mathilda's market

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend so far. I've had a great day doing lots of things around the house with my family and enjoying the glorious Sydney weather.

I'm excited about tomorrow as I'm going to be attending my first Mathilda's market. I've wanted to go before but haven't been able to make them for various reasons. This time I'm free as a bird and can't wait to check out all the gorgeous handmade goods, and I might even do a spot of Christmas shopping while I'm at it.

I'm not taking my camera but I'll be sure to share any purchases I make. I'm also looking forward to meeting some of the lovely ladies behind the handmade brands!

Have a happy Sunday everyone!

kenziepoo handmade charlotte giveaway

Rachelle over at KenziePoo is having a giveaway! Handmade Charlotte is one of the blogs on my reading list and she a gorgeous etsy store too. One lucky reader will be the recipient of one of these gorgeous MerryMaker skirts for a special little girl in the life. Head on over and enter so you can be in the running. While you are there, have a look around Rachelle's blog too! Lots of great inspiration there.

if i had 200 etsy dollars to spend today.....

...ok, i know i'm over by 1 dollar, but this is what i would buy today if someone kindly donated 200 US to me!

1. Personalized Baby's First Christmas Ornament 2. Happiness Mug  3. Tree Swing Thankyou Note Cards 4. Paper Butterfly Wall Decorations 5. Mini Camille Doll in her little House 6. The Owl and the Pussy Cat Giclee art print 7. Personlised Siblings Silhouette 8. Heidi sweet heart purse 9. You Are My Sunshine Pretty Smitten print

some cupcakes for YOU

These lovely cupcakes are the result of my baking yesterday......they were soooo delish. Here they are for you to enjoy now. Go grab a cup of tea and enter my latest giveaway!

win a buyster rug of your choice - up to $80

Yes, you read correctly! If you are in the middle of spring cleaning or want to breathe some new life into one of the rooms in your house, here's your chance. Buyster Rugs are kindly offering one lovely reader of this blog a rug of their choice up to $80 in value delivered straight to your door. All you have to do is go window shopping over at Buyster Rugs, pick one, answer the door when it arrives, lay it and admire it!

Do you need to redecorate your little ones room perhaps? Or maybe your living area needs sprucing up?

Here are just a few of the rugs you can choose from.....

Neutrals

Blues

Pinks

Would you like one? To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment in this post telling me which is your favourite Buyster rug and I will randomly select a winner next week. You have until Monday 2 November to do so and I’ll announce the winner next Tuesday. Unfortunately this giveaway is only open to Australian residents as Buyster doesn’t ship internationally.

we have a winner!

I'm pleased to announce the lucky winner of the DabberDoo giveaway is Priscila! Congratulations! Please send me your email/postal address and I will put you in touch with DabberDoo so you can get your advent calendar in time to count down to Christmas.

There will be another great giveaway this week. Will post about it on Tuesday so stay tuned. I also have a few exciting things in the pipeline.....all will be revealed soon enough I hope!

Image: DownZipper

something to make you smile today

A grocery store musical!

For more pictures and the story behind it go to Color Me Katie.

pink ribbon breakfast

You might remember these cupcakes I made for Zoe's birthday?

I have so many pink cake decorations left over that I thought what better way to use them up than to whip up some more pink cupcakes for a great cause - pink ribbon day on monday for breast cancer research.

I had so many wonderful comments about my cupcakes at the party. Now, usually I try to do the domestic goddess thing and bake from scratch, but I have to confess that on this occasion I didn't.....*gasp*!! I was so busy organising other aspects of the party (as we hosted the party at our house) that I decided to take a short cut with the cakes. I used Greens Pink Vanilla Cupcake and Greens Vanilla Cupcake mix. They were SO delicious! Head to those links for instructions on how easy it is to prepare them.

So this weekend I'll be off the shops to buy these mixes again and will bake away ready for Monday.

Liss over at Frills in the Hills is organising a Bloggers Bake for Breast Cancer Research which you can sign up to participate in! Head on over and have a look.

Are you doing anything for Pink Ribbon Day?

what else is on the shelf?

Earlier this week I participated in a meme which involved showing you what was on a shelf. The shelf was in Josh's room and contains all the childrens books we have. Here are a few more pics of our collection. There are lots of favourites there.........recognise any more?

Don't forget to enter the giveaway here.

happiness is....

icecream on a hot day

warm weather for drying washed clothes

a good book to read in a quiet house

beautiful photos

a best friend who is also your husband

hearing my children laughing

image: CassiaBeck

paperklip

You might remember my post last week of my favourite children's etsy finds? I ended up buying two of the gorgeous things on that list. One of those included this beautiful butterfly garland from Paperklip.

Since purchasing the garland, I discovered Mel who hand-makes all the gorgeous papercut things at Paperklip lives in the next suburb to me and personally hand delivered the garland yesterday! Thanks Mel! The garland looks gorgeous hanging up on Zoe's window now. It was lovely to meet you. xo

{monday giveaway} DabberDoo

Are you feeling lucky?

Last week I shared some of my favourite Christmas themed finds from Etsy, and I'm pleased to announce that this week you can win your very own Christmas Advent Calendar with drawers from DabberDoo. Each calendar from DabberDo is unique and made with love out of quality papers and embellishments.You can count down to Christmas this year (and many more to come!) with your own little surprises and sweet treats in each of the drawers.

All you have to do to enter is to pop over and take a look at the DabberDoo etsy store and leave a comment below telling me your favourite thing about Christmas. The giveaway closes on Sunday 25 October and I'll draw a winner the following Monday morning!

{my place and yours} on the shelf

On Josh's shelf.....we are a family of book fanatics!

What's on your shelf?

i couldn't agree more

Image: Emma Bridgewater

{friday favourites} etsy finds for children

If I could go on a childrens etsy splurge today, these are the things i would snap up in a hurry. Aren't they all just gorgeous? What's your favourite?

ETA: I'm naughty and got a print and the butterfly garland.....

1. Green Way Longies by GreenWayBabywear 2. A little bunny snuggles up to mama by thelightgarden 3. Ladybug wall pegs by shivermesplinters 4. Blueberry chocolate child scarf by ZayneeDesigns 5. French vintage butterfly garland by paperklipdesign 6. Ruffle dress in red Christmas plaid by TheMeasure 7. Polaroid Camera Plushie by onelatenight 8. Urban Baby Bonnet by urbanbabybonnets

zoe's latest haute couture

image: ivy designs

Zoe received some money for her birthday and part of the gift I bought with it was this gorgeous little outfit from Ivy Designs....

Can't wait to dress her up in it. Once I do, I'll be sure to post a little photo. In the meantime, go and check out the new summer range at Ivy Designs. The theme is tea parties and the clothes are just gorgeous!!

Stay tuned for a great little Christmassy giveaway next week too.....

the mum skirt

just had to share this crazy find. great for all the little crawlers out there and little ones with separation anxiety....imagine getting about the house in this doing all your domestic duties!!

found via handmade charlotte.

good morning to wacky wednesday!

Image: Nicnbill

one lovely blog

A few weeks ago, I received my first little blog award from Mrs P! over at A Study in Contradictions. Thankyou!

The rules of the "One Lovely Blog Award" are: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

So the blogs that I have recently discovered that I love are (in alphabetical order!)...

Ben Zen

Bubby Makes Three

Color Me Katie

Eat Drink Chic

Eco Toys Blog

fat mum slim

Kenzie Poo

Little Pinwheel

My Nooshka

naturally nina

Splish Splash Designs

Sweet Sweet Life

The Lark

We Heart Books

You Can't Be Serious

Go and have a read! They are all great blogs. If only I had more hours in my day to read!!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

This year, now that we are in a house and have the space, we will be putting up a Christmas tree. The last few years we have just had Christmas twigs/lights in a vase. Josh really understands Christmas a lot more this year. We have already been talking about it a lot with him and he will be so excited with putting up the tree I'm sure. I can't wait to see the joy in his face!

Since I've started noticing the Christmas things coming out in the shops it has me feeling all Christmas inspired. Below are my Christmas picks at the moment on Etsy.

1. Snowfall Tree Card  by InkDropDesign

2. Fruit and Spice Garland by gingerbreadstreet

3. Christmas Canvas Advent Calendar by DabberDo

4. Winter Berry Love Birds Holiday Cards by sweetbellacards

5. Elle and the Snow Dove postcard by belleandboo

10

10 things yet to do in my lifetime...

1.. go on an extended european holiday with my family and my mother who i want to show me around Greece, particularly the parts where she grew up

2.. lose my 'baby' fat and maintain a healthy weight

3.. find a job/career that i love with a passion

4.. read the WHOLE bible

5..grow a successful vege patch

6.. experience a white christmas

7.. finish reading 'war and peace' and ' a suitable boy'

8.. do volunteer work of some sort

9.. take up singing lessons again

10..drink the perfect cup of coffee


blog this

Image: always13

one word

This meme is via Meet Me At Mikes ...
who found it at Hazelnuts who found it at PetalPlum who found it via Bits of Sunshine who got it from Leah! Phew! Join in if you would like to!

1. Where is your mobile phone? desk

2. Your hair? pony

3. Your mother? best

4. Your father? home

5. Your favourite food? sweets

6. Your dream last night? reminiscent

7. Your favourite drink? coffee

8. Your dream/goal? better

9. What room are you in? dining

10. Your hobby? blogging

11. Your fear? gone

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? content

13. Where were you last night? lounge

14. Something that you aren’t? fit

15. Muffins? banana

16. Wish list item? fashion

17. Where did you grow up? Sydney

18. Last thing you did? feed

19. What are you wearing? slippers

20. Your TV? flat

21. Your pet? no

22. Friends? wide

23. Your life? challenging

24. Your mood? happy

25. Missing someone? grandfather

26. Vehicle? 2005

27. Something you’re not wearing? socks

28. Your favorite store? kikki-k

29. Your favorite color? blue

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? weeks

32. Your best friend? husband

33. One place that I go to over and over? franklins

34. One person who emails me regularly? hubby!

35. Favorite place to eat? mums

rewards rewards rewards

I recently won a Little Billies giveaway of a $25 voucher to spend in the store, so I chose the reward chart. I thought this would help to start training Josh in the sort of behaviours I want him to display and help me be more encouraging of those to him. I love the look of these charts too. They are simple with clear pictures, not as fussy looking as others I've seen.

I had been thinking about how to introduce the chart until one afternoon late last week he saw it on the fridge and asked me about it. We sat down on the floor together and I explained that he would get a little 'sticker' to put on it when I saw him doing a great job of something. So slowly over the last few days he has collected a few magnets.

I have also been thinking about how to reward him once he achieves all ten magnets on the chart. I really wanted to avoid anything food related as he already loves his food and don't want to start encouraging good behaviour for sweet treats. Anyway, hubby answered this for me when he told me that Josh would get a fish book once he achieved a full chart. At bedtime, Daddy and Josh have been looking at a book about the earth and apparently he has been really fascinated with the fish. He is also very into Finding Nemo at the moment. I liked that the special treat for him would be a book, something to further develop his little mind.

So I hope eventually we all get the hang of this reward chart business. Josh has a real problem with listening and obeying what we ask of him at the moment, typical toddler stuff I guess. It means that often getting ready for bed takes far too long, etc. Since starting the reward chart we can now reward him for listening, doing a great job, having a great attitude.

Have you had any experience with reward charts? Have they helped?

a new me

wow. what a morning. the kids are at mums and i've just been to get a hair cut finally. the last time that happened was over a year ago! it was so nice and what's more i got to just sit in the chair and read a magazine from start to finish while it was all happening. after the hair cut i ducked into the day spa next store for some grooming and makeup application.

this afternoon our little family has a photo shoot with the lovely Rachel. i didn't want those dark circles that live under my eyes to be visible.

i hope the weather holds up!

eta: weather didn't hold up as we hoped. photo shoot rescheduled!

what i want wednesday

Well I guess it's not really for me. J would love these I'm sure! I like that they are nice and fat, so too hard for little fingers to snap in half like my toddler likes to do. These are no toxic as well so even if a toddler were to take a little nibble - as mine usually does - then it's not a worry!

You can buy these Honey Sticks from Eco Toys for only $12.95.

it's tuesday and i can't wait

until my one year old has a bit more hair and i can use her growing collection of hair clips more successfully. She only has fine wisps at the moment that I am just starting to plop some cute clips into but they will look much better with a bit more hair!

it's tuesday and i can't wait

happy birthday zoe

We had a great day yesterday celebrating Zoe's first birthday. We just had our immediate family over and everyone had a ball. Zoe was a trooper and such a little socialite - she only had a short morning nap and lasted the whole rest of the day smiling and happy.

This was also our first 'event' at our house since we moved in. It was nice to finally be able to entertain within a comfortable space, and we got to use our new outdoor furniture and a new BBQ! Here's to many more parties.

ready, set ...........

So we are nearly all ready for Zoe's garden party this Sunday.

She now has a lovely party dress. It's a pale pink Fred Bare lined linen dress and yesterday I bought some Bloch baby ballet shoes for Miss Z to wear with the dress.

Lunch will be lamb and chicken kebabs cooked on our new bbq (arriving tomorrow hopefully!) with greek and potato salads, and an antipasto plate with olive bread. For dessert, I will be making birthday vanilla cupcakes with pink and white frosting, fairy bread and fruit skewers!

It's forecast to rain on Sunday now but I really hope the weather stays fine for us as I really hoped it would be a nice outdoor party.

Going to have a busy weekend ahead! Must remember to stop and breathe regularly.

note to self

and

Images: EverythingLovely

fat mum slim

Image: luneluxe

right, that does it!

I went shopping today and thought I would try and find a nice dress to wear at Zoe's party on the weekend. What a depressing trip it was. Lots of lovely maxi dresses but they don't look so good on me.

We have a few weddings coming up in November and I think I'm finally ready to make a concerted effort to shift some baby fat, using the weddings as my first goal timeframe. I'm the heaviest I have ever been right now and I want to be a new me going into 2010.

Operation fat mum slim here I come.