Review ~ Funky Elephant

When I received an email from the lovely people at Funky Elephant I was super excited as Matilda loves to craft.

What arrived in the mail was a gorgeous box addressed to Matilda, I popped it to one side and got on with getting her ready for Kindy and well life got in the way.  So when I set aside some time to open the 'trunk' I wish I had done it sooner.

It's fantastic!

This particular trunk came with everything to make three activities.  Inside the lid are the instructions on what you need for each activity (all included in the trunk), a step by step guide, some general info ~ this one talked about role play.  It also had a cute little rhyme.

 

 

 

 

I laid out the protective sheet so we could get our craft on. Matilda loved everything about the trunk, she loved that it was addressed to her, that she could unpack it and could lay out all the items she needed based on the picture on the instruction card.

 

 

The finished product ~ for today that is...

 



 

What I loved about the trunk is that it's something we can go back to, these two little people are just a small sample of what we can do with what's inside the trunk.  The play can last days or even weeks. 

 

As hubby suggested, Funky Elephant trunks are perfect for time poor parents who can't travel from shop to craft shop gathering supplies.  Just subscribe and forget about it until the trunks start arriving and then get crafting. 

They're fab too for Grandparents who are looking for the perfect gift that's not another soft toy!

Now, for all the details;

The trunks are tailor-made for 3 to 7 year olds. 

They work on a subscription basis, from 2 months to 12 month subscriptions.  And they have a siblings option where they add extra materials to a trunk. 

Funky Elephant Trunks are available online

 

I'll definitely be adding this to the Christmas/Birthday wishlists.

 

 

I was not offered nor accepted money for this review.  The honest opinions are my own.

 

 

Miss M's Fourth Birthday

A few weeks ago my gorgeous girl turned 4.  She loves fairies so we I decided on a Woodland Fairy theme. So a hunting I would go (pardon the pun) for goodies to fit the theme.

Pinterest of course was a source of inspiration and I searched page after page.  Here's what I came up with and am so so happy with how it all turned out.  As promised too I'm sharing where I sourced the goodies and how much they were.

I found these little fairy books at my local Red Dot store for $1 each so I popped those aside and amazingly enough I found the bags online some time later and they fitted perfectly.  The bags were around $1 each also.  I bought the stamp locally and it was ideal for the theme.

When the girls arrived they had their faces painted by Fairy Jo, she did an amazing job, there were unicorns, rainbows, fairies and puppies.



Rather than a lolly bag each little guest got to choose a fairy dress to wear on the day and take home to keep. 

A little wand cookie decorating was planned.  My poor table had it's own layer of icing in the end.  The wands were stamped with each fairy guests initial. 

A little pink milk.  The bottles are the Santa Vitorrio nectar bottles from Woolies.  These were on special for 6 for $4.

  

The bunnies are from Bed, Bath and Table which are also our Easter Bunnies.  The bowls are from Kmart for $2. The large mushroom is from Crazy Clarkes for $2.95.  The timber 'box' is from a musical instrument set.  The faux grass was free from my Mother in Law.

The girls loved the little Rosy Jelly pots.  The timber spoons were on clearance from the same store as the calico bags.  The little white house was half price from Thingz $7.95.

The cake was the only thing that didn't turn out as I'd hoped.  I had wanted a four tier ombre cake.  But things didn't go to plan so a two tier it was and we won't go into the icing catastrophe.  The girls loved it and that's all that matters.

So happy with the overall look.

Enjoying a little cake outside.  I cannot believe my gorgeous girl is 4.

I love Christmas!

I love Christmas, I love the decorating, the glitter and glitz (but no tinsel).  I love seeing my children's faces on Christmas morning.  I don't love my face waking up to them though after wrapping presents all night (but that's another story)

So here is a little decorating in our home.  I won't even apologise for it being pic heavy. 

I love Christmas x

Thank goodness I have this buffet.  We don't have a lot of walls in the living room ( two sliding doors + window = no real walls)

 

We have an angel for anyone no longer with us. 

 

 

 

We also add a new decoration each year.  This tin Santa is from our Bali trip.  'Joy' was last years.

