The party goods

So a few weeks ago I celebrated my 30th birthday and as always it was a hugely DIY affair.  It was actually really hard to pick what I was going to do especially with the influence that pinterest now has in the home crafters life, so many choices.....
Dress up or not, casual or dressy, daytime or night, family orientated or a adult only?

Basically I had no idea what I was doing until about three weeks prior and a purchase of a few meters of fabric.

The invites, please excuse the dodgy iPhone photo but this was all I took before I posted them off.  Howe awesome is glitter paper, I have only ever used the DCWV glitter stack paper and it is more of a varnish with silver flecks through it, this however is glittery awesomeness.

The Table runner.  I managed to find the perfect tassels and was able to run this up in less than an hour, I love it so much that it has become the runner on the dining table.

The bunting, I had two separate buntings for the night, this short one that was perfect for the cake table or just my beat up old dresser that I am hoarding and a ten meter one that went around the perimeter of where the party was. 

The garland.  I am so shocked at how easy it is to make these, it probably helps a whole lot that I have a Cricut, seriously the whole thing took maybe two hours maybe three and it was huge, again I loved it so much that I kept some and am using it on my shelves.  And then there was the left overs.

Yep, waste no want not.  I have been hoarding my mums old coffee jars for months now and all the wonderful pinterest ideas I had found were just not turning out the way that I wanted them to.  In a mad flash  of inspiration I thought of the garland off cuts, the jars were filled with flameless candles and scattered around the fence lines no one could see that they were off cuts wrapped around the jars and the looked so pretty twinkling away all night.

The cake.  I had no idea what I was going to do and the plan I had went out the window as soon as I put icing into the piping bag.  it was not what I envisioned at all but I do love it.

The cake table, I wish the white background was bigger but it was all I had on the night and I thought it was way bigger than what it was despite that I really loved the way it all turned out and came together, another day of organising would have been great but in the end it was pretty and girly and bright and fun. 

Comings and goings of an inconsistent blogger

So I am fairly terrible at this blogging thing, I will most certainly not be winning any awards for the most consistent blogger of the year, but in any case a small tidbit into whats been going on in this slack bloggers life.

The school holidays were a bit of a let down in here in sunny Queensland as I can tell you that it was anything but sunny, just lots and lots of rain.  I planned a trip to stay at my parents house with the kids and visit all our friends and have picnics and fun in the parks but sadly it was lots of inside play, movies and multiple trips to Underwater World (thank goodness for yearly passes).

I have quite a few firm favourites at UnderWater World the otters being one and the "Nemo" tank being the other, I love seeing the kids take in the amazing beauty of all these different underwater beauties.

A hard day of movies, UnderWater World and grocery shopping will tucker a poor little boy out, he slept like this the whole way around the store.

Teela celebrated turning five this year and as we were a few days out from her birthday my mum decided that we needed to have a pop up party of sorts for Teela at the Grandparents place before we headed home to Brisbane.

On her actual birthday with just the four of us.

Invitations.  With my 30th creeping up it was time to get creative and make some invites to what will be the celebration of my thirtieth year, eeepp.

 Sun, finally sun!!  Taking full advantage of a beautiful sunny winters day playing outside and exploring the long forgotten yard.

My latest op shop find.  Not what I went in there for but I could not leave this spinning rack behind, currently it is filled with my inks, embossing powders, glitter and wood mounted stamps but who knows what I will end up doing with this, I think it would also suit cosmetics, bracelets even fruit.

Birthday gifts, the best kind there is...I pick and he pays :D

Another set of birthday gifts, thanks Mum.  I already had these Napoleon Perdis Set cosmetics on a layby after a really decent special but I never got around to paying them off, the annual birthday money that mum gifts me every year paid for a new cosmetics haul, droool...

Peg bags, I have wanted some peg bags for ages.  The plastic ones you buy from the grocery store are flimsy, fall apart often and in the hot Queensland sun disintegrate in next to no time.  The pretty pink peg tin I bought a few months ago was pretty but 100% impractical, the kids kept stealing it, it made a horrible noise and it was far too small so one day in the midst of boredom and the feeling of needing to tackle something I have never done before I made a peg bag, and then another as the first was just not big enough, turns out I have a LOT of pegs.  They are not perfect they have faults but they are 100% what I wanted and I made them and I actually sewed them (that happens very infrequently, I am no seamstress).

Another long winded review post....

Things have been CRAZY busy since my last post and to top it all off I have gotten sick, hence why I have not been on here or Two Peas or doing any crafting :(

We have had two weekend on the coast, three thirtieths and a third birthday.

A visit with one set of my grandparents

Making cakes galore and cards and presents

A number of tantrums and that is not just from the kids

A house that needs to be scrubbed from top too bottom, I wont lie I am no house cleaner but all this busy and two kids and trips away have culminated into an exceptionally messy house that I am currently have my blinders on for.

And an exciting instalment in my life....

 Rearranged, cleaned, reorganised my craft space and decided to do a purge in the process....that was a disappointing purge I will say...

 Experimental lime pie, it turned out amazing but was disappointed by the two child sized finger marks through the top....

Finally got the cricut out and made something.  Teela's kindy class is learning about dinosaurs so I figured why not make a whole heap of dino's for them with the paper that I will never use.

 Instagram, decided to get my hipster on....

Ploughman's lunch, I love living close enough to Patton's which is a big butchery and green grocer but also has discount cheese and grocery items, always different stuff and if it wasn't for that place nice cheese would be a hardly ever item in this house.


The thirtieths....

Three layer Caramel mud cake with chocolate mousse cream and chocolate ganache.  Did I mention that I made this?  No, well I did not just a paper crafter, actually I used to do cakes for a business and I worked in a bakery so I have had some practice.

 

 The second cake for that weekend, three layer white chocolate mud cake with white choc ganache, this is my secret recipe, i have only ever given it out to one person and that is because she asked for it at a hens night after my one hundredth cocktail...  I made this one for my life long friend and best friend Lisa and her husband Nat we have known each other for ever, all went to school together, lived together and had children at the same time, it was always my pleasure to make them their favourite cake.

Rich chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

My husband turned thirty-one this year so we had a visit to our favourite restaurant ever Ahmets and then home with my family for coffee and cake.  I was such a good wife that I actually forgot that it was his birthday and organised a trip to a friends place so the cake was a 5.30 am number and  a five minute ice job, I LOVE this cake and my mum has been making it forever, one of those stand the test of time numbers.

Teela playing with Zoobs and made herself a microphone from them and tyre.  I am always amazed at how my children's brains and imaginations work and Teela has been blowing me out of the water with her creativity lately.