Max - My happy little man, one of the last photos of him before he had all of his hair cut off.
Lincoln - 8 weeks old and looking a lot less like a newborn every single day.
Linking up with Che & Fidel for 52 - a portrait a week.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
2/52
Max - My happy little man, one of the last photos of him before he had all of his hair cut off.
Lincoln - 8 weeks old and looking a lot less like a newborn every single day.
Linking up with Che & Fidel for 52 - a portrait a week.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Fishy Cake
Back when I shared the details of Max's birthday party I kind of promised I'd be back with details of the cake and decorations. Umm yeah, didn't quite happen sorry! Between having a baby, Christmas and my etsy shop things got a little crazy in December. But as promised here are the details of the cake :).
Before I tell you about the cake though, I want to share the invites I had made for the party. They were done for me by the very talented Julia at Kuku Couture Invitations. If you need invitations for any occasion you have to go check her out. She's an absolute dream to work with and makes the most gorgeous designs.
Now for the cake!
After pinning images like this and this I knew that I wanted to do scalloped icing, but with a more fishy feel to it. My plan was for it to look a bit like fish scales all over the cake.
I started off by making three dense chocolate mudcakes, then I layered them together with buttercream (the recipe I used is here) and crumb coated the whole lot. I'm by no means an expert at crumb coating (or cake making for that matter), to see how to do a good crumb coat you can check out this tutorial here.
Once the crumb coat had firmed up in the fridge for half an hour I started with the scalloped icing. Using the same buttercream I made up three different colours, blue, green and white, and then I half filled three seperate piping bags.
To get the scalloped fish-scale look I piped a series of icing dots vertically down the cake using number 12 round tips on my icing bags (I forgot to take a picture at the start, but you can see the dots in the picture below).
Once each vertical row of dots was done I would take the end of a teaspoon, push it into the middle of the icing dot and then drag it to the right. Then it was just a matter of repeating the entire way around the cake. I tried to keep my colour patterns nice and random for that fish scale look.
After the sides of the cake was finished I did the same thing around the top of the cake.
It was time consuming (it took me about 5 hours to ice all up!!), but definitely worth it, everyone loved it and it tasted delicious!
For the party I also made some fishing pole cupcakes (or rod-n-fish cakes as Max liked to call them!). They were super simple. I saw the idea on pinterest and went from there. I made vanilla cupcakes, piped a swirl of blue buttercream on top of each and then added a little fishing rod that I made out of bamboo skewers, twine and gummy fish. Super cute!
There you have it, Max's Fishy Cake... Better late than never right!?
(If you'd like to see more from Max's party you can see the party photos here and details of the party bags here.)
Before I tell you about the cake though, I want to share the invites I had made for the party. They were done for me by the very talented Julia at Kuku Couture Invitations. If you need invitations for any occasion you have to go check her out. She's an absolute dream to work with and makes the most gorgeous designs.
Now for the cake!
After pinning images like this and this I knew that I wanted to do scalloped icing, but with a more fishy feel to it. My plan was for it to look a bit like fish scales all over the cake.
I started off by making three dense chocolate mudcakes, then I layered them together with buttercream (the recipe I used is here) and crumb coated the whole lot. I'm by no means an expert at crumb coating (or cake making for that matter), to see how to do a good crumb coat you can check out this tutorial here.
Once the crumb coat had firmed up in the fridge for half an hour I started with the scalloped icing. Using the same buttercream I made up three different colours, blue, green and white, and then I half filled three seperate piping bags.
To get the scalloped fish-scale look I piped a series of icing dots vertically down the cake using number 12 round tips on my icing bags (I forgot to take a picture at the start, but you can see the dots in the picture below).
Once each vertical row of dots was done I would take the end of a teaspoon, push it into the middle of the icing dot and then drag it to the right. Then it was just a matter of repeating the entire way around the cake. I tried to keep my colour patterns nice and random for that fish scale look.
After the sides of the cake was finished I did the same thing around the top of the cake.
It was time consuming (it took me about 5 hours to ice all up!!), but definitely worth it, everyone loved it and it tasted delicious!
