Oh I do love a good cake. And what better time to bake one than a friend's birthday?
Sarah and I set about baking for our good friend Linn's birthday which was on Sat. We're seeing her on Wed so have now put the cake in the freezer to decorate on Tues, but we also made one for the family.
Sarah is in charge of Linn's cake, but I decorated this one.
We made 4 small cakes in different colours, layered them on top of each other, then iced.
It's Sarah's colour choice. Eeeeek. LOL.
I was watching the new NZ hottest home baker the other night and saw a woman trying to make a chocolate top, so decided to give it a go myself.
and inside?
I need to learn how to smooth the edges better. I see a cake decorating course coming up in the future ;)
I wanted to see if our new chooks would be interested in coming into the main garden. They did as babies, but now, were a little nervous. In the end I tempted them with bread...
Here's Sunshine. She is the most beautiful BIG bird. She is a Coronation Sussex and we are waiting for her to start laying (hopefully any day now).
This is Chocey (as in Chocolate), she was quite happy to come outside as soon as she saw food. Grin. She is a Barnevelder (we think single laced, but that is a little unusual, so not sure?). She was from our second hatch.
Here's Tiny. Our wee Frizzle. She is growing up quickly. But still tiny. And running away from me here. LOL.
This is Bertie. She is enjoying a new roost we put up last weekend. She is a Barred Rock and is very cute. We brought her from Poultry Valley about a month ago. So we're still waiting on her to lay. It will probably be a few more weeks at the earliest.
If you've been watching the Prima blog this month you'll have noticed lots of LO's showcasing their flowers and what can be done with them. The design team have once again outdone themselves in giving everyone a ton of inspiration.
Well I couldn't miss out on all the fun could I?
Here's a look at what I created using oodles of glorious Prima flowers....
To start I created a base of Essentials flowers to give a fantastic flat flow across the page that I could then layer upon.
I then decorated these flat flowers with more flowers including a vine which I cut apart to give me more 'bang for my bucks', if that makes sense. By cutting the vine, I could pop a little piece here and a little piece there and it looked like there was a lovely vine flowing across the page.
Of course the photos and journaling had to take centre stage and in this case I think they worked well together. The photos are old, but it was something I just couldn't let go. I needed to tell this story.
You can see that some of the Essentials flowers are still 'empty' and part of the design while others have been layered with more flowers on top.
I placed the title alphabets onto a piece of clear transparency so I could move it around and see where I liked it best. It also allowed me to layer it over anything.
And the best thing about this LO is that all those Essential flowers I used? Didn't even touch the sides of the package I had. Grin. Gotta love a big bunch of beautiful flowers!
I hope you get the chance to do some crafting today. Maybe even taking some inspiration from some of the team over at the blog.
I've done this before, but was at a loose end the other day so thought I could give it another go. I create a set of cards, with similar designs but different sentiments and package it together with envelopes to give to a friend/teacher/family member or to just use myself as the need arises. A quick and easy yet thoughtful solution to give to those people who are a little hard to buy for.
T, you've gotta wake up, the kids have been planning something and are now going up and down the hall with little horns trying to wake us up, without actually waking us up.
I was like 'what? What? ok, ok, lets get up'
Going down the hall, the kids were looking very happy with themselves,
"mum and dad are coming" we heard them say excitedly to each other.
Then it was 'look at this, look at this'.
They had made us all breakfast, set the table, even made special drinks for everyone. It was beautiful and thoughtful and so totally out there. We were well impressed!
They wanted to celebrate Anzac day with us. Remembering and having breakfast as a family.
It was incredible to say the least.
I have to admit I didn't get up early. I had planned to for the second year in a row, but just didn't. When I woke up and saw what the kids had done, I felt disappointed in my efforts. After all, the Anzacs didn't get a choice when they woke up (if they got any sleep), having bullets strewn around them, having to run up a hill protected by the enemy.
I have been to Gallipoli and seen the cliffs our men had to climb. It was a suicide mission. Anyone else that has been there, has seen how bad it would have been. But they were there for us. Fighting for our country and our freedom.
Thank you to all the men who have fought for our country. Our freedom. Our right to get up in the morning or sleep in.
Many of you didn't return but you are in my memory forever.
Thank you for keeping my family and I safe, even these many years later.
