Monday 10 December 2012

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

Wow, I love Christmas! Seriously, who doesn't love the atmosphere and the spirit in the air?

My boys tend to be a little spoiled at Christmas time. We explained to them this year it would not be as over indulgent as usual.



Whilst our family is not overly religious, I have been stressing the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Jesus' Birthday! The two young boys LOOOOOVE birthday parties so that's what I've been telling them Chrissie day is. One big birthday party. BUT I am also trying to make sure that they bring back the idea of giving, not just receiving.

I thought we best start in the home. All boys have picked out a Christmas present for their brothers and have paid for half of it out of their own pocket money.

Kmart have a Wishing Tree where you can donate money or gifts to people in need. The little ones are going to pick a present each and put it under the tree for other little ones that aren't as lucky as them.

I was racking my brains for some other ideas. Christmas cards for their friends with candy canes or choccies in the envelopes? Donating old toys to the Salvos? I ended up finding some blogs that are all to do with Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. I absolutely love some of these ideas for my boys, and decided I'd add the ones I thought of and make an advent calendar. Some days are treats, and some days have an activity.

Here are some of my favourites:

A random act of kindness... Love the simplicity of just writing someone a friendly note. I could imagine the smile on my face if that happened to me!

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness fb page Love everyone's input and the wide range of ideas shared across the board

Light 'Em Up Some more great ideas and really helpful print-outs!


The Daily Buzz Different ways to create your advent calendars

Hope this has inspired you to start a new tradition - It's never too late to start!


Merry Christmas to all and your families


To Vacation: Tasmania

Heya,
I haven't posted recently. I've had so much drama in my life right now and I thought I really owe it to myself to have a break and look at some of my photography.


It was my Mama's 50th Birthday in August and we all hopped a plane to Tassie to visit.
"Nonna" loving her new Brag Book
Bright and early we drove to Sydney Airport and lets just say we were excited, but slightly sleepy!

Unfortunately, the boys couldn't come with us :( but their card certainly did light up Nonna's day!

We went for brunch with the Birthday Girl and her lovely boyfriend.
Mum's reaction to her beautiful new iPad!
My brother had to work the weekend, so unfortunately he had to fly back on Saturday, but we all enjoyed spending time with him and meeting his new girlfriend.

I am warning you, when my sister and I get together, we tend to act a little silly. Everyone was just lucky she's pregnant and couldn't drink, otherwise the silliness gauge would be at EXTREME!
My Sister's Baby Bump and Me

I had such a great time with my family. We don't have to be doing anything, just spending time together is so great, and it's few and far between occasions now we are all grown and have our own families.
This place just had so much Character
I hope this post reminds you all of how important family is. Pick up the phone and tell them you love them! Family is the most precious gift you receive in your life.


Wednesday 7 November 2012

To Cook: Hunger on Hump Day



Since being MIA for a little while, I have been catching up on reading some blogs that I have subscribed to. I am really starting to take an interest in Meal planning and freezer cooking, so I thought I’d share with you my first week of meal planning.

If you are at all like me, you succumb to the dreaded twelve shops a week. You only need one thing, and somehow you come out with ten items (and often, not one of those ten things are the original item you came to purchase!). This has started to become an issue as far as financially, and in food wastage and I don’t particularly feel like being on a first name basis with everyone at my local shopping centre.

I do my shopping mid week (pay day woo hoo!), so I wanted to start my weekly meal plan as of Wednesday. The print out starts from Sunday, but those meals will be for the following week, not the Sunday just gone.

I created a template that allows me to plan the three basic meals of each day and break them down into ingredients needed to create each dish. This way, my meal planner can be taken to the shops and used as a grocery list quite simply.

Here is my meal plan for this week:



I did a big shop last week, so most of the things I’ll be buying this week will purely be items needed for this menu.

***As a side note, the spaghetti sauce for Tuesday night has been pre-cooked and is currently sitting in my freezer. All I need to do is add pasta. I haven’t been freezer cooking for long, but I feel as though spaghetti and lasagne are my two favourite dishes to freeze because they aren’t altered all that much by the freezing process. Trial and error has taught me that some other dishes don’t freeze quite so well.

Hope you guys enjoyed the method in my madness.
I'd love to hear some other people's "go to" freezer meals.

