Personal reflections, life updates, and thoughtful posts from Nightwolf’s Den, sharing stories, insights, and moments that don’t fit neatly elsewhere.
Yes more party planning. This will be the last post about it before the actual party.
We’re keeping it pretty simple, some balloons, some streamers, a paper lantern caterpillar and a photo caterpillar.
Yet again Pinterest has heaps of ideas…
That’s just some of my favourites. I’ll be sharing my decorating efforts after the party 😉
and mummy went a little mad trying to work out which cake she would make
Yet again, Pinterest will be the death of me 😉 so many cake options.
Do I do something fancy like these?
or something simpler like these?
or something really simple like a cupcake caterpillar?
What we’ve chosen will be a secret til the day of the party 😉
and found sooooo many ideas on Pinterest it wasn’t funny. Seriously, how many ways can you do food that is themed to the caterpillar?
I’m keeping it simple, mainly cause Miss K has soccer the morning of the party and I need to make it as easy as possible!
How much more simple than taking my cues from the story!!
In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf – devilled eggs on a bed of lettuce leaves
For Monday (one apple), Tuesday (2 pears), Wednesday (3 plums – thinking we might do grapes), Thursday (4 strawberries) and Friday (5 oranges) – a fruit platter
Saturday…
Sunday The Caterpillar ate through a nice green leaf – a salad
The cocoon – these nutella ‘cocoons’
A beautiful butterfly – butterfly sugar biscuits
I’d like to do something like these
but it will most likely be something like these
And somewhere in there I’ll do sandwiches. That look like this.
Oh and the cake, but that I’m saving for next time.
You can check out my ideas on my Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday Pinterest board
This post is brought to you in collaboration with Heinz Australia.
There can be so much confusion over when to introduce solids and what are suitable types of solid food for babies. What ARE healthy baby solid foods?
All babies will be different, but when Miss A turned 6 months we decided that it was time to slowly introduce her into the amazing world of solid foods. Well truth be told, she decided she wanted to eat solid foods, grabbing food off my plate or out of our hands. We started on purees of vegetables. Sweet potato was an instant hit, other vegies, not so much. Fruit was another success. One thing that we found great was the Heinz pouches designed for 6 months +. Easy to use and full of yummy fruits, vegies and meats – Miss A loved them. Great to keep in the cupboard and grab and go (especially when paired with the Heinz soft twist top spoon tips). Downside of the pouches – no awesome little jars to keep things in – seriously baby food jars are awesome storage for crafty bits or nails/screws/bolts etc. Bonus tip there for you all 😉
So why do we personally pick Heinz over other brands the majority of the time? For us it’s not just about price, it’s about knowing what goes into the product. Something that is nutritious and something that is good for my infant. For example, did you know Heinz source their apples, pears and peaches from Goulburn Valley, and pumpkins from country Victoria? Ingredients are delivered to the Heinz baby food facility in Echuca, where they are lovingly prepared.
Creating a diet for our kids that has low to no nasty numbers is also a big thing for me. We have a few different allergies in our families and I’ve seen how numbers can effect behaviours. Heinz infant meals are steamed cooked and after cooking, all of the Heinz infant jars, cans, and pouches are heat sealed, locking in all the delicious flavours and preventing the need for preservatives! No nasty numbers or preservatives. Heinz infant meals have no artificial colours, no artificial flavours, and no preservatives.
I totally love that Heinz infant meals grow with your baby too, providing meal options and snacks from babies from 4 months (if you decide to start introducing solids from this age) through to 12 months +. Miss K (who is 5) still loves snacking on the Heinz Little Kidsfruit bars and sharing the Heinz Nutrios with her sister. AND who can go past the good old Teething Rusks, they were a teething staple when I was young and we’ve used them for both our girls.
We’ve spent the last few days away, relaxing. Spending time together as a family. Spending time with my parents. Going out for a meal. Going to the beach. Spending time inside when it rained. Checking out Wings Wildlife Park (which if you are ever in Tasmania I can totally recommend – we’ll be going back). Limited net access. Playing with new Legos. Reading. Colouring in. Doing creative stuff. Going for walks. Did I mention relaxing. I was awesome. Much needed. Especially after 2 kiddos had been sick with head colds.
