messyart

nesting

So latley i've been nesting like crazy (NO, i am not pregnant!)

We've been in this house for a year now and i just need to feel like we are not still unpacking! (yes, we are still unpacking). So i've been working hard trying to get rooms finished.  I've been hanging stuff up on walls, decorating, moving stuff around (a thousand times) driving the Mr. crazy....i'm sure. But slowly, slowly it's all coming together! We are on a limited (aka non-existent) budget too, so i am having to get a little creative.

I'm also cleaning....cleaning out cupboards, cleaning out drawers. The kind of cleaning that actually creates more of a mess. You know what i'm talking about, right? When you empty ALL your cupboards and drawers and get them super cleaned and organised... leaving you trying to figure out what to do with this.....

But your cupboards look great ;)

But it's not all bad....

painting was a gift from my sister from @ NZKAT Designs
Hook from Urban outfitters, headphones from Typo

cute baby from me :)
books are a garage sale find, my collection of Frankie
Painting a gift from an artist who once came into my resaraunt, painted box from Urban Groove, books and jar are thrifted, oragami is from my son.
rocks (top one was a gift from my daughter)
crates: urban outfitters and thrifted
wall map and decor: Typo
Moustache: Typo, Ties: The Pickle Face Place

print : Katie Daisy

Love print: Katie Daisy
I also whipped up a little chalkboard for my coffee/tea station. I picked up the board for less than $10 and it only took me 5 minutes to write on it...and i am so please with the result!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Paper Runway in Byron {ahhh... paper love}

This is where i will be this weekend.

 

What are your plans?

word

We've been having some issues with our internet connection. I've been without internet for a couple of weeks till now (thus the break from posting). Hopefully everything sorted now and our internet will behave :)

I've been working on some new print ideas for the shop. These are just works in progress, but i'd love to know what you think.

You'll see some random posts come up here and there (out of order) as i try and catch up on some half written posts i started while we lost our internet.  It's all good :)

a good good friday and an Easter DIY

family time at the beach....

This is a little Easter DIY project i did, tute poted over on the RubyJu blog.

 Now were off to dye some eggs :) Happy good Friday to you !

Last minute Birthday invites

So the kids birthday parties are in 4 and 6 days respectively, and i still hadn't made the invites. The kids woke up this morning with complaints of "Muuuuuuum!  Haven't you made our INVITES yet?! MUUUUUUUM....you SAID you would make them by now! What are you doing? Why aren't they done!" Well lets see, between planning 5 birthdays in 2 weeks and an upcoming 60th and 70th and Easter lunch at my house, and running around with an IMPOSSIBLE toddler, soccer, dance, homework, dinners, lunches, grocery shopping, paying bills, fixing wardrobes that keep falling apart, breaking up constant squabbles between 4 kids and constantly picking up after EVERYBODY (because , as it seems, no one remembers how to put away shoes, clothes, their dishes after dinner, their toys or homework or anything, really)....hmmmm, nothing really kids. I've just been a bit lazy, sorry.

But really, their complaints are a bit justified, i should have made them by now. I know this. It's 6am when these complaints are being wailed at me and i realise i need to send them to school with invites. Today. In 2 hours. What to do, what to do?

First , grab a pen and the kids coloured markers.....and draw. Nothing fancy, but still has to be cute.

Now this next idea i know i've used before, and only recently at that, but who says i can't use a good idea twice. Especially when it's to different recipients?!

 Entoni's invites were a littler easier again. My friend Bec had given me this cute little notebook which i carry around with me. It's got really cute pages in it. I just tore my favourite page out and wrote the invites on that. Then i scanned it into the computer and printed in out onto heavier weight paper and then cut them out. I used more pages from the book to decorate the envelopes and Viola!

INVITATIONS ARE DONE!

And we were only 5 minutes late for school ;P

(remember, i was doing this while i was feeding/changing/dressing/entertaining a busy toddler and getting 3 kids ready for school)

 

stuff

Remember this?

It has turned into this so far, but still not finished.... (details were taken out, thus the big white space ;)

I organised the inside of my pantry doors last night with some wall letters.

 

Nothing exciting, i know. But i had some extra letters left so i decided to write the kids a message for them to find in the morning....

So they left me one back....

Love when i get little messages from the kids :) This next weeks gonna be busy as we (RubyJu) get ready for the Wedding Expo coming up. This will be the first expo i've done, but not the first for RubyJu. But i'm looking forward to it!

Hope your having a lovely day.

a birthday, a green tree frog and lots of pink sweetness...

Yep, random...i know.

The kids found this little guy in our backyard. Entonis a total frog lover, and wanted to keep him as a pet. Mean mummy... i said no. But they did have a little play with him ;)

My little neice had her 4th birthday yesterday. Her fave colour is pink (of course) so i threw together and very simple little sweet table for her party...

