Birthday Celebrations

As I said in yesterdays post, the last week was mostly lovely but busy because of both Mission Toilet Train which you can read about here and also because my Boy turned 3.

We had both a family gathering and friends party to celebrate the milestone...

There were pancakes for breakfast...

There were presents to play with...

There was cake to be had...

And more cake to be had...

There were friends to share the cake with...

And then there was a concert from the next Tommy Emmanuel...

It always seems like so much work but the Boy really enjoyed himself and that is what is all about in the end. Isn't it?

x

P.S linking up with Twinkle In The Eye for Wordless Wednesday. Pin It

Mission Toilet Train...

Last week was busy and mostly really lovely...What is to follow is the not so lovely part...

My mum came to stay and for those of you that don't have your parents living down the street, you will know what I mean when I say "it was so nice to have an extra pair of hands to take the load off!". Those extra pair of hands were a especially a blessing as we attempted (take note, that I said attempted, wont you?) toilet training my son who turned 3 last week also (more on that fun in a later blog!).

I was starting to recognize when the Boy needed to go to the toilet because he would start doing what my husband and I call 'the poo dance'- if you can imagine a young Michael Flatly (king of the Irish dance) you would have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about. He was also waking up dry from his day sleep which also supposedly indicates readiness for the big switcheroo from nappy to pants.

So on Day 1 of 'Mission Toilet Train' we put the big boy pants on the little Boy. He was pretty excited with the train on the front and I was hopeful that this whole toilet training thing would be a breeze.
There my mum and I were, asking my son every five or so minutes wether he needed to go to the toilet and when we first took him to the toilet for the day he did a little 'dribble' when we asked him too and we were so chuffed with him and ourselves... until about 5 minutes later when the rest of what needed to come out did so, on the kitchen floor and the hallway floor and the...well I think you get the picture. This continued throughout the day whereby we were giving high fives for little sprinkles on the back lawn and then commiserations and reassurances for big downpours on the pavement 2 minutes later!

Day 2 and we thought a new tactic was in order and so every time we needed to go to the toilet we would tell the whole house of our plans and left the door open so that the Boy could wander in and check out the scene if desired (yes, I know what your thinking, and yes all your dignity goes out the door when you were pushing your baby out into the world however long ago it was!). We encouraged the boy to tell Mama or Mum when he needed to go to the toilet, so with that in mind we all went happily about the day. Mama and the boy were playing shops and he starts yelling at her 'Mama, Mama, Mama' and she is wondering what he is on about. The boy comes out to see me with a puddle trailing behind him.... hmm... new tactic required. Perhaps we had better tell the boy just to yell out 'wee, wee, wee' or 'poo, poo, poo' as the case may be! Surely then there will be no possibility of misunderstanding...

Day 3 and misunderstanding is paramount, wether that is from the Boy or from us, I just really don't know anymore. It is decided that hubby needs to step up and take this toilet trainer under his wing and show him how it's done. Sometimes a woman just doesn't have what it takes (literally) to teach their children about the world and all the gadgets in it.

Day 4 of 'Mission Toilet Train' is underway and my poor husband is being plied with every beverage under the sun, so he can show his son what's supposed to happen. (needless to say hubby is getting grumpier and grumpier for the lack of privacy he is getting especially when the mother-in-law is in the house!) My poor son is getting more and more terrified of going to the toilet to the point of kicking and screaming at the site of that white porcelain bowl. Meanwhile I am getting more and more frustrated at the amount of washing and cleaning up I have to do.

It is decided to abandon the leaking ship for the safety of the entire crew on board. Morale is down and I think we all need a bit of time on dry land before we attempt to go out again into those unchartered waters of growing up!

Source: stylecookie.nl via Gerdien on Pinterest

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A month of challenges...

This month I am taking part in Photo A Day with Fat Mum Slim...

Today's photo prompt was 'paper'...

I am also playing along with A Month of Moments with Pip Lincolne from justb...

Todays moment was 'pattern'...

I am enjoying a new creative outlet with my Iphone photography. If you enjoy what you see here, you can follow me on Instagram here or my profile name is jloucrawford. Or you can find me on Twitter here.

