Jikana Damaru: March 2011

How would you label me?

We all have our ways of avoiding housework, right?

This afternoon, after I popped the kids into bed for a catnap I begrudgingly surveyed the state of the house. It wasn't pretty. Put it this way; I think they were wrong when the said the earthquake didn't hit Australian shores... I'm sure there is a faultline right underneath my home....

I should have cleaned up. Done some washing. Hung clothes out on the line. Vacuumed. Washed the food off the floor. Tidied up my sewing debris.

Instead?

I did this:

When the going gets tough........ the tough make labels!

And even though the kids are now awake and screaming and my house is no closer to being clean and tidy than it was 2 hours ago, I am standing in front of my larder (it's no longer classified as a pantry, it is waaaay too romantic now for that!) and sighing with pleasure. My matching round containers lined up all symmetrically along their white shelf, their contents beaming behind their opening credits.

What a wonderful day.

And now? I might as well tuck into a few of these dipped in a mug of hot chocolate. Why not? I've earned it.

If this post has you sighing in envy (go on, admit I am not the only complete dag in blogworld), sigh not! These labels can be betrothing YOUR containers this very day. Download your FREE template here and print n stick away to your hearts content! Oh, and those containers are on sale in Coles for $2 a pop this week. You can thank me later ;)

Have a lovely lovely weekend. x

Ella's Kitchen Company

Kids Cabinet

I was delighted to meet Katerina Saunders of Ella's Kitchen Company at the Country Living Spring Show, having coveted her beautiful kitchen storage for years. I envision owning the pale blue 12 scoop and spice Norwegian Cabinet like the one featured in Living Etc one day when I have a large kitchen with a dedicated baking area! I would fill the scoops with my flours and sugars and fill the little pots with my baking sundries. I love the colours they come in and the vintage charm to them.

Katherina started the company in 2004, drawing on her Norwegian heritage. The original Kitchen cabinet was left to her by her Norwegian grandmother, Ella, and she has fond memories of seeing and using it since her childhood in her home in Oslo. When Katerina started children's baking courses in 2003 she loved how the kids got excited queuing up for their baking ingredients from the Norwegian Cabinet. This sparked her idea to make them and Ella's Kitchen Company was born.

Have a sweet day!

yum with a capital B

for Brownie

if you would like to bake some of these amazingly easy

& oh so delicious brownies

just follow the recipe below

this recipe was given to me by a mum I met through 'Mother's group' in my early days of motherhood & I am ever so grateful to all the mums I met, for the journey we started as friends & for the cups of tea & brownies we shared together.

You've come a long way, Bunsen

Today is Robert Bunsen's 200th Birthday.

He is the chemist who invented the bunsen burner which lead to the invention of the Bialetti stove-top coffee maker, so as far as LOML’s concerned he is the best inventor ever.

But that’s not why I noticed his birthday.

We all have a Mean Girls story from our school days. Mine happens to be a Mean Boys story, but we all know how these things play out. Group of kids makes life a misery for single kid for reasons known and unknown to themselves only.

I guess being nicknamed Bunsen and having a large group of boys call out ‘heeeeey BUUUNNNSEEEN’ every single time you walked past them isn’t the end of the world. I’ll take that any day of the week over so much of the teenage warfare a lot of kids endure.

But still.

Ground-opening humiliation for a teenager desperately wanting to fit in, even if the boys only came up to my armpit and, like all teenage boys, had absolutely nothing to offer. On and on and on it went. I went from laughing it off with a sweep of my offensive tresses, to attempting to ignore it, to only ever walking in the centre of a gang of girls, to going miles out of my way to avoid them altogether.

The burden of the peer group.

You know, once those boys stopped being a peer group, many turned out to be very nice indeed. I was oddly the only girl invited to every single one of those boys’ 21st birthday parties. I went along to a couple. To them it was ‘hey old mate!’ and I realised that as BUUUUNNNSSEEEEEN I was always a part of their gang; their quirky little mate who took teasing on the chin. They were boys and that’s just what boys do. Shudder.

The mystery of the peer group.

That’s what Robert Bunsen means to me. Happy birthday, clever man.

Were you picked on as a child? Do you think that Bunsen was bullied? What's the line between teasing and bullying? Is there one?

[Image by giac1061]

a sweet harvest

We've been staying with my parents for a few days. It's lovely to be home again. Getting stuck into Mum's home cooking and enjoying the local produce here. Dad is a bit proud of his tomato crop and helping him pick them has been fun. It's a beautiful time to visit Orange - warm days, cool nights and Autumn leaves falling everywhere. Happy days!

Sofia's Bubblgum and Soda Birthday Party

We had a wonderful day celebrating Sofia's 5th Birthday last weekend and I am so excited to show you the pictures from the day.

Our theme was a Bubblegum and Soda Disco Party with the colours for the party being Yellow, Pink and Blue.

