30 Quilt Blocks in 30 Days for my 30th Birthday!

Okay, I wanted to do 30 days of something to celebrate my upcoming 30th Birthday (it's on November 28th for those of you playing at home) I had all these ideas and then thought why don't I just do something completely outrageous and wild like make 30 Quilt Blocks in 30 DAYS!?!

Note that my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek right now! The only thing wild and outrageous about making 30 quilt blocks in 30 days is the thought that I might actually keep up to date and finish them all!

Anyhow, I'll be posting my updates daily over on Instagram and it would be cool if you wanted to play along. I'll be using the hashtag #30blocksin30days


And here is the list of blocks that I'll be making:

1. Tic Tac Toe by Blossom Heart Quilts
2. Ribbon Star by Fresh Lemon Quilts
3. Another Star Block by Fresh Lemon Quilts
4. Two Colours Star block by Fresh Lemon Quilts
5. Churn Dash Block by Cluck Cluck Sew
6. Patchwork Wheel by Don't Call Me Betsy
7. Be good to your heart block by Diary of a Quilter
8. Disappearing 9 patch block- here's a fab tutorial if you've never made one.
9. Radiant Ring Block by Don't Call Me Betsy
10. Friendship Hexagon Block by Don't Call Me Betsy
11. Divide and Conquer Block by Don't Call Me Betsy
12. Magic 8 Ball by Blossom Heart Quilts 
13. Quatrefoil by Clover & Violet via Blossom Heart Quilts
14. Homebase by Blossom Heart Quilts
15. Another 9 patch because we've hit the halfway mark and I'll need something easy!
16. Starflower Block from Ellison Lane
17. Cross Block Tutorial from Ellison Lane
18. Tic Tac Toe by Blossom Heart Quilts- Yes Again! This block is SO easy to put together
19. Make an improv block- There are no rules it just need to be 12.5 inches unfinished.
20. Economy Block finishing at 12.5 inches unfinished- this post from Cat Bird Quilts has the calculations for this block size. 
21. Sailboat Block from She Can Sew
22. Dutchman's Puzzle from She Can Sew
23. Friendship Star from She Can Sew
24. Snowball block from She Can Sew
25. Rolling Diamonds from Knotty Gnome Crafts
26. Woven block by Sew Happy Geek
27. Churn Dash Block by Cluck Cluck Sew- I know AGAIN, but you could make a churn dash plus block instead...
28. Wonky Star Block- There are two tutes for this one, a vid from Missouri Star Quilt Co and a written tutorial from fibre of all sorts
29. Radiant Ring Block by Don't Call Me Betsy- Yeah, yeah, another repeat. Have you even tried to find 30 blocks that you'd like to make???
30. Birthday Cake block by Fat Quarter Shop! I'll be changing this block a little because I want to make only 12 inch blocks, but it seemed a fitting block for the final day!

And Yippee that's the end. Happy Birthday to ME!


So I'll be kicking this thing off on Thursday the 29th of October so I'll be finished the day before my birthday. I'm trying to be realistic here as I really don't think I'll have time to sew ON my actual birthday so I figure I best plan for that.

So... wish me luck! I think I'm gonna need it.

Around here

So I'm now a mother to a 9 year old, a 7 year old, a 5 year old and a 1 year old! How did that all happen?

We are going through all sorts of behaviour changes and growth spurts at the moment with pretty much all of them so our parenting skills are being tested and we are all changing. It's good and bad because I worry that I am making mistakes with the big one, but I think we are both learning along the way.

It's now school holidays so I'm excited to spend some time with all four kids, and I really do mean that. I love watching them all interact with each other and Darcy sure does enjoy having them all around.

So I best be off because not only is it the first weekend of the school holidays but B's not at work either! So happy Sunday y'all! Hope the weather is nice where you are and you get to spend it doing something you enjoy.

Minecraft Creeper Cupcakes

So Caden turned 9 today, NINE! And of course like most nine year old boys in 2015 he is obsessed with Minecraft and had requested to take some Minecraft cupcakes to school to celebrate his birthday with his classmates.

Well, he made this request and then I promptly forgot about it until the last minute. Yep, bad mum right here. But luckily I had some black and green fondant colouring in the pantry and hubby ran to the shops for me and bought me some roll out fondant. So once I had all the supplies these came together really fast.

I just used a basic chocolate cupcake recipe and this cream cheese icing recipe but omitted the cocoa powder.

Then I made some green icing and dyed the roll out fondant black and followed the steps in this youtube tutorial.


And here is how mine turned out-

They aren't perfect, but the birthday boy liked them and that's all that matters!

Week In Review

Wow, last week was a busy one. It was the last week of school holidays, Mahli's birthday and various appointments thrown in too.

I was always on the move and even though the kids go back to school tomorrow I don't think life is going to slow down just yet.

But since I have been neglecting this here blog since last Monday I thought I would sit down and document that week that was in photo's even if some of them are blurry because the kids took them...

How was your week? 

Seven.

Caden you just turned SEVEN and well, I just cannot believe it. It feels like only yesterday we welcomed you into this world and you made us parents. This past year has certainly been challenging for us all with our big move and you did better than everyone expected you too with the changes we made to all our lives.

This year you;

Lost 4 teeth
Started playing Soccer instead of Rugby League because they don't have league here
Made many new friends
Flew on not one but three aeroplanes- a first for you since you have never been on a plane
Are able to read chapter books
Are able to handle your nerves so much better than ever before
Got invited to take part in your schools gifted and talented program
And so much more

You are now seven and you make your dad and I so very very proud.

