Thrift shop love and an Elfie update...

Who loves thrift stores, op shops, and random second hand or vintage stores?

Oooh, me! ME! ME!!!

Here's some of the latest material objects of my affection, having been found at a local thrift store for loose change!

I'm always curious of the life vintage and retro pretties have had before coming to my hands... oh to be able to hear the stories of previous owners and the tales of the items themselves!

I have a whole HUGE tub full of vintage and retro patterns - one day I will begin to work my way through sewing up each and everyone of them... one day - could be a very long way off, but one day!

How cute is this Japanese strawberry plate? For a single coin I just had to have it!

Oooh... my favourite find of the day: 

A set of six perfect and gorgeous little Yamato China teacups and saucers with the most beautiful pearly finish together with such delicate gold trim and pink accents... so so pretty!

This is why I will always love being thrifty!

Tell me about your most favourite thrift store find... I love hearing of amazing and pretty finds... you know the one that is "Thrift Shop Gold!"

And now onto Elfie... the girls are loving him as much as last year if not more!

Day 4: REINDEER GAMES

Elfie was up to some old, tried and tested Elf games... He turned up on a brand spanking new and sparkly silver reindeer and in possession of a rather bright red lippy!

He of course had painted their noses so they could be reindeer's too!

He left this note for them:

"Oh girls, 

What sweet reindeer's you'd be,

If you'd travel to the North Pole with me!

Look in the mirror for then you will see, 

What games I've played - little mischief me!

Love Elfie"

xoxo

Day 5: DECORATING ELFIE STYLE

Elfie decide to add his own touches of decorating to the tree...

The entire contents of the girls underpants draw now hangs from the tree, whilst our cheeky Elfie surveys his handy work from the air balloon he fashioned from Christmas decorations and another pair of the girls underpants!

Oh boy, that cheeky Elf!

The girls thought it was hilarious and my Big Little Miss M was envious of Elfies view and air balloon - she wanted to try it out herself!

So do you do Elf on the Shelf? 

Time for me to go for now, I must help Elfie get organised for Day 6!

xoxoxox

Time to decorate...

Well, it's all about Christmas... 

Some Chocolate Brownie Christmas Trees I made last week using THIS   brownie recipe - a nice recipe but just a bit too cakey rather than brownie for me... I'm thinking I'm going to try these in a Chocolate Fudge next time!
Candy cane and tree idea courtesy of that Pinterest addiction so many of us have ;)

Elf Radio is playing non-stop here (www.eflradio.com.au)... my girls without even thinking about it have been playing, eating and getting about whilst dancing, foot tapping, humming and singing along to all the carols. Listening to their renditions of Christmas tunes and seeing the happiness that is Christmas oozing from them is simply pure BLISS!

Elfie had been up to his Christmassy fun and games last night and had "trapped" the girls in their bedroom whilst they slept with some genuine elf-made streamer decorations... Maybe it was a hint that we should put up more decorations? It was fun for the girls - they had a great time experimenting with different escape and re-entry methods and agreed that we should put up more decorations... One can never have enough decorations can they?

So as the sun sets on another day you can be certain that the next page of the Elfie diaries is about to be created!

I hope you are enjoying the lead up to Christmas as much as we are here!

Do you do Elf on the Shelf? If so, what has been yours or your childs favourite Elf antic?

xoxoxoxo 

Elfie Diaries... Making the dough!

Yesterday my girls pleaded with me to make some homemade play dough for them... 

I would have loved to but unfortunately it was a crazy day and by late afternoon when I finally found five minutes to cook up some coloured squishyness I discovered that I had only enough salt to make a half batch when I knew they were hoping for a full rainbow selection that would have taken at least 5 times that! Urgh... what's a mum to do?

I promised that it would be a priority in the morning after a trip to the supermarket for salt. 

But guess what?

Elfie does not only have eye's everywhere but apparently ears too... 

