Friday, June 28, 2013

Give away - Win a French Market Basket

It must be time for a give away, I haven't had one for ages and it is the end of the financial year and my little business has made it through :-)


So, to celebrate, the winner will be drawn on Monday morning 1st July 2013 at 9am AEST (I will announce the winner here on the blog).

One lucky person will win their very own French Market Basket (Style 3a)


To enter you must do the following




or

1, 2 & 3 - if you aren't on Facebook, blog about this give away (leave a link for the post in your comment)

4. Leave a comment on this post making sure I know who you are so I can contact you if you win :-)

(Give away open to Australian Residents only)


Good luck and have a great weekend

xx

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Jack is 5 months Old

This last month has been an interesting one, 


Sleeping - last month I celebrated that you slept through the night for 12 hours straight, unfortunately you decided that after a week of that you would regress (in a big way) and you started waking up 2 or three times a night :-( 
Day sleeps also became a challenge with you happily sleeping in my arms but in your own space you would only sleep for one sleep cycle of 30 - 40 mins. Waking up happy but only staying that way for an hour or so until tiredness would hit and you would need extra attention.
I am pleased to say that this last week your day sleeps have improved and you are once again having two 2 - 3 hour sleeps a day :-)
Your night sleep is improving and last night you only had me up once at 4.30 am and I am pleased to say I feel so much better after getting 6 hours straight sleep.


Growing - after a visit to the midwife on Tuesday I am pleased to say you have had a growth spurt (which could explain the extra waking and feeding at night), you now weigh 8.2 kgs (moved from 75% on the graph to 90%) and you are 68.5 cm long a big 3.5 cm more than a month ago.


Playing - you love the jolly jumper and are happy to bounce away for 30 mins or more at a time. You are not as happy left alone on your mat, where once you would amuse yourself for hours under the play gym it is now not interesting enough and I think you are getting bored easily with the same things. Once you get a bit more mobile and independent  I think this will change. You are smiling more (mainly at people you know well) and are laughing more, especially at me. It seems that if you are in the right mood almost anything can make you giggle, however the hiccups start soon after and you struggle to really chuckle :-)


Movement - you can roll over but you don't attempt to very often at all. You are starting to get up on your knees but your arms aren't quite strong enough to raise your upper body off the ground. You love to be stood up on your feet and you are able to sit alone for very short bursts, before you loose balance and topple over.


Voice - you sing when you are happy, when you wake up in the cot (we moved you into your cot 3 weeks ago), when you are having a bath, when you are jumping in the jolly jumper, when you are playing with a toy. 
I am trying to teach you to say mum, but you just laugh every time I say it. I'm not sure what you find funny about it.

Food - you enjoy sitting in your Bumbo at the table with us. We have started giving you a rusk while we eat, you weren't sure what to do with it at first but now you have worked out how to make a big mess with it :-) We have given you tastes of rice cereal but you aren't very impressed. 


Personality - you are still a very studious, serious baby, you love to see everything around you, enjoy going for walks in the pram with the dog and you love watching people who talk with their hands. 

Love you Jack

xx


Friday, June 21, 2013

Winter table setting

I am really loving my table setting at the moment it is a little rustic with a little bling and looks perfect on the table at this time of the year.

The beauty of owning a home wares store is I can make use of all those lovely goodies and I have managed to sneak a few into this arrangement to mix it up a bit.


The last of my roses lived out the rest of their life in my vintage silver coffee pot (which needs a good clean) along with the Silver Glass Candle Holder with Diamontes and the small silver glass candle holder with diamontes. I sat them all into my silver cocktail tray and added some scattered diamonds. <3 i="">


 
Once the roses died :-( I swapped the coffee pot for the Silver Conical Vase popped in some twigs spray painted white and some hand made tags. This look is so easy, just head outside, find a tree, find some branches that suit your vase, right size and shape. Cut the branches off (if it's not your tree you might like to seek permission first) and grab a can of spray paint (I used white but you can be adventurous, try red, aqua, yellow or you can try glitter or metallic the possibilities are endless) apply as many coats of paint as you like to achieve the finish you are after. I bought the tags many moons ago on etsy and I still love them, I customised them by adding some quotes on the back of some and some bling (stick on gems) onto the front of some.


Then my latest delivery for my store came in I was so excited that I had to swap the candles for some gorgeous bottles, the Large Costolato Glass Bottle is just divine and the Smaller Rubbed Mercury Glass Bottle complements it perfectly.



 I think I need a bigger tray so I can add the candles back to the display, I do love lighting them in the evenings.

Do you switch your decor around for the seasons?

xx




Friday, June 14, 2013

Before and after Kitchen Stool

I haven't shared a before and after for way too long. I typically forget to take before photos until I am half way through, Doh!

before

Anyway just a quick one today, picture this. I was walking our big dog and pushing the pram when I spotted this cute stool in the council clean up (hard rubbish) pile. 

before

Fortunately I was only a few houses away from home and the pram is easy to push and the dog is kind of obediant so I picked up the stool and juggled all three as I made my way home. Hopefully the thought of that sight made you smile :-) It was worth it!

after

I gave the chair a quick clean, recovered the seat and added some extra padding and voila, it is the perfect height for sitting Jack on it in his bumbo.

after

Total cost $0, I already had the fabric left over from my recovered footstool and I had some padding from another project. 

Love quick, easy and free projects, they are the best! What do you think?
xx

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Beautiful bird cages and large drink dispensers

I have been a busy bee adding new items to the store over the last week 


here a just a few of the goodies I have available




You can find them all in my store now





www.mccarthydesigns.com.au


I still have a few new things to list so please remember to check back regularly.

xx