Mini Zen Gardens

I love that Bunnings offer free DIY workshops for kids! It is so fun for them. On Saturday we went with their friends from school - we have another sibling set in the same classes as my kids - and they had the best time. The workshop was mini zen gardens and they loved it.

Joseph's is a home with a mini garage to the side and the girls made theirs into little sparkly gardens.

Best time! Thank goodness for Bunnings.

❤

Mermaid cups

The party prep is a forever thing for me, considering there are 6 parties between mine and my best friends kids - and seven this year now she's added another one to her bunch. Her daughter Isabel is having a mermaid party next month and earlier this week, I got busy with plain white paper cups, some watercolour paints and a sponge.

This is the easiest method on the planet. All it takes is a sponge and very watery paint, dip the sponge and swipe it around the base of the cup, leaving a gorgeous wavy coloured spot. They take all of 10 seconds each and dry really quickly, making it well worth the effort to get custom coloured cups for any party. Cups? Check!

 

little changes for a (possible) big change

we've been toying with the thought of buying a bigger house, with a granny flat so that doug's mum could live with us, so we've spoken to a broker - and in the meantime started doing things around the house to make sure that if we decide to go ahead, it's ready to sell. i thought the list would be soooo long, but when it was all written down it wasn't long at all and consisted of some rather random things like:

-new dishwasher (current one doesn't work simply because it has a broken pipe and we can't repair it grrr)

-putty and paint holes from curtains in kids bedrooms (it's about time considering the plantation shutters have been in for a couple of years now)

-have garage door serviced (cause it's noisy as all heck)

-new locks on the doors (current ones are breaking and super hard to open)

-new plants out front (cause the old bushes were half dead and ugly - see photo below)

so little changes are being made, bit by bit... ticking things off my "to do" list gives me such a sense of accomplishment, especially when they are things we can do ourselves.

for example. the side gates are openable for the first time in years after doug discovered he had a pair of boltcutters and got busy with the wd-40. look at that! alex is so excited about it and keeps running down the side of the house in the hopes that he can go and play out the front, but i have to be careful because he also loves to run on the damn road. yikes. 

 

my friend pippa that works at bunnings made the suggestion of rosemary to replace the bushes in the planter out front and i love them! i have always been a huge fan of rosemary. it must be all those years in the funeral home, it's traditional to have it at funerals. rosemary is for remembrance as it leaves a scent on your hands after you've touched it, that help to remind you of things, so much so that you'll often see it growing around post offices. there's your useless fact for the day.

two of the bushes were salvageable and are now in our backyard where we had gaps and look much better. i just don't think they liked that front spot.

**update late may**

after careful deliberation as a family and financially... we have decided to stay put for now, but we are still very much working through our to do list and it's going well. hoping to have it all done by mid year! i would be so stoked.

tax returns

oh my goodness, look who is getting a tax return, and i don't even have a job! yes i know it's random, but i own shares that i purchased pre-tax while working at invocare... which i receive dividends from every 6 months. these dividends are taxed at a rate which assumes i am working full time, which obviously i am not... so i get it all back... a whole $41 worth. i'll be off opshopping with that when it comes in for sure!

i used the mygov etax system, which i highly recommend. it is so easy to use, pre-fills most of the information for you and i had mine and dougs complete in probably 15 minutes. so much easier and cheaper than paying someone to do it. i'm stoked. plus it was only last week... and looks like they'll be in any day now. yay!

visiting teaching christmas gifts

here are the gifts florence and i took a few weeks ago for christmas to the girls we visit teach.

casserole dish carrybags

years ago, i received one from my visiting teacher and decided i was going to make some. i had all the fabric and a little motivation, but when joseph was playing up and mum was at our house, she took over and had them all made within an hour. oh, she is the best. no arguments here!

i know you will all easily be able to tell from the picture how to make them, but here is a small rundown and the measurements for the square. i'm not good with sewing terms, so excuse me if none of this makes perfect sense.

you'll need half a metre of fabric and lining (they end up being 45cm across, so to allow for hems) and if your fabric is wide enough, you'll probably be able to get two from it - i got 4 from the two half metres i purchased. some wadding (to pad it so once your dish is inside no one gets burnt) and a piece of reasonably thick cord.

sew your fabric, lining and wadding into a 45cm square, then turn - fold open edge in and top stitch around all the edges, fold in a triangle of about 4cm and then sew two opposite ends across 2cm in, to hold them in place, ensure there is enough room to thread cord through. make a handle, the same way about 10cm or so wide, turn and top stitch. pin your handle to the other two points once folded in and stitch them to attach handle to the back, again leaving enough space for the cord which you will then thread through... and you're done. 

wrap and gift!

and thank you mum! you are truly the best.

more wedding prep!

my friend viviennes son is getting married in january and after offering to lend a hand, i spent last night wrapping jars for the reception tables. i really struck it lucky a few years ago, finding 50 odd decent sized jars (with lids) for sale on gumtree for only $35. winner. 

after speaking to the mother of the bride and discussing options at length, we decided to wrap them in lace and ribbon... they'll each have a tealight candle burning in them, making a pretty lace pattern on the tablecloths. they ended up being so cheap to make though, as i bought all the lace we needed on ebay here for only $8 all up including postage to australia, and all the ribbon here for $2. i wonder how they even make any money!!! but made it easy to do things cheap while still looking good!

they are also having a jar (in this case mason jars with handles that i also had handy) with a bouquet of dried flowers on each table, between three of the candle jars above. it's going to look awesome and i've been so glad to be able to help!

some of the finished product, waiting to be delivered.

this is also my first actual wedding gig. surprise! i am going to be an actual paid photographer - and i am so excited (and scared!! hahaha) it's going to be an awesome day. can't wait!

wedding diy

my friend leigh is getting married in just a few short weeks... so we have been diy-ing here in the lounge - to make the centrepieces and petal cones for the wedding.

