Jikana Damaru

Woodland themed baby shower!

Woodland themed cupcake toppers

Gingerbread bird house

Handmade raspberry and mint decorated fairy cakes

Marzipan ladybug

Handmade berry almond muffins

Wooden deer

Handmade gingerbread mushrooms, handmade chocolate squirrels, chocolate rolls and matchmakers

Chocolate muffin, caterpillar chocolate rolls, flower sugar cubes

Enormous meringue with fresh raspberries and chocolate covered toadstool biscuits

Handmade chocolate bunny cookies

Handmade gingerbread mushrooms, handmade chocolate squirrels, chocolate rolls and matchmakers

Home made butterfly cakes, chocolate covered acorn biscuits

The invitations were sent, so I got busy organizing the baby shower which was being held at the mum-to-be's house. All the guests were excited by the theme and everyone offered to bring some Woodland themed sweets!

I made a woodland themed gingerbread house for the center piece, with mushroom gingerbread cookies, petal paste ivy, berries and ladybirds to decorate my shop-bought chocolate rolls and matchmakers. I also made woodland cupcake toppers to decorate cakes and handmade chocolate squirrels.

The sweet guests brought handmade butterfly cakes, chocolate squirrel cake pops inspired by Bakerella, fresh raspberry and mint decorated fairy cakes, chocolate bunny cookies, flower sugar cubes and berry almond muffins. One guest visited three patisseries that morning where she bought the cute marzipan ladybird, the enormous meringue and red currant topped chocolate brownies. Another bought the cute caterpillar chocolate rolls and another picked up the cute toadstool biscuits and acorn biscuits from a Japanese supermarket in North London.

We set up the table and the host was over the moon by her woodland themed sweets table. Gifts were given and we spent the afternoon chatting and laughing as we made our way through the yummy goodies on the table!

Click the image above to open above in a separate window so you can print and make your own.

Have a sweet day!

Mother's Day Ideas...:2

Just because I love window shopping.... here are some more ideas

Well I could go on forever .....

Happy Friday - hope you have a lovely, lovely weekend!

Birthday {Pink} Love

It is fabulous Friday here and it also happens to be my birthday!

What more could a birthday girl want other than cake and balloons (in pink of course).

Have a lovely weekend everyone - thank you for your lovely comments this week. I am off to enjoy lunch with my mum.

My lovely new phone and Kate Spade cover courtesy of my lovely husband and beautiful girls.!!

A Little Purse... and the Doldrums!

Dear friends, I must admit that today I am tired, unmotivated and... well... just a little out of sorts! It isn't really like me, and I must snap myself out of it - QUICKLY!

One thing that brightened my week (up until now) was making this little purse from a kit I bought:

There is this very cool little website called Moda Bake Shop that is full of inspiring sewing projects (and step-by-step tutorials) that even a complete novice can follow. Just. And some gorgeous fabrics to boot.

Despite the fact that I had to unpick my zipper about 5 times before I gave up completely and settled for more-than-slightly-askew, it was relatively simple to make this purse. And it only cost me a grand total of $10 for all the materials!

Perhaps it's that my purse is empty that has me in the doldrums?

Another thing that SHOULD be brightening my day is the prospect of the Mathilda's Market coming to Lane Cove on Sunday. Last time, I went completely feral and this baby/ children handmade market is one of those places you could do major damage to your bank account. I plan on getting there early this time, because 40,000 mothers in a smallish room elbowing each other for that last size 000 hand-laced onesie can get pretty tiring!

I'll be back on Monday with a full report of my purchases, I'm setting myself a strict $100 limit so let's see how far it takes me! And I promise to be in better spirits...

seven things

Thank you Susannah for passing on this award to me!

Those who are sent the award

are asked to choose 15 bloggers to pass it onto and to share 7 things about themselves.

bright red coloured toe nails make me smile
image by Susannah Tucker of my feet!

I love the beach & don't like being away from it for too long

I love drinking cups of tea with freshly baked scones in front of the fire
image from taste.com.au

Lindt hot chocolates are my weakness
image from Lindt

I am not a morning person - it takes me awhile

before i can be a happy smiling Mummy - having little cheerful wriggle pots

in my bed for morning snuggles does make it just a little easier.....

image from weheartit.com

Tonight I am going to put my pjs on early, get comfy &

grab one of the many books I have

on the go at the moment - I don't read enough

image from weheartit.com

Watching my girls grow up is keeping me

grounded

& helping me see the importance of seizing everyday

Instead of passing this award onto just 15 bloggers (because I have such a long list of beautiful blogs) I would love it if all of you would accept this award.

Leave a comment once you have blogged '7 things about yourself' so I can come & read more about you!

p.s - you don't have to use images - words alone are fine too.

Siblings

adorable & a pleasure to photograph - a few of my favourites

The Dream

As a country-town raised city dweller, I always imagined that I'd return to country living once I had children. I couldn't even imagine how I'd go about raising kids in the concrete jungle. What would we do all day?

Oh god, surely not that...

Then I mummed 2 under 2 in the inner-city of Sydney and loved it. Walking out the front door with Maxi Taxi and Cappers rugged up, the 'big rig' pram whizzing in front, off to the library, or one of 34 cafes in reach, or the supermarket, or countless mates' places, or the pool, or 5 parks... you get the idea. I was in babyland heaven. In fact, I was so attached to striding out with the big rig that even my sister's place 3 suburbs over wasn't out of reach. But then the bairns started to grow up and got bored in the pram after approximately 45 seconds. And frequenting the 34 cafe's with 2 toddlers running riot became more chore than treat. And I really wanted my own park, not a shared park I had to leave the house to get to. So once number 3 (The Badoo) was expected, we knew it was time to move to a bigger place with a proper garden.

And then I remembered The Dream. I pictured myself on a cute little acreage in my cute little cottage with my cute little family - growing vegies, raising chickens, exploring creeks, swimming in spring-water fed dams, dreaming idly on my shaded verandah as the odd goat wanders by. There's gingham involved on some level. .

You know, The Dream.

But there was a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. The LOML works in investment banking. And there just isn't a lot of investment banking going on in your average country town. So, unless he wants to become a bank manager (he doesn't) or a financial planner (so doesn't) or a newsagent (a what?) or something... we're City People.

Now, don't weep for me yet, I've tried to recreate the life I crave. We searched and searched and finally bought a place that's surrounded on 3 sides by bush, overlooks a beautiful national park valley and we can't really see our only neighbour. So, I've got the verandah, the large garden, a (non-spring-fed) saltwater pool, and a (usually dry) creek across the road. And there's a (kind of) 'town' (as opposed to trendy 'village') feel to the suburb we're in. We have a showground. We have a pony club. We have 3 competing primary schools (with the essential 'don't go there unless you live right next door and even then reconsider' school to discuss at the 'better' schools' morning teas) (more on this in a later post!). It certainly feels very country-in-the-city. It's 25 mins by train to work. Happy with that.

But you know what, it's kinda hard fitting in The Dream around commuting 4 days a week to a large corporate in the city and growing 3 kids who are aged 5 and under at time of writing. Really hard. But I'm going to keep trying.

Next stop... the chickens.

[Top image by Dottie Angel; other images found via weheartit]

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I rewound this post at the Fibro on 5.2.2011