You might find some inspiration and may even decide to join in with the challenges too!

x

P.S Linking up with Twinkle in the Eye for Wordless Wednesday. Pin It

DIY lampshade upscale

I have been wanting to do this project for a long time now but I have only had the chance (and the guts) to do it just recently! My eldest son has moved into his big boys room in the last 6 months and the decor still resembles a guest bedroom rather than a 3 year olds. Up until now his bedside lamp has been black and boring...

I have had some gorgeous fabric that I got last christmas that I wanted to cover the shade with but have been to chicken to use it in case I ruin it! Originally I wanted to sew the fabric together but because I am still too afraid to get the sewing machine out, I used the good old Mod Podge instead and it worked a treat!

I used Moda Fabric Charm squares that are 5 inch x 5 inch in size.

I glued the first piece to the bottom of the lampshade. I left about a 2cm overhang so that I could glue that to the inside of the lampshade. Then I glued the next piece to the top of the lampshade also leaving the same overhang. The top piece of fabric overlapped the bottom piece by about 1cm.

I repeated this process the entire way around the lamp...

And this was the final result...

I was so pleased with how it turned out and reading stories at bedtime will be extra fun now!

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Banana Muffins with a little bit more

I have had a few Banana's that I needed to use up before they went dodgy in this scorching heat, so this is their story...


Once upon a time their were a couple of unkempt looking Banana's laying around in the fruit bowl and their owner thought she might turn them into beautiful muffins...

And so she did...

Ingredients

2 cups of self-raising flower
3/4 cup of caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup of milk
60g melted butter
2 ripe bananas
(+ the following three ingredients that I added for a little bit more taste)
1 cup of frozen blueberries
Tspn of vanilla essence
Tspn of ground cinnamon


1. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees (I used Fan Forced). Lightly grease a 12 case muffin tin.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well.
3. Mix together the eggs, milk, butter, and mashed banana and pour into the well of the bowl.
4. Stir the ingredients with a spoon.
5. Add the blueberries, vanilla essence and ground cinnamon and stir until just mixed.
6. Spoon the mixture into the muffin holes.
7. Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until the muffins have risen and are golden brown.
8. Remove from oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

And this is what those ugly bananas turned into. Unfortunately they did not live happily ever after as they came to an untimely demise in their owners stomach.

The End.

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Happy New Year...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year?

Mine was quiet and I am actually really happy with that, because now I can get on with this bright and brave new year where I try and become more organised around the home, with my kids and with this little blogging adventure. (not asking for much hey!)

New Years Day was spent at the beach and playground early in the morning before it got too hot. 

I wonder where he is headed for the year ahead? 

Where are you steering yourself towards this year?

x

P.S Linking up with Twinkle in the Eye for Wordless Wednesday

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Merry Christmas... We think...

This was last years Christmas photo...

and this was this years...

I am not sure things have improved much!

So, on behalf of my son who clearly isn't impressed with Christmas time yet...

I just want to say to all my readers. Have a wonderful Christmas with the people you love (as well as the people you have to tolerate!!) and a safe and Happy New Year!

x

P.S linking up with Twinkle in the Eye for wordless wednesday. 

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#reverb day 13 - the selfie!

Today's prompt for #reverb12 is my favourite 'selfie' from the year.

So here it is...

Ok so it's not just of me but I love this photo of my little family, taken on the Puffing Billy while we were on holiday in Melbourne!

x

P.S Linking up with Twinkle in the Eye for Wordless Wednesday too (even though it's Thursday!) Pin It

#reverb12 Day 8: A literally 'nurtured' relationship...

Today I am following another #reverb12 prompt thanks to Kat from I Saw you dancing...

Considering the idea that nothing lasts forever: what was the most important relationship that you fostered in 2012? 


