pictures for my kitchen

I am so happy that my lease on my little house in Tarragindi has just been renewed for another year - no dreaded move, thank goodness! However I am still settling in to my "new place". Rejigging, finding what works, reorganising. A year is not enough time apparently.

I recently found these beautiful frames in a box of frames and pictures which either need to be hung or revamped. They come from my mother's childhood. I love their chipped paint and slightly convex glass. I had previously had other pictures in them but this time I wanted them in the kitchen to hold a gorgeous card with a teacup photograph I have been keeping for forever. 

And perfectly, I was able to use a page from one of my 2012 calendars. I think they make a sweet pair. 

Love to reuse stuff to stop it from becoming, well... just stuff.

DIY Printable Valentine Cupid's Arrow Card

Shot through the heart and you're to blame...

I made these for my young men last year and ended up making a heap for my friends and family too, they were such a hit I wanted to share the link with you again.

These were created by Sweet Muffin Suite - they are super cool and very easy to make.

Here's a link to my original post which also includes a sweet recipe for a spicy black pepper chocolate valentine brownie, perfect for gifts too!

Owl be downloading you again this year!

Have you got your calendar for 2013 yet? If not you will have to swoop down on this one. I've downloaded these for the last two years and am very happy to be able to do it again this year.
My Owl Barn has compiled, once again, a gorgeous collection of owl illustrations for you to download as a calendar. You get to pick your favourite for each month - so hard to choose!! Here are just a few examples below.

Thank you, thank you, I will treasure it all year long... you can never have too many owls, seriously.

So either click on my link button to the side or go here to get yours!

experimental!

Luke went to his friend's birthday party today. It was a very amazing and fantastic science experiment party. I will have more pics up soon but here is a birthday message I made and rolled up into a test tube in lieu of a birthday card. I got the test tubes from Reverse Garbage about a year ago for no particular reason other than you never know when a specimen tube will come in handy...

How cool are these sweets! Like lego bricks! There are more in the range which I found at
David Jones and by coincidence there were other types featured at the party.
Of course, I couldn't go past the packaging.

Thanks for staying tuned and asking for more, moving was a big undertaking for me and I am still unpacking and also, during all that I was applying for a very exciting new job, a big process as well, more to come on that too!

movie night in the suburbs

I wish I could say this was my suburban backyard hosting this amazing outdoor cinema party but this is the work of a delightfully creative friend of mine from college.
She created this beautiful evening with the help of her family to celebrate her birthday!
The photos are just gorgeous and there's a beautiful little film of the night too. So many wonderful
details and cool ideas. Makes me want to drag out all my cushions and rugs and set up movie night
under the stars at my house.
I was excited to share this with you because the photos are so lovely and I'm sure you will like them too.

Love your work Shayna!

To see the full post and all of her gorgeous photos of the night, visit Shayna's blog ~ Mulders Drapery ~ I always look forward to seeing her new design work.

pepper & spice chocolate brownie for valentine's day

I made these by adapting a fantastic recipe that my friend Jamie gave me. 

The original is called "Mother Of The Year Chocolate Brownies".

Unfortunately I'm not sure where the recipe came from but I have added it here with my extras so you can print it out and try it yourself.

It's so quick and easy you can whip up brownies at the drop of a hat. 

Jamie uses this recipe as a base and adds all sorts of ingredients and makes all manner of 

amazing cakes, desserts and cupcakes from it. She's very clever!

I just chose to add black pepper and mixed spice {another idea borrowed from a chocolate spice 

biscuit recipe from a friend!} and made them into cupcakes. 

These will be for the boys for valentines day. Luke did a fantastic job at decorating the top of this 

one with a red candy heart and chopped up musk sticks!

* just to let you know, these brownie cakes taste amazing with the pepper and spice addition!!

here's my adaption...

and look what else...
how cool are these!

I found this free printable project at sweet muffin suite printable valentine's card via creature comforts 
I made these up in about 5 minutes this afternoon using some cute black pencils I found at spotlight.
I think they such a clever idea.

The boys will love them I' sure.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow!

A little present

Just finished making a little memory wire colour blocked bangle for a little lady's birthday.
So easy and fun to make. Do you like the bird charm at the end? It was one half of a pair of earrings whose partner was lost. My sister brought a little box of beads and broken jewellery for me to add to my bead collection and I found this lonely birdie in there. Happy for him to have found a new home!
I am also using the Happy Birthday matchbox I made instead of a card. I just wrote a little message inside ~ hope she likes it  ♥

Matchbox A Day

Whoa there!
I'm getting behind but still enjoying a quiet moment to myself to make these little creations...
here are some more of my Match Box A Day contributions


The French One

This one is covered on le inside with a picture from my Jean Leyssenne Calendar {beautiful watercolours}.

The Thank You One

I couldn't think of a more perfect way to say thank you than a thank you letter and a bunch of flowers.

♥ I think I will dedicate this virtual thank you to Jody at Lemon Rhodes who gave suburbansider
a mention as one of her blog loves this week! Thank you Jody - so cool! I was delighted!

