Shopping For Easter Pt II

 

^{Have you started shopping for Easter yet?}

^{As you have seen from my first post about Easter Shopping (here) I’m quite excited about all the wonderful Easter goodies popping up on shelf stores. So today I thought I’d share with you some goodies from two wonderful stores.. Spotlight and Bed Bath N Table.}

^{Now I must warn you if you do not wish to visit these stores in danger of hurting the hip pocket than this post is not for you.. BUT if you’re after some idea of what’s out there then take a look.}

^{First stop Spotlight...}

^{Spotlight sure does have a great range of Easter goodies.}

^{From assorted cello wrap and treat bags to moulds and cup cake sets anything you need for homemade gift giving I’m sure you’ll find it here.}

 

^{I plan on getting my two and a half year old son to help with some homemade chocolate eggs this Easter and so I was extremely happy to see the great range of Easter chocolate moulds.}

 

 

^{I already had this wonderful silicon mould that I picked up at the end of season sale last year however this year I’ve also grabbed the smaller mini egg moulds as this size will be perfect for our Easter egg hunt.}

 

^{Also perfect for Easter hunts are these cardboard bunny foot cut outs. Lachlan is going to love following these to his surprise present from the Easter bunny. And I just could not resist getting my markers to them to add a little colour.}

 

^{I just adore the little basket cello treat bags... What a bargain at 70c for a pack of 15. As I have no kiddos in school yet I’m not sure what the Easter gift giving situation is but I’m thinking they would be great with a few mini eggs inside as a gift for kids to give their classroom friends.}

 

^{As we have no need for so many we opted for a smaller pack of 6 bunny gift bags that Lachlan can give to his small handful of friends he has right now.}

^{Easter doesn’t have to be all about eggs, why not cook some cup cakes for an alternate to chocolate. I can see delightful little carrot cup cakes in these gorgeous cup cake wrappers placed on the cute bunny treat stand.} 

 

^{Now this has to be my most exciting find!!}

^{I wanted something other than a heap of chocolate to give the kids this year so when I came across these growing chic eggs at spotlight I almost squealed in excitement! You pop the egg into a glass of warm water and in 12-24 hours the egg shell will break. You then refill with cold water and over the following 24-48 hours watch the chick grow to full size. The kids are going to LOVE them and they are going to be so much fun I can not wait!!}

 

^{Now my all time favourite shop for Easter decor... Bed Bath n Table.}

^{I could spend hours drooling over the divine products in this store! In fact the first time I visited Bed Bath n Table’s Easter range it was too difficult for me to choose what to buy and so I left empty handed.}

 

^{There are so many items that I could take home with me from adorable bunny figurine to the cute cake stands.}

 

^{They have divine egg cups and mugs, and a gorgeous selection of soft bunnies.}

^{Pink to yellow, green or blue they have decor in every colour with such a selection of goodies from foam eggs to ceramic pots and everything in between. I highly recommend that you go and have a look if you plan to decorate your home this Easter.}

 

^{So there you go I’ve done the shopping work for you sussing out what’s out there now all you need to do is go and grab whatever tickled you fancy. I hope some of you enjoyed the Easter window shopping with me.}

 

^{Until next time take care, smile and be happy}

 

^YKylie

 

 

A Scrapbook Station

One problem area of our house is my craft storage or the lack of it! Hence when I saw that Target had a great sale on a 4x3 cubed units and material cube draws I just had to have one. I jumped on line to purchase as something of this size was going to be far to heavy and difficult for me to pick up in store. So I got on line with the thought of getting it delivered until hubby kindly offered to save us the $50 delivery fee by going and picking it up for me. Great! So I purchased everything I needed, opted for the click and collect option and paid for it all. Once our order was at our local store I received an email notification. I forwarded this to Hubby who then went and picked up my goods with no fuss at all. Wonderful! I was super excited!! Finally I had the tools to tackle the impractical wardrobe full of scrap booking mess.

The very next day I opened up the flat pack, super keen to get stuck in to building our 4x3 cube unit. Hubby had offered to construct it once home that night but the impatient me wanted it done NOW! So it was up to me to do it. Considering I had never even placed a hand on a drill before I had no idea what I was getting my self in for..lol

 

Nevertheless, as much as I am impatient I am very determined also. My goal was to have it done before hubby could come home and takeover. I ensured I read all the instructions before I started including the manual for the drill.. you may laugh but as it was hubby's brand new cordless drill there was no way I wanted to break that! Anyway, I succeeded! Yes it did take me all day but then I do have two lovely children I have to take care of also. I was so proud that I had done it poor hubby was barely in the door when I dragged him into the study to see my accomplishment.

