sweetie

I have the worst sweet tooth. And sadly its looking like I have passed that onto Abi too...
The the past few weeks I have made caramel slice. Who knew it was so easy! Well many people it seems... I was reading Nat from In the Night Sky's blog. She had come to the same realisation as me! So I copied her! I made caramel slice.

Here is the end result:

And I have had this recipe for chocolate raspberry brownie marked to make for so so long now! IT was delicious!!! Thanks (or maybe not?) to Reezy from Peanut Butter & Honey for this one! I only made a half mixture and added in some white choc chips! Took some to my sisters for dessert on Sunday (with some vanilla ice cream!) And finished the rest off on Monday! Oops!

See I told you she has a sweet tooth! Yeah, so I quite possibly shouldn't be encouraging it! he he!

And wasn't Saturday in Melbourne GLORIOUS! Abi and I headed to the little park that is basically opposite out house. It was out first time there.
She LOVED the slide!

And found this 'tick tock' clock kinda cool!

There was no swings though! Such a shame. She loves the swings. How can a park not have swings?

Do you venture to your local park? We really should do it more often.

13 months

13 months
An absolute joy
Adored
A character
Nearly walking!
Precious
And more....

Love you darling girl.


I want to get this photo printed, but I'm torn between B&W or Colour???

the girls

It's been a weekend of 'the girls' mummy and daughter time and LOTS of cuddles. Erin (my husband) has gone to Sydney for the weekend but we stayed behind.

My best friend from high school and I always said we weren't going to have children...
Today I helped celebrate her daughters first birthday...

It's a long story, but we lost touch (in fact I think I have mentioned this before) so it was very special to me that they came to Abigail's first birthday and that we today were able to attend Tess' birthday.

I didn't get any good shots, but I'm hoping that my friends sister in law did!

It was a very nervous day today.  I haven't seen her parents and family in a very long time. They know I hurt her. It's a long story. A story for another day.

Whats important is that we are back in contact. We catch up and we have daughters that are only 5 weeks apart in age! (would have been 2.5 if I hadn't had Abi early and her Tess late)

Tess says "Abi look over there!" - Two adorable girls in their party dresses!

mini version

For some time now I have been looking for the prefect table and chairs for Abigail.
I found and fell in love with and posted about THIS.
But it was way way too expensive for my liking.

Then one day my mum was in a bit of a strange mood... And then came up to me nearing tears explaining that she had bought the table and chairs for Abigail but then couldn't get it as it was out of stock. She had been searching far and wide for it and just didn't know what to do! (It was supposed to be a very surprise birthday present)

Still searching and still searching I came across Click-On Furniture and replica mini versions...
I had a few minuets spare today and was in the area so called into the showroom and took a look at the following:

Click On - Jasper Junior Chair

Click On - Jasper Junior Table

Click On - Junior Wire Chair

Sorry for the poor images. I took them from the click on website.
Do I go replica furniture? or is replica 'vomit' (I keep thinking of Dale from the last series of The Block and his hate dislike of replica furniture...)
Would same table and chairs been too "matchy matchy" ??? Do I get pink chairs ??? But what if we have another child and it's a boy ???

Help me decide!
Look at what else Click On have to offer!

4 cakes

So Abi ended up having 4 cakes for her FIRST birthday...
Spoilt brat! I know!
No! Not really! Just lots and lots of reason to celebrate!

Abi's cake we had in Sydney for celebrations with friends. Made by my super awesome friend Megan. (If you are in Sydney and after a cake let me know! I'd be happy to pass on her details. - This is a hobby!) She also made my husbands birthday cake! I blogged about it already HERE

Red velvet cupcakes for daycare... I'm going to admit it here and here ONLY... (That's WhiteWings packet cakes...) & they were really really nice!

Rainbow cake! Made my Aunty Emma! Good old Womens Weekly recipe! 
And YUMMMMMMY!

The Saturday before Abi's party my sister (Aunty Emma) sent me a text to see how the cake was going... I sent her a piccy of what I think was the prefect colour PINK icing!

cakes molded together with ganache! I'd made them a week earlier and froze them. I don't trust our oven. It's seriously crap so headed to my sisters and baked them in her Miele oven...

Couldn't find the electric knife... So had to shape with normal knives... I ended up using a bread knife!

Happy Birthday platter borrowed from my sister, the 'dome' iced! and home made freckles added!

The head was a red velvet cupcake. eyes pink 'smarties' and pink pipe cleaners to make up he rest.

Side view. Eyes should have been moved down a little I think.

End result. Already posted. I'm very proud!

If you are after a super easy and scrumptious cake recipe, then give this one a go! Megan made Abi's Sydney cake from it and I made my lady bug from it too! 

baby chino

First baby chino! She LOVED it!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! We are having coffee with a friend tomorrow morning and then having lots of baby niece cuddles in the afternoon!

Share

Saw this on Facebook the other day. Had to share. Know where it's from?

party girl wrap up

Birthday morning PRESENTS!
Lot's of presents from friends in Sydney and even a gift all the way from Seattle USA!

Birthday cake for breakfast! Mmm YUM! red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing
(I made these for daycare)

Birthday night! My brother in law made this chair for Abigail!!! It is white with pink stitching and so so lovely!  She LOVES LOVES LOVES helium balloons too! 

And this was one SUPER BIG balloon!

A heavily pregnant aunty made this AWESOME cake for Abi for her birthday night!

Party day! Loving the balloons... Looking adorable in a beautiful dress. 

Abi and the delightful Tess my girlfriends daughter who is also about to turn one!

Party food, decorations and more!

Mmm LOLLIES! 

Food food and MORE food!

CAKE! I made this!!! from scratch! I'm so damn proud!

Baby cousin... Where are you! Hurry up!

End of the night. Pooped and playing with my presents.

I'm an Aunty!

So so much has been going on around here...
I haven't even blogged about Abigail's first birthday... her 4 cakes... And MORE!
But very very exciting news! FINALLY I'm an Aunty!
My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Friday the 31st of August and called her Alexandra.

Baby Alexandra only 5 hours old!

Read more and congratulate the new mum yourself! HERE