Love Mum x

DAVID TUTERA™ Celebrate Cards #Tuteracelebrate

Last month I recieved a rather large box on my doorstep. It was full of the new range of David Tutera Paper Crafts and I was just a little bit excited by this.

I mean look at it all! How could you not be excited by all that? The new range is called DAVID TUTERA™ Celebrate and the system is really easy to use.

It is a 3 step system- So you select your card and then your layer and then your embellishments and away you go.

And I am not joking, it really is so easy-

Okay so this card is for my Father In Law as his birthday is this weekend coming. So I chose a blue base-

Then a white spotted overlay and used a roll on adhesive to stick it down

And now it seems I got distracted and didn't take any photo's of the next step. But it is easy. All you need to do is stick on you embellishments and ta da! You are done!

There is still a tonne of things in the box that I haven't even opened yet, I have been hesitating because it has been school holidays here and I didn't want to share with the kids!

But now that school is back I have some big plans for all of these products. Not only do I see greeting cards in my future, but some other gorgeous paper crafts too!

You know what else is fantastic? You have a chance to win a David Tutera Celebrate prize pack valued at $300! Details are below!

Three lucky winners will receive a $250 grand prize pack of supplies from
David Tutera’s Celebrate cardmaking line AND a personally signed book from David
20 additional winners will receive a $50 Celebrate prize pack!

Sign up here for a chance to win:  http://pages.exacttarget.com/tutera-optin-blog/

If you would like to keep up to date with the goings on of the David Tutera Celebrate line you can find the details below:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DavidTuteraCelebrate
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TuteraCelebrate
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/CoredinationsPaper/videos

The David Tutera Celebrate line is available exclusively through Jo-Ann's:
http://www.joann.com/tuteracelebrate
 
You can also check out a load of other projects made with this fabulous line below.











I am linking up with And Sew We Craft, My Creative Space, Skip to My Lou, Sew Chatty and Ninth Street Notions
Find my post disclosure here.

The Lego Party

Last weekend Caden turned six and we celebrated by having a Lego Themed birthday party with his friends.

The icing on the cake started to melt, but Caden still loved the cake. It is just a sponge cake with marshmallows on top.

 No party is complete with out a pinata!

As you can see from the photo above, Caden got pretty hot and sweaty from running around with his friends.

They played pass the parcel, pin the smile on the lego man, guess how many lego pieces in the jar, what's the time mister wolf, a lego and spoon race, musical statues and lots and lots of running around with a football and a soccer ball.

We have no more kids birthdays until January now. Mahli is already planning it...

Six.

You are six, SIX! I can't believe that it has already been six years since we welcomed you into this world. Just last night your Dad was worrying about your bank account and wanted to know if we were putting enough into it. I reminded him that you were only six and that we had plenty of time before university, buying a car and any other large expense for you. He responded with it, 'yeah, but it feels like only yesterday he was born and now he is SIX'. He then had a bit of a moment. He can't believe you are six either.

You are the best big brother to Mahli and Ethan. You are kind and generous with your time. You are patient (mostly) when they want to play with your toys. And you are always looking out for them. I hope you continue to do so.

I love that you are still generous with your hugs and kisses, even in public. I hope you continue to do that for a long time too. I will never not welcome them with open arms. There will always be a place in me arms for you.

You are doing really well with your school work and we are so proud of you. We understand that you struggle sometimes in the playground with finding someone to play with. It can be scary, I know. And we are working on ways to make it easier for you. It doesn't seem to be from a lack of friends, you have no shortage of those, it seems that the unstructured play and lots of other kids make you nervous. You don't seem to have those problems outside of school, so we hope to work on things to make it better at school too.
 
We love you to the moon and back, Caden. We hope you enjoyed your special day.

{Party Planner} Lego Party

Caden's 6th Birthday is this weekend and we are having a Lego Themed party for him. So this week we have been trying to get things organised for that.

We have been building things with Lego

We've also been working on party bags and trying to figure out what type of games to play to keep a group of about 20-30 kids from the ages of 18 months to 8 years entertained for 3 hours.

These fantastic colouring in books are a printable from Cleo Livin' Life

One game we are planning on having is a guessing game for they kids and they are to guess how many Lego pieces in the jar...

Not sure how well that will go.

We are in the process of making a pin the sword on the lego ninja game. And Caden has requested that we play musical statues.

But do you have any other ideas for us? 

What games do you think we should play? 

Party Planner: A Lego Party

Caden is turning 6 very very soon. At first he requested a Ghost party, and as much as I liked that idea I was kind of hoping that he would choose a Lego Party instead, I have wanted him to have a Lego party since his Cars birthday party last year. I let him go with his Ghost party planning though. He started his guest list and was thinking of games they could play and what type of cake he would like until he spotted me looking at Lego Parties on Pinterest and promptly changed his mind!

So a Lego Party it is! Here are a few of the pins that grabbed his attention-

Source: rootsandwingsco.blogspot.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: flying-high-again0.blogspot.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: pin4fun2813.blogspot.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: partiesandholidays.blogspot.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: blog.amyatlas.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Source: medsbpo.com via Amy- on Pinterest

Do you like planning and preparing birthday parties? 

Weekending...

We headed north this weekend to celebrate one of B's cousins 21st birthday. We did the same trip last year and went up Saturday morning and came home Sunday morning, it was HELL, so this time we decided to go Friday afternoon and have two nights at one of B's Aunties houses. The kids had a ball! And we both enjoyed watching them play with some extended family that they hardly ever see.

The party itself was just gorgeous. The decorations were fantastic and well I think there were more decorations than we had at our wedding!

The trip home was painful though. I am so sick of the whole 'Are we there yet?' and the various sentences to that effect!

All in all we had a fantastic weekend and I think we need to do it more often!

How was your weekend?