40% OFF SALE at McCarthy Designs & Occasions

You can buy any one of these beauties for less than $20 right now with my 40% OFF SALE.

Sale ends Friday 5th April 2013

Black & White Pot

Black & White Vase 

Large Glass Jar with Silver Lid 

Cherub Photo Album 

Linen Frill Apron

Giveaway and giving gifts

I would like to introduce you to my new friend Laura, Laura has a gorgeous blog My Summer House and now she has her own etsy store.

To celebrate the opening of her store Laura is giving away not one but two cushion from her line. You must go and check out her blog and her store. Laura's designs are just beautiful!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend, we had a trip to Newcastle to visit our newest nephew. He is just gorgeous and we really enjoyed our short stay! I don;t have any photos of him to share yet but you might enjoy these!

I love putting together and giving gifts and I thought I would share this one with you.

I needed some bottles and some pebbles and

if they just happen to double as candles even better.

Pretty soap is good

I really love candles, you can never have too many!

Some shells

scrubby stuff

start putting it together strategically

Fill the bottles with luxury bath products

Layer them attractively

All ready to enjoy by the lucky receiver

Do you like buying gifts for people?

Do you find it easy to choose something special?

Have a great Monday.

xx

Birthday gifts

I have a group of girlfriends who I love to hang out with and we have known each other since high school. We try and get together every few weeks for afternoon tea and while we chat and laugh our kids have a great time playing together.

I am really blessed to have these friends who have been there for me over the years and I love that I have known their kids since they were babies. I love how we have little traditions that have evolved over time, like getting together at Christmas time and going out for lunch or coffee & cake to 'our' Tea House.

I like to give the children a birthday present each year and I am really trying to come up with something that doesn't cost a lot and is personal and useful.

A year ago (or there abouts) I found a website called http://www.wordle.net/ and I had a great time playing around with it. It is lots of fun and easy to use. You can enter in a list of words and the program randomly arranges them into a work of art. You can customise the colours and the text as well as the direction of the words and lots more! I highly recommend heading over to have a play. I bought some canvas sheets and printed my finished artwork directly onto the canvas then framed it. I created some great personalised art for our lounge room wall this way, for our bedroom and office as well, it was fun!

When a few of the kids birthdays came up I had an idea to create a personalised notebook for them, this is what I started with.

I designed a wordle for each child using their names and a list of words relating to them. Once I was happy with the design I printed it out onto paper and covered the notebooks. I added some embellishments and then covered the book with clear contact to provide some protection.

Personalised gifts that were fun to make!

I am linking up to My House of Giggles Tuesday Talent Show. Head on over and say Hi to Tracey as well as check out some of the amazing talented people who have linked up.

Have a great Tuesday! xx