Reworking my blog.

I have just spent the weekend at the Around The Table- Bloggers Connecting conference and I have gotten so many great ideas! This little blog is well due some time, a makeover and some structure to make it more readable and fun. I want this blog to be a place where I can share my day to day happenings, but also inspire others and maybe help someone to find a crafty project or recipe to try.

I want my blog to be more Kiwi focused and more relevant to my own style, rather than me trying to fit in as many topics as possible. Because of this, I will be writing up a new schedule and also reworking my blog design.

The new schedule I will try out will include:

MONDAY: Becoming The Mama I want to be



THURSDAY: Real Family Fun




FRIDAY: Photo Friday

I also want to create my own challenge linky for scrapbooking and card making as I cannot find a blogger within New Zealand who does that, so this will be a work in progress over the coming month.

I will be posting other musings about fitness and crafty things that I get up to, but a schedule too detailed is almost impossible with a baby and a toddler so it is small steps at a time!

I am excited to try out some new projects, share some new aspects of my life, and link up with some wonderful Christchurch and New Zealand bloggers. These ladies made such a wonderful effort to hang out in Christchurch this weekend and even left some love for us in the central city!



I hope you will stay with me while I tweak things and make this blog my own.

Giveaway Winner!

Thanks to everyone who commented and visited my blog this week for the 0-5 Label pack giveaway.

The winner is: Comment 5! From Katie: Thanks for the chance to win :-) Mr Mischief is a fan of dinosaurs at the moment so that would be the design I'd choose :-)

Congratulations Katie, I will be in touch with you to organise your prize pack.

 

Conference here I come!

Tomorrow night marks the start of the Bloggers Connecting conference here in Christchurch. I am super excited (it was even in the paper!) and also quite nervous.

I am going to be teaching a cardmaking tutorial, which I will post instructions for after the conference. I am also participating in the seminars and of course, all of the eating out options! Tomorrow night there is a supper and I hurriedly made a last minute eyebrow shape appointment today after catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

I guess the thing I am most nervous about is being judged. After reading another blogger's experience with a blogging conference, I am worried that no-one will talk to me and that everyone will be sizing up how I look in my jeans. I only know one other blogger in real life and she is amazing, but I can't help but wonder what everyone else will think of me. I am surviving on 4 hours of sleep each night and have hardly any nice clothes that fit me, so I look like an unkempt zombie most days!

I think I am my own worst critic, and I hope I can overcome my trepidation and have a blast. There are rumours of onesie parties, free coffee and fellow bake-a-holics, so fingers crossed I fit in. My blog may not be the biggest or brightest, but it's something that I love to do.

Cranberry Lemon Slice

My three year old son is so funny- he loves to bake with me but tries to make it more manly. When we were baking this slice, he turned to me and said, "Mum, you're the digger and I'm the dump truck" then he started making truck noises. I love how his mind works- I was scooping out the ingredients for him to dump into the mixing bowl so he made a truck game out of it.

This slice is super yummy and really easy for the kids to make (with adult supervision) as it does not require the use of an oven and is fast to prepare.

Cranberry Lemon Slice:

1 packet plain sweet biscuits crushed

250 grams dried cranberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 tin sweetened condensed milk

125 grams butter 

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons hot water

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 drop yellow food colouring optional

desiccated coconut to sprinkle

Combine crushed biscuits, cranberries, brown sugar and coconut.
Melt the butter and condensed milk in the microwave and then add the lemon juice. Combine thoroughly.
Press into a sponge roll tin or oblong dish (about 20cm x 30cm), using the back of a dessert spoon.
Make the icing by combining all icing ingredients except the coconut and mix until smooth. Ice the base immediately, sprinkle with coconut and place in the fridge until firm.

Linking up with Real Family Fun.

Ombre Mother's Day Card

I have seen the ombre effect on clothes, hair, handbags and even cards lately- it seems to be one of the trends that is staying around for a while! I have also seen a lot of paint chip craft ideas floating around on Pinterest, and thought a lot of them looked quite easy.

We have been planning our new Master Bedroom colours so I had a lot of paint chips lying around, and I decided I wanted to try an ombre style card for Mother's Day. These two ideas combined were a lot of fun to play around with, and paint chip samples were an awesome way to get a variety of hues without cutting into a lot of different cardstock colours. Even my husband thought it was a clever idea!

Can you tell what colour scheme we are looking at for our master bedroom from this card?

I punched out two different butterfly shapes from a variety of purple shades, then played around with the placement until I was happy with the way they looked. I glued them down onto gray cardstock and then added rhinestones to the larger butterflies. The last thing was to stamp on a Mother's Day sentiment and then I adhered the gray panel to a purple card base.

I think I will be experimenting with paint chip samples again in the future, and I hope my mum likes the card I have made for her.

