Time has come & gone

So Ben left this morning :( Today is the anniversary of when we had our first official date! We both feel this is a very important day and like to always remember the start. So many fabulous memories & moments have come all from that first day! I decided to get something a little quirky for my coffee loving husband. I put together some typography and had it printed onto a magic mug! when Ben first opened it to reveal a plain black mug he was a little lost and knew there was more to it. I told him he needed to put his morning coffee into it to see the secret message! He quickly rushed to turn on the coffee machine! He loved it and I thought it was just something cute and quirky perfect for the occasion :) 

The secret message;

While we are talking about present giving. If the mug wasn't enough I decided to put together a little care package which I often do for the day Ben leaves but he can't open it until I'm not around. This time I put together a tin of heart shaped mints with a little message on the inside saying " Making sure you're well stocked on your travels, like a good wife is MINT to. ❤ Fiona xoxo" 

Ben has trouble with his ears so he eats mints when the plane starts landing so they don't give him grief, another appropriate pressie :) 

Fiona xx

Family Tree

Today I went out with Clare for lunch while Ben looked after the kids then came home and got stuck into the family tree Ben and I are doing for Gran & Pops 66th Wedding Anniversary. It is coming along so nicely!! Ben built the box to go behind the frame I bought and I have completed the leaves with all the names :) I think it looks really good and know they will LOOOVVVEEE IT!! I have also ordered a few miniature dolls house props that I am impatiently waiting to come in the mail just to give everything a bit of life! once all the props go in it will be ready to give to Gran and Pop :) I can't wait!

Here's a few sneak peak photo's, it's a bit hard to get a good photo once the glass goes on because of the reflection but you'll get it.

Fiona xx

UPDATE: Ok so the frame ended up being really difficult so we made it as a standing version!! I love how it turned out and the grandparents were so thrilled. We added some fake turf and little dolls house accessories :) 

Spotlight Superstore!!!

So I caught up with my girlfriend Kylie for some much needed time away from the kids :) I dropped Max to kinder and Ben looked after Jayden for me while I went and indulged in some YUMMMMYYY Max Brenner waffles with chocolate, strawberries & icecream and a cookies and cream shake oooohhhh delicious!! Just what I needed!! Thanks to my wonderful husband Ben for having the kids and thanks to the beautiful Kylie for such lovely company :)

I then headed to the craft superstore spotlight which was a HUUUGGGEEE mistake lol. I wanted to pick up some supplies for the family tree I'm making for Ben's grandparents and ended up nearly buying the whole shop ekkk!! 

I have spent the afternoon reorganizing my craft table to fit all the new goodies I picked up at spotlight. I also started gluing sticks together to form my family tree, looks so good so far and can't wait to get some leaves onto it :)

I'll post a sneak peak pic at my wonderful craft table that my awesome husband put together using kitchen cabinets and a wooden table top! There is cupboards and draws on 3 sides with loads of space for all my crafty stuff :) I'm such a lucky wife! 

I am still in the processes of painting the bottom boards and I want to add some chalkboard paint to the front so I can write on it but It's still a work in progress & trying to find the time lol

Bits of the Wedding

I just wanted to make a post about all the crafty details at the wedding that I have mentioned in previous posts! I love little craft ideas and just a few cute ones that turned out so well...

Firstly our Wedding Guest Wishes; we decided to fill the suitcase that we used for our invitations with sand, shells and a little lantern. We pre-made our guest note cards and so each guest filled them out, popped them in an envelope and put them in the suitcase. It turned out really well.

Another thing I loved was these cute little hershey kisses that we made, we laid them out in a nice dish for the guests to help themselves :)

Clare and I had matching bracelets and just wanted to share some pics from the photographer :)

Getting Creative

Ok so all this baby talk in the last couple days has me wanting to shop and make a nursery but since we are still sooooo far away from finding out what we are having I decided to buy a surf duvet cover I have been eying off at Adairs Kids for Jayden. It's so hard to find any nice surf stuff in a cot/toddler size! I bought this one in a single bed size and decided to get creative and cut it down :) I turned it into a toddle size duvet cover and toddler pillow! This way It's not a quilt and I can take it off and wash it easily :)

Jayden is still in a cot just until we move into our new place in a couple months and we can set up his toddler bed, which is the same size mattress but just doesn't have rails. We thought it may be a nice transition for him since that's what we did with Max when we moved into out Nowra house.

