Presents & Wrap

A little spot of sewing, a gift for a big grown up 5 year old.  Made using this tutorial, I especially like the cheat's method for gathering in this tutorial.

I don't especially like my photo.  This is probably due to the fact that I was finishing the skirt at the last minute, at my mum & dad's house and had to wrap it and leave for the party about 5 minutes after this photo was taken.

But check this out...

Fabric tape! Like this one, except I made it myself (if you can call it that, the process takes about 30 seconds).  Here's the instructions.

This has added confusion to my Christmas wrapping plans though people, cause now I want to do more of this too.

I'm starting to feel that end of year urgency bearing down on me.  This week I need to get myself organised so I can deal with it.

Catching Up

The last couple of weeks I have been taking photos of things I've wanted to blog about, but haven't had the time to actually get on to the computer for long enough to do it.  So here goes...

Mathilda's market was in Brisbane a few weeks ago, I went with the intention of buying some Christmas presents or some stocking fillers for Matilda and Polly and I did none of that.

I did however manage to buy Matilda a cute dress (from here), I especially love the fabric. Ages ago I had seen this dress and wanted to buy the material and make it for Matilda and I never got around to it, now I don't need to worry.

Polly got these bloomers (from here), I love these colours on Polly.

And I bought some paper straws from Details, Details.  Blue and green because I have a 2 1/2 year old obsessed with mermaids and a cousin's 3 1/2 yr old is similarly obsessed - so we're planning a joint mermaid birthday party for them next year.

I was pretty tempted to buy something from this store, but I think I'll save that for next time.  I also ran into a friend I used to work with in Melbourne who now lives in Brisbane and makes beautiful origami mobiles. Such a small world, don't you find it amazing when you see how creative some people are and you never knew that about them?

I have done some shopping for stocking stuffers though and I scored Polly this oobee which should just about fill up her stocking.. what else are you going to buy for a 6 month old?

I am actually about half way through my Christmas shopping now which I'm feeling pretty good about.  I have done a lot of it online which is so much better than taking the two little gremlins to the shops, which are already packed up here!  I have done so much online in fact that I've started to keep a list of what packages I'm expecting in the mail to keep on top of it all (that and I'm a list nerd).  There are a few bad things about buying online, like deciding at about 11pm that you really do need bakers twine in 4 different colours at 240 yards each.  Who doesn't need almost a kilometer of baking twine?

I got mine from here, in case you're feeling the urge.

And all of that has got me thinking about how I'm going to be wrapping this year.  I'm thinking mainly brown paper with red and white and a little bit of pink.

Maybe some washi tape bunting, did you know you can buy this tape at Borders now? I had been wanting to buy some for ages but hadn't and then when I saw it just staring up at me at Borders I figured it was the perfect opportunity.  My cute gift tags are from Style Me Gorgeous, who have a really cute free printable colour-in letter to Santa which I must also print out soon.

What else have I been up to... Last weekend I turned 32, my birthday was on a Sunday... love having my birthday on the weekend.   We went for yum cha with the family which was really nice and I had a lovely day.  I was given some great gifts including this stunning book.  I had told my sister that I needed some spatulas, boring present I know but I really did need some - so everyone in my family gave me one.  I should be sorted for a few years now.

My dad had to be in Sydney for work on the weekend, so he was going to take a trip to the Donna Hay General Store for me (as penance for missing my birthday) - but then they opened an online shop on the same weekend so we just ordered from there instead.  I got a lovely big package last week with my beautiful pink cake stand in it.  Love. I am into pink at the moment.

There you go, I'm feeling a bit more sorted now.

A couple more quick things...

If you haven't already done so, you need to check out Gifted magazine from Creature Comforts.  It really is beautiful and there's lots of good ideas in there and some pretty cute free printable gift tags and stuff.

And Amber from Giver's Log was hosting a virtual handmade gift-making retreat with lots of different home-made gift ideas.  I did a guest post for her which you can see here.   I think I am going to be stealing a few ideas from here too.

The end, I really must update more regularly so they don't need to be quite so long!

Some baking

Because we've had lots of lovely visitors lately.

Persian love cake, I served it with honeyed whippped cream. Yum.

Blueberry-Lemon Bundt cake.

Chocolate mousse and marshmallow pie.

The pie was actually in a recent home magazine. And it was yummy, but I think the idea is actually better than the execution. If i did it again I'd use my own chocolate mousse recipe and use a little less gelatine in the marshmallow. I also wouldn't put quite so much marhsmallow on it. The base is really yummy. I am actually keen to try it again though with those changes.

All this baking is making me feel festive! I think I'm in the Christmas spirit early this year.

6 months old

My smiley, cheeky and sweet little chubba bubba is already 6 months old. I can't believe it.

She's such a placid and easy going little girl and she's made our little family of four complete.  She and Matilda play so well together and giggle constantly with each other like they already have their own little private jokes. 

Too cute! (we think.)