BOO!!!!

This was going to be a really short post but after uploading the pics, oh well!!! Happy Halloween everyone! Well I do have a few Halloween pics to share. We do actually have Halloween costumes and catalogues full of this sort of stuff but I just don't see trick-or-treaters around. My dad just rang me and said "Oh is it Halloween today?" Shock horror, he had two girls trick or treat at the door! And he said they frightened him because he didn't expect to open the door to two 10 year old girls dressed like mummies!!!

I tried to teach Leroy the old "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear". But his version was "Give me something good or I'll eat your underwear!" LOL too cute huh???

These were taken at Phillip Island a month ago, my dad is a big kid and stocks up on scary Halloween masks, mum rolls her eyes each year. Leroy had fun posing trying to scare me!

Got some great mail yesterday. The beautiful Karla sent me a copy of Victoria magazine!!! WOW!!! And she included some trims and things for my birthday and also a cute pressie for Leroy, a halloween skeleton straw (he loves it!) and a halloween pencil! Thank you so much Karla, you are so thoughtful!!!
Michelle tagged me for the One Sweet Treat to Read award! How special! I got a Halloween award! Thanks Michelle! Hope you're recovering from the earthquake today.

So I am to tag three blogs that I really enjoy. That is so hard! Ok the award goes to.... Alison, Mel and Britt. Alison's blog is wonderful, she has a beautiful family and is such a proud and happy new grandma. Mel is a relatively new blogger though you would never know it. She has a wealth of information on her site and grows the best roses you've seen, and recently had an incredible surprise party for her mum, go check it out. Britt is such a cutie, so enthusiastic and creative and writes the loveliest emails!

And I was lucky enough to receive another award, from Linda the Community Blogger Award, which celebrates people who reach out and make the blogger community a better one! Thanks so much for the honour! I will pass this along to Penny for her beautiful blog, creations, and wonderful nature, wealth of knowledge she shares, kindness and friendship.

Oh looky here what came in the mail!!! So very happy with these incredible decorations made by Colleen of Frostings and Sparkles. These are so great, she only has one left! You can buy it on her etsy here. These are staying in Leroy's room all year round! And she was so sweet to include an extra cupcake one for me that I forgot to photograph because it's in the kitchen!

What a random all-over-the-place post this is! Had to share this pic with you, breakfast from a few days ago. I love the photo, the colours are great and they were yummy!
So now some sneaky peeks at things I've been working on, some are gifts, some are swaps, some are for my store and more. I'll explain next time. But in the meantime....

New cupcakes for a sweet friend....

New cupcakes that I think I'll keep (but will make some for the shop!)
More cupcakes for another friend...

Tutu painted on a ..??? next time...

Corner of a painting for a lovely lady......
Hanger for a name plaque for a sweet girl's little boy.....

Something new and exciting.....

Signs signs signs.... coming soon.....
Mr Seagull.....complete with beady eye

More next time in expanded view! I'm off to bed early tonight with a headache, so I'll see you all tomorrow.


Big hugs,


Natasha xo

PS. Glad so many people are loving the Google Reader tip! I don't miss a blog post now, it's great and such a time saver!

Red Velvet Cake with Friends (yes, I actually baked from scratch!)

I've been fascinated with the whole Red Velvet Cake thing. It's not a cake we have heard of in Australia. It's not available in the Devil's Food cake mix here. Once I saw what Red Velvet cake was, I decided I just had to attempt it!!! My friends from The Bowerbird's Nest visited on Tuesday so I thought that would be the perfect occasion to make it. Armed with all the ingredients (after two major supermarkets ran out of buttermilk aaaarrrgh!!!! You're kidding me!!! I finally found some at a third supermarket!), it was about midnight before I got started on the batter. Then I would do the frosting in the morning so it was fresh for when we ate it! I've never baked from scratch before, being a packet mix girl if I ever bake! This would be interesting....

The mixer came out, I had to dust it first!!! It gets used maybe once a year, for when I make Leroy's birthday cakes. You know, one of those wedding presents you need to have but forget where you store it because you rarely use it!

Batter waiting to go in the oven... yup, it's going to be a triple layer big mama!!!

Perfecto, out of the oven and I didn't burn it or anything! And it wasn't a packet mix, I was so shocked..... but sheesh... doesn't it make a mess of the kitchen with all the measures and bowls and such. Packet mix all goes in one bowl....

Daylight! Now for the vanilla butter frosting. Don't even ask how many Weight Watchers points are in this.... I stopped counting at the batter stage!

