Friday, 20 April 2012

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to home I go...



*poke!*


Well People of the Blog...I am off to the coast for a few days to visit my family *does happy dance* I will be back on Monday :o) Don't miss me too much ;o)

Just a quick FIY, our lovely little GIVEAWAY has been extended a few days, it turns out it ends whilst I am away and I won't have internet access sooooo I thought I'd give you a few more days to enter! Cool right?! Here's the link: LIIIIIIIIIINK haha  go for it!

Sooo wishing everyone a lovely weekend wherever you may be, have fun and do something quirky!


Til next post...

Thursday, 19 April 2012

Quirky Bean 'Meet the Blogger' Spotlight! Victoria of 'Mommy Made It'


Mommy Made It


"I am a mother and a wife. I have two beautiful daughters whom I get the great privilege to be home with during my days. I am a self-proclaimed craft-a-holic. I have tried everything and loved everything I've tried that helps me "create". I love to read, cook, sew, quilt, and I love sharing all of these passions with my daughters. I try to bake or cook with them at least once per week. I have been married for 10 years to the most incredible man a woman can find. We are perfect mates and he has been such a great supporter of all of my "hobbies". I have an extremely close relationship with my family and it is one of the dearest gifts in my life. I have been blogging for just a little over a year and have become much more active in my blogging efforts over the past few months. I am on the board for my local MOMS Club and I am involved in a leadership role in my MOPS group as well. I teach Sunday School class to our toddlers at my church and love bringing the Word to these young children."

Describe yourself in 5 words - Blessed, Intuitive, Passionate, Engaging, Genuine

Why did you begin blogging? - I began blogging because I love writing and reading as well as sharing bits about myself with anyone who is interested.  I love it when I find a great blogger who provides me with tidbits that I can use in my daily life as a mom and wife and I wanted to and hoped that my writing would prove to be a way for me to give back what I have been blessed with in my life.

What is your all-time absolute favourite food?  I'll have to say my absolute favorite food is Strawberry Shortcake (I have always loved it even when I was a child) and I have perfected a recipe for the shortcake part of the Strawberry Shortcake that is fabulous.  Definitely my favorite!

If you had $1000 to spend on anything in the world, what would you spend it on? If I had $1000 to spend I would purchase a new sewing machine (mine is a nice machine but it's my grandma's and I would love to have a newer model as my primary machine and this one as my backup)  If I had anything left after that, I would stock up on fabric, thread, and other sewing notions.

What was the last book you read? The last book I read was The Hunger Games and I'm in the midst of reading the second book in the series, Catching Fire

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be? It's hard because I would trade places with one of my daughters for sure but I can't think which one.  I have a 6 year old and a 3 year old and I would love to trade places with one of them to get their perspective on my own skills as a mother.  What a better way to learn, than to be the child you are raising.  I think that would prove to be an invaluable experience.

If your life could have a theme song, what would it be and why?
I think the theme song for my life would be one of these two:

"You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban just because the lyrics and the emotion are so powerful in my life and that I would be nothing, have nothing if it were not for His grace.
the other would be:

"You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins because everyday I work to appreciate all that I have in my husband and children, to have the patience to thank God for my blessings rather than complain about my troubles.  I know what a treasure this life is and everyday, I look for the beauty around me and the joy in my children's eyes.

Victoria is the owner of Mommy Made It and an absolute inspiration of a woman!

By the way, "You're Gonna Miss This" is such a beautiful song that I've included it here. It actually bought a tear to my eye, it should be the inspiration for us all to appreciate what we have.

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Fondant Rose Coloured Glasses (and hands!)

Do you have something that you do when you're feeling anxious and stressed? Some way of relaxing yourself when you're tense? I wish I knew my 'thing' that I need to do to be calm when I get that way. You would think after so many years of anxiety and depression I would have developed some kind of coping mechanism...sometimes small things work for a while but then I find the effect wears thin and I need to find something else. I guess that means I haven't found anything truly effective yet! When all else fails, a hot shower and a warm drink usually does the trick, I have even found crochet to be very relaxing for me!

 One thing I do enjoy to settle down a little and calm my nerves is try something new! It gives me something to focus on, and oddly enough instead of frustrating me when I get it wrong the first time round (and that happens more often than not!), I just seem to keep at it then all of a sudden it comes together and I feel so much better! Gives me a sense of accomplishment when everything else seems sort of hopeless.

 So tonight when I found myself feeling particularly stressed and hormonal and awful and just plain tense (no reason...sometimes I just get this way, the hubby is also out thisevening so I don't have my normal comfort cuddles to go to!) I thought I'd have a dig through the pantry in search of some fondant. It's my little sisters' 19th birthday this coming Sunday and hubby and I are making a trip to the coast to see my family. I thought how nice it would be to make some mini rainbow layer cakes with fondant roses with us as a gift! I haven't really made roses before, I tried once with a soft icing sugar mixture but found that wasn't very effective so last shop I made sure I bought some white icing. So I popped a Disney movie on (A Bug's Life, one of my favourites) set about making a right royal mess!

everything is all set up and ready to go!
Im in my element around mess!
Making the petals
Here are my roses in the making! Not too bad for a first attempt!
An awfully grainy self portrait of my somewhat slightly less stressed self!
My lovely pink food dye stained hands!
12 lovely little pink roses!
The excess icing sugar I can dust off later when they've set
I won't make the cupcakes until tomorrow, I don't think my patience would hold out that far tonight! I'm not sure how I'm going to make them yet, or what the end result will be but tomorrow is another day and I'm sure after a good nights' sleep I'll be more willing to tackle the things I need to! Now I'm off for a nice hot shower which will hopefully ease the rest of the nerves that are niggling at me and then it'll be time to settle down under a blanket with some wool and a crochet hook. Dear oh dear my brain (and my hands now!) can be a mess sometimes!! BUT I have learnt a new nifty little skill, it could do with some perfecting but it still feels great to have given it a try :o)




p.s after I finished the roses and was about to go to bed, I decided I wasn't tired and made these too