to be known between Will and I {giggles}! You know Bruno Mars? The singer? Here he is Mum, cos I know you wont know him! Hehehe! Do you think he'd really catch a grenade for ya'? Lol!
Check out the M&M's background paper I used on this page. Why oh why would I have bought a paper with M&Ms on it {shaking head in disbelief}? I know, I was caught up in the M&Ms moment! It was my first trip to America in 2004 & I was surprised (and a little confused) about just how much Americans love M&M branded stuff! They make everything with those sweet delicious little chocolates on it. In Vegas & NY there are even big shops called "M&M World" where they sell jewellery, clocks, statues, shirts, toys, dinnerware, everything with the M&M characters on it! Its so weird. So I bought a 12x12 paper with M&Ms on it. And haven't used it for 7 years! Come on! Its totally time that was out of my stash! So I used it on this funny LO of Jai in his Bruno Mars hat. I watered it down a little with the plain green square in the middle of the BG which I think helped out a bit! Hooray for using it {massive high five!} And of course, there is always the Bruno Mars/M&M connection. Mars manufactures M&Ms right? LOL {slapping hand on forehead cos of bad joke}
The "hat" dictionary entry came from a Children's illustrated dictionary I got in Coffs while we were on holidays. I love that it says "Mother wheres a hat when she goes to town". LOL! Vintage!
:) C
And here is a quick pic of my sweet boy when we visited Granny and Papa's 2 weeks ago. Love that cute face!

WJWW Week 19

Jai is really enjoying his Swimming Lessons! It was the second week this week & he was still as relaxed & chilled out in the water as he was the first week. Yay for a water baby!! It must have been all that swimming at Yamba & DP! No tears, and he loves to kick under the water! Good boy!


Here he is looking spunky in his boardies & rashie!

Boardies: Quiksilver (from Aunty Alicia)
Rashie: Kmart (from Aunty Fliss)
You can see Jai is well loved with clothing gifts!

And here we are enjoying the pool:



Love it!
:) C

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