I commissioned 3 different etsy sellers to create cards with Audrey’s name. The first piece arrived this week.

I’m going to pick the best piece to place in a custom photo album for Audrey.

How can one resist baby clothes. I know my mother and sister can’t. Seriously, nearly all her clothes are purchased by my sister.

Dress and Cardigan for her Baptism reception

These were purchased by me. The trench coat is for next winter!! LOL. I saw it, I loved it and was, most importantly, ON SALE!

$32. It is dead set proper. Check that lining!

And just a sweet little dress for this year’s winter.

Dear little house put a picture up on Instagram and now her blog of her little boys nursery. It is pure genius. I have been racking my brain trying to finish off Audrey’s nursery with the gallery wall, but always apprehensive about the multiple holes in the walls for the countless frames and how to hang them, how to arrange them, what if I get sick of the arrangement? And it was just NOT coming together. The main reason I haven’t done her nursery reveal as yet. Then I saw this:

Huge Light bulb!!! I can move around and mix and match, add and replace to my heart’s content.

  I sincerely hope she doesn’t mind but I am totally appropriating her idea I quickly went to Ikea to facilitate.

On the ledge, One item that will be in prime place is my stripey bow watercolor artwork that I painted.

The frame is from a 2nd hand store. I love its grey and gold frame. I cut a new mat for it and hey presto, re-framed on a budget.

I bought Audrey some stuffed toys. So cute! I couldn’t resist.

Theses toys besides the seal rattle are being packed away in baskets I bought from Ikea

Until she is big enough to enjoy them.

These 3 baskets will be put on top of her wardrobe to hide all her crap, err, toys.

I will be posting a tutorial on the over-sized tags with a free template to download shortly.

Been lusting over Mary McDonald’s range for Schumacher??

Hard to get your hands on, don’t want to part with hundreds of dollars per metre?

Especially for this design?

Well check out this tutorial over at the etsy blog

WOW WOW WOW.

I would love to give it a try.

I do have white silk tafetta lying around, paints, wide tooth comb. . .  now to just get the countless other hard to come by supplies.

Here is the link to the tutorial.

I had a company come over to quote my french chair being restored and my 2 side/lamp tables to be repolished with the marble tiles being attached. They were just loose. I was happy with the price and prepared to pay that, so I just went ahead with it.

I bought these items over 13 months ago!!! How much longer do I need to stare at them longingly?

He estimates that my chair is 150 to 200 years old!!!!! How wonderful.

Just need to really crack on picking the fabric I would like for the chair.

I am pretty certain I will go with Colefax and Fowler Wilde cut velvet in Silver.

This is the brown colourway (not the silver)

I knew I definitely wanted a cut velvet with a small scale pattern. I think this fabric fits the bill.

Plus it is an adult bedroom, needs to stink of sexy!! MEOW!

(Stink of sexy??? oxymoron?)

I only have one question. How do I finish the chair off? I don’t think gimp would look good. What about a row of piping in the same fabric? I don’t think I want to do nail heads (even though I am addicted to them, but will compete with the pattern) Any ideas?

Once the chair is complete, the last item I require for the vanity area in the bedroom is a mirror. But I have spent quite a bit $$$ so, that will just have to hang ten for a tick.

I swear, I am getting closer to finishing Audrey’s room so I can do my blog post reveals.

Another thing I am working on is my baby’s Baptism.

I have ordered this custom embroided monogrammed bib. As like any other day, she will have a bib strapped around her neck at every waking moment. I have a good baby, but a spewy one. So if there has to be bib covering up her cute attire, it better be cute too!

And finally, I’ll leave you with a pic of my little girl.

She is smiling and cooing.

I forgot to add my favourite vanity to the last post

I have purchased and picked up my desk from Shack.

The desk isn’t perfect. I would have loved a really streamlined, modern desk that would be a contrast and be a juxtaposition to the really ornate antique chair and crystal knobs. But, for $295, I was happy to make the compromise and I can reassign it to my daughters room when the time comes to upgrade.

