my ramblings

Ribbons Galore

These Ribbon Bundles are now on their way to Italy...

Lory from Scrapbookiando asked if I'd send some ribbon goodie bags for the upcoming Paper & Co Show in Italy at the end of this month. This looks like such a fun event with great tutors. I think I'll start saving for next year... mmm Italy in May... perfect, who wants to join me?

I've added Dolly's Ribbon Bundles to Ribbons Galore this week. Here's a few of the bundles available.

I also receive enquiries about international postage for Ribbons Galore. The postage costs, as well as the bulk discount policy, can be found on the terms and conditions page. The international postage charge from Sydney, Australia starts from AUD4.00.

Hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona x

Maya Road projects

Maya Road is exhibiting at the National Stationery Show in New York. The design team has been creating some new projects to display at the show. Make sure you check the Maya Road DT girls blogs (they are listed in the left column) to see their projects.

Here are my projects, using lots of the recently released products from CHA-W. One of my favourite new products are the MR Johathan Chipbaord Alphabet Set. They are such a great sized chipboard alphabet (small than the other MR alphabet sets).

Thank You Card materials:

• Maya Road Johathan Chipbaord Alphabet Set
• Maya Road Trinkets Ribbon - Forest
• Maya Road Trinkets Textured Knit Blossoms

Love Card materials:

• Maya Road Stamp Seals Set
• Maya Road Microchips - Hearts Chipboard (both neutral and brights sets used)
• Maya Road Las Vegas Ribbon - Avenue

Journey Card materials:

• Maya Road Travel Keychain Set
• Maya Road Trinkets Buttons - Grass
• Maya Road Air Mail Rubons

The Girls Frame materials:

• Maya Road Scroll Frame Chipboard Accordian Album
• Maya Road Microchips Neutrals - Hearts Chipboard
• Maya Road Stamp Seals Set

Nature Girl album materials:

• Maya Road Sheer Butterfly Coaster Album
• Maya Road Jonathan Chipboard Alphabet Set
• Maya Road Trinkets Crochet Shimmer Butterflies
• Maya Road The Cubicle Rubons

Thanks for visiting.

Hope you all have a great week.

Cheers

Fiona x

birthday wishes

Yesterday was the big day....

Paul, my DH, turned 50. It's a big number, but he coped very well :-))

We had a busy day, lots of running around, but we managed to celebrate in between the busy parts. The girls cooked bacon and egg rolls for breaky. The carrot cupcakes were iced with a cream cheese and ricotta icing, and were really, really yummy. We fitted in a netball game and a basketball game, and a few other committments. We had drinks at friends and then we went to dinner at China Doll on Woolloomooloo Wharf.

It was a good day.

And today was Mothers' Day. A lovely day was had here with my gorgeous girls. Breakfast in bed. Watching Phoebe's fabo soccer game. Phoebe made Chocolate Kisses for afternoon tea (recipe from Better Homes and Gardens). Visiting my mum and dad. And dinner cooked by the girls Paul.

Bring on Monday so we can all have a rest!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there.

Fiona x

Carrot Cupcakes

We have a very important birthday in our family this weekend. After subtle (and not so subtle) questions from the girls as to the type of cake that would be enjoyed by this birthday person, it was decided that carrot cake would be well received.

So here I am cooking today. We are running out of time to prepare the cakes, and tomorrow (THE birthday) is already full with sporting matches and plays, so I thought I'd make the cakes today, so the girls can decorate in the morning.

Something occurred to me this morning as I was enjoying my cooking - BY MYSELF. One of the very few negatives of having children (apart from the cost of running them) is that you create cake spoon and bowl licking competitors. I love licking the spoon, the bowl and anything else that has a dollop of uncooked cake mixture. But these days I rarely get to indulge in this pleasure. I have little people who, as soon as they hear the cake tin going into the oven, suddenly appear in the kitchen. And that's if they weren't already there, "helping" with the actual cooking.

Today I was able to enjoy a little bit of cake mixture, uncooked, by myself. And this mixture in particular was delicious and rich uncooked.

Here's the first batch out of the oven. The mixture was huge. I've made 28 muffin sized carrot cupcakes from this recipe. Looks like there'll be some left over for Mother's Day on Sunday :-))

The recipe I used is the Church Picnic Carrot Cupcakes (page 49) from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. Great book, full of beautiful ideas for cupcakes.

