I have come up with some fun funky Australian Designs ~ Koala, Kangaroo & Emu Designs for our Australiana Mug Collection…..

I have always took pride in coming up with some truly Australian designs, which are actually made in Australia…..









I would like to present to you this fun and funky designs for you to enjoy or to give to someone as an Australian memento. The Koala, Emu and Kangaroo design will be sure to please.



You can see a great selection of the Australian Range here

Love to hear your thoughts about this exciting  new range….? It is going to be available in the Bauble range soon as well …stay tuned

Today is the last day for the chance to enter the Treasure hunt

Stages of life in your ride on adventure……

 

Which stage of life are you at….? I had to share this…..

Have an awesome week

Introducing ~~ Magnetic Puzzles with Funny Face Activity ~~ in different characters….

Magnetic Puzzles with funny faces in different characters….




Magnetic Funny Face Character Puzzles in a Tin Box


This can be for lots of fun for your own kids or kids in your care alike…Do your own mix and match by putting different eyebrows, eyes, noses, mouths and decorations on the provided pictures to create your very own funny faces!!! They come in four different sets….check them out here.

This is great for:

• encouraging creativity
  
• encouraging freedom of expressing themselves
  
• having lots of fun
  
• one to one activity

Tin box size 20L x 28H x 1W (cm) Suitable for 3 years+

What do you think of these…..would your kids have fun with them?

Lucky State is Victoria again…keep on reading!

 Spend $50.00 and over TODAY on My On Line Gift Shop and shipping is free (regular mail extra to register or for express post)!
This is for Thursday 26th May only for all orders going to Victoria (VICT).
Simply enter "FABKTHURS26" in comment box on checkout and Invoice will be amended.
P.S. this does not apply to items already on Special or with any other offers!
Check out our specials offers on Facebook every Thursday, will be announced on Facebook Wednesday night!

Geelong here I come...off to market we go again this weekend…..”fairy floss markets”

 fairy floss markets is an event where you will find all gorgeous items handmade for Babies and Children.


I love taking part in this event. The quality of the items that you find for purchase are of very high quality, and I am sure you will be impressed, I do not have to keep bragging on about it.


Their events are all held in comfortable inside venues. This time around it will be at the:


Deakin Waterfront Campus in Geelong

1 Gheringhap Street
GEELONG VIC 


Personally I will be displaying  quite a few items from Educational range, also my favorite Barefoot Range. You will also see some of my personalized items that I can create to your own individual needs.


If you intend to come along and you are after something from my Store, I am quite happy to bring it over to Geelong for you to pick up.


Look forward to see some of your there….

How do you wind down, recollect your thoughts and find yourself again…..

Today, through some of the blog posts that I have read, I came along one which inspired me to write this post. Thank you Naomi form Seven Cherubs….I thoroughly enjoyed your post.

Why have you inspired me? For me timeout has always been very important. I enjoy socializing and love my family to bits….but I always found that I also enjoyed my “me time” since I was a child.

• As a child I loved reading…and I used to curl up with a book and I could stay up all night until I finished it. I was always a night owl..and I remember  my mum who use to pester me to switch off the lights to go to sleep. I use to find that it helps me wind down and I sleep more easily after. This is a habit that I still seem to have kept…I do not read books as much these days as I have other interests…but I like to read a few pages of a magazine…it seems to work.
  
• Sports for me was and still is another way of having Time Out….I always played some sort of sport…growing up in my younger days, I played netball and basketball, in my later days, I took up Badminton and I enjoyed it thoroughly that I am still going……Sports help me rejuvenate and I feel so much alive after.
  
• When I was raising my kids, I found that somehow, I always ended up going to bed the last one. I always seemed to find something to do and ponder around, but I think I used to enjoy that quite time when everyone was asleep, it used to give me that chance to regroup and have some me time.
  
• Walking for me was always a time where I can be just me, and just walk and I am in my own space. I find that I do a lot of soul searching while I am walking.
  
• Now I have an empty nest…this has been a big adjustment in my life…and it was so very hard in the beginning. So you might say, I have a lot of time to have timeouts. Yes in a way I do…but I enjoy my work so much that sometimes I tend to forget to do that. Sometimes I have to push myself and drive down to our local cafe and sit there and have some time out over a nice cup of coffee. I feel so refreshed every time I  do it.
  
• Being an artist, I find that I get so much out it, my problem is that I am so addicted, that is hard to stop….
  
• Blogging also has become a way of me having a timeout. I feel that I can have a break from my normal routine and just feel free in expressing myself in writing.
  
• Finally I love being next to the beach, or even just looking at the sea  both in winter and summer, growing up I lived on an Island so the sea was not that far anywhere you go…now we are a bit far away from the beach, but if I had the chance I would drive and just walk and walk along the beach……

I wonder what you do to have some timeout?

Do you have a Christening or a Baptism coming up or may be you are after a Special Baby Gift?

