messyart

Easter (in pictures)

Hello dear friends :)

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! Ours was a bit hectic as we also celebrated 4 birthdays that weekend (my mum, the twins and my sisters boyfriend!) For a bit of fun, the kids and i decided to theme our Easter lunch. We went with a Mad Hatters Tea Party theme, and asked everyone to wear a fun hat. It was really awesome to see everyones creations. At the end of the day the adults and kids took turns modelling thier hats in a fashion parade of sorts and then we all voted on a winner. It was really fun, and now im thinking i might have to make this a new easter tradition!

Anyway, here's our Easter in pictures...

(the kids finding thier baskets)

 (the Easter bunny always brings us books, pj's, a new toothbrush a choccie bunnie and a few little choccie eggs)
(little man was excited to find his eggs most of all)
The table was set with mismatched vintage china, and decorated with mismathced diolies, ceramic bunnies of all sizes, spotted egs, little clocks and tea cups. We had crooked frames and an oversized playing card bunting hanging on the wall. Unfortunatley i seemed to have lost some of my photos in the transfer from phone to computer, but you'll get the idea ;)

Of course, there was the Easter egg hunt....

and then there were the hats...

Well, he doesnt have a hat on, but he's still super cute <3

 and the sweet little winner was...

We had a wonderful day filled with family, good food , laughter, and plenty of sugar and silliness! I hope you did too ;) So from our family to yours we wish you a Hoppy Easter!

The Wedding Harvest....in pictures

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day! Judi from Little Gray Station did a fabulous job co-ordinating the event. It was so nice to meet so many creative peolpe, put faces to names, and meet so many like-minded people! Everyones stall was so lovley, and i really enjoyed seeing all the gorgeous talent out there. Heres just a few of the wonderful faces i met...

Kate caddle 

Birds of a Feather 
Venice and Me
Love to Give
Jennifer Gifford Designs
Little Gray station
Elyssium Blooms 

This was our stall ( RubyJu Events) for the day.

Signage was all done by hand by me.

Anyway, im off for a play date with my little man. Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

New Years in Pictures

The party was gorgeous! But i was too busy running around drinking and having fun to remember to take pictures :(. So this is all i have. We did have a lovely big breakfast with freinds from the night before, and then spent the rest of our first day of the year having Dance-off battles on the Wii and swimming in the pool. 

Hope you had a lovely new years! All the best for 2013!!!!

Almost ready....and a DIY

Weve been busy around here getting ready for New Years. I really wanted this year to be able to just relax and celebrate with friends, so we decided to have a small party with just s few friends at our house. We've made room for anyone to be able to stay over, so theyre are no concerns about having to get home after a few drinks. Because so many of our friends have kids, we decided to convert the outdoor study to a kids hangout equipped with lounges, a Wii, DVD's and they're very own food and dessert table and massive bowl of glow sticks, necklaces, bracelets...glow everything, party poppers, party crowns...all your party needs ;) This way they have a place to hang out and give room to the adults to relax and just have fun without a thousand kids running around us! The theme (just because i have to theme everything) was "All That Glitters..." We all had sparkly outfits to wear...even the boys!

I've made sparkly pipecleaner headbands (pics on Insatgram) , new photo props, sparkly cocktail stirrers, glitter bunting, and glittered all my candle votives.

This was an easy little project. I know there's lots of DIY's on the net for this kind of thing, but i just used what i had on hand. I'm not sure if it's the best way to do it, but i was really happy with the result. I had a whole bunch of glass candle holders a friend gave me, but you can always pick them up from the cheap shop for a fair price. 

You'll need some glass candle votives , mod podge , a foam brush , glitter, and a bowl.

1. Wash your votives well and dry completely.

2. Holding your votive in one hand, use the foam brush to paint the mod podge onto the bottom half of your votive. I free-handed it , but if that makes you nervous or you want a more precise finish, you could cover the top half of your votive with masking tape.

3. Quickly sprinkle your glitter generously onto the modge podge. Sprinkle it over a bowl to capture the excess glitter as it falls.

I also did a couple of larger jars to use for flowers and photo props.

**Make sure to tap the top of your votive to shake all the excess glitter off.

4. Once done,  place aside and let dry overnight. Then , if your votive doesn't already have a candle in it, add your tealight candle and your done!