For the party I also made some fishing pole cupcakes (or rod-n-fish cakes as Max liked to call them!). They were super simple. I saw the idea on pinterest and went from there. I made vanilla cupcakes, piped a swirl of blue buttercream on top of each and then added a little fishing rod that I made out of bamboo skewers, twine and gummy fish. Super cute!
There you have it, Max's Fishy Cake... Better late than never right!?
(If you'd like to see more from Max's party you can see the party photos here and details of the party bags here.)
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Toddler Tuesday - Playing Matchy Match
Back before Christmas I made Max a matching pairs game for my project in the handmade gift round-up (you can see the tutorial here).
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I was actually really nervous for him to open it on Christmas day, I thought he might just brush it aside in favour of the things he asked Santa for (Angry birds, chuggington, trucks, fire engines etc).
So when he opened it and actually loved it I was equal parts happy and surprised. When we were playing with it on Christmas Day he asked me 'why you make this for me Mumma?' and I told him 'because I love you'. He gave me the cutest smile and said 'I love this thing you made for me Mumma'. Toddlers are seriously the sweetest thing on the planet!!
We've played it several times in the last week and I can't believe how good Max is at it. He definitely has a better memory than me!!
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I was actually really nervous for him to open it on Christmas day, I thought he might just brush it aside in favour of the things he asked Santa for (Angry birds, chuggington, trucks, fire engines etc).
So when he opened it and actually loved it I was equal parts happy and surprised. When we were playing with it on Christmas Day he asked me 'why you make this for me Mumma?' and I told him 'because I love you'. He gave me the cutest smile and said 'I love this thing you made for me Mumma'. Toddlers are seriously the sweetest thing on the planet!!
We've played it several times in the last week and I can't believe how good Max is at it. He definitely has a better memory than me!!
Monday, January 7, 2013
1/52
When Max was a baby I took hundreds and hundreds of photos of him. Not on the iPhone, but with my big old clunky 500D. I always had the camera with me and I love looking back at all of those photos.
I haven't been so great with the camera this time round, I tend to rely on my iphone and the ease of uploading photos to instagram.
But last week I remembered to get my camera out and take some 'proper photos' of my gorgeous boys. So when I heard (through Julia) about Che and Fidel's 52 week project I knew I needed to join in.
2 boys. 1 photo of each per week. 52 weeks.
Lincoln. 7 weeks. Smiling more. Crying less. 6.6 kilos and wearing size 00. Off the chart for height and weight. My beautiful big baby boy.
Max. 3 years. Happy. Fun. Independent. Funny face extraordinaire. Loving brother. My beautiful big boy.
I haven't been so great with the camera this time round, I tend to rely on my iphone and the ease of uploading photos to instagram.
But last week I remembered to get my camera out and take some 'proper photos' of my gorgeous boys. So when I heard (through Julia) about Che and Fidel's 52 week project I knew I needed to join in.
2 boys. 1 photo of each per week. 52 weeks.
Lincoln. 7 weeks. Smiling more. Crying less. 6.6 kilos and wearing size 00. Off the chart for height and weight. My beautiful big baby boy.
Max. 3 years. Happy. Fun. Independent. Funny face extraordinaire. Loving brother. My beautiful big boy.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Top Ten Blog Posts of 2012
I started 2012 off with a slew of DIY projects, but things definitely slowed down around these parts as my belly got bigger and bigger!
My top ten DIY projects (most viewed) from last year are:
My top ten DIY projects (most viewed) from last year are:
1. DIY TeePee from the Summer Pinterest Challenge
5. White Chocolate Lemon Truffles from the 12 Days of Christmas Round-Up
6. Jumbo Ruler Height Chart from the Winter Pinterest Challenge
10. Jelly Worms
I have a whole lot of projects planned for this year, I just need to find some spare time first!! Can't wait to share them all with you :).
Happy New Year!
2012 Highlights
Two Thousand and Twelve. It was a big year!
My beautiful Max went from being a baby to a little boy seemingly in the blink of an eye.
He is such a sweet, amazing little kid. He's clever and cheeky and has the funniest sense of humour. I am so blessed to be his mumma!
In 2012 I also fell pregnant and gave birth to my other gorgeous boy, Lincoln. He certainly is a handful, but we all love him enormously and are so happy that we get to have him as part of our family too.