Most parents today are spoiled and showered by Grandparents before the Baby is even born..with a number of items such as clothes, baby furniture, accessories, nappies etc…

Even parents themselves tend to do a fair bit of shopping before the baby is due, and I think sometimes they end up with too much stuff.

People forget that these little gorgeous treasures, they only stay small for a couple of months, and I am sure from my experience you do not even go through all the Baby Clothes that you get given, as most of the time they grow out of them, before you even have a chance to try them on.

Well along the way of  my creating journey, I have come up and actually created the opportunity for those who are after something more personal and special, a truly unique Personalized Keepsake, for you or someone else to TREASURE for many years to come.



Here I am offering you the opportunity to create & personalize a Keepsake...to treasure for many years to come...

• you have a choice of 3 different size plates to choose from
  
• you can have it in sepia, black & white, or colour
  
• you can also have a message included with the image...

When you place your order you need to:

1. choose the size of the plate you are after
2. choose colour of image finish
3. message if required otherwise write N/A
4. After you place your order please attach to an email a jpeg.mailto:romanticflairoriginal@hotmail.com  Make sure that I have enough space to crop around whatever you need me to capture in the photo..

You will receive a confirmation of how image will look on Plate..

If the occasion has not taken place yet...you can take the opportunity to give  a Gift Voucher and the recipient can forward the image at the appropriate time..

I also offer other treasurable Keepsakes some of them you can view here. I am also quite happy to work with you to achieve what you have in mind for that special gift you want to create.

I also have a great range of Baby Gifts… whereby I can organize for you a Special Baby Gift Hamper to suit your budget.

Capture that moment into a Treasurable Keepsake….your Wedding or as a Gift……

We live in a world where we are spoilt with choices……


We capture our Wedding moments…more than likely by a professional photographer, they are turned into special memories either in print, or saved on a digital device.

Well I am going a step further….I can create, design capture your special moment on a ceramic piece of art work…which is fired in a kiln…they do not fade in time …timeless

I can have this done for you either on a

• Plate
  
• Bauble
  
• Mug

You can keep it
Share it, by passing it on as a gift


They can also be special memories to give for special Wedding Anniversaries!



Organize a thank you Gift to your Bridal Party as a memento……



Finishing off if you wish in a special gift box……

And Drum Roll…today Lucky State is Victoria…keep on reading!

Spend $50.00 and over TODAY on My On Line Gift Shop and shipping is free (regular mail extra to register or for express post)!
This is for Thursday 19th May only for all orders going to Victoria (VICT).
Simply enter "FABKTHURS19" in comment box on checkout and Invoice will be amended.
P.S. this does not apply to items already on Special or with any other offers!
Check out our specials offers on Facebook every Thursday, will be announced on Facebook Wednesday night!

STEAKHOUSE ….Docklands Melbourne

  About a week ago, we had some friends over visiting from  Europe, and we organized one night to have dinner at the STEAKHOUSE Docklands.

My husband and myself, arrived earlier than the other group. It was quite a pleasant night,so we took the opportunity and sat on the outside of the restaurant where they have an undercover area overlooking the water, and enjoyed some quality time between the 2 of us. We were welcomed by the lovely Michelle who runs the restaurant. She organized Luciana to look after us.

Our friends arrived and we were all shown to our table. We ordered our meals, I think most of the group ended up ordering steak…which I can say that they all said that it was delicious. Personally I wanted to try 2 light dishes..so I opted out for the Warm steak salad with cucumber, spring onion and blue cheese dressing, which was cooked to perfection, followed by Baked stuffed Portobello mushrooms with tomato stew and goat’s cheese, hmmmm delicious! You can browse at their menu here

Earlier in the night I asked one of the girls to have some jugs of water on the table, where by she said we do not usually do that, but we will make sure we fill your glasses as they empty…I told her we drink a lot of water , so we might annoy you, but true to her words, our glasses were never empty. We had first class service, and I can honestly recommend it.

I have to explain to you as well that out of the group of ten, 3 of us worked in the Hospitality Industry..back in our good old days. The 3 of us are all qualified in the Hospitality Industry and we do appreciate good service when we see it.

Melbourne is spoiled with different Cafe’s and Restaurants, but not all offer great service..as most of their Staff are untrained in the industry, but I have to say that this one passed the test….




Feel free to have a look at their Website…as they have specials during the week. They all also have another STEAKHOUSE at Port Melbourne.

Thank you Michelle and your Staff…for making our night so Special.

Disclosure: No financial payment was offered nor accepted for this post. All opinions expressed are purely my own.

Bloggers Brunch organized by Parenting Group TV Show, “Room to Grow”…..& Sponsors….

   Late April, I received this invite.. from the lovely Elisa from Parenting Group TV Show, “Room to grow”, to attend a Bloggers Brunch. This was an organized event on Elisa’s behalf  by Christie Nicholas, from Kids Business Marketing and PR and also sponsored by Kleenex Mums.



