A Freshen Up…

Posted on August 23, 2013 by natalietrew

Earlier in the week, I posted a blog called Spring has Sprung which listed many reasons why I love this time of year! One thing that I mentioned that I always do at this time of year is give my house a really good clean and along with that always comes some resorting and decorating! It’s the time of year where I like to give my home a freshen up!

We’ve lived in our house now for over a decade. It’s gone from a dark brick and yellow roof to a latte colour render and burgundy roof. We’ve converted our single garage into a lounge room, painted several feature walls, completed renovations on the kitchen, bathroom and pergola and added our touch to the front and back gardens. I’ve changed the decor more times than I can count lol, yet we still call our home, the place we call our castle, a work in progress!

We have discussed and even looked at the prospect of moving, but we always settle on staying in the place we have created so many memories in. It’s our first home. We brought all our babies home to this house. Kane asked me to marry him in our home and now the kids feel safe and secure in the place they call home! There are so many positives to staying here. We live in a cul-de-sac that the kids play on all the time. We live on a 900 square metre block and we have awesome neighbours. Most importantly we are surrounded by my beautiful family who help us out when we need it!

We have lots of vision for our house that involves a pool and room extensions. Plus if we stay where we are, I won’t have to rush back to work anymore than my two days a week and we will always be able to afford going away on holidays….the positives at the moment definitely out way the push to move!

So far this spring, I’ve gone through every room in the house, given it a good clean and sort and added some kind of new decor. I’ve changed some colour schemes and it’s amazing how one new decorating piece can brighten up a room. You would think that after living in the same dwelling for 10 years it would be in good order…the answer to that would be no lol! After this clean up and kull, I feel our house is the most organised it’s ever been. I’m evolving over time and so is our home…another 10 years and it should be exactly how we want it lol!

This is what I’ve created…
Kitchen

Our kitchen isn’t the largest in the world, but I’ve made it as practical as I can and love my red decor which matches with the red splash in my bench tops.

Our dining room table is where photos of my beautiful nana sit:)

This year’s handprints needed revamping to the whole display just to fit them in. Next year I’ll have to think of something!

Bathroom

I love my light and airy bathroom. I’ve gone with a hot pink and chocolate-brown decor which matches in well with my bedroom as it’s a two-way bathroom!

Our bedroom

After redecorating our bedroom last year, I finally gave in and have gone with a black, white and hot pink decor to match my canvases. I was a bit unsure about the black, but now I LOVE it!

Lounge room

I’ve kept my red and chocolate-brown decor in this room. My plan for the future in this room is a new corner lounge and carpet. We are just waiting for Mia to grow a little older:)

Toy room

My latest furniture purchase is our new desk from Ikea. It fits so nicely in the kid’s toy room and they love it!! I can’t believe it’s been a year since I gave the toy room a complete face lift!!

Out the back

Our dog ruined the bottom of our screen enclosure and took over the outdoor lounge setting. Thanks to Sunset Signs, we now have new coverings (to keep the dog out) with a beautiful ocean print and new pillows for the lounge. It’s the cleanest our pergola has been in months…lucky we love you Sonny!!!

Out the front

New pots and plants that I pottered using plants from our own garden. Thank you to my daddy who taught me all my gardening tricks!

Our new blinds

After 10 years our blinds we looking a bit sad and faded, so we replaced all the living areas and bedrooms with the wide timber blinds and the bathroom, toilet and kitchen areas with roman blinds. Thank you to my wonderful husband for installing them:)

That is what I’ve been working on over the past couple of months! So much achieved, yet I still have a list as long as my arm lol! My next big project over the christmas holidays is doing a major overhaul to the kid’s bedrooms (hence why I didn’t show any photos). The girls will be going in together and having an ‘owl’ theme and Bailey wants an ‘NRL’ theme. Another big project for this house and has been an ongoing room for years is my laundry – I will finish it even if it kills me lol!!!!

So watch this space for my latest projects in our very own castle!

February Babies!

Posted on February 27, 2013 by natalietrew

OMG!!!! What a massive month February will be for the rest of my life! I’ve been quite quiet on the blog of late as I have just finished celebrating my daughter’s 2nd birthday last week and my son’s 7th birthday yesterday!! When I think back now, it surely wasn’t good planning on our behalf! And what is more ironic is that both Bailey and Mia, who are my eldest and youngest babies, were both suppose to be March babies but were born at 38 weeks…so February it is!

In the past two weeks I’ve baked 5 birthday cakes, 60 cupcakes, a batch of biscuits, pikelets, pancakes, wrapped several presents, decorated and sang happy birthday a number of times…and as much as I’m lying here quite exhausted today, I just love making my babies birthdays special!

