its the most wonderful time of the year

Oh I love Christmas! I hope you all had the most wonderful Christmas! I certainly did, spent with my family all day long! It was magical. Having children in the family really make it so much more special. One of my favourite things about christmas is Giving presents! I received some amazing ones but today I'm going to share some special ones i gifted!

I gave this Jen Booth Necklace to my sister in law, i'd really like one for myself

These aren't the exact Blackmilk tights I got my little sister but they are similar I got some too I LOVE them

My mum gave me some catbird stacker rings and I got these gems for my friend casey 

I got a thief and bandit dresses for my three nieces, they are beautifully handprinted and super cute on

and how could i not get this mug for my friend stacey 

I'm sad its all over for another year, but super grateful for how special it was!

Have a safe and happy new years xoxox

The School with Lulu Lucky

Last weekend I attended a class at the School  with my friend Kelly. The class was taught by Lulu Lucky (Kara) an uber friendly 'creative'. Kara learnt how to make a paper chandelier when she was having a baby to hang over the babies crib. They are a polish tradition and a called Pajaki. They bring good luck and good health. Megan Morton greeted us when we arrived and made us feel so welcome before the crafting begun. 

to be honest i found the most difficult part of the whole day, choosing my colours! I even added some green right at the last minute. I ended up going with yellow as my base colour and added pink, blue, orange and green. I think it turned out pretty well.

Kelly's turned out great too!

Feeling very inspired this week, at school we have a bit of a battle of the staff rooms going on. We have a Christmas competition, and the best decorated staffroom wins. My staffroom has been using out creativity and hand making all the Christmas deorations. So of course after last weekend I had to make a Christmas themed chandelier! I got some year 1 kids on board and we made this one in two hours! I think ti's given us a bit of edge over the other staff rooms. what do you think?

Wedding Wednesday

Two weekends ago i spent a big chunk of my Sunday compiling these invitations for my friends Jen and Mark who get married in February. Jen knew she wanted Kraft paper colouring and gave me a few ideas and this is what I came up with. The paper was purchased from lava stationary, the envelopes are poppies for grace the doily paper was from a local shop called super dollar and the twine from the reject shop.

I looked on pinterest for inspiration. Heres some other invitations I really liked.

Style me pretty

merriment events

 oh so beautiful paper

 Hi + Low

Oh So beautiful paper

Seesaw designs

It's got me thinking about our wedding invitations. I think I'll actually make them these school holidays. I don't want to spoil the surprise for me guests though so i'll keep it under my belt for now.

Its A Boy

This is my gorgeous sister yesterday afternoon with her Two girls Millie and Blair.

She was asking me for boys names suggestions last night and said she had the girls name picked already... secretly she knew it was a boy

and today this Handsome boy arrived in the world 

Tyson Joel

9lb05

12.14pm

50cm

Yes I am one proud Aunty!

Wedding Wednesday

Wedding rings........

I tried some wedding bands on over the holidays with Toby. He did too... i'm really unsure as to what i would like. I wish I was bold enough to get this from Catbirdnyc if only i could try it on and they'd make it for me in white gold. Would black diamonds take away from my white diamond??

what do you think? black diamonds... sigh

Wedding Wednesday

I came across a beautiful wedding on Green wedding shoes earlier this week. The wedding was inspired by the store free people, although I haven't been there (it's not in Australia) i have frequented there online store ad perhaps one of my bridesmaid dresses is from there. The bride wore a stunning Sarah Seven dress.

My Favourite part about Adam and Stacy's wedding was the dream catcher seating chart... isn't it creative

Here's a link to the post on their wedding

Minnie Mouse Cake

My eldest niece Millie turned four in september. She rang me the week before and asked if I could make her a cake. I replied "of course, what would you like" and she said Minnie Mouse! I searched different cakes and decided to use the recipe that i used for Blair's but didnt make as many layers. There is lots of different Minnie cakes out there but i decided to make Minnie's head. I carved out the ears from a bigger cake and made her eyes nose and mouth out of marzipan. 

Her reaction to the cake was... "where is her arms and legs" hahaha but she liked it.

Heres the gorgeous 4 year old

Wedding Wednesday

A  couple of weeks ago I went to a bridal expo at Wandin Valley Estate at the vineyards to have a look at some different wedding things. I was surprised when i got there to see a Tipi erected out of the side of the venue. This is what it looked like (Little Willow is modelling in front)

I'd LOVE to have a Tipi at our wedding but they do come at an expense of over $3000 for one. They look great grouped together to make a Marquee as well. These Tipi's are the only ones in Australia and are from a company called Tipikata

I came across a gorgeous wedding last year on Conversation pieces blog (i actually thought i had already featured their wedding but I haven't) that had Tipi's I think they look so cool

More images of their amazing wedding can be found on their photographers blog lillyandleonard

How do you feel about Tipi's? I think I'd like one in my backyard

Current Etsy Favourites

Yes I am addicted to etsy, i have received a few orders this last week of liberty fabrics ready for some wedding DIY's. Here's some of the things I have hearted over the last few weeks

This mexican embroidered peasant dress from Hihlostudio you might remember i purchased one for my friend Peta back here and I've wanted one for myself every since

This Abe Lincoln quote print from here

I've purchased a few of these rosieok crocheted toys from a shop in Newcastle for my nieces. I love her stuff

These twinkler sparkler pairs from GiantDwarf

how cute is this tent from teepeeandtent shame they don't ship to Australia

vintage inspired handmade heeled brogues by goodbyefolk

 Happy Etsy shopping! 

