Fondant Quilling, The Ballerina & the Bumblebee plus a little of the everyday

The days seem to bleed into one another and weeks seem to be merging into a blur of the everyday...

It's September and the beginning of Spring... I love Spring! It means more sunshine, more warmth and generally for me just a sense of being renewed after the wet and windy winter weather. This winter seemed to get to me more than any other before - it seemed colder, longer and generally more miserable. The girls and I and even hubby seemed to be on an endless merry go round of winter colds and flues. I've the remnants of one clinging on at the moment and even lost my voice for a few days (a bonus for the hubs I'm sure!)

Anyhow, did I say it's Spring? Yay! The sun has been out and the weather has been glorious for the past week or so.

Last week I tried my hand at fondant quilling... I had never seen or heard of this until I saw a couple of amazing cakes on Pinterest... and well I was determined to give it a go. I made up a batch or so of marshmallow fondant (recipe can be found within THIS post) and coloured it up nice and bright: 

Why the bobbin? you may be wondering. Well, the only cake decorating shop within about 100 kms or so did not have any fondant ribbon cutters in stock and I had left this cake till the last minute to make and didn't have the time to order one online ... It was to celebrate the 50th birthday of the lovely lady, Judi (yes, I spelt her name wrong on the cake - I was sure at 1am the night before that there was only one way to spell Judy... never mind she loved it anyway!) who volunteers and operates one of the fabulous church affiliated playgroups I attend with my girls. So I made do with what I had and the only thing I could think of that would give me nice even strips was the bobbin... and with the aid of a toothpick it did a reasonable job! Here's the finished cake:

I'm happy with my first attempt but there certainly is room for some improvement... my attempt at marbling the fondant on the base cake really went kind of mucky coloured rather than the wonderful rainbow swirls I'd been picturing in my head!

The girls and I have been having walks in the local fauna park... we are so lucky to have such a wonderful and educational facility only about a kilometre from home - its a huge park where kangaroos, emus, ducks and more just wander freely and then there are the walk through bird enclosures as well as reptile and snake enclosures (thankfully not open range). The girls absolutely love going there to spend a few hours just wandering through nature and admiring the flora and fauna...

Here they are jumping like kangaroos just after we walked into the park....

And here's some of the local inhabitants....

one of the dingos (they have about 5 at the park including one white -I think albino- one but it wasn't about on this day)

The emu's which wander freely...

One of the water birds...

Some blue tongue lizards which look like they're loving the sun as much as I do (although not too keen on the human interruption to their sunbathing)...

The girls wondering why the ducks scatter every time they try to catch them... hmmm... if only you could hear my two squealers as they run about the park!

Unfortunately we'd gone in the middle of the day this time and a lot of the girls favourite animals were sleeping... the wombat, the kangaroos and their favourite - the koala's... but even more reason to pop by again on the next sunny day when we have an hour or two to while away!

And my Big Little Miss M also had her first ballet concert a couple of days ago... being a first time concert mum I learnt a few things... 1. Even the baby ballerina's (including my 4 year old) must have a full face of makeup - Big Little Miss M loved this, I was not as keen.... (even though I nearly teared up when I saw her all dressed in her tutu)

2. You cannot take photo's or video during the actual stage performance... 

So here's my favourite photo I took of her at the ballet school for her dress rehearsals...

And because Little Little Miss M wanted in on the dress up action, I found this bumblebee costume in the $5 discount bin... the BEST $5 I've spent in a long time - she LOVES this costume and even wanted to sleep in it (tantrums aside when it came time to get her out of it) I even love the way she says "mumble-me" over and over when she's wearing it!

And just because it makes me smile here's the girls showing off their awesome twirling skills! 

The Ballerina aka Big Little Miss M:

And my Bumble Bee aka Little Little Miss M: 

I love the wind up she has before every twirl!

There's something so beautiful and free about watching little children dance and twirl and take absolute delight in something so simple... one of my most happiest memories of childhood is being outdoors on a sunny day all by myself in my favourite dress, just twirling!

Wishing you all a little twirly delight and magic...

Till next time

 xx