Well, I think I can say I literally fostered one important relationship this year and that was carrying our second child in my belly for nine months. I must admit though, I am not sure I nurtured that relationship too well during those nine months, as the severe morning sickness saw me have my head in some form of bucket for most of it! You can read more about the fun and games of my pregnancy here and here.
So I was extremely glad to see the birth of our second baby boy in August and it turned out that I did pretty well in the nurturing department (if i do say so myself!).
What do you think?

Images from the wonderful Kate at Kate Millard Photography. 

You can find more of Kate's gorgeous work here and here.

How will you continue to nurture it in 2013?

So in 2013, I hope to nurture this beautiful baby boy by giving him as many smiles and cuddles as he needs. I want to make him feel safe and secure in his little world and teach him that his big brothers' loud noises are nothing to be scared of! Most of all, I want him to stay little forever and never throw tantrums... EVER! (Is that too much to ask ;)

x

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#reverb12- Day 5

So todays prompt from the lovely Kat at I Saw You Dancing is...

What was your dream destination in 2012 and why? 

It can be a town, city, country or region -- real or imaginary -- and doesn't matter if you actually got there or not!

So here it is...

Source: downandoutchic.blogspot.com via jessica on Pinterest

Yep, you guessed it- it's imagined!

A space to sleep, eat, read magazines, watch movies and spend time on the laptop. 

A space where I don't have to leave for about THREE DAYS!

A space where it is clean and crisp and stays that way for those THREE DAYS!

A space where there are no midnight feeding calls, early morning wake up calls or things that go bump in the night! 

A quiet space.

Can anyone else relate?

x

P.S I am also playing along with Twinkle in the Eye for Wordless Wednesday (although I just had to add a few words!)

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Day 1 of #reverb12

This month I am taking part in #reverb12, which you can find out all about here. 

Today's prompt was the following...

Take a moment, close your eyes, take a deep breath and ask yourself the question: how do you feel...
... in your body? in your mind? in your day job? in your creative life? in your heart?

So here goes...

I must be careful that I actually don't fall asleep while I am taking my moment, thanks to the fun of a an infant and a toddler and the sleep deprivation that they can sometimes bring. I must admit however, that with any luck, we are starting to come out of the blurry night feeding haze with my now 3 month old starting to sleep pretty much through the night. I know that all of those mothers with constant night wakers/feeders/screamers may want to gauge my eyes out right now but I think I did my fair share of sleepless nights with our first born so I think its only fair that one of my children may be more of a lover of sleep! (Now you can wait with baited breath to see that tonight my little sleeper decides to have a middle of the night meltdown because I have just jinxed myself by saying out loud how lucky I am this time round!)

So now to take a deep breath and ask myself how I feel in my body? Well, the thing I love most about breast feeding is that I can eat anything and not put on too much weight, which is awesome! So, while I eat cream buns and full fat yoghurt, my baby sucks most it out of me and is my little chubba bubba! (Hubby and I are not used to having a baby that actually has fat rolls!) Having said that though, I am feeling that I do need to get back into some sort of exercise. I started at the local gym after my eldest son was born and was really getting into it! Ihave been meaning to get back into the swing of things this time around but things just keep getting in the way! I MUST start back in the New Year! 

As for my mind, it's pretty good at the moment (touch wood!). As my family and friends would know that sometimes it all gets a bit much for me and I have my meltdowns where I am totally useless for a period of time. I HATE my anxiety and depression issues but luckily for me, that same family and friends are very supportive and are always there when I need them most! 

Moving on to my day job of 'stay at home mum': I am mostly enjoying it and have little intention of going back to my nursing/midwifery for a very long time. Somedays I do feel a bit like Diver Dan from 'Seachange' when he is on his little boat going around and around in circles asking 'Dear God, help me! I'm drowning!' but after a while you figure out how to steer your boat in a straight line for a while before you the next round of big waves hit!

As for the creative part of my life - as my Mum pointed out the other day, I am a doer! I hardly talk about what I am up to, I just go ahead and do it and you all find out about it later when I put photos up on facebook, instagram or here on the blog! I am also loving just getting in and having a go at new projects that I would never have had a go at before, such as this whole #reverb12 thing!