First of all a party invite was designed and I really wanted it to include an old fashioned gum ball machine. My original inspiration for the colour theme came from the lovely colours of the bon bon lollies which I wanted to include on the dessert table - not only are the colours beautiful but they taste delicious as well.

And here is the dessert table ...

I cannot tell you how excited I was when Jacki from Blissfully Sweet Cakes arrived with the Gumball machine cake - yes that is a cake and it matched the invite perfectly.

Truly amazing is how I describe Jacki's cakes - this one was a lemon poppyseed cake and it was delicious!

Amazing Cookies in the shape of Soda bottles and gumballs by Jacki from Blissfully Sweet Cakes

Pink Cookie Pops

Marshmallow pops and Fairy Floss

Caramel Popcorn in cones

Little personalised bottles of drink for each of the guests

Ice cream and cake served in the perfect little containers with "Sofia" spoons

For instructions on how to make this see my blog post here and to order your very own stamp go here

Honeycomb balls and giant balloons

Party Favours for each of the guests - what else but a mini gumball machine.

The birthday girl - Sofia

What is a disco party without a disco ball!

We are also very excited that Amy Atlas has featured Sofia's party on her blog today! Thanks Amy for your kind words.

Here are the wonderful suppliers of all the gorgeous goodies I used

Cakes and cookies - Blissfully Sweet Cakes

Balloons, Honeycomb balls, ice cream cups - Love to Celebrate

Printables - Sweet Style

Party Favours - Pink Frosting
Sofia Stamp - instructions here or go here to order your very own

We had the most wonderful day celebration Sofia's birthday - her friends were just delightful and made the day super special.

Images: [Sweet Style by Mrs A In The Cove]

15 Week Bumpdate

How Far Along: 15 weeks, 2 days

Baby: Is the size of an ORANGE

Total Weight Gained: I had an OB appt today- according to them I am -3.

Sleep: I'm up anywhere between 2 to 4 times a night to pee, and having a lot of crazy dreams, but still getting good sleep.

Maternity Clothes: I bought some! I bought a pair of jeans, capri's, and leggings. Although my bump is still pretty little they are SO much more comfortable around the abdomen. I was getting tired of tying a hair tie around the buttons of my pants, and having them press against me.

Best Moment of the Week: Cleaning out our guest room! It's all ready to paint now!!

Food Cravings/Aversions: Love fruits (apples, plums, & oranges are my fav's). Also loving noodles. Still disliking full slabs of meat.

Symptoms: I think I have almost all of energy back now! Still getting sick every few mornings :/ Days are pretty good though and my nights have gotten so much better, thanks to Pepcid!! I'm able to eat most of my dinner now, enjoy it, and not feel miserable after! A big relief.

Movement: I felt flutters!! I was laying in bed one morning, just thinking. And then all the sudden I thought.. wait.. what was that? 20 seconds later it happened again and I just knew it was my little bean kicking! It felt like tiny popcorns popping :) I felt it three times. And then last night (after a tiny bowl of chocolate chip cookies & vanilla bean ice cream) I was sitting on the couch and felt flutters again. I'm seriously in shock that I can feel my baby already!!

Gender: We find out on APRIL 28th at 19 1/2 weeks.

What I miss: Cold cuts. Cold cuts. Cold cuts.

What I'm looking forward to: Hitting 16 weeks/4 months!

Weekly Wisdom: Pepcid works very well. And chewing gum also helps!

Milestones: The bump is getting firmer by the day and the uterus has moved up quite a bit! Baby can now sense light (and shy away from it) and can wiggle his/her fingers and toes :)

Here's what we look like at 15 weeks, according to BabyCenter :)

Acorn & Will

I have loved Acorn & Will since I met the lovely Daniella at Vintage at Goodwood. I was delighted to see her at The Country Living Spring Fair as she sells the cutest vintage treasures that are both fun and affordable.

The stand was a joy to look at, from the shabby chic curio cabinet filled with cute vintage bunnies and colourful ducks to the array of decorative white shelves weighed down with candy filled jars and the prettiest vintage crockery. There were smatterings of Easter treasures, like the honeycomb bunnies, cheeky sheep and pastel yellow wind-up chickens. Check out her lovely site for lots of great gift ideas and Easter Goodies.

Have a sweet day!

In the Moment - Pure Fresh Simple

Last week I posted about being in the moment so I thought it would be a great reminder for me to do a post each week about being in the moment - something that I find in my day to day life that reminds me to be just that. My love of photography certainly reminds me of this as it helps me to stop and take things in - I have learnt to have my camera handy at all times and snap away at things I love, things that inspire.

Combined with my photography I love flowers and this week I purchased these gorgeous daliah's - they certainly remind me to stop and smell the roses ... be in the moment ... I hope you find time this week to be in the moment.