Design Team Layout 1: Portrait of Me

As part of the Design Team for Caz Dezign I received the April pack of goodies and the first thing I came up with was this:



One of the activities that the kids do at the kids camp that Carrie and I run up at Camp Maynard is chalk drawing. At one camp a group of children decided to do a portrait of Vienna - it was fantastic! It had her pony tails, striped top, spotty tights and big smile. I love the picture Carrie took and printed it in 5 x 7 inch - my favourite size at the moment, it costs a little extra but I love the way it looks.

I love the way this page came together and enjoyed using the Kelly Panacci papers in the design team pack.

For a list of the other supplies used check out the post on the Caz Dezign page.

Fabric Crafts

I finally finished this little treat for Vienna and Lucy (the doll). I have been working on these for a long time, they are officially for Vienna's birthday this year but because she doesn't read my blog you can have a sneak peak now.


First I made the little fabric bag with a drawstring top and stamped it WIPES with staz-on ink.

And cut out some little fabric wipes - they are like the ones Vienna uses.

Then I made a change mat, just like Vienna's one. I forgot to get a photo of the other side but it is cute Winnie the Pooh waterproof fabric that Louise sent us over from Melbourne, then a layer of thin padding and the inside white fabric. I sewed these layers together and added seams going across where it folds into thirds (to make it easy for Vienna to see where to fold it) and then added the bright pink satin ribbon around the edge as a binding. Lastly I added a little bit of velcro to hold it closed.

Lucy fits on it perfectly!

It was definitely a labour of love as it is all hand sewn (i don't own a sewing machine), but I am really happy with it so it was worth it.

Perhaps I will need to make a nappy bag next so Vienna has somewhere to keep them along with Lucy's changes of clothes.

P.S. the outfit that Lucy is wearing here was a gift from Vienna's friend Taryn - it was one of her dolls outfits but now that she is a teenager she gave it to Lucy who fits it perfectly, thanks Taryn.

Language Explosion

Vienna has had new language falling out of her at every turn over the past week or so, it is soooo crazy cool and soooo exciting to hear!

There is a lot of copying words after we speak but she is also anticipating things I am going to say and saying them before I do - when helping her into her pajamas I counted 'one' as I put one foot in, then as I put the other foot in she said 'two'.

Today I got the first set of two words in a row - I was getting my keys to go out and said 'I will just grab the keys' and Vienna said 'car keys'. It seems so small when I write it down but it was so huge when she said it.

Her comprehension also seems to have taken huge leaps lately and it is so cool that she can understand what we say and chose her response.

Our little girl is growing up and our lives are making yet another change as she changes.

St Patricks Day 2011

Vienna had to take a plate for a shared afternoon tea at daycare to celebrate St Patricks Day so I whipped up these yummy treats.

Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, a few green sprinkles and either fruit sticks or green fondant shamrocks (i used a 'club' cutter from a set and pinched in each side with a toothpick).

Yummy and Cute!

Wallet Book Page

I have a little wallet size photo album that has pages the size of business cards. In it there are some mini scrapbook pages of my special peeps.

I had this photo left over from a 12 x 12 layout I did recently and it was the perfect size to do a little page of Ashley.

He is soooo young in this picture! I can't believe that this Easter was 18 years since we met at camp. This picture was taken almost a year later - just before I turned 16. I love how a photo can bring back so many memories and such intense feelings.

Mini Easter Egg Butter Cookies

I made these tiny (1 inch) butter cookies for Vienna to take to daycare and share with her teachers and friends for Easter.

I didn't have a mini egg cutter so used an oval and pinched the top edges. I then used royal icing to do wet on wet icing for the first time. I loved the way the colours melted into each other - it was so sweet. They weren't all perfect but for a first time I was pretty happy. I think I will keep an eye out for a mini egg cutter though - less steps just makes things easier!



I packaged 5 each into plastic shot glasses and added a cellophane circle and rubber band (I use pre-cut circles sold at the supermarket for preserves/jam etc they are just a few dollars and I love that they are ready to go).



Then found an Easter clip art in similar colours, printed it out on linen paper, added the 'From Vienna' and used a glue dot to stick them to the top.


SUPER CUTE!

VIENNA

A few weeks ago we went to the night market at the Pakuranga Mall, we discovered this little Asian lady turning names into amazing works of art. You write down the name and then in just a few minutes she turns it into a beautiful sign, and if you like it you pay for it and get to keep it. She then added a little glitter to each letter - a step that I personally could have done without but it was too late to stop her. It cost $10 and I loved it!