And finally in my heart - well it's pretty full! I am surrounded by my loving family and an awesome group of friends who I can call on whenever my heart is hurting! But most of all I am living in a testosterone infused household with my three men and although they are loud and their gas smells, they do give me the best smiles and the best cuddles a girl could ask for!

So how is your mind,body and soul holding up as we near the end of 2012?

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Thank you Daycare...

I am just going to come out and say it... I am thankful for daycare! I know some people will not be happy with this statement but for me and my sanity, it is what is needed for me today!

Don't get me wrong, I love my eldest son to bits but sometimes I need that break to rest and recuperate. 

Yesterday we had a speech appointment for my eldest son and the assessment showed that he not only has a speech delay but a language delay too. So this means that now when we are doing pretend play, i need to be verbalizing all the action words that we are doing and giving him choices between two toys so that he understands the concept behind the word. An example of this is to have a fire truck, a teddy and a block in front of him and ask him to 'put the block on the fire truck'. It is probably not a good idea to ask him to 'push the fire truck over the teddy before falling off the end of the earth!'. That might be a bit much. 

Again I came away from that Speech appointment thinking I am not doing enough for my son. To try and improve my mood, we went out for lunch with a friend and her two little men. The lunch lasted about 45 minutes. Both our eldest boys spent the entire time running around the cafe and yelling at the top of their lungs and both the two younger boys spent their time crying and wanting their Mum's attention. My friend and I looked at each other and laughed at the situation that was unfolding - probably because if we didn't laugh we would cry! My friend looked as exhausted as I felt and between the two of us I could tell that being a work/farm widow was taking its toll!

Source: Uploaded by user via Miami on Pinterest

So today is daycare day...Thank goodness! It is so nice to sit down with a cup of coffee without having to have a constant running description of what I'm doing - 'Mum is picking up her cup. Mum is taking a mouthful. Mum is swallowing. Mum is putting her cup down. Mum is DESPERATELY curbing her need to go to the freezer and eat that ENTIRE tub of special ice cream! Anyway, I think you get the idea!

x

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Scrap Fabric Christmas Wreath

I am back from a lovely little break away with my two boys while Hubby was slaving away on the farm. One thing I did miss though, was my craft - I think I was having withdrawals! So when I got back I had to get into a new project straight away...

Now, I found this great idea from somewhere but now that I have gone back through my emails and Pinterest boards, do you think I can find where I found it from?! So, I am very sorry to the person who I pinched the idea from that I can't link back to you because my baby brain can't remember :(

(I do get emails sent to me from Meet Me at Mikes, Craftaholics Anonymous and Eighteen25 so more than likely I got the idea from one of these inspiring ladies!)

Anyway, back to the topic... A quick and easy Christmas Wreath....

Basically all you need is a wire coat hanger that you bend to make round, and a whole heap of different fabric scraps cut about 20cm long by about 5cm wide (you can be as rough as you like with your measurements and cutting too! Awesome, I know!). Then you just tie each of the pieces of scraps around the coat hanger, nice and close to each other so that you get a great looking wreath -like the one above - if do say so myself ;)

Note to self though: my sewing scissors are really sharp, so don't let my son grab them and then try and grab them back from him because he may just shut the scissors on my hand - and bloody nora it hurts!

x

P.S No whole pieces of fabric were hurt in the making of this item ;) Pin It

Gorgeous treasures...

Today I embarked on the epic journey back to my parents home (and also where I grew up). It was just me and the two boys (my husband had to work.)
After a four hour car ride, an hour boat trip and another hour car ride, we all arrived relatively unscathed.

So today I thought I'd show you my creative pefforts at snapping some of my Mums' gorgeous treasures.

Linking up with Twinkle in the Eye for wordless Wednesday.

X

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Crafting up a Christmas Angel...

SHhhhh... but it is a rare moment whereby both my boys are asleep at the same time!!! So, I thought I would do a quick post, showing my latest creation, while they are still in the land of nod!

In my last post, I was looking for ideas for Christmas tree toppers, and seeing as you all were either too shy, too slack or just didn't have any ideas yourselves, I had to do a little research of my own. So I started at the only place there is to start in this technological world and that is of course Pinterest. It did take me a little while but I did find a gorgeous little angel to have a go at and I found her here.

