I know I've been horribly neglectful of this blog lately, and I'm so very grateful for your sticking around. So many things are taking a back seat at the moment, and I can't promise when I'll be back in the full swing of things. My poor sewing machine has been packed away for months! I am pretty active on Instagram though, mainly because it's so darn quick and easy, and because of the lovely sense of community. If you don't have Instagram, you can still view my feed online. Visit my profile on Webstagram — it would be lovely if you said hello. xx

The above is a little series of photographs I took of Erika for a very dear friend's 60th birthday. Her daughter — my beautiful, sweet best friend Elinor — was putting together a video + slideshow for her, as she is celebrating her birthday away from her extended family and friends in New Zealand. So much love, and such big hugs, for you on your birthday tomorrow Ingy. Mwah.

OH! Hi. Yes, I'm feeling a little sheepish. I haven't forgotten you, how could I? It's just, you know, life and stuff getting in the way of my sitting down here and having a good natter. But life is good, very good. My little munchkin Erika is filling my days with love and laughter and chubby-bubby cuddles. And at night I've been doing a little bit of freelance work, which I have been REALLY enjoying. It's a little exercise for my brain, working that creative muscle. Oh and some left brain stuff too — writing html and css — which has, surprisingly, been fun too. 

I've recently designed a blog for a photographer friend of mine. She provides photographic services to retailers around Melbourne, and has an obsession with vintage cameras (I am so jealous of her collection!). Head on over to Teacup Ballet to check it out, and why not stop off at her Teacup Ballet Facebook page, 'Like' to receive blog updates in your news feed. 

My poor ol' blog in the meantime is feeling horribly neglected, and in desperate need of attention. Soon, my pretty, soon!

Apart from raising my wee lil' one, I've been designing a new blog and a new resume/portfolio website for myself, a new website for a friend (can't wait to reveal that one to you, it's looking fab), and a new website for hubby's business — I go to sleep at night with HTML and CSS floating around in me noggin'. All while trying to squeeze in the odd bit of craft (rather unsuccessfully at the moment), keeping the house in semi-respectable order, and cooking some damn fine food.

There's been loads of warm and fuzzy stuff going on this month, but I also had news from work that I've been made redundant (hence the portfolio website). My trusty side-kick has also gotten the boot, so the Melbourne office staff are entirely dependant on the head office in Sydney for their creative. Big bummer. The head honchos at work were jolly good though, gave me the option of taking the redundancy now, or waiting until my maternity leave was due to finish at the end of September, in case a position became available in another area of the business in the meantime. I decided to take a leap of faith now, and see what's out there — probably slim pickings for a part-timer, but bubby comes first.

Anyhoo, I know I've been pretty absent of late, so in a Insty nutshell, here's what I've been up to… (most recent to oldest)

…to my beautiful and oh-so-happy baby girl, who is six months old today (can you believe it??!). Love you to the moon and back, honey.

xo

I couldn't help but share this vid with you — my beautiful sister and her gorgeous little Lucy are the stars! (well, I think so anyway)…

Oooh, I am so very excited — check out the spoils from my recent shopping adventure! Can't wait to play!

Yes, I have succumbed. And before you say 'puh! She's spelt macaroons wrong!', as I did the first time I saw it spelt this way, I should tell you that 'macaron' is French (although apparently derived from an Italian word). The English word 'macaroon' can also refer to a coconut macaroon (one of my mum's favourite biscuits from the Women's Weekly 'Beautiful Biscuits' cookbook!), so many people are adopting the French spelling to differentiate between the two.

I had been keen to try baking macarons for ages, but having a reputation for being extremely difficult to get right, I wasn't keen to spend hours perfecting it. And in steps Melzy. My mate Mel is a baking fiend. She'd conquered the world of the cupcake and was looking for a new challenge. Having already done three batches with different recipes and techniques, she was sure she had discovered the secrets. And so she had. 

For the macaron shell, we used the basic recipe from Secrets of Macarons, by Jose Marechal. I've looked at a few other recipes online, but I think this one is the best, as it uses equal quantities — so simple to remember! For the creamy centre, we used a basic vanilla buttercream, recipe below.

vanilla buttercream

125g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 cup icing sugar

Beat until pale and light. Easy!

I am really looking forward to trying new colours and flavours. I only hope I can replicate our success without my mate! First stop, I need to buy the recipe book, a sugar thermometer and a teeny little saucepan… wish me luck!

Is it wrong that I found Erika's obvious distate for baby rice cereal so damn amusing?! Can't be a fussy eater in this household, my dear! Maybe we'll have better luck with pumpkin…