Stopping

Life seems to be super busy for everyone at the moment and it feels like our life stepped up another notch recently too. It's great, but yesterday I needed a day to recover. So we just stopped for the day. 

I pottered around the house and left the boys to their own devices. I could hear them talking and laughing and found this lovely scene when I went to check on them. I think they enjoyed being still for the day too!

Debbie xo

Birthday week!

Cake #1

We've just wrapped up a busy time for our little family with both of my children's birthdays - 4 days apart.

I wanted to do things differently this year. Last year it was my youngests first birthday so we had a big celebration. It felt rushed and I had major guilt afterwards because I didn't get a chance to properly catch up with everyone. 

So this year we had a family BBQ the weekend before and the kids party the weekend after. We got both sides of our family together and had a great catch up with everyone. Same with the kids party - I actually saw my two boys and got to chat with our friends too.

Cake #2

Pirate and spiderman digging in - the inside was yellow, green and blue

So now the four year old is already talking about his next birthday! Phew.  

Debbie xo

Franklin Children's Art Festival

Hi, yesterday was the Franklin Children's Art Festival in Pukekohe. It was my first time to this festival and I'm so glad that I made it out there (leaving at 7am on a Saturday morning was a bit different for me!). They had everything from wearable art, African drumming, story telling to flag making using a turn-table!

Such a great event and free! I helped out at the Chalk Art workshop in the morning and loved seeing how the drawings evolved - there were lots of hearts and rainbows!

Debbie.

Kid's art stations

I've been wanting to create a little art station for our kids for a while now and I've been keeping my eye out for ideas online. Here's a few of my favs...

Land of Nod have loads of great storage products - I love these two for art supplies - just need to be hung at the right height for little people.

Wall Organiser - Land of Nod

Wire Wall Bin - Land of Nod

I love that this art supply station is made from wood and it would make everything so accessible. 

Art Supply Station - 4 Men 1 Lady

Ok this is genius - a re-purposed cot to be used as a workstation. They've even painted an old spice rack for storage!

Re-purposed cot - Apartment Therapy

Another re-purposing idea - spray paint old tins for art supply storage - just the right height. You could even label them with chalk.

Painted cans - Remodelaholic.com

I love this workstation by Handmade Charlotte - especially the rolls of paper and hooks for the scissors (along with sticky tape these are the most misplaced items around our home!). 

Workstation - Handmade Charlotte

Will post some photos of what I do with this soon. Would love to hear your ideas too!

Debbie.

Hand embroidered children's drawings

We've just arrived back home from the beautiful Hokianga. We went up there for a few days to attend a family wedding and the it was just as stunning as the location!

Hokianga Harbour

It was so nice to visit a new place and discover another New Zealand treasure. Being away from home gave me a chance to finish off my latest product - hand embroidered children's drawings. This is one I made of one of Zach's self portraits...

Hand embroidered children's drawings

It was so fun to make! I think the black cotton on the white fabric really makes it stand out and it looks great hung in his room with some of his other keepsakes.

This is a comparison of the original drawing against the embroidered one - pretty close I think!

Check it out in the store here.

Debbie.

Exciting day today...

Wow it has been such an exciting day for Little Artist today. The lovely Vic from Cush & Nooks is running a competition on her blog to win a Little Artist framed print and there has been the most amazing feedback from her readers. 

Win a print of your child's artwork in this design!

I had the idea for Little Artist just a few months ago and I've been using most of my free time to get it to a stage where I feel comfortable to share it with the world. It's so great to finally get it out there and I can't wait to see the artwork of the winner AND the final product. 

Head over to the Cush & Nooks blog or facebook page enter the draw and be inspired by her blog.

Debbie.

Whats for tea... Pad Thai

Happy February and Happy Friday everyone! We needed something quick and easy tonight. This is a recipe I got from the back of a noodle pack a while ago - it's so easy and my two boys love it.

Pad Thai

Ingredients:

1 packet of Phad Thai noodles
300g cooked sliced chicken
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp spring onions, chopped
1-2 tbsps peanut oil
2 tbsp chives, chopped
2-3 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 C chopped peanuts
2 tbsp fish sauce
juice of 1 lemon
1 egg, beaten
1/2 C bean sprouts, soaked in water
coriander to garnish

Method:

Place the noodles into boiling water for about 6 minutes then drain. 

Fry garlic and spring onions until transparent. Add all remaining ingredients except the egg and sprouts. 

Add egg slowly and continue to mix. Add sprouts and continue to fry for about 30 seconds. 

Serve garnished with coriander. 

Cheers and happy weekend! 

Debbie.