Better get a move on....

Well, I'm now 30 weeks pregnant, only 10 weeks to go!!!  I must admit, the time has just been flying by and I'm procrastinating a bit.  We still need to clean out the spare room for baby, which currently is filled with all our crap we don't have room for elsewhere (the question is, where do we put it?)  Sort through bags and bags of clothes, get out the bassinet and other baby things and most importantly finish of baby's blanket!  This is where I'm at with it, still a bit to do yet, luckily all the new season TV shows are starting up so I'll be able to crochet away while watching TV.

Birthday Cakes

I had meant to do this post sooner, Miss Poppet turned 1 last September and Miss Moo turned 2 in December. Here are their birthday cakes - slowly getting better at making them and I am totally pleased with the way Miss Moo's fondant cake turned out!  Did I mention that it's dairy free too?  Can't wait for next years birthdays.

Win a set of handmade cat softies over at KMB

My daughter has an obsession with our cat Hendrix at the moment.  He's quite a chilled out cat and I feel a bit sorry for him as she's constantly chasing him trying to rub her face with his tail.  He's a fluffy kinda cat so I guess it must feel tickly and nice to her.  


I'm waiting for when it ends in tears.  Hendrix has a tendancy to roll over belly up and trust me, that belly-fur is pretty tempting to give it big rub but we are always having to yell at unsuspecting new visitors from across the room - "DON'T TOUCH HIS BELLY!"  Lightning quick, his natural hunting instincts come out and he'll sink his claws into your arm and ruck for his life.  


So you see, I am dreading the day when my back is turned and Lena decides to put her face into that inviting belly full of fur.  Getting to the point of the story now, obsession with cats = some sewing fun creating some cuddly cats without claws :0)

Pop on over to Kiwi Mummy Blogs for your chance to win my handmade colwder of cats.  Includes a Cuddle Cat softie, a taggie Comfort Cat and two flaxseed and lavender Cozy Cats which can also be used as Cool Cats.

Windy and Wet

Today has been windy and wet, the perfect day for staying indoors and doing some digi' scrappin'!  It's been awhile since I did some challenges over at Cool Scrap Digital so I thought I'd pop on and here's the results.

Scraplift Challenge

Created with Pasko Creations kit Create Memories

Blind-lift Challenge

Created with Pasko Creations kit My Lovely Fairy

Colour Challenge

Created with Pasko Creations challenge kit Color Me 3

Cool Motto Challenge

Created with Pasko Creations sample kit Cool Motto 7 

(sample from Harmonious Elegance)

My Lovely Fairy

Pasko has just released this whimsical kit, I've kept this scrap page very simple as I wanted the focus to be on the photo.  There's heaps more on offer in the kit - check out her blog post for some other amazing pages and freebies.

Created with Pasko Creations My Lovely Fairy.

Speaking of my little one, she has completely wowed me again the last couple of days.  It seems that she'll go ages just cruising along doing her thing, then out of the blue she'll do several new things at once!  She's just started to make some animal noises (other than a monkey) and picked up 6 signs which has made communicating with her much easier.  So she now she can sign milk, yes, no, finished, drink, hungry, bath, more and fly (as in the pest, we have a terrible invasion this summer).  Back to studying the sign language dictionary for us then, we need to learn some more to teach her, well worth it so far!

Does anyone else have a friend while sewing?

This is Hendrix's favourite perch, right behind my machine.

He's in a bit of a grump cos the bobbin winder is too loud and disturbing his shut-eye.

Family Portraits - Do they ever go smoothly?

A couple of weeks before Christmas, we went to see the lovely Bridget again for some more family photos.  We put a lot of thought and careful planning into this photo session as the one when Miss Poppet was 3 months old didn't turn out so well, even though we still got some nice shots.  At least she sleeps in the car now!  So we planned Miss Poppet's nap for the hour drive, plus 20 minutes for a snack and to wake up cos she is like her mummy and is a bit of a grump pot after a sleep.  Sorted.

On the day it was all fine until we got into the studio.  Needless to say, when you would love for your kids to co-operate they don't.  There were tears and tantrums, lots of grizzling and a toddler who wouldn't sit still.  But WOW.  Bridget is good at what she does and we got these shots....

 


Go check out Bridget Nickel Photography's blog for photos of her other work and promotions (she has some really good deals!)

Christmas and Summer Fun

Well, the holidays are nearly over, time to get back into the routine and back to reality.  Christmas day was quite eventful for us.  Four different homes (including ours), a flat battery 20 minutes up the coast, forgotten presents left at home under the tree (pregnesia hits again) and keys dropped down a stormwater drain.  


I will say the only downside were the chaps who we asked for a jump lacking some Christmas spirit.  Sure they tried to help, but it seemed like the biggest inconvenience to them and were worried they were going to blow up their car's computer chip.  For goodness sake, if you're going to jump a car do it right and give it a good rev!  They might have just said no straight up and saved us some time in calling in Grandma to rescue.


On the plus side, most of these things were fixed without too much hassle and Miss Poppet got a good nap while we were waiting up the coast for a jump.  


Two christmas dinners, a pudding, a pav and some backyard cricket later it was time to take her hoard of presents home.  I would have thought after such a busy she would have crashed but no, a sugar-high was in full force and she didn't seem ready for bed until about 8.30pm, finally giving us some peace.  Long-gone are the lazy Christmas afternoons of leftovers and naps.

Created with Kakleidesigns Happy Holydays kit (blog train)

For our short summer break we spent some time at the family bach.  We had a lot of beautiful stunning days but it was also devilishly hot!  

If you are ever over in Waihi Beach, check out The Secret Garden.  They've just opened up a coffee bar in their backyard and it is a gorgeous spot.  Great coffee, quite relaxing, lots of shade and loads of character.

Miss Poppet had a blast, we took her for lots of rides on her bike and she's quickly following in her Uncle Corky's footsteps and is obsessed with birds.

She also discovered that yummy food comes in packets and bright boxes and is kept up on the bench out of her reach.  We are normally pretty good with not giving her junk food but we figured it was the holidays, plus we were also eating it so it would be rather unfair to eat such things in front of her.  We did get a little bit deceptive though, and placed a bowl of fresh fruit up on the bench, all those yummy apricots, nectarines, cherries and bananas went down a treat too!  

 Created with Pasko Creations Create Memories kit.

Enough procrastinating from me, it's time to stick my head into some study.  I am about 3 assignments away from completing a Certificate in Early Childhood Education - hurrah!