 

 

 

Our Christmas Countdown corner.

 

 

 

A little dining table love

 

 

 

Miss Matilda's room.

 

 

And finally...our tree.  This year I went with just red decorations, I usually have a mix of red and gold but never with tinsel.  I use gold or red ball garlands.  Love!

 



 

 I should have gone with more lights..oh well, there's always next year.

xx Bec

 

 

 

 

 

Gran's 90th & a Dessert Buffet

Hubby's Gran turned 90 recently which is a pretty amazing milestone and one we definitely wanted to make a big deal of.

We hosted a family bbq at our home and as Gran is a bit of a collector of things, namely tea cups we chose a high tea themed dessert buffet.  The centrepiece of which was a stunning cake made locally which had amazing detail right down to the fondant teacup. 

Gran recently gave me some stunning heirlooms, lace doilies which belonged to her Mother and Grandmother and I decided to use these as bunting.

As Gran's eyesight isn't the best at the moment, I described some of the details to her including her wedding photo and she loved the teacup which she got to see up close after the cake cutting. 

She had a lovely night surrounded with love.

Some photos of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Felt Play Box

I found this really great idea on Pinterest (of course)

Something to keep Miss M entertained on the plane or in the car.

So simple.  You need a wipes container, a sheet of felt and you can either make felt shapes/animals etc or do what I did and borrow the 'bits' from a set Matilda already had.  Oh and either a hot glue gun or spray adhesive.

 

Cut the felt to size, glue to the container, add ribbon around the outside and Ta-da!! Just don't look too closely to the glue work!

 



 



Halloween Round Up

A little late but here is our Halloween round up.

Miss Matilda had a few friends around for a little Halloween crafting session.

Nothing too full on, just some paper plate ghosts and pumpkins.

I first started with the paper plate, cutting a circle from the centre.  Keep this and use it to make the ghost. 

 

Cut out a circle of contact a little larger than the centre plate you cut.  Remove the paper, turn over the plate and pop the contact onto the back. Turn the plate back over and cover the contact centre with the paper (make sure you put the paper shiny side down or the paper will stick to the contact).  Using contact is so much cleaner than glue.

 

 

We used orange tissue paper for the pumpkins and cotton balls for the ghost.  Matilda missed out on a contact plate so she had fun with glue instead.

 

The girls had so much fun making their ghosts and pumpkins but it was over way too quick with one girl dumping everything on her plate!  They enjoyed themselves though and then it was time for snacks.

 



A little decorating around the house.

 

 

I am ok with the spiders if they have smiley faces..no scary Halloween here!

 

 

Printables thanks to Amandas Parties To Go (formerly Shindig) and The Girls at Eighteen25

 

 

 

Each little girl received a drink cup to keep. 

 

 

The snacks were the best part, if you ignore the smudged pumpkin face (these are fruit jelly cups). 

 

I love the rice crispie ghosts! 

 

Halloween can be lots of fun, no scary stuff here and no trick or treating.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Blogiversary

It was this time of night 12 months ago when I hit the publish button on my first post and wow what a year.

It was my intention from the beginning to be a sharer rather than a blogger and I'm happy with that.  I really wasn't going to write my deepest thoughts but rather organising tips, party planning ideas, the "look what I found" photos and things I love. 

I said I wasn't looking to be famous but would be happy to have a few readers along the way.  Well I'm blown away by just how many readers ~ I'm still not famous and that's ok :-).  I'm ecstatic to have so many readers interact on the page, sharing their stories and tips.

I've also 'met' some gorgeous bloggers who have given me their support and answered oh so many questions (thanks Kel!).  I was also thrilled to make it to the Top 30 Aussie Mum Bloggers.

The most recent milestone has been the First Blogiversary Giveaway Sponsors coming on board.  Their support and generosity was such a blessing and I so appreciate them.  I was so so happy that my readers got to celebrate my First Blogiversary with their gorgeous gifts.

I'm sure there's more I want to say and no doubt it will come to me after I hit publish (always the way)!  But I do want to say thank you and I look forward to the next 12 months with you.

x Bec