24 milk bottles wrapped in paper from a vintage copy of "what katy did" all i did was open the pages and snip out the cotton from the centres then peel each piece out. each is cut in three widthways and held in place with 2 pieces of double sided tape. then wrapped in a piece of 3mm white ribbon to hold it all in place. easy!

and 68 petal cones. each a single piece of story book paper, fold in two widthways and make a crease at the base, then fold in like an icecream cone. then add a piece of tape to hold.

ahhhhh wedding diy. there's not much i love more. ♥

felt banner hack

disclaimer to begin - i in no way own this picture, total possession belongs to homely creatures. i simply have a friend who upon seeing this banner featured in a competition on instagram fell in love, but was a bit short on cash, so i decided to make my own version - for her.  i think it's a cute idea and all credit to them for the inspiration, in fact if you want your own, please go and buy one here! they are a very reasonable price for how much work goes into them... but if you too are a little short on cash, feel free to follow my instructions and diy!

you will need - half a metre of felt on the roll, available from all large craft/sewing stores (i went to lincraft) most places will measure slightly larger than the 50cm so that you definitely get the amount you've asked for, so mine wound up being about 30cms wide. i simply folded the piece into 4 and then cut into pieces, then evened up the edges with my scissors also.

grab a piece of chalk and start drawing the outline of your letters onto the felt. they don't look even? not a worry - as you can see from the original, not all letters are the same size and are slightly higgledy piggledy. once you are happy with your outlines, grab your sewing scissors, poke into the felt and cut around each letter, then use a dampened cloth to wipe off any excess.

i've then made a slight hem at the top and pushed through some wire, to make sure the felt doesn't sag and just sewn a straight line across the bottom for the same reason. to hang, add a piece of coloured string (poke a hole and thread through) or use 3m strips if you're renting (thus the lack of string on all the ones pictured!)

i am very much hoping that they are enjoyed by the two little men they are off to... but this is the beauty of the internet. like something you see? make your own version! all it takes is a little inspiration and makeshift materials and you're well on your way to having your own! now off you go and make your own.

party prep

today i got to work prepping things for miss madeline's princess party this saturday. twelve little girls have been invited, so i am a little nervous that i won't be able to keep them entertained and that they'll run riot, for this reason i am trying to be ultra prepared and have everything sorted wayyyyyy ahead of time.

 the pass the parcel has already been wrapped, with some fabulous prizes (for the inbetween layers and the middle!) care of my beautiful friend keryn from bella blooms who also made the custom hairclips for the goodie bags. you can see some more of her goodies here!

i decided upon visiting spotlight last week and seeing their amazing gold glitter paper that the little ladies needed a placecard each at their table, so i then spent the next hour tracing off my laptop screen onto baking paper to get the letters i wanted (you then press the other side of the baking paper with the pencil to transfer your (back to front letter) on to the back of the paper you're cutting from.) super easy and the letters looked awesome! even cooler once they were stuck down on the pink card. (side note, the font if you are wondering is cooper std black at size 150)

i am so in love with this glitter paper, i just want to use it for everything!

placecards all ready to go

i also had to prep the "crown making kits". i am always so proud of myself when i manage to think of a good idea myself and haven't stolen it from pinterest... so this one i am showcasing for sure. i had this idea to get gold paper crowns (i was totally going to cut them from card, but then we found them precut in a pack of 10 from riot art and craft) winner. they also had the stickers i wanted, so we got some cool felt, shiny, glow in the dark and crystals in different shapes and sizes, then divided them up between the bags. we'll let them decorate and then pop a few staples in the back to secure them.

the only issue was, the crowns weren't gold, so i then had to make them so. a can of spraypaint later - easy done, dried in the garage over night. and they looked much better gold too. good choice. i am really hoping that making a crown keeps the kids entertained for more than 5 minutes.

pale pink goodie bags from the discount store at the local shopping centre... with a gold sparkly crown i bought from an etsy store here in the u.s. i could not find them anywhere else, but let's be honest - there was no way i was cutting each one of those out and staying sane, so it was worth the postage to get them here.

and the contents, because lets be honest, everyone's favourite part of a party is the goodie bag...

a mini stamper pen (discount store - came in a packet of 10)

stick on earrings and plastic ring (as above, packet of 7)

2 gold balloons (big w - they were nice gold metallic ones)

princess stickers (reject shop, 12 pages to a sticker book)

custom hair clips (bella blooms)

turkish delight (totally matched the pink and gold theme)

metal and crystal ring (best ebay purchase! i bought them here and thought meh, they'll be okay for the goodie bags, but they were such good quality and i was shocked more than i can explain as the pictures made them look so cheap and tacky and they were actually pretty decent quality, $6 including delivery for 20! storing that away for future reference...)

tax time!

i am an awesome stayathomemum with skillage! yesterday - i did dougs and my tax returns in one hour. done. signed, sealed, delivered (well lodged online to the ato) and i am proud. saved myself (and doug) a sweet 220 odd buckeroonies. go me!! woo.