Jikana Damaru

this week

school is back
my husband is home to share in the daily duties
I will be photographing a whole lotta love as two say 'i do'
swimming lessons resume
cleaning needs to be done
parcels of photographs will be popped in the post
phone calls to friends will be made
meals will be cooked
grass will be cut
party shoes will be worn
& I hope you all get to enjoy some sunshine

Button "Love"

I adore buttons... I've been working on growing my collection this year, spending hours sitting on the floors of thrift shops scouring through jars of buttons looking for unique colours, shapes, sizes... you can never have too many, methinks! They come in handy for all kinds of projects and I use buttons in many of my designs. I'm also no stranger to using buttons for creating artwork:

I often use a little button to adorn a garment or use as an 'eye' feature or whatnot. But for a while I've wanted to go one step further and create something for a baby exclusively using buttons... and one afternoon last week, I came up with this:

From my Bubby Makes Three Etsy store

I handsewed each button carefully onto this soft cotton onesie and then embroidered the outline with some floss. I really like how it turned out and aside from it looking really sweet on a little baby, I thought it would also look gorgeous hanging on a vintage hanger in the nursery... I loved (and still love!) displaying clothes in Fern's nursery as artworks.

Do you like it?

ps. I have a special new series coming to my blog this week... if you like birthday parties, this one is for you!! Stay tuned!

Nest Decorating

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some of the beautiful photos from Nest Decorating. I recently featured Tamar on my Wonderful world of Etsy series of posts. So when I saw these lovely photos on her Flickr photo stream I knew I needed to share these gorgeous pics from her home. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

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

The pretty array of vintage dresses in Photo shoot dress
The gorgeous coloured buttons in Eye Candy
The whimsical Fairytale ornaments
The delightful selection of prints in Pillow cases

Have a sweet day!

sunday night reads

the rest of the family are downstairs watching some Sunday night tv as I am waiting for the pear crumble to bake.

Here are a few blogs from my list of faves I wanted to share

Must go check the oven now......enjoy!

Pause: zero

So I'm off on my annual road trip mid-next week and I thought I'd have a little blog pause while I'm at it. It's always nice to give yourself some space to do all those important re moments - refresh, review, rewind, reinvigorate... re, re, re.

Maxabella loves... won't be dormant, however, as I have loads of beautiful images and quotations that I've been stockpiling because, well, I just love them a lot. I thought I'd post ten of them while I'm off galivanting and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Before I go today, here are six new things I'm loving lately:

1. Blogger blogs have lots of dynamic viewing options. For instance, check out Maxabella loves... in Mosaic mode. Pretty snazzy, huh?

2. Google's What do you love? helps you keep track of the things you love. You just type in a topic and it captures all sorts of stuff for you. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what you'd use it for, but I'm kinda clueless like that.

3. If you're into vintage images, you can't go past The Graphics Fairy.

4. Never one to want to feel left out, I started a Facebook page for my blog. Again, clueless, but let's see what I do with it when I get back from my sparky blarky session, no?

5. Did my image today give you a little 'what tha?' moment? Cinemagraphs are both extremely beautiful and yet somehow a little creepy. Thee Blog has a great wrap up on how it all works. You can see more of Jamie Beck's work on his tumblr blog.

6. My blogging buddy Brenda is having a week of fab giveaways on her darling blog (today's giveaway is a $100 Myer gift card - you can't go wrong!). Do pop over and pay her a visit. She is a chocolate-sweet gal with a gooey-delicious centre.

Enjoy the next week and a bit.

Stay out of trouble. Be kind to others.

Don't fret about things you can't control.

Don't pat strange dogs. Do remember to sing.

[Image by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg]

My Baking Pretties

My collection of edible glitter was starting to get a bit unruly in my baking cupboard so I bought some acrylic stacking pots from Muji and dispensed my glitter into them. I love how easy and compact they are now. No more little tubs flying out the cupboard at me! Now I want to get all my baking pretties organized!

My collection of cupcake cases has grown of late and I would like a new spaghetti jar to put all the red yellow, green and blue ones in. I have my eye on getting another flip storage jar from Jamie Oliver, this time in duck egg blue and some more tiny flip storage jars for my new brightly coloured non pareils and sugar strands that are precariously perched atop my neatly stored jars.

Have a sweet day!

Indi's Kite Birthday Party

Time to celebrate our beautiful Indiana's 2nd Birthday!

I picked a Kite theme for Indi's celebration as this party was primarily for the family and a few close friends - lots of cousins ranging from ages 14 down to 2 meant this theme was a perfect way to cater for everyone.

It all began with the invitiation - I had decided it was time to do something other than pink for this party - considering as by the time Indi turns three I am sure she will want everything pink. Red was the colour I picked which was then teamed with aqua - a lovely combination.

For the dessert table I decided to do a combination of desserts for both adults and kids. Yummy mini cheesecakes, pannacotta's and macaroons catered for the adults and cute cookies, marshmallow pops and mini chocolate bars for the kids. Of course there had to be a little bit of candy that the everyone could help themselves to and which then could be added to the treat bags at the end of the party.

The amazing cake was again created by Jacki from Blissfully Sweet Cakes. Jacki took her inspriation from the invitation and created a gorgeous cake that tied in beautifully with the theme.

Kite and bow cookies and mini cheesecakes were also made by Jacki

The candy on the table included blue chocolate beans, delicious rock candy sticks in red and aqua blue, blue bon bons and bright red gumballs.

Personalised chocolate bars and marshmallow pops that are simple to make and the kids love

Little pots of pannacotta tied with twine with personalised "Indiana" spoons

Lovely Sambellina Party bags were given to all the kids - I added the little kite and twine to finish them off.

We were also lucky enough to have perfect kite flying weather on party day - we have had a very windy few weeks in Sydney and while the week previous to the party had been too windy, on the day it was just perfect - the kids and adults had a great time chasing kites around the oval - it kept everyone warm on a chilly winters day.

On a final note thank you to Amy Atlas who has featured Indi's kite party on her blog today. The exciting news that she has also posted is that she is planning a visit to Australia soon - check out her blog post for more details here.

And here are the details of where you find all the goodies on Indi's Dessert Table:-

Milk Cake Stands, Clear Hobnail Cake Stands, Glass Jars, Mini Drink Bottles - Sweet Style

Candy/Lollies including Bon Bons, Rock Candy Sticks and Blue Choc Beans - Sweet Style

Cake, Cookies and Mini Cheesecakes - Blissfully Sweet Cakes

Wooden Cutlery and Personalised Stamp - Sweet Style

Treat Bags and Twine - Sweet Style

Mini Glass Jars - coming to Sweet Style in August

Printables - Sweet Style

Tablecloth - Sweet Style

Large White Tree on Table - Adairs

Wooden Boxes - these were received full of fruit as a gift hamper we received one Christmas - you can find similar at bunnings in Australia

Please feel free to email me if there are any details I have missed.

Images: Sweet Style