Not a day in this case, but a party! My daughter, Portia has a very cheeky dog called Popcorn who she adores, so her birthday party last year was a celebration of all things dogs. Popcorn even had a look in on the celebrations! It was a quick party to pull together – I was very busy at the time, so this was a real bonus. For invitations we used a photo of Popcorn. I made some cupcakes (some with Oreo and smartie dog paws on them), and also used some dog toys I got from the Reject Shop as cupcake toppers. The cake was a rosewater vanilla layer cake (recipe here), topped with some dog figurines (one with a custom made party hat). I added some nasturtium leaves on the front.
The food was simple to put together and fun to label. I used free food label printables from here. We had pupcorn, dogs in blankets, puppy chow (chocolate treats that look like dog food served in a dog food bowl), a water bowl (which was blue jelly) and a yoghurt parfait bar. The drink was puppacinos!
I used a length of fabric with dogs on it as a table runner and all Portia’s dog toys (being such a dog lover, she’s amassed a few) as table decorations. I was also able to locate some paper napkins with dogs on them.
The girls played guess the amount of dog treats in the jar and also went on a treasure hunt with Popcorn in tow around our neighbourhood. I think I had as much fun as the girls, thinking up rhyming clues and leaving them at locations for them to find. The clues led back to a treasure chest which contained a lip balm for each guest and was hidden in our tree house. The treasure hunt was inspired by the ones Mum prepared for my parties growing up on the farm. They were the best! Would still love to go on another one of those treasure hunts, even as an adult.
The girls took home favour boxes containing a stuffed dog each, which I sourced on sale from KMart. The girls had a blast, as did Popcorn!
Harriet recently turned eight and we celebrated with a spa party! The inspiration for this came from some sleep masks I was gifted by a friend several years ago, which I used for the invitations. I used a free printable from 
This was a fun party to put together! I borrowed three foot spas for the girls to enjoy and also an essential oil diffuser to create a special atmosphere. I kept the beauty treatments simple with just some face masks and nail polish for manicures. We also made some lip balm with jelly crystals, petroleum jelly and coconut oil at the party. The girls decorated tiny pots I bought from a discount store to put the lip balm in. This was a popular activity! The lip balm recipe can be found 
Lastly, but not least, the favour bags consisted of lip balm wrapped up in a homemade scrunchie which I enjoyed making on my sewing machine. The girls went home refreshed and pampered after a long week at school!
Well, it’s crunch time – back to school and back to our regular routines. Above is probably where I’d rather be, suspended in a continual summer of swims at sunset, but all good things must come to an end and I love our regular life too!
The lead up to Christmas is my favourite time of year – I love the sense of anticipation created by this special day. As we begin to feel weary and world worn as another year draws to a close, the hope created by the baby born in the stable so long ago quickens anew. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
I’m sharing these photos from our annual bookclub Christmas party which I host each year. Styling a Christmas table combines a few of my favourite things : Christmas, entertaining and decorating! I like to pick out a theme and decorate with that in mind. This year I was inspired by the seven swans a-swimming from the Christmas carol, The Twelve days of Christmas. The seven swans a-swimming are a reference to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord), which are found in Isaiah 11:1-2.
I am indebted to the very creative people at 
Boy this place was amazing! NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) really got under our skin and we could have parked up and stayed a while. We travelled here from Miami via the swamps and sink holes of Tallahassee (a place which has a pace the Lonely Planet calls “slower than syrup”). We were a little confused and thought this was the place Bobbie Gentry sang about in the famous “Ode to Billie Joe”, but that was actually the Tallahatchie Bridge which we crossed later in our trip through Mississippi.
Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida – is it really the happiest place on earth? I guess it all depends on your perspective. It’s certainly an enchanting place to be, and one where you can leave behind life’s cares and enter into a magical world of make-believe. People generally seem to either love or hate theme parks! As a family, we are definitely in the camp of theme park lovers. There’s something cathartic about parking all the worries of the world for a day and abandoning yourself to the thrills and spills of theme park rides and entertainment.
While we were in Orlando visiting Disneyworld and the Kennedy Space Centre we stayed at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. This added to the experience and was a lot of fun for the kids. Each section of the Resort was themed from a different Disney movie. The section we stayed in was Nemo themed (as was the pool complete with underwater speakers). The Cars themed area was also amazing.
The next stop on our trip was an Airbnb house on the outskirts of Gatlinburg, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains. We spent our time here visiting Cades Cove, a valley containing the remnants of a 19th century settlement. It’s a fascinating place to poke around old churches and farmhouses on hiking trails. It’s part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (America’s most visited national park), which was established in 1934. The park is free, due to a proviso written in its original charter.
More excitement to come – next stop – Disney World!
Our next stop was the beautiful Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. We chose to visit here as it had a great write up in the Lonely Planet Guide and was tucked away in the mountains, off the beaten track. We met some Americans holidaying here, and they were quite amazed that we had managed to travel halfway across the world and to stumble on such a cosy bolthole!
The countryside is spectacular and surprisingly for us West Aussies, very hot and humid in the forest. Back home I spoke to a Canadian who said she really misses the humidity when hiking in Australia – not me, give me dry heat anyday! Flowers which can often be found in our gardens (rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias), grow wild, making for a particularly beautiful hike when they are blooming.
