Halloween Cupcakes

Tonight we are heading to my mum's house for dinner and I decided to make cupcakes for dessert.  Given that I will take any excuse to decorate cupcakes I decided to make them Halloween themed.  These mummy cupcakes were super easy to make and all they took was some simple icing and fondant.

I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and iced them with a simple white icing.  I then cut strips of fondant and draped them over the cupcakes to look like mummy wrappings.  The eyes are then small bits of fondant rolled into balls.  You can draw on the black dots with either a food grade pen or black icing or food colouring.

I love decorating cupcakes but more than anything I love ideas that are easy to execute and give you great looking results.  I will definitely be saving these into my Halloween ideas for future parties.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!!  I love Halloween but it's still not very big here in Australia.  It is getting bigger which I am pretty happy about.  I wanted to have a Halloween party for my birthday this year but with the birth of little Imogen it just wasn't possible.  Oh well, maybe next time.  It's amazing that having a birthday 1 week before Halloween I have managed to make it to 25 without ever having a Halloween party.  My main reason for embracing Halloween is the chance to dress up.  I love a good costume and it is the perfect excuse to be someone else for the night.  Here are just a few costumes I have donned in the past.....

Clearly the love started young.  My mum still has this little clown costume packed away at her house.  I can't wait to put it on Imogen one day.

For my 21st I used the occasion to have a dress up party in a Grease theme.  I made my own skirt for this one and it has been passed around a few people I know for various parties.  Then for my friend Mahnee's 21st she had a cartoon character theme and I went as Minnie Mouse.  All I made for this one was the ears from some cardboard and a headband.  The dress was a cheap one my mum found and I wore black mary janes as well.  The last photo is from my sister in laws 18th.  Corey obviously was a cowboy and I was a pirate.  These costumes were great because they were completely made from things in our own wardrobes.  I think all we bought was Corey's hat and my eye patch which both came from a $2 shop.  There is nothing better than homemade costumes or costumes that don't cost you much and cause you to become creative with your own wardrobe.

So are you celebrating Halloween tonight?  What are you dressing up as?  Since I won't be dressing up this year I would love to live vicariously through all of you!

September Reading List

I just realised that it is nearly November and I still haven't shared my September books with you all.  But that's ok because here they are now...

For September I continued reading the Stephanie Plum series and managed to smash through six more books.  Like I said last month these books are a really easy read and are very entertaining. I highly recommend them if you are after a mindless read that you can flick through while lazing about.  The perfect summer holiday read!  This month brings me up to 35 books for the year with 17 left for the year. I don't like my chances of getting there because for October I have only read 1 book. Slacker!!!

Life Since Baby

Hello, how are you? Long time no chat!  Since Miss Imogen entered our lives we have been taking some time to work things out and settle in.  It has been an interesting ride to say the least but we are taking it all as it comes and figuring it out together.  There have been a few fun things going on around here too so I though I would share some snippets of the past few weeks.  If you follow me on instagram (@petticoatsandpeplums) you have probably already seen these.

I arrived home from hospital to a parcel on my doorstep.  It was a couple of vintage dresses I had bough while on maternity leave.  They don't fit me just yet but they are inspiring me to get back into shape.  These were bought from RileyBella123 on etsy and I must say this store was a dream to buy from.  The sellers communication was incredibly helpful and prompt and the little sweater clip was included in my package as a free gift.

I was spoilt by my work colleagues with a gorgeous bunch of flowers.  The came packaged in a hat box which I was able to keep once the flowers deteriorated.

I have also been thanking my lucky stars for the amount of help Corey has given me.  There were a few nights after hospital he tended to Imogen so I could catch up on my sleep.  I thanked him with a pancake breakfast one morning.  He is seriously the most helpful husband in the whole world and I am so grateful to have him!

This past weekend was gorgeously sunny which called for my new hats first outing.  I am so in love with this hat and it was only $15 from Kmart.  Gotta love bargains!

My gorgeous sister came to visit last weekend and spent the majority of the weekend with Imogen snuggled into her chest just like this.  It was adorable to watch and I can't wait till she is here again in a couple of weeks.

While my sister was here we also went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday and I was able to squeeze into one of my vintage dresses.  To say I was stoked is a massive understatement! I currently fit into about 3 vintage dresses in my wardrobe.  The rest I are so fitted in the waist that it is probably going to be a while before they fit.

I managed to squeeze a small bit of sewing in while Imogen was taking a nap during the week.  More on this to come shortly.

On my birthday my parents came around with dinner and a delicious caramel mudcake that my mum made.  It was absolutely delicious and very much appreciated!

And I was massively spoilt by Corey with a new sewing machine for my birthday.  It's an Elna 5300.  It has 50 stitches and 3 different buttonholes.  I have read through the manual but haven't had a chance to sew on it yet.  Hopefully this weekend while Corey is home.  The other super exciting present I got was from my mum and dad - a ticket to A Chorus Line! My mum and I are going in December and I can't wait!!!