Life lately according to instagram

Wow I've been neglectful of late on here! being crazy busy doesn't help blogging whatsoever. this is what i have been up to of late according to my instagram stream

a sophie from the block inspired string art piece, the DIY instructions are in the block magazine

I spent a friday night baking, baking, baking, for my beautiful friend Peta's farewell... the lucky duck is headed around the world.... currently in south america

This was the dessert bar at the party, isn't it dreamy...

I've spent a few hours playing with these little monkeys, they actually just left my house

I actually went for a run last week (shock I know) and came across this girl on the way... it was a good excuse to stop and say hello



My little sister turned 20 on saturday and since she lives away, i celebrated by eating a red velvet cupcke for her

I finally made a beautiful mess's fox plush DIY toy and taught a whole class how to make it too, I've wanted to make it forever!!! Instructions here



Last weekend mum and i went on a road trip to canberra to this beautiful little girl's baptism! isn't she gorgeous. I picked up my wedding dress in Sydney on the way :)

Wedding Wednesday

One of my gorgeous Best friends Stacey (and bridesmaids) got engaged nearly 2 months ago to her BF of many many years Jesse! It was a lovely surprise (for me) she had known for a few weeks before. I am so so happy for them both and they have decided to have a short engagement and are getting married in March.

2 weeks ago before heading to a hen show Stacey handed me an envelope and this is what was inside....

She had made a beautiful card with "will you be my bridesmaid" inside... of course i instantly said yes! I was and am so excited!!!

Thats me of course and the beautiful bride to be! Im so excited to be a part of stacey and Jesse's big day, and it got me even more excited about mine too! Any cool suggestions for good hen shows?

Wedding Wednesday

Way back when I was newly engaged (Just), Megan from McKean Studio posted some lovely pics for inspiration for her wedding bouquet. At the time I thought they were amazing since I really love billy button flowers. I didn't think too much more about it until i started to think about what sort of wedding we were going to have. Since we set the date I decided to go down to the Sydney flower markets to see what was in season in June. My MIL and SIL to be, plus little Willow went on a Tuesday at the crack of dawn (we left home at 4am). Little did we know that Tuesday was a quiet day at the markets, but they still had a great Variety.

I purchased around $100 worth and got so many flowers to play with (some are still alive and I bought them 3 weeks ago) I had a go at making around 4 Bouquets. They weren't too difficult although I didn't wire them like alot of DIY's say to do. I basically followed Elsie's tutorial on A beautiful mess as she made her own Bouquets and got her bridesmaids to make theirs too the night before the wedding. i think this is a great idea and hope my bridesmaids want to do it too.

 I even had a go at making a flower crown off a tutorial on youtube. I just used florist wire and tape to make this one, maybe for the flower girls.......

(I have no makeup on)

Today

Today was pretty special, I took (along with another teacher) 53 great kids to Sydney Biennale. It was the first excursion I've organised, and none of the kids had been to the Biennale before so it was pretty special. We left school at 7am to catch the first ferry at 10am over to Cockatoo Island were we were all blown away by the amazing artworks. some of the highlights just to name a few include...(I apologise for the poor quality of the pics... all taken on my iphone)

Tiffany Singh
Knock On The Sky Listen To The Sound, 2011
bamboo wind chimes and mixed media

These wind chimes were located in an outdoor room with a half size door that you had to duck to get into. We nearly walked straight past but were fascinated by the sound that was coming from inside.

Li Hongbo
Ocean of Flowers, 2012
paper

These paper sculptures were one of my favourites the whole day they were beautiful! so so many in the one room. All the kids commented on these when I asked them what they enjoyed the most. little did we know that when they are folded up, they fold into the shapes of guns and bullets. Here is a closer image

Adam Cvijanovic The River, 2012
Flashe on tyvek, dimensions variable

A very large scale painting on not your typical canvas....

Philip Beesley
Hylozoic Series: Sibyl, 2012
laser-cut acrylic, Mylar, aluminium, copolyester, silicon, glass, shape-memory alloy, custom PCBs, LEDs, thin gauge electrical wire, 2000 x 740 x 400 cm

This artwork was AMAZING!!!! no other word to describe it! to be able to touch and interact with this artwork made the whole day. It felt like we were under the sea playing with jelly fish! I loved it!

We headed to the MCA after that which also had some great artworks as a part of the Biennale. I highly recommend you all to go and see it! We had a great day!