The other day my oldest son Matt went to his friends for a sleep over. Dan and Sarah were at home with me.
Nothing too unusual here.
But I noticed a dramatic change in Dan with Matt not here that I hadn't noticed before. He was more 'himself'. He was more open. More happy to cuddle. More chilled. And apart from these things, he just seemed different.
And I wondered just how much effect Matt has on him. And if he has such an effect, how can I help him be himself all the time?
I guess it's the same ole same ole. Younger sibling wants to be just like older sibling. Nothing new there. And that is true of Matt and Dan. Dan adores Matt. And I must admit vice versa. But there are times that Matt dominates and Dan willingly follows along. There are also times they fight like cat and dog. Full on screaming at each other. They are both strong willed intelligent children.
So now I've noticed the effect they have on each other (I'm sure it must work in reverse too?) how can I help them to be strong independantly yet still be strong brothers?
Anyone else noticed this in their family? Any advice? I'd love to hear from you if so!
I thought I'd let you in on a little secret of mine. Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone, but all of the photos of my layouts that you see here on my blog have been tweaked a little bit. Yep, that's right every single one of them.
It started off slowly. Just turning them so they were straight on to the viewer, then perhaps a bit of lightening, and then some sharpening and an action to make everything 'clearer' and for the colours to pop.
It still doesn't let the layouts look as good as they do in real life, but it does help to show them off in their best possible online light.
And I thought I'd walk you through what I do right here, right now so you get to see the whole process.
I'm going to use a photo of a layout that you've already seen, and I'm going to show you the original right through the process to the end.
I start with a base photo. I take it inside usually on top of a table beside a window. I'm sure my neighbours think I'm nutty standing on chairs in the lounge photographing a table....all the time! LOL.
I wait for a time when the light is bright, but not sunny. The sun causes too much shadow plus also leaves the contrast all wrong.
I crop the picture so all I see is the layout and it's facing us properly. Not skewed.
Next I lighten the photo so it's not so dark. I do this by adjusting the 'levels' graph.
Finally I use an action usually one called 'contra pop' (I can't remember where I got it from? But if you google it, I'm sure you'll find one that does a similar job).
If my layout is still looking a bit dull I'll adjust the curves to brighten it up a bit more. In this instance I did, but only a teeny tiny bit...
And that's it. The final photo.
So let's look at that side by side...
Can you see the difference? It's not huge, but it has given the layout a much crisper cleaner brighter look, while still staying true to the colours you'd see in real life.
**Now I'll add in a disclaimer here. I'm not a fantastic photographer, and don't really know the in's and out's of photoshop. This is just what I do for my work.**
You see you still have to take a fairly good photo to start with. If it's too dark there isn't going to be too much you can do to make it look brighter, but still remain true to what you're showing. So what you're trying to do is enhance the photo. Not change it.
I hope this is helpful. Like I said, I'm no expert, but I do think these little changes make a big difference in the long run.
If you've got any questions, please let me know. I'll see if I can help answer them.
**Please note, I use Photoshop. I can't advise on any other programmes as I can hardly get around photoshop at the best of times. Grin**
Oh . my . goodness! I've got some more photos to share from our trip to Finland over xmas time. Pinch me. I've finally gotten around to previewing and posting them!
These photos come from Boxing day. We had a wonderful day doing more 'indoor' type things so didn't need to get all dressed up in our 'suits', but did have layers and more layers so we could take things off and put them on as we went from place to place.
First thing in the morning, as we waited for the bus to come, we wandered down to the river. It was incredibly pretty. Due to the warmth of their winter this year it wasn't totally frozen over, but there was still plenty of ice...
In hindsight perhaps I should have wandered down these steps to 'test' the water with my fingers, but in reality, it was darn cold and I was more worried about slipping over and going in totally.
Love that snow ball out on the ice. LOL.
Even though it was about 10.30 in the morning, it was 'dark'. Still incredibly pretty.
First stop this boxing day was the Arkticum. The most amazing interactive museum that went under the road. Totally loved this gallery with the big Xmas tree at the end.
Oh yeah, that's my family on the bus. Andy wasn't happy with me at this point. He thought we'd rushed through too quicky. Grin. He wanted to shop. Bit of a change around.