So this pretty little angel is now sitting on the top of our Christmas tree and I am so happy with how she turned out..

(I did change the design of the wings from the original Angel I found on Pinterest. I just cut out one piece of paper in the shape of a big love heart and stuck that on to the back of the base cone, which I think looks pretty good if i do say so myself!)

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be so why not give it a go yourself.

Now I have to go because I just heard my littlest munchkin stirring for a feed - dang - no cup of tea in peace!

x


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DIY CD Christmas Banner

Following on from yesterdays Christmas kick-off, I thought I'd show you my DIY CD Christmas Banner and I how I went about it. Unfortunately for me I am not the clever one who thought of this cool idea - I found this idea here.
But I thought I'd show you how I went about it and any extra thoughts I had about the project.

What you will need:
- Old CD's
- Christmas scrap paper
- pencil
- scissors
- mod podge
- hole puncher
- ribbon
- Scrapbooking letters and embellishments.

Instructions:

1. Trace around the CD's with pencil and cut out with scissors. You will need enough pieces of paper to cover both sides of the CD's. Depending on what word you want on your banner will depend on how many CD's you will need and how many pieces of paper you will need. Eg I used the word WISH, so I needed four CD's and eight circles of scrap paper.

2. Glue the circles of paper to the CD's with Mod Podge. 

3. Put a whole in each of the CD's. I used a whole punch but the CD got stuck in the punch each time so I had to get my hubby to lever each one out with a screw driver. I have since found out that you can get special and cheap hole punching tools for such a purpose. So maybe try that instead!

4. Stick your letters on and add any embellishments you want to each CD.

5. Cut some ribbon long enough so that you can tie a knot at each CD, so they stay in place when they are hung up. 

And HEY PRESTO, you have a Christmas Banner. 

I loved making this as well as my CD Christmas decorations, which you can see here. Now don't forget, I am on the lookout for any DIY stars or angels for the top of my tree so feel free to hit me with your suggestions!

x

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Christmas is coming...

I can't believe it is halfway through November already!! This year I am really excited for the Christmas season, mainly because my eldest son is starting to get to the age where he will start 'getting' the whole festive time!

We have put the Christmas tree up already...

... I had this big plan that we would put it up while watching the Pageant on television. Unfortunately my son lasted 10 minutes watching the pageant and wanted to go outside! So we put it up the next day and my son helped a little with handing me the ornaments while I placed them so lovingly and perfectly on the tree to make it look like the trees you see in the magazines ;)

I do love going through the decorations and getting out all those special ones that you get each year - handmade ones from friends, special baby's first christmas trinkets and beautiful bought ornaments from my mum that she gives us kids every year.

This year I have two more gorgeous ornaments to add to the collection.

The first one is this cute little pewter Christmas Keepsake sleigh from Mister Minit.

 All of their ornaments come with FREE name engraving and gift pouch, so I will be getting my second sons name engraved on it to symbolize his first Christmas. Check out their website here to see their range of ornaments plus a whole lot of other great gift ideas especially for those a little difficult to buy for!

The second new ornament going on my tree this year is one that I made myself after looking on Pinterest for some christmas decorating ideas.

It's amazing what you can do with an old CD...

I got the idea for this DIY here. Stay tuned in the next couple of days to see how I did this cool decoration, as well as my own CD christmas banner.

So Christmas is definitely on it's way and I am planning to do a bit more DIY christmas fun. I could however, do with your help -we don't have a Christmas star/angel for the top of our tree yet, so if you have any DIY suggestions I would love to hear from you.

x

Linking in with Twinkle in the Eye for Flash Blog Friday...


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Cheesecake in a Jar

I have been looking at all the things you can do with Mason Jars on Pinterest for ages now and especially have liked all the gorgeous cakes that you can do in them! So finally I had a reason to make some and decided to have a go at a No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake and it was super easy....