I haven't decided how I will display it yet but will make it into a wall plaque for Vienna's bedroom.

Thomas the Tank Engine Cute Food Part 2

I created this delicous masterpiece for Hugo's party day with his family. 24 mini brownies - approx 6cm square (baked in my flash pan that Aunty Lyn couriered back from England for me - Yay for fantastic family!) decorated to be the carriages in Thomas' train. Note the co-ordinated wheels matching the goods they are carrying, the gummy bear passengers and coal. There were 12 with chocolate frosting and 12 with vanilla decorated in a variety of ways to give visual interest and a range of choices to the lucky party goers.


A big thanks to Ashley's Mum Evelyn for the brownie recipe! It was delicious with yummy chewy edges and a dense chocolatey centre - I will definitely be making it again.

Thomas the Tank Engine Cute Food

I made these mini 'Thomas the Tank Engine' inspired train cookies for Hugo's 2nd Birthday. They were yummy butter cookies with blue royal icing. Then I wrote on them with my foodoodler food colouring pens. I made 48 of them for him to take to Montessori to share with his friends on his birthday.


To go with the cookies were 24 chocolate mini cupcakes and 24 vanilla mini cupcakes, again in the Thomas the Tank Engine theme they were in red and blue paper cases and decorated with red and blue sprinkles.

I recently discovered that egg cartons are the perfect free packaging for mini cupcakes! How convenient. They fit perfectly, have lots of height so don't damage the frosting and fit a dozen!

Baby Led Weaning

As I sit watching Vienna eating her lunch, her faced smeared with marmite as she munches on freshly grown alfafa sprouts and a chunk of half eaten cucumber in her hand it amazes me that we still get questioned (with doubts) about baby led weaning. Baby Led Weaning is about allowing babies to learn to eat at their own pace the food that the rest of the family is eating, instead of specially prepared pureed baby foods. It is done all over the world and has been for many generations but now has a flash name and a website and book explaining it for you. We decided to follow this way of introducing Vienna to solids as it seemed simple, easy and just made sense to us. And yet ... we have had many people question us and doubt this way of life. Some of these questions have been presented directly to us and some not so. I think that it is because Vienna is a 'small' child that we have encounted so many negative responses, however Ashley and I were both 'small' as children and I think her size has a lot more to do with genetics. She is happy, healthy, energetic girl who is full of energy and is no way underfed. She does have a small appetite but she eats a wide range of healthy foods and doesn't over eat - even when it is a yummy 'treat' food. For me, who obviously has food issues, having a healthy attitute towards food and being able to understand and be in control of when she is full was a huge factor in this this choice. Now that Vienna is 17 months and I look back on her introduction to food I feel confident that we have done the right thing for us. Vienna controls what she eats, of course we give her a little help (especially with hard to manage things like yogurt), but she is in no way underfed or malnourished and no ... the reason is a 'small' child is not because she has been starved.

Dodgy Daddy Diaper

I can't wait to make these photos into a scrapbook page ...

that nappy was barely holding on ...

... and then, it lost the fight with gravity!

I am pleased to note that I have since replaced the elastic in all of Vienna's fluffy's since this day and now they help to keep up even the most dodgy of Daddy done diapers!

Clever People ...

... who aren't me!

Have been helping out my blog, the fanstastic and amazing Gypsy over at See, Share, Remember made me a header months ago and my clever Ashley put it onto my blog today ... finally ... perhaps I should have just asked him to do it months ago instead of not quite getting to it myself!

You may also notice the new button announcing that I am on the design team for Caz Dezign ... this was also created by the very clever Gypsy and added into my blog by the clever Ashley (coz he has more patience than me to figure out how to do it!).

Thanks heaps clever people!

Amazing

It amazes me everyday how much Vienna knows and how capable she is:

She can see something once and will copy it ... after just one time she knew that the ipod headphones go in your ear, and she put them in ...

She can follow instructions ... bring me your shoes so we can go out - 'shoes' ... can you put it in the washing bucket please ... that's not for babies can you bring it to Mum ... can you put it in the rubbish please ... can you put it in the recycling please ...

She loves to help ... put the groceries away in the fridge ... shut the door ... put the washing away ... pass the pegs and washing up to be hung on the line ...

She uses her initiative ... she will put shoes away in the wardrobe ... if she finds a cloth she will use it to clean ... she pointed the car beeper at the car and pressed the button but when it didn't work she tried to put the key in the key hole instead ... she will put on a bib to show me that she is hungry, or climb up and look for the boobies ...

