E is for..........

E is for Ellia!

Congratulations Ellia, Ramel and little Diego
on the arrival of gorgeous baby Isabella!
She is beautiful!
Cant wait to hear all about it....

E is also for Elephant!

I made this little elephant for baby Isabella. I used this green print as green is Ellia's favourite colour and I embroidered the eyes and ears.
I also made this card - loved this baby elephant image, so sweet!


To finish off my post here are some more vintage elephant images to make you smile!

Illustration Friday - Fortune

Spending a Fortune to save a Fortune

For more 'Fortune' illustrations

check out Illustration Friday

This and that....

I was flicking through this month’s Real Living magazine and saw this image – a mood board turned wallpaper! how cool does that look!?

My inspiration board is tiny and most of the images have been there for ages...still, i like having it up near my computer....I move things around, always adding to it....

Nothing too exciting happening this week, had another round of root canal treatment, one more appointment to go....... but another problem came up with the discovery of a small tooth embedded in my gum!?! I feel like a freak!!!

this tooth never decided to grow so now I have to see if this tooth will affect me once I get the braces on, if so I need surgery to remove it! Cha-ching....we went from $6K bill to $8K bill after the root canal to what now looks like a $10K bill for straight teeth!!! ughhhh! off to get a CT scan on Friday - fingers crossed!!

An ATC I made last week ‘Skip to My Lou’

I also made this tea inspired collage card
for the ‘My cuppa Tea’ swap – it went out to Sally , a fellow Sydney-sider

Oh and speaking of teeth...Peter’s two front ones are wiggling, he’s not even four and half yet! He’s ever so excited about the tooth fairy though…

Chilling out.....

Just uploading some of my pictures from the Sydney Royal Easter Show last Monday.

We had such a great time! there is always so much to see and do and I must admit I hang out for it each year, Im worse than any kid. haha...We were there for 9hrs so a long tiring day but the boys did so well!

Helen from Grabyourfork has a great post about the food at the show.

This weekend was pretty quiet which was great. Every now and then I just want to chill and hang out at home. I even had a nap this afternoon, the boys were asleep, Andrew was on his laptop finishing budgets for work and I just dozed off...Zzzzz...very unusual for me but I guess my body was trying to tell me I needed a break.

Anyway friends, here's to a great week for us all!

Cake decorating displays - chinoisere inspired cake, such pretty detail

Sushi cake -this looked so amazingly real!

'My little cupcake' stand - delicious

Peter and Styliana saying hello to the piglets

Floral Birthday cake and beautiful flowers in the garden pavilion

A week of Colour - more pics....

Turquoise bead necklace - I love wearing this with a simple white tee!

My green laundry door that leads out to the garden.


Pink flowers on my sister's deck
Yellow oil in a dipping plate


My red crochet scarf and a tote bag

Colour Week
Friday - RED

Does anyone know the name of these flowers? My inlaws had them in their garden and so planted some for me and my sister in law.

They're deep red and look like velvet bunches - so beautiful...

Im loving this too! 'Keep calm and Carry on'...Ive seen it on a few blogs recently. Its a reproduction of a British WW II poster....great message!!
Alison is selling them as tea towels too!

Colour Week
Thursday - Yellow

I think I need to add more yellow in my life...

My pale yellow picket fence
and
my nieces happy smiley face

Colour Week

Wednesday - Pink

I love pink!

Colour Week

Tuesday - Green

Beautiful 'Cooks Park' in

Orange, a town in NSW

Colour Week

Monday - Turquoise

Julie has started colour week - Im joining in on the fun! observe the world around you....Come along and play - post one pic per day!

Monday : turquoise
Tuesday : green
Wednesday : pink
Thursday : yellow
Friday : red

Easter sunday drinks

Illustration Friday - Green

How Green does your garden grow?

And so we baked then ate and ate some more.....

Here I am uploading my pictures relaxing after a long day, drinking some fizzy sprite to aid the indigestion....we ate so much food these past two days!!! dont even get me started on the amount of chocolate Ive scoffed....

It doesnt end there! tommorow we are off to the Sydney Royal Easter show and the food there is SO bad its good - fried cheese on a stick, dagwood dogs, hot chips with gravy, candy floss...they are going to have to roll me out of there!

On Friday we spent 5hrs baking Easter Flaounes, which are cheesy Cypriot Easter pies...I only eat these when they are warm straight out of the oven - the cheese filing oozes and they are so moorish. We made about 100 of them! crazy I know but its only once a year so thats cool!

We had so many chocolate eggs but hey we still needed a cake to serve once Easter lunch was over - we cant have coffee on its own now can we?? never!

Orange & Poppyseed cake with frosting.

What was left of the dyed eggs after we started cracking them.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!!

Beyond chocolate....

Well I finished my garland but I think I might move it from the picture wall and put it somewhere else, maybe hanging from a doorway.
It looks kind of sad hanging there. My favourite image that I used is this bunny couple below - arent they adorable, Mr Bunny's outfit is so smart and they look so happy and content, I wonder what he is taking out of his pocket?

I made some cupcake nests the other day as I visited my godson Alex.
I love being a godmother, and its a yearly tradition for me to go see them for Easter bearing gifts - some new clothes for the Easter weekend and of course chocolate eggs.
The cupcakes were a hit with the kids, Alex kept sneaking up to lick off all the green icing...typical Alex! he's a sweetheart!



I was telling Vanessa last week that my husband's Uncle owns a cake shop, 'The Trianon' .
I try to avoid going past because it always smells so good haha...
anyway yesterday they were featured in Sydney's main newspaper,
The Sydney Morning Herald in a lifestyle article 'Beyond Chocolate'.
They talked about different traditions that happen during Easter and how different cultures celebrate. Its great in Sydney because we love our diverse multi-culture society!
This is the picture from the article. Greek decorative Easter candles -these are given to children for lighting after mass on Easter Sunday.

Fashionable girls + 80's chick....

Some illustrations I completed for a swap, they are off in the mail headed to Adelaide and New York.
I hope the girls like them!
I always leave everything to the last minute and then panic and rush...do you ever get like that? I need to get myself organised! My blog helps though as it pushes me to complete projects.
Next up is an ATC swap with Robyn and I need to finish a tea inspired art piece.

Well I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
On Friday night my sister and I went to see 80's singer Howard Jones...gosh that took me back some years.
I suprised myself as I even rememberd most of the songs and even sang along. We had a brilliant night and it was funny scanning the crowd, all 35 -50 year olds.

...gosh I was 15 when he was really popular. I was totaly into the 'new wave' british music scene and even sported a bob cut hairdo with a long tail that I'd pin inside my hair so my dad wouldnt see it! haha ....he did and then had the honour of cutting it off!
I loved Culture Club and Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet with their handsome faces and stylish clothes - dove gray double breasted suits with the huge shoulder pads and pink shirts! Those boys were hot!!
As a teen I couldnt wait to get to London....for me it was THE place to be!
I did get there at age 20 on my first major trip overseas...I wasnt disappointed!
I've always loved London and still do, its one of my favourite cities!
Ever since Duran Duran did a come back tour, 80's popstars are coming out of the woodwork....The Pet Shop Boys are in town doing a concert this Friday, what a shame its Easter or I would have been there for sure!!

Vintage Easter.....

Im pouring through some Vintage Easter images as Im going to make an Easter garland for my entryway, love these cute bunnies and chicks!

We don't normally decorate the house for Easter but its one of my favourite holiday celebrations and Greek Easter is full of traditions as well as delicious food and sweets so a busy week ahead planning and shopping in preparation for the family festivites next weekend.

I'll post pics of my garland once Ive finished!!