OK, I've finished my cup of tea, better keep going, I've got a mini book to work on and some ribbon orders to pack. I'll share some photos of the finished cakes when the girls have worked their magic on them tomorrow.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cheers

Fiona x

Good service

I thought I'd mention a few stores which, over the last few months, have provided great service. I think in the world of online shopping, good service can still be provided. We don't get a friendly smile or greeting as we do when we walk into a physical shop, but service can be provided in a few ways by online stores. I think having the product in stock when you order is important, receiving the goods in a timely manner is important and receiving goods in top condition (that is, the goods have been packaged well) is very important. Here's a few stores which I've had good shopping experiences with lately.

• Emma's Paperie in the US. I ordered some Scenic Route papers plus some extras from here and my order arrived a week from it's departure in the US. I was so surprised to open my box to find my goodies wrapped so beautifully by Cindy...
• Scrapapple. Prompt service and my parcel arrived safe and well. Scrapapple has a great range of both new and some not so new papers (not that they are old, they are just not THE latest release - IYKWIM). It was this that appealed, as I was after some papers which had been around for a little while. I was able to get all I needed in one spot.
• Craftainers. I am fortunate to live very close to the Craftainers warehouse, which does open to the public sometimes. I loved visiting here, picking up some things to help organise my life. One favourite was a small DMC mini travel bag for my embroidery threads. This has changed the way I store and organise my threads, and I'm no longer buying more pink threads when I already have plenty at home (and just can't find them). When I do away and I want to do some sewing, I can now just grab my little travel bag and run. I keep my needles in there and a small pair of scissors, so I have everything together.
• Karen's Scrappin' Kupboard. Karen's is responsible for my stash of Ranger products, particularly my Ranger Distress Crackle paints. A great range was available, great service was provided, and my goodies arrived promptly.

Completely off the subject of craft, I was surprised to find this little bit of brightness in our front garden over the weekend. We've only just started getting cooler here in Sydney. It is not even winter yet and already my jonquils are appearing.

Better run. Have a good day. Thanks for visiting.

Fiona x

New Maya Road website

The new MAYA ROAD website is up and running. It looks so good, make sure you visit soon.

I'll be back with a longer post soon, we've been busy with school holidays and projects (me and the girls - LOL).

Also, Emily's Cupcake competition cut off date has been extended (see previous post). She's received a couple of entries which she'll put in the gallery soon, but wanted to let you know you can still send her your projects for another week.

Have a good weekend.

Fiona x

Pursuit of Craftyness blog

This is a very short post to share some news about the Paper Salon design team, a team I've been a part of for the last two years. Paper Salon has been sold to Gartner Studios and they have decided they do not have the immediate need for a design team.

The good news is we, the members of our design team, are staying together. We have created a new venture and you can visit our new blog Pursuit of Craftyness.

I'm looking forward to being part of this creative blog with these very creative ladies. We look forward to your visit soon.

Cheers

Fiona

a pink post

I haven't shared the new love in my life. I never thought I'd be so smitten with a kitchen appliance, but I am. I love this machine. My gorgeous family bought me a KitchenAid for Christmas. The hard thing was choosing a colour. If you know about KitchenAids, you'll know their appliances are available in a fantastic range of colours.

When I went to the store to order my machine, I still hadn't decided on a colour. I had narrowed it down to either white or pink. The Gemini twins in me were having a huge tug of war in my head. The practical twin was saying get the WHITE, it'll go with everything. The other completely non-practical twin was whispering get the PINK, you really want the pink, who cares if it doesn't go with the blue kitchen! The shop assistant was on the phone ready to order the machine, asking me which colour. PINK came out of my mouth in reply, and so a pink KitchenAid was ordered.

It certainly looks best with pink icing...

Phoebe's basketball team is called the Hotcakes. We had the team BBQ a couple of weeks ago and Phoebe and I made pink Hotcakes cupcakes to take. I iced the cakes this time with a piping bag and really loved the effect.

We added a little pink surprise in the cakes before cooking them. With the cake mixture in the patty pans (with pink cupcake papers), a small amount of pink food colouring was swirled through each cake. We did this with a tooth pick dipped in the food colouring.