Anyway I thought I would share some pics, I love how it's come out :)

 

Photo Jar

Ok so as soon as I received our wedding photo's I had to get started on a wonderful idea I first came across on pinterest :) I wanted to do my own version of the photo jar because I absolutely loved the idea :) Using the sand, driftwood, rocks, etc from the beach where we were married and some cute craft cut outs from the craft store which have nice sayings on them and large jar from target with some rafia string around the top :) It is a lot larger then it looks and I love it! it's sitting nicely on my shelf and everyone that comes over say how amazing it is :) 

KATE HAD HER BABY!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!

A GORGEOUS BABY GIRL!!! They called her Zoe Kerry, I'm still not sure on the details as I haven't been into the hospital to see them yet. I plan to head in there in a couple days, just let them settle in first. I put together a blanket for baby Zoe, I didn't make the quilt but just added the name patch! I also got a cute little newborn set with a bodysuit, bonnet, booties and bibs :) Of course we couldn't forget about mum and proud big brother Jacob so I got mum some chocolate and Jacob a set of match box cars :)

 

 

Hen's Night Shoes

These are just a tad cute!

All I did was add glittery pink stickers to the soles :)

Flip Flops

So I just finished the last of the flip flops for the wedding. I originally bought my ivory bridal pair from MyDreamWedding on etsy.com and decided to be brave and attempt the aqua ones for the girls. I think I did an alright job but of course not as good as the ones from MyDreamWedding hahaha.

 Ahh I love flip flops!!!

Survival Kits - Hens Night Gifts

Nicole, Jess and Clare are playing huge parts of organising my Hen's night. I'm not 100% sure whats happening but I can only assume it will be fabulous hehe :) Everything is done and organised and the only trouble is that I'm having trouble finding a dress for the occasion hahaha but that's ok I have a still have a few weeks to go.

Anyway I wanted to show the girls my appreciation with a small gift. 

I wasn't really sure what to do and after a lot of thinking and looking I decided to make survival kits. I saw this idea on pinterest and just had to make my own version. I am so happy how they turned out and I thought it is very appropriate and quirky as a gift for a girls night out :)

Only 24 more days until I become Mrs McGregor Yay!! I can't wait, I'm so excited. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with Ben he is the reason I smile everyday. 

Bridal Party Gifts

While we are in the gift giving blog mood I thought I would share with you the bracelets I bought for Clare, Nicole and I for the wedding day. They are so cute gorgeous and absolutely perfect! 

I bought the bracelets from MadeBySam on Esty.com, each bracelet has a starfish charm, blue aqua chalcedony charm, pearl charm and a disc with initial on it. I bought the white leather bracelet boxes from eBay and I used rub on letters to make them more personalised, then added ribbon and slider to make them more decorative. The leather boxes came in white cardboard boxes and I was originally not going to use them but to protect the leather boxes I thought it was a good idea to keep them and it made for an extra craft project :) so I added some pink patterned paper and rhinestone initial on the cardboard box to make them a little prettier. 

This bracelet will be my something blue for the wedding day too :)  

I can't wait to give them to the girls.

Clare's Birthday!!

Ok well with all this talk about wedding we cannot forget that it is Clare's birthday the day we come home. I feel horrible enough that she has to spend the whole day travelling, not fun!
I don't want her to go forgotten so I have made her a special present. It's not big but it will mean a lot to her. I will be giving it to her a little early so she can use it in QLD.

It's starting to become far from summer here but in QLD it is starting to warm up.

I thought to make a summer pack. I visioned sitting and relaxing by the pool on a hot day in QLD where we will be together a few days before her birthday.

Included was a beach towel, a magazine, some sunscreen and a packet of summer fruit juice lollies. I put them all in recycled manchester packaging, tied some ribbon around to make a bow and I will add a card.  I think it looks great and she'll love it. 7 years of friendship, she's very special to me :)

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Kates Baby Shower

It was Kate's baby shower today, all the decorations looked so cute. I couldn't stay very long as had to help Ben pick up a car in Melbourne but it was a lovely afternoon. Jess, Nicole and I organized, decorated and baked for the occasion and it worked out so well. We went with a subtle yellow duckie theme as it was gender neutral. Kate wanted to find out the sex but both times going in for the ultrasound there was so co operation from bubs. I'm so excited I can't wait, baby will be due April 16th via C-section. Not knowing the gender doesn't really help with present deciding hehehe.