Matchbox A Day

A new month and so a new creative challenge.
I found the February Matchbox a Day challenge at Lobster and Swan via Meet Me At Mike's.
It looked very interesting and is something I haven't done before. I knew I would have plenty of bits and pieces around the house I could use therefore it would be a "no spend" kind of activity, apart from the match boxes themselves.

image from Lobster and Swan

Here are just a couple to begin with...

Day 1  • the airmail one

This one is covered in a page showing "world communications" from my vintage map book and the inside is lined with a map from the same book. I cut out a little red plane and attached it to the top with some fine black wire. In the box are some stamp pictures and a real one, a little red toy pillar-box from England and, I copied out a very tiny version of the letter from the movie 
"The Love Letter" because it's just gorgeous.


Day 3 • the happy birthday one

Happy Birthday - a perfect excuse to eat cake and wear a party hat. I made the cake using scrunched up tissue paper in a mini cupcake liner and sprinkled glitter and seed beads on top. The hat is made with paper, washi tape and a feather on top.



I have done a few so far and will keep posting them on my flickr page.  Here is a link to the group page on flickr if you would like to see what others are making.
If you would like to join in too, please visit Lobster and Swan for more details.

Magnificent Miniatures In Rue Magazine

Oh goodness I was so delighted to see this feature {small scale style PAGE 42} in the
January issue of Rue Magazine!
Small scale = big love!
I have a bit of a thing for little wee miniatures.
My sister recently had a "Tiny Party" for her little girl and I very willingly unpacked my box of doll's house miniatures to help her decorate accordingly.
Here are some of the photos from the day...

Rue magazine has got me all inspired to get into the shed and haul out the doll's house I found on the side of the road and give it a makeover!

Ahhh Rue magazine - you are starting something I may not be able to finish!
But check it out - so many pages of loveliness!

school book labels - free download!

It's that time of the year again... back to school and back to uni which means book covering.
Got to try and make it fun because I do not like covering books!

Did you collect novelty erasers in the 80s?
I did and I still have some.
Me and my boys have been adding to the collection over the years when we find them at
garage sales or markets.

Last year I created some book labels for my kids using erasers from my stash.
You can read about it here
Heaps of people liked them so I have put them up for you to download and print out to use too!

It's really easy.
Go to this link, download, save to your desktop, print them out!

I recommend sticking the downloaded pdf on to a usb {memory stick} and taking it to somewhere
like Officeworks to get it printed on thick card.
That way your labels will be more durable and won't smudge.
*remember to only print out the second page of the document which are the labels themselves.
The ones I did last year lasted great {and with my boys, that's saying something}.

You could print them on to sticker paper or adhere them to your books using sticky tape,
clear contact over the top, put them under those plastic re-usable book covers or,
my favourite - washi tape!
like this...

Last year we printed them out at officeworks then made them into stickers using our xyron machine

this year it's washi tape

use your imagination!

I hope you enjoy these!
Please feel free to share the link to this post with your friends!
Happy wrapping!

January Photo A Day

Fat Mum Slim has created a list for anyone wanting to join in this years January Photo A Day.
I have joined in for the first time and almost a week in ~ I am really enjoying the challenge.
It's not not really a "challenge" because it's really fun and easy peasy but it is a great way to focus on an exercise that will develop your creativity and at the end you will have a neat little collection of images.
This is my collection for the first week.
I am also posting my images daily here at flickr. where I have a little explanation under each photo.

DAY 1 YOU     DAY 2   BREAKFAST 

DAY 3  SOMETHING YOU ADORE     DAY 4  LETTERBOX 

DAY  5  SOMETHING YOU WORE 

DAY 6  MAKES YOU SMILE

• It's not too late to follow along.
Check out the details here ➭ JANUARY PHOTO A DAY
It's really interesting seeing everyone else's interpretations too.
You don't need a blog or to even post them anywhere at all, you can just do it for yourself.
You don't have to be a photographer, it's for everyone!
 Let me know if you're playing along too!

painting furniture

Here's a little bit of what I've been doing this week. 

I had a couple of days before I went back to work so my sister came over with her spray gun 

and we got down to some BIDNESS.

My whole house has been turned upside down and inside out, rearranged and 

de-cluttered {or rather ~ in the process of being}. 

During this we took a motley crew of items that I have begged, borrowed and stolen over the years 

and sprayed them white and now they look fantastic! So clean and fresh and they make my dark little house so much lighter.

This is my dining table ~ orange pine be gone!

My sister gave me the chairs when she bought new ones.

I also painted the frame of the print I got at the junk shop which was gold ~ remember? 

Not too sure - may be a bit contrasty ~ I can always repaint the frame later but will see house everything looks once it is all finishes. Now I have a new dining room rather than us being squashed in a corner of our sitting room. More pics too come - got to finish sorting! 

Everyone's de-cluttering  ~ how are you going?

•BEFORE•

 •AFTER•