With Christmas quickly approaching, I'll be posting some crafty little numbers very shortly!

Thanks for reading




Tuesday 28 August 2012

To Create: Brag Book


Hi Guys,

It was my Mum’s 50th Birthday last week and my sister wanted to do something really special for her and has asked for my help. Whilst we have the three boys and they are every bit my children, my family and I didn’t get to experience them from birth because they are my step sons.

In May we found out that my sister’s more than usual lethargic self (she is a chef, works upwards of 70hrs a week and suffers from transverse myelitis) was actually due to her growing a beautiful little human being! (Due Christmas Day and all) We are all so overjoyed it isn’t funny!
 
You know the Nanna’s Brag Book’s that you see? Well, my family is Italian, and we don’t have Nanna’s, we have Nonna’s. And we both seriously doubted we’d find a Nonna’s Brag Book.



 
So here’s the one I’ve created
 
 
 
- 4x6 photo album from Kmart
- Embellishments (stickers, letters, etc)

The embellishments and letters I already had in my collection of scrapbooking bits and pieces, but the photo album literally cost me $3.00 from KMart.




Left to Right: The Love Heart is a puffy sticker in a set that my sister gave me last Christmas (not too sure where she got that from). The Red paper was from a booklet of papers I got from the Sewing and Art Show this year which is kind of oriental themed. The black glitter letters I bought from KMart a long time ago.


You could do this for any type of occasion. Birthday, Christmas, Easter, or perhaps even just a collection of your favourite memories and add the recipient’s name to the front cover.

Just to add an extra "Nawwww" of cuteness, here's the card that the littlies made for their Nonna's 50th Birthday. Aaron bought them a big poster board from the Newsagents, and we folded it in half to make a giant birthday card. Aren’t they just Darling?! I can’t wait until Mum gets her pressies! We are heading to Tassie on Thursday morning, and I’ll be taking the Nikon for a spin so be prepared for some boring family holiday blogging when I get back!






Monday 13 August 2012

To Contact


Thank you so much for reading. I am greatly humbled that you’ve chosen to spend some time out with me!



Are you interested in checking out my pinboards, my daily statuses, or my twitpics?



Contact me through social media and please feel free to share my blog on yours



Click to email Sheridan








Saturday 11 August 2012

To Cook: Banana Bread

Hi All,


School Holidays just passed here, so I have been on the lookout for some fun activities to keep the kids entertained and out of mischief!

A while ago, I found a great website that's all about kids and teens. It's a great resource for recipes, health issues, parenting advice and advice for the young ones too!

I found this great Banana Bread recipe.

The only changes we made is to:

  • Substitute the vegetable oil for Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Add slightly less sugar than the recipe requires
  • We kept 5 slices of Banana aside until we poured the mix into the loaf pan, then placed them gently on top to add a little decoration!



I really recommend you try this recipe with your kids. We had some wonderful bonding time this morning, and now with a little salt reduced butter, and a sprinkle of cinammon we have a yummy treat for snack time!

Monday 25 June 2012

To Cook: Pretty Patties

Do your kids love Spongebob Squarepants?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I insist you Google Spongebob immediately!

For those who do know the lovable sponge and his underwater friends, you must try these with your little one.

Spongebob is a fry cook who works at the Krusty Krab. He had dreams of creating a Krabby Patty with a twist



And so did the Ankle Biter and I one day when we were filled with boredom and I had nothing for dinner.

I started with:

  • 1kg of mince (any kind, I used chicken because that's what we like best)
  • Garlic minced
  • Mixed herbs
  • 1 large onion, grated
  • 1 carrot peeled and grated
  • And of course, multiple food colourings

  1. Wash those grubby hands!!
  2. Pull out a few bowls and separate the mince evenly amongst them, mixing through the garlic and herbs (I like to do this with my hands as it's fun for the kids and I find it's the best way to really get the flavour through the meat)
  3. Add the grated goodies to each bowl and mix in (I like to include carrot just to add a bit of veg. I've tried capsicum, but that was NOT a hit with the family. You can add anything extra you like, but I'd suggest to make it small)
  4. Put in a couple of drops of food colouring, but make sure that you add it gradually. You can easily make them darker, but making them lighter is not so easy!
  5. Once you're happy with colour and consistency, heat some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan OR fire up the barbeque
  6. Roll your mince into balls and chuck them into your pan/onto the BBQ. I used the end of my potato masher to squish them into little burger patties

(these ones are uncooked but the colour really does stay better than I thought it would once you cook them)

And Voila! You have a gorgeous plate of pretty patties that the kids are bound to enjoy

Saturday 23 June 2012

To Beautify: DFO Shopper's

As I tweeted earlier, the ole ball and chain and I had a stupendous day yesterday!