Another huge highlight this year has been having my sister and her girls move to Brisbane. They lived with us for the first 6 months and now live just around the corner. Max loves spending time with his cousins and I absolutely adore being able to see my sister every couple of days.
A big achievement for me this year was opening my online store - Max and Me Homewares. It's been something I've wanted to do for years and I am so glad that I finally took the plunge and did it. Things have gotten off to a great start with some of my products featured in The Everygirl, LilSugar, an Etsy advertising special in Shop Til You Drop Magazine and an upcoming feature on The Doctor's Closet. I have so much fun making things for my customers and it has the ultimate bonus of meaning that I can stay at home with my boys for now :).
Here on the blog it was a great year too. I got a lot done early on the year (and a little less as my tummy got bigger and bigger towards the end of the year). Later on today I'll share my top ten posts from 2012.
I hope you all had a great year too, thanks so much for dropping by and being part of this amazing online community that is the blogging world. I look forward to spending 2013 being inspired by you all!!
My beautiful Max went from being a baby to a little boy seemingly in the blink of an eye.
He is such a sweet, amazing little kid. He's clever and cheeky and has the funniest sense of humour. I am so blessed to be his mumma!
In 2012 I also fell pregnant and gave birth to my other gorgeous boy, Lincoln. He certainly is a handful, but we all love him enormously and are so happy that we get to have him as part of our family too.
Another huge highlight this year has been having my sister and her girls move to Brisbane. They lived with us for the first 6 months and now live just around the corner. Max loves spending time with his cousins and I absolutely adore being able to see my sister every couple of days.
A big achievement for me this year was opening my online store - Max and Me Homewares. It's been something I've wanted to do for years and I am so glad that I finally took the plunge and did it. Things have gotten off to a great start with some of my products featured in The Everygirl, LilSugar, an Etsy advertising special in Shop Til You Drop Magazine and an upcoming feature on The Doctor's Closet. I have so much fun making things for my customers and it has the ultimate bonus of meaning that I can stay at home with my boys for now :).
Here on the blog it was a great year too. I got a lot done early on the year (and a little less as my tummy got bigger and bigger towards the end of the year). Later on today I'll share my top ten posts from 2012.
I hope you all had a great year too, thanks so much for dropping by and being part of this amazing online community that is the blogging world. I look forward to spending 2013 being inspired by you all!!
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A Better Christmas Recap
After my post the other day you would be forgiven for thinking that our Christmas was a total write-off. It wasn't though. Up until the incident with Sean's Aunt it was actually a really great Christmas day.
I was awake really early on Christmas morning (4am) feeding Lincoln and then I couldn't get back to sleep because I was so excited for Max. He really got into Christmas this year and understood what it was all about, so I was really, really, really looking forward to him waking up and seeing all the presents under the tree and in the stockings.
After Lincoln went back to sleep I climbed into bed with Max and tried to gently wake him up. He was sound asleep and I kept saying things to him like 'It's Christmas!' 'I think I just saw Santa!' 'There's a reindeer on the roof!', but he stayed sound asleep... Eventually I fell asleep and then woke up around 7am when Max *finally* woke up.
As soon as I realised he was awake I asked him if he knew what day it was. He looked sleepy and confused so I asked him if he thought that anyone special had visited us in the night. That clicked for him and he got sooooo excited. He yelled out 'It's Christmen Day!!' and jumped out of bed to go and see if Santa had been!
This was his 'crazy excited' face once he saw all the presents!
We got straight into the present opening and we started off with the Santa presents in his stocking (handmade by my very clever Mum). Max had so much fun opening his presents and loved every single one of them!
While we waited for Sean's brother to arrive we checked out the plate of treats we'd left out for Santa and his reindeer. He laughed and laughed when he saw that Santa had eaten the cookie and drank the milk, he thought it was so funny! I showed him the teeth marks in the carrot from the reindeer and all of a sudden he got serious and asked me where did the reindeer do their poo. Turns out he was worried that they had pooped on the roof. Too cute!!
The rest of the morning was spent opening more presents, playing with new toys, swimming, snuggling (with Lincoln) and eating Christmas lunch.
