Butterfly Kisses

Recently we were at the butterfly enclosure at Melbourne Zoo and Leroy asks,

"Mummy, do butterflies give butterfly kisses?"

One of those sweet kiddie moments that melts your heart....

Lots of Wishes, 100 of them!

What beauty awaited me at the door a few days ago.... From the title of this post you might have guessed where this loveliness came from - one of my Silver Bella roomies, the lovely Andrea of One Hundred Wishes of course! Her site will be down from Monday-Thursday this week but go check her out when you get a moment - if you haven't already!

She sent me some of the most gorgeous goodies from her shop, I tell you, her stuff is first class, A Grade, deliciousness!
I'm a bit obsessed with velvet - velvet anything - fabric, flowers, shoes (uh, yeah, I bought some velvet boots), clothes, and ...
oh my gosh how cute are these velvet strawberries?!!! They're even cuter in real life - they're padded and lovely!
Oh yeah, and the deliciousness - the Italian sweets.... well, they kinda didn't last very long as you can see... I have saved the wrappers, lol, not quite sure what I will do with them, but they are just so beautiful - the print is so lovely - and the taste.... oh boy like no other! Leroy stole a few and hid them in the back of one of his little toy trucks, I found the wrappers later, hee hee!!!

This week has just FLOWN. Is it just me getting older or does time just seem to scoot by and before you know it another weekend is upon us? We managed to get the bike assembled for the little guy and with the weather being a bit ordinary he's been riding around our carport - loving every minute of it and scaring the poor dog!

And I have had the fire going most days - the sound of it crackling away at night time is so comforting and soothing. The clean-up is not fun - lol, bits of crunchy wood pieces falling on the floor as the logs are being brought inside, and the aftermath of ash - which I have been putting on the garden (hey does anyone know if too much ash is harmful to plants? I hear it is good for them but maybe there's a point where I can put too much down?)

Oh yeah and I finally went back to the hairdresser and true to my form, had enough of my hair and needed a complete change. I go from light to dark to curly to straight to short to long to layered to not to red to brown to black to light again. I've had highlights for way too long now and thought my hair needed a rest from all that treatment so I went kinda natural again. Please excuse this awful before photo but I took it on the way out the door just to see if it really was much different in the end...

And now, I get a shock each time I see my reflection, forgetting the new hair! LOL! I'm happy with it though, feels a lot healthier already.

• Other stuff this week - I've been working late every night once the little man goes to bed on a very large order of paintings. I'll share some with you next time.

• I'm the VP of the Parents and Friends Committee at Leroy's pre-school so have been working on some fun ideas for fundraising nights, sheesh this stuff takes a bit of time and effort, meetings and such, but it is all fun and very satisfying to know what you are working on will help the kiddies out. That is, after all, why I am a stay at home mummy~! Oh did I mention he got into the school we applied for? I can't believe my baby will be a big grown up/full time school boy by next February : ( - in my state we call it Grade Prep - but in other states and in the United States, it is called Kindergarten. (It's full time, and is at the the same school that goes right up to 6th grade, on one campus.)

• My Father In Law is out of hospital and now out of rehab! Turns out rehab wasn't so great, as in, they didn't actually DO any rehab. It was more respite care and he can sit around for 17 hours a day at home instead so home is where he is. He's doing ok, legs are in a bit of pain but he will get there and is much happier at home, as we all are with him being there.

• Not much new with my great Aunt - she is still coming out of sedation, very slowly, after the operation. We don't know much. Not sure if she can move one side of her body or not, it's too early to tell apparently but I think she will pull through better than they thought so here's hoping.

• And re my last post about the images being taken - I'm not sure if I was clear enough - it was actual images that were stolen, my photographs - not my work that was copied. Finally after a few weeks of emailing them, they have removed it.

• Thanks for all your prayers and support, sweet emails and being so kind. I'm still playing catch-up and so I will come visit you soon - I am on a tight deadline with the large order so I'll come visit you one day soon, please don't think I am being rude or ignoring you! Not that you are waiting for me to visit but just wanted to explain in case you wondered where I was!

Have a great weekend, Leroy and I are off to an old friend's birthday party today. She's a super talented designer I've known since my university days - here's her fabulous label she created - Leluu. (Happy birthday Lizzie! xo)

Bye for now,

Natasha xo

Totally random

A whole lot of randomness here, please excuse how disjointed this blog post is! A bit of happy, new, sad or frustrated stuff to follow!

• Let's start with NEW! I totally forgot to mention I created a new category in my little shop, called BLING. I've got a whole lot of cute sparkly affordable (new) goodies in there now, that I hope you will love! You can click HERE to find it, and here is just a TINY sampling of what is available.