From here we went to a special house sort of beside Santa's village where we had lunch. It was incredibly pretty and 'out in the country' so had the most amazing scenery for us to gaze at. Especially since there had been such a big snow drop overnight.
I felt like I was in a winter wonderland. I mean seriously, THIS is the type of scenery I'd imagined and hoped and dreamed about when we booked the trip.
It was lunch time, so the sun was starting to set. You'll notice a slight tinge of pink in some of the pictures. It was absolutely stunning!
We went in and chose a table to sit at. We sat beside a window so we could look out. Andy and I discovered that we really must spend more time teaching our boys table manners.
As we sat there chatting and staring out the window, watching all that was going on, we noticed movement through the window. Looking closely we watched as a group of huskys rode on by with a sled behind them.
Can you see them? Isn't this the most amazing magical scene?! While we were waiting for lunch to come, I decided to rug back up and go outside for some more photos.
Notice there are no marks in the snow? It was absolutely pristine adding to the magic of it all.
We had a yummy lunch and before we hopped back on the bus we got a couple of family photos.
It doesn't look real aye?
and then I got a couple more sunset pics.
For anyone who lives in places with snow like this, you'll probably be laughing at my enthusiasm for it. Grin. But to me it was the dream come true.
From lunch we moved across to Santa's village. In the picture above, you can see a blue rope light. That is the line of the arctic circle. One side you're in the arctic circle, the other you're not. WOW!
Our first stop at Santa's village was of course Santa himself.
Above is the photo that was taken and below is the video of our interaction with him too. It really was amazing.
As we came out of our visit with Santa, we went through a picture frame of smoke. On the smoke were pictures of Santa and the elves, and reindeer etc etc. It was pretty amazing.
Outside, there was more to see. Our next stop was Santa's post office. This is where all the letters from all over the world go to.
This lovely lady elf was opening letters for Santa. She told us all about how they receive them, open them, reply etc etc
And here is just a few samples of the letters they receive every year. See the boxes down below, they get filled, then taken out to the elf sorting centre. It's all very well organised!
We then brought some postcards and the kids got busy writing to cousins, grandparents and of course ourselves! Grin.
Back outside there were more photo opportunities. Grin.
All the trees everywhere we went were filled with beautiful lights.
There were two of these amazing snowmen. Not real, but amazingly big!
The boundary of the arctic circle again. In summer there is a line on the ground, but of course in winter that gets covered in snow.
More prettiness. Sigh.
This is the building Santa is in. Isn't it gorgeous?
From here, we jumped back on the bus and went back to the hotel. We all got changed and headed off to on our husky adventure.
Boy did those dogs smell! Grin. There is no washing them, as their natural oils keep them dry and warm. Makes sense!
And more amazing scenery to enjoy.
The dogs all have kennels, but most of them sleep in the snow. It's just what they do.
As we walked back to the bus amongst the snow and forest, I saw the scene in the above photo. I tried to take a photo but it was so dark it's turned out blurry. But does it remind you of anything? To me it looks exactly as I imagine the lightpost in 'The Lion the witch and the wardrobe' would look like.
Today was a BUSY day and from here we still had a couple of things to do. The main one was dinner. We had booked to have it in an igloo. OMG!!!!
We walked in and saw amazing images like above and the ones to follow...
Everything was made out of ice. The chairs, tables, cups....
My coke in an ice glass. LOVE it.
We had wooden place mats so the plates which were really hot (and had a warming plate under them) wouldn't melt the table. Once they were finished with and taken away, we used the warming plates to keep our hands warm. It was COLD in here.... -5 degrees!
Check out our breaths. LOL.
Like I said, it was a BUSY day and we were exhausted going home. The boys fell asleep in the bus. But we had one more thing to do.
I was desperate to see the Northern lights and the weather was looking good. So we headed up the mountain to see if we would be lucky.
The temperatures were all showing a very cold night (not for the Fin's, but it was the coldest we'd been in so far) and the kids were tired and grumpy, so Andy took them back to the hotel. I stayed for perhaps another hour or so. But then the clouds came in. As soon as there are clouds, you won't see any Northern Lights. I stayed for another half hour, to see if they would clear, but they didn't. By then it was about 11.30pm, I was tired, cold and could hardly move. I decided it wasn't the right night for me to catch the lights and caught a taxi home.
