Valentines Day Decor

Ok so a little later than promised..oops

I love decorating our little space..The configuration in our house is pretty set, I can't change much.  But I can play with and change my buffet.  The only thing that 'bugs' me is the fact that there's a window behind it and not a solid wall..but oh well, we make do with what we have.

So my little buffet gets the holiday treatment.  Hubby has pretty much resigned himself to that fact!  Occasionally in between holidays I'll have photos etc on display.

Here is last years Valentines Day display

I made the tissue paper heart, thanks to the sweet Erin at The Sunny Side Up for the idea.

And this years display..

You'll see I've repurposed the LOVE bunting from last year and the doily bunting from Matilda's birthday. 

I had created a subway art of our wedding songs but unfortunately our printer decided it wasn't going to co-operate so I popped another photo of my beautiful girl (any excuse!)

Not sure if you can see it but I also included a gorgeous metal lace filigree Eiffel tower.  My Mother In Law brought this back from a recent trip of hers.  It is so pretty and so delicate.  I was a bit lucky because she also bought me a pretty bracelet and even better ~ she's taking me to Paris when Miss 3 is a little older ~ eeek!!!

So there you go, my Valentines display xx

The next displays will be a small one for St David's Day (we are part Welsh), one for St Paddy's (we both have Irish in our backgrounds) and of course Easter!! 

Valentines Day

What a gorgeous Valentines Day I had.

I decided long ago that it doesn't have to be a day of commercialism.  My day was full of love, love for friends, family, my lovely hubby and my precious girl.

Miss M and I shared yummy morning tea with beautiful friends.

I made a special plate just for my Love Bug!  She loves watermelon!

I then set her up with some craft...I used a packet of self laminating pouches I nearly put out into our garage sale and had a lightbulb moment and thought we could use them in our craft activities..She loved sorting through the big jar of buttons I had and finding the pink ones.





We then delivered a yummy pav to a wonderful friend of ours who runs the local Party Shop who I knew would be so busy she wouldn't get a chance to even have lunch - at least she got a sugar fix!  We love this beautiful lady, she is so generous in her love and hugs!  Matilda adores her.



I still have a few pics to upload of our Valentines decor for home..

I hope you all had a gorgeous day xx

Routine

Do you feel like time slips away ~ are facebook/pinterest/emails etc guilty of being a time thief? 
Some days I get to the end of the day and just don't feel a sense of achievement.  By that I don't necessarily mean a clean house but more what have I done with my girl. 

Yes we bake, we play ~ shops, hide and seek etc and we craft.  We also do Story Time at the library which we love but I feel like I should be doing more.  Believe me I have no intention of cutting her free play time, I feel it's such an important part of her childhood.  Where she learns to use her imagination, and find her own fun.  But I want to do some more structured play too.  Especially as she'll be heading to pre-primary next year. 

So to that end, I've created a new routine for us.  It includes everything I want to achieve in a day.  Cleaning (not so much fun but necessary), blog/facebook time (semi-necessary haha) and activities with Matilda (super necessary)

I've seen a few blogs who do this including Bizzy Dayz and that is education weeks.  We will choose one theme a week and I'll search pinterest etc for ideas relating to that theme.

Here is our routine.  Clearly I'm not a graphic designer and I don't even have access to Publisher but I'm hoping it will work for us.  It's not perfect and certainly not set it stone (other than work days) but I already feel more organised.  We're starting the activity side of it tomorrow with a friend coming over for a playdate.  The girls will play on Matilda's new activity/play set and when it's too hot we'll pop inside and do our craft.

 

Oh I've also decided to use a kitchen timer for my blog/facebook time.  I know all too easily how 'just a five minute check' turns into alot longer!

Matilda's 3rd Birthday

I love organising parties, I love searching for ideas ~ thanks to pinterest, google and blogs I love.  My poor craft room looks like party central for weeks before the event.  I especially love creating a story board of ideas.  But what I dont love is when the picture in my head of what I want to create doesnt come to fruition.  That's the case for Matilda's 3rd birthday recently.  I swear I cried more during the set up of this party than I did setting up my wedding reception the day of my wedding!  Ridiculous really (checking if you're reading this Sherry!)

