tacklehug

Spidercakes

2011-10-23T03:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not into Halloween at all, especially kids who knock on the door, not even dressed up, expecting a treat! It's really not an Australian "thing" and we certainly haven't encouraged our kids to make a big fuss of it. That said, these are possibly the coolest looking spiders I have ever seen, discovered here at Not Martha.
I just might have to try this next weekend to give the kids a thrill for a dessert treat!

Art Attack of the Giant Icecreams!!!

2011-10-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

The sunshine came out for a wonderful art class today. Many thanks to Ms A who let us use her beautiful backyard to create our monster icecreams. As you can see, the sparkles and jewels were completely overdone and demands for MORE GLITTER PLEASE were hard to keep up with! In the end, some delicious icecream combinations were created! I really think Master B should have stuck with his original plan of squished worm icecream.

Happy Birthday to Master W, the cupcakes were a complete hit.

3 year old with scissors, cutting skills were supreme! Amazing Miss I.

I was blown away that these 4, 5 and 6 year olds knew which primary colours to mix to make green and orange. Wonderful.

Hooray for some real icecream. Just because they hadn't had enough sugar.......sorry mums, dads and nannys!

All in all, a great session, the children were really well behaved and I hope they all had a bit of fun.

Dawn Tan Icecreams!

2011-09-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Since reading Frankie magazine I have discovered an amazing artist by the name of Dawn Tan. I have contacted Dawn to ask permission to use this wonderful Giant Icecream idea in some of my own art classes, and as she said Yes! Hooray!! (Thank you SO much Dawn).

I have tried it out on Charlie and Sam. They absolutely LOVED making their giant banana, caramel and choc chip (with sparkly star topping) icecream. Only problem is, it doesn't taste too good. I'm running some holiday classes and may just incorporate this idea into the lessons! If it's sunny, I'll have to remember to bring some real icecream and cones to eat while the paint is drying. Shhh, don't tell the kids, or the mums and dads for that matter!
I really loved Charlie's idea of making it drip in the summer sun! Here is the finished product:

Yummmo, almost good enought to eat!

Lettuce, Leek and Celery

2011-08-06T03:55:00.000-07:00

Our lettuce, leek and celery, all growing so well in our little patch. The lettuce has been abundant, and the celery looks so good I almost don't want to pick it! The leeks are also growing well. We have just been given a whole lot of strawberries and some more carrots which also seem to be happy!

Sunflowers and Smiles

2011-08-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

My boys in the vegie garden, thrilled that Charlie's sunflowers are taller than them all! While Gracie looks on quietly from the security of the cubby house!...

Sam's 4th birthday

2011-03-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

We survived Sam's birthday party last Saturday, complete with 12 home made hobby horses for the kids to play with. I found this amazing blog last week, and was inspired to do something similar, check out Hetty's (lightbluegrey blog) horses (complete with other fantastic ideas) here. It was nice to make an effort for our little 4 year old as he has missed out on having a big fuss made of him over the last few years due to moving house and last year the twins were only a few weeks old at this stage. So it was Sam's turn to take centre stage and he and his lovely friends had a ball in the back yard with a few traditional games thrown in too. The horses were a big hit as was the "treasure hunt" to find them, we asked my sister to hide them around the backyard while pass the parcel was in progress, then the kids were told about 12 hiding horses in the backyard which they had to find!!! Madness and mayhem followed, with much excitement also and luckily the imaginative hiding places were all discovered and the kids went galloping off!

We are also blessed to have the best next door neighbour who can facepaint!!! Thanks to the lovely Vikki who met every 4 year old demand that was thrown her way.

Miss E feeding her horse some lunch.

Happy 1st Birthday Beautiful Babies!

2011-03-03T04:43:00.000-08:00

Happy First Birthday my beautiful babies! Two little wise owls are here to help us celebrate with you on your special day. xxxxxxxx mum-mum

3 little poppets

2011-03-03T04:39:00.000-08:00

Another 3 dolls posted off to Queensland to 3 beautiful sisters. I do hope they love them.

Crotchet Rug for the twins

2011-03-03T04:25:00.000-08:00

Finally I have begun to learn how to crotchet! With thanks to my lovely Nanna, who is patiently teaching me the craft. These are my very first squares and I plan to make enough for two rugs before winter arrives: one for Grace with white joins and one for Oli with grey joins. So far I have almost finished 20 squares, I think I'll need 160! Oh dear, maybe I should aim for Winter 2012.....stay tuned!

Here is Nanna with Grace, who was in fine "stare bear" form and gave Nanna the giggles as she was completely outstared on this morning.

It was so lovely that Grace was not only happy to be held by Nanna but was really really enjoying the bond as she never, ever, ever is happy to be held by anyone outside me, Rex, mum, dad and my sister. Nanna has always had the touch, and still does!

circus party

2011-02-12T15:14:00.000-08:00

A reader has recently asked for some help with a Circus themed party, so here it is...

An old Donna Hay magazine, which I got the idea for clown cupcakes for Charlie's 4th Birthday party.

I didn't go to this extreme, but the design of the cake looks quite simple but very effective. The flags here look like they have been made from icing, I don't think I'd be that game, I'd simply make some from paper, stick the flag shapes onto a skewer and insert it into the middle of the cake.