Now just sit back and enjoy the sparkly lights of your Glitter Votives!

 

 

 

 

 

A few more Xmas pics...

Because we had a smaller geathering for Christmas, we didn't go all out. But me being me, i couldn't help but still have a cute Christmas setting :)

I had flowers that i'd picked up from the supermarket, mixed in with flowers from my garden. I placed them in jars wrapped with paper diolies and twine. Simple and effective. The table was scattered with pinecones the kids had collected and painted themselves, and we picked up some DIY cracker kits from spotlight and made our own Christmas Crackers as place settings for everyone.

 Most everything was made from stuff i had lying around the house this year, as i was on a mission to be extremely budget friendly this year and re-use instead of replace where ever i could.

 This is an 'After" photo of our Xmas lunch which was put on by my mother and sister (Mmmmmm....thank-you-very-much!)

 I did the desserts. I tried my hand at making truffles using this recipe here. I also made a delicious gluten free lemon cake, but cheated on the pavlova using a store bought base but covering it with a homemade marscapone and brandy cream and fresh berries and served it with a homemade raspberry coulis.

Now it's time to start getting ready for New Years! 

DIY : Halloween Treat Jars

So here a quick and easy (and cheap, too!) Halloween tute for y'all. Most likely if you eat food and celebrate Halloween, you have most of the materials for this right at home :)

Heres what you need!

• Some old jars with lids
• Black spray paint
• Glue
• Some small cheap Halloween toys/decor ( i got mine from the $2 shop last year for.....$2! )

 

 1. In a well ventillated area, Spray paint the jar lids black. Let dry.

2. Once dry, glue your Halloween toys to the tops of the lids, and let dry completely.

3. Fill your jars with some lollies, and there you go! Quick, easy and cheap little Halloween treats!

You could also fill them with popcorn kernals (to be popped) and add a cute little tag with popping instructions. This would be a cheaper and healthier option to lollies.

I have a few more Halloween bits and peices i'll be posting over the next few weeks :)

What are you doing for Halloween this year?

Did you see our Halloween last year? We went all out on the decorating and the food, it was so much fun! 

 

My littlest man turned 2!!!

So we celebrated a birthday this weekend. My littlest man turned 2, which makes me happy because i love this age :) 

( i know, i say that about every age, but i guess i just love it all)

But it also makes me sad because he is growing up so fast! Too fast . *sigh* His real birthday was tuesday before the weekend. In true mumma style we celebreated from tuesday to sunday! He didn't understant at first, but very quickly realised that everyime someone sang him Happy Birthday, it was usually followed with the presentation of a gift of some sort. So then he spent the next few day singing himself Happy Birthday and then turning to us with an expectant look on his face. It was kinda super cute.

He opened his gifts from the kids in bed. They had made up thoughtful little gifts from toys and treasures from their room, and had each made him their own card. So sweet. This little man just has no idea how very loved he is .

Then we made him some blue pancakes with sprinkles on top. (The blue was an accident, the sprinkles turned them blue! ) And we blew up balloons and had them scattered over the lounge , cause he loves balloons. That was his actual Bday celebrations.

The Mr. and i had planned to have his room finished for his birthday. Somehow, things just didnt work out, but although it may not be finished, we did get alot done. We were making him a reading bed out of an old pallet, i'll share some pics of that soon. 

But heres some pillows my dear friend made for his reading bed...

And a hanging decoration she made for him last year that we only finally got to hanging up! (Just don't mind the ugly table cloth/curtain behind it. We still have no proper window fittings!)

And these are some little canvas's i made.

Today we celebrated his birthday with family and friends. 

We had lots of food and lots of fun. Although not everyone could be there, as my sister was overseas, mum was working to cover for her and my brother was fishing ( nice one, Jamil ;P ). 

This was the set up before everyone came :)

 

Can you spot the birthday boy?

 OUtdoor Daybed....where i plan to spend this evening ;)

Pinyata.

Photo Bunting. 

Mojitos....yum! 

Food

Just desserts thrown onto a table, NOT a dessert table ;)

The commotion was all just a little too much for daddy...

