10 years young!

and i'm not sure how we stayed sane packing in all that we have....but I wouldn't swap it for the world! So blessed to have 2 adorable tamariki and a wonderful husband to share life's ups and downs...
So we are off to the movies and out to dinner for Mexican to celebrate, whilst the kiddies are having a sleepover at Grannie and Grandads...

Never did like wearing white, so i went with bronze...

cows behaving themselves for this shot

And here are some of the pics from our gloriously happy day at Mt Hutt Retreat, just 10 short years ago...

ummm....what can i say?!?!?

Rakaia river bed with clouds gathering in the distance

some of our friends and whanau sending happy thoughts our way

A beautiful spot looking up to mt hutt for our ceremony

2 little forest faeries friends..

the start of our journey as Mrs and Mr!

 Awesome to look back 10yrs...Had so much fun creating my wedding dress and the forest faerie outfits.  A perfect, fun filled day - and now 10 crazy, adventurous, challenging, fufilling years on with 2 beautiful, amazing kids along for the ride....

a random pic of fireworks at the pier this week...

A much needed breath of fresh creative air

I finally got to run a workshop - and it was an upcycling workshop - my favourite type!

It was sooooo much fun - partly because it has been such a long process to finally run a workshop.  My first few contacts for running workshops sounded promising, but fell through - which was quite hard to recover from - hence the gap in my posts of late.  Suffice to say its been a really tough month of soul searching, general confusion and angst...
However Saturday's workshop was a breath of fresh, creative air.  My brief was to help people find op shop clothes and transform them into costumes for the Lyttelton Projects Festival of Lights Parade next week.
A perfect situation of the op shop being down stairs and the workshop room upstairs.  After a few trips we were ready to start.
Check out the lovely Sacha - she has always wanted her own tutu, so we set to work.  One girls raincoat, two woman's dresses,  a cosmetic bag and soft toy later, and she was all set to rock the parade in her tutu.  And if it rains her tutu is waterproof, so she won't get wet legs!

isn't the wee softie cute!

some ties attach the cosmetic bag around her waist for a hand pocket

awwww!

my trusty elna supermatic finally getting some action!

So that was one of the lovely outfits upcycled from opshop treasures. It was such a privilege to be part of Sacha's exciting upcycling learning curve -and so cool to see someone so happy with their creation!

My little princess is turning 7

Finding this cushion for 50c, in the Dogwatch Opportunity  shop, I almost didn't buy it.  Stained and dated, it looked quite miserable amongst its discarded buddies.   But something made me go back for a second look.  It was duly paid for and stashed away for a year or so in my 'pile of potential projects' (popp's).

 thrifted frilly pillow about to get a makeover

With Gracie's 7th birthday approaching, I re-discovered it, whilst rifling through my popp's.  Miss nearly 7 had spotted the tinkerbell fabric on one of our fabric shop excursions....Me being partial to fairies, let her have it.  I then went back and matched it with some gorgeously soft chenille minky spot fabric (which i have to admit, i have spent quite some time stroking!)  Gracie also finds soft fabric irresistible  and when she first started talking, would call anything soft 'duggy'.  Which i think was her version of 'cuddly'. After washing, removing the frill, tracing the shape and sewing it up, Gracie now has a cute wee pillow with 'duggy' backing.

 She proudly took it to show and tell at school  (I think that discarded cushion would be the envy of its opshop buddies now!)
On tucking her in after a fun-filled day, I found she was sleeping on her new heart cushion - her cheek snuggled into her 'duggy' fabric. :)
So it was time to whip up her birthday cake - carrot cake with pink cream cheese icing and a rainbow, was my design brief, so this is what I came up with:

Gracie's Birthday cake

I think I fufilled the design brief ok!  Lucky Gracie is having a family party and a school friends party this year - to make up for her meant to be special 5th birthday, which was rudely interrupted by earthquakes.  So I will have 2 opportunities to play with rainbow designed cakes...Will post up my second attempt too.  :)