loving : valentine's day paper goodies

valentine's day makes me feel all lovey, sweet, generous and calm. or is that the second trimester hormones kicking in?! either way, it's all making me feel nice today. i'm really loving this belle & boo card for valentine's day.

i'm also adoring the love is peachy valentine printables that sarah at style me gorgeous has made. it was only last week that i was saying to my partner how clever i think my graphic designer is, and then bam, she comes out with my fave of her collection thus far!

yesterday i ordered some pink and red pom pom's from the awesome daneve at ah-tissue for a little birthday gathering i'm having on the weekend. today i'm thinking i could use the pom pom's again for valentine's day, along with these other goodies, and spoil my valentine with a yummy home cooked meal and dessert and have a quiet romantic night in. just need to find myself a babysitter...

hot spot :: creative craft centre

last week we met up with some friends for a morning of craft with the little ones. you remember my super star friend, keeley from savvy mama, well she finds the best places around town to meet up. i always have my mini me with me as she doesn't go to daycare, so meeting up at child friendly places is a blessing.

the creative craft centre in west burleigh is the coolest place, and done hardly any damage to my wallet. what it is, is a walk in sit down craft centre. so you literally can walk in any time during the day, no pre arrangements needed, and sit down and get crafty. we were there nice and early, when the centre opened at 9am, and let the 3 little crafterina's stimulate their minds and imagination. around the walls of the room are over 200 craft activities to choose from, so you pick your activity and take it back to the tables and start decorating.


it was heaps of fun, we were there for about an hour and a half and the whole morning only cost me $6. summer picked out a hanging board that has 2 pegs on it so we can hang up her future artwork (and other very important 2 year old stuff), then we sat down and started painting it. we don't normally get paints out at home, i find summer just a smidgeon too little yet to actually want to do paintings. we draw with pencils, play play-doh and do other craft things, so it was good for her to get down and dirty with the paints and it made our visit that extra bit special because we don't do much of it at home.

after we had finished with the paint, we sat them down in front of the fan to help them dry out, then we decorated it with all sorts of lovely bits and pieces; shells, silver and gold stars, fluffy pom pom thingy's, glitter... you name it. when i sent a picture of the finished product to summer's grandma later on that night, the reply was "what the hell is it?". hehe.

fun was had and we highly recommend the creative craft centre if you are gold coast based. for the little ones, for the scrap bookers, for the mum's and dad's, for everyone. an excellent spot to take your kids to over the school holidays too!

can you tell which one summer's is...?!

i'm a winner :: art by jaz

do you like to enter competitions? do you ever win anything? i used to be the competition queen. pre mummy. pre time poor. i even won a 0.28 carat diamond through a napisan competition quite a few years ago, that was the second chance prize, the first prize was a 1 carat! when i got the letter from napisan saying i had won... the 0.28 carat... i almost shat my pants. i thought i had won the 1 carat! but was still very happy with winning a diamond fullstop.

i've been entering and joining in again on competition and giveaway fun. and look at my latest winning, gorgeous or what! this is the work from art by jaz. i found jaz through her blog and won these through her facebook page. ahh the online world and the people and work you find, i love it. i love jaz's work, and not just because i won something either! this image below is my favourite, lurve that peacock feather. now that i have these divine prints, i don't know what i should do with them. frame and mount them perhaps? i'm trying to start on a display wall in summer's room, perhaps one can go up in that? how do you suggest i display them?

the dato & the fridge

what happens when you give a mechanic a camera!

a yummy mummy schaffa

do you remember my post about freckles the schaffas? incase you didn't, here's a quick background check on how and what the family of schaffas is...

chris edser and sam barratt from screamdance picked a bunch of art friends from all over the world to customise their own breed of schaffas. each friend was sent a similar blank shape, as per above, and given free reign to add, subtract, paint or destroy the objects as they pleased. the results were awesome, weird, wonderful, exotic and, i found myself describing some of them as, 'what the hell'! click here to see the bizarre family of schaffas that were created. after creation, the pieces were returned back to chris and sam and then exhibited at the urban cow gallery in adelaide, and auctioned off with the proceeds going to oxfam's close the gap campaign.

2010 is time for schaffas 2! and guess who's been invited to create a schaffa with a yummy twist...?! uhuh, little ol' me! i feel so privileged to be involved with the second round of schaffas, and also feel quite nervous and anxious about what i will create! will i paint it? will i make an outfit with some funky material and dress it? will it wear shoes? will they be heels or boots? will i make it weird? or will i make it pretty? i am thinking of course, that my schaffa will be expecting. will she be hormonal and have completely lost the plot with her fashion sense or hair colour? will she constantly have morning sickness and be forced to wear a sick bag necklace? or... will she be a he?!

i can see that there is going to be some exciting and crazy times ahead in the yummy mummies household through our schaffa phase, lets hope we all come out of it alive and laughing our heads off!