Let Kids Be Kids

This blog is not a platform for my political or religious views. It is not a place where I pass judgment on others or talk about my views on family and motherhood. It is a record {mostly for my own self indulgence} of all the creative projects that I like to try.

However, I do have one long term project that I am struggling to get just right.

Is it just me or is raising girls getting harder. I sometimes forget what it was like to be a little girl, I'm too busy trying to be a wife and mother, let alone a woman. In this world where at times I have felt I should be curvier; skinnier; shorter; taller; perkier; sexier; stronger; softer; smoother; browner; fuller; bouncier and prettier, it's natural that I am often drowning in a sea of inadequate. By some miracle {despite fashion magazines, peer pressure and advertising} I made it relatively unscathed through puberty, but now I am a mother. I have babies that are targeted with completely inappropriate products and messages. That is why I am going on the record.






I vote for more of

I am not against pageants, modelling, performing, competition, dancing, dressing up or anything else some girls adore, in fact I've done all those things. But for little girls string bikinis with padding is not ok. Sneakers that tone your legs and bottom are not ok. Spray tanning, teeth whitening and waxing is not ok and lingerie (even when it's called loungerie) is wrong. Absolutely wrong. Let them feel perfectly adequet for a while longer. That's what I say.




(photos: jours-apres-lunes.com; vogue; )

Big Fan Friday

So I think I am one of the last people to find out about this wonder women called Amy Atlas. She took her love of deserts and decorating and styling and put them all together to create custom desert tables, um genius! Why didn't I think of that. She does stunning work and I could drool through her website all day long.  You will be a HUGE fan when you check out the eye candy on her website.

I used her work for inspiration this week for my daughters second birthday. She had a dolly and me tea party, she adores babies, dolls, prams, teddies .... you get it. So I was really impressed with how this table turned out for the amount of work that I put in.

So I have been using this buffet for drinks and other things since I got it and I've used table runners but I have never put material all the way over to cover it completely, in true Amy style.  Makes such a big difference this was $6 a meter and I didn't hem it or anything I just wrapped it around the buffet and stuck it at the back with sticky tape. It hung all the way to the ground and having two girls I know ill use it again. Amy covers each of her tables with linen and always has a custom designed backdrop which I didn't have but I stuck those balloons to the back with sticky tape, another simple idea I got from her.

On the buffet I had these meringue kisses straight from the box and stuck them together with icing straight from a can.  I did that classic doll cake with a $5 doll and I made sure I got one with her hair up. I knew I couldn't do fondant icing though in a moment of insanity I did research it on You Tube before realising it would be so much easier to stick a bit of pretty netting over some buttercream frosting. This netting had silver sparkles all over it so I stuck some conchos on the exposed part of the dress. It was supposed to be pink but because I bought the cheapo butter it wouldn't budge from apricot. Or as I decided to call it, vintage peach. 

How cute are these cupcake wrappers you bake the cake right in there. Chocolate with strawberry creme cheese frosting.  Think I got these from Wheel and Barrow. 

Paige loves marshmallows as demonstrated by her trying to get them every five seconds. That glass jar is from an Op Shop it was $2, the blue bowl in the background is full of milk bottle lollies, also had cherry coconut slice and chocolate covered strawberries. The kids had sandwiches and pink tea with their babies for lunch. So much fun having a girl. 

Not even close to Amy Atlas level but luckily my two year old has never heard of her. This is another attempt but it was a night time dinner for my brother in laws birthday so I also had tea lights everywhere. 

These mini chocolate pots always taste great and look fancy, so easy. You buy the chocolate cups (Coles) and you buy some sort of tub desert like aeros mint chocolate mouse and then fill them up. Sprinkle some chopped up mint slice biscuits on top.  Those 3 glass vases in the background were also from an Op Shop half price sale they were .70 each, bargain. 

Oh Amy what a lovely job you have.

Bookcase for Mia

It took a long time and almost did my head in but this cheap {as in piece of crap, not inexpensive} bookcase was just the right height that I wanted for my daughters room and took me months to find. It was the best one I had seen; slightly pretty, not too tall and ready for a makeover. Of course after I found it, it took me months to decide on a colour. I'm a serious colour procrastinator ... will it be right, will it be wrong? For heavens sake woman make a decision it's a five dollar tub of paint! {It always comes down to a mental telling off}

So first, two coats of serious primer since the bookcase was already covered in stain. This was the stage I discovered that the back of the bookcase wasn't even made of wood but cheap painted plywood. Cue another mental telling off. For heavens sake woman check these things before you hand over the money! Once it was all primed and white I got out the colour I had finally decided on. Taubmans Warbling. I rolled the inside of the bookcase first and stood back to admire. Initially I was going to do the whole thing green but I liked the combination of white and green so much I decided to keep it that way. So back to Bunnings for more plain white paint to cover the primer.