I’ve had so much fun cake decorating this month:)

It all started with Mia’s birthday on Sunday the 17th. We were hoping to spend the day at the beach swimming and soaking up the beautiful sun rays, but it hasn’t stopped raining this month so we were forced to stay indoors! But that didn’t stop my precious little one from having a fabulous day! We had family come over for dinner and cake and Mia loved all the attention….

And that was just on her birthday!

Mia had a big 1st birthday party with lots of friends, so we decided to have a quiet low key ‘polka dot theme’ morning tea with a few little friends this year at her regular hang out – The Runcorn Pool!

Another year of celebrating my precious little angel’s birthday…I still can’t believe my youngest is 2 already;(

Next cab off the rank was Bailey! With his birthday on a Tuesday (which is footy training night) this year, we decided to have our family celebrations on Sunday night at his favorite Kuraby Hotel. He chose everything. The venue, cake, his meal…Mr organised – so not like his father lol! It was a great night and was more relaxed being on a weekend rather than a week day.

Bailey’s actual birthday was yesterday. It was one of the first birthdays that I haven’t been with one of my children on;( between school and work I saw him briefly in the morning and for a couple of hours once I got home. I hated it:( 7 years ago and every year since then we’d spent the day together. I felt like I’d lost a part of me yesterday. But once kids go to school that’s what happens I guess! Bay still had a great day though. I made cupcakes for him to take to school and he had his request of Hungry Jacks for dinner. He received such wonderful gifts that he loves and is very excited to have over $100 to go shopping with!

The note I left in Bay’s lunch box with money for an ice block;)

Bay had a party last year with his school friends so this year he has decided he just wants to have a sleep over with a few mates. So this Friday night we’ll have four 7 year olds under our roof and then they are heading to The Runcorn Pool the next morning…this is a daddy job as this mumma is stuffed lol!

To my February babies,
Your birthday will always be a day where I celebrate the best days of my life. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. The moment you took your first breath, let out that first cry for milk and the instant bond we formed when our eyes found each other. As I close my eyes I can still feel your soft baby skin that I kissed (and still kiss) a billion times over and those first precious moments of cuddling we shared are times I’ll always cherish. I’m so blessed to be your mumma and love you more than words can express. It’s uncanny that the first time I became a mum was in February and the last time as well. You are both so alike with your fearful ways, bossy personality, funny sense of humour and your need to be cuddled and nurtured! I love how much you both adore each other and I know you will share this special bond for the rest of your lives. Happy birthday my February babies…am looking forward to another year of growth and development!
Love your mumma!

Etch it out!

Posted on July 4, 2012 by natalietrew

Bailey’s wrestling ring cake with the wrestling logo etched out andu filled with sprinkles!

After spending the past two weeks doing a lot of baking and decorating, I’ve decided that spending time in my kitchen cooking or baking is quite therapeutic….except for the dishes!

Cake etching…what is it? Just a little technique I’ve been using quite a bit lately! Back in february when I made my son’s football birthday cake, I needed something to create the stitching part of the footy! I could have used my decorating icing cans or even lollies, but to be completely honest I’d run out of anything alike, but had plenty of sprinkles! An idea came to me to etch out the lacing part of the footy and fill it in with white sprinkles….and this is how it turned out:

When I did Bailey’s wrestling ring I thought for sure we’d have the wrestling logo somewhere around here to put on the cake, but of course not! So I copied the logo and etched it out on the cake and filled it with sprinkles! I was quite happy with how that turned out!

Etching is great to use when you want to put a person’s name on their cake to! I’ve recently done two cakes and this is how they turned out:

My daughter’s cake she took to preschool:)

My sister-in-law’s cake for tonight:)

So how do you etch? Simple:) you need to find something that is pen like in size, I use a medicine syringe and then etch out of the icing what you want…

Once you’ve finished etching out what you want, you can then continue to fill the space. I’ve only used sprinkles so far, but other things like piped icing or lollies could be used…I’ve got so many ideas I can’t wait to try! When using sprinkles you have to do it very slowly and carefully. I keep the sprinkles in the bag they come in and cut a tiny hole for them to come out of.

So there you have it ‘the etching technique’…well that’s what I call it anyway:) happy etching everyone!!!

Just to let you know I’ve started a fan page for my blog on facebook…Click ‘like’ on My Party of 5 and keep up to date with everything relating to my blog! Thank you to everyone who is always so supportive of my blog:)

Sweets FoR mY Sweet!