The new car passed the test

Picking up bulky items (even with the car seat still in place)

My girl and I went to visit my friend in her new bachelorette pad in Manly yesterday.

I bought her a bunch of flowers. I love hyacinths. They have the strongest scent and last long as well. Totally got ripped!! Super inflated Mother’s day prices.  I wanted to go the flower markets but I was scared off because I assumed it would be incredibly busy, but my friend went instead and she confirmed it was can of sardines. On one hand, I can’t deal with crowds and on another, can deal with being ripped off.

It was a no win. At least the flowers were delicious and fresh. My friend deserves them.

Mother’s Day!

Too exciting!! Husband has completely out done himself.

Brand new car, amazing bunch of flowers, gold class tickets to The Great Gatsby 9pm session, so we can have dinner beforehand. Who wants to babysit the gorgeous Audrey?? He did the night shift with baby so I had a sleep in and lastly, delicious hot breakfast.

He is querying how he will ever top it. (Like, hello, brand.new.car!) I said I don’t think he can, but then in my next thought, it came to me. A HOLIDAY!!!!!!
(I’m a bitch who can’t be pleased! Anyone think they are worse then me? At least I admit it. No, seriously I was truly spoiled and very grateful. I am constantly pinching myself, I mean, Is this the same man who use to take 2 weeks to respond to my text messages, if at all, 8 years ago??? Ladies, if you think you can’t change a man, I will tell you, you are wrong. Today he wrote me a card that brought me to tears!)
I have been planning a holiday to the US with google maps. It has driving routes saved, airports, and loads of sights to see and shops to visit. As I am browsing around the net and American bloggers talking about shops/sights, I add it to my google map and to the driving route. He has access to this map. . . . . .

BAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA

Honestly, For that trip to come to fruition, I need a massive amount of spending money for it to be worthwhile. So I wait.

Asleep on my shoulder. A baby just needs their mum.

Today was FULL ON!!!! My husband, on top of all the material gifts, single handedly organised a family picnic/bbq. Not only is it my first mother’s day, but it is still mother’s day for his mum and mine and their first as grandma’s. So he brought everyone together to celebrate.

P.S I think I am finally getting somewhere with the calligraphy name commissions for Audrey’s photo album. I have contacted nearly every calligrapher on Etsy. I also contacted other calligraphers from the internet. Had quite a few knock backs. . .

Toodles

I am not going to claim creative intelligence over this. I saw something similar on pinterest and was inspired.

I own a hell-a-va lot of tulle.

Remember I made 3 veils for my wedding. (Plus another for the hens night)

Well, I have plenty left over in the craft cupboard,

Do you have a craft cupboard? No? Well you should!

The magnolia leaves & sprig of rosemary are from my garden.

Here is some tags and ornaments I made.

There are plenty of tutorials out there.

I used FIMO white oven-bake clay.

That is some more left over lace from making veils. (Oh I love veils!!) I am sad that my veil wearing days are over. 1 day out of a whole life time hardly seems fair.

This is gorgeous french Chantilly lace.

I went a bit nordic with this wrapping.

Love it!

I can’t just subscribe to one theme. It is one of my weaknesses. I love a bit of this, a bit of that.

It really isn’t a good thing and I constantly working on my strength. I end up with a lot of miss-matched things.

BUT!

When it comes to the jolly o’ Christmas time! There are no rules!!!

I utilized one of my clay tags in this wrapping, as well as my Cupid’s Bow labels.

Did anyone take my advice on using a Kinder choccie to attach to a present?

It just adds exactly what this present needs. It is after all a gift card (Shhh no one tell anyone)

I think out of all my wrapped present. This is my favourite.

I’m immature. I just love that it is so tiny and the tag is so big!

And with all that said.

I AM DONE!!!!!!!

I have no more wrapping to do. No more shopping to do!

I will be working from this Saturday right through to Boxing day, so I knew all along I had to be organised. Hopefully in there we have some early days so we can see friends and family!

Yesterday I had to pick my mum up from an eye appointment that involved laser! OUCH

I took her to babies r us so she could buy the mattress I wanted for the cot.

