A big CONGRATS to our great friends Bronnie and Dave, I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since this day!

Happy 3rd Wedding anniversary guys!

1. Had our first plunket group meet up yesterday, I met this lovely lady who lives around the corner and has a wee girl and an interest in crafty things! YAY

2. Sitting here with a lovely hot cup of tea and catching up on blogs while Grace is asleep. Bliss!

3. Daylight saving has started! Yay we are coming closer to warm summer evenings and BBQ dinners!

4. Spending Sunday afternoon at the in-laws for a BBQ lunch to celebrate my brother in laws birthday. Got some nice pictures of the two cousins. I can’t share them yet as they are on the in-laws camera.

5. My fabulous new look blog… I found it the other day as I thought it was about time for a change. I think it looks very scrappy hehe

6. British cooking programs, the Hairy bikers are so funny!

7. Some cute photos of Grace from the past week.

Just thought I would share some of the creations I have been working on. With Grace sleeping better during the day, I am making the most of some creative time. It seems since Grace was born my mojo is slowly coming back and I am getting back into some layouts. The first one is a layout I scrap lifted and wanted to add to Graces 12×12 album about the things that I went through in pregnancy. Simple but tells the story.

Then I had these photos from my birthday this year that needed to be scrapped. I wasn’t sure about this layout to start with but really like how it’s turned out. It inspired me to submit 3 layouts to the BasicGrey gallery. I shall see how I get on. I’ve been thinking when I get a little more in the swing of layouts I may submit some to mags and see what happens. You just never know.

Lastly just a very quick card I whipped up with the cuttlebug for Craig’s brothers birthday.

Well better get back to some more creating whilst Grace snores logs! hehe

All this WOO HOOTING about my week is good fun, if you haven’t tried it give it a go! Makes you realise just how lucky you are…

1. Visiting the Dunkleys Craft show with my sister and friend. It was worth a looksie but there wasn’t anything new so will wait a few more years to go again.

2. The STUNNING weather!! It has been so warm and nice, but I believe we are in for rain. I think for us scrappers it’s a win/win situation because we can enjoy the sun then create when it rains! :p

3. Creating a layout, it’s be awhile. It’s simple but was in the to-do pile of photos.

 4. Completing Grace’s 12 months album up to date. (see other post for photos)

5. Sharing the first BBQ of the season with friends on a glorious sunny Sunday. What a yum spread we were indulged with!

6. Getting out walking on the beach. Note to self - DON’T try to push the stroller over huge sand dunes! It’s jolly hard work hehe

Here we go again, where do the weeks disappear too!

WOO HOOT WEDNESDAY!

1. Milo with marshmallows - My all time favourite treat at the moment!

2. Watching Outrageous Fortune, brilliant NZ tv!

3. The bright Summery colours in the clothes stores, yay Summer must be coming.

4. Seeing how happy Craig was when we celebrated the first Father’s Day as him as a Dad.

5. Spending time with my Mum.

6. Our little Grace is growing everyday and smiling and gurgling more, it’s so much fun to watch!

We would like to welcome to the world our beautiful baby DAUGHTER!!

Introducing

Grace Peony

Born 5.08pm

Tuesday 15th July 2008

Weighing 8lbs 13oz 

A very peaceful baby Grace

Craig and I feel so blessed to have our wee baby daughter in our arms at last.

It all started happening on Saturday after we had a dinner out together, I started to feel strong niggles and they continued on for the next few days. It  was totally exhausting as I couldn’t get any rest. I called Mum early Tuesday morning as I was felling awful and overwhelmed. She kindly came over at 2am to be here for me and to give Craig a break. Craig and I are so grateful that we had her support throughout the labour, she was fantastic. We ended up in hospital at 11am,  and things progressed well. I had no pain relief, which I must say I am so proud of. I was lucky that I had a fairly smooth time of it. As the labour was good it was a bit of a shock when my placenta wouldn’t birth so I ended up having it manually removed in surgery, I have never been in hospital before so all the medical procedures were a bit overwhelming. The staff and my midwife were however fantastic so that made it easier.

We are now home with Grace after a few days in hospital and things are going well. She is a really relaxed baby and has been sleeping lots, mainly during the day though at this point. Nights are a challenge but Craig and I are muddling through and it is worth it. Breastfeeding has become another challenge, but I am determined to get it sorted as I really like the bonding of it.

Craig has been totally fantastic! I couldn’t do this without him. He has been doing most of the nappy changes and supporting me whenever he can’t help. We are completely enjoying being parents, it was the right time for this miracle to come into our lives.

A couple of cousins just hanging out!

Fatherhood is a very tiring business! hehe

I will keep updating with new pictures as I get time so check back

Nothing to exciting has been happening, hence the lack of blogging. I’m just really waiting for bubs to arrive. I have been getting a few final things done  but really I feel pretty sorted. I’ve been hanging out with my sister and baby Madeline a fair bit too. It’s been great to pick up bits and pieces of info from what she’s learning. Might make my ride into motherhood a little smoother

I’m not having much luck sleeping tonight, so I’m sitting here with a Milo writing this at 5.30am. Must be my body getting ready for sleepless night. hehe

I must say I have been totally spoiled over the past week. It was my birthday on Sunday and everyone had gone all out to make it a special occasion. I feel totally blessed to have such warm and generous family and friends! It started with a crop last week with some friends and continued on into the weekend with a lovely surprise breakfast put on by my sister. She even baked me cupcakes!  Sunday dinner was with the family. I got lovely flowers, surprise jewellery from my fantastic hubby, some very creative gifts, body lotions etc, some cash to spend on a rainy day and this really cool book.

