wordless wednesday..

joining in with
faith hope and a whole lotta love..


xx
kasia

{week-a-boo} point + shoot..

Another weekend now over.. we had a nice assortment of weather ranging from hot hot hot to muggy to showers to downpours to quite a chilly night.. I'm not a lover of HOT weather and especially when its muggy so I tried to pack the weekend full of things to take my mind off the heat..

Here is a point+shoot edition of our weekend adventures..

the little girl who was once terrified of dogs.. 

a visit to the west end brewery christmas display..

more of the brewery chrissy display.. 

it was hot.. what better way to cool off then in the nud in a clam shell.. 

my little picasso.. decorating the temporary outdoor partition with chalk.. 

i'm not tired mum.. i don't want to sleep.. sucker!!

weekly family concert for mumma.. xx

mummy found cherry dr pepper in our local foodland...
mmmm.. i normally don't give into fizzies..
but cherry dr pepper.. come on.. 

mums group christmas party.. love my mummy group girls!!

the kiddo's at the party.. 

zaccy made a new friend.. 

love sleeping feet.. they're so peaceful and quiet.. 

have a sneak peak into some other weekends here.. 

more point+shoot weekend pics here.. 

kiddy art.. hanmade wrapping paper..

The advent calendar is out.. The house is looking more and more christmassy.. meaning that once my birthday has gone, our christmas tree goes up..

We've been busy making wrapping paper with the kids.. such a simple concept.. paint on large pieces of paper, dry, wrap and bingo.. but such a gorgeous and personal result..

what are your gorgeous monkeys up to?

are you getting into the christmas spirit?

here are a couple of links to christmas projects you can do with your kids

Scissors Paper Rock - Gift Tags

Seven Cherubs - Cheap Christmas Crafts

Tree Top Angel

Christmas Photo Stars

Christmas Foam Stamp

Box of Love

see you next week with some other ideas.. 

feel free to share any other links to kids craft you've come across

this linky is open all week so no hurry here.. 

have a great week.. 

today i am grateful for.. sunrises..

this week I am so extremely grateful for beautiful sunrises.. they make the 5am zaccy inflicted wakeups so much nicer..

we've had 4 this week so mumma is somewhat tired.. but I've got some sweeet pics..


joining in with maxabellaloves blog..


xx
kasia

one more sleep..

I think I am as excited about tomorrow as all the kids in the world are about Santa coming to town... 

tomorrow 

4th of December is the official launch of 

handmade living – a designer collective

I was lucky enough to have a small selection of kasiabear's goodies included in the book and I am just itching to see a copy myself.. hopefully the postie isn't delayed by all the christmas mail and delivers mine early in the week.. 


handmade living – a designer collective is a unique and beautiful hardcover book showcasing the talents of handmade designers, artisans and craftspeople from all over Australia. Unique in its design, the book features over 70 gorgeous projects and inspirational ideas that both showcase this local talent and offer readers of all handmade levels the opportunity to create something whimsically precious and simply wonderful.

Created under the umbrella of Handmade Canberra, the book is another feather in Handmade’s cap, along with its phenomenally successful quarterly market and retail store in the heart of the nation’s capital.

For Australian designers, the book is a wonderful vehicle to promote and market their amazing products and ideas, broadening their scope and (for many) meeting a far greater audience than they could ordinarily achieve. As many of our best handmade talent is based around cottage industry, handmade living. is a priceless way to help give these businesses the vital exposure they need.

Combined with gorgeous handmade projects and inspirational ideas the reader will love, handmade living. is quite unlike any other book published in Australia today. Handmade Canberra has been thrilled to work with designers on this book, and continues to pride itself on supporting home-grown handmade talent.

This book would make a gorgeous christmas gift.. go to handmadecanberra.com.au for more details..

Handmade living – a designer collective

by Tania McCartney, with Julie Nichols

Illustrations by Tina Snerling

Handmade Press (2010)

ISBN: 9780980475043

AU$39.95 RRP

Release date: 4 December 2010, available around Australia from 6 December

Contact details: handmadecanberra.com.au

Book Distributor: Dennis Jones & Associates, contact: Jeff Higgins jeff.higgins.dja@gmail.com

Available: At Handmade Market Canberra on Saturday 4 December 2010. At Shop Handmade Canberra and in bookstores Australia-wide from Monday 6 December 2010.

wordless wednesday.. a perfectly ordinary day..

more wordless wednesday over at

faith hope and a whole lotta love

happy wednesday.. 

a little bit of sharing..

a couple of gorgeous treasuries kasiabear has been featured in this week.. 

view live page here.. 

view live page here.. 

{week-a-boo} a sneak peak into our weekend..

OK.. this week I'm really quite sad that the weekend is over.. It was a perfectly balanced weekend of work, rest and play..

Saturday we all got up early and with a big teamwork effort the housework was done and dusted by 8am. We then headed off as a family to the kids childcare centre for our annual family photo session.. The photographer was a bit odd to say the least but hopefully he managed to capture some of our family essence in a photograph. I will most certainly be hunting down the lovely girl that did our photos last year. Never the less it was fun and a big tick off the to-do list.