Make sure you swirl the tooth pick deep into the cake, and not just on the surface.

Here are the cakes cooked with their pretty pink swirls.

Once cooked, cooled and the cakes are iced, the pink swirl will only be revealed once you bite into the cake. This is a bit of a cheats way of making marble cupcakes.

Last week, the Hotcakes won their basketball gala day. Another trophy for the trophy cabinet! Another pink moment...

Hope you're all having a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Fiona

x

catching up

Hope you had a happy, relaxing Easter.

I finally have the RAK winners (from a couple of posts ago). I've made up 10 little bags of ribbon with an Easter ribbon and three co-ordinating ribbons.

The winners are:

• Leone
• Sandra Mason
• Kerry Murray
• Sarah Latham
• Rachael Merrick
• Manuela
• Amie Taylor
• Lisa Jamerson
• Narelle
• Georgie

Email me your postal addresses ladies (please don't leave your addresses here in a comment). If you have a preference of colour, let me know, I'll try to accommodate.

Now, I did have a question about my cupcake bead from Lovelinks (again mentioned a few posts ago). I can't seem to find it on their website, so I've scanned the page from their print catalogue. The cupcake bead code is TT183. I'm not sure how recent this catalogue is, but my friend who sells these beads at Castlecrag was able to order this one in for me. If you want any beads from Lovelinks or Bacio, my friend (who happens to be another Fiona Carter) owns It Started with a Kiss. She operates out of Sally's Bookshop in Castlecrag. If you live on the lower north shore and you'd like her details/opening hours, let me know and I'll email them to you.

I've been busy adding some new ribbons to Ribbons Galore recently.

Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs and Elephants:

Cakes:

Jacquards:

Butterflies:

That's about all for now.

Have a good Sunday.

Fiona x

The Easter bonnets and Easter bunnies

The Easter Bonnet.

Sadly my girls are getting a little old for Easter bonnets. So I've gone back through old photos to find our Easter hats/bonnets which the girls have made over the years. Our Easter Bonnets always had a very handmade look to them.

• We start with Phoebe in 2002 (above left), these big ears were made at pre-school and they were worn around the Sydney Easter show ALL DAY.
• Next is Emily in 2003 (above middle), she was in Year 2 and this was her hat for the Easter hat parade at school - real chocolate eggs dangled from the hat in true Aussie-style on a very hot day!
• Phoebe in 2004 in her 'hat' made in Kindergarten. Eggs, bunnies and fluffy chicks. (above right)

• Bunnies and girls sometime in 2004 (above left).
• Phoebe with her fluffy chicks hat in 2005. I think this hat is the same one used by Emily in 2003.
• Phoebe in 2006, she was in Year 2, her last year for an Easter hat parade at school. This hat was decorated with her own designs of bunnies and eggs, and finished with rick rack.

I'm sure there are more hats, but these are just from the digital images I have on our computer, I haven't gone back through our film photos.

We did make Easter bonnets this year... for the bunnies. Emily found these cute little cowboy hats, and they were a perfect bunny size. The ideas we used for these hats could be easily adapted to a slightly larger version if you wish.

Here are the little hats.

We wrapped ribbon around the hat, holding it with double-sided tape. Then pierce a small hole in the centre front of the hat, and use a brad to hold the fabric flowers in place. Attach fluffy chick. Our chicks kept falling off, so I would suggest using a hot glue gun, place a small amount of glue on the chicks feet, and attach to the hat.

And here are our Easter bunny photos.

Bubbles and Butterscotch were initially reluctant to model for their Easter photo shoot, turning their little cotton tails towards us.

But Bubbles did come through with some nice modeling poses for the camera.

She couldn't decide which hat she preferred.

Butterscotch did not cooperate at all. She wore her bonnet and then lay on the grass and did not move.

Here's one photo we really liked, no Easter bonnet though.

Marty couldn't help get in on the act also.

Rachel Richter has a very, very cute idea on her blog for Easter cards. You have to go take a peek. This is such a clever idea.

I'd like to wish you all a happy Easter. I'm taking a small break from blogging for the long weekend. Thank you for visiting and commenting. I will choose the RAK winners early next week if that's OK.

HAPPY EASTER

Cheers

Fiona

x