For the jello i made little toppers with words that described the birthday girl :)

Happy Birthday sweet little girl! I hope you have lots of new and exciting adventures now that your 4 years old! You are my favourite neice in the whole world!!!!! 

xx

For her gift, i made her a little craft box using stuff i already had on hand. The box was packaging to an album i got years ago, magnets are made by me, the craft stuff is all extra stuff i buy but never use (shocking, right), and then i just made a little label for the box :)

We had fun celebrating and relaxing mostly by the pool, which was perfect on such a HOT day! My brothers got a pool table, so we played a few games of pool. I used to LOVE pool, and was pretty ok at it too. Seems when you haven't played in years you loose it all :(. I couldn't even sink a ball the first game!

Dad wasn't much better (sorry dad!). However it did start coming back, cause i won the next game! (again, sorry dad ;)

We also had heaps of fun making videos of eachother using my new favourite app! I'm sorry to anyone who has me on FB, you must be so sick of all my videos by now, lol! But i just can't get enough :) :) :)

I love days spent with the family just chilling. It's a shame we always have to wait till it's somebodys birthday to do it! 

And on a final note....is there something wrong with me? Because i bought TJ this toy (you race cars down it) and was really annoyed that it looked so ugly in my lounge room.

So i painted it to match. My lounge room that is. Is that kinda OTT?

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

DIY valentines bunting and some sweet ideas

Today was crazy busy getting ready for a little Vday party we were holding for the kids. They loved it! Will post more on that tomorrow.  I did manage to sneak it some cuddle time with my VERY NEEDY very cute little man...

Heres one of the things i made for our little party. It's heart bunting...yes i'm sure you've seen it before, it's definitley not an original idea. I, however, dont know how to use a sewing machine, so my buntings hand-sewn (which sounds hard, but is really really easy! Promise!)

Heres what you need:

some twine

pretty paperbook pages...anything you can cut a heart out of :)

needle with a hole large enough to fit twine in

scissors 

step 1: cut your hearts out of the papers. You can use a template if you want, but i just wimged it with mine. Adds more character if they're not all the same. I think anyways ;)

Cut out as many as you need. I did  7 strings with 6-7 hearts on each. I did alot because we used it as a photo backdrop.

Step 2: Cut your twine to the desired lenghth. Thread it through the needle but don't double it. Tie a knot at the bottom so your bottom heart doesn't fall off.

Step 3: Thread your twine through the centre of your hearts. I put a hole at the bottom point and the top point. You can use a peice of foam (sit it under the hearts) to poke the holes a little more easily.

Thread as many hearts as you want onto each piece of twine. When your done, just hang them! I was originally going to hang mine from a piece of driftwood that i'd painted white. 

Also, for more Valentines ideas, check out my posts here and here.

 

Shhh....it's a surprise! Oh, and i can't spell. Obviously.

So my good friend Bec and I have been busy planning a surprise Valentines day party for the kiddies today. I know Valentines is on Tuesday, but we've got school, dance, work....blah blah blah. So Friday it is. Plus, our local park is having a 'Movie night Under The Stars" so we thought it would be fun to end the night at the movies in the park :)

Because it's a surprise, i've been working on all the decorations and bits at night when the kids are asleep.

Never mind my half painted toes.

Because i've been up so late these last few nights, the Mr. has been waking up with TJ so i can have a bit of a sleep-in in the mornings.  This morning my gorgeous daughter brought me up a cup of tea....

Sweet.

Theres an idea i've had in my head for years, something i want to do for Valentines....a new tradition to start. Every year i say 'i'll do it this year' and then i always seem to run out of time. I've done it (or not done it) again this year :(

Feeling frustrated at myself....

I do have a cute little Vday tute i plan to post later today...

Anyways, got a full day of getting ready for this little Vday party of ours. Of to bake a cake .  Have a lovely friday !

happy thoughts {mini album}

It's be a VERY RAINY last few days....so much so that the kids have been home early from school everyday this week due to flooding. Perfect weather for crafting i say!

This was a class i taught years ago, called " Make it Yourself". I called it that because in this class we made everything ourselves, embellishments, pockets, tags, patterned paper, labels... Needless to say it was a long class, but one of my favourites to teach. I haven't scrapbooked in years. Life just got busy, priorities changed and for a long time there i was a single mum with 3 kids and no free time. I still have pizza boxes FULL of layouts ( i never did get around to bying albums). Occasionally i think i would like to create something, but my stuff is all still in boxes and i never remember to print photos anymore. But i have been pulling out some layouts from the past that make me smile. I might start posting some of them for old times sake. Just be kind, and remember that most of the layouts are OLD, at least 4 or 5 years old. And i haven't kept up with the scrapbooking world in YEARS! I'd have no idea what 'in' and whats not today :)

I posted a pic of this album and a couple of you said you would love the class notes. I thought i still had them, but i can't find them! However, i thought i could just post pics of the album instead. And if you do make an album inspired by this one, don't forget to share your pics, would love to see it!

Happy Crafting :)