Here are the instructions:

The cupcakes were really quite simple, some coloured popcorn for hair, a jaffa for a nose, snake for a smile and some licorice strips for the eyes!

Decorations included plenty of spots and stripes and loads of bunting.

The other nice idea I have seen is some lolly bags made from red and white striped "popcorn style" bags.

I hope this all helps you Fleur, good luck!!!

Clowning around

2011-02-12T03:55:00.001-08:00

outdoor inspiration

2010-12-28T02:49:00.000-08:00

Love these miniature japanese garden sculputres found here, I would love to commission someone to do some large ones like these for our garden, carved from different woods or even sandstone.

Love this inspirational outdoor area from heavenishere blog, would be lovely to personalise an area of our garden with certain letters. Mmmmmm, will keep my eyes open for some extra large letters, the children would love to have their initials permanently in the ground!

Bucket Baths and Best Friends

2010-12-02T04:21:00.000-08:00

The last week has been a challenge, with 4 children and 3 adults packed into the Hyundi IMax (the fun bus, I think not), on the road trip from Sydney to Adelaide. Loving the buckets given to us by The Pretty Ladies back in the 'rith when the twins were born: can't explain how many uses they have had, the latest being a bathtub whilst on the road. Boring old baths are never this much fun.
Also loving catching up with my gorgeous niece Lizey Lou, and her dog Bonnie. I love this photo of a casual "you're my best mate hug" (even better that Lizey is cuddling up to a Tacklehug product!) Eliza is a crack up, she named her first Tacklehug Doll "Nikky" and when she was given her second, after much deep thought she named her "Nikky-kai-yay" Goodness knows where that one came from! Now we have safely arrived back in Adelaide, glad to have survived the onslaught of locusts and a little bit sad that dad couldn't quite avoid the massive goanna that decided to catch some rays on the Sturt Highway. Sorry Anna Goanna. RIP.
Also very happy to have made an etsy sale amidst this chaos. Batman and Robin are on their way to the United States very soon. I will make a public promise here to do more housekeeping on my etsy site and try try try much harder to get some more products up soon.
Aaahhhh, Hello Adelaide. Nice to be here again.

My little drummer boy

2010-12-02T04:04:00.000-08:00

Our last week in the Blue Mountains was spent madly trying to pack boxes, buy/make christmas/farewell/birthday gifts and holding our last Ticklebug/Tacklehug market stall at the Glenbrook Rotary Markets. However, the absolute highlight of the week was being able to attend a rehearsal for the boy's Christmas Concert at pre-school. The lovely staff included the boys for this performance as they were not able to make concert week due to our move interstate. Sammy bought tears to my eyes as the Drummer Boy - a role which he took very seriously and Charlie shone as Joseph for the performance (very biased, I know!) My camera doesn't seem to work too well indoors, but I love this photo of my little man, as it seems to capture the concentration it takes to keep the beat to "rumpa pum pum"

A little decadent perhaps?

2010-10-02T05:37:00.000-07:00

I am in love with this packaging, perhaps it's a little excessive just for a single cupcake, but a little decadence every now and then is fine I'm sure. Found it here when researching a fantastic little machine which cuts amazingly fine shapes from all sorts of papers, vinyls and more!

Colouring journal

2010-09-23T22:46:00.001-07:00

Just for mum and nanna!

2010-09-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

It's such a lovely warm spring day today, so we spent the morning in the park. Now the big boys are off downstairs to jump through the sprinkler! Stay tuned for photos!

Milayna and Sydney

2010-09-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Sydney, the snow bunny with her pet rabbit in her pocket.

Milayna, complete with horseshoe in her pocket!

W is for Wabbit

2010-09-17T04:29:00.001-07:00

Love this bunny! Perhaps something to do with our boxes for next Easter! Check out this for more inspiration.

rattle and roll

2010-09-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

A happy customer with his new rattle. Oli is now rolling all around the place when he is released from the stroller so it's rather lovely when he is just happy to sit and play with his new toy!

Originally made for our stall this weekend at Rainbow Pre School, Winmalee but I think these will have to be prototypes as I am trying to get some better wooden rings to use instead of these - these are just curtain rings but haven't been sealed with beeswax or linseed oil and I don't know the type of wood used so best keep them as displays or rattles only!

more great cakes...

2010-08-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

find this here. I love the subtle colours, it works well with the natural colour of the cones, how lovely! Maybe Eliza would love this for her 4th birthday Mary-Lou?!!

Great cakes!

2010-08-26T03:15:00.000-07:00

OK, so now I'm getting carried away in dreamland. I have so much to do right now but seem to be stuck in my chair wandering aimlessly through some of the most gorgeous blogs out there. This cake is from handmade charlottes blog and I am completely going to steal this idea for the twins 1st birthday next year! Except there will be 2 owls of course! I couldn't convince the boys to have an owl cake, they are far too preoccupied with the idea of superheroes at the moment. G and O will be thrilled I'm sure.

I'm in love with Maan clothing for kids

2010-08-26T03:08:00.000-07:00

This is SO how my children will dress (in my dreams) Check out elias and grace for the coolest kids looks. If only postage didn't cost SO SO much. Where are you Australian stockists???

Gracie

2010-08-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

Gracie, trying hard to sell her home made fresh cider! ~~Available here!~~

holy smoke!

2010-08-24T22:40:00.000-07:00

Batman and Robin dolls available on Etsy!