Celebrating

Yesterday marked 4 months since my online store opened! Yay!!

I have really loved being my own boss and I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to do what I enjoy

I have not had to push sales in my store nor have I had to get out and chase business for the styling side and I am so grateful that I haven't had the pressure to make money. Thanks to my wonderful husband and to the Bank for thoughtfully providing me with a redundancy :-)

It has meant that the last month and a half while I have lacked motivation and felt pretty miserable with morning sickness I have been able to relax, rest and put my feet up with no pressure to perform.

Yep, we are double celebrating 4 months for McCarthy Designs & Occasions and on Monday we head into our 4th month of pregnancy.

If you have followed my blog for a while you will know that we have been trying to expand our family for the last two years and unfortunately we suffered 3 miscarriages through the first 13 months. It has been a tough journey but perhaps the hardest was losing our bub at 19 weeks. You can read more about that here.

So while we have passed one milestone and have made it through our first trimester we still have a ways to go, however we are thrilled to be here and we are trusting in the Lord through it all.

So to celebrate I have chosen 4 of my favourite items from my store and I have reduced them by 40%

Yep, a huge 40% off but only for 4 days or until sold

I love this wine cooler, it is a lovely solid piece and can hold 6 bottles of wine or sparkling easily. 

It would also make a great Father's Day gift!

Was $195

Now $117

These stylish horse head bookends

Were $99

Now $59.50

This gorgeous Fleur de Lys Trainer/Candle holder

Was $80.85

Now $48.50

and finally I love these raw linen cushions,

 perfect to use outdoors or extra seating on the floor

Were $54.95

Now $33

All four of my favourites will be on sale until midnight 

Monday 6th August 2012

or until sold

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend

xx

Blessing Others - Compassion Australia

If you missed my initial 'Blessing Others' post you can read about it here.

In July we were blessing UCB Australia Australia you can read more about it here.

For August 10% of all sales (or minimum $100) will go to Compassion.

We have supported Compassion Australia for a few years now via sponsor children. We try and write to them on a regular basis and we chose a sponsor child for Nicholas who has the same birth date as him so that he can write to him and have similar things in common to share. It is a great way for us to teach our son that his life is blessed and that there are so many others in the world who aren't so fortunate.

Here is some information on Compassion from their website:

Compassion is an international Christian child development and child advocacy ministry committed to working in partnership with local churches around the world to foster the spiritual, economic, social, physical and emotional development of children living in extreme poverty in over 26 developing countries.

Compassion works with the individual child from the womb to university to address their economic, social, physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Compassion partners with the local church to implement our holistic child development programs:

• Child Survival Program
• Child Sponsorship Program
• Leadership Development Program
• Complementary Interventions

Compassion’s Holistic Child Development Model reflects our long-term commitment to the life of each individual child. Our programs strive to meet not only a child’s physical needs, but also their spiritual, economic, social and emotional needs as well. Our holistic approach extends to all areas of our programs, giving children the resources to survive, thrive and learn, the opportunity to hear the Gospel, and the love, care and attention they need to grow into fulfilled and independent adults.

If you would like to read more about compassion 

or if you have been thinking about sponsoring a child 

you can find out more here

xx

PS. Today my online store has been opened 4 months, yay!!! Come back tomorrow I am going to have some super specials on some of my favourite items in my store, I'll announce these tomorrow along with some exciting news.

A Touch of Silver

I finally got motivated enough to change up a few things around the house

I have had new stock for the store waiting for me to get around to photographing it for ages and I have just lacked motivation for it :-( 

So today I mustered up enough energy to switch a few displays around at home and take some photos

I haven't unpacked all of the new stock yet but at least I have made a start

None of it has made it to the store listing yet but I thought I would give you all a sneak peek.

Hope you week is fabulous so far.

xx

Wise Words of the Week

Favourite Pin of the Week

Nicholas turns 13 this year, 

I am thinking that  an outdoor movie night would be a great idea for his party

xx

Vintage Tea Party Photo Shoot

My very creative friend Kiah from Stephens Photography organised some local ladies to work together to help promote our businesses, so on Monday a group of us met to put together a vintage tea party photo shoot

I was asked to style the photoshoot and I was so excited!

It was fantastic getting my ideas together and planning for the big day.

Unfortunately we live in Orange and getting a nice day at this time of the year is pretty tricky so after a few postponements we finally went ahead and bit the bullet

As you can see from my behind the scenes photos it was pretty gloomy and cold! I started setting up about 1pm and I was praying for the wind to die down a bit, hanging the lanterns was easier when they weren't swinging around wildly.

Our models were all so excited, I guess for them it was like one big party and yes they did get to eat all of those yummy treats at the end, I may even have sampled an oreo cake pop too :-)

 The models were all so professional and braved the cold, mummies were on hand to wrap them up in between photos and I think they all looked so adorable.

Kiah's photos look fantastic, she has done a great job off capturing the girls having fun and showing off all of our products at the same time.

You can pop over to Stephens Photography album here to have a look at the photos so far, they really are fabulous and there is a great one of my foot stool I featured last week.

All the lovely ladies involved are listed below:

Photography by Kiah from Stephens Photography


Styling by Nellie McCarthy from McCarthy Designs & Occasions


The delicious candy bar and pink lemonade beverage stand was supplied and decorated by  Kristy from Candy Chic


The outfits were handmade by the very talented Toni from Two Little Chimps


Each individual headband was designed and put together by Kylie from Madeleine Designs Hair Acessories


Cake was made by Barb Last from Barb Last Cakes


Our beautiful models are - Holly, Abby, McKenna, Allera, Eliza and Sienna.

Zone Athletics

We had a great day in Dubbo yesterday for the Zone Athletics Carnival. 

It was sunny with just a slight breeze, Perfect.

Nicholas had a fantastic day and came 2nd in shot put and javelin so it looks like we are off to the State Carnival in Sydney next month.

I am so proud of him and so thankful that I was able to go and spend the day with him.

Here is another sneak peak of our photoshoot on Monday, more on that still to come.

xx

Busy Days

We are having a busy time here lately but it is all good and very exciting!

We had 4 birthdays to celebrate in our family last week and that  is always fun :-)

Nicholas has made it to the Zone athletics carnival for 4 (maybe 5) events, yay! So we are off to Dubbo tomorrow to watch him compete  

and today I had the pleasure of working with some fantastic ladies and some gorgeous girls.

If you follow me on Instagram or Face book you may have already seen this sneak peak of our day today.

I have some behind the scenes photos to share with you next time.

Hope you all had a great weekend and a fabulous start to the week.

xx

Wise Words of the Week

Favourite Pin of the Week

I seem to be drawn to bedrooms on the weekends, 

I wonder why :-)

xx

source should be found via here