14 Days of Valentine's

I am so excited to be working with Jade from Super Organiser Mum on a range of printables she has in mind for her lovely readers. I had the pleasure of meeting with Jade and when she asked me to design these Valentines printables I was so excited. I think this is just a beautiful idea, very simple to do but what a lovely little tradition to start. 

These are a set of 14 little numbered cards that you can use to write little love notes to your special loved ones. For us, Valentine's has always been a family thing. My Mum used to give us cards and a little chocolate or sheet of heart stickers as we grew up. So I will be doing these little love notes for my kiddos as well as my husband.

Each card is numbered for each day in the lead up to Valentine's Day. You can use them as little note cards, or as activity cards for crafts and baking.

 We are using a little paper mail box my husband made. Isn't he clever? I guess him taking technical drawing in High School has payed off! He said he wasn't quite "finished" with it as it wasn't perfect but I LOVE it. And of course couldn't wait to 'decorate' it. {hmm, crookedly I can now see in my photos}

I decorated it with a little flag and the label that comes with the 14 Days of Valentine's Printable as well as a few cut out hearts. 

I can't wait to write my little notes. Each morning my beautiful family will have a lovely little note to read just waiting for them in this cute little mailbox. Although we tell each other we love each other everyday and we do things that show that, this is just such a beautiful and fun way to do that little bit extra around Valentine's day.

See how Jade has decorated and used these cards here, just beautiful! She also has a list of a number of different ways you could use these. 

You can get your very own copy of this beautiful 14 Card Set over at Jade's. 

gifts

As Christmas has now come and gone and the initial novelty of new gifts has worn off, what are we loving still?

The little guy:

Blocks! He has been playing with these non-stop for ages now. We have progressed from building on the floor to building on a table to keep his masterpieces away from a certain crawly baby.

I have become quite the real estate photographer!

This house has a carport ... 

But this one has an outdoor pool ...

This Globe is a hit, too. We can colour it in, put dots on places he has been to, circle places we want to go etc. It is incredibly important to me that Noah be well educated in geography and other cultures and customs. Which is why we have Travel Night which I will devote a whole post to one day soon. 

The little girl:

I was so excited to give her this gift for Christmas. I have mentioned her Bit Of Whimsy Doll before... but it is just so very beautiful. The quality is just fabulous. I could not be happier with this doll. And Sarah, the very talented woman behind Bit Of Whimsy Dolls, couldn't be more pleasant to work with! Thank you Sarah! 

A sand and water table. We just place it on the ground instead of having it on its legs. She loves it. It's such a great sensory experience for her. Now to work on her not putting the sand in her mouth.

For us grownups:

My husband and I are big on practical gifts. 

I am loving my waffle maker {ok, not an 'essential' or even 'necessary' item, but it's practical! It makes waffles! :o) }

Hubby asked for a wok, he is having so much fun with it. And since receiving it he has been making the best stirfry!

 

to do today

First weekend back from holiday and last weekend before school starts - I think I may go mad!

My to do list for today (that will carry over to tomorrow) is a little overwhelming at the moment. 

Not pictured is

*grocery shopping

*dust and vacuum house

*finish unpacking

*bake banana bread and muffins

What's your weekend looking like?

Happy Australia Day!

I hope that you are enjoying your Australia Day!

I am proud of us, we are a great country and we come together when our fellow Aussies need a hand. Over $100 million has been raised for flood victims in the last month! 

I am heartbroken by the extent of the damage these floods have caused. The loss of loved ones is of course irreplaceable. But we can help rebuild lives and we are doing that.

Hug an Aussie today! I know I will be. :)

here

Right now, I am here.

This is where I grew up.

This is where a bit of my heart will always stay.

This is where my family all converge, even though we have grown and moved and made lives elsewhere. We visit our parents here, and life is as we knew it before. Fun, laughter, late nights talking. 

My holiday here is almost over. It's not as often as I'd like that we get back here, and I am going to miss it. I love that I have the chance to teach my children so much about another country, culture, language. I feel that as we continue to visit here as they grow it will help them to learn charity, humility, tolerance and openness.

