A tropical windowsill...

Our kitchen window looks out into our patio area.  The windowsill outside the kitchen window has a wooden shelf underneath it, and both the windowsill and the shelf seem to be attractors to all sorts of junk (imagine paper towels, cleaning products, gardening gloves, watering cans and other random paraphernalia).

I recently decided that if I wanted stuff to stop accumulating in this spot, I would have to put something there as a physical deterrent!  And what did I decide on?  You got it - plants :)

Off I went to Bunnings (again!) in search of some flowering plants that liked full shade.  Short of buying African Violets, there wasn't much doing - it seems most of those plants flower in spring (huh - who would've guessed! Lol)  So I started looking at shade loving plants with interesting foliage instead.  I loved the look of the bromeliads - nice and tropical which suits our yard with all the palms - but I'm not wild about the fact that bromeliads like their water in a little pool inside its leaves (it's like a little well in there that holds it)…  The mozzies take hold really quickly where we are so we can't leave any water pooled anywhere or we're instantly over run…  So with a perfect pool inside the bromeliad for mozzies to breed in, I moved on!

I was just about to give up when I came across a display that had a bunch of tiny little plants for indoors….  There were lots of plants, but the ones I chose in the end were parlour palms and mini crotons - so cute!  And still in keeping with the tropical theme of our yard.  I wandered back inside in search of two long rectangle plastic planters, and came across these ones - perfect colour to match my shelves outside (more on those to come) and self watering!  Even better.  So a bag of potting mix was thrown into my trolley too, and I was on my way.

Once home, I planted my little seedlings into the planters and gave them a good watering.  I then put them in place on the windowsill - and they look great!

I also added this gorgeous pair of elephants I got on sale from Freedom (they're currently having a floorstock clearance - bonus!)  I'm loving the look…. aren't they beautiful?

In terms of the self-watering thing (because these planters can harbour perfect conditions for mozzies too) I used the labels that came on the planters and stuck them over the opening.  I can still peel them back to add water, but in the mean time the mozzies can't get in there to breed - take that blood suckers!!

Overall I'm pretty happy, although that wood shelf really does need a good sand and stain!  Oh well - another day!

Not only am I loving the little bit of something tropical it adds when we're outside, it's a lovely view from the kitchen window also. 

What do you think?  Have you done any planting lately?  I've done heaps, but you'll be hearing all about that soon...

Bye for now :)

Thirty Things in Thirty Days - Final Update...

So we have come to the end of July (actually we're waaay past that now!)….  I would love to say that I finished everything on my list, but sadly, I did not!  In fact the last week of this challenge is a bit of a let down - I really hoped I'd get more done :(

In any case, here is the round up….

1. Go on a date night with Boofy

2. Cook something with an ingredient I've never used before

3. Use the massage/ pedi/ facial voucher Boofy bought me for Xmas

4. Write a letter to Alex about how funny he is at this age and put it away in his box of treasures

5. Spend a day totally unplugged from the internet

6. Organise the cupboard in the spare room

7. Cull Alex's toys (soooo overdue!)

8. Plant out the vege garden

9. Do something special with Alex, just the two of us

10. Complete some new sewing projects

11. Have a movie night at home with my 2 favourite boys

12. Read a book

13. Put on a BBQ brekky for our friends Julie & Tony and their kids

14. Go and see my Grandma

15. Go op-shopping in my local area

16. Revamp an op shop find

17. Clean up my desk at work and make it look a bit nicer (at the moment, it's just depressing!)

18. Look after Julie & Tony's kids for a day so they can have some kid-free time

19. Try a project I've seen in Blogland

20. Try a project I've seen on Pinterest

21. Organise and send out invites for Alex's Baptism (in August)

22. Redecorate the area where my random cupboards are

23. Finish off the cabinet of Nanna's treasures (as started in this post)

24. Go out for dinner as a family

25. Take Alex to mini golf

26. Write a long letter to Jo Jo

27. Hang painting in the laundry

28. Go and see the new Harry Potter movie

29. Bake some savoury muffins to take in for my work mates

30. Print and frame a free printable from the internet (there are so many to choose from)

In the end I got just over half of my list done….  It’s not as much as I hoped, but I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t had this list to keep me going, I wouldn’t have even achieved that!  And in my defence… I did have pneumonia this month J

So update on the last things to be crossed off the list….

