Cake and Coffee

And we finished the day with cake - baked in house ...

And suberb coffee.

If you're on the northside, drop into Errol's for the pefect cup.

Ohhh and I've just noticed the red heart in the reflection of the latte glass.

Perfect ...

After Church

After Church we celebrated with family and friends at my sister and brother in law's cafe
in North Melbourne.
We all ate way too much.
A happy, happy day.

Before Church

We gathered outside the Church in Autumn sunshine.

It was a beautiful day to christen Georgia, my beautiful niece and god daughter.

There are no pics from inside the Church.

I had important Godmother duties!

I held Georgia for the whole ceremony, stripping her clothes for the baptism, then getting her dressed again in her gorgeous silk christening robe.

Then we were ready to celebrate.

Little Red Shoes

Da daaahhhhh..

The little red slippers are finished,

just in time for the Christening in a few hours!

They're so sweet for sweet Georgia.

Felting along

Can't stop!
I'm madly making a tiny pair of felt slippers for Georgia's christening on Sunday.

I had the usual dramas ...

OMG ... not enough felt
OMG ... I cut the wrong piece out
Memo to self - read the pattern more carefully!

Deep breaths.
In, out ....
In and out
I-n and o-u-t

All OK
A little bit of manoeuvring (thank goodness felt is very forgiving).
I've managed to cut all the pieces from the felt I had, which saves a trip in the morning to the fabric shop ( which I didn't have time to do anyway) ...

Back to work.

Next time I post, fingers crossed there'll be a perfect pair of red slippers for a gorgeous little girl.

The Great Easter Egg Hunt

When my sister and I were little girls, the Easter Bunny delivered eggs into our straw school hats at the end of our beds.

It was always exciting!

We didn't really know about Easter egg hunts. They happened in story books or the movies. They weren't something our family or neighbours ever did.

Now I have a family of my own we've embraced the Easter egg hunt enthusiastically.

Hiding the eggs is so much fun - then the kids (cousins of all ages) are let loose in the garden.

For big boys, the challenge is to find the most eggs in the smallest amount of time.

For the little girls, there are shrieks of delight when they discover eggs like shining jewels hidden in low branches, amongst the flowers and all the places fairies would know.

Easter Cake

We popped down to the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday afternoon to stay with family at Somers.
My oven envy was too much to bear.
I whipped up a vanilla cake for Easter.
Yum.

Birthday Love - part 2

My birthday continued at our new house.

...Bubbles

...Family

...A celebratory brunch.

...And more scrummy pressies.

Perfect.

Birthday Love - part 1

What a lovely day.

My birthday began by unwrapping this beautiful gift from James.

I love the cinnamon stick through the chiffon ribbon ...

and look at the paper ... providing a hint of what lay beneath.

So what was inside this gorgeous wrapping?

Two fabulous books carefully selected from Books for Cooks.

And i love love love this heart James drew on the card.

xxx

This is me right now:

Right now I'm
Eating a skinny cow ice cream (it's very hard to type with one hand)
Watching TV with only half an interest - Geelong v Collingwood
Hoping Collingwood wins (does that make me a bad person?)
Sipping hot tea (in between ice cream licks)
Planning a little birthday brunch with my family tomorrow
Wondering if I really look 46 !!!! I don't feel it
Making a list of what I need for brunch
Looking forward to seeing Eliza tomorrow when she gets home from the Gold Coast
Wishing I had an oven that worked so I could warm up some hot cross buns in the morning
Wishing I had an oven that worked so I could bake some hot cross buns in the morning
Reading the Age, now I've sorted out the lapsed subscription
Flicking through Gourmet Traveller
Changing the sheets on the Eliza's bed, so it's all fresh for her when she gets home
Washing, washing, washing
Thinking about doing some knitting
Enjoying Nathan Buckley's commentary. He's a talent - if you don't like Collingwood
Needing to do my personal tax (still)
Praying Gordon Ramsey goes away quietly
Loving that it's the weekend
Totally loving that it's the Easter long weekend
Promising to eat only the best chocolate

Shaping Elegance

I saw the Robert Fritzlaff exhibition today at Como House, in South Yarra.

