Jikana Damaru: 03/22/11

wordless wednesday

...more Wordless Wednesday fun here.

My sister asked me if I could take photos of her family while we were in Cancun; I was happy to do so. I love challenging myself with the camera and Photoshop. I learn something new each time and that's the only way to improve! Here was my first 'photoshoot'!

Here are some of my favorites so far. I'm still editing a few more!

Aren't they cute?!

wordless Wednesday

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thank you ♥ & have a happy wednesday

Stocking up on Easter Candy

I love Easter! Especially decorating for it. I have started putting my colour palette together and ordering numerous craft items, from wooden bird houses to the prettiest of ribbons.

I have also started stocking up on Easter candy. So, you can imagine my delight when I discovered that M&M's had brought out special edition Easter ones here in the UK for both the peanut variety egg shaped ones and the printed bunny choco ones in poppy pink, grass green, sunny yellow and white. I picked up several bags in Tesco and some pastel foil-wrapped chocolate ones as well. The sugary sweet speckled jelly candy is from Mr Stanley's at T.K Maxx. The pink bag of speckled M&M's were bought for me by a sweet friends on a trip to LA.

Now onto that cute bunny bowl! Last year a dear friend of mine picked me up a bunny bowl from Pottery Barn on a trip to NY to match the large Bunny I was given as a gift the year before. So, this year when the same sweet friend asked if there was anything she could pick up on a work trip to San Francisco, I immediately asked for the new bunny bowl from Pottery Barn. Isn't she pretty? Can't wait for her to meet her new friends on this year's Easter Table.

Have a sweet day!

Light up Your Night....

Over the last two years, we have faced and embraced challenge after challenge when it comes to our daughter Fern and sleeping. If you have a two year old, chances are you have faced YOUR share of sleeping (and other!) challenges too! It seems every developmental stage brings with it a new challenge, and as a parent its about finding that little grain from that beach of sand that provides a solution... until the next challenge presents itself!

After Elliott was born, old habits begun to sneak back... where once we would have been stoic about not dashing in to tend to every little sound that came from Fern's room, we now didn't want to risk waking a little baby (two babies crying at 2am? Let's not even go there...) and leapt to attend where really we should have left her to see if she would settle herself first. The outcome, of course, was a child that called out for our attention at all hours of the night. Not all the time, but enough to become an issue, especially when her baby brother was sleeping better through the night than she was!

What to do?

And a thought occured to me. Fern is two, and two year olds have vivid imaginations. Could it be dreams that were waking our daughter? Was she frightened of being in the dark, sitting up in her bed, unable to settle herself back under the covers?

I remembered a gift I had received when Fern was born. Something that had been in her room all along. Unused and untouched.

What was it? A little fairy nightlight. Well, what the hey? That night, I made a big deal of switching the light on for the first time. I showed Fern and explained to her that this was a very special fairy, that it was watching over her and that if she awoke in the night, it was ok because the fairy light was on and she was safe and she could simply lie back down and go to sleep. I went to bed that night fairly skeptical.

That was three weeks ago. And peeps? That lil fairy light has worked a merry treat! No more wakeups. No more call outs. And I'm off the hook..... til the next stage, that is!

Interested in a night light? There are loads of options in the baby stores, of course. But why not shop handmade? Here's a few Etsy options for you. Just an idea.

US $17 from here

US $17.99 from here

US $35 from here

US$18 from here

US$17 from here

Have you used a nightlight for your kiddies? Has it worked?

In the Moment

I read a wonderful blog post on the weekend by Holly at Decor8 blog. With all that is going on around the world she was talking about just being in moment - taking everything in. It was a really lovely post that has made me stop and be in the moment far more regularly this week - you can read her post here.

It also got me to thinking about what is it in my home that helps me to be in the moment and for me it is the smell of a scented candle burning - it really does make you stop every time the fragrance catches you. My current favourite is one by Circa Home - I really love the Oceanique scent.

And once the candle has finished you can reuse the lovely glass cylinder with a tea light candle in it - it would also make a lovely vase.

That peace of paper

Any young couple who has been together for a long time (and, of course, any not-so-young couple who have been together for longer than a month) will find themselves asked The Question.

Are you going to get married?

In the hot seat this week was my younger friend. He has been living with his girlfriend for years and as far as I know she has had an eye on her bare ring finger for well over two years now.

Guess what, no ring.

He says that he's not sure he believes in marriage. Why does he need to get up in front of everyone and declare what he already knows and she already knows? It's just a piece of paper.

I disagree, my dear friend. It's weddings you probably don't believe in. Marriage is something else entirely.

Marriage is a promise. A promise to grow together, to nurture, to forgive. It's a promise that no matter what, no matter how pear shaped things go (literally as well as figuratively, as it turns out), no matter how needy, you will care for that person. It says, 'I will be there.'

Marriage is optimism. It flies in the face of all we know - that life is fleeting, that people change, that promises get broken all the time. It says, 'you make me believe.'

Marriage is selective. There's no-one else you're married to, just your match. I may have been with others, I may look at others, I may wonder. It says, 'but I choose you.'

Marriage is security. It makes plans that run further than we can properly imagine: holding weathered, bony hands on a somewhere-shaded verandah while white rocking chairs rock and voices creak. It cries at the thought that one day one of you will be here and the other long gone. It says, 'you are not alone, you will never be lonely, I'll hold your hand just to know that you are there.'

No, it's not just a piece of paper, my friend. It's the biggest-half piece of you.
The peace of you.

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I rewound this post on 30.4.2011 at the Fibro.

[Image by Tania Lippert]