The event was held at the “Daydreamers Kids Indoor Play”. It was a lovely venue, as mum who brought their kids along with them, had the facility for them to have a play while mums attended the brunch.



I was very honoured to be invited as only 50 Bloggers were invited to take part in this Bloggers Brunch, a very special Mother’s Day event to celebrate motherhood and blogging

.

Little Red Photography captured the event extremely well…and you can see some lovely snapshots of the lovely people that attended here.







They had six awesome speakers….who showered us with knowledge and their life time experiences. These lovely ladies were Nicole Avery, Bronny Fallens, Catherine Cervasio, Alli Price, Amanda Cox and Renee Mayne. I think every single person in the group left the event very motivated and lots of soul searching………



I also enjoyed meeting some lovely young mummy bloggers who I am in contact with on line…and who also some of them have reviewed some of my products. The message that I got was loud and clear…these young mums are thriving to find themselves through blogging, they also would love that BRANDS out there realize what POWER they have if they are given the chance to show it. They are the voice of the future…they are the “new marketing evolution”. I have to say,  I have a business of my own, and I started blogging for just over a year now, I enjoy it, and I feel that through blogging, my business is growing, and more people are getting to know about my products that I create and also represent. I would also be looking  in the near future..to be able to blog about other opportunities.



I have to say I also looked at this event from a lot of different angles. Personally I have been involved working with kids for the last 29 years…My career evolved from one thing to another ….and my experiences working with kids has led me to different opportunities. Blogging has come into the picture now….



After the wonderful speeches..a lovely spread of food was offered where we had the opportunity to mingle and get to know other mummy bloggers, we also had the opportunity to browse and acquire some great information from some great Toy Companies who displayed and talked about the products that they had on offer. We were also given some products to take with us to try and use. I will speak about these products in other post…as it is quite late now and I think I should call it a day…



Thank you Elisa for inviting me and look forward to be there in any other events that you may organize in the future…

Corrupt files…frustration……letting out after 2 weeks of continuous mishaps!

Sometimes things seem to go from bad to worse one after an other….so here I am going to lay it out and I am sorry if you are reading …but I think we all been there…and this time it is my turn…to scream it out!

We all love computers right….yes of course we do..if you are reading you must be one of them.They are a great conception, but when things decide to go wrong…believe me, I am sure one will be pulling their hair.

If you have followed me either on Facebook or Twitter or even my Newsletters, you would have heard me say that just the week before Mother’s Day, my On Line Store was down for 4 very long days. The people who host my Website told me “One of the Windows operating system files became corrupted and caused a complete meltdown. They have had to rebuild the server and then restore the data.” Great………..I was praying and hoping against hoping that nothing was lost. Thank God everything seemed to have been restored without any loss of data. Phew…believe me you should have seen the relief on my face


Computers, modern way of connecting with people around the world, your business rely on it…and all of a sudden it can disappear in thin air…..that is a very scary thought…

Wellllllllll last weekend Blogger decided to do maintenance...and so my blog was down.This I did not really take it so bad..as I understand that site maintenance has to be done every so often…but again…questions arises it it going to be okay…These days I always email my post to myself when I publish them, just in case!!!!!!!

  No guys this is not is..the big one is yet to come. Well when I do some events, sometimes I take my laptop and if I find some free time I do some work on my designs. All my work was saved on my desktop, and I decided to transfer this massive folder with all my designs to a USB …without knowing instead of copying and  pasting my folder into the USB, I actually moved everything…when I opened it 95% of my design were corrupted…and I was left with nothing. I wanted to cry…..but I had to stop, think and not panic. I returned back home, I was reckoning my brain to see how I might restore them back. I Googled to see if there was anything on line that can help me do it…..there are certain programs on line that you can download, they say it is for free, but then they lead to a paid site….and to tell you the truth I did not feel comfortable.

Anyway I slept on it, I first rang Microsoft to see if they can suggest something, but they could not help me.I decided to ring Dell support to see if they can help me…they were very nice, and they guided me through to do a restore…but NO we could not restore them…! My Last option was to ring Photoshop to see they could do anything…and the ANWSER is NO….finally I gave up and decided to start the hard way …thank God I had most of my images and designs that were saved in other files…and I had to copy and save copy and save and copy and save….and managed to get most of it back…I still have to work on some which probably will take me a a good week to get it back to where I was……but ahhhhhh who am I to complain……

This is how I ended up last night or rather early this morning…..
 
What I learnt from this.

• Backup, Backup, Backup……
  
• When transferring files, do not move them, copy and paste, copy and paste….
  
• Make sure that when files are opened they are okay and then you can delete.
  
• Always great to have a backup of everything……

Oh thank you for listening, I needed to vent out! I am sure you have some of your stories or experiences to tell me?

Sunday at Lardner park…….craft markets australia

As this cold snap has came upon us…