Anywho, some photos for your viewing pleasure 🙂
Back to normal soon 🙂
Miss A turns one in August and I thought it was high time I got to work on organising her birthday party. After many hours on Pinterest I decided on either a pink & gold theme or A Very Hungry Caterpillar. I showed a heap of pictures to Miss K to help me choose and finally we decided on A Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some ideas for invites, decorations, food and cake then after the party I’ll share our actual event.
Invitations can be a simple or as complex as you want. From bought invitations like these……
to handmade creations like these ……
we (read me) ended up making ours. Thank goodness for my Silhouette Cameo because I would have hated doing this by hand.
The first circle reads:
We can hardly believe a year has passed
Our little caterpillar has grown so fast
Join us for some afternoon tea & fun
Anastasia is turning ONE
The second circle has the date, time and location while the third has the RSVP details. I’ll include a recent photo of Miss A to the final circle.
Happy Winter Solstice. It’s time to look back over my list for the year and see how I’m traveling.
As with previous years bold is started, strike thru is finished & red isn’t done
I’ve started up a place to keep all my scrapbooking stuff in one spot – Nightwolf Scraps. So I’ll be posting all my scrapbooky stuff over there from now on.
Today’s post is all about a new FREE workshop so go check it out 🙂
For the last couple of years I’ve taken part in the Ovarian Cancer Australia fundraising event – Afternoon Teal. Mum & I have named our event Scrap Teal You Drop and attendees take part in a full day of scrapbooking and card making.
This year we gave our small group two challenges. The first challenge which took up the morning portion of the day was to create two cards in an hour. We gave the ladies a bag which contained two cards (one rectangle and the other was either a teapot or teacup), 2 pieces of ribbon, some twine, 2 blank boxes to add a sentiment to if they wished, some embellishments, 3 pieces of pattern paper and a doily. They could only use what was in their bag plus our range of stamps, inks and paper punches.
I was amazed at the variety of cards that were created. The judging process was not a job I wanted on the day. I recruited my dad and uncles to be our judges for the day and the whole process was anonymous with only myself knowing which creation belonged to which attendant. So I wasn’t allowed to talk to the judges all day 😉
Our winners were the following cards and I’ve placed the rest of the cards up on my Facebook page
The afternoon challenge was a bit harder. The Teal Throw Down challenge the ladies to create a 6×12 page using only the colours we gave them – teal, pink, yellow, purple and a neutral (white or kraft) plus 3 embellishments, a piece of pattern paper ,a piece or ribbon OR twine (not both) and no more than 5 rhinestones or sequins. Honestly I would struggle with this one but the ladies created some amazing pages. A couple worked in pairs while others worked alone. The judges picked this page as our winner:
the other pages can be seen on my Facebook page as well.
Everyone had a great time and we managed to raise $800. Donations are still open so if you would like to donate to this cause, pop on over to my Afternoon Teal page.
A huge thank you to the wonderful businesses who donated prizes for our day. Please go check them out and give them some love!
Bev’s Cross Craft, Kellie Stamps, Simple Scrapper, Max & I, Sweets Caroline and ThermoFun.
A MASSIVE thank you must go to my mum (& dad), who let us use their house, organised a delicious lunch and helped with all the prep and running the day.
Lastly thanks to all who came along. Hope you had a great day. Look forward to seeing you all next year!
Disclaimer: Links are affiliate
Well here we are in March and I noticed I haven’t gotten around to posting my list of 100 things in 2015 from my 2015 Create Your Shining Year workbook. Have you got yours yet? Why not? They are amazing!!
For the last couple of years I’ve been posting my lists on my blog, making me a bit more accountable. So no excuses and here is my 100 things in 2015. There are quite a few things from last year that either didn’t get done or I want to continue doing.
As with previous years bold is started, strike thru is finished & red isn’t done