Ingredients:

- 15 Oreo Cookies chopped in to bits
- 250 grams light cream cheese
- 250 grams light whipped cream
- 1/3 cup of sugar

Place room temperature cream cheese, sugar and 3/4 of the Oreo Cookies in to a bowl and mix with beaters.
Stir in whipped cream until well mixed in.
Pour ingredients into 4 - 8 mason jars (depending on how gluttoness you want to be!)
Put the remaining chopped Oreo's on top of each mixture.
Screw the lids on the jars and place in the fridge for about 4 hours to make sure the the mixture is set and cooled.

Open and devour!!!

It was soooo yum! Although my husband took about two mouthfuls and said it was a little sweet for him but for those of sweet tooths out there, this is a winner!

I am looking forward to trying some more handmade goodies in a jar and might even try one of those one that are all layered and look extra specky.

But I had better wait until the next hypoglycaemic event calls me to it ;)

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Back from a beautiful holiday!

I have finally decided to get back on the blog bandwagon after a bit of a holiday break with my little family and to get back into the swing of things, I thought I would show you some of the fun we had while we were away!

The main reason we were going to Melbourne was for a friends wedding, which took place on a Friday, so we left home on Thursday and we all survived the plane flight with hardly any tears (from any of us!!). 

We stayed in a little apartment about an hour out of the city and it was an awesome location. We had some gorgeous shops and some delicious restaurants right at our doorstep.

I was so excited to see my friend on her big day and she didn't disappoint - she looked absolutely stunning. I was also excited to spend a night out with my husband and without the kids and catching up with some wonderful old friends. It was a really great day and night!

While we were in Melbourne we hired a car, which was the best thing we ever did, (seeing as how we were so far out of the city) and were able to go on some great 'day trips'. It's amazing how much holidays are so much more about fun for the kids now!

We went to the Melbourne museum, where my husband enjoyed the rock exhibition and my son loved the dinosaurs and childrens' part of the museum. I didn't really get to see too much of anything because I was too busy making sure our eldest son didn't try and climb T-Rex!

We went to the Botanic Gardens which were soooo gorgeous. It was so calming and peaceful and I was in awe of some of the beautiful big old trees! I find trees so interesting with their branches reaching out as if they are protecting their territory. 

We took a trip to the Dandenongs and had a ride on Puffing Billy, an old steam train with open air carriages. This one was mainly done for our son but I am going to admit it - it was really, really good! My son also loved it which is always a bonus!!!

 

And of course their was good food while we were away and plenty of 'coffee and cake' stops. Here is just of a snapshot of the heaven we were in...

After literally having our cake and eating it too, it was time to come home. Although we had a the best time away, we were definitely ready to come back to our own creature comforts. We were starting to get cabin fever in both the apartment and the car and as my husband says 'I am looking forward to seeing some long views again'! 

So now we are home again, and it's a nice to place to be, even if we have to do our own cooking and cleaning again....

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Its done!

Source: weheartit.com via yaga on Pinterest

Well, I did it... last day of Blogtoberfest12 today! YAY!!! Although I didn't end up blogging everyday, I am really happy with what I did achieve throughout the month! It did seem a bit ridiculous in the beginning but it's done now and a I think it did it well enough!

One thing I would have liked to have had more time to do was read some more of the other great blogs out in the internet galaxy! The problem is that I could just lose copious amounts of time delving into the world of blogging... but I have other priorities in my life, so I have to severely restrain my blog reading to short spurts.

I also want to thank you - and by 'you' I mean all of my readers. Wether you just come for a quick look or stay around for a while,  it makes me really excited to the point of childish happy dances, that I can be part of your lives in some small way! I check my blog often for comments and get that feeling like you are about to open your first christmas present, every time I see that some wonderful person has scribbled a little note to.... ME!

So now that Blogtoberfest12 has come to close, I am going to take a well earned hiatus to Melbourne with my little family! My hubby has asked me wether I will stay off the 'blogging circuit' while we are away and since I have agreed to do so... I will see you all when we get back!

x

P.S Don't tell hubby but you can see what we get up to on our holiday by following me on Instagram. ;) Pin It