More Birthday Celebrations

I hope you have all been enjoying my birthday month and Mother's Day celebrations on the blog!  Today I am unveiling the third, and final, celebration I have planned.  As I mentioned, this surprise is for those who love all things Domum Vindemia.

So...for the next 48 hours, I am offering 15% off in both my Etsy and Madeit stores!  Simply use the coupon code BIRTHDAY at the store checkout to receive your discount.  But hurry, because the birthday discount offer ends first thing on the morning of the 23rd of May.

Birthday Celebration Giveaway

This week I celebrate my birthday and come to terms with the fact that yes, I am getting older and starting to look it too!  But I do love a good birthday party and cake, so I thought I would celebrate by offering my blog readers a special discount in my stores AND a special giveaway too.

I am offering 25% off purchases (excluding postage) in my Two Cheeky Monkeys stores all week.  Those who prefer to shop in my Etsy store can use the coupon code 25SALE at checkout, while the discount is already in place for those who prefer to shop in my Madeit store.

If you love doily buntings and vintage crockery cake stands, then take advantage of the 15% discount in both Domum Vindemia stores this week.  The discount is already in place in my Madeit store, while those wishing to shop in my Etsy store can use the coupon code BIRTHDAY.

And because I love a big celebration, I am offering two prizes to two winners in my birthday giveaway.  First prize will be a pair of Mr Darcy cufflinks and the second prize will be a set of four Pride and Prejudice magnets.  Because I know how much you all love Jane Austen!!!  Simply fill in the Rafflecopter form below to gain entries to the giveaway.  Some important information: the giveaway is open internationally and will run until Friday, 24th May 2013.  Winners have 48 hours to reply to their winning notification email before I re-draw the giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Do you love snail mail?

Hands up if you get disappointed when your postman arrives and all he (or she) has for you are a bunch of boring (and possibly expensive!) bills!  While I am thankful that the Two Cheeky Monkeys household can afford to pay the bills that we receive, I certainly do get that, "I can't believe I walked all the way out here just to collect bills" kind of feeling (especially when I was recovering from foot surgery and had to hobble out or use my crutches just to get to the letterbox).

 

 

To counter that, I am organising a little snail mail swap for next month.  A swap where my readers can surprise each other with something fun in the mail.  I will outline the swap specifics and open up the swap at the end of April, but in the mean time, have a little look at some of the fun items I've received or sent in similar swaps in the past.

 

Another Birthday Girl

Things have been pretty quiet around here on the creativity front because the two cheeky monkeys are rather enjoying their school holidays and because I have been preparing for my oldest monkey's 7th birthday.  As with my younger monkey, monkey #1 has shown her little personality from the very start.  And in her case, she has a strong stubborn streak, liking to do things her own way and at her leisure, is rather bossy and also very cautious of anything strange or new (oh wait, I could be talking about myself there; we are both first borns, LOL)!  But I love her, idiosyncrasies and all, and am in no hurry for her to grow up too quickly, especially as she is growing so rapidly that she will be overtaking me in height in another two or so years.   :)

Birthday Girl

As I adjust back to being in cold and dreary Melbourne after seven and a half days of relatively warm weather up north, I am also struggling to adjust to the fact that the huuuuggge baby in the top photo (yes, that is kilograms, not pounds!) has turned into the beautiful five year old in the photo below.  Though the last five years have brought a lot of changes to her young life, she still hasn't lost her ability to consume large quantities of food or her love of being cuddled and carried (both traits she has shown since day 1).  Love you my sweet little one!

Home Grown Mushrooms!

I know I wasn't intending on posting any more "birthday" posts, but this was so exciting that I just have to share it with you all!  After lots of umming and ahhing on my part (there are just so many things a girl could ask for), I finally decided that I would love it if Mr Cheeky Monkeys bought me a mushroom farm for my birthday.  He finally had a chance to visit our local Bunnings Warehouse yesterday and ended up getting me not one, but two, grow your own mushroom farms!  One kit has been seeded with Swiss brown mushroom spores while the other kit grows regular white button mushrooms.  I've had a lot of fun growing mushrooms in the past (although I haven't been spectacularly successful) and the cheeky monkeys and I are looking forward to harvesting our own mushrooms in about a month's time.  So let me ask you, have you grown mushrooms before?  And if you could, which species of mushrooms would you grow?

More birthday shenanigans

So I promised you a look at the inside of my attempted ombre birthday cake in Wednesday's birthday post, and here it is!  As I mentioned, it's not going to win any prizes (except for maybe "craziest thing Deb's done at the last minute"), but everybody loved eating it.  The cake is a simple vanilla butter cake which I attempted to colour purple with run-of-the-mill food dye.  I think that next time I try something like this, I will make a whiter cake (any suggestions anyone?) and use the specialist cake maker food dyes.  The dark chocolate ganache worked well at sticking the cake layers together, but I think I might have to play with the chocolate to cream ratio next time to get a slightly thicker consistency.

As my rather hectic week of birthday celebrations draws to a close, let me remind everyone that my Sew Mama Sew vintage button and fabric giveaway is ending tomorrow and will be drawn some time this weekend.  If you haven't already entered, you can do so here.

