Make It Perfect

.Lil turns 3.

When we were in Sydney we celebrated Lil’s 3rd birthday. This was such a wonderful treat for us as ALL of the kids cousins live in Sydney so we have not had a birthday party with lots of extended family around before. Lil loved being the star of the show – and being showered with lots of very girly presents that are keeping her very entertained at home now.


We were very grateful to Carli and Winston for letting us use their home as our party ground. It was fun to catch up with everyone, have the kids play a few games, share a dinner together, toast marshmallows on the fire outside and enjoy a lovely, relaxing Sunday evening.



My Mother-in-law made a spur of the moment visit from New Zealand and was able to come to Lil’s party! She made Lil an amazing princess dress…it is crazy – think 1980s bridesmaid dress style, with lots of shiny fabric, trim, puffy sleeves and a big skirt! I’ve got to take a proper photo of it soon. Lil has been wearing it all the time and just loves it!


For Lil’s birthday cake, I made our favourite Coconut Ice Cakes (and later on realised that I didn’t put enough flour in them, but they were still good!). She really wanted a princess/queen cake. There were thoughts about making some elaborate big princess, but in the end I decided to melt some white chocolate, tint it yellow and pipe crowns freehand onto some baking paper. I’m really glad that I did, because they looked really cool! I think this is my new novelty cake decorating “trick” so look out for it in the future 😉

August 6, 2010
Make It Perfect

.home again.

We have just returned from a family holiday to Sydney. That explains why things have been quiet around here for the last little while. I did schedule a few blog posts to pop up while we were away (like the Cool Shops! reviews and giveaways – which are still open, so feel free to leave a comment if you want to win) but otherwise I have really enjoyed an email/blog/internet-free week. I have returned to an inbox full of emails, so if you are waiting for a reply then I’ll get around to it soon!

We had a great time visiting with family and friends – there is never enough time to do all of the things we want to do and visit all of the people we want to see. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins and traveling around Sydney with us.

I’ve got lots of things to blog about – and lots of bits and pieces to catch up on at home so for now, I’ll leave you with some pics of the kids from Sydney Aquarium. It was great, as was Sydney Wildlife World and Sydney Tower – although I was a terrible photographer for the whole trip away and didn’t get my camera out as much as I should have!



August 6, 2010
Make It Perfect

.August Cool Shops! LINNEA SWEDISH DESIGN.

Cool Shop! #2 for August is Linnea Swedish Design:


Linnea is Swedish-born but now resides in Australia and combines her love of screen-printing and fabric to create funky notebooks, cushions, wall art, lamp shades, bags and much more.

I’m a sucker for lists and notebooks, so I asked Linnea if I could review one of her Think Big Dream Big Notebooks. It is so cute! I love the colour, the hand screen printed design and the size is perfect for me to carry around in my bag. These notebooks are avaliable in other colours too.

This Australian Capital Cities Tram Roll Print is brilliant too:


Linnea Swedish Design has a Made It store, an Etsy Store and a website.

GIVEAWAY

Linnea is generously offering one of my readers a Tree of Life Cushion Cover! To be eligible to win, all you have to do is head over to one of Linnea Swedish Design’s stores (Made It or Etsy) and check out the goods…come back, leave a comment and tell us which product is your favourite.

Giveaway will close on Monday 9th August and winner will be drawn randomly.
August 1, 2010
Make It Perfect

.August Cool Shops! RUBY VICTORIA.

My new “Cool Shops!” feature is up and running! I’ve got a fantastic line-up of shops and business to share with you over the next few of months – it has been great fun for me to discover some of the talent that is around.

The very first Cool Shop! I would like to introduce you to is Ruby Victoria:


Narelle is the crafty lady behind Ruby Victoria and is a fellow Tasmanian 🙂

Ruby Victoria specialises in original handcarved lino block prints with a bit of letterpress thrown in for good measure.

If you are looking for beautiful, unique notecards, gift tags, linocut prints (and more!) then Ruby Victoria is the place for you.

Narelle sent me a set of her, “Hello” Debossed Notecards to review and I am SO impressed. The same day they arrived in my letterbox, I used one to write a note to a friend on 🙂


She also threw in a selection of gift tags from her store – they are amazing!


I love these notecards also – they are so cute!


Ruby Victoria has an Etsy store, a Made It store and a blog so go and check them out today!

Thanks Narelle for being my first Cool Shop! and for your wonderful products 🙂

GIVEAWAY

Narelle is generously offering one of my readers a Japanese Teapot Original Linocut Print! To be eligible to win, all you have to do is head over to one of Ruby Victoria’s stores (Made It or Etsy) and check out the goods…come back, leave a comment and tell us which product is your favourite.


Giveaway will close on Sunday 8th August and winner will be drawn randomly.

July 31, 2010