The girls awoke this morning to discover Elfie had slaved away (actually, it's a super easy play dough recipe that takes less than 5minutes per batch... but Elfie is only small and his little arms could only stir so fast) and whipped up 7 wonderful big and bright playdough mounds... he then fashioned a wishing well, filled it with coins and scattered a few coins about for some extra girly wishes!

Recipe link for the play dough is from fabulous blog "Musings of a SAHM" and can be found  HERE... the only thing I did differently was to knead in a little extra oil in after it had cooled on a plate slightly just to give it an even smoother/silkier texture. Seriously, the quickest and most simplest recipe for fabulous playdough!

The girls were so thankful to Elfie and spent a good 3 hours playing, moulding, and shaping dough whilst making random wishes...

Then it was all systems go for another hectic day of ballet concert rehearsals... thank goodness my big girl will only be taking classes at one ballet school next year - I don't think I'd cope with another year of multiple ballet schools considering my littlest miss will also start ballet at a different ballet school again come February next year!

There's something I can't quite put my finger on that I just LOVE about this  'inbetween' shot of my beautiful little ballerina.

And of course my little miss never misses a photo opp... She loves to pose, she loves to smile, she loves to dress up... She does NOT love having or keeping her hair done!

And after ballet concert rehearsals some play time in the sunshine was just what we all needed!

See what I mean with the hair? Ah well, hair done or not I still think she's gorgeous - I love how easy a smile spreads across her face and deep into her eyes. ♥

Till next time...

xoxoxo

He's back in residence... ELFIE!!!

♫♪ So this is Christmas... ♪♫

I just love Christmas with children... and my two love their elf on the shelf - Elfie!

Last year December 1st 2011, he arrived for the first time to spend 24 days of fun, tricks, shenanigans and games.

He flew home to the Nth Pole last Christmas Eve with a promise to return and this is the beginning of his 2012 Christmas adventures... 

It all began on November 30th when a mysterious parcel addressed to my two little misses turned up on the doorstep whilst we were out. 

It contained Elfies book and a letter from the star of this adventure himself!!!

This led to a flurry of Santa letters and drawings and a trip to the local post office to stamp and send a letter direct to the North Pole.

Sure enough, Santa's mail service is like no other in the express department, for at the crack of dawn today, the 1st December 2012 there were squeals of delight and excitement!

Elfie was back!!!!

Same cheeky smile and glint in his eyes...

He'd been busy during the night and prepared a wonderful feast for the girls of fruit, waffles and a couple of treats for later in the day.

(I seriously was nearly sprung helping Elfie get ready this morning... the girls were up before 6am!!! Crazy... I think it's time I put a clock in their room!)

So... I wonder what troubles, mischief and fun Elfie will get into this year?

You can follow "The Eflie Diaries" here on my blog (although I am sometimes a little behind - as I am today... grrr blogger was giving me grief!)

or

over on my Facebook business page SpaNGle*

or 

for the earliest peek of the day at Elfies shenanigans follow my Instagram feed: 

the_spangler

Updates coming daily!!!!

xoxoxo

My little sk8er, baker, biker, rainbow jello loving girl...

Today was fun...

The sun was shining and the girls and I loved it.

Big Little Miss M received a new cookbook for her 5th birthday and was so keen to pick out a recipe to make.

She chose and made a Pecan Biscuit Crumb cake... kind of like a grooms cake (but girl-ified with pink dusting sugar) - it's yummo!

The girls were keen to do some bike riding...

We only have a small concrete area in the back yard so I bundled their bikes, scooter and a new skateboard in the car and we headed to the local courts which were deserted and perfect for biking and skating fun...

Big Little Miss M had not used a skateboard before and to say she was super-excited about it is a massive understatement... here's my little skater girl in action - she LOVED it...