She understands so much ... do you want this? - 'no' (shakes her head) ... let's go upstairs (she moves towards the stairs) ... lunch is ready (she goes to her table and gets in her chair) ...

It just goes on and on and on ... and it amazes me everyday that at 15 months she knows so much!

Christmas Cards 2010

On Christmas Eve Ashley reminded me of the fact that I hadn't made a Christmas card for Vienna ... so ...

while he was creating a QI inspired card for me



I quickly whipped up this totally cute card for Vienna.

It came together so quickly and yet looked sooooo fantastic - Yay! I love it when that happens.

PS Thanks the to the wonderful Gypsy who used her cleverness to take out the star light that looked like it was coming out of Vienna's head in the photo I used. You can check out Gypsy's amazing creative works at http://www.seeshareremember.blogspot.com/ she also does fantastic custom albums and is on the Caz Dezign design team with Glenna, Tania and Me.

Wholesome ...

My word for the year is:

... mostly in regards to our eating. I aim for us to eat whole foods, to eat meals made from whole ingredients not from prepackaged ingredients which often contain hidden undesirable ingredients.

To remind me of this on a daily basis I made this 12 x12 inch canvas when I was up at camp clean in January and have it in my kitchen. I love that I finally found a use for this gorgeous wrapping paper that has been in my stash for ages.

Lunch Time

We took Vienna's little table with us when we went camping over New Year's. It is the coolest little table that she got for her birthday from Sarah, it comes apart and fits back into its box making it super easy to fit into the car. It was great for her to eat at, easy to move around to find shady spots and she often had company (of different ages) join her for her meals.

Vienna and Daddy enjoying Mummy's courgette fritters and salad for lunch.

Rocking Horse Present

Vienna was very very lucky at Christmas to be one of the lucky recipients of a handmade by Uncle Tony rocking horse. Uncle Tony had a production line going to make 4 of these rocking horses for his grandchildren and his great niece (Vienna), we felt so very lucky! Uncle Tony is very clever at working with his hands and he did a fantastic job.

It is super cool and she just loves it!

Daredevil riding!

Bouncinette Baby

Vienna's cousin Korah has an old fashioned bouncinette but apparently Vienna has a greater need for it ...

Happy Valentines Day 2011 Part 3

The 3rd and and most important part of this Valentine's Day installment is the creation for Ashley.

It started as a wooden box of dominos for sale at a $2 shop. I freed the box of it's dominoes and gave it a quick coat of white paint a few weeks ago in preparation then I finished this project off at Friday Night Scrap at Caz Dezign Scrapbooking just in time for Valentine's Day. Some paper, rub ons and flowers from my stash, a couple of pieces of bling pinched from Carrie's stash (I forgot to take mine!), and a quick meeting with an ink pad.

Then I added some mini candy papers and filled each paper with sweets for my sweet. Mini glo hearts, pink smarties, message love hearts and rock candy with hearts.

Happy Valentine's Day Ashley xxx.

Happy Valentines Day 2011 Part 2

I made these Valentine's cookies for all of the children and staff at Top Kids for afternoon tea on my last day (last Friday). They were 3cm diameter butter cookies with vanilla frosting, pink cachous, pink hearts and a few pink sprinkles.

Pretty and delicous!

Happy Valentines Day 2011

Vienna started Valentine's Day early this year by taking these gorgeous 'cute as a button' cookies to share with her school friends on her last day on Friday.

I also took some to share at Friday night scrap.

I love how cute these turned out! They were they coming together of two different inspirations. Ages ago I saw someone on the internet make button cookies similar to these and then recently I found this awesome free printable at http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/ where she was using it to give a gift of covered button earings. I combined the two ideas, put my own twist on it and ...

The photos aren't showing off the gorgeous shades of pink but you get the idea.

Each button is a 2cm diameter yummy butter cookie covered in coloured fondant.

Discovering Maraetai

In January we spent a gorgeous afternoon discovering Maraetai Beach. We tried out the playground - Vienna liked the slide but was not so keen on the swing.


Then we went for a walk along the beach and out onto the wharf, Vienna seems to be as keen on the water and beach as her Mum is. I always seem so peaceful and de-stressed when at the beach - maybe I should move there!

We carried on our walk along the beach and tried to buy a drink at the cafe but it was closed so we walked slowly back along the waters edge. Vienna LOVED the water and got right on in! We weren't in togs so I had to restrain her before she got too far in.

A gorgeous way to spend a gorgeous summer day.