Well, of course I couldn't just leave it plain battered. Had to get a cake comb out and a piping bag and do big star flower things on it. Love the wiggly effect on the sides...happened by accident. See the edge of the cake stand? I just followed that with the cake comb and it made the wavy design! Baking a cake from scratch is new to me but decorating cakes I am a little more experienced at! Leroy gets fabulous cakes (if I do say so myself!) for his birthday every year. Decorating is the fun bit!

Soooooooooooooo fattening.... but the frosting was the most delicious part of it!

Oooooh drum roll.... how is it going to look?

Here it comes!!!


VOILA! Love the colour!!! It used two whole bottles of food dye! (No, Leroy didn't eat any, he would have been climbing the walls with this much red food colouring! Sometimes I am glad he doesn't like cakes!). But the cocoa seemed to separate to the sides a little... Oh well for a first attempt I think it is ok!
The colour is amazing to look at.

Ready to eat....
Here, would you like a bite?

It was very rich, tasted a lot like a chocolate cake to me but with lots of red stuff in it but the frosting was great. I think this could work by just putting loads of food colouring in any cake mix batter really..... would probably taste better as a vanilla cake. With this vanilla butter frosting of course!

I also found that there were bits that seemed bitter, I think the vanilla extract (not essence... maybe I should have used essence, it's milder) separated somewhere and I got strong doses of it!!

All that richness needs to be washed down with pink lemonade of course!!!

After eating that (we didn't finish one slice it was so filling!) we could barely move.... only thing we could do.... sit down and admire the beautiful roses on my coffee table picked fresh from Jenn & Jacqui's garden.

Now if anyone wants the recipe I used, it is apparently the one from Magnolia Bakery. You can get it here.


And on a more sombre note, sending hugs and prayers to all my friends and firefighters battling the horrific blazes in Southern California and hoping you all come out of this safe and well.



Natasha xo

Yes I do buy Christmas goodies even though I make my own!

People who come to my home see I have creations from other artists and crafters and ask me why I buy them if I can make them myself. In short, I am a bit of a shopaholic but mostly it is because I always appreciate work people do, and if I haven't lived and breathed it for weeks or months by creating it myself, then I am not tired of seeing it! It's new and fresh and someone else made it!

So I just ADORE these beauties I got from Nikki over at Chi Chi La La Designs. Here is her shop and here is her blog. It's so funny because we got Christmas things from each other at the same time. Same goes for her, she can make things herself, so why get them from me?! We're definitely on the same wavelength! She's one talented lady, just check out these unique creations!

This is one of her adorable faceless angels! I absolutely love this, it is sooooooooooooo beautifully made, gorgeous design and beautiful trims. This girl knows how to trim!!! These photos really don't do her work justice.

Oh and I am swoooooooning over these. They are vintage pink honeycomb tissue bells that she has decorated with more gorgeous trims. Mine we custom made just for me.
So cute, love the detail, she knows I love little birdies!
And my Christmas decorations are mostly blue and green with silver and white/clear/pearly and a touch of pink (surprisingly not just pink and green!) so she also made me this pair of blue bells. Oh my!

They're temporarily hanging with my dress garland but I've since found a perfect spot for them under the mantle.
And I started my Christmas shopping, this stunning memory board is going to a sweet friend's little girl. Nikki even included a cute handmade cupcake tag! I saw Nikki's memory boards in the flesh when she donated one to a big charity auction I was part of on eBay last year, they're beautifully made, the back is almost as pretty as the front!

I'm sure I'll be back for more gift shopping before too long! Thank you so much Nikki, I love everything!!!

On a side note, the ladies who lunch (see previous post) were still lunching today! I attempted and mostly succeeded in baking my very first (and probably only) Red Velvet Cake. I'll give you a bit of it next time round.

Enjoy your day!

Natasha xo

One heck of a rude woman, great references for you AND beautiful mail!

I'll break this post into three parts, each totally unrelated to the other!

Before I do I just wanted to let you know I'll not be taking any new custom orders for the remainder of the year, as I have tons of work to get through PLUS I want to be able to make some Christmas goodies for my shop (so many ideas swirling around my head!) and I need to be spending time with my little family! I'll still be updating the shop regularly, this will give me an opportunity to do so! Also, I've posted my closing times on my front page of the store so check them out if you are planning on making any purchases before Christmas as there are a few times I will be closed in November too.

Now, onto the fun stuff!