We started the day by taking Stretch to school. I really enjoyed getting up at 7:20 (NOT)
Once finished up there, we went Wedding Venue shopping. We looked at two places. If you want to hear more about that go to my Wedding blog @Lenton Love

Next stop was a little road trip to Sydney to trek around DFO. What an amazing exercise?! I was seriously exhausted and fell asleep while the Mister drove home.

We visited many stores and made some great finds (spending way too much money in the process) so I thought that I'd share some of my gluttony with you guys.



Ok so I really had to cram all these bits and pieces in to get a photo, whilst hubby-to-be looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. Shall we go left to right? (as much as is humanly possible anyway)

The Pop by Sheridan range of bedding. This black and white stripe is a little variation on a classic with some stripes that look as though they have been painted onto the fabric. It's soooo us. We always have bland quilt covers and really bright sheets so it caught my eye straight away. I am going to load a pic of our bedroom done up with our new bedroom suite soon (including organising our WIR). The quilt came on its own, so we bought two regular sized pillowcases and two European pillowcases with it. The entire set cost us $105.00!

The DC hat is NOT for me by the way. I believe it was $30 but don't quote me.

We went to Form Home and found 2 gigantor mugs! Neither of us drink coffee but I have started to drink green tea again in my Healthy lifestyle regime I'm trying to kick off and the man of the house makes a mean hot milo.
We also got a little plastic shot glass, with measurements along the side which I thought was cute, and Aaron collects shot glasses so why not have a practical one?
A month or two ago we bought a pizza maker, so yesterday we also got a rotary pizza cutter which is pretty stylish.
Everything in there was 50% off. Total price $19

Along the back of the lounge there are some other goodies; jeans jeans jeans.
I got two pairs of Jeanswest jeans for $109. Because I'm really short and a fairly small build, I tried on the Petite Super Skinny jeans and they are amazing! I need to do a little dance to get into them, and in the blue pair there is slight muffin top, but I don't go around showing off my stomach so I don't think that'll be an issue. Black jeans and dark dark blue which I'm in love with.

The boy got 2 pairs of jeans too.. 2 for $70 from Quiksilver. They are so nice. The dark blue ones have a kind of washed effect, but it's actually a dirty wash. Love them. And the lighter ones have slight rips but they are gorgeous too.

My little pom pom beanie I bought from Jeanswest too. Can't remember how much that was.

Aaron bought a 4pk of underclothes too for $9.99 which was amazing.

I decided I'd buy the little ones a new surf brand shirt each for chrissie so I bought them in bigger sizes. The yellow one is for the ankle biter and the navy blue one is for the little tacker. They only have one surf brand shirt each at the moment, because they're generally so expensive, but these were $20 each.

The coral coloured shirt next is from Cotton On. It has some great batwings going on. I am not 100% sold on it but Aaron really liked it. The following shirt I LOVED. It's a mullet.. Which I usually hate, but I loved the green and orange geometric shapes and I do tend to go for looser tops.

The black dress hanging over the other clothes is a sweetheart dress and the straps are way too loose so I need to fix those before I can wear it! $10 from Ripcurl.

The two white Billabong Shirts down the bottom are Aaron's. I think they are simply darling, and they were only $20ea (added bonus).
The two hooded jumpers up, grey and charcoal are also from Billabong and they were only $30ea which is basically thievery.

I bought the two Billabong handbags (and yes, the pink and black bags are exactly the same, but I really loved the style!) for only $30. Not each.. $30 for both. I'm not making this up.

And finally, the shirt on the end is from Cotton On and it is a really dressy shirt. It's a satin and there's a zipper up the front.

So, there's a few things that I left out. We also went to a place that I absolutely love.. Ikea

I stumbled across this blog by msTapioca whilst looking on Pinterest and I knew I wanted the Godmorgon compartment box for my makeup bits and pieces. So that's what I bought. I also bought two of the Rajtan spice jar packs of 4 for $3.49ea.