So we are starting to fall into some resemblance of a routine so hopefully this means I will have a little bit of time for some crafting and be able to share some more exciting things with you all soon.  Until then....

Ornament Swap 2012

Firstly I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has left comments here and on my instagram congratulating us on the arrival of Imogen.  We are settling into this new life pretty well.  It certainly has been a learning curve and there have been a few rough days but we are figuring them out together.  It is all worth it though when you see that little smile and your heart just bursts with love.

Secondly, I am here to let you all know that there is an awesome Christmas swap being organised by the lovely Christina over at Christina Lowry Designs.  It is a christmas ornament swap and it is going to be loads of fun so hop on over here and sign up.  It's going to be fun!

Introducing...

Imogen Hayley Lane
9th October 2012
9 pounds 1 ounce

Regular posting will resume once we have settled into our new life. Thank you to everyone who has sent their congratulations via facebook and instagram. We are feeling very loved!

Nursery Tour

As promised I finally have some photos of Squishy's finished nursery to share with you all.  I am pretty much in love with this room.  I tend to go in there and just hang out randomly during the day.  The room was based on the fabrics I bought to make Squishy's quilt.  Once I had those everything else was tailored to match.  But that's enough chat, onto the photos....

Once we choose a name (we have narrowed it down to 2 choices) I would like to put her name along the wall above her cot.  I am debating whether to do plain white letters or paint them or cover them in scrapbook paper.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

And because I always look at room tours and think "oh I want one of those" here is a bit of a breakdown of the items I made (and tutorials used) and the items I bought.

Quilt - made by me (using this tutorial)
Cot Sheets - made by me (using this tutorial)
Cot Skirt - made by me (no tutorial used)
Tissue Paper Pom Poms - made by me (various tutorials for these can be found online)
Cot & Change Table - Boori Urbane from Baby Bunting
Armchair - Ikea
Owl Cushion - made by me (details here)
Teddy Bear - made by me (details here)
Dresser - Corey's old ones revamped (details here)
Noddy Book Box - from a little hippy shop in St Kilda (not sure of the name)
Rabbit Night Light - Lark Made
Pink Suitcases - That's 2 Cute
Mixer Toy - vintage - was my mum's when she was a kid
Alice In Wonderland Print - Shannon Markets
ABC Print - is actually wrapping paper bought from a little shop on Brunswick Street
Bookshelf - Kmart

#31 - Bake A Pull Apart Loaf of Bread

While on maternity leave I have been trying to cross some things off my 101 in 1001 list.  It's been a good way to keep me motivated and occupied while I wait for our little ones arrival.  I seem to be gravitating towards the cooking items on my list and last week I crossed another one off by baking a delicious loaf of pull apart bread.

For some reason I have always wanted to make a pull apart loaf of bread.  It just seemed so fun!  This loaf only had 6 sections to pull apart but they would have been the perfect single serve to go alongside some soup.  I guess you could always make more sections if you wanted to.  I just followed what the recipe said.

I would love to make another pull apart.  I was thinking next time I might make a flat plaited pull apart kind of like the ones you get at Baker's Delight.  I think they would be better for a party situation as opposed to this one which I think would be better for a dinner party alongside some nice soup.

If you want to make some cheese & herb bread as well the recipe I used can be found here.

The Good, The Bad & The Bump(y)

The Good

• Long weekends with Corey.  He usually only has 1 day off on the weekends so 3 day weekends are extra special.
• Crossing things of my to do list. It's a great feeling getting things accomplished.
• Having a clean and tidy house. Nesting is in full swing!

The Bad

• Restless nights.
• Waiting, waiting and more waiting....

The Bump

39 weeks and still waiting the arrival of Little Miss Squishy. I am so ready to meet my little munchkin and I am getting super duper impatient.  It's so hard not having any control over when she will arrive.  Especially for someone like me who loves to plan.  Apparently she is all set and ready to go so I am just waiting now and keeping my fingers crossed that she comes along soon.  Until then though I will keep crossing things off my list and trying to keep myself motivated until Squishy makes her appearance.

Maternity Leave Week 2

Spent some time relaxing at mum and dad's house with Roxy Foxy and reading the first magazine in my new subscription.

Finally finished the last project for Squishy's bedroom.

Turned some undelicious apples into some delicious muffins using this recipe.

Made some delicious white chocolate fudge that had to be shared with the in-laws to stop me eating the entire batch.

Did a little bit of sewing for Squishy.  Post to come on the finished product.

Made some delicious cheese & herb bread.  Recipe & post to come on this one soon too.

And I finished up the week with a little bit of knitting.

Here's hoping that this is my last week of maternity leave by myself because I am dying to meet my little girl!