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Busyness - in a good way

I have been quite slack at blogging lately and even my Instagramming has fallen by the wayside :-( 

I have been a little busier than usual and for all good reasons. I was ready to put some time into my business and it has paid off with lots of sales and lovely people wanting to come and shop. I had so many requests to look at my products that I have set up a temporary 'Shop' at home. 

I am 'Open' on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am and 6pm for any one wanting to come and shop, sticky beak or collect and order. It is a great way for me to meet so many new people and the upside is I don't need to leave the house and I can look after Jack and work :-)

It has taken a few weeks for me to work out a nice balance between work and home but I am getting there. 

I have some markets coming up as well as another promotional photo shoot to prepare for. Lots of stuff to look forward to and to keep me busy. I'm also looking forward to attending the next gift fair n Sydney. It's a great excuse for a weekend away with hubby and it will be interesting to see how we cope with a baby especially since we can't take the pram into the Convention Centre and Jack is a hefty 9.8kg of dead weight. Looks like Dad will get a good work out that day ;-) 

Don't forget Father's Day is just around the corner and I offer a $12.95 flat rate of postage Australia Wide. I can gift wrap and enclose a card all at no extra cost just remember to request it.

Jack is Six months old

So, I started this post more than a week ago and am still going. In order to get it done before Jack is 7 months old I will keep it short and sweet.

JACK.......

• Your Length is 74 cm
• Your Weight is 9.19kg

• You are sitting up with out support
• You are Drooling lots

• You have 3 teeth that are visible just under the gum on the bottom
• You have 2 teeth that are visible just under the gum on the top

• You are drooling lots
• Some days your nose drools just as much as your mouth

• You're not really interested in rolling over, we know you can but you don't

• You love making brrr noises and I can tell when you start to get agitated as your brrr's get more intense :-)

• You drools lots

• You are a very happy boy, smiling lots but still very studious and serious around other people.

• You have started making a noise across between a growl and a grunt, you think that it's pretty funny

• We all love you lots :-)

xx

Things for Kids Market

I had a lovely time on Sunday morning at the Things for Kids Market in Orange. It was a nice easy market for me to go to, perfect to get back into the swing of things.

It is always fun setting up my display, not so much fun putting everything away again though :-(

Everything pictured is available in store at 

McCarthy Designs & Occasions

Please contact me if there is anything you are after, I am more than happy to try and help find it for you.

Have a great week.

xx

Congratulations, Thanks & Love

Due to some issues with commenting on my blog, I have entered everyone who commented, liked or shared my give away post on FB and here.

CONGRATULATIONS to Angela Hanley on winning the French Market Basket.

Thank you to everyone who entered and thank you for all  of your support and love that you show me, it really does make my day :-)

Theses gorgeous metal tags are available in store in packs of 6, there are 4 designs and are $7.50 a pack.

You can find them here

Have a great week!

xx

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

1. like this status on Facebook (Click on here)

2. Share this status on Facebook (Click on here)

3. Like McCarthy Designs & Occasions on Facebook (Click on here)

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

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

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

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

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