A Pantry Makeover

If your a friend of mine your probably saying "What Pantry?" 

Yep its true...

I don't really have a pantry - it's really a bookshelf.

Its just the way my tiny kitchen is set out, there isn't room for one. So when we moved in over 10 years ago we stuck a cheap bookshelf in the only space there was, and that was it. I have this theory - the less money we spend on fixing and updating what we have the better. I can wait, its been a while but I can wait... why fix something half way when I can wait a few more years and have what I really want.

So this means all my dry storage is on show and every so often it really annoys me.

This time I decided to make it pretty, so it looked like I had made it a bookshelf on purpose.

I found these beautiful Mason Jars in a very cute Japanese $2.80 store (yes everything is $2.80) in my local shopping strip. I'm going back for more this week as I've taken a liking to them and food just looks so pretty stored in them.

I just put the labels together using Word and printed them out - they aren't waterproof but I figured I could just print them again if I needed too. As I already had labels - this little organising project cost under $10 and about half an hours work.  Its amazing how something so simple can totally change the look of something.

(Excuse the bottom self - Evie can reach that one so its just a pile of plastic drink bottles)

Hope your having a lovely weekend!!

We have you been all their lives....

I'm a big believer in taking the girls "out" for food, teaching table manners and appropriate behaviours in public is high on my list of lessons. There are the occasions when it all falls apart but most of the time its quite an enjoyable experience.
My local cafe know my girls by name and actually smile when we arrive, scoop up Evie for a cuddle and pass out complimentary marshmallows but unfortunately its not always like this elsewhere.  I totally understand the whole eating out with kids debate but seriously if your respectful of others dining and clean up after any major mess they make it really isn't that hard. Little Eats has a great article here that I totally agree with - if fact while your there and your from Melbourne, pick out some great places to eat as well. Its usually the first place I look when brainstorming for a new place to visit.

We went to Cheeky Chino's over Easter break and all I can say is why hasn't someone done this before. Its totally a great place to start with, if your building your "eating out" confidence. What amazing service, yummy food and most importantly perfect coffee. There were TWO staff actually playing with the girls in the play area while the hubby and I had lunch and somebody helped me by taking the pram to the pram parking area and then helped set us up at the table. The food was just as good as any other high end "hipster" eatery and the fab kids menu had plenty of healthy choices (not a fried food to be seen). We enjoyed a delicious chicken sandwich and toasted foccacia, 4 coffees (yes we went back for seconds) and Lou enjoyed the choice of six different babychinos types and a yummy pink iced tea cake.  The toilets are family friendly with a place to change nappies if needed.

They have thought of absolutely everything here including plastic cups for the water just for the kids and sanitiser for bare feet in the play area. They only negative I can see that once word gets out about this place I'm sure it will be packed daily.
We will be back very soon.
 Linda xx

Photos sourced from Cheeky Chino's facey page  

The Party round-up...

We had a little celebration over the weekend to mark a very special girls first birthday. Rain was predicted all week for our party but thankfully it never arrived. The wind made a mess of my streamer backdrop but that's all that really went wrong so I couldn't complain. The husband and I decided back when Louise had her first birthday that we would go all out for our children's first party. We don't do religious events or the like, so we really wanted a chance to celebrate our child's first year and thank our loved ones for being apart of such a special time in our lives. 

I started planning (and saving) a couple months back - knowing that the guest list would probably tip the 100 mark, I wanted to be as organised as possible.

As overdone as it is .... I couldn't go past a rainbow theme for Evie, its perfect for her. Especially when I saw a custom printables range from Fairydust Stylist Stationary. I love her work and she sets up the most stunning party tables. Here's Evie's Invite:

The husband conveniently has an air compressor (to lovingly clean his beloved bike) so he had no excuse trouble getting 200 balloons blown up so I could try out Design Moms awesome Balloon Banner I found in Pinterest. It looked great in the morning but the wind certainly took its toll on it and became quite bare by the arvo.

 

  

I had a caterer do the food, so only had to take care of the fun stuff ...desserts and cake!! I have been itching to try out THE Rainbow cake - and turned out a lot better than I thought it would.

A week before the party I suddenly realised we would have about 35 kids with not much to do. The best decision I made was ask the Kindy mums if anyone knew a good entertainer - Benny Blitz had just done a session at the local hairdresser for a Shave for a cure fundraiser. He was fantastic - the kids loved his tricks and he had such a talent for making very cool balloon creations. Honestly if an entertainer is in your party budget I totally recommend getting one. It saves the time, stress and hair loss of planning games a million times over.

I did organise a photo booth area though. I wish we had had more time to use it because the photos I did get were awesome. I haven't had the heart to take it down yet. Maybe I can get visitors to pose to I have an excuse to keep it there?

I used the printables again to make up some different Thank you gifts. Chocolates, Cookies and Lolly Bags. A Big Thank you to Susie at Sweetie Darling for doing the cookies (and the gorgeous flower on top of the cake) for me.

 We had a wonderful day and our normally surly little munchkin, didn't give us a frown all day. 

She obviously enjoys being centre of attention.

 

You can see Louise 2nd, 3rd and 4th birthdays here

And we made it....

through the first year as a family of four that is.
Boy! it flew by!!
Our little Evie is turning one TODAY!! I am supposed to be madly getting ready for her big party we are hosting but have suddenly got a few pangs of sentiment.
So I put together a little movie to celebrate our little ones first year of life.

My $11 Cake Plate

Yep $11... Isn't it cute? I made it .... so easy I'll show you how.

You only need 3 things - A Candle stick (mines from IKEA), a pretty plate and some hot glue.

Just glue one to the other and wollah....

A Handmade Cake Plate

JANUARY: Photo a day...

I've decided to take part in Fat Mum Slim's Photo a day challenge over on instagram. Amazingly there are hundreds of partcipants over 30,000 photos already (and thats just on instagram). My aim is to do a photo update every Saturday here for those not playing on Istagram.
So here are my first 7 photos....

Day 1 ~ YOU : Me (and Evie)

Day 2 ~ BREAKFAST : Hubby making Pancakes

Day 3 ~ SOMETHING YOU ADORE : My new Christmas Bling

Day 4 ~ LETTERBOX : Exactly that

Day 5 ~ SOMETHING YOU WORE : My new lippy is such a great find

Day 6 ~ MAKES YOU SMILE : Family time at great cafes

Day 7 ~ FAVOURITE : My new Candle from a friend for my birthday

If you want to join in with the fun, head over to Chantelle's blog for the details