 

 

Once the constructing was complete it was time for the fun part... to decorate it! I first added 3 pink and 3 grey material cube boxes as draws but it needed something more. It needed something to add character to it, so I decided to add a pattern backdrop to some of the open cubes. I fiddled with wall paper, scrap booking paper and gift wrap that I had on hand. A piece of grey scrap booking paper looked great in one cube but I needed something pink for the other 2 cubes I wanted to back. Eventually I decided that I really wanted pink polka dots (yes I'm slightly obsessed with polka dots!) but the only 'paper' that I had that meat this requirement was napkins. So out came the napkins and with a bit of double sided tape they were perfect! (hubby once again thought I was crazy.. an occurrence that is becoming more often)

 

 

I emptied the wardrobe and placed my new scrap booking station inside and I love it!

 

 

Now the big task of putting all my scrap booking supplies into there new homes begins. Stay tuned for an update. Once everything is in its home I'll share it with you.

 

Untill next time take care, smile and be happy

 

^YKylie

 

Shopping For Easter

^{A lot of people complain at how early Easter goods pop up in stores but personally I absolutely love it! Especially as this year I’ll be doing some home Easter decorating.. YAY!!}

^{I love looking at what’s on offer at each of the different shops. Taking mental notes as I think to myself with excitement...Ooh that would be good for so and so, or I could do this and that with that product. Tell me I’m not crazy! You do that to right??  It gets the creative juices flowing and it makes me happy thus excited about the entire festive season that is approaching us. Now I know Easter is still a while away, 36 days away to be exact but I thought I would share some of the little Easter gorgeousness that I have found so far so you too can become organised early. The earlier your organised the more time you have to do all the wonderful activities that you see and want to do. No missing out on great finds and no running around at the last minute... Now doesn’t that sound like fun?}

^{First up let me just point out that the following good are from Woolworths however this by no means a sponsored post by Woolworths. It is purely my own thoughts on what finds I feel are good value in store. So with that out the way let’s start with some finds for the kiddos.}

 

^{Some reading books about Easter – Fair Dinkum Aussie Easter and The Great Big Aussie Easter Hunt. As this is our first Easter that our 2 & ½ year old boy Lachlan would have some understanding of what Easter is I thought this year would be the perfect time for us to read some books to get a better understanding of it all.}

 

 

^{And check out these wonderful colouring books $2 and activity books $3. I just had to grab one of the activity books as they have everything from puzzles to cut outs and more inside. Even though the activities are a bit beyond Lachlan’s age I just know he is going to love the stickers and wearing that bunny mask!}

 

^{I also grabbed these tiny Beanie Kids in eggs for $3 and what a great alternative to chocolate eggs.  I think they will make as a nice surprise from Easter bunny on our Easter breakfast table I plan to do. Shh... I opened them early as I just could not wait to see what they got, lucky as I don’t think hubby would appreciate Lachlan getting a pink bunny! lol}

 

^{Lastly this gorgeous little musical hopping bunny just bounced straight into my basket! The most expensive at $20 but totally worth every cent this little cutie plays a musical tune whilst hopping and moving her ears up and down. I just cannot wait to see the kid’s reaction to this one!}

^{I also want to share with you some items that I’m going to use to decorate our home this Easter.}

 

^{First I could not walk past these cute little metal pail’s (they also had green however our colour theme will be yellow, pink and blue). I had to get a staff member to grab them down from the top shelf because at $3 each I had to have them! And for some reason I just fell in love with this sweet little figurine so I grabbed him to!}

 

^{I couldn’t pass up a pack of 8 pink Easter bunny straws and they also stock cute paper plates and napkins perfect for anyone hosting Easter.}

 

^{And after getting all of the above I finally grabbed what I originally went into the store for... these wonderful bunny candy jars (green option also available).}

 

^{So I hope you enjoyed all the eye candy on this shopping trip with me. Don't forget to grab the wonderful FREE Woolworths fresh mag if you do happen to hop into a store. This month has great recipes and great Easter ideas. Hope I have not endangered your bank balances to much ha ha ha. Next I’ll post about my finds at spotlight and Bed Bath n Table so be warned now if you don’t want to be in danger of hurting the hip pocket... don’t look!}

^{Until next time stay safe, smile and be happy}

 

^YKylie

Pink Picnic In The Park

It was with much planning, thought and love that we created a day for close family and friends to help us welcome our precious little girl into the family by holding a ceremony to officiate her name. Planning was all a bit last minute due to our celebrant becoming short of time very quickly so it was a now or never event. I grabbed some cards, dusty pink ink and a set of stamps from spotlight and got to making invites right away.