I feel that when I am here, I re-awaken. I have time to truly take stock of life and count my many blessings. And although going back to 'reality' and everyday life isn't a bad thing at all, who wouldn't love to stay here just one more week, or maybe a month?

valentine's day fortune cookies

I found this super cute tutorial for Valentine's felt fortune cookies here. 

They were really very simple to make.

Instructions:

Cut your circles out. I used a ramekin to get my circles, I think they turned out to be a good size.

Fold in half and use a hot glue gun. Remember to leave a space for your 'fortune' or place it there just before gluing to make it a little easier later on. {trying to smoosh the little messages into the finished cookies was a little difficult}.

Once dry, fold in half and secure with a little more hot glue. 

I made all my cookies and then tried to put my fortunes in them. Because of the shape of the cookies this means my fortunes come out quite a bit crumpled, so to save that from happening next time I'll place them on the cookie during the glueing process. Just be careful not to actually glue the fortune in there!

They turned out super cute, and I will use them on everyone's breakfast plates on Valentine's morning. :)

This was a fun and easy project. The 'fortunes' I used aren't really fortunes but just little love notes. 

Feel free to download them! There are some blank ones too so you can write up your own little messages to include in your cookies! 

{download here}

technical issues

Firstly, I am delighted that so many of you want to download my Australia Day toppers & flags! It really makes my day to know that people like the work that I do and the thought of them being used to brighten up an occasion in your homes is such a nice feeling. 

Secondly, I have received a lot of emails about it not being able to download properly. I've had a look and I can't work out why it isn't working so I've decided to try out another site for downloading. 

Please let me know if you download them and they work {or don't work} :) 

I am new to this so finding a site that works well for downloads might take a little time. Anyone with advice or suggestions I would also love to hear from you!

Thanks to all those that e-mailed me to let me know of the problem! 

Download here.

Enjoy 

love, when you are 3

It is exactly a month before Valentine's Day.
For us, Valentine's Day isn't about gifts and chocolates and flowers, but about love and family and being together. We show that we love each other each and every day and don't need a day specifically for it, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to make a big deal of Valentine's and the lead up to it!
For us Valentine's is about putting a little extra effort into sharing and smothering the LOVE all over.
Love is what you have for your family members, or your husband, wife or partner, and of course your children. Mine are my ultimate love bugs!

This is also love.

My son has a favourite friend. Nothing else compares. When I bought this little rabbit I didn't think it would become his favourite, but it did.

There is no question that what he feels for this little bunny is true love. It is innocent, undeniable, unquestionable and unconditional love. I would think he loves this rabbit *almost* as much as I love him.
And I think it is unbelievably cute!

I do make sure that we can leave the house without him and things like that. He is not dependant on having him by his side all the time. Often his buddy gets placed somewhere in the house and will stay there all day until it's bedtime and we have to play hide and seek to find him! Also, being the boy that he is, he throws the poor thing up in the air, stomps on him and uses him as a crash test dummy. He has a fair few sets of stitches now.

Because photos mean so much to me, and because this little rabbit means so much to him, he has a photo of him in his room. He was admiring the photo today {rabbit in hand} and I snapped a photo of the two as per his request.

australia day-ness

I thought it would be proper to do a post about Australia Day before I even mention Valentine's Day! :)

We usually do the very Aussie thing of having a BBQ and this year we have a beautiful backyard to enjoy it in!

Australia Day last year our backyard looked like this:

This year: big difference

It's been a year of hard work and but it's totally worth it. We love spending time out here as a family and that is what it's all about. And I am so thankful that my little guy has been OK with the HUGE sacrifice he made of his massive sandpit, and is alright with his current sandpit {although tiny in comparison}.

To celebrate the fact I can celebrate Australia Day in my own backyard I'm offering these cute cupcake toppers and little toothpick flags so you all can 'posh up' your Aussie Day food items. My husband thinks they needed to be green & gold, but I just don't 'do' green and gold, so red and blue will have to do! {I think they turned out rather cute!}

{download Free from here}

Perhaps you would also consider donating to the QLD flood appeal to help our fellow Aussies. The footage coming from there today is just absolutely heartbreaking. I can't believe the extent of this disaster.

