Sniffly Swashbuckler - {Craft with Tara}

PJs were the order of the day with a sniffly little girl at home .... and her red & white stripes seemed quite apt for creating a l'il Swashbuckler - and a sniffly one at that.

Practicing her best "Ahoy me hearties", we delved into our craft box today to create some pirate fun. I found an old post on 'Kid's Craft Weekly' with some great instructions and templates. I particularly loved that the Jolly Roger was a koala on the templates! And can I just say that I am SO excited that Tara is at an age where we can start playing and creating with fun craft activities (I subscribed to the Kid's Craft Weekly magazine before Tara could even sit on her own, let alone hold a pair of scissors, glue on sequins, or make her own Christmas cards). Please visit the Kid's Craft Weekly page if you are after some fun kid's craft ideas.

The pirate hat was tackled first, because, well really, what self-respecting pirate doesn't have a pirate hat? I also figured if her attention waned, atleast she would have a hat if we didn't make it on to creating anything else.

Tara very excitedly tried the hat on for size.....

... and then announced that she needed an eye patch! I didn't have any felt handy, so simply cut out a shape that resembled an eye-patch, hole-punched a couple of holes and tied on some black hat elastic.

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The hat and the eye-patch were all done in about 15 minutes. Little Miss then was distracted for a while, so I retrieved some cardboard from the garage and quickly fashioned a 'sword', covered with aluminium foil. Tara assisted with the necklace, as we modified the instructions and quickly wrapped some torn off bits of foil around a pink ribbon (yes, all pirates have pink necklaces). Tara then got distracted some more, pretending the wrapped up bits of foil were chocolates ...... aye aye....

Yarrrr.....It was a fun activity to do, and Tara wore her eye patch and hat whilst eating lunch later on ....
Avast, she's a cute lookin' matey ahoy!

Funny Faces

This afternoon I embarked on making 'Funny Face' biscuits with Tara (I remember doing these as a kid!).... these were a great activity to do with her, as the preparation (and mess) was minimal, and she got to have fun creating.

I lost count however of the amount of times she said "Can I eat one?" when she picked up a lolly to decorate the faces!

I have learnt from the last few times I have done either craft or cooking activities with little Miss-busy-active-'hands-on'-2 1/2 year old .... prepare first. So after her & I took a trip to the shops (and we stopped for a coffee/milk shake) to select the face decorations, I quickly headed into the kitchen to get everything ready.

We had bowls of chocolate, jelly beans, fruit sticks and sprinkles. A quick mix of icing sugar, boiling water and a few drops of food colouring saw the pinky/purple icing ready to go.

And then little Miss, in her pink sparkly shoes, entered the kitchen ready for action.
And aren't these shoes the cutest?! A couple of weeks ago, I decided Tara needed more shoes than the runners and gumboots she wore most days, so I announced to her "let's go to the shops and buy you some shoes" ..... her response "I'd like pink, sparkly ones please!!". Fortunately for me, the shop we went to had them. Phew. Melt down avoided.

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I thought I would use today's kitchen activity to also take my 'Embrace the Camera' photo (taking an everyday shot, with me included).

And here is the finished product. Did you too make these as a child?

Wordless Wednesday #6

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Linking up with:

Let's Do 52 - {8/52} - Simply pearls

Hello friends!! Thanks for following along with me on my 'Let's Do 52' weekly photo challenge. The theme set for week 8 is 'Simplicity' ..... and it was the masterful Leonardo da Vinci that can be quoted as saying "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" .....

Well I don't quite know how sophisticated I am .... but I do think the simplicity of pearl necklace is pure sophistication.

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And here is what happens when I have some jewellery, a camera on a tripod and a my camera remote out .......

The Soulful Goodness of {Soul Chic}

Some incredible talents have combined to form 'Soul Chic' - a jazz & soul band in Melbourne ... who entertained guests (adults and children alike), at BJ & Caz's wedding last week. They asked me to snap a few photos for them ... and I was only too happy to oblige.

And my daughter had a WONDERFUL time dancing along, being given a tambourine to bop along with by the band members.

Let's Do 52 - {7/52} - Looking for the pretty in ugly

Well here was an interesting week's theme "Pretty Ugly" (find the beauty in things many may consider ugly)...... I scratched my head for quite some time, wondering what on earth to take a picture of.

Wandering the grounds of a countryside farm a few days ago I came to a pile of very old weathered travel chests. Sadly now, looking a little worse for wear and exposed to all the elements that pass by. I like to think that in their day, the accompanied many a traveller on a wonderful adventure.....

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BJ & Caz's Wedding - Sneak Peek!

Let me introduce you to my friend BJ - he & I have been friends since Uni, which incidently was the same time he was working with my husband (before we had even met) - he has been a special and important friend in the lives of both my husband & I, he was the best man at our wedding, and on Sunday we were there to see him marry his love Caroline.

We travelled down to Melbourne for the nuptials and were so excited to witness their special day. The wedding was a casual affair, with BJ emailing some friends in the few days prior stating that it was going to be very informal: no bridal party, nothing fancy, no photographer, and would those people with a fancy camera who were going to take a few photos mind emailing them afterwards for their album. I dutifully informed BJ that it wasn't the fancy camera that took the good photo! As a wedding gift to them, I offered to steal them away for some portraits after the ceremony and print out some images for them.

The wedding was at Gum Gully Farm, a fun place with a gorgeous rural setting, offering the full farm experience - even tractor rides and farm tours for the kiddies!

The bride and groom walked down an aisle of sprinkled rose petals under a canopy of kiwi fruit vines, whilst the guests sat on hay bale pews....

Caz's cousin made an incredible array of colourful cupcakes ...

And the bride and groom were absolutely glowing. The trickiest thing about taking these photos was to get BJ to stop staring at Caz long enough to get him to smile at the camera! They make a gorgeous couple don't they?!

Congratulations BJ & Caz! xx

As you can see, I couldn't do a 'wordless' Wednesday today .... too many things I wanted to say about this special day!