Happy Birthday Little man!

a missing coffee tradgedy....and other stuff

So on the weekend i attended/helped with my good friends daughters birthday party. This woman never ceases to amaze me with her talent. Just so creative! Unfortunatley i can't post any pics....but hopefully she will soon! And then i'll add a link to her pics :)

But the morning before i was supposed to go round and help her set up was a terrible morning. And to top that, my coffee machine was dead.

D.E.A.D.

Not cool.

So in the middle of all the craziness i told all the kids to get into the car, in thier pjs, no shoes on....just get into the car quick, quick , quick! Wedrove down to my fave coffee joint and i grabbed the largest takeaway available. Ahhhhhh.....the peace within me was restored. Life was ok now, i had coffee.

So i get back home and get everyone back inside and continue my morning craziness but this time at least with..... what.....wait... Where's my coffee??????

I looked everywhere, the bathroom, the car, the fridge, the stove.......WHERE WAS MY COFFEE!!!!!!!

After a good 20minutes of looking i realised i was wasting time (i was already late) and gave up. But it was like some kind of sick joke, so desperatley needing coffee, knowing there was a damn good one somewhere in my house, but not knowing where.

Torture i tell you.

Anywho....the party was gorgeous (of course) and the girls all had a great day.

Happy belated Birthday Miss Abigail!!!! You are quite simply AMAZING and we love having you to brighten our days :)

After the days craziness i get home, open up my pantry cupboard to start on dinner and guess what i found.

not cool.

 

it only took 11 years...

But i finally got to throw a little girl (well, maybe not so little now) Party! Woot woot! Yes i was very excited :) There was no 'theme' as such, i just had lots of random ideas i wanted to use. The colours were loosely lavendar, light turquoise and just a splash of fushia. I didn't get a whole lot of pics, in all the business, but i did manage to snap a few instagram shots...

 

This was thier little sitting area where they had water in cute little jars and sweets from the dessert table.
Speaking of desserts....











I set up a craft table with little jars filled with craft goodies for each girl. My friend Bec and I also made them each a little mini album and notebook to decorate. They LOVED this bit, even more than i thought they would. I loved watching them craft and chat away happily. It kept them busy for almost 2 hours! They each decorated thier albums and notebooks, and each made thier own hairclips from felt, buttons and flowers.

My favourite idea was the 'Milk and Cookies' bar i set up in the loungeroom for when they watched their movie (Alice in Wonderland). The couch was covered with blankets and pillows and we had a few blow-up matresses' on the floor as well. Above them i (the Mr.) had hung some light blue and white balloons, just for fun. I was going to hand silver stars as well, but we ran out of time :(

The "milk and cookies' bar had little bottles of milk, stacks of freshly baked oatmeal choc chip cookies and little boxes of freshly popped popcorn. I made some little clouds (tutorial to come) and hung them above the 'bar'. It looked so sweet. Unfortunatley i didn't get any photos during the day as i hadn't popped the popcorn yet. So the pictures don't quite capture the real feel. But it looked SOOOOOO cute! And at night, when we turned the lamp on, the starts were so sparkly and glittery! 

The girls were awesome. I have to admit i was a bit nervous about having 7 girls staying over, but they were just great. They did stay up ridiculously late, but i guess thats part of the fun, right? One of the girls had her own iPhone, and Tat thought it would be fun to send me text messages all night while i was trying to sleep. (it was kinda funny). I don't know how they all had so much energy the next morning though. I was dying.....sooooo tired.

And would you believe that i ran out of coffee beans! I went to make a coffee and couldn't because i had no beens left!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I called mum to see if she would go pick me up a take-away coffee and bring it to me, but to no avail (she didnt answer)

So i opened the coffee bean grinder and scraped up all the beans i could, pulled the machine out to see if any beans had fallen behind, checked the fridge to see if any had fallen out of my last bag. I searched EVERYWHERE! Kinda like the way we used to scour the house for spare change as a teenager to be able to get up enough money to catch a bus/buy some ciggies(yes, i used to smoke, shame shame)/ grab some junkfood. I managed to scrape up a pathically small handful, but still not enough to grind me a shot of coffee. Why oh why don't coffee places DELIVER?

Anywho....somehow i made it through the day without coffee. All the girls were gone just before lunch, and my exhausted little 11year old had a VERY long nap.It was a good day.

Now i just need to get through Entoni's party tomorrow!

 

 

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)