• Another NEW - just sharing some special orders I've been working on below. Some Marie style journals, these are so fun to make.

• My friend Sadie, of Sadie Lou Who, you know the girl who makes those gorgeous BETSY dolls?! Anyway, Sadie has let the cat out of the bag and is opening up an amazing new site called LOLLISHOPS! You can find the blog HERE and the site HERE. I'm so proud to say I got the task of painting her new lollipop logo! I'll have a spot on her site, hope you can join too!
  


• Update on Pa, my father in law. Today he went in to a special rehab centre where he will learn to walk again properly!!! Out of hospital finally.... 6 weeks is a long time not to walk or use your legs, so he needs to build up strength again and this is what he will do at the rehab centre. Your prayers and thoughts have meant so much to me, so thank you.

• For the 'frustrated' part - I don't want to re-hash what many of you have seen or heard of on flickr the past day or so - many of you don't know - so in short, a lot of this has been happening lately. I've happened to have more than my fair share of it this past week. Flickr photo stealing.... it's wrong, it's happening, it's totally frustrating. If you don't know this, all photos are copyright protected, especially ones with © All Rights Reserved on them. So people who are taking flickr pics as their own, using them in banners on etsy (yes, two of my photos were in "the" banner), or as has also happened to me this week - taking my photos and just plain old USING them to create a Myspace layout - then offering this myspace layout as a FREE DOWNLOAD is just NOT ON!!! Of course, you would know this but the people who keep doing it obviously don't, or just don't care. Having a note on a myspace layout along the lines of "artists if this is your work contact us and we'll credit you or remove your images" just doesn't cut it. They KNOW when they take the images they can't do that. Just hoping they won't get caught, or trying to cover their a$$e$ by putting a silly disclaimer on things doesn't make it right. A far more beautifully said and far better worded blog post is THIS ONE from my friend Andrea, about being authentic. Please read it, she says it much better than I could.

• Good news - Hubby has quit smoking! He is doing so well, this is no small task. He has gone from a pack a day to nothing. We are up to day six. One day at a time... he smells so much better now, lol!

• Lastly, I just found out today my great aunt (Not the one from the prev blog post, but one from my dad's side) has just had a stroke and is undergoing surgery right now. Please keep her in your prayers. That's her on the left as a little girl, in the ATC I created last year. Also, THESE GIRLS need your thoughts and prayers too.
  

Thank you dear friends,

Natasha xo

Slovenians make fab food!

Most people don't know this - on my mum's side I am only first generation Australian - you see, she was born in Slovenia! That's a tiny little country smaller than my state, to the right of Italy, below Austria, and bordering with Croatia and Serbia.



Mum and I visited Slovenia and Italy in the year 2000, and met up with family she hadn't seen since she was a girl. It was such a blast, and so incredible to see where my mother was born (yes, saw the actual hospital which is now empty). It's one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen in my life. One of Europe's best kept secrets.



I've been to 12 or 13 countries, and it seriously is amazing. Just how you picture Austria to be, houses with the high pointy roof, lots of amazing cheese, pickles, cured hams, loads of rolling hills, alps to climb, ski slopes, tiny villages, corn drying racks, bee hive things that are hand painted (seriously gorgeous), CASTLES galore, caves galore, fresh water rivers that you can drink from, clean lakes, majestic waterfalls..... and wonderful FOLK MUSIC!

Here's a clip I found on You Tube - it's cute music. Happy stuff!

These two pics were the best ones I had from my old camera, pre-digital. First one shows the village my mum was born and lived in for a while and the 2nd one shows an amazing castle actually built INTO a cliff. It's PREDJAMA CASTLE. Seriously amazing to see. (Click to enlarge these two, I've kept them large so you can see the great details!)

So today was my Great Aunt's 80th birthday. We don't have many family members here in Australia, mum only has two relatives here, and so mum put on an amazing lunch today. We had delicious stuffed peppers and wonderful dessert! Tiramisu for her cake (yeah, I know, it's Italian) and Apple Strudel (yes the Slovenians make it too, deeeeeee-licious!)

Happy Birthday Aunty Erminija! Hey check out her great skin! With these genes I don't think I'll need a facelift when I'm 80, lol!!

Little Mr Photographer Leroy took this shot of us, mum is to the right at the back and the other two ladies are family friends.

I'm about to get into my pyjamas because my dress is officially too tight after that wonderful food!!!

Catch you later,

Natasha xoxo

Laura's Whimsical Children's Room Party

Hey everyone, one of my dearest friends is having a birthday today - Happy birthday beautiful girl, hope you had a great day, that hubby spoiled you and remembered to give you a card (LOL) and that your boys gave you tons of cuddles. Love you lots sweet Heather!! (you can wish her a happy birthday here if you like!)

