'Christmas Giveaway Winner'

It is now time to announce the winner in our Christmas Giveaway.  Thank you to everyone that took the time to enter - sharing your personal experiences and memories so openly. Those that know me well will agree I tend to be a tad over-emotional so reading all of your lovely entries brought a tear to my eye!

I have decided to offer 2 prizes.  The first is the original gift of the Tocca candle, the Pip Studio notebook and the High Tea cook book.  The winner of this is Kristy Stark.  Thank you and congratulations Kristy - your comments brought back memories of my mischievous sister and I when we were little!

The second winner is Kym Bozzoli - thank you Kym.  Your comments reminded me again of how lucky I am to have all of my family around to share my Christmas with.  I would love to send you a prize also.  If you could contact me we can chat about what you may like.

Thank you once again everyone.

May you all have a wonderful and safe Christmas surrounded by friends and family and loads of champagne....

2011 Christmas Giveaway

Hello and Welcome to my Christmas giveaway!

This has been a totally fabulous first year for me.  A journey full of surprise, generosity, excitement and most of all, friendship.

So as a thank you I am having a little giveaway.  Below is what ONE winner will receive.

Entry is super easy - simply tell me below what you love most of all about Christmas.  It can be a childhood memory to a family tradition.

Now for the rules;
Giveaway is open to all Australian residents.  Referring others will not gain you any extra entries.  Any 'anonymous' entries will not be valid and you can enter only once.

Competition commences 8.30pm Qld time on Tuesday 13 December and ceases at 8.30pm Qld time on Sunday 18 December 2011.  Winner will be notified via this blog with a link to my Facebook page when the winner has been announced.  The winner must contact me to enable express posting of the prize to receive by Christmas.  Failure to make contact within a reasonable time frame will delay the prize being received prior to 25 December 2011.  I take no responsibility for damage or loss during transit. An express post tracking code will be issued when the package has been sent.

So this is what the winner will receive....

A Pip Studio Fantasy A5 notebook valued at $20.00.  If you are not familiar with the Pip brand you can read about the Pip story here.  The lovely Emma at Daisy Park in the UK has an extensive range of Pip and you can order online here.

The second gift the winner will receive is a Tocca 2.8fl oz candle valued at $43.00.  I am fairly new to the delights of Tocca but I was given a Tocca candle by a friend earlier this year and am now a Tocca addict!  You can see the history of Tocca here.

Lastly, to coincide with our Oceanside High Tea the third item is the Woman's Weekly High Tea cookbook valued at $19.99.

Once again a big thank you for the generous support, encouragement and good times this year.

Good luck.

Oceanside High Tea Party

I have wanted to style a little girl's tea party on the beach for such a long time.  A few weeks ago my ideas finally came to fruition.

What makes this party so special to me personally is that I was privileged to work with some dear friends from our Australian handmade community.  Sending big hugs to each of you - your contribution made this such a beautiful day and you inspire me so much.

It was such an honour and also every exciting to have our party featured by Amy Atlas in her featured submissions.  You can see Amy's blog feature here.

The focus on our high tea was to give the girls a really lovely day with a touch of glamour, but still allow them some girly fun.

The colour palette was based around the Robert Gordon Liberty range.

Gorgeous images by Andrea at Andrea Sproxton Photography.  Thank you Andrea - you were such a pleasure to work with.  Us older gals had loads of fun too!

The Robert Gordon Liberty range is available for purchase in our store here.

Our party printables which consisted of invitation, menu, choc bar wrappers, straw tags and thank you favour tags were designed by Amber at Sprowt Graphic Design.

Flowers were placed on each table and also in glass bottles placed in the sand around the tables.  The white roses and pink peonies looked so pretty.

Each princess was dressed by my dear friend Carolyn at Chicoco - girls wear inspired by all things French, Vintage and Shabby Chic.  A definite highlight was watching the girls 'ooh and aah' as they dressed - they looked so beautiful.

A delicious selection of afternoon treats were on the menu.

Mel from Chocolate 2 Chilli made the girls such a yummy array of petite treats, from their individual rainbow cakes, vanilla and rose teapot cookies, pink velvet cake pops, to the stunning pink marshmallow and coconut cake.

The mini pink rainbow cakes were served on our Rosanna petite treat cupcake stands in white and pink.

The Vanilla & Rose Teapot Cookies and Butterfly & Lace Cupcakes adorned our Rosanna square Bon Bon cake pedestals.

Pink Velvet Cake Pops.

The Marshmallow & Coconut Cake sat atop our Rosanna Decor Bon Bon round cake pedestal. Robert Gordon pink Liberty teacup and saucer.

And to drink.....Rose Petal Fizz.

And Strawberry Tea.

Chocolate bar wrappers and favour tags by Sprowt Graphic Design.  Persian fairy floss from Lilian at Shoppe With Lily.

The stunning, custom made canopy by Kerrie at Tara K Designs, featured 10 flags with blue bows and pink roses.  The centrepiece was adorned with a gorgeous white lace bow, featuring rolled pink satin roses, a string of pearls and ribbon.  Trailing down the opening were tiny pale blue roses.

Mini sugar hearts.

The girls enjoying their high tea!

Afterwards they shared some secrets and had a giggle as girls do!

Running to the water for some fun.  Sweet vintage romance Chicoco dolls by Kate at Miss Kiki of Cherry Blossom Lane.  Tablecloths and cushions from the 'Ooh La La' range by Chicoco and Tout Mon Amour (coming early 2012).

The girls ended their magical afternoon chasing bubbles on the water's edge.

'Our Little Piece of Paradise' through Instagram

The girls and I had a lovely morning today in our little part of the world - Mooloolaba Beach.  I love the simplicity in which you can create an album using the various filters with Instagram. 

Just Two

Firstly I want to thank Lisa from Lou Lou Handmade Children’s Fashion & Gifts as my inspiration to write this, which when I think about it, is my first ever proper blog entry.  Thanks Lisa for giving me the courage - I think!

I was reading Lisa’s last blog entry yesterday here and it got me thinking that in all the rushing and  juggling a part-time job, the day-to-day chores with 4 young children, studying a Diploma, and a new business venture how often is my own ‘cup full’ and how often do I really appreciate the simple things around me.

Until now my blog has been used only for giveaways, but I have always intended to use it for other more personal insights too.

I suffer from major blog insecurity – what to write about, what will other’s think, you know the whole issue of putting your thoughts out there for all to read and form opinions.   So today I am stepping outside of my comfort zone in a huge way and getting this blog thing happening - please be kind!

I am going to share a simple but really lovely morning I shared with my two youngest children today.  As a family my husband and I often get caught up in the whole ‘it’s too difficult’ mindset when trying to do things with the kids.  It is getting easier as they get older but still most of the time unfortunately no matter what family activity we choose there is normally one child that will ruin it for the other three.

So today when we found ourselves presented with a rare morning of having just the younger two at home we thought the odds may be in our favour of everyone having a good time.

One of my favourite spots where we live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, is Alexandra Headland.  The path along the beachfront is great for the kids to ride their bikes and you can follow it right down to the Mooloolaba spit.   

We took their bikes so after a huge ride we explored some of the rock pools where they could find little ‘sea animals’.  The Alex Surf Club boasts an outside café right on the beachfront and is a great spot to have breakfast or brunch if you are lucky enough to get a sleep in.

We sat on the grass and had a coffee and something to eat while the kids had a play on the playground with some other children.  Before heading back home we gave the them a turn on the ramps at the skate park and they loved watching the ‘cool’ big kids.

It was a really enjoyable morning in such a beautiful place, and yes they both had a fabulous time.