Rasberry

i love chocolate dipped strawberries

do you...

not sure about your thoughts on this but the strawberries are not that great at the moment - ok i do agree am buying them out of season....

so i purchased a punnet and they were not very sweet so we decided to dip them in chocolate

i keep chocolate melts in my kitchen cupboard as a staple (very handy pantry item) and i melt them in the microwave (i doubt this is recommended by all those cooking books i have on my bookshelf)

ohh so happy with the outcome

 
 
 
i did have some chocolate left over so we decided to make hot chocolates which I made by pouring the melted chocolate in a glass and then filling it with frothed milk..

 

 

create a birthday invite and coordinated party banner

this is so cute - and it was created by the very talented Teresa Abajo who has just come on board onto our design team

i love the use of a "bunting" style on the invite

 

 

enjoy

recycled children's books at a gorgeous second-hand book store

I was recently in Tasmania - Hobart actually.  We flew in for a couple of days.  You can do that when it's Tassie - firstly its only a 1 hour flight and then to get anyway takes about 10 mins. 

I spent Saturday perusing through the shops in Salamanca.  I love this area - its lined with beautiful old stone buildings and has the most interesting shops.  One in particular is an absolute favourite of -

De Ja Vu Books

 

I love sitting on the floor and just going through the books.  My favourite is the Children's book section - reminds me a little of when I was a kid - the old covers and of course the messages inside (as was the case - people wrote little messages when they gave the book to someone)

Here's a couple of our finds

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Win $100 worth of Rasberry products

We are running a little competition over on our facebook page so I thought I should share that with you all

you can win this prize - its worth $100 - to win become a facebook fan or recommend Rasberry to friends and leave a comment telling us about it

go to our facebook page

 

Prize includes:

You will get 2 packs 12x12 papers (7 sheets per pack), 2 packs of 8x8 papers (10 sheets per pack), 10 sheets of cardstock, 3 rubons, 2 packs of ribbon, pack of pearls, flower mini book, brads.

More images here:

 

Enjoy.

Pretty In Pink Scrapbok Layout by Rebecca Beattie

Over the next couple of days I will be introducing our design team - first up is Rebecca Beattie

 

Bec's got a little 8 week old cutie so she's kinda a busy girl but rather talented.  So we look forward to having her onboard sharing her amazing talent.   She has sent me a couple of beautiful layouts to share with you so I am starting with this one...

 

Rebecca has a blog so you can stay in touch and find out what she's up at ...http://www.justmebingme.blogspot.com/

Doll Cake

A couple of years ago I made this fairy doll cake for my daughter's Katelyn's 6th birthday - i do remember writing a blog about how I made it which I will try and hunt down.

Today is Emily's 4th and next weekend she is having a party.  Been thinking about what cake to make and maybe I might make an attempt to make the fairy doll cake again.  Hmmm did remember the effort so must choose wisely. 

Now here's an image you may remember - the Australian Women's Weekly Dolly Varden cake - which was featured in this month's magazine.  AWW are bringing out the Children's Birthday cookbook with cakes from our childhood - Do you remember this?

to make this cake aparently you need 1 pkt butter cake mix, 3 packs marshmallows, ribbon and artificial flower (nice) plus a doll - I wonder if there will be a "barbie" out with "flicky up" hair so that we could re-create the cake with the look.  Maybe not - no problem that cannot be solved by the hot iron straightner...

maybe....i will give it a go....i do the like the large ribbon bow!

 

2 Rasberry Linen Albums For $20

Our linen albums have just arrived.  We love em' - they are covered beautifully in red and black linen with 10 inner sleeves to get you started.

 

you can buy these at our webstore for $19.99 each

we are currrently running an introductory promotion - you can get 2 albums for $20 (normally $39.98)

 

How to make fabric hair bobbles

you often these at markets and they can be quite pricey

its easy to make and all you need is some scrap fabrics and a pack of  "self-cover buttons" which you can find at craft outlets - lots available online so do a google search.  They come with instructions on how to use them. 

i made these from the scrap fabrics that were left over after i did all the sewing for our cubby house project.

 

if you want further instructions - just leave me a comment

 

 



Redecorate the cubby with pretty curtains, butterfly mobile and twinkly lights

This is what I have been up too all weekend.... redecorating the cubby house.  Why you ask?  Emily (our third) is turning 4 years old.  So we thought as a birthday surprise we would do a little revamp of the cubby.  Slowly but surely the revamp has turned into a significant project.  Materials have been purchased, the sewing machine got pulled out of the cupboard and a weekend was dedicated to the "redecorating of 
cubby house" project.  We could have named it "Operation Cubby Delight".  I thought I would share some images of our cubby renovations!

Pretty curtains to decorate our cubby windows are a must.  I found this gorgeous fabric at Patchwork On Central Park (I will chat more about the curtains and Patchwork on Central Park tomorrow.

 

Open the doors and come inside - we decided to cover the bench and shelf in the cubby with "oil cloth".  The bench was rather destroyed from sand and water games played by previous tenants (i.e older brother and sister).  We had a small piece of carpet that was left over from when we carpeted our house some time back and after a little trim fitted perfectly inside. 

 

A butterfly mobile strung across the roof of the cubby - I used a variety of fabrics and felt to cutout butterfly shapes and attached them to a white rik rak which we then strung up.  We had purchased these star shaped lights a couple of years ago during a post-christmas sale.  They are perfect as they are battery-operated.  I will do a blog on the butterfly mobile and how to create one tomorrow. 

 

A pretty little apron for the maiden of the cubby - or in our case "princess lollycake" as she likes to be known as.

 

 

Fine bone china butterflies, balloon shaped mirrors and fabulous pecan tart

Went perusing through Fitzroy yesterday.  Scrumptious day with warm autumn sun and lovely cool breeze.  The perfect day to be perusing. 

Stopped of at Lightly’s new showroom.  Absolutely in love with the ornamental butterflies made from recycled fine bone china saucers. 

 

 Here’s an image I took of the butterflies used to decorate the walls of the newly established Lightly showroom on Glasshouse Road in Fitzroy. 

 

 
I also love the Acrylic Mirrors particularly the balloons.  The floating ribbons gave them a nice touch.  

 

 

 

As we were walking along Gertrude Street – my nose went into overdrive at the whiff of coffee in the air – the kind that you follow and it draws you towards it….We followed and ended up De Clieu – a fabulous café by Seven Seeds (who also have Brother Baba Buden expresso café in Lt Bourke Street and of course Seven Seeds in Carlton).  We stopped for lunch but even before I sat down I could not help myself – I placed an order for the pecan tart on the cake stand.  Ok so who said there was a rule against pecan tart and coffee before lunch?  It was delish…..

 Stopped in at Dean’s Art on Gertrude Street – they need some inspirational papers – it was all looking a little life-less – in need of some fresh inspiration (this from the girl who has a business that sells paper) so will give them a call this week to chat with about seeing if they are interested in stocking Rasberry – what do you think?