9. Do something special with Alex, just the two of us

The answer to this one is not special in that it’s not something we usually do (because it has been done before, lots of times!) but special in that it is special time between Alex and me that I will always remember and will yearn for in 10 years when he doesn’t want to know me!  Lol…

Last Sunday morning when Alex woke at 4.50am (I know!), I broke one of my own rules… but just barely!  Boofy was in the spare room, doing time for snoring, so I had the king bed to myself.  Our rule is that Alex does not come into our bed before 5am… but it was nearly 5, and there was no way he was going back to sleep (I’d already tried tricking him by saying it was the middle of the night once!) so I scooped him up and in he came.  We snuggled in bed for about 10 mins – I tried to go back to sleep, hoping he would follow my lead… he decided tickling me was more fun!  So in the end, I gave in and put the TV on, and we watched Springtime With Roo, snuggled together nice and cosy in bed  :)

When the movie was over (the Winnie the Pooh ones only go for an hour or so) I asked him what he would like for brekky and he said “Let’s make scrambled eggs Mummy – can we?”  So I said “sure!”  We got out all the stuff, made the scrambled eggs and toast together (getting him to press the microwave buttons is great for practising his number recognition!) and we set the table, opened up the blind to let the sunshine in and ate our eggies together looking out to the front garden.  When we were done I sipped my mug of tea, Alex sipped his mug of milk, and sang along to the radio together.  Until 5 mins later when Alex got bored and I heard the inevitable “please leave the table?”  *sigh*  It was all over – but... we did the same thing again today :)

15. Go op shopping in my local area

This one was just a chance thing actually!  Last week Boofy and I got our tax done.  Boofy attended the appointment and took all our documentation in, as I was still at work – so all I needed to do was swing by on my way home, sign the tax return and we were done!  After signing and walking back to my car, I noticed I was wandering right past the local Salvos (well, only a tiny detour!)

I wandered around and didn’t really see much of interest… until a little desk caught my eye!  It was sooo cute – a bit banged up, but good bones.  I stared at it and thought about how it would look painted white with a pretty chair in front of it, or painted dark grey in Alex’s future room….  I liked what I saw!  It had a $30 label on it… I may have mentioned once or twice that we’re being very tight on the budget at the moment, so with this in mind, I walked away.

When I got home, I told Boofy about it and said really, its only $30 and how much would it cost us to buy Alex a desk one day (especially one small enough to fit in his bedroom)?  Boofy agreed (kind of… but good enough for me!) so I got on the phone, told the lady I wanted it and would be back the following day – she agreed to hold it for me until then.

Next day I went back and paid my money, but it wouldn’t fit in my car.  The lady said it was fine to leave there (since I’d paid for it) and Boofy went back with his hatchback the next day and collected it – so here it is!!

I’m in love with it.  I can see it all done up in Alex’s room, he with books sprawled all over it.... but it is very cute and a great little space saver, so maybe I could do it up all pretty for Mum’s future place when she moves up here one day…. secretly I want to keep it for myself!  (oops, that’s not a secret anymore is it?!)

For now it lives in the garage as there is not much point doing any work to it until I’ve decided what its purpose will be – but I’m glad I snapped it up, it makes me swoon with possibility every time I walk in there!

23. Finish off the cabinet of Nanna’s treasures

I’m almost cheating with this one because actually, I finished most of this back in February… its just taken me this long to finish off the last little bits and get around to blogging about it!