 

Not bad for one nights work over a glass of bubbles I think!

We wanted to keep the day relaxed with a family atmosphere and hence we based the event on the idea of a pink picnic in the park for our princess. I gathered all the pink party goods that I already had in the party cupboard and purchased some cream wire baskets from Typo. I also found some pink home style lemonade in Aldi - bonus!!

I then did a quick sew up to make some pink gingham picnic blankets and pink cushion covers. At this point hubby thought I had lost my mind but what’s a relaxing picnic without the comfort of cushions right?!? lol



This set up was for our special girl - her toys
were stored her pink picnic basket for the day.

 

Then on to the cooking - yes I was running around like a mad woman getting all this done within a week! ha ha ha. So cooking, as time was not on my side we decided to go with some scrumptious Subway rolls for lunch. Everyone loved them! This left me just enough time to do a white chocolate/strawberry cake and some cute cupcakes in jars.

 

 

 

As our guests arrived they were met by a trail of pink polka dot balloons leading them to our secluded picnic area by a lake. (Sorry I forgot to take a wide shot pic so you just have to imagine). Pink gingham picnic blankets with scattered pink cushions spread across the lawn..We propped our cardboard table under the central tree for shade as it held our cold refreshing pink lemonade in cute glass bottles alongside subway rolls, cupcakes in jars and the cake. Our relaxed pink picnic theme had worked perfectly... (If only I had taken that pivotal pic of the entire picnic area.. darn it!!)

 

 

We were surrounded by love, had superb weather and perfect company. Chatter along with kid’s laughter filled the air as we ate scrumptious food and cake...yum!

 

 

The formalities so to speak went wonderful also. We as parents made a promise to our little girl in front of those that support us.

We welcome our daughter into our family

and promise her daily support;

we will fulfil and respect Charlotte's needs.

We will comfort and care for her,

protect and respect her, love and hug her 

and raise her to the best of our ability.

We asked our sisters to do us the honour of being godparents. Thus to stand up and pledge there support to us and freely offer Charlotte, protection and guidance whenever these may be needed. It was with great happiness (and some tears of joy) that they both accepted this request.

 

 

 

To conclude the formalities I read this to our sweet girl:
 

As I held you in my arms that very first day,
I knew I would never let any harm come your way.
With your tiny little hands and tiny little feet,
Every time I look at you my heart skips a beat.

As I watch you sleep in the middle of the night,
I hope and pray I will do everything right.
I know I may make some mistakes along the way,
But I promise to do my best every single day.

Words cannot express what you have brought to your dad, Lachlan and me
We often wonder what you will grow up to be,
But whatever you become will be fine with me.

Charlotte Grace is the name we chose for you
Wear it with pride with all that you do,
We love you with all of our heart,
Nothing will change that no matter what you do,
Be all that you can and always be you.

Charlotte you are the greatest gift of all,
Thank you for choosing us to be your parents,
We wouldn’t have it any other way,
We love you and hope you enjoy your day.

We are so thankful to those that shared in this special day with us.

Overall it was a perfect day and we couldn't ask for anything more!

^YKylie

 

Creamy Penne Sundried Tomato Pasta

This Creamy Penne Sun dried Tomato Pasta has got to be one of the best home cooked pastas that I have ever made! Now I realise that I'm putting it on a bit of a pedestal by saying it is awesome but it truly is! I'm a big fan of pasta and this recipe went straight to the top of my favourites list.. go on give it a try and let me know what you think!

You will need:

2 cups Penne
1 can of evaporated milk
2 cups shredded cheese
1/3 cup sun dried tomato
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp grounded black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion flakes
*some cornflour may be added to thicken sauce if you wish to do so

What to do:

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions.

2. In a medium saucepan combined the milk, cheese, basil, garlic, pepper, salt and onion.
   Cook over a medium heat stirring occasionally until all the cheese is melted. *add cornflour now if you prefer a thicker sauce.

3. Add pasta and chopped up sun dried tomato to sauce.

4. Stir to combine and serve.

Simple as that!

Enjoy

^YKylie