Anyways I have some pics from before the party of some of the decorations. I haven't got my hands on any from the day once it was set up though. Obviously the banner said Kate's Baby Shower but to long to display :) Also I did a basket of wishes for baby so everyone could fill out little cards with messages to baby and I made custom stickers for lolly jar favours :)

 

 

More Monster Party Things

Ok so I am slowly collecting/making things for Max's monster party and it's all coming together nicely. I made 'Build a Monster' activity box for each of the kids. This was pretty fun and I'm sure they will love them :)

Wedding Guest Wishes

Well of course another quirky wedding diy I am doing.. To compliment our love story save the dates and wedding invitation we have decided to do Mad Libs for our guest wishes. Instead of having your traditional guest book or wishing well I have created these cards with a Mad Lib on the inside, our names and wedding date on the front and an additional comments on one of the flaps (once folded). They are a bit quirky and fun for our guests, I think they came out really cute and def a nice keepsake :) 

I thought it may even be nice to tie a little starfish to each but it will depend on our guests.

Excuse the crap photo taking, this silly house of mine has horrible natural lighting positions.
Looking forward to when we move :)

Valentines Day

So Monday is Valentines Day, we aren't overly keen on gift giving and everything on Valentines Day, we like to think we express our love on more than one day a year lol but this year thought to do something sweet, inexpensive and of course a little craft activity for me. I'll go through it from the start.

 I purchased Hershey Kisses from eBay as they are quite hard to find here in Australia in large quantities, they are an amarican chocolate. You can also find smaller packet in old English lolly shops sometimes. I bought adhesive paper from officeworks and a 3/4" punch from my local scrapbooking/craft shop. For the design I went on etsy.com and typed in printable hershey stickers and picked my favourite ones :) or you can get some freebie designs HERE or HERE

I printed the design onto the adhesive paper and punched out the circles using my 3/4" punch.

Then as simple as peeling and sticking them to the bottom of the Hersheys Kisses, they turned out very cute :)

To display them I plan on putting them in a jar and tying some ribbon around it and with the adhesive paper make a sticker to stick on the jar to say "A whole lot of Kisses for you on Valentines Day" pretty cute, I'm such a suck!!  You can display them any way you would like, in jars or wrappers or in a dish there's a million different ways to do them.

 You can do these for just about anything; baby showers, christenings, birthdays, mothers and fathers day, Easter, Christmas, weddings. Speaking of weddings while I was Hershey sticking like crazy I decided to make some funky ones for our wedding for our guests.   

Anyways I just wanted to share with you a huge trend in the US and hopefully see it spreading her down under.

Wedding Invitations

We have started handing out our message in a bottle save the dates and they have been a huge hit. I'm so happy how they turned out which makes me more excited for our invitations :)

My wedding invitation suitcases which will have all the information inside have arrived. I have started making all the different things to go in each suitcase and they are starting to come together. I decided to make a formal invitation that everyone will have that will sit on top and then the other info depending on each guest will go underneath. These might include, RSVP card and envelope, accommodation info, flight details, dayspa treatments, gold coast information, brochures, etc. I have put some things in envelopes and other things like brochures will go in loosely.
Its all on nice shimmery paper but photo's aren't crash hot.

 our formal invites

wording

RSVP & return envelopes

accommodation & flight details for some guests

Dayspa treatment pack for some guests

All in the suitcase with formal invite on top

suitcase closed

A luggage tag with guest name will be attached, also might put some shells or coral and other decorative items inside. There's a few more things I have to collect like brochures, etc before they are complete but getting there :)

194 Days till "I DO"

 

Save the Dates

So yesterday afternoon I decided to complete my save the dates. Ben and I decided we wanted to do something a little different so we went with doing a love story save the date and then rolling them up and putting them in a message in a bottle to keep the beach theme going. It was a fun little activity and Max sat with me and punched holes in paper while Jayden was in bed.

I pre made one the other day to get an idea of what I wanted. I also filled all the bottles with sand and shells ready for when I decided to make them. I set up my station and was ready to go.. the light is horrible in some pics and they were only taken from the phone so quality not crash hot but you'll get the idea. 

 Station all set up with sissors, hot glue gun, stanly knife, cutting board, ruler and all the little bits and pieces for the save the dates like the star fish and shells. I printed out the save the dates onto white shimmery metallic paper, cut them down to size. Also printed the names onto the same paper to make little tags for each guest. 

Our save the date quirky wording 

I rolled up some of the save the dates and cut up all the name tags and punched holes in them.

 I hot glue gunned the star fish to the tags

 Max having fun punching holes in paper =)

I tied rafia string to the rolled up save the date so it becomes easy to pull them out. I went around the neck of the bottle a few times with the string then threaded through the name tags and a shell slice and hot glue gunned the end of the rafia to the back of the bottle.

 Corks on an voilà!!

 Just another view of the finished product.

All done, I had fun making them and excited to send them off. 

Thanks to Beautiful Beach Weddings for suppling all the DIY which included; glass bottles, mailing tubes, sand, shells, starfish and the rafia string. they turned out great!!