You see back in February, I was really keen to get Nanna’s things out of storage and into the cabinet….  So what would be the perfect day to do that?  You guessed it – they day you are having visitors over for lunch!!  My stepbrother Adrian, his wife Amber, my nephew Elijah and Amber’s brother Dion were heading over for lunch.  I’d prepared most of it (a super easy, super tasty oven baked chicken dish – I promise I will share the recipe here one of these days) and it was sizzling away in the oven….  So I trundled out to the garage and selected some boxes of Nanna’s things (and other random items we hadn’t unpacked since moving in).

When I started unpacking, I noticed that all of the silverware was tarnished, and the glasses and dishes I unpacked were filthy… bugger!  It couldn’t go into the cabinet like that – so out came the Silvo!  Pretty soon my bench looked like this… (note: I'd already polished the big coffee pot when I took these photos!)

I know – with less than 2 hours until guests were due to arrive – what was I thinking?  So I polished like I’d never polished before, washed every single plate, tea cup and ornament (really I did – by hand – every single one!), threw open the cabinet doors and in it all went!  

It’s was all a bit thrown together, so my mission was just to tidy it up a bit.  So a bit of tweaking, this is how it looks now:

And a couple of close ups...  this is the family coffee pot.  I had never seen this before until Nanna moved and gave it to me - it was not something she had on display, but I think its gorgeous!

And these are the tea cups of Nanna's that I lusted after since before I even knew lust was a word!  Nanna had these displayed in pride of place, and as a little girl I was so drawn to these delicate treasures with their little flowers on the handles...  Very occasionally Nanna would let me drink from them - I was so careful I almost didn't breathe the whole time!  They meant a lot to her too :)

And this is not one of Nanna's treasures, but one of mine.  My sista Nadine (my brother's wife) gave me these some years ago - they are little Willow Tree carvings and the tag reads: 

Sisters by Heart

Celebrating a treasured friendship of sharing and understanding.

I’m happy that its all together in the cupboard, and I think it looks neat enough, I’m just not sure it’s interesting enough.  But oh well, its done for now.  I think in the future I may back those cupboards with some interesting paper or something though… you never know….  So watch this space!

So that’s it, the whole box and dice on the July list!  How did you guys go?  I hope you accomplished more than I did! Lol….

I have moved on from my list, and now I have a new goal.  Alex’s Baptism is on Sunday 28^th August and there will be a party afterwards, so I am using it as an excuse to try to get as much done as possible before then, so the house looks super slick!  We’ll have lots of relatives around who haven’t seen the house in ages, so I want it to look its absolute best.

I’ve already been taking advantage of the sunshine to get outside and get busy, so stay tuned for an update (and a couple of before and afters) on what’s been happening there!  I've actually been so busy completing projects lately, that I haven't had time to post about them... a nice position to be in for a change!

Bye for now :)

Friday :: Things I Know...

TGIF!!  I am again joining my good friend Mamma Cass in playing along with Yay for Home's Things I Know again….  So here is what I know today….

I know that it takes a looooooong time to recover from pnuemonia, and I have run out of patience!

I know that I have a lot of work to do around the house before Alex's Baptism party at the end of the month

I know that I am loving my new vege patch so much, I just can't stop looking at it

I know that I can't wait to harvest some veges and sit down as a family and eat them

I know that it is very cold watering the garden at 5.30am before work and no matter how hard I try, I will always get my slippers wet (so I really shouldn't wear them outside!)

I know that I'm really happy with my rearranging of the potted herbs out the back

I know that it's wonderful to look out the kitchen window and see some greenery - more to come on that soon :)

I know that I am suddenly obsessed with my yard and spending every spare moment out there

I know that I am loving this winter sunshine (Queensland has finally started acting like a tropical state again and the days are beautiful!)


I know that I just completed a little makeover project that I can't wait to share.... here's the before to tantalise you....

I know that I'm feeling really happy, contented and thankful for my family and my home at the moment, and really enjoying both to the full - life is good!

