{Gift for a Chocoholic : Chocolate Strawberry Bouquet}

So my mother in law's birthday is today and she is hard to buy for. I know she loves chocolate though, so I decided to create a homemade gift that I knew she would love! It is only a little time consuming, a little messy but doesn't cost a lot, which is great considering the wow factor you get!
Here are my tips for making your own chocolate dipped strawberry bouquet.



I used:
- 2 punnets of strawberries
- 3 blocks of choc (white, milk and dark)
- 3 saucepans and glass/ stainless steel bowls to make double boilers for melting the chocolate
- bamboo skewers
- disposable piping bags
-a case (this one was $2 from Kmart) or you can reuse an old jar which I usually do but ran out
- tissue paper
- green cellophane
- sticky tape
- to help them dry : baking paper, rubber bands and a few vases or jugs


Hint 1:
Place some baking paper over your vases/ jugs and secure with a rubber band. Pre-poke some holes and use this to stand the strawberries in whilst drying.


Hint 2:
Cut cello into squares and poke a skewer through the centre. Then fold up around teens and tape the base to create 'greenery' for the arrangement. This also helps stabilize the strawberries. Trim some of these lengths so they don't all poke out the top and create a rounded arrangement.


Hint 3:
Once you have covered your strawberries with the base chocolate (1/3 of the qty with each different chocolate), go nuts decorating. Fill some of the piping bags with melted chocolate and pipe designs on them. Leave some plain if you like to balance it out.


Hint 4:
Line your vase/ jar with the tissue facing coloured side out. Scrunch another piece of tissue inside and use this to poke your skewers into. Foam would work best but I didn't have any ;)

I am sure anyone would love to receive this as a gift and it would suit almost any occasion too I think!
Lauren x

{A SUPER Birthday for Mr. 3}

I love how when you get married your family automatically enlarges. In my case (thanks to my husbands large family) I not only doubled my family, I probably tripled or quadrupled it! One of his cousins in particular we get along with very well. When their little man turned three recently, I was excited to put a twist on a gift I'd crafted before (read here) to help him celebrate.

I made the cape similar to what I have made several times by now. However, this time I made a mini version for his favorite toy. The little 'L' is for his toy lamb "Lambie". Isn't it just darling! My boys are so jealous that I now have two capes for my boys and two for their teddies on order and in progress - lol! 

Here is my little 'Mr 3'  posing for the camera to show it to you with his little lambie friend.

Reports in from the birthday boy, and this gift was a total hit! Maybe one of these days I might figure out how to be clever and put a pattern on here ;)

Lauren x

{Birthday Card with a Difference : what an egg-cellent idea}

Recently a special girl in my world had a birthday. I saw an idea sometime ago (yes, on pinterest) and wanted to give it a go. It cost me nothing as I had everything on hand and it was stacks of fun.
I didn't get photos of the glueing and glittering process as my hands were messy and I was enjoying it so much I just forgot. I hope you get the idea though.



All you do is find an egg, a skewer, medicine or egg cup, paint, pva glue, tissue paper, glitter (the finer the better) and a paint brush.

1. Carefully put a hole in each end of egg. Scramble egg inside with skewer and slowly drain egg. I blew some out and let some drain into medicine cup. This takes a while. (I saved the egg and made a cake for morning tea - no waste here!)
2. Then I rinsed it with water and set overnight to dry.
3. Write your message on paper and finely roll. Slot it into the hole. I found making one hole a little larger helped here and with the draining process.
4. Using the pva glue and small squares of tissue (colour doesn't matter) cover up the holes on each end and smooth out the paper with more glue on top (like a decoupage technique).
5. Paint the egg a background colour. This you'll have to do in two steps. (this isn't absolutely necessary, but in my practice run I found that it helped the finished look in case you miss a teeny spot with glitter).
6. Cover with glitter one half at a time.

Voila!

I packaged this by cutting a section from an egg carton and laying raffia type 'straw' in the bottom. I then placed the egg on top and wrapped in clear cellophane. Attached was a tag "smash me". I had intended to box it up and post it to her, but I got to see her crack it in person which was a lovely surprise!

I hope you like the idea and I can see it being adapted for other messages too.


Lauren x

{Where does the time go? 5th Birthday Celebrations}

I want to dedicate todays post to my first born child and my (as of today 5 year old) big boy.

The last few years of my life have been a roller coaster of emotions. This little boy has taught me so much about myself and has bought so much joy, love, laughter and adventure to this house. As many mothers can understand, that children teach you that you have so much more strength than you ever knew you had. There are times when you have had to summonse energy in order just to survive. You are constantly aware of how everything you do and say affects how these little minds will impact the world as they grow.