Tears of frustration when so many things worked against me to create the perfect party.  The drink dispenser a lovely stranger lent me for the day leaked, the topiary balloons wouldnt stand up against the wind!  The Dolly varden cake took 2 hours to cook instead of the apparently required 45 minutes which meant decorating it with frosting and the few marshmallows I had instead of the fondant I wanted to use!!  Let's not forget to mention the backdrop wouldnt stay up, I couldnt put the food out as it was quite a warm day and the yummy afternoon tea would have been stale to say the least.  Oh and I had more than one guest turn up a little early and got to witness first hand my frustration!
So here it is the story board of ideas

I did make the rice crispy hearts (easy but sticky), the doily bunting (being repurposed in our valentines display), the cupcakes and the disaster Dolly varden cake (it took forever but it was yummy).

The invitation was fun, and I try to make as many things as I can for her parties.  Love that we got to use her handprints.

 

This is the end result.  And in the end all that matters was not whether the party was picture perfect but that my gorgeous girl had a great time.  And she did!

The week before Christmas...

Oh dear where did the time go?  I find myself suffering a slight case of pre-Christmas anxiety! I don't think I've done enough,  made enough or bought enough.  Which of course is rediculous because Miss 2 doesn't count how many presents she has, or how much Christmas craft we do, or whether we have enough decorations on display.

I'm a list maker, I love my lists.  I had a to-do list going and a nice one from Inner-B.here but it wasn't really doing it for me.  A friend shared that she was using a to-do list for every day this week and I thought to myself 'dur' why didn't I think of that?  I've used it before...so here is my list for this week.  I saved it as a picture and now have it as my desktop background which is great as it's there as soon as I turn on the computer..

How are your plans for this week?  Do you feel in control?

Phew what a weekend!

Two Mums Group Christmas Parties

24 red velvet cupcakes

18 happy kids

add pom poms, pipecleaners, dyed pasta, paper plates and handprints

=  the recipe for a full exhausting and fun weekend..

  The best thing about being a kid is licking the spoon

yummo red velvet cupcakes, frosting courtesy of Betty Crocker!!

a wee bit of craft ~ each girl took home the placemat we did the craft on

Angel printable
How to dye pasta

the final result!



It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

I LOVE Christmas, I love the excitement, the anticipation, the decoration!  I love sparkle ~ from the twinkling lights to the glitter on the decorations.  I don't 'do' tinsel but am a sucker for glitter, on baubles, on trees, you cover it in glitter and I'm in love!

I love decorating my home.  No room goes untouched including yes ~ the toilet!!

So here's a photo or two, sorry it's so photo heavy but a few friends have asked me to share.

First is our entrance, we have a little bench where we take off our shoes.  My errands station is also here.  I love the organisation frame because it has three places for photos or in this case Christmas scrapbook paper.

Miss Matilda's room also gets a special makeover.  She loves her tree and the Christmas book basket is perfect as we read to her every night before bed.  I'm surprised at how many books we actually have, including the same book I read to my son who is now 18 every Christmas Eve, "The Night Before Christmas".

Now if I haven't bored you enough, moving into the living area.  I always decorate my buffet, no matter the occasion that's the focal point.  This buffet is one of the last remaining pieces of furniture from when I moved in with my husband.  I love it. 

This is a terrible photo of one of my favourite pieces of furniture..this is on loan to us from my Mother-in-Law and usually houses my husbands late Dad's beloved Harley Davidson models.  I've repurposed it for now to hold my serving ware. 

And last but by no means least...my tree!!  This tree takes me hours! It's 7ft tall and putting in each branch takes a while but what takes me the longest time it's the decorations.  It's all very precise, I put one on, stand back, check it out and then the next and so on and so on haha.  This years tree is without lights after I had a hissyfit  struggled with the tangled mess that they were...

So there you go, Christmas decorating at my home xx