I went for the Sealy mattress because it was the PERFECT dimension for my 16 year old 2nd hand eBay cot.

Plus a while ago, my husband was having a very serious conversation with me about cot mattress saying that he wanted a really good one because he believed it would help the baby fall asleep and stay asleep and save our sanity and I laughed in his face, retorted with: “Oh so you wanna buy the kid a Sealy posturpedic do you?” (this was before I even knew that Sealy made cot mattresses) I then rubbed salt into his wounds by mocking him in front of his friends, more then once.

I had to eat my words and I had to most certainly apologise. (How he is still my husband, I’ll never know. True love!)

Part of the apology was buying the mattress he wanted!

So here it is! Fits perfectly in the cot

Sealy Cuddly mattress $199 for Babies ‘r’ us

(I’ll remove the plastic later when we are ready! I can’t wait to make bedding for this cute little guy)

I then drove across town to grab a quick bite and we were chatting in the car before I took off and I turned the ignition on so I could wind down my power window. 5 mins later I tried to start the car. . . flat battery!

Gah! I was only thinking the other day about how much I love my car and how good she has been to me and never lets me down.

I had to join my husbands NRMA roadside assistance thingo!

It was the original battery and lasted me 10 years. I cannot complain. The old girl was just up for retirement.

They jump started me and we were all good. I booked it in this morning to have the battery replaced.

NRMA really do offer great service. It is a bit $$$ but flawless.

Today I went to Alexandria to the Have you met Miss Jones warehouse sale.

Things still weren’t really cheap. It was kind of a fizzer. More like a pop up shop then a warehouse sale.

I purchased these though

(I know the stupid thing is blurry!!!)

6 star ornaments and a vase

I then went to baby warehouse where I have fallen in love with the Joolz day Earth!

I am not 100% sold on it, buuuuut…… I am kinda digging it.

Then, I went to the PYD building in waterloo

I picked up my knobs for the baby chest/dresser/change table

They are Mother of pearl shells in a nickel knob

I also stopped by The Country Trader. I just can’t resist.

There was soooooooo much I wanted to buy there, but with the car battery, and buying the knobs, I just had to walk on out.

Check out their gorgeous Christmas window display!

I wanted all those ornaments. These mini cast iron urns for the console, some mercury glass candle stick, some white servingware and then there was all the stuff I would never ever ever be able to afford ever!

Now I have come home, packaged up 2 etsy orders and popped them in the post!

Tomorrow I will (I hope) make the other curtain my bedroom needs

Currently

Gah, one day I’ll have the THIS light fitting!

This year I am DETERMINED to be organised!

How are we all going with Christmas shopping?

MrsB has done a whole bunch of lovely gift guides if you need some inspiration.

So far, I have gifts for my mum, my sister, my aunty, my god family and the husband!

I have ideas for everyone else. They include, my dad and my brother.

I am going to start wrapping some of them I think!

The past couple of days, I declared no computer days and to instead be CRAFT DAYS!!!

I finally finished this star tree topper.

I started it last year. When I decorated our new home for Christmas, only to pull it all down before Christmas because we were no longer moving in.

I hand beaded the WHOLE THING.

There is red and gold star sequins, red glass bugle beads, swarvoski crystals, gold beads, gold glass seed beads, red glass beads!!!

Beading is thirsty work, make sure you have a cup nearby.

On the back is 2 red grosgrain ribbon ties. To tie it to the top of the tree.

Now that I conquered this, I think I might make this next

For the front door.

I’ll use my mum’s embroidery machine to do the words “Merry Christmas” or perhaps another phrase.

In the pic above, you can see a bauble in a frame. That was done on my mum’s embroidery machine on fabric.

Look at all my bad ass mother fucker reindeerzzzzzzzzz!

They are owning that subwoofer box.

(p.s I wanna know what the hell they are looking at)

The bottom 2 are from Target. The big 1 is from Spotlight.

It looked a little naked in comparison to the other two. So I made it a crazy mad red bow!