My Creative Space and a Special Birthday Discount

Yes, the day has finally come when I have to admit, grudgingly or otherwise, that I am very much in my mid-30s and that FORTY is getting closer and closer!  Today I turn 35, which feels sooooo oooold to me, but I know it's not really, especially when you think about my husband's gran who just turned 95.  Anyway, since it's my birthday, my creative space this week has been filled with my attempts at making myself a purple ombre birthday cake.  My first attempt failed since I did the lazy woman's option of making layers and ended up with a marbled cake, LOL.  My second attempt has worked better, although my cake is not going to win "best in show" for the prettiest cake!  I am teasing you with the outside of the cake (yes, that's a dark chocolate ganache, so I will be going for a run this morning!) and hope to show off the inside layers in another post this week.

Two Cheeky Monkeys

And just so you don't miss out on the gift-receiving fun (and I have gotten some great gifts already), I'm offering a special discount in both of my Etsy stores to my faithful readers and fans.  For the next 24 hours only, receive a 20% discount at Two Cheeky Monkeys when you use the coupon code BIRTHDAY at checkout (excludes shipping).

Domum Vindemia

For those of you who prefer my vintage upcycled homewares and decor, I'm offering a 15% discount at Domum Vindemia for the next 24 hours too.  Get your discount by using the coupon code BIRTHDAY at checkout to receive your discount (excluding shipping).  If there's anything in my Madeit stores which you have been eyeing that aren't in my Etsy stores, just send me an email and I'll be happy to reserve the item(s) for you with the discount already included.

My Birthday and Sew Mama Sew May Giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

I am excited to announce that I am once again participating in the annual Sew Mama Sew May giveaway day!  I love the May giveaway day event as it usually coincides with my birthday week and hosting a blog giveaway in the midst of my birthday celebrations is always lots of fun.

This year I have decided to give away TWO prizes.  The first prize is a package of some of my vintage button stash and a fat quarter in a turquoise/blue floral design.  The second prize will be one package of vintage buttons.  That's right, TWO WINNERS!  Each packet contains about 40 buttons, and although the packets are not identical, they are very similar.  To enter the giveaway, simply follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter form below.  I'll be running the giveaway from the 21st of May until the 26th of May (AEST) and it is open to worldwide entries - enjoy!

Edit: I realised that I've asked you to answer a question as a giveaway entry but I haven't told you my answer!  I live in Melbourne, Australia where it is almost winter and getting very cold every day.  I loooove buttons, especially vintage ones, and mainly use them in jewellery, hair accessories and as embellishments for fabric flowers or bags.   :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My 2nd Blogaversary and a Giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. Thank you to everyone who entered.

Wendy Cocktail Napkin Set

Yes, it's giveaway time!  It's been a while since I've hosted a giveaway on my blog and I thought that a giveaway to celebrate two years in blogland was a great idea.  I can't believe it's been two years since I finally decided to join the blogging world (though, actually, my 2nd blogaversary was a few weeks ago but I forgot about it in the aftermath of my overly friendly cold...)

Hannah Cocktail Napkin Set

I've met a lot of fascinating people and read a tonne of great blog posts in that time and I am grateful to each one of my blog followers and subscribers who faithfully read my posts and/or leave comments.  So what can you win in my celebratory giveaway?  Well, up for offer is YOUR CHOICE of either the Hannah or Wendy cocktail napkin set.  Both sets have been made from clean, repurposed bed linen and I think they would be a lot of fun to use at a backyard barbecue or party!

This giveaway is open worldwide and will run until midnight, 1st April 2012 (AEST).  You'll also have to bear with me as I'm trialling Rafflecopter for my blog giveaways and have no idea how well this will work.

Things I Love...

I may not entertain often, and any cupcakes I bake usually get devoured before I even get a chance to ice them, but I absolutely ADORE cupcake toppers!  There are a myriad of commercial and handmade cupcake toppers available, including edible ones and DIY kits which allow you to make them yourself.  Here are just some of the fun cupcake toppers I found on Etsy, which should inspire you for your next celebration!  And should you need a cute stand for your cupcakes, don't forget to visit Domum Vindemia on both Etsy and Madeit, wink wink.

1. Woodland cupcake toppers
2. Ballerina cupcake toppers
3. Owl cupcake toppers
4. Under the sea cupcake toppers
5. Cat in the hat cupcake toppers
6. Robot cupcake toppers

Love Letter on a Spool

If you can remember back to this "Things I Love" post, you will remember me saying that I was really keen to try making a few of these very cute letters on wooden spools.  I've finally managed to make a few for the cheeky monkeys (don't tell them!) and had a blast with this project.  My only tip for you, if you're wanting to make a few yourself, is to use as dark an ink as possible for your stamping.  I used a chocolate brown fabric ink, which works fine for adding my shop name to the plain bias tape ties on my doily buntings, but didn't work so well on the beautiful Sugar Hill fabric by Tanya Whelan.  I probably should have practised a bit more with my new stamp set, but oh well, the cheeky monkeys will love these nonetheless!

Happy Birthday Cheeky Monkey Number Two!

It is hard for me to believe, but it has been three years since cheeky monkey #2 was born!  I am definitely not ready for her to grow up yet, though she is desperate to catch up to her big sister.  Below is a montage of her special day with some of Miss 3's vital statistics.  Happy birthday sweet little one!

Born: 3:56am

Weight and length: 9lb 4oz, 4.125kg, 51cm

Current: Approximately 16kg, 95cm