I also got an adaptor from Target, for the boys Leap Frog LeapPad's.

That's well and truly enough from me now. If you want to know anything else about my purchases please comment below.

I'd love to hear what your favourite Ikea item or series is




Monday 18 June 2012

To Vacation: June Long Weekend Adventures

My Sister and Myself at the Big Banana (and my little Niece or Nephew there too!)

That's right! This June Long Weekend my family and I took a trip to Coffs Harbour

We had such a great time and I took some great photos so I thought I'd share them

To Create: Art and Sewing Show haul

A couple of months ago I went to the
Art and Sewing Show Sydney Expo 2012 and I got some really cool stuff!
(I've had this blog ready to go for ages and forgot to post it)

There was a lot of the same stuff from last year. In fact there were some exact same stalls with the exact same gear but of course I've come across different techniques and arts and crafts so some stuff I wasn't interested in last year but took a second look this year. But I'm rambling


I got some new big XL plates for my Big Shot. The box cutter my fiancé gave me doesn't fit on the regular plate and it doesn't really cut evenly without them.

I also got two new Distress Inks. Weathered wood and Broken china.

11 pens for $20. They are really cool, one end is a big writer marker and the other side is like a felt tip pen. The felt tip pen didn't come out perfectly but I'm hoping it's because I haven't really used them..
A few little chipboard bits n pieces.. Love the little soccer balls for some scrapbook pages for my boys.



I'm just doing our place up and the loungeroom is beachy/nautical theme so I'm thinking about doing a shadow box with the lighthouse and buoy and anchor bits. My sister has that theme in her place already so I might make one for her too.

I got a cute little Cuttlebug embossing folder that is just a heap of die (which I used in my BigShot because I read elsewhere you can use pretty much any plate in any machine-within reason).

I got a few things for the kids. A little Spongebob and two Lightning McQueen stickers. I also got a pack of fabric paints (I am desperately finding ways for them to stay amused inside without plonking them in front of the TV). I can't wait to see what crazy shirts they create haha. I also got three different packs of window/glass paints. When I was younger I painted a frog on a window at my Dads place and when he moved he took it to the new place and it's still kickin'!

Wednesday 9 May 2012

All About Little Miss Chatterbox...

My occupation is officially driving my partner MAD! Every other week I am rearranging things or working on some new bizarre project with scrapbooking, art, or decorating. My grandfather is an amazing photographer, and I have just added that to my list of hobbies!

Main Beach, QLD

My life revolves around my family and friends. I absolutely love hand crafting things for them, doing art projects with my boys and bringing an extra touch of personality to our family memories through scrapbooking.

  


I am waiting for a time when days last 30 hours and there are 8 days a week to fit in all the things I want and need to do (a feeling most women probably have, especially when you have a family to run). I thought if I start a blog, it might encourage me to get those scrapbook pages finished, that latest art project completed, the boys room organised, my most recent photograph edited and printed. I need motivation too, and if you have subscribed to my blog, you just motivated me! So thank you!!




I am also planning our wedding at the moment, and I feel that that may overtake some of my blogs in the not too distant future! For the next 18 months, I am going to be one hot mess trying to organise this as I am someone who loves lists, loves organising things, but I've got 1000 people in my ear about what I should or shouldn't be doing for our wedding.. And a $12 000 budget! (I can practically hear anyone reading this telling me "Good Luck") 


I just hope to share some of my creativity and to get some tips, advice and inspiration back in return.

  
Every now and then I'll get on and ramble and I hope you enjoy those blogs just as much as the other bits and pieces I'll be adding.


Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your time on my humble ablog

Tuesday 8 May 2012

To Create: Name plaque

Hello readers,


<3 My Sweet Boys <3

Just thought I'd share this little project that I did a few months ago when I cleaned out and redecorated my boys' room.

You can get all different shaped plaques for this or you could even cut your own from some MDF or something similar.
I just bought one from Spotlight for around $7.

I painted my plaque black and did the edges a beautiful aqua colour which really stands out! I had to do quite a few coats though, because the wood really soaks that stuff up.