Daddy-O headed off to do a little bit of work and I took the kids down to our local shopping centre to visit Santa.. No tears, only minor tantrum from Master Zac when having to go back into the pram and a gorgeous photo with Santa.. We then had some lunch.. mumma got to eat sushi.. and then back home so the little man could have a rest.

a pic from my iPhone.. 

Miss Ella and I decorated the two little trees we have on our front verandah with solar fairy lights, built a shoe stand (from ikea of course) for the back door and tidied the verandah.. Then it was good old hang out time with the kiddo's. No fighting just playing, which was lovely for a change.

Sunday morning we headed off to one of my favourite playgrounds to have a teeny tiny thanksgiving celebration with some friends..

i think zaccy is carving his first 'i heart' message in a tree.. 

Master Zaccy had a looong nap when we got home, so we all just chilled out and relaxed.. both mumma and daddy-o got to sneak in a cat-nap too. 

We then tackled the beast that lived in the front yard as a family.. I kind of grew to like if not love our little weed forest as it provided me with an endless supply of photo opportunities, but it really had to go. We have amazing neighbours but I'm sure even they would have been a little, if not a lot, grumpy if we had left it as it was over the holiday season.. We managed to finish the job with a lot of laughs in between.. super bonus!!

zaccy and ella did a little bit of face painting
while mum and dad weren't looking.. 

camo hunky.. 

mud painting..
and painted the house.. 

Still sad that the weekend is over as it was such a lovely family weekend.. productive and fun with a hint of rest.. but I am so incredibly grateful that we had it.. and look forward to having many more like this. I really could write lots and lots more but I think the warm fuzzy feeling in my heart is good enough for me on this Monday morning.. 

see what others are grateful for over at Maxabella's blog.. 

have a sneak peak into other weekends at Scissors Paper Rock's blog.. 

and have a look at some other point + shoot at the Fat Mum Slim blog.. 

some stories don't 

have a clear beginning, 

middle, and end. 

life is about not knowing, 

having to change, 

taking the moment and 

making the best of it, 

without knowing what's 

going to happen next.

delicious ambiguity

~ gilda radner ~

have a wonderful week 

and 

Happy Monday!!

shadow shoot sunday..

sunday, 28 november 2010
a glorious day at the park.. adelaide..

joining in with hey harriet's shadow shoot sunday.. 

kiddy art..

I completely missed {kiddy art..} last week.. my sincere apologies.. We had another big week of ticking off things off that to-do list which after this weekend I must say is looking much more achievable..

Totally and utterly loving Ella's drawings at the moment.. from top left..
~ the sun ~ daddy ~ daddy's van ~ daddy in detail

The kiddo's have been into the blackboard wall lately.. a lovely relief from cleaning up paint continuously.. and some amazing artwork has been created.. it's just a matter of getting a photo quickly enough before the duster or cloth comes out..

We've also started on some christmas decorations that need to be photographed.. stay tuned..

What have your kiddo's been up to in the art department this week?? Do you have any great ideas for Christmas crafts?? 

Join in with your kids artwork.. links to kids art ideas or anything creative thats happening in your kids world.. 

thanksgiving part one..

First and foremost... Happy Thanksgiving!!

Being an Australian with a Polish heritage, I'm probably the last one that should be celebrating this day, but I do each and every year since meeting Mr Right. I imported this little gem to Australia almost a decade ago after living with him in the states for a little while. I got to experience a real thanksgiving only once unfortunately but fell in love with the whole concept and tradition and reason behind it right there and then. 

We spent the day with the big boys family and everyone bought a dish along to share.. I got to eat food's I never knew existed.. such as 'yams' (aka sweet potato) the American way with melted marshmallows on top.. yea.. you heard me right. This was sooo not the highlight, I did try to imitate this dish the year after in Australia but that was the first and last time.. sorry.. this one just does not work for me. One dish that I did fall in lurve with was the good old pumpkin pie.. oh my, oh my.. did I fall in LUUURRRVE!! 

Over the years I've mastered this little dish from getting the spices perfectly balanced, using just the perfect amount of sugar and everything just perfect. I even do the pastry shell myself from scratch... I could so justify putting on a kilo just to be able to indulge in this amazing creature of a dessert each year. 

Sadly.. oh so sadly.. our oven has shat itself the other week and this year there is not going to be the bestest dessert ever to hit this planet made by me.. but there just can't be a thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.. it's just not right..