In that middle photo above on the right she's doing a super cute, double fisted hand pump - she was busting with happiness at her new toy! Normally my big 5 year old gets pretty frustrated at things when she's learning (she wants to be perfect at things first go) but oddly enough she was too caught up in the thrill of trying out the skateboard that she must of forgotten to get frustrated! She's going to be awesome - and of course I'm not parentally biased :P

The girls spent nearly 3hours this afternoon at the courts biking, scooting and skating... it was bliss - I'd packed a huge thermos of coffee, so I got to laze in the sun, sipping coffee and watching my girls be girls... I miss being a kid on days like this - I gave the skateboard a tentative go but it didn't come with any weight rating and I was nervous that I would snap it and forever burn a devastating memory onto my girls first skating experience!

Speaking of being a big kid... I bought a new cap and on the inside as a pre-sale shaper it had a cardboard insert with instructions on how to do 'The Worm' ...ahhh... now I just need a party to be a fooligan at so I can bust a move across the floor... lol - yeah right, I think I'd more than likely end up with a back spasm looking a tool on the floor - forever to be labelled as the infamous geriatric worm!

Jokes aside though - how tempting is it... the 'how to' makes it all look and read so easy ☺

Well, the girls are sleeping extra soundly tonight after all their pedalling fun... plus they've bellies full of our new favourite dessert...

Rainbow Jello... a time consumer to make but the looks on the girls faces when this gets plopped all wibbly, wobbly on the table makes it more than worth it. I think we spent at least 15 minutes just watching it wobble and laughing at what wacky things we could do to get it to wobble some more. Plus... it actually tastes pretty awesome too!

Till next time

xoxoxo

Snow... Snow... Snow...

SNOW... 

You make me love winter - if only for the fleeting time that I am with you! I love the snow... 

I love the ascent up the mountain, spotting the first few scatterings of the wonderful white stuff... 

I get excited when I see cars heading down mountain with snow on their roof and under their wipers... 

I love winding the window down (hahah... just re-reading... how funny still calling it 'winding the window down' when it's been pushing an electronic button for so long now!) and feeling the crisp, cold air against my cheeks and breathing in the smell of the clean, clean mountain air full of powdery snow promises!

I've missed the snow soooo much... 

It's been just shy of 6 years since my last visit (yep... just a couple of months before I found out I was preggers with my beautiful Big Little Miss M I spent a WONDERFUL 5 days on the snow, skiing, boarding and having too many après drinks). 

It's been so long for many reasons... children, life, living at that time thousands of kms from the slopes, the fact that sadly the hubs does not share my adoration of the snow :(  One thing I know is - I'm going to do everything I can to ensure my girls love it so that snow trips will be incorporated into our regular girly adventure days!

We set off early for the three hour trip there and took a beautiful, back roads trip through greenery, hills, and small country towns with gorgeous cottages and café's that I fantasised about living in as we drove through (the towns not café's that is - although my coffee loving self could most likely quite easily and happily live in a café).

I would have taken more photo's but I was driving and seriously would having been stopping every few km's to take photo's and I just wanted to get to the snow (as did my girls). I'm thinking a summer trip for sightseeing, moseying, photo taking and more quaint country life fantasies might be in order!

My girls oohed and ahhed at the hills that disappeared into the clouds along the way. When I told them that we would be driving up almost to the clouds to get to the snow Big Little Miss M declared that she wanted to climb onto a cloud and snuggle into it and then asked if she could take a cloud back home with her... Not being one to spoil the childhood magic I love, I told her of course we could but we'd have to make extra room in the boot because it was such a good idea that I wanted one to take home too (I figured I'd deal with the whole logistics/reality of the situation if and when needed)! 

Today there was no skiing and boarding - it was all for the kids really, to give them a chance to play, marvel, make snow men and angels, throw snowballs and toboggan. The snow was average but still awesome from the kiddies point of view... which meant it was awesome from my point of view too. Happy kids = happy mum!

It was a little overcast most the day but gentle, wafting snowflakes greeted us as we arrived and the sun graced us every so often.

