Jikana Damaru

52 Weeks of Grateful: Slow

Glorious weather and two school holiday weeks shining ahead. Two school holiday weeks that have not involved mild panic - what to do with the schooless children?

Nope, just me, the kids, a week down the coast and guest appearances by a working husbie.

Could a pig in mud be any happier?

So, this week I'm grateful for...

227. The slow life - Got the chickens in, I'm distributing seeds, I borrowed these three wonderful books from the library this week. Says it all really.

228. Cousins - my Tsunamis have a very easy, familiar relationship with their six cousins and we can't wait to spend a bit of quality time with them.

229. Sausages - did I tell you we had 19 adults and 27 children here for dinner last Saturday night?

Come over and see me at Kidspot where I'm celebrating technology in general and, of course, the internet in particular. Where were you when you first saw the internet in action?

Join our Grateful community by adding your post to the list below (please add a link back to our list here or at Kidspot). Then visit some of the other lovely link-ups - it's a beautiful way to spend a little time. Oh, and it would be lovely if everyone visited a few of the 'late arrivals' to the list each week... it's sad to be late and not get any love, don't you think?

[Photo by Tim Coulson]

Happy Pastel Easter

Easter has arrived along with 2 weeks vacation for the kids.

I pulled out my lovely pastel Easter decorations last weekend to make the house festive - the kids are now excited and looking forward to an easter egg hunt on Sunday.

May you all have a wonderful and safe Easter - enjoy some pastel inspiration from our house!

Glitter eggs

For this year's Easter tree, that I am in the process of making, I need some new eggs to hang on it. I have recycled my previously painted eggs from my Easter 2010 table by covering them in glitter to match this year's Easter colour scheme of mint, peach and gold.

Glitter eggs
Tools and Materials

Hanging plastic eggs
Gold egg hangers
Glitter
PVA glue
Gold embroidery thread
Small paint brush

Glitter eggs, How-to step by step

Start by carefully removing the plastic stopper from the plastic eggs. Then brush PVA glue on to top of eggs. Sprinkle coloured glitter onto glued area of eggs. Tap gently to remove any excess glitter, and leave to dry. Push egg hangers into hole at top of eggs and thread gold embroidery thread through loop in egg hanger, and knot to secure. Brush PVA glue onto rest of eggs and spoon glitter onto eggs, covering entire surface. Tap gently to remove any excess glitter, hang and leave to dry.

Have a sweet day!

Yeehaw, it's a farm party invitation

Giddy up, folks, we're having ourselves a farm party.

The invites went out at school this morning. Maxi was very anxious about their delivery as it's the first time I've said 'no way, do you think I'm completely insane?' when he wanted to invite every kid in his class. He has invited 11 kids in his class (and combined with assorted cousins and other friends, that's still 25 kids invited to the party because yes, I am in actual fact insane). (Hopefully only half can make it.)

The main cause of the worry was about what he'd say to the kids who weren't invited. "You tell them that you aren't allowed to invite everyone and maybe next year," I said crisply.

"What if they cry, Mum?" He replied.

"You tell them you'll give them something to really cry about if they don't stop being little whiners," I said.

"Okay, Mum," he said, relieved that he had a strategy.

Not really. In the end I had no answer to the crying thing, so we enlisted the help of his teacher to safely, and subtly, deliver to the chosen few.

I am most excited about the fact that there are four girls on the list. Last year he told me he would rather be run over by a car than invite a girl to his party. He's growing up, my boy.

I so enjoyed making these little seedy farm invitations. I'm looking forward to seeing carrots growing across our suburb come winter. Won't the parents love me!? Oh, and yes, I have indeed designed a logo for my son's eighth birthday party... I probably need to find another job when you think about it. Too much?

What do you think of a 'farm' theme?

I am most excited!

someone say ice cream?!

we are having some gorgeous sunshine here is Melbourne & with the school holidays in full swing i feel like everyday is saturday! todays activity of choice is to head to our favourite ice cream shop. i also need to do some secret easter egg shopping & my eldest has decided she needs a new pair of shoes. i really should be hanging out the washing to dry in this summer we never had kind of weather.

do you love ice cream too? my fave is chocolate. what about you?

The Party round-up...

We had a little celebration over the weekend to mark a very special girls first birthday. Rain was predicted all week for our party but thankfully it never arrived. The wind made a mess of my streamer backdrop but that's all that really went wrong so I couldn't complain. The husband and I decided back when Louise had her first birthday that we would go all out for our children's first party. We don't do religious events or the like, so we really wanted a chance to celebrate our child's first year and thank our loved ones for being apart of such a special time in our lives.

I started planning (and saving) a couple months back - knowing that the guest list would probably tip the 100 mark, I wanted to be as organised as possible.

As overdone as it is .... I couldn't go past a rainbow theme for Evie, its perfect for her. Especially when I saw a custom printables range from Fairydust Stylist Stationary. I love her work and she sets up the most stunning party tables. Here's Evie's Invite:

The husband conveniently has an air compressor (to lovingly clean his beloved bike) so he had no ~~excuse~~ trouble getting 200 balloons blown up so I could try out Design Moms awesome Balloon Banner I found in Pinterest. It looked great in the morning but the wind certainly took its toll on it and became quite bare by the arvo.

I had a caterer do the food, so only had to take care of the fun stuff ...desserts and cake!! I have been itching to try out THE Rainbow cake - and turned out a lot better than I thought it would.

A week before the party I suddenly realised we would have about 35 kids with not much to do. The best decision I made was ask the Kindy mums if anyone knew a good entertainer - Benny Blitz had just done a session at the local hairdresser for a Shave for a cure fundraiser. He was fantastic - the kids loved his tricks and he had such a talent for making very cool balloon creations. Honestly if an entertainer is in your party budget I totally recommend getting one. It saves the time, stress and hair loss of planning games a million times over.

I did organise a photo booth area though. I wish we had had more time to use it because the photos I did get were awesome. I haven't had the heart to take it down yet. Maybe I can get visitors to pose to I have an excuse to keep it there?

I used the printables again to make up some different Thank you gifts. Chocolates, Cookies and Lolly Bags. A Big Thank you to Susie at Sweetie Darling for doing the cookies (and the gorgeous flower on top of the cake) for me.

We had a wonderful day and our normally surly little munchkin, didn't give us a frown all day.

She obviously enjoys being centre of attention.

You can see Louise 2nd, 3rd and 4th birthdays here

Pretty painted egg cups

I have had my wooden egg cups since 2010 when I painted them in pastel colours. To refresh them for this year I have given them a new lick of paint and filled them with gold foil eggs from Hotel Chocolat.

Pretty painted egg cups
Tools and Materials

Pretty painted egg cups, How-to step by step

Following the instructions on the spray paint, carefully spray the wooden egg cup until you have an even coat of paint and the original colour of the egg cup is no longer visible. Leave to dry. Carefully paint the inside with gold paint and leave to dry.

Have a sweet day!