In a way I'm sad not to have seen the lights, but I also know that it's not common to see them. That people can be in the country months and not see them. So it just wasn't to be for me.
The picture above is the view I had of the city from where I was waiting for the lights to show. Isn't it pretty?
So that was our day. Full on. Incredibly beautiful. Totally magical. Everything I had hoped for, once again.
It's been interesting for me to go through these photos so many months on. I still have more to show, crossing fingers it won't be so long between posts this time round.
To see the last post about our trip, please click here.
Today over on the Prima Blog you'll find a feature on tags.
Many of the DT have put together their own special tag using Prima's amazing products.
I decided to go with my new (old) favourite technique embossing. I created the background to each tag with some of Prima's wonderful stamps and some white embossing powder.
I used the stamp several times over on each tag, wiping off ink in some places on the stamp to get a distressed look before I stamped it.
Then I sprayed it with a couple of colours of Glimmermist. I used a split complimentary colour scheme to ensure they looked good together while still being bright and colourful in their own right.
I tried to keep each one linked to the others by including some of the same items on each tag. You'll notice frayed canvas, book paper and a punched border on each tag. I've also used Spellbinders dies to get the cute frames used on each one.
Once I had this base, I could individualise each one.
I'm thinking I might just have to use one or more of them on a LO soon.
Pop on over to the Prima blog to see more gorgeous tags from the rest of the team, and don't forget to check out the Prima DT call. It's the most wonderful team to be part of! I highly recommend you try out if you're a Prima fan. You just never know what style the team are looking for next and it might be YOU!
We were driving home yesterday when Sarah started talking to me from the backseat....
"Mum, I don't think you're going to like this, but, well, you lied to me yesterday and now I don't know what to believe. You told me the boys didn't play on the ipad, and the boys told me they did. Now I don't know who to believe."
Thinking to myself in very quick thoughts as we do when we're trying to work out how to get out of something.....Oh sheez. She's absolutely right. But it wasn't really a lie, was it? But this is the type of thing that stuffed me up while growing up. What do I do? Be honest came the reply to myself in my head...
And so I was.
Yes Sarah, you're right. I wasn't honest with you. I just said it because it seemed easier at the time. You see when we went to boot camp yesterday we weren't there the whole time. Just a short time, so while the boys has a short play on the ipad, they didn't play on it for what I thought was a 'whole' time. So they are right. They did play on it. But not for long.
I'm sorry for lying to you. Does this make sense? Do you understand what I mean?
She listened to me in the backseat while I apologised and said yes, she did understand and all was quiet for a while. Then suddenly her little voice popped up.
Thank you Mummy.
And I realised again that I am on the right track. That while I'm not the perfect Mum (never will be), being honest and apologising for the mistakes I've made, make all the difference. Being heard is what she needed. And I heard her yesterday. She felt validated. Loved and important.
I am soooo grateful for the time I've spent learning about myself. What hurt when I was growing up and how I can try to avoid that for them.
I got another reminder of how hard this Mothering journey is, but also how rewarding.
Wow, it's true. My first post is up at the Spellbinders blog as an International Spellblogger.
With Earth day coming up, Spellbinders is concentrating this week on eco friendly ways to scrap, so you'll see I've used a couple of fun and interesting things in my card.
Pop on over to the blog to see my post filled with step by step instructions on how to create the above card....
....And don't forget to visit the blog each and every day to see all the incredible inspiration from the team at Spellbinders.
Been a while since I've shared any scrapping with you, so thought I'd show you a card I made a little while ago.
Of course, using a delightful range of Prima products. Ahhhhhh.
And a bit of a close up.... why not?
I love to use punches and die cuts to create edges on cards. Actually speaking of which, keep an eye out on the Spellbinders blog for my first blog post, coming up soon.
I found out last night that it was M&S's teacher's birthday a couple of days ago. So I asked Sarah if she'd like me to bake a cake to take in to her when I took the chicks in today.
Of course the answer was yes, so we took a peek at my cake folder on pinterest and Sarah chose one. I gave it a go....
Inside the cake is yellow. From a dark yellow on the bottom to an almost white on the top. Yellow buttercream between each layer.
It was a fun cake to make and smaller than most, so I felt perfect for the occassion (I purchased some small tins recently that just begged to be tried out. Grin).
