Jikana Damaru

Quarterly Top 5

1. Thank you all for your feedback on sleep training. I'm mentally prepping to try again. I know I need to do something or she probably won't sleep the night until she's 3! (So the Dr's say). That would be awful. I just still hate the thought of making her go hungry for hours :/ but I know in the long run it's better for everyone.

2. I have been so behind on everyone's blogs. Between my job, photography (2nd job!), Addison, and trying to keep up with daily routine and chores I literally have zero time! And when I do get a minute I'm always looking for ways to improve my photography- reading, researching, practicing, and looking for inspiration.

3. If you get a minute I'd love if you visited me at my photography site and follow along! If you do- leave me a comment saying you stopped by! Thanks.

4. This quarterly top 5 was way too hard :)

My favorite of her from Cancun.

Her 6 Month photo shoot!

I just love this one. It's the first time sleeping in her crib!

First tooth popping through!

Love her blues.

Addison & her Great Grandma<3

Modern Eclectic Girl's Boudoir...

I am completely in love with this room created by Jemma of Little Eats and winner of the dress I donated to the Cuddle Craft Collective auction that ended last Sunday (which collectively raised over $5000 for a children's feeding centre in Ethiopia -- yayee!) for her little girl, India...

A bright, modern and eclectic mix of patterns, colours, and furniture make this the ideal little girl's room in my book! That chandelier is to die for, and I've been coveting that pom-pom rug for ages and wondering if it might not just be right for Fern's room... loving the collection of artwork and prints and can I mention how flattered I am that that wreath in the centre of the wall is by Bubby Makes Three? It makes my day when I see one of my proudest creations in such a beautiful space!

Thanks for sharing this room, Jemma!

Jemma's wreath by Bubby Makes Three - $49 in my Etsy store

Carrots are (sadly) not my favourite food

A dear friend of mine insists that carrots are her favourite food. Carrots. There was not a food on this planet that I could throw in her mouth that she thinks she would love more than carrots.

Carrots.

The tiny conversation we had around our favourite foods changed everything for me. I realised that being fat or thin is actually genetic after all. The act of eating a carrot sets off a feel-good, love-my-life, endorphin rush in my mate's brain, and only the sanctimonious one in mine.

"What's your favourite food?" I asked her.

"Carrots," she replied.

"Carrots?" I said, my brow crinkling in disbelief.

"Yep, carrots."

"Roasted with honey? Carrot cake? In, what, like a pie? A carrot pie?"

"No, just raw. Crunchy. Why?" she said, noticing that my lip was curled in something approximating distaste. "What's wrong with carrots?"

"Nothing!" I said, in my best reassuring voice. "I really like carrots. It's just that...well..."

"What? What's wrong with carrots? They're a good food, I absolutely love them."

"More than green chicken curry?"

"Yes!"

"More than chocolate mousse?"

"Yes!"

"Pasta? Steak? Cheese? Oh my god, more than cheese?"

"Yes, Bron, more even than cheese. For gods sake, can't I just have my favourite food and not be judged so harshly? I won't judge yours, I promise. What's your favourite food?"

Oh, let me see... in no particular order (and I apologise for omissions), my favourite foods are:

Cheese
Cashew nuts (but also walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, brazil... any nuts)
Butter
Yoghurt (but not those thin wimpy yoghurts, I like those greek-style yoghurts that are really desserts)
Porridge with (lots of) brown sugar
Anything that comes encased in flaky pastry
Chocolate
Noodles

Cheese, nuts, buttter... You can see what I'm up against here. No wonder I'm a fattyboomsticks and my friend looks like carrots are her favourite food.

What's your honest-to-goodness-or-badness-we-won't-judge favourite food?

[Image via Flickr]

Easter Dessert Table Inspiration

The latest edition of the My Little Jedi Online Magazine came out last week and once again it is full of amazing inspiration and beautiful pictures.

I was one of the contributors for the magazine and put together a simple and cute Easter table.

Jacki from Blissfully Sweet Cakes put together some wonderful sweet treats including a very cute bunny cake, easter egg pops, cupcakes, flower cookies, meringues and some delicious ombre marshmallows.

Here are a few pictures from the shoot.

Thank you to Vesna for providing me with the lovely printables from her range and also for asking me to be a contributor to this wonderful Australian production she has created.

Click on the link below to see the magazine in it's entirety.

Open publication - Free publishing - More dessert tables

snap it { up close }

welcome to snap it.

please enter your

{up close}

blog post to the list below

& enjoy visiting some of the other links.

seagulls often only hang around when food is on offer & the other day as i walked the beach i stopped to spend some time capturing the gulls floating around catching fish with their beaks. i had swapped my beloved 50mm lens for the zoom so was able to get a little closer than usual! not everyone loves these sea birds but i can't resist photographing them & would secretly love to have an exhibition of all my seagull shots one day & would name it

'gull' !

happy snapping. next weeks topic is green

i am

still here.

looking forward to blogging more regularly.
once the internet speeds up.
it is taking me hours to upload photos.
as our internet provider is working on upgrading the towers.
sometimes its fast. & more often its so so slow.

looking forward to visiting my regular blog reads & catching up on all your news.

see you soon!

{snap it is all set to go for tomorrow. only took me 3hrs to blog the post. so i hope you will play along}

Paper Flowers for Easter

This past weekend I started to make paper flowers for my Easter tree and the little bunnies wanted one each! So now I have a few less for my tree, but don't they look cute!

Paper Flowers for Easter
Tools and Materials

Petal pairs flower punch
Craft pick
Card
Gold sequins
Millinery flower stamens
Double sided tape/PVA glue

Pretty Easter Egg boxes, How-to step by step

Start by punching out the petal pairs until you have a pair for each flower you want to make. Place one of each petal on top of each other and tuck one punched petal shape into another to create a beautiful flower. Then carefully push the craft pick through the centre of each flower so you have a small hole in the centre. Thread a sequin onto a stamen and thread the stamen through the hole. Glue in place.

Have a sweet day!