Thankfully, we always defer thanksgiving to the following weekend as we don't get the day off here.. and what's a thanksgiving without the people that make you smile.. So this year I am attempting what could end up as a shameful misinterpretation of the amazing thing that is the pumpkin pie.. a non cooked version.. So today I played around and tested the available pre-made goodies around.. using banana at this stage.. so here goes.. 

kasiabear's 

simple banana caramel volauvents.. 

ingredients:
ready made volauvent shells
ready made whipped cream
two bananas
can of caramel top'n'fill




directions:
mush banana
stir through caramel top'n'fill
fill the volauvents
chill for about an hour or so.. more if you can..


top with ready made whipped cream and devour..


and oh my.. we had these little devils tonight and they are sooo ridiculously bad in a good way.. have fun with them!!
sorry emma.. i just had to join in with this one.. i know its not dinner.. but if you use a big volauvent then you probably shouldn't eat dinner.. 
check out some easy peasy dinners here.. they're much healthy than this.. 

wordless wednesday..

more wordless wednesday here.. 

{week-a-boo} point + shoot..

Yet another weekend has came and gone.. and what a glorious weekend it was..

Saturday at our place was pretty much run of the mill.. washing, cleaning and a good dose of fresh air in our back yard.. I didn't have a lot on the 'must-do list' this weekend so I just soaked up my kids.

You may have noticed a new little button pop up on the side bar last week.. Well its official.. after months of loitering around the Sunny Mummy website I given in and joined up to be a Sunny Mummy myself. I've been neglecting myself a little of late and have been very focussed on ticking things off the to-do list and I've been head down and bum up as far as kasiabear designs go. The kids have been well looked after and so has the house but I haven't looked after the captain of this ship.. 'me'..

I saw this little clip on seven cherubs.. one of my favourite blogs last week and again this week over at SPR.. I fell in love with it last week and have watched it most evenings before going to bed..

(please take a moment to have a look.. its so incredibly worth it..)

I love our ordinary days and always have. I always try to remember to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, and I do notice the amazing things that happen in our ordinary days and log them into my memory and try to photograph them.. but I've been a tired mummy and have overlooked at how incredibly tired I really have been.. I stopped seeing the positive side of everything like I normally do, I stopped chuckling to myself, while in a stern voice telling the kids not to draw on each other or run around the house doing a nudie run..

So on Sunday I decided to take care of my children's mummy and have a little me time. A baby shower was already on the cards, so I headed off in my little buzz box listening to the beautiful Beth Orton. I caught up with a handful of my girlfriends, got to soak my feet (as it was a bodyshop foot fantasy party) and ate cheesecake. I then headed off to another friends place and we went down to the beach with her little pup.. had dinner and a quick stroll on the beach.. I got home and opened the door to an at last you're home look on three faces.. I proceeded to put Zaccy to bed followed by Ella and chilled out for the rest of the evening by myself, as hubby had to take off to take care of a work emergency..

It's incredible how rejuvenated I felt this morning even after yet another night of broken sleep.. one day I'll have a block of sleep that lasts longer than 3 hours, and I really don't mind when that is.. I'm sure it will creep up on me and I'll be missing those midnight cuddles with my little man and I'll miss turning over in bed to find Ella snuggled in between my husband and I.. I'll miss chuckling at two little nudies running around the house like mad giggling their little heads off..

It didn't take a lot of effort, just a day out being me and I'm back.. ready to take on the mummy role yet again and overlook how tired I am and soak up all the glorious things that happen in our each and every day..

more week-a-boo here..
more point + shoot here..

this week i am grateful for..

This week I am grateful for..

~ 

the constant chitter chatter between my two little monkeys..

~ 

the strength my little girl gave me when visiting our local doctor to get zaccy's stitches out.. 

~ 

ice cream on hot days

~

 lactose free yoghurt.. so my little man can enjoy yoghurt too..

~

my ability to overlook the amount of pink that is making its way into our household and enjoy the smiles that it puts on ella's little face instead.. 

~ 

coffee.. i don't think a week goes without me being grateful for the person who decided to grind up coffee beans and make coffee.. 

~ 

money boxes.. hours of entertainment as the kids pop coins into them through the little slot.. come to me and ask for it to be emptied again so they can repeat the process.. 

a little bit of saturday sharing..

Wow.. christmas is creeping up so incredibly fast and there are gift guides popping up everywhere I look, our letterbox is getting packed with junk mail, my email inbox is being bombarded by gift guides, christmas offers and discounts etc etc.. its all happening..

I am very relieved to say that gift shopping as far as the kids are concerned is well and truly done and dusted.. I'm even contemplating starting to wrap things slowly when their little eyes are closed and they are tucked into their bed..

There are a few more little gifts I have to gather though and I've decided to stick to online shopping and to the world of handmade.. kasiabear has been featured in a number of treasuries over the last week.. so I've joined in and made a couple of shopping guides too..

here are my two collections..

live page here.. 

live page here.. 

and here are the treasuries kasiabear has been featured in.. lots of lovely kids items as well as for us big ones out there..

all i want for christmas is a pony

children's holiday gift guide under $25

luxurious cranberry red

hello sunshine.. christmas in summer down under

perfect purple picks

pink, green and brown

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely weekend.. 

get into the christmas shopping early and avoid the rush.. 

also don't forget to get your overseas online orders in soon to ensure you receive the goodies before christmas..