Posted on July 1, 2012 by natalietrew

Birthdays are such a great excuse to experiment with baking and decorating! My darling little girl Sienna turned 4 yesterday and because she is such a sweet little girl that never wants for much, I decided to create something special….her very own sweets table!

Sienna is the kind of child who you can take to the shops and she never asks for anything more than a $2 packet of chewy! She has always been like that. Right up until two days before her birthday she still hadn’t really asked for anything for her birthday, she was just so excited that she was turning 4! A few weeks ago, she finally decided she wanted a strawberry shortcake birthday cake, so with some google searches and some tweaking of my own I created her the magical strawberry shortcake birthday cake of her dreams!

This is my biggest master piece yet! I love the fact that the strawberry shortcake sitting on top of the cake was mine when I was little….she is almost 30 years old:)

I don’t do big birthday parties every year for our children, we have selected years for that, but we always celebrate a birthday in one way or another. All Sienna wanted to do on her birthday this year, was have a swim at the Runcorn Pool, have a BBQ and jump on her jumping castle! That she did. But I still felt bad because this was the year for her brother and sister to have birthday parties!

One way to Sienna’s heart is food and sweet food at that! Sweets/dessert tables are so much fun and I thank my friend Michelle Shaw for her inspiration of them! Because of the strawberry shortcake theme cake, I based my table theme, colours and food around that! The colours I choose were hot pink and green with flowers for a touch of decoration and the food was either strawberry related or pink in colour.

This is how it all turned out:
The food:)

Home made marshmallow….so easy to make!

Star shaped fairy bread….for my little shining star!

Caramel cupcakes finished with vanilla icing and a strawberry and pikelets with jam and cream!

Jam drop biscuits, smartie cookies and strawberries dipped in chocolate!
Other foods on her table included her favourite things: popcorn, Cheerios, watermelon, chips and dip!

The decorating:

I decorated a toy storage container to display her name and made a sign to say she was 4:)

Everything I used from bowls to cups to the glass water bottles were in the theme colours of hot pink and green! I even decorated a special cup for Sienna to use:)

I created little name tags for the food. As a table cloth, I used a hot pink piece of material I had in the cupboard and cut out green felt circles and scattered than out first before I put everything out!

The day was a huge success and my reward was seeing how much joy was expressed on my sweet little girl’s face all day long!

Happy 4th birthday my Sie Sie girl…you are the light that shines in our party of 5!

Stay tuned in the coming days when I shall blog some of the recipes I’ve used over the school holidays!

A Love Story!

Posted on May 3, 2012 by natalietrew

I love to decorate! We have lived in our house for almost 10 years now and each room has had many different makeovers throughout the duration of that time. My latest project, that I started a few months ago, is finally finished – our bedroom!

When I decorate a room I like to base it around a theme. Kids rooms are easy when it comes to themes – African animals, under the sea and butterflies and flowers are a few I’ve done so far, but an adult’s room, male and female, who have different interests, not as easy! But one thing that my husband and I do have in common is our love that we share for each other and our children, so I went with a ‘love story’ theme for our bedroom makeover!

I LOVE the wooden words out at the moment….things brings the whole room together!

Kane and I are high school sweethearts and have been together for almost 15 years. We have built our marriage around the foundations of love, trust, loyalty and happiness and now we are parents to three precious angels, we are using these foundations to help raise our children. We have been through a lot throughout our relationship, like any couple we have had plenty of ups and downs, but at the end of the day we love and support each other no matter what! Kane is and will always be my best friend who I share everything with and most importantly can laugh at anything with. We have achieved so many wonderful things and made so many beautiful memories so far. It makes me so excited at the thought of our future and all the great things that lie ahead of us!

My handsome hubby and I….can’t imagine life without him!

To create my ‘love story’ theme, I included all the things in our relationship that symbolise our love and placed them throughout our room….here’s how it turned out:

My new canvas creations of our babies who we LOVE more than life itself!

A wedding photo from the day we declared our LOVE for each other!

A pregnancy shot to symbolise that our children were made from pure LOVE!

Our ring pillow from our wedding day (that my wonderful mother made) and a teddy from the kids always sits nicely in the centre of my bed.

I LOVE my new doona cover:)

My favourite part of the room….the feature wall that holds my babies!

By moving my chest of drawers its given the room a lot more space!

Neat and simple with the precious things in life!

The final piece to this puzzle that I added yesterday….a picture of our hands to symbolise team Trew united….a bond no one can ever break!

I’m really happy with how our bedroom has turned out and I’m most happy with how the memories we’ve created can be relished when we retire to our bedroom at the end of our busy day!

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