My friend in California, Laura, (who I'll get to meet in LA in October, how cool!) is hosting a Whimsical Children's Room Party today! Here's some pics from my little man's room.

It's been decorated this way since he was a baby. I didn't do the traditional baby stuff in his room since I figured he'd grow out of it before I could blink. It's just a fun, new mixed with retro version of kinda shabby chic in a boy's way along with lots of handmade art and embroideries and fun. He enjoys it, and it's my fave room in the house!

The pics up on the walls are all embroideries I did by hand while I was pregnant with him. They're all farmyard themed, and were loads of fun to do. The books on the shelves on display are all vintage, I collect old Enid Blyton books and now he is at an age where I can read some of them to him. The old AA Milne Collection from the 80s when I was a kid is now being read to him at nights.

His quilt was hand pieced and made with love by my Mum. I love it!

The bunny box below is by sweetie Jenn in Georgia, the little box card by Lori and the crow by Jennifer Conway.

And this beautiful creation by Sandra Evertson (yes a real original Sandra Evertson!). Egglette takes pride of place on one of the shelves. He keeps a pet rock inside, how cute!

Some close ups of a few of my embroideries....


Enjoy Laura's tour - check out the other participants on her blog.

Have a great weekend,

Big cyber hugs,

Natasha xo

Let it snow!

Last time I went to this lovely lavender farm was Mother's Day, in Autumn. Now the deciduous trees have lost their leaves, a very cold fresh chill is in the air and rain drips from anywhere it can.

Prettiness is everywhere at Lavandula Lavender Farm, at any time of year.
Around this time last year, my friend Kathy (who I mentioned in the previous post) and I went to the same lavender farm, you can find that post HERE.
This year we sat at the same table, right by the fire, and this year again, the food featured pumpkin (to my US friends I have recently discovered you call it SQUASH) and again we couldn't finish. Seriously, how do you possibly eat a homemade pie that is the size of a big soup bowl?!!! Even I couldn't!
So we went away for a few days to a lovely B & B - owned by family friends - it's beautiful, luxurious and you get pampered and treated like royalty! You can find the B & B HERE. This is Kathy's room. Wonderful comfy beds, thick soft towels, huge velvet drapes, big spa baths.....

But the big surprise for us was this..... the morning of our first night there, something was spotted outside the window.... here's Kathy wondering, "what is this white stuff floating down from the sky?". You see, Kathy is from Queensland. It's always nice in Queensland. It's probably the equivalent climate of Florida. AH so now you know what I mean?
It SNOWED!!!!!! I got rather excited about it and did a little twirl in the street when it started. I know, I'm a bit of a goose, but for me it was a huge novelty too, since it doesn't snow in Melbourne where I live either!
See the look of total surprise on my face too?! Snow? Are you kidding me? It was the coldest day of the year so far and we got so lucky to be in the right place at the right time. How totally exciting! Pity it melted with the rain after about an hour.






Back to Kathy - I saved the little beauties she gifted me with for last - these are so adorable!!! She made this sweet bunny pin cushion for me, it is on display, far too nice to use!!!
And she knitted me these two scarves. Yes she actually knitted them from balls of wool! They're so beautiful and perfect colours for me! And THE skirt. Oh boy this is a skirt that screams my name if ever a skirt did! I've always loved this style of using vintage bits and pieces and have in the past made a few camisoles as gifts with bits of lace and flowers and pearls but never anything this fancy and gorgeous!!!
Wow the trims!!! Kathy got this skirt from a talented lady who sells at the same markets that Kathy sells her wares at. You can find the skirts and more beautiful stuff here at Marmilade Clothing. You'll gasp at the beautiful creations there. And this skirt is hanging from a moulded mannequin I decoupaged in sheet music - shall share more another time - and on the waist looks like a sparkly belt - little tip for you - it is three bracelets I have linked together, too cute huh?! So this skirt is my new favourite favourite favourite. Talk about spoiling me!!! Thank you Kathy! Have a safe trip home, it was such fun yet again : 0 )

Well next time I'll update you on the last instalment of the Marie Antoinette Round Robin book... Until then,



Ciao for now,



Natasha xo



PS. Thanks for the emails, they keep coming in asking about my FIL. You are all so kind and thoughtful, it truly amazes me. He is doing better, finally got out of intensive care, and is in a regular hospital ward now. Maybe in about a week he will go to a rehab centre where he'll stay maybe 2-3 weeks to get his limbs working properly again after being off his feet for such a long time.