The first moment that motherhood really sunk in. After my first child was born, fed and he fell asleep in my arms. My heart was melted and I was forever changed!

However amoungst all the challenges and adventures, there are many moments every day that truley make this the best job in the world! Moments like when your little one grabs your cheeks and plants a big sloppy kiss on your lips, when they say "Your the best mummy in the whole world of my life" and when they finally achieve that goal after many very hard tries.

And it bought me SO much joy to fill the house with balloons and streamers in anticipation for the up and coming celebrations.

The house was filled with about 60-70 balloons and metres of streamers.....loved doing this!


God Morning birthday boy! This buzz lightyear toy has not left his side since then ;)

"Bellissamo!"

Picking the basil apart to go into the lasagna mix.

Making a traffic light swirly whirly cake (aka red, green and yellow marble cake).



After eating his birthday meal he built the racing track with his Pa and Uncles.

“There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one” - Jill Churchill

“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.” - Cardinal Mermillod

“Every mother is like Moses. She does not enter the promised land. She prepares a world she will not see.”- Pope Paul VI

“Making the decision to have a child - It's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
- Elizabeth Stone

Lauren x

{A gorgeous car mat for my gorgeous nephew}

As a mum of two boys, my handbag is often filled with extra's for them like dummys, drink bottles, crayons and of course CARS. My boys are OB-SESSED with cars!!!

So, when I saw some of these (in varying styles) online in my blog roll, they very quickly made it to my "to-do list" of projects. So, a month or so ago I started to put together something and decided to make it for my nephews 3rd birthday.
It is baisically a small quilt FULL of activity and I was so happy with how it turned out. I think I am going to make one for my little man's 2nd birthday in June too. The things that made this car mat so cool for me was the 'parking garage storage' for the cars and the portability of it, making it really easy to pop in the handbag and take anywhere. My boys just loved the ducky's and the petrol pump (the shoelace pump made it functional and a big hit).

A fun project and I can't wait to do it again!!!!

Lauren x

Birthday Time

Well the middle of the year is birthday season in our house. Our boys have their birthday a few weeks apart in June and July and then we have lots of friends celebrating birthdays this time of year too!
Yesterday I wanted my eldest son to take a cake to share at preschool. However, this presented a baking challenge as it had to be nut, egg, dairy free. So, no eggs, butter, milk.....hmmm.

I found a cake recipe for a vegan chocolate cake and I'll tell you, it was surprisingly DELICIOUS!!! I arrived in time to share the celebrations with him and his preschool friends. All the kids asked for seconds and some even thirds. None of them turned it away. So, I figure, if its approved by a room full of 4 year olds, its got to be good!
Here is the recipe I used. I added rice milk instead of soy milk or water as I had a carton in the pantry. For the Icing I used icing mixture (about 4 cups), cocoa (few tablespoonfuls) and water (about 1/2 cup added slowly to make sure i get a good icing consistency).

Its not my most 'pretty' cake i have ever made because of the limitedness of the ingredients I think I did well - 'J' liked it too and that's all that matters right!

EYE CANDY ;)

A part of me (okay okay - a fairly BIG part) just loves it when things are colour codes, symetrical, and ordered just 'so'. I also love entertaining, A LOT! So, when I stumbled across Amy Atlas who designs dessert tables, Ifell in LOVE!!!!
OH my - the detail, the colour combinations, the labels, the desserts, the glass jars and the fact that you could very easily tell if something is out of place by the very order of the arrangements! It definitley was complete eye candy for me (and even though I don't have her budget or staff) she inspires me when I put on an even at my place to pay attention to the details and go that extra mile!

Sorry for all the photos, but i really want you to capture the essence of her variety. WOW!

My favourite birthday things ;)

As it is my birthday today I thought I would share some of my favourite things that I just love and some of the pressies I got. I appologise for the terrible lighting on some of these - taken from my phone ;)

My eldest son shouted me a coffee and babycinno at our dinig table - sooooo cute!!!!


I took a trip down memory lane with some DVD's of Lucille Ball's show. I used to love her as a kid and watched I Love Lucy religiously. SOOOO funny and such good clean slapstick humour - PURE GOLD!!!!

What my hubby got me - a pink Guess wallet...LOVE it!!!!

My pink birthday flowers (sensing a colour here - lol)!!!!

Latin Dancing lessons and a dinner out was planned for last night - wooohooo!!!! Postponed till next week when hubbys back is better! Can't wait for that!!!!