I found a huge op-shop!

So I've heard tales of a beautiful big op-shop (from a man, would you believe. He's one of my husbands friends but I'm not going to name him. I'll just say he's tall, drives an Evo, and likes pizza - alot). It's less than ten minutes away so I figured it could feature as our afternoon drive. I turned onto the road it was meant to be on and drove and drove and couldn't find it. Funnily enough we ended up out in the country instead (we're on the outskirts) so I just kept driving. We had the windows down and the air was summery warm and smelt like blossoms. Suddenly I turned a bend and realised that we were on a hill overlooking the most breathtaking forest I've seen in Australia. There was a farm in between our road and the dip to the forest, and a beautiful lake sparkled in the sunshine. And I got reaaaaallllly homesick. My chest started constricting so I started the car up again and pulled back onto the road. On the way back into suburbia I happened to glance at a farm garden of flowers and shady trees and burst into tears! I haven't really felt homesick since our first few months here and it really suprised me. Who'd a thought you could get homesick in Australia - pah!

Anyway, enough of that! We found the op shop in a cluster of apartment building thingies - I know, seriously. Only in Sydney. And it was huge. And the ladies were lovely! And the baby clothes are all $1 to fill a bag! And they're cute with Winnie the Pooh and Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear on 'em! What a great day!

And I found the gorgeous fabrics that are in the photo. I was so excited to get them :-) And I only paid $3.50 for the lot.There are three lace doilies, two vintage napkins, and a pillowcase. Can you guess what I'm going to make with them? :-D Hehe! You should know by tomorrow...

"Meanwhile, back at the farm..."

So I hate to deviate from The Birth Story but I just have to. I think you'll be glad I did, because these gifts are delicious!

The church we are attending has never had a Father's Day honouring thingy. Nor a Mother's Day honouring thingy either. Once I got over my horror I invited Bekki around to do some crafting and we brainstormed ideas of what we could do as a gift.

Father's Day isn't the easiest, well, actually men in general, are not the easiest people to craft for. It has to be clever enough to be interesting, maculine enough to be nonoffensive (and to a girl who believes ribbons cover a multitude of sins this is a major setback!) and of course, cost effective. 

The winner? 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Cullere de Chocolat d'Yuck.

To use, you either heat a cup of milk to steaming, or you make a regular hot milo or coffee and use one of these babies to stir. As you can imagine the chocolate melts and the marshmellow hidden inside escapes. All of a sudden you have a decadent, marshmellowy, hot chocolate drink.

We used a variety of toppings, including M&Ms, shredded coconut, granulated nuts, silver balls, cake decorating bits and pieces. We also used milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate. They were suprisingly simple to make procedure-wise but from shopping to designing tags and wrapping it was time consuming. Praise the Lord I had someone to help me this time!

You may wonder why there is a little man laughing in amongst those pictures. He's my little helper! He has to feature in the final shoot! Lol :-)