If you use these I would absolutely love to see some photos! Feel free to post a link to your photo or blog in the comments section, post to our Facebook page or just email me :) 

x bianca

being thankful

Each day I ask Noah what he is Thankful for. 

It can be something small, or something big. 

Often, I am blown away by his responses. Sometimes it is something I didn't think he thought much of. Sometimes it is something I am truly touched he is thankful for. Sometimes it makes me laugh out loud. But it is always beautiful to hear.

When Noah started to understand what Thankful meant we started this daily ritual. And after a few months I wondered why I wasn't writing it all down. It is such a beautiful and true glimpse into his childhood. 

And so now I do. I write it down every day.

I bought a little note book.

And made a cute cover for it.

And now it sits proudly in our family room and I add to it each day.

It is laid out as one day per page, but next time I might do a more traditional notebook and have a number of days on the one page so as to have a larger collection in one place. This little book will only hold just under a years' worth of Thankfuls.

Here's a few of his responses from the last month. 

growing up

We all know growing up means more responsibilities. I know I'm a grownup with responsibilities as we just paid for a major car service! Haha. {Oh okay and I have two kids and all that raising them entails but you know what I mean}

Luckily when you're 3 you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff! Instead, your responsibilities are things like making your bed, and putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket. I made up a rewards chart for my little guy - I was tossing up between 'chore chart' and 'reward chart' - I guess it's really the same thing but we decided to go with 'reward chart'. He has a few set tasks that he gets a sticker for if he completes them on that day. 

We talked about what his little chores are and he was excited about it. He's been waiting for me to do up a little chart so he can earn stickers. So we hung it up for him.

And he promptly went off to earn a sticker.

If you would like a chart like this for your child, you're in luck! They are for sale in my Etsy store. They are personalised with your child's name, your image of choice and also your choice of colours. There is also a selection of fonts to choose from. You can opt to have the chores included {up to 5} or to have those boxes left blank so you may write your own in. You will be e-mailed the PDF file {you will need Adobe to open it} and you may print the chart out, for your personal use only, how ever many times you like.

We wrote one in ourselves the other morning as was suggested by Noah himself, he wants to get all dressed on his own and earn a sticker for that. No problem buddy!

keepsake handprints

I wasn't going to post about this because it was meant to be a Christmas craft but I didn't realise how long the project would take and of course ran out of time. But, I love how I have these tangible memories of how small they are right.now. So I thought I'd share anyway, since it can be done for any reason what so ever!

I have this handprint of mine - the date on the back says 1989. I don't remember making it, but I have it and it is so very special to me. I have no idea what material was used to make it, I am thinking plaster of paris but I can't be sure.

I have attempted to record my little guy's footprint in plaster of paris before and to be honest I found it really difficult and the end result was not that great. Shame.

But I came across this stuff at my local hardware store {Bunnings} and thought I'd give it a go.

It is air drying clay and you can paint it, perfect! It's called Boyle Air Drying Clay - it was about $7 or $8 for the 1 box. I got 2 handprints out of this, but they are pretty small hands to begin with.

I rolled it out on baking paper so it wouldn't stick.

I placed their hands on the clay and pressed down. I should have pressed down further on Noah's as his hand print isn't as clear down the bottom. Next time.

I let them air dry a little and then cut out the circle shape using a knife.  I left enough room above the hand print to make a small hole. I used the end of a wooden spoon to achieve the nice round hole. This is for a ribbon so I can hang it.

I let them dry on the baking paper out of the way in a cupboard. The only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the little cracks along the edges that developed during the drying process. Anyone know how to avoid these?

Once completely dry {a few days - 1 week later} I painted them with gold metallic paint. Why gold? Well, because it was supposed to be a Christmas ornament for around the house. I think I'll make it a tradition to do these prints either at each birthday or each Christmas.

I used a sponge to get an even finish that wasn't too heavy.

I love them and hope my kids enjoy seeing how teeny their hands were at one point in their lives.