The next morning when we were back in Brisbane I came out of my bedroom about 5am to change Lincoln and found Max standing next to the Christmas tree crying. I hugged him and asked what was wrong and he said that the Elves hadn't left him a special treat (in the lead-up to Christmas the Elves had been leaving Max a candy cane on the tree each morning). I hugged him tighter and told him that Christmas was finished and that Santa and the elves would be back next year. The poor little thing cried even harder :(. I took him back to bed and thankfully he was much happier when he woke up later on. He did tell me though that he wanted it 'to go very quickly to be Christmen again'. So sweet!
Funny side note about the candy canes - after the third day of the elves leaving Max a candy cane I noticed that he was asking me to unwrap them, but then wasn't eating them. I asked him if he was happy that the elves were giving him candy canes and he said 'oh yes!'. Then I asked him if he liked to eat candy canes and he said 'ummm no, they taste like toothpaste'. I love that he was excited to get them even though he didn't like to eat them!
Because we had a rather traumatic end to our Christmas day I spent a lot of time on boxing day talking to Max about all the fun things that had happened at Christmas in the hopes that he would only remember the good stuff. I took this little video that evening and it makes me think that he still did have a good day :)
So although it wasn't the best Christmas I've ever had, I think Max thought it was a very special day and that's what it's all about :).
I hope you all had a really great Christmas with your loved ones too!!
I was awake really early on Christmas morning (4am) feeding Lincoln and then I couldn't get back to sleep because I was so excited for Max. He really got into Christmas this year and understood what it was all about, so I was really, really, really looking forward to him waking up and seeing all the presents under the tree and in the stockings.
After Lincoln went back to sleep I climbed into bed with Max and tried to gently wake him up. He was sound asleep and I kept saying things to him like 'It's Christmas!' 'I think I just saw Santa!' 'There's a reindeer on the roof!', but he stayed sound asleep... Eventually I fell asleep and then woke up around 7am when Max *finally* woke up.
As soon as I realised he was awake I asked him if he knew what day it was. He looked sleepy and confused so I asked him if he thought that anyone special had visited us in the night. That clicked for him and he got sooooo excited. He yelled out 'It's Christmen Day!!' and jumped out of bed to go and see if Santa had been!
This was his 'crazy excited' face once he saw all the presents!
We got straight into the present opening and we started off with the Santa presents in his stocking (handmade by my very clever Mum). Max had so much fun opening his presents and loved every single one of them!
While we waited for Sean's brother to arrive we checked out the plate of treats we'd left out for Santa and his reindeer. He laughed and laughed when he saw that Santa had eaten the cookie and drank the milk, he thought it was so funny! I showed him the teeth marks in the carrot from the reindeer and all of a sudden he got serious and asked me where did the reindeer do their poo. Turns out he was worried that they had pooped on the roof. Too cute!!
The rest of the morning was spent opening more presents, playing with new toys, swimming, snuggling (with Lincoln) and eating Christmas lunch.
The next morning when we were back in Brisbane I came out of my bedroom about 5am to change Lincoln and found Max standing next to the Christmas tree crying. I hugged him and asked what was wrong and he said that the Elves hadn't left him a special treat (in the lead-up to Christmas the Elves had been leaving Max a candy cane on the tree each morning). I hugged him tighter and told him that Christmas was finished and that Santa and the elves would be back next year. The poor little thing cried even harder :(. I took him back to bed and thankfully he was much happier when he woke up later on. He did tell me though that he wanted it 'to go very quickly to be Christmen again'. So sweet!
Funny side note about the candy canes - after the third day of the elves leaving Max a candy cane I noticed that he was asking me to unwrap them, but then wasn't eating them. I asked him if he was happy that the elves were giving him candy canes and he said 'oh yes!'. Then I asked him if he liked to eat candy canes and he said 'ummm no, they taste like toothpaste'. I love that he was excited to get them even though he didn't like to eat them!
Because we had a rather traumatic end to our Christmas day I spent a lot of time on boxing day talking to Max about all the fun things that had happened at Christmas in the hopes that he would only remember the good stuff. I took this little video that evening and it makes me think that he still did have a good day :)
So although it wasn't the best Christmas I've ever had, I think Max thought it was a very special day and that's what it's all about :).
I hope you all had a really great Christmas with your loved ones too!!
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