PART 1One Heck of a Rude Woman

(image)

Last night hubby and I had to go to a work dinner. He works in a family business as well as his own businesses, so whenever it is a work thing it is also a family thing. His brother sat near me with a look on his face like the little guy above (well not quite but it's a cute pic!). He had just walked in and saw one of the people his father employs, went to him and his wife and said

"Hi I'm Terry, you must be .... Mrs Willy" (the husband's name is Will). The reply from her.... wait for it....

"I don't do meetings".

WHAT THE????????

I don't do meetings????? Terry then said "Neither do I" and walked away. Can you believe it???? I've never heard of anything so rude! Even the Queen would have said politely, "Hello, I'm the Queen, nice to meet you" and left it at that. Not quite sure who this woman thought she was. Just plain RUDE!!! I'm still shocked thinking about it. She said this to her husband's boss' son, who is also one of the managers... what is with that???

PART 2

Great References for You

Ok bloggers I have some great references to share with you. I have found the first two gems, in particular, have saved me a huge amount of time when blogging!!!!! And we're all time-poor aren't we!

1. Google Reader - this is well worth setting up! It will take a while to add all your favourite blogs in there and mark them all as read, but once you have set it up, no longer do you need to go to your own sidebar and click on every blog to visit everyone and find half the blogs haven't got new posts yet.... you just go to Google reader and it shows you, highlighted, all the new posts from your 'people'!!!! Maybe everyone knows about this already and I'm just slow, but this saves me time and I don't miss a post now!!! If it helps one person then it was worth sharing!

2. Flickr Uploadr (minus the letter E) - I discovered this tool the other day and went a little crazy and before I knew it I had uploaded over 100 photos to flickr.... oops!!! This is fantastic because once you've downloaded the uploader (!!) all you do is find your photos on your computer, right click on the photo and it will give you an option 'Send To Flickr'. That is it, off it goes to flickr without having to go to the uploading page on flickr!!! MUCH faster!!!

3. Free Scrapbook Printable Papers That is just one example, there are lots! Just Google it and you'll find lots of great things!!

PART 3

Beautiful Mail

Well I've been lucky in the mail department again! This first beauty I had my sweet friend Holly make as a special order a while ago. I just adore this ballerina box, it is totally amazing and loaded with beautiful vintage flowers and trims. Even under the little feet, wow what an amazing thing. This sits in my entrance so I can smile at it every day!

Even the back of the arch is covered in flowers!!! And Holly collected a bunch of things to send to me, most of these are gifts for my birthday, she is one naughty girl! What a wonderful bunch of beautiful goodies!!! She made me these adorable vintage wallpaper ornaments, oh how I love these!!!

Then this little princess arrived at my door last week!!!! She's made by gorgeous Lori and she is part of a swap we're having. I spotted little Miss on her Etsy a while ago and now she's living in Melbourne Australia. Lori foofed her up and made her a princess with a wand, the details are absolutely incredible!!! I don't know how she makes these amazing sculptures, they are out of this world. If you are thinking of buying one of her creations (check out her foofy bunny boxes), then go get one NOW before they all run out the door, you will NOT be disappointed, in fact you will become addicted and want the whole lot!!! Lori, Miss Princess is behaving much better now, she's not so demanding! See how tiny the details are, WOW!!!
This is her new home

And what a lovely surprise that greeted me!!!! Sweet Betty of She's Sew Pretty sent me these gorgeous goodies for my birthday!!!! She made me a lovely tag and two beautiful little paper dresses!!! She knows I love green and decorated with an N for me! And the blue one, how cute, it is a denim cowgirl dress with an N buckle, because she knows I love my cowboy boots and am a little cowgirl at heart!!! I am so grateful and I love these Betty, they are the sweetest little dresses!! They now live on display on my big cupboard doors in my room here with the computer, I'm prettying up the room and I'll share pics once I am all done!!!

And delicious swappy goodies came all the way from Finland from Delila at Sepia Art Studio . These were for the Vintage Kitchen Swap, and wow how great! The tins are already in good use for my trims and the teacup has already been used for some relaxing tea. Loving the cupcake tea towel and pot holder and sweet little black board/chalk board and gorgeous vintage seam binding in my favourite colour green! Thank you Delia!!!
Well if you're still here, thanks for reading and looking and enjoy your day. We're having hot weather at last and I am loving it! Better go shave the legs though, might scare some people at the gym in the morning!!!

Big hugs,


Natasha xo