This Melbourne fashion designer made it from Malvern, all the way to the left bank and brought haute couture to Melbourne in the 50s.

The exhibition called Shaping Elegance is a retrospective of some of his extraordinary gowns, displayed sympathetically in the beautiful rooms of Como House. And what a collection has been assembled. The style, simplicity and elegance of the gowns is breathtaking.

And the fabric. Never fussy with embellishment ... but designed to highlight the texture, weave, colour and cut of the material.

From classic cocktail frocks, stylish suits and glamorous evening gowns - the garments are classically beautiful.

The exhibition runs until 14 June.

Go see it.

Seriously!

Easter Surprise

I popped a little Easter surprise in the mail today.

It's heading over to Curlypops.
I hope she likes it.

Easter Decorating

I've got a bunch of sticks in my office which I decorate depending on the seasons and celebrations.

This week it's Easter.

The eggs are obvious decorations ... and I love the birds and butterflies as well.

Eliza and I made these, to welcome Spring ... and I dragged then out for Easter too.

And when I came back to my office this afternoon ... the Easter Bunny had left quite a few suprises!

No more wet shoes

I love this picture.

It's been raining in Melbourne the last few days which is wonderful. But we're not used to puddles !

This is not a complaint, we absolutely need the rain .... but it's wrecking my shoes!

I need a couple of pairs of these shoes.

Do they come in long black boots as well??

Check out more crazy inventions here.

Sexy

I spy with my little eye ...
James doing the ironing.
Very sexy

Take time to ...

These gorgeous images are from the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, one of my favourite events on the calendar.

I'm a tiny bit biased though. I worked on the event for more than a decade and know it inside out.

We popped in today (slightly hung over, I have to admit - see previous post) but the heady fragrance of fresh flowers, the vibrant colours and the inspiring gardens cleared my head.

Birthday Celebrations

Normally I'm not very happy to bid farewell to daylight savings.
It signals the end of summer,
the end of languid evenings,
late BBQs
and pottering in the garden until the light fades ...

But this weekend I was very happy to wind the clock back an hour.

We were celebrating Kate's 40th birthday into the wee small hours.



It was lovely evening ...
Lots of friends to catch up with,
lots of bubbles to drink,
and lots of conversations
(I just wish I could remember more of them this morning)

I do remember dancing to Barry White at 2.30am.
Oh baby ...
And again OH BABY ... but this time much deeper

Definitely time to leave.

The wonderful thing was, when I got into bed, I could wind the clock back an hour ... which meant it wasn't really 3.30 am after all!

Farewell daylight savings,

happy birthday Kate.

Barry, you still do it for me. xx

All in the family

Our family has caught the blogging bug. No one warned me it was contagious!

My mum's blog, White Dove, is only a couple of weeks old and gorgeous.
She added a live feed gadget to it last night.
She knew I was dropping in to check out what she's been up to .... but the live traffic feed shows people are dropping in from all round the world.
Mexico, Guatamala, Brazil, Argentina, New York, Colorado ..
She's in shock ....
and so is my Dad!!!!! (A little bit jealous??)

And today, with Eliza home sick and me blogging away, she decided she'd like her own blog too.
So Pink Pink Polkadot was born.

Please drop in and say hello.

What's the saying?
The family who blogs together ... ends up fighting over the laptop !
Hmmmm .... stay tuned.

Easter tags

While Eliza was working on her Easter Bunny card, I whipped up some Easter tags.

I traced an egg shape and made a template.

I rummaged around and found some paper and glue ... and had fun combining colours and patterns.

I punched a hole in the top of each tag.

All I need now is some ribbon to tie each tag to an Easter treat.

Easter Craft

Eliza has been home sick for two days with a tummy bug.

A bit of Easter crafting has helped.

Some pink cardboard, some scraps of fabric and

voila ....

An Easter Bunny card.

Very cute!