I’d say it’s an absolute must if you are nutty about cupcakes and baking like me! Cupcakes seem to be sweeping the world in so many forms at present. I have already eyed up a recipe for the next crop I’m going too. Lemon/ Passionfruit Meringue cupcakes sound too good to refuse!  Last week I whipped up some mini carrot cakes with lemon cream cheese frosting. Here’s the recipe I found.

Mini carrot cakes

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/4 cups caster sugar

3/4 cup of olive or sunflower oil

2 cups of plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups of grated carrot

1/2 cup of chopped nuts plus extra for decorating (walnuts would be good)

Frosting

150g butter, softened

150g cream cheese, softened

grated zest of one lemon

2 cups of icing sugar

1/2 tsp citric acid ( optional, I just like my icing not so sweet)

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease two 12 hole muffins trays with butter. (I used cupcake papers instead of greasing tins)

With an electric beater, beat the eggs and sugar until creamy, pale and thick. Then gently beat in the oil.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of the remaining ingredients except for the carrot and nuts. Gently mix into the egg mixture until smooth. Add the carrot and nuts and gently mix until evenly combined. Fill each muffin hole to about 3/4 full. (The original recipe says it makes 18 but I got 15 cupcakes)

Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool slightly in their tins before removing.

To make the frosting beat together the butter,cream cheese and lemon until creamy. Sift over the icing sugar and citric acid and beat until completely smooth. Top each cake with a generous amount of frosting and sprinkle chopped nuts on frosting.

Well I better end here, but will post pics of the lemon/ passionfruit cupcakes when they are created. Till then take care

Wahoo a long weekend and we woke up to a beautiful sunny day! It may be a tad freezing out there but it’s great to see the sun. I hope everyone has a nice relaxing weekend planned?  Our’s has started with a sleep in (trying to get these in before bubs is born)  now we are about to head off to look at baby cot’s and change tables. I can’t wait to get these bits as that will make the nursery feel finished almost. But if anyone knows where I can purchase a sky hook from, please let me know! :p hehe How can such a small wee baby have so many things! I haven’t even been one to go mad and buy heaps, I’ve been sticking to my list of things I need but there is a bit. Oh well it’s all good. We also thought seeing as it’s a nice day , we would head out for a drive somewhere and get some lunch, then tonight our friends have invited us for dinner. So far it’s shaping up to be a pretty nice weekend. Hopefully get some scrapping in tomorrow as the rain is meant to come. Have a fab weekend everyone and enjoy!

Last Sunday we had our baby shower, it was great fun! I decided to host it myself as I love doing parties, all the details are fun to sort out. Crazy I know but it’s my thing I had decided that I really wanted to go all out with an afternoon tea, so had a proper tea party. I borrowed old fashioned tea cups from my Nana and Mother in law. We had cake stands and pretty plates with the yummy offerings on them.  I do now understand why those pretty tea cups don’t come out very often, they are tiny,fragile and have to be hand washed!! hehe It all set the tone though so was worth the work, and besides they are so pretty ! As we don’t know the sex of bubs, I made the invites purple and green with butterflies and tried to carry that theme through to butterfly cookie favours. I struggled to find decorations that weren’t themed for boys or girls though. Definitely a niche market there

We played the usual games, pin the baby on the belly, guess the jellybeans in the babies bottle, celebrity parents and their babies and guessing my belly size with toilet paper. They were all a bit of fun, and got everyone laughing.

I used the wee mini album as a guest book and had all the guests guess the weight, date of delivery, the sex and any words of wisdom. It will be a great memento of the shower after I add some pictures from the day to it.

We certainly have some VERY generous friends and family! Craig and I were blown away by the generosity of everyone. We were spoiled and now have many lovely things to use when bubs is born. Amongst the gifts we got many handmade gifts, we got the cutest hand knitted booties, a sleep suit that was handmade, a beautiful cot quilt and also a handmade nappy bag. It’s one lucky little baby to have such loving people around. Thanks to everyone who has spoiled us, we truly appreciate it!

One last picture, here are the cute booties that Craig’s Mum knitted us and the wee set with tassels were very kindly sent to me by Mrs Frizz. It was such a lovely surprise to receive them, thank you so very much Michelle. I will treasure them!

I recently joined in on a crop day with some good friends and here is what I worked on. After making the mini album for our friends wedding I really wanted one for us. Their wedding photos were truly stunning and as Craig was best man I whipped up this mini album for our coffee table. Unfortunately the light doesn’t do it justice but you get the idea.

Keep posted as I’m off to another crop tomorrow, so should have some more bits to share. We also had our baby shower on Sunday so lots of pictures to share of that. I will get them all posted as soon as I can but  we are off to anti-natal classes now.