Swimming Pool Birthday Cake

Tomorrow, Nick turns 37 and his special request was a cake he remembers dreaming about as a young boy... the Swimming Pool Cake from the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book. I did a quick search and found a photo and the recipe at Ruby-Jo.

I was happy to oblige ~ Elly and I had lots of fun making it today. We are stretching the celebrations out over two days so he had his cake tonight (he couldn't resist) and we'll go out for a fun Teppanyaki dinner tomorrow night.

It was so easy to put together... paper umbrellas, green jelly (jello), chocolate sticks, licorice ladder, jelly snakes for rubber rings and little plastic babies. I painted their bathers on with red nail polish!

We couldn't find a single candle, but we had a packet of sparklers that came in handy;

There was, of course, a glittery party hat for the birthday boy;

(Apparently his boss is always telling him he has glitter on his face at work. He has to do a quick 'glitter check' before every meeting!)

In the time it took me to get a knife and bowls to serve the cake, the girls had made sure every baby had dived into the jelly and had a 'swim';

This was definitely a fun cake to make and one I would love to make again (And that's not something I usually say, after making a cake!).

A Mum from Preschool gave me a great tip... white buttercream frosting under the jelly, so the 'water' doesn't look murky. And it was so yummy... I never realised jelly and and cake is such a good combination!

Happy Birthday, Nick!

Pretty Peg Dolls

I have been experimenting with some odds and ends - fabric scraps, ribbon, buttons and glitter (all my favourite things) and came up with these little dolls.

With flower beads for crowns;

Over-size button belts;

Sparkly hair and love-heart lips!

Four little dolls, all in a row...

Much more fun to make than the painted Peggy Legs Dolls I made so long ago. Using fabric and other embellishments makes them even sweeter, I think.

Baby Hats

I wanted to make some little hats for our friend's new baby boy and I found a great Top Knot Baby Hat Tutorial at Prudent Baby.

It was my first time sewing with knits and it was actually a lot easier than I had imagined. Of course, I was focussing so much on not stretching the fabric as I went, that I forgot about other important things like matching up stripes on the side seams and changing my zigzag to a smaller stitch size.

Oh well... I think they turned out pretty cute anyway!

Then I couldn't resist making one for a little girl too...

I really love making these, its so nice to work with fabric that is so soft...

They are such quick and easy gifts to make, easily addictive!

Six Years Ago Today

Put a Bird On It

Oh, how I wish we had this show in Australia. Portlandia....It looks hilarious!

If you want to have a good laugh, watch this clip. It always cheers me up. If you love craft and want a simple solution to all your worries, I am sure it will put a smile on your face too...

Princess Party

Two weeks ago, my eldest daughter turned five. We celebrated with family, hosting a very simple princess party at home. So simple and so last minute, that I didn't even have time to make or send proper party invitations, which is not like me at all (Usually I plan these things months in advance!). I really wasn't feeling very well, but as always, I did enjoy making some special things for the party and making a fuss of my beautiful girl.

Almost everything was done at the last minute, including Tissue Paper Pom-Poms;

Paper Doily Bunting with photos of each year of her life (although she was very quick to tell me that she was actually four years old in the last picture...)

A Princess dress and special crown;

Crowns for all the Princes and Princesses attending the party;

(When you leave everything to the last minute, you really can't expect to find crowns that colour-coordinate with the party colours!)

I quickly drew and water-coloured a game of 'Pin the Crown on the Princess';

We had a Princess Castle Pinata;

(It got a little dangerous with the golf club! Especially those of us who were taking out our frustrations at the Census work on the poor old Pinata!)


We stuck with trusted favourites for party food... sausage rolls, party pies and mini hot dogs (thanks to Nick for his kitchen and serving skills...if it were left to me, I would have burned the house down, for sure!), as well as cheese platters, jelly cups, chips and lollies;

I made a Mars Bar Slice with pink sprinkles as well as some chocolate dipped strawberries and bought some Raspberry and Strawberry Macaroons;

I already had some Princess fabric to brighten up the table...

I had made some cookies in the shape of princess crowns, but the icing dried funny and they ended up covered in a sickly looking pink-and-white marbled effect so I ditched them (ie. Nick ate them over the next couple of days).

And the cake. The very underwhelming wonky castle cake;

I had grand plans for this cake, but at the last minute we decided to take Livvie out for a special birthday dinner the night before the party (I still hadn't made the cake at this point) and then as an extra special treat, we drove across town for dessert at a new chocolate shop Sucre. It was so worth it, but we got home late and it didn't really leave me much time to get creative;

But the main thing was Livvie loved it all;

She had a great time at her party;

And it was a very Happy 5th Birthday!

Warm Cool Quilt

Oh, the irony of starting a quilt two months ago... a baby quilt. I had no idea I was pregnant and yet, when I saw the beautiful Quilt-along at the amazing blog In Color Order, I knew I had to start one straight away.

It was a great project for using up scraps and involved lots of small steps, so I could do just a little each day. And before I knew it...

I learned how to make Half-Square Triangles and I now absolutely love this technique. And although I am definitely not one for accurate measuring, I really enjoyed the precision cutting that this quilt required ~ and somehow, in the end, all those points matched up!

I found some cute backing fabric at Spotlight with little birds and birdhouses and although it's a bit 'loud' (next time, I think I should aim to have a 'loud side' and a 'quiet side' to a quilt!), I like how it turned out. I finished hand-stitching the binding last night and it was ready for action today.

I have given this quilt to Livvie, but as you can see, I think it is something we can all enjoy;

Simple Things

What a week it has been, honestly a bit of a roller coaster. Thankfully there was no ectopic pregnancy and the 'cyst' near my ovary is resolving itself naturally. This was the best news I could have had... and even though thats what I got, it somehow (of course) didn't make things seem any better.

Thank goodness for my two little girls, who keep me busy. I just love being at home with them... they have been amazing through this whole ordeal and truly, make everything easier to deal with. This week we have enjoyed the simple things...

Playing puzzles in our pyjamas;

Boards games at brunch;

It really is so nice to just sit down and watch children play;

All the wonderful little worlds they create;

Dress ups is always a favourite, with the costume jewellery;

Adding a bit of sparkle always brightens our day. Just like...

...watching Elly play the cymbols with her feet!

There have been plenty of games of 'Hide & Seek';

A little bit of painting;

'The Great Snail Race' by Elly

Washing up their little play-kitchen utensils;

Discovering a huge page of templates in one of my quilting magazines and transforming it into a colourful poster;

Yesterday, a picnic at the Wildflower garden;

And today, a morning at the water park;

So many things to be grateful for and many moments {and chocolate biscuits} savoured.