Jikana Damaru

~ Three Months ~

Well I can't quite believe that Indiana is 3 months old already. Where did that three months go? She is such a lovely little thing and keeps us all smiling with her lovely little goo noises and her beautiful big smile when she sees us.

Her big sisters think she is just wonderful - big sister Sienna loves holding her and cuddling her and middle sister Sofia quite regularly still refers to her as "the baby" - she will ask me "what did you do with the baby - is she back in bed again?"

Little Indi's cheeks have exploded just like Sienna's did at this age and she is now just over 5 kilos - up a size in clothes and nappies - no longer a newborn so very sad to have to pack away the little little clothes for the last time. It is funny that I am desperate to start getting rid of some clothes out of the house but I really don't want to give away all the lovely newborn clothes - maybe I will keep one or two of my favourites.

Congratulations!!

To Jessica who was lucky enough to win these Lulufroufrou accessories that were given away by Chantelle for me on her fab Blog Fat Mum Slim - Thanks for that and Jessica hope your beautiful girls love the clips.

Time for Tea

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some of the prettiest tea cups, with these gorgeous pics. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

I love the hidden flowers in One of my fav teacups by Jens closet
The pretty pink in Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company by Jewelflyt
The adorable colour and florals in tea set by Karen Tenni
The faded pink in teacupspoon by incredible how

Have a great day! x

Singlets for Summer

In Australia, singlets and Summer are like Italy and pizza. Dressed up or dressed down the humble singlet is the penultimate wardrobe staple throughout the warmer months. Well, those and Havaianas, of which most of us own at least one pair or 20. Fern owns a pair of pink baby-Havaianas which I'm hoping she'll fit into this Summer to exude some serious beach cred!

Anyway, since she's grown out of all her singlets from last Summer (when she was newborn) I went and bought a a packet of 5 plain white Bonds singlets with the vision of decorating them and sewing matching shorties.

Unfortunately my sewing prowess leaves a lot to be desired, so the shorties will have to wait until my kind mother in law takes pity on me and helps me make them, else poor Fern will end up with 3 leg holes or a waist 4 times bigger than her actual size.

This afternoon I got motivated to attempt the first singlet though, and I am quite happy with the result! It's my first attempt at the blanket stitch, so the sewing is a little wonky and the buttons may be held on with little more than prayer. But I'm sure Fern will look gorgeous in my little singlet for the five minutes it stays clean, and I will get a quick happy-snap for posterity!

I started with a scrap of material:

Plus a singlet:

And some misclaneous bits and pieces from the sewing box:

And because I am still ensconced in my obsessive butterfly obsession, you can guess what design I came up with:

I know I won't be prototyping this design any time soon.... but still proud of my achievement!

Here's a close up:

Bakerella.... not!

They are cute, but certainly not the real thing!! My very first blog that I ever, ever found a long time ago was the very special Bakerella - I look forward to her creations every week. Her Cupcake pops are amazing - you should see the detail she the puts into making things and she always does special things for the festivals like Halloween . Although I must say an honorable mention has to go to Alicia at The Red Deer for making the real thing last weekend. Well done yours look just as fab.
I have Louise's birthday party next week and I wanted to make a few special things for the day - I had a little chocolate left over from the practice white chocolate mud birthday cake I am making for the day (Yes I'm so bad at baking - I needed to do a practice one first) so I thought I would attempt the cheats version of the Cupcake pop. I think that somehow I am going to put them on the big cake but I haven't decided yet. I didn't have any of those sprinkles but hubby had fun eating all the non-pink mini m&m's.

Now, I hope these aren't all eaten before Sunday.

I also had a chance to finish off the Party Bags for the four little friends that are coming and a few extras for my (adult) baby brothers, who I just know will complain if they miss out on one too :)! These, I am happy with - cute little Noodle boxes filled with some little toys and just a few lollies.
Now, I just have to attempt those tissue paper
pom poms ....

Vintage cake stands

I saw this picture above on Daisy Pink Cupcakes' blog under the title "Vintage wedding ideas" and fell in love. I just love the shot above of the vintage dessert stand set in a cupboard. The shelves are full of yummy pies and cakes on vintage cake stands, all labeled beautifully to match the lining paper at the back of the armoire. The shabby chic "Grandma's famous Cherry Pies" sign is so cute.

The photo comes from a shoot for Brides Northern California magazine for their Fall/Winter issue out on September 1, 2009. I thought it would be great inspiration for my Christmas table so I have started looking for vintage cake stands and bowls to add to my collection.

Here are a few that I have my eye on:

Rice melamine cake plates from Nettlegreen in mint blue and pink.

Lisbeth Dahl's vintage looking white ceramic cake stand and bell jar cake stand from Love it have it

Pastel footed dessert bowls from Anthropologie with a vintage faded wash

Lisbeth Dahl lavender glass tiered cake stands from Something

1950's looking pastel fluted ceramic cake stands from John Lewis

Glass cake stands from Dot Com gift shop

Glass cake stand with mirrored base and two tiered glass cake stand from Dot Com Gift Shop

1920's looking pressed glass cake stands from Amazon in green and pink

More to come on this later......

Have a sweet day! x

The Simple Things

Do you find pleasure in the simple things of life - or do you overlook these striving for the dream. Don't ever stop striving - but sometimes take time to smell the roses - or watch a butterfly as it soars around the garden - or listen to a bird sing - or enjoy the sunshine.

Take time to appreciate the wonder of a sunset or sunrise, marvel at a rainbow, enjoy the laughter of a child, a smile of a stranger.

To often we are so caught up in following that dream that the small simple pleasures of life pass us by.

Today I am marvelling at the small spiderweb of rainbows that the prism on my window sill is spinning across my desk. The sun has gone behind the trees as it moves towards the end of its daytime journey here, and just the littlest amount is catching my prism, so rather than rainbows dashing around my room, there is a spiderweb of small interconnecting rainbows patterning - smaller and smaller as the breeze rustles the trees.

Hope you find time this weekend to leave the big stuff behind, relax and enjoy some of the small things that we can so often fail to see.