Happy Friday friends, hope you have a great day!

Bye for now :)

http://yayforhome.blogspot.com/search/label/things%20I%20know



Thirty Things in Thirty Days - Update 3...

So here we are already with update number 3... actually I'm a little bit late, since July ends on Sunday!!  But I wrote this post on Monday (just didn't get around to finishing and publishing it!) so I'll give you my update as of the Monday just gone!  This month is absolutely flying by….  Where does the time go?

We've just had a lovely visit from Poppy & Nanny (aka my Dad & Stepmum) which we all enjoyed very much - particularly Alex!  I know he will miss them a lot.  Fortunately they will be back in a months time (along with several other grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and friends!) for his Baptism, so that is something to look forward to.

But back to my thirty things in thirty days list… here we go:

1. Go on a date night with Boofy
2. Cook something with an ingredient I've never used before
3. Use the massage/ pedi/ facial voucher Boofy bought me for Xmas
4. Write a letter to Alex about how funny he is at this age and put it away in his box of treasures
5. Spend a day totally unplugged from the internet
6. Organise the cupboard in the spare room
7. Cull Alex's toys (soooo overdue!)
8. Plant out the vege garden
9. Do something special with Alex, just the two of us
10. Complete some new sewing projects
11. Have a movie night at home with my 2 favourite boys
12. Read a book
13. Put on a BBQ brekky for our friends Julie & Tony and their kids
14. Go and see my Grandma
15. Go op-shopping in my local area
16. Revamp an op shop find
17. Clean up my desk at work and make it look a bit nicer (at the moment, it's just depressing!)
18. Look after Julie & Tony's kids for a day so they can have some kid-free time
19. Try a project I've seen in Blogland
20. Try a project I've seen on Pinterest
21. Organise and send out invites for Alex's Baptism (in August)
22. Redecorate the area where my random cupboards are
23. Finish off the cabinet of Nanna's treasures (as started in this post)
24. Go out for dinner as a family
25. Take Alex to mini golf
26. Write a long letter to Jo Jo
27. Hang painting in the laundry
28. Go and see the new Harry Potter movie
29. Bake some savoury muffins to take in for my work mates
30. Print and frame a free printable from the internet (there are so many to choose from)

So I haven't managed to cross too many off my list this week - because one of them was a really BIG one!!  But I crossed off another three, so that's better than a kick in the pants!  Here's what I've been up to:

4. Write a letter to Alex about how funny he is at this age and put it away in his box of treasures
This was an easy but also hard one to do!!  It's easy to recall what is fresh in my mind, but when I actually sit down and try to recall those funny things he's said over the last few months, its difficult to conjure examples of the hilarity!  Never mind, I decided half way through that it didn't have to be perfect - it just was what it was.  So I did it - he will know some funny things, in detail, about his 3.5 year old self in years to come…  I've got an idea for a way to remember more things, but I will cover that another day!

8. Plant out the vege garden
OK so if number 22 is the whale of the list (and trust me, it is!) then this was the baby whale for sure!  I may have mentioned before that we have an 11m x 1.2m garden bed at the side of our house.  When we moved in, it was a grassy, patchy, unimpressive mound of dirt about 60cm high.  I immediately spied a huge vege patch, and put my talented brother Mick to work on building me a mighty 1m tall chunky wood retaining wall.  Anyway, as I've previously explained, we had a great first winter crop, then the floods hit up here and our summer crop just laid down and rotted :(  We were so disheartened that we haven't planted anything since - until last Sunday!!  Heather (my stepmum) and I spent the afternoon toiling in the dirt - digging, turning things over, raking, planting, watering and mulching…. Until we were finally done!

So just to refresh your memory…. Here is how it looked after we pulled out the rotten plants and totally neglected it for the next 4 months:

And our poor little turtle buried in the weeds!

And this is what it looked like after we killed most of the weeds and were getting ready to start planting again:

And this is what it looked like at the end of Sunday - hooray!!

It's hard to see the plants amongst all that mulch…. But they're there!  I actually prefer the look of the garden with no mulch at all - but all the experts say its best to use it, so use it we did.  Here are all the things I have planted:

:: nasturtiums (white, edible)
:: cos lettuce
:: iceberg lettuce
:: snow peas
:: sugar snap peas
:: dwarf green beans
:: baby carrots
:: capsicums
:: broccoli
:: thyme
:: coriander
:: parsley
:: basil
:: aloe vera (been meaning to plant these for ages - there is an end that doesn't get much sun so nothing grows there well - this will be perfect here!)
:: lemongrass
:: strawberries
:: grape tomatoes
:: marigolds (to keep pests away)

So there you go, one baby whale down, one mamma whale to go! :)  (On that, I've decided the only way to eat an elephant is piece by piece - so I'm going to try to do little bits every other day to get through number 22 on my list…. Hey did you just see how my whale turned into an elephant?  No idea where all these animal comparisons are coming from!)

28. Go and see the new Harry Potter movie
Done and done! 

My friend Julie and I have had a date for some time to do this, and as it turned out, Dad & Heather were in town also, so we all trundled off to see it together.  I loved it, and cried in many places!  Julie clapped in many places (as did a lot of others).  I'm not much of a clapper, I'm a total sook!  It was quite different to the book in places, and I felt it left out quite a lot of the explanations, but it was fantastic nonetheless!  Made even better by the yum-cha lunch we had afterwards - very yummy!  So the last Harry Potter movie has been seen… the end of an era really…. Sniff sniff….  I can't wait until Alex is old enough to watch these and read the books, then I can enjoy it all over again with him :)

And that is the total update for this week....  not much progress i know, but the vege garden really was a massive effort (thanks Heather!!!!)  I will show updated pics next week, because I kid you not, some of the plants have doubled in size, the little peas have dutifully wound their little vines around the climbing structures and the beans are going crazy.

I'm linking this post (in honour of my new vege garden) up to the lovely A Beach Cottage blog's Good Life Wednesday :)

Bye for now :)

Madeit This Month : July

If you've been reading for a while, or read my back posts, you'd know I'm a little bit obsessed with shopping!  Unfortunately, budget cutbacks will only afford me window shopping these days - enter Madeit This Month!  A collection of things I've stumbled upon on Madeit over the last month (and might possibly have bought if my cash flow wasn't so restricted!)  If you are looking for them, the last two editions of this were in April and June.  I didn't get a lot of feedback either way on this segment from last month, so it would be great to get your comments or suggestions please - good or bad :)

Okay… so here's the little collection of goodies I've found this month.  Let's start with jewellery (always a great place to start!)

These gorgeous silver earrings are so simple, but so lovely… They're silver ball earrings by Michvanetta.

  

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=319472

 I love this fossilised coral ring by Alainn.  It's quite big and would be a really lovely decorative ring to dress up a simple outfit.

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=286461

And I know I featured something similar last month with this 'My Love' bracelet, but I just can't get enough of these little personalised keepsakes.  This is the Circle of Love necklace by Love Stamp.



http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=320024

Onto something a little different, I love the look of this custom wedding guest book by lorgie & me.  Its hand crafted from pine and totally customisable - so beautiful.



http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=303371

This cute little hot water bottle cover from Whistlefish just makes me want to snuggle under the covers with a good book!  Too cute :)



http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=316455



I have been eyeing off various incarnations of these egg shaped porcelain doily design jewellery holders for some time now….  These ones are made by And O Design.

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=271372

I'm absolutely loving this next one - I just think this is genius!  I'm not buying anything at the moment, but I'm totally going to have a crack at making one of these…  A lost sock holder!  How many times have you held onto a sock for ages, eventually thrown it out and then found it's mate?  And don't you hate all the odd socks cluttering up your drawers?  This is such a great idea - and I just can't fathom that I've never seen one of these before!  Consider this one firmly in the "now why didn't I think of that" category :)  This little gem (which is no doubt much prettier and better made than anything I could conjure up) is made by Zippy Zippy.



http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=318372

This little card is so sweet - talk about cheap and cheerful!  It will cost you a whole $3.20 (including postage within Australia) to own it.  It's called the Nature Gives card (envelope included) and is by Pixel Adventures.

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=303527

I think these little treasures would look lovely in a kids room or play room.  They are Love Is All You Need hand painted canvases by Little Bug Art. 

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=303144

 And speaking of sweet little artworks, check out this She Climbs Mountains print by Sweet William.  Isn't she adorable?  I think I would like her for my bedroom - I might have to put her on my Christmas list :)

   

http://www.madeit.com.au/detail.asp?id=252197



So there you have it - what do you think of my finds this month, friends?  Have you found something recently that you just couldn't go past?  Look forward to hearing from you.

Bye for now :)

Thirty Things in Thirty Days - Week 2 update...

As promised, here is my next update on my 'Thirty Things in Thirty Days' list….  albeit a little late!  Even though Alex did have a sleepover on the weekend, I still didn't manage to actually get a lot done in the house.  I had hoped to be able to cross off number 22 on the list, however Saturday was a rainy old day, and re purposing the area where the random cupboards sit will involve many many trips to the garage (not under cover) - so that little project was shelved! 

Anyway, I did get to a couple, so here's the updated list:

1. Go on a date night with Boofy
2. Cook something with an ingredient I've never used before
3. Use the massage/ pedi/ facial voucher Boofy bought me for Xmas
4. Write a letter to Alex about how funny he is at this age and put it away in his box of treasures
5. Spend a day totally unplugged from the internet
6. Organise the cupboard in the spare room
7. Cull Alex's toys (soooo overdue!)
8. Plant out the vege garden
9. Do something special with Alex, just the two of us
10. Complete some new sewing projects
11. Have a movie night at home with my 2 favourite boys
12. Read a book
13. Put on a BBQ brekky for our friends Julie & Tony and their kids
14. Go and see my Grandma
15. Go op-shopping in my local area
16. Revamp an op shop find
17. Clean up my desk at work and make it look a bit nicer (at the moment, it's just depressing!)
18. Look after Julie & Tony's kids for a day so they can have some kid-free time
19. Try a project I've seen in Blogland
20. Try a project I've seen on Pinterest
21. Organise and send out invites for Alex's Baptism (in August)
22. Redecorate the area where my random cupboards are
23. Finish off the cabinet of Nanna's treasures (as started in this post)
24. Go out for dinner as a family
25. Take Alex to mini golf
26. Write a long letter to Jo Jo (the beautiful grandmother of an old friend who has sadly been missing for several years)
27. Hang painting in the laundry
28. Go and see the new Harry Potter movie
29. Bake some savoury muffins to take in for my work mates
30. Print and frame a free printable from the internet (there are so many to choose from)

OK so here's the skinny on the things I've managed to cross off this week:

1. Go on a date night with Boofy

Well, this didn't exactly go to plan.... but never mind.  We thought about going to a restaurant we went to years ago that we liked, but with our limited budget decided instead to go closer to home to a more wallet-friendly restaurant.  We booked an early table at a local restaurant attached to a motel not far from here - we've eaten there before and always enjoyed it, so figured it was a safe bet..... WRONG!!  Let's see... ambivalent service staff who forgot we were there (although it might have something to do with the fact we were seated behind a pylon - how romantic, not!)  Chicken that was raw in the centre, allegedly pan fried atlantic salmon that tasted like (and had the consistency of) smoked cod, pork belly with soggy skin (sacrilege!!)....  On the positive, Boofy's calamari entree wasn't bad, and the wine was nice!  When we complained about the raw chicken, they took a beer off our bill... um, would've been happier if they'd taken the chicken off - hello!!!  Oh well, live and learn... we will never go back - never!  And they say word of mouth is the best advertisement (or otherwise)... well I have a very big mouth!  Anyway, moving on....

6. Organise the cupboard in the spare room
I have been meaning to get around to this for some time!  With the imminent arrival of Nanny & Poppy, I thought it best to get stuck in and get it done.  So you can appreciate the transformation, here is the before:

As you can see, I did the same thing I did when I cleaned out the linen cupboard in this post - I pulled off the doors and just got stuck in.  I will spare you the chaos of the 'during' this time though!  There is not a lot that needs to stay in the cupboard - just some boxes and doona up top, and some bags down the bottom.  You can see on the top shelf there are a few clothes and toiletries - they belong to my Mum who comes to stay every couple of months.... she always says toiletries take up most of her luggage, so she leaves a stock here and can then get away with just carry-on when she comes.  Anyways, there is now plenty of room for guests to spread their stuff out in there - here's how it looks:

You can see a little basket in the cupboard there - I like to leave this in the spare room stocked with some toiletries.  Don't you hate it when you go away and you forget something vital like cotton buds, toothbrush, etc. then you have to ask your hosts if they have spares...  Well not in our house!  I try to keep it as well stocked as possible... but I have been known to 'borrow' from it myself occasionally when we unexpectedly run out of something, so its not just our guests who benefit!  Here's a close up of this little stash:

10. Complete some new sewing projects

I know I technically crossed this one off in my last update post, but I've been busy again.  You see, with a rainy old day on Saturday, and no Alex to distract me, I took the opportunity to whip out the sewing machine and work on some more little projects!

My Dad is very hard to buy, or even make things, for - when he wants something, he simply buys it himself, so I thought I would make him his very own mouse mat and mug rug.  It took me a long time to find a nice masculine fabric, but I think this one is pretty good (Alex helped me choose it).  I debated whether or not to sew the birdie on his mug rug, but he loves to feed the butcher birds from his balcony at home, so I decided to include it to remind him of his birdies at home.  I'm happy with how they turned out - only thing is I accidentally attached the interfacing to the back of the mug rug instead of the front, so the face of it is a bit 'ripply' (if that makes sense!)  I also got Dad a book - Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison - I read it years ago and it was such an interesting book.  I hope he enjoys it.  So here is his little parcel...

A little while ago, I procured a bunch of calico bags pretty cheaply from an Australian company called Ecoshopper with the idea that I would tart them up for unique gifts.  My step-Mum, Heather, likes to paint so I recently made her a paint brush roll (similar to the kids pencil rolls I made here, but bigger).  I thought she could use a bag to put other art supplies and maybe a sketch book in - enter calico bag!  I had a look at a few online tutorials for making rosettes, but didn't really use any of them in the end - I suppose if I had to choose, this post on the Susie Harris blog would be the closest to the method I ended up using.  (Incidentally, it was her blog post here that gave me the idea in the first place - check it out, its a great blog).  Anyways so I made 3 rosettes in the same fabric I used on the paint brush roll, then hand sewed them onto the bag.  Here is how they turned out:

I'm so pleased with it!!  Its an easy little hand sewing project I don't need to drag the sewing machine out for, and I just think it's so cute :)  I also knitted Heather a scarf - they go canal boating in England every year, and Heather is only little, so I just made her something not too long, that she can tuck into her coat, with lots of colours (so it goes with everything) and nice and warm.

She loved them all :)

12. Read a book

Anyone who knows me will know that this one was no hardship - I love to read!  I hope you won't think this is cheating, but I've read this one before.  You see before I cross number 28 off my list (Go and see the new Harry Potter movie) I wanted to reacquaint myself with Harry... so I read (for the third time) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I then followed it up with another viewing of the first movie, just to remind me where the first one stopped and the second one will pick up - I'm a bit of a Harry Potter nerd - I even have an owl on the shelf where I keep my Harry Potter books.  See in the middle there?  Hi Hedwig! :)

If you love Harry as much as I do, check out this recent post over at one of my fave blogs, Felafel & The Bee on how to make a Harry wand... so clever, and really cute!

17. Clean up my desk at work and make it look a bit nicer

So far I have only accomplished half of this one...  I'm afraid I have no photographic evidence, but in this past week I did clean up my desk and get rid of any useless things that were hanging around cluttering it up.  When I have time, I will make myself a new mouse mat and mug rug, and do a couple of other things to tart it up a bit... Hopefully by the next update!  It is much nicer to work at a clean desk though, I am enjoying that :)

20. Try a project I've seen on Pinterest

I'm quite excited about this one - I've been wanting to try it for a while now!  As I mentioned earlier, my Dad is impossible to buy for, so I thought this would be something he doesn't already have - and since I only did it in an 8 x 10" frame, it won't take up too much room in their home.

Some time ago, I found this image on Pinterest (the source of which is actually this Etsy shop) and pinned it to my board.  This one is actually of Missouri:

It's a "home is where the heart is" artwork... but I think its also a nice way to mark the place where two people met and fell in love too.  Fortunately for me, both of those things spell Melbourne for my Dad, so his gift has the double meaning :)  I went rummaging in my never ending stash of scrapbooking paper and found two sheets that I thought went well together.  I printed out a map outline of Victoria from here, and then traced it (my gosh it's been years since I used tracing paper... it was quite the flash back!!) onto my selected paper and cut it out.  I then cut out a little heart and stuck it on the map where Melbourne is.  After that I just glued the map to the backing paper, put the frame together and voila!  And do you think I took a photo of it framed before I wrapped it?  No, I did not!  Lol...  But fortunately I did take a photo before I framed it, so that will have to do (not as impressive as it looks in the frame, but you get the idea anyway).

  

I'm loving it... I can't wait to make more of these.

21. Organise and send out invites for Alex's Baptism (in August)

I mentioned in my last update that I had ordered the Baptism invitations from Tambo Creations via Madeit, and that I couldn't be happier with the whole process - Tess was very accommodating and did a beautiful job - and only $14.99!  As planned I printed them all out in 5 x 7 " size at Big W on the weekend, and they came up great.  I had a bit of trouble getting envelopes that fit them, but I eventually found some at Kikki K that were perfect - I then just used a stamp I bought from Stampin' Up 100 years ago to decorate them a bit.  Here's how they turned out:

There was a lot more text on the invite, but I have blanked it out for obvious reasons :)  I promise you the invite looks spectacular with all the info on it (looks pretty great even without it!)  I can't gush about Tambo Creations enough - what an easy process the whole thing was!  So much easier than all that cutting, sticking and fiddling that comes with doing invites myself, and the family get some photos of Alex for the fridge - bonus!  Its also a very economical way to do invites.  The only thing I would say if you are considering this - think about doing the invite 4 x 6" instead, as it will then fit in a standard envelope and will halve the postage cost.

30. Print and frame a free printable from the internet

This was so easy - I saw this printable (which can be found on the Ariel Rose Blog here) via a CSI Project post back in May, and just thought it was really cute.

It is designed to be an 8 x 10" artwork.  I actually turned it around and printed it on landscape paper, then raided my scrapbooking stash (again!) for a background paper.  I mounted it on that and put it in an 8 x 10" frame, so you can see I printed quite a bit smaller than that.  I found this little nook where I have some CD drawers - it sits in a corner between the wall and where the bench ends.  I dropped a little lotus flower candle there too (can never have too many of those) and I think it looks really sweet.

Boofy doesn't agree, so we'll see how long it lasts!  Lol...  Oh well, its crossed off anyway!

So that's it for this week.  How are your lists going?  Anyone going to join me?

Bye for now :)

I'm linking up to the CSI Project's "Projects you have Pinned and Done" Challenge