Supplies used:
Creative Memories: Gray cardstock, Meadow Micro Maker, Butterfly Pocket Punch, Precision Point Adhesive.
Stampin' Up: Elegant Eggplant ink and cardstock, Teeny Tiny Sentiments stamp set, Basic Rhinestones Jewels.
Other: Paint chip samples form my hardware store.

Christmas Circle Card

I felt very proud to receive an Honourable Mention for last week's Merry Monday challenge! This is the first time I have ever gotten recognition for a challenge, and so it made my day.

This week's Merry Monday sketch was pretty straightforward and I knew exactly what I was going to do for it.

I had some circle wreath embellishments so one of those went on a red scrap- my last piece of this beautiful red paper that I love. Then I added some blue lacy paper to the background and a strip of plain blue. I felt that the plain blue strip needed something else so I used a stamp wheel across it for an extra detail. With the words on the blue strip I didn't feel like it needed a sentiment so I have left it pretty simple.

 

Supplies used:
Creative Memories: Nordic Christmas Paper, Nordic Christmas Layered Stickers, Square Maker.
Stampin' Up: Midnight Muse Ink, Island Indigo cardstock, Jolly Jingles Stampin' Wheel.

Stuck On You- A Preschooler's Pack and a Giveaway!

My three year old boy has recently started Preschool and along with the tears (sad), the paintings (so many!) and the scuffed shoes (one of the sandpit hazards), one of the biggest issues has been labelling all of his items. Everything that goes to Preschool with him has to have his name on it, and I was finding that vivid would just come off his lunchbox and also leave a mark on his skin if I used it to label his clothes.

Enter Stuck On You- a great web based company that does personalised labels and gifts. I have heard great things about the labels and was keen to use them. Lucas was pretty excited to get something in the mail for him!

I was asked to review the 0-5 pack, which consists of name labels, shoe labels, clothing labels and a bag tag. I also received a very cute Personalised Bib for my younger son Adam.

The first pack I opened was the shoe labels, as my son just got new shoes. I really like how each sheet has five different colour options, so you can match the sticker to the shoe if you are like me and want to be colour coordinated.

 

The labels are still stuck down and look good a week and a half later, even with my son putting dirt, sand and rocks in his shoes and running around with them on. These labels are fantastic for Preschool, as shoes come on and off all day there and I always see signs about missing shoes. These labels ensure that teachers and parents know whose shoes are lying around!

 

The name labels are another great item- Lucas' lunchbox and bag were labelled on the inside but that wasn't very helpful for the teachers and I also wanted Lucas' name to stand out so that he could recognise his lunchbox. Once again, the choice of colours for each label was really appreciated and I was able to match all of Lucas' lunch items together. The labels hold up to both hand washing and being put in the dishwasher, so I am not constantly rewriting his name.

 

The bag tag got a thumbs up from both me and Lucas, who said it was "good" and then proceeded to be a frog for the rest of the morning! Yet another item to make life easier, and I can see both of these labels being great for households with multiple children.



The clothing labels were pulled out before Preschool on Thursday morning, as Lucas needed a jersey to wear and I hadn't labelled any of his jerseys yet. However, I knew that it would come off during the course of the day as the weather warmed up, so on went a label. The instructions are so easy to follow- even my husband could do it!

 

Once again, I was really impressed at the quality and the labels seem to be on there for good as despite numerous attempts by Lucas to unpeel it, it is still stuck on. The labels have gone on to hats, jerseys, pants and even a polarfleece jacket with no problems at all.

Lastly, I tried out the bib this weekend when we were having a very messy lunch. The first thing I noticed about the bib was how stretchy it was, especially around the neck area. It has a lovely feel to it and is so soft. It held up really well to tomato puree, cheese and water. This would make a fantastic gift for a baby, as it is a great length and will stretch to fit. There are some great boy and girl designs. Adam really liked his bib as well!

 

Overall, I am really impressed at how easy Stuck On You has made it to label my son's items and clothing. Lucas gets a real kick out of choosing a coloured label to use when we need to put his name on something, and the clothing labels are wonderful for those items of clothes that I know will be taken on and off at Preschool. The shoe labels impressed me the most, as shoes are not easy to label so this is a great way to make sure Lucas doesn't lose his shoes.

Stuck On You has very nicely given me one 0-5 pack to give away for one lucky reader! To enter the draw, just leave a comment below telling me which design you would choose and why. A winner will be drawn on the 12th April.

Be sure to follow Stuck On You for the latest products and specials.
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/stuckonyouofficial
Twitter – www.twitter.com/stuckonyoutweet
Google+ - Okey. gplus.to/StuckonYou
Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/StuckonYouAust/
Instagram – instagram.com/stuckonyouofficial