If you want to keep a used paint roller for another coat later cover it completely in a plastic bag, squash all the air out and seal it the best you can. I left this one for a week before I used it again and it was still perfectly wet and ready to go. You don't waste any paint that's left in the roller this way. This was just a small $2 sponge roller but when your doing walls there can be a serious amount of paint in the roller itself. I also use plastic plates and bowls for the paint because there is nothing worse than cleaning paint. I try to avoid it all together.

Two coats of white and green and you could still see the stain through the white. Luckily I decided {was so sick of painting} that I liked it that way. A couple of cute knobs and finally after living in the garage for months it made it to the room. Hear the hallelujahs!

What Blog?

Not a lot of blogging happening this last month but lots of other great stuff. So to calm my energetic and adoring fans {my sister} hear's a little catch up. 

Lots of easter goodness going on, hat parades, breakfasts and BBQs, egg hunts and of course a whole lot of chocolate! These egg and bacon cups were easy and a hit. Recipe here. 

Sadly I had to forgo my dream for this years school hat parade. A top hat that blows bubbles out the top as you walk. Cool right? Unfortunately my engineering skills are not in tune with my imagination. This is the hat my son ended up with, he cut out and decorated the eggs himself. It makes me giggle and luckily Fyn is still young enough to look cool with a faux stuffed rabbit on his head. 

This is Paige watching the hat parade. She started Kindy this week, she's younger than my other children when they started. I love that I get to sit, eat, shop, work, walk and pee without an entourage, but still feeling guilty twinges. 

Babies galore around the house at the moment with a recent shower and of course our newest little one. 

I tried out those cute pompoms I wanted to make and voila, my thanks to Martha. Easy and effective and even though they cost less than two dollars each I don't really want to throw them away so they hang on in my dining room. 

 

Plus; royal wedding fever, washing, cleaning, doctors check ups, first immunisations, washing, parks, baking, date nights and even more washing.

And that's the haps.

Piano Seat Redo

Remember the piano seat well it's finally finished ..... ta-da! Yes, I am pleased with myself and as a result this post is a tad over photographed and slightly long winded!

The seat had 'fallen through' the inside and was the first thing to go. The braiding and the nail heads were old and disgusting!

I ended up getting almost all of the nails out but some of them were just too rusted so I nailed them back in and sanded over them, knowing they would be covered in the end.

When all the gross stuff was gone I sanded it a bit then cleaned it with baby wipes.

Then because it's treated wood I gave it two coats of spray primer in white, you only have to wait a couple of hours in-between coats. Then I used a flat white spray paint for the final coat and sanded it back on some of the corners and curves to give it that 'shabby' look. Then I had a baby {you might want to skip that step as it really drags out the process!} Finally I rubbed over some Poly to protect the paint and give it that satiny sheen. 

After the wood was complete I started on the seat, something I had put off since I didn't really know how I was going to make it work. There were lots of layers of grossness behind that faded fabric! In the end I decided to copy the old seat design exactly {it took me a while to come up with that genius plan} I pulled it apart and used it as a pattern.

I used an old T-shirt to cover some board and wadding then stapled it at the back. I already owned some cute fabric {from here} and used the old seat cover to determine size.

I was a bit skeptical about the strength of the old seat, after all it had fallen through but I stuck to the plan of copying what was originally there so I hot glued some pink fabric on the bottom then stapled for extra strength {the original green piece of fabric was just glued on.} Then I placed my newly recovered cushion on top with more hot glue. Then I placed my cute fabric over the top and glued the edges down so that it covered all the old nail holes.

To finish it off I skipped the circa sixties braiding and went straight to nail head trim. {Which I bought here} Mostly you buy nail heads individually which is expensive, time consuming and lets face it unless your a professional upholsterer your never going to get those nail heads to line up straight. If you buy them already joined up in a kit like this it's much easier {although a few nails still died at the hands of my hammer} which by the way you should cover so you don't scratch them all up. Baby sock does the perfect job! You can see the pink underneath when the seat is open.

Glad it's finished, now I can work on the little space were this is going. 

He's Arrived

A project 9 months in the making and finally finished .... or should I say just begun? Either way he's here and he's perfect. 

Recent Treasures

You know what they say, one girls trash is another girls treasure. Here are some recent finds, hopefully I'll get round to redoing them soon.

For a while I had been looking for something exactly like this for a specific little project I have in my mind. I found it at a retro {expensive} second hand shop but despite my mad bargaining skills {if you listen closely you can hear my husband scoffing} I couldn't get it down from the $50 price. Way too much, but just what i wanted. 

These were from a local op shop. Stuff like this comes in handy for, you guessed it, baby showers! As well as other tea party style dos. My mum had the exact same glass punch cups when i was little, I thought they were so classy! Now I think they are worth the .30c I payed for them.

I don't know what these little silver plates are for but I thought they would be so sweet as individual cupcake plates.

Or you could do this filled with chocolate mouse, whipped cream and a strawberry on top. Yum.

These were just lying unused around my house. Why yes, I do have a thing for frames. Put them all together and I think they will go great in my nursery do over. 

I like the simple lines of this little baby found at the tender centre. I bid $12 but it was below reserve, they took $16. Not wonderful but good condition and perfect for what I need. 

Stay tuned!