The bow took 2 attempts. The first attempt, I had put interfacing on the bow part. I wanted it to be quite stiff and really hold it’s shape, but when it came time to turn the whole thing from inside out to the right way out, I couldn’t get the thick part (the bow with all its stiff interfacing) through the thin parts (the part around its neck and the tie part)

ARRRGHHHHHH. Tres upset.

Husband gently reminded me, it was just a prototype and to try again.

So with a new template, the thick parts not so thick and the thin parts a little thicker and nixing the interfacing.

I made it!!!!

My mum recommended that I could give the bow part some spray on starch, but as you can see from the pic, I think it is working out quite well.

You can’t quite tell from the pic. But the bow is like a bow tie.

Here is a pic of the beginning planning phase.

I am suppose to make a tree skirt, but I was searching for ideas. I made 2 trips to spotlight, but nothing was sticking. I went on etsy to get ideas and then I saw a really nice one that will work and I thought bugger it and just purchased it.

Hopefully it will arrive soon! I am mad keen on putting this tree up.

Thinking I might embroider it “The (lastname) Family”

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

We moved the settee that is in the bay window to the other side of our living room. We are going to set up the tree in the bay window! It is going to be a knock out!

Last night I asked the husband to pull down from the top of our wardrobe our Christmas box!!! (He won’t let me up the step ladder lol) I am going to go through all my goodies soon!

I am certain there are treasures in there I forgot I owned! For Christmas comes but once a year!

Finished this water colour artwork on Friday afternoon!

It is for a nursery or kids room. I am going to make prints of it soon and put the original and the prints up for sale in my etsy shop!

I had a custom etsy order go through last night! I knew the buyer was in the US but then when she purchased the listing, I found out she was from the HOLY LAND!

DALLAS TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to email her: “Hi, have you ever wanted to visit Australia? If so, house swap???”

Yeah. . .Nah????

She purchased this nursery water colour

And I am creating another one in blue but with the word “Kindje” Her husband is Dutch and she is Belgian and they will represent both!

Too cute

x

Here is my latest stationery work.

The client is due with their first baby after trying for 5 years and a little IVF help.

They are also moving house! So they are combining a house warming with the baby shower and at that stage, the baby would have arrived!

The original water colour art work.

Original hand painted.

Scanned and made into card with envelope.

And some separate little “We’ve moved” cards in lilac with matching envelopes.

All stacked up and ready to post with the original artwork!

If you are interested in these cards, check out my etsy listing here

(sorry about the blurs!)

This cute little plush elephant is from my sister, she gave it to me after I told her the news. Those are also her Harry Potter books that I either need to read or return. I am sooo ashamed, I only manage to get up to book 5. Two more to go.

The birdcages are left over from wedding. I thought they looked cute in here.

BOOKS!

Puffin classics. (The wind in the willows, Anne of green gables, Robin Hood, Wizard of oz, Peter Pan & The secret garden) just to add some colour to the room and for one the kid gets older.

My favourite candle of all time, cute little wooden hippo and big purple cloth covered “Fairytales of the Brothers Grimm)

The bottom book isn’t for the baby, just happens to be in the bookcase (The great gatsby) with a lotus candle holder and my Bebe water colour artwork.

Here is the cot I have purchased from eBay. It is very princessey. Lord help me if I have a boy. But I know I can make it work. Just needs another coat of white paint and she’ll be a song.

That is the rug I purchased too. It is a bit small. It is kinda bugging me to be honest, but we’ll see when the rest of the furniture is in.

So far, I have a rug, a bookcase, a wardrobe and a cot. Just need a chest of drawers, the foam wedge thing that you change the baby on, that will go on top of the chest of drawers and a armchair. I am looking for a plush, super soft chair to sit in. I like the wing-backs, because they are tall enough to support your head if you fall asleep and your neck too, cause you can snuggle into the wing part

There is currently a chair in the room:

But I want a fully upholstered chair. Needs to be soft to rest my elbows on when cradling/supporting the baby during a feed.

Annnnnddddddddddd. . . that is about it.

When I find out the sex, some zhushing to be done. Curtains, nursery linen, bed skirt, some shelves!! etc etc.