I was originally going to hand paint the boys names onto the plaque.
I bought these white foam letters from KMart for scrapbooking ages ago but I thought they'd be super cute on a black background and could give it a bit of dimension and some added texture (which my little one loved touching very much).
Plus, if you don't have super steady hands and are worried about making a mess of handpainting those letters on, stickers are a great way to avoid ruining your efforts so far.

I also read somewhere (one of my scrapbooking magazines I'm sure) that things in threes are the most attractive or appealing to the eye which is why I chose three buttons with that same aqua colour as the edging for the plaque. I picked them up from Spotlight out of the $1 bin

I just used a cute little iron-car and glued it with wood PVA glue. I also got this out of the sales bin at Spotlight (Stingey!).

When I showed Aaron that I'd painted the face of it black he kept saying how morbid it was, especially for a child's bedroom. Even he had to admit when it was finished it turned out really well.

I really like the way that when I look at it, my focus isn't on the black but the pop of aqua and the bright white letters.

My next name plaque project on the way...
I totally forgot to take pics along the way!! I have a ton of other buttons and a new iron-on car and a little motorbike too, so I may just make another!!

Hope you enjoyed my little project and it inspires you to get even more creative and make a really fun entrance for your little boy or girls rooms.

Have a great week and stay tuned for more tutorials!


Wednesday 22 February 2012

To Beautify: The Package

Ok, so this blog is supposed to contain bits and pieces about art, craft, scrapbooking bits and pieces..
but I just got a knock on my door and I am so excited that I felt the need to share that I just got an amazing parcel!

About a week and a half ago, I caved into my online shopping addiction (that I have been managing fairly well recently by NOT activating my new credit card and only going online to shop when I have spare money).

Make Me Cool Collection Travel Edition -
Left to Right: Pencil E30; Tapered Blending
E40; Foundation F60;Small Angle E65; Large
Powder F30; Eye Shading E55; Large Angled
Contour F40
Ages ago I subscribed to the Sigma Beauty website and I get regular emails from them and I just couldn't resist these adorable travel makeup brush kits! They're in the "Make Me" series and I just loved the Teal-ish colour of the "Make Me Cool" travel kit. 

There's a brush in there for pretty much everything!

They say to clean them with a mild shampoo or brush cleanser before you use them. I don't have a brush cleaner specific from Sigma or anything, but I do have my Napoleon Perdis brush cleaner and it works pretty well. I use it on all of my NP brushes.

I bought it from the chemist for $40 but I've used hardly any of it so far and I've had it for 6 months. You just need to spray a little bit on a tissue/paper towel and wipe or dab the brush back and forth until the product comes off.

The travel kit I just got came with plastic covers for the large brushes which help to keep the brush in shape. You'll notice if you wash a big puffy brush, it will often dry funny, so these should help prevent that. (Hopefully!)


I have wanted the Bare eyeshadow pallete for a while too and I thought, hey, why not kill two birds with one stone (so to speak, I have three budgies and they hate it when I use that saying!) and save on Delivery charges?!

Bare Eyeshadow Pallete - Left to Right: Shine; Control;
Snoop; Hitch; Act; Command; Elope; Approach
So I bought them both and I expected delivery time of about 3 weeks because US to Australia tends to take a while but here we are a week and a half later!

This eyeshadow pallete is quite cool - there's a little magnetised claspy doo-dad so that when you shut the lid it shuts tight. It comes with a double ended brush which I think will be super handy. It's the E30 Pencil Brush on one side and the E25 Blending Brush on the other.
I love the adorable little names too (see caption)


I also got this little complimentary E25 Blending Brush - quite cute!









I'll probably get super excited when I get a better chance to actually test out my eyeshadows and brushes and I'll do another blog on how I liked them but I have high hopes!!


Monday 13 February 2012

First Ever Blog

Hi Fellow Bloggers and Readers,

This is my first blog and I just wanted to share a little bit about myself..
I am mad about scrapbooking. I don't give myself enough time to do any of the crafting things that I love. But I thought that if I created a blog it might encourage me to do it more regularly.

Some things I post will be activities, projects etc. and others might just be reposted or things that I've made/found from another persons blog.

Or I might just ramble on like I've done in this one.

I'm also planning my wedding for the end of next year so if I go a little wedding crazy with some of my projects, please do forgive.

Also, any suggestions on anything would be really appreciated :)

Thanks for reading Lovelies






Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton