Getting Prepared for Christmas

With Christmas only 6 weeks away I have been writing listings, purchasing gifts, wrapping presents and starting on those gifts I am making such as these for the Little Guy's daycare staff:

You may remember me blogging about these little canvas bags back in August here. Purchased for just a few dollars for a pack of 4 they are the perfect packaging for the mini recipe book and Christmas decoration the Little Guy will give his carers. I've had these little booklets in my craft stash for a while and decided to make up a little recipe book of 5 yummy treats my Little Guy loves to eat. The clear Christmas tree decoration was a recent purchase from Spotlight for around $2 - it comes apart in 2 pieces so you can fill it with chocolate etc, tie a ribbon to the top and then hang on your tree. Using some internet freebie digital Christmas scrapbook paper and alphabet I whipped up a quick name tag and tied it on with some sparkly ribbon I found in Coles (Christmas section).

Our Christmas tree and decorations through out the house will go up over the next couple of weeks once we have completed our room swapping (more about that soon).

I'm also continuing to organise the Little Guy's 2nd birthday party which is just a few weeks after Christmas and have made some recent purchases on Etsy which I will share later.

What's been happening?

It's been a few weeks between posts - lots has been happening here:

1. 
   
   The big guy had his final uni exam for his MBA in late October. With an end to years of study, late nights and weekends at the library - we have put together a 'Spring Clean' list for neglected tasks in the house and garden - which he will now have time to tend to.


2. 
   
   We had our first ever kid free weekend away for our friends E & S's wedding in the Hunter Valley and had a great time.


3. 
   
   Thanks to a wonderful, flexible workplace and a supportive husband I have been able to spend the last 16 months at home part time with the little guy and after much thought and debate have decided to return to full time work next year. Although I'm going to miss the extra time I get to spend at home with the little guy I am very grateful I was able to be home full time the first 6 months of his life and I look foward to returning to my fantastic office and also to achieving some of the goals we have set for our family's future.

More posts to come with some of the other things which have been keeping me busy.

Banana bread or cookies & icecream?

I've been cooking up a storm lately so my boys are very happy! Have tried out a few new recipes as well as some old favourites.

One of my favourite never fail recipes is for caramel banana bread. Despite the name this banana bread is not too sweet and is super moist.

Caramel Banana Bread

Ingredients:

125grams softened butter

3/4 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

1 cup of mashed banana (about 2 large bananas) preferably slightly overripe

1 & 1/2 cups of self raising flour

3/4 cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda

1 tablespoon of milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (fan forced oven). Grease a loaf pan.

2. Using an electric mixer cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg until well combined and repeat with 2nd egg.

3. Add the mashed bananas, one cup of flour, sour cream and the bicarbonate soda to the sugar mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add in the remaining flour and milk and mix well.

4. Pour into loaf tin and bake for approx. 50 mins until cooked. Test that a skewer comes out clean if inserted in the middle of the pan. Leave in pan for approx 5 mins to cool before turning onto a wire rack.

5. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Cookies & Icecream

A new recipe I recently tried is from Our Best Bites - an oven baked cookie and icecream recipe they call Pizzookies. Here is a photo I took before my boys digged into the warm cookies, icecream and chocolate fudge sauce:

Ingredients:

Cookie dough (chilled ready to use from supermarket or make your own)
Icecream of your choice
Chocolate/caramel sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (fan forced oven)
2. Fill ramekins about 1/2 way with cookie dough
3. Place ramekins on tray and bake for approx 10-12 mins - make sure dough is still soft.
4. Allow to cool for a few minutes then place ramekin into a larger bowl (so you don't burn your fingers!) and top with a scoop of icecream and chocolate/caramel sauce.

PIZZOOKIES INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS FROM http://www.ourbestbites.com/ - I trust these are as yummy as my boys say they are! (Shock horror I don't like choc-chip cookies and not much of a fan of icecream icecream - which makes it easier for me to cook things I know the Big Guy and Little Guy like that are a bit naughty).

More party and Christmas ideas

It's a cold rainy long weekend here in Sydney and with nothing urgently requiring my attention I've been thinking about the little guy's birthday party again and playing around with a few food table ideas:

How cute are those little wafers! A favourite of the big guy I purchased them in Woolworths in a box of 6 snack packs.

Also found this caddy which will be perfect for holding cutlery and napkins (not sure which printable to use):

This is a photo of the inside of the caddy:

And filled:

Sorry about all the white! I have zero photography skills and not many suitable places to take photographs inside (and its pouring with rain outside). These are the best shots I could take with my little point and shoot.

The caddy is actually an undersink storage caddy I recently bought at Target (found in the laundry section with the pegs, coathangers etc) - a bargain at only $10.00. I'm a big believer in re-using, re-purposing and finding alternative uses for items. The glass jar shown above is one of two I also purchased recently from a homewares outlet and they were filled with scented tealight candles.

I've also been thinking about Christmas again and have been browsing Hostess With The Mostess. Love this simple and beautiful place setting:

And one day I might be game enough to try and make some cakepops. How gorgeous are these from Bakerella:

Handmade Gifts and Planning Ahead

Wow - over a month since I last posted. My days seem to be filled up very quickly with work, looking after a 20 month old, cleaning, washing, cleaning, washing etc.

The little spare time I've had I've been using to complete some projects (while catching up on Mc Dreamy and Mc Steamy on dvd) including designing two lots of invites - one handmade and the other with photoshop. Plus:

The Wedding Keepsake box is a gift for my gorgeous friend Ms E who is shortly going to become Mrs A! She is getting it a little early so she can start to store all those keepsake little bits and pieces she has already collected.

The Shadow Box frame is another 'Day You Were Born' gift for our neice Miss C whose dedication/naming day is in a few weeks. I went with a rustic horse theme for her horse mad parents! The certificates can be purchased from here .

The party printables is me planning for the little guy's birthday. I know it's not until January but with Christmas and a busy few months ahead I need to start getting organised now as the 2 weeks following Christmas I want to be all ready and not running around trying to organise a party! I had Nicole from The Two Saavy Sisters custom design me a gridiron (American football) theme party pack (modeled on her Vintage Baseball Party Pack) in the colours of white/light blue/brown. I am so pleased with the way all the pieces turned out and can't wait to put it all together.

A few busy weeks ahead with a Kitchen Tea, Hen's Night, Miss C's dedication/naming day, Ms E's wedding and then it's November and Christmas is just around the corner!

Cheese & Bacon Bread Snacks

I have a recipe to share today, I made these yummy cheese & bacon bread snacks for lunch for us:

I'm not sure where the recipe is from - I've had it for a little while waiting for the time and inclination to make them. I'm not a huge slave over the stove top kinda girl (I leave the risotto making to the Big Guy) but I love to bake cakes, muffins etc so this recipe is right up my alley:

Makes approx 12

Ingredients:

200g diced bacon
2 cups of grated cheese
1 small onion finely diced
1 cup of self raising flour
1/2 cup of milk
1 egg beaten
3 teaspoons of sundried tomato pesto



Method:

1. Place bacon, cheese, onion and flour in a bowl.
2.Combine milk, egg and pesto in a small jug then add mixture to dry ingredients, stir until combined.
3.Line an oven tray with baking paper, spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the tray, allow enough room for spreading.
4.Bake in a hot oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Gift Wrapping/Presentation - think outside the square!

The big guy, the little guy and myself are away in New South Wales' central west at the moment visiting family in Cowra. Lucky for me the motel we stay at (everytime we come if we can!) has wifi. Thank goodness I remembered to bring my laptop this time (unlike 6 or so weeks ago when in a packing frenzy I forgot to bring any sort of entertainment in the form of computer, book, magazine etc to curb my boredom in the evening hours when the little guy is asleep - although last trip he decided he would not succumb to sleeping during the nighttime hours!).

For the first time in may visits to this town we have actually done some touristy things like visit the Japanese Gardens and POW site:

The gardens will be so lovely in spring time when all the flowers start to bloom. We will have to time a visit one year for the Cherry Blossom festival.

Now back to the post topic - packaging - think outside the square. In preparation for this visit to see family and our new neice Miss B I was organising the rather overboard amount of presents I had purchased and needed to buy some wrapping paper or a gift bag to keep it all together. While zipping into Coles for a quick trip for nappies (so annoying Coles in the only store to stock our preferred brand of nappies for the little guy) I noticed some pink storage containers which would be perfect for toys or lots of other items you need to store that come along with having a baby.

So I made a 'Congratulations' sign for the top of the box, tucked all the gifts inside along with the card and a photo album I made:

My sister thought it was a great idea - mission accomplished!

I also recently purchased these from one of our local discount stores:

They are 15cm x 15cm canvas type bags and were a bargain @ 3 for $2.00. I am thinking they will be perfect for packaging gifts for the little guy's daycare staff this Christmas. I need to think of a way to decorate the outside (possibly some sort of silvery snowflake design with the purple and blue). I'm also thinking they would make perfect kids size gift bags for guests at the little guy's next birthday party. Next time I'm out shopping I will buy some more of these little gems to put away for future use.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ready, Steady, Party

I was so happy to receive this wonderful book: Ready, Steady, Party - cooking for kids and with kids by Lucy Broadhurst; for my birthday from my gorgeous sister Mrs R.

This fantastic book indulges my love of party styling - it is divided into party themes, and features menu suggestions including recipes and great presentation/packaging.

'Shipwrecked' Party:

'Farm' Party:

I am rather besotted with the 'Animal Feed' as shown above. The book also includes some helpful tips for holding a party and a section dedicated to Party Games. Other themes include 'off to the circus', 'teddy bears picnic' and 'camp out'.

Some of the recipes look so yummy I can't wait to try them out. It's also makes me keen to start planning the Little Guy's 2nd birthday - although that's 6 months away! Christmas comes first though - will be my first time hosting for my family (parents, brothers, sisters, neices, nephews etc) and I'm looking forward to doing some craft projects for the holidays.

Off to pour over the pages of this fantastic book yet again!

New Additions

A big congratulations to my sister Mrs W & family on their newest addition- a sweet little girl named Bethany born yesterday. We can't wait to meet our new neice/cousin next week!

In other new addition news:

This gorgous cupcake stand was a birthday gift from my awesome friend Nic - who knows me so well - I love it! I've been eyeing off cupcake stands for a long, long time but have never got around to buying one. Thanks again Nic. xoxo



and this lantern:



was a birthday treat to myself! A bargain picked up from one of my favourite stores: Bed, Bath & Table - this bamboo lantern has a glass insert candle holder and handle. Not quite sure exactly where it is going to live in the house - but I'm sure I'll find the perfect spot for it!

And this:

A funky new photo frame - another birthday present from my sister Mrs R - so nice to have a different shaped frame than the standard rectangle. I did a bit of photo editing this afternoon and popped this cute closeup shot of our Little Guy in the frame. Need to find a permanent home for this new addition too. Thanks again Mrs R!

Next post will feature a new book.

(P.S - can you tell I've been getting more sleep?? Third post this month and it's only the 4th)

Christmas ....... Yes Christmas!!!

I've been following Tracey Lau's blog for a few months after seeing her son's gorgeous kite 1st birthday featured on another site:

More photos and details here.

Now anyone who knows me in real life knows that Christmas is 'my thing' and I was blown away when I saw Tracey Lau's Christmas in July celebration:


I'm definitely taking note of some of Tracey's styling for Christmas this year - this sparkling/silver/white theme is perfection. More stunning details here.

Now Tracey is generously giving away a Silouhette SD Cutting Machine to one of her readers - so check out her blog to enter and see more of her fabulous party styling and photography.

A lovely weekend ....

Both the big guy and myself turned a year older recently so this weekend we had a couple of low key celebrations with family and friends. We were blessed with lovely sunny weather and yummy food.

Yesterday our cheeky neice Miss I decided the cheesecake was so good she needed to scoop up a handful:

Today we enjoyed some icecream cake and triple choc muffins:

More blogging this week as I share some lovely new items that have made their way into our home.

Ballet & Rocking Horses

Yesterday the little guy, the big guy and myself went to watch our neice Miss I's first ballet concert. We are so proud of her - she did a great job on stage and remembered all of her steps. She looked super cute in her leotard and tutu and so grown up.

Then we travelled across Sydney to see our beautiful friends E & A's gorgeous Miss G be christened. It was such a lovely ceremony and beautiful celebration with a rocking horse theme following:



This is the gift I made which was hidden in the pink polka wrapping:




I'd played around with these birth day certificates before for other gifts - simply framing in a standard frame and putting in a small scrap album with a few embelishments - but this was my first attempt at using a box frame so I could use some 3-d embelishments. I'm so happy with the result and very pleased that Miss G's parents love what I had created for her.

Quiet day today as I woke up to a shocking cold that I knew I was coming down with yesterday so its off to bed for me.

(Again I know my photos are not the best - new camera is still on my wish list!)