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OPEN FOR BUSINESS!!!

Here are my first few Etsy listings!! I’m very excited to finally have my little shop open for business!! The shoes have already received 3 “hearts”, which is exciting to a new shop owner! 

These items are a bit of a snapshot of what will be featured in ivylovesjack-etsy; vintage baby and toddler clothes, vintage children’s books, vintage craft & sewing patterns and books!  I hope people love them as much as I do, they are so hard to part with!!

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This was a recipe that I got off the back of a toy rolling pin set for Ivy.  It was quite easy, they looked cute and were yummy, so I thought I would share!

JAM SWEETHEARTS

You will need:

• 300g (2 cups) plain flour
• 150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 250g softened butter
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Buttercream

• 60g softened butter
• 90g (bit more than 1/2 cup) icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon water
• a few drops vanilla essence
• strawberry or raspberry jam

What you do…

1. Beat butter and sugar together.
2. Add the egg yolk and vanilla essence and beat until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add the flour and salt, mix everything together to form a smooth dough.
4. Mould the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30mins and preheat oven to 180C/350F.
5. Roll the dough to half cm thick.  Cut out 6cm round circles (a crinkly cutter or a scone cutter).
6. Put circles on a baking paper lined tray.  Cut out little hearts from the centre of half of the biscuits (I used a little 2.5cm heart cutter, these are handy for lots of decorating!).
7. Bake for 12mins or until golden and leave them to cool completely.
8. To make the buttercream, beat the butter until smooth, gradually add the icing sugar , water and vanilla essence.  Spread over the biscuits without the heart.
9. Put a little spoonful of jam on the top of the icing where the hearts will go and put the heart biscuits on top.

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What a great idea!! I always said that my children would not have a ridiculous lot of toys, I think it is unnecessary and a bit wasteful.  We’ve really only bought her the few things; books, a wooden train set, a few wooden puzzles, a bike, she has been given a beautiful wooden rocking horse, a wooden oven and tea set and a little guitar… BUT she has also been given lots of other bits and pieces (which she really does love).  The toys seem to be quite plentiful around our house now and I’m always looking for a nice way to store them.  She has an old picnic case for her “kitchen” which works really well.  This is another amazing idea for some dolls by Stacy at Hart & Sew.

She even made the gorgeous doll.

 

As well as some little clothes for the doll!

Pretty clever and so cool. 

(All photos by Stacy at Hart & Sew)

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Look at this gorgeous cubby!

Yes, my love of white and for chandeliers will carry over to the cubby house!!  This cubby is awesome, it’s made out of all recycled materials (mainly their old fence) by Belinda Graham who writes the very cool Happy Home Blog.

I love very rustic mixed with beautiful luxurious things.  I’m thinking that I might try to get some old wooden pallets and try to make one too.  We do have a lot of old wood and old floor boards in our shed waiting for the perfect project, so maybe they’ll get the call up for this!  I’ll have to look out for another cool chandelier too (the one in the top pictures is actually the smaller version of the chandelier in Ivy’s room).

Hope you’re having a lovely day!

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What a gorgeous photo! I’m going to attempt this cake in April! Photo from here.

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Sundays in our home are usually lazy.  We love all being together just at home.  I don’t worry about the days mess until Monday.  We stay in bed as long as we can, even though it is usually a 7.30 maximum with our littlest family member exclaiming, “c’mon mum, UP in morning!”.  She likes to read books in our bed though which often buys us a few more precious minutes sleep-in.

 

Ivy and I are by ourselves this Sunday though.  We have been without one family member a lot these days, his job means very long and unpredictable hours and in the case of any emergency, he is often gone for days and sometimes weeks at a time.  As a fire fighter, this is his busy period, we expect it to be. Ironically though, he is now busy preparing for the rising floods in our local area.

My husband is an adventurer.  He loves things that are out of the ordinary.  He likes discovering and pushing his limits.  We met in the adventure capital of the world, where he worked as a Snowboard Instructor and the Site Controller of the Worlds Highest Cliff Jump.  My first sight of him was of him doing numerous flips with a picnic chair prior to sitting in it and buckling himself in before the ropes caught.  Although I would love for him to be content having a no-risk 9 to 5 job, I know that he would hate it and then I probably wouldn’t love him as much as I do.

I hope that you are having a lovely lazy Sunday  x

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Whilst my little girl was playing in the rain yesterday, I was so thankful that she was able to be completely unaware that so many in our country are suffering from the effects of the same thing.  The devastation that people have experienced due to the flooding in Queensland is incomprehensible, my heart goes out to all those who’s lives have been changed by these events. 

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We have the best neighbours in the world.  They are so beautiful and we are so lucky to have them living next to us.  They gave Ivy these cute meringues today.

I have to admit that although they were not for me, they just looked so pretty that I had to try one and they are as yummy as they are cute.