We made a snowman: 

The girls tobogganed:

(I love that Big Little Miss M chose to drop the 'to' from toboggan and simply calls it 'bogganing... eg. Mum, I can go bogganing all by myself! I love bogganing! She makes me laugh)

We travelled in convoy with some friends... from 3 families, 2 cars, 4 adults, 6 children, 4 toboggans.

(minus 1 kiddo... they move too fast!)

All the kids had a wonderful day despite each one of them at some point during the day losing it a little and cracking a wobbly - as they do.

Driving back the kids were still all pepped up with excitement and I loved them even more for it... 

And bonus... gorgeous sunset - just a shame my phone camera doesn't do it justice... the colours were so much more spectacular in reality!

I really must sort my camera situation!

Well, that's our day in the snow - it was AWESOME!

The kiddies have another almost 2 weeks left of school holidays, which even though my two aren't yet in school that means they don't have schedules including Monday morning - swimming lessons; Monday afternoon- ballet lessons; Tuesdays - kindergarten; Wednesday morning - music playgroup; Thursday - kindergarten; Friday morning - craft playgroup; Saturday - more ballet lessons.... (and crazy me wants to fit in singing and tennis lessons somewhere in there!).

Stay tuned for more girly adventure days and surprise daytripping!!!!

Winter... it's not all bad!

Well, yesterday I was all wingey, moany over the cold, winter weather. I'm over it now, and apologies for being so ho hum... 

I like to think I'm pretty upbeat, positive and big on not letting the things I can't change stress or bring me down, but I guess we all have our moments and yesterday was mine.. all just because it was cold! Duh! Pathetic I know but I needed to get it out of my system and now it's done and over with... woohoo!

Moving on....

Check this out:

Tomorrow my girls and I are setting off on another girlie adventure... a day trip to the snow!

Big Little Miss M's instructions at bedtime when I told her and Little Little Miss M that they had to sleep so I could finish organising things for the snow trip was to make sure I'd packed a snowman kit, with extra emphasis on there MUST be a carrot for the nose! (Found some googly eyes to pop on him too... I had forgotten I'd bought a container of about... ooh... maybe 200 googly eyes in all different sizes, until I was cleaning out the depths of my car boot earlier today only to discover the container had rolled right to the back, burst open and scattered googly eyes EVERYWHERE back there!)

So, I'm super excited - not a fan of winter but ironically LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the snow... I so hope that my little ones do too - I'd love to go for a few days next time and have them take ski lessons (and to get in some skiing and boarding myself). 

I'm like a big kid right now... I'm hyper alert and not able to sleep because I'm excited but at the same time I know I need to because I've about a 2.5 - 3hr drive tomorrow to get there!

Really. Must. Sleep.....

xoxoxo

Five. FIVE!!! A party, rainbows and a unicorn cake.

So my big girl just turned five today.

My mind is still trying to comprehend how that can be...

I can still recall the very moments of her coming into this world and my first cuddle like it was only mere months not years ago.

My girl gave me the most special gift I could ever be given - she gave me motherhood. Watching, sharing and creating memories with my girls compares to nothing else.

I love being part of what I hope is happy memory creation.

Here's my girl:

The cake (that took hours and hours over a number of days to create) that she went nuts over... and lets face it - there's a little bit of a lot of vicarious enjoyment on my part):

The candy/cake buffet:

and another:

 And for now, after having the party today I'm so exhausted... so I'll be back in a day or so (once I clean, clean and then clean some more - just can't deal with it tonight and yes, tomorrow in the morning I'll wish I did - but I go to bed with the awareness my cranky morning self will kick my own butt).

I'll have more photo's. I've become a lazy phone camera photo taker - thanks Instagram! But my SIL had her whizz bang camera on hand so I'm hoping she got some good shots so I'll be back to show them off and to dish the info on inspiration sources, the how to's (and the how not's) and to gush a little more about my gorgeous little girls who are growing up...

 WAY. TOO. FAST.

xoxoxo