a Bloomsbury mood...

the lovely Mel from Styled Canvas had a Moodboard challenge this month  over on her blog.
Of course I had to give it a go.

I used to really enjoy collecting clippings of  inspiring fashion images - fashion layouts are like beautiful visual stories...so much thought into each look and image...
a collaboration between creatives!
lately for me its all about interiors and ideas for our new home
so it was nice to go through what I had on hand and create this moodboard...

some quiet time, a strong cup of tea and magazine clippings...
Enjoyable!

Smoothie showdown

Neo and I had a great time in the kitchen this afternoon!  We made not one, but two, different smoothies and thought it would be interesting to taste and rate...I found two recipes on Pinterest - one that was considerably healthy and one that was on calorie overload, serious stuff!
Neo couldn't wait to help but I think his idea of helping was eating...ha-ha it got messy!  We saved a glass for Peter who came home an hour later and my niece stopped by as well so we gave her a taste too and made her rate our creations...

Smoothie 1.
Healthy 'Banana Cream Pie'
2 bananas (frozen for an hour or two...)
1 cup vanilla yoghurt
good pinch of cinnamon
good splash of vanilla essence
1 cup almond milk
Blitz it all up until thick and creamy.
Serve with crushed biscuit (optional) and whipped cream (optional)

Average score out of ten.
Flavor 6.25
Texture 5.5
Smell 5.6 (only 3 of us scored this as my niece had a blocked nose...)
Satisfaction 6.75

I scored this quite high actually as it was a really yummy smoothie, the kids were really tough on this one

Next up we have the wicked smoothie...the real deal!
Smoothie2.  
Salty Pretzel and Chocolate Fudge Milkshake with Nutella and Malted whipped cream...phew!

Chocolate Fudge sauce:
150g dark chocolate
1/2 cup thick cream
2 Tblspns Brown sugar
splash of vanilla ess
Heat over a medium stove until thick and gooey - drizzle all over the inside of your serving glasses...
Milkshake:
1/4 cup pretzels - crushed
3/4 cup vanilla icecream
1/3 cup Nutella
1/2 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Blitz it all up until thick and creamy.
Whip 1/2 cup thick cream until stiff and add 1 Tablespoon malted milk powder and some vanilla essence.  Fold gently.  Top the Milkshake with the Whipped malted cream and drizzle more of the chocolate Fudge sauce.
Enjoy!

Score for this indulgent smoothie...(yes it was a huge hit with the kids but no surprise there...)
Average
Flavour  8.5
Texture 7
Smell 8.6
Satisfaction 9

so I hope you liked our little Smoothie showdown...

7 Vignettes challenge - November 2013

I took part in the November '7Vignettes' challenge, hosted by Jen and guest judged by the lovely Jayde of 'Little Paper Lane'   - I always seem to stumble across them at the last minute so my Vignettes are always put together so quickly...but its so fun and a great chance to play around with things I already have at home plus its a great way to meet super creative Instagram-ers, some of the entries blow my mind!
The winner this month was Galina  - just gorgeous!
Here are my entries below for the challenges.
Day 1 - Holiday (bon Voyage!)  * Day 2 - Stack (in my kitchen) * Day 3 - Hanging (on my home desk)
Day 4 - Recipe (afternoon snack) * Day 5 - Soft (pastel colours) * Day 6 - Reflective (my hallway)* Day 7 - Paper (love papergoods!)

Creative collaboration

During the recent Blogsociety event, Sally, Suzanne and I were chatting how we hardly find time to work on personal projects or to just create, experiment and play with our crafty tools – no restrictions, no boundaries – just inspiration!

…and so an idea was planned and a little collaboration discussed!!

Sally put together a colour story on her blog ( you can see it here ) and this was a prompt for me to create something - she did warn me that Id find the colours a little tricky since she knows I love soft, muted tones.

I started...and stopped - stuck! Suzanne suggested I was thinking about it too much and she was right so I then delved into my box of vintage papers and set out to create a collage.

Inspired by Randel Plowman and his wonderful wonderful book 'The Collage Workbook', I used one of his techniques and this is what I made...

I then cut the collage in half and created two Greeting cards... Paris vs Australia!
What do you think?  too safe?
too boring?  too weird looking? ...its funny that it still has a soft tones even though the chosen colours are quite bright?...anyway it was fun to play with paper!
Suzanne - you're next!!!

Vignettes challenge - Round 3!

....so I wasn't sure if I should join the third round of the Vignettes challenge over at instagram - we are leaving for our 3week vacation on Friday, and I should be ticking off my 'to do' list, I should be packing, clearing out the fridge and getting my life in order before our escape....

....couldnt help myself!

Challenge 4 - Colour Palette

Blue, Pink and a touch of Silver....

you can see all my Vignettes here 

Embellish Color Trends Challenge
I adore Tina's blog, Travelingmama - not only does Tina share wonderful snippets of her family life and travels, she creates beautiful cards and journal layouts too!
I love her style!
I wanted to take part in the 'Embellish challenge' that Tina hosts on her blog.

Here are the colours for the challenge  - Green, Gray, Brown and Black.

and here is the card I created using this as inspiration  - the 'Paint' I used was a few splatters of brown (made with strong espresso coffee...)
I wanted it simple and not too fussy and I wanted to showcase the 'found' photo of the lovebirds....
You can see the close up of the photo below.

How do you feel about found  photos? Do you like to buy (or as I say, rescue....) them at flea markets...
Do you get sad that families have had their beloved photos abandoned?

Looking at this photo I wonder if its her father, brother or lover?? its very hard to tell....there's even another girl in the background? a love triangle perhaps?
who knows?

Embellish Magazine Challenge - Leaves
Ive been eyeing the Embellish Magazine Challenges over at Travelingmama blog so thought Id give it a try

...this weekend was perfect as our internet was down for two days so I got some crafting done!

Yayyy to that!

the challenge was to use the colours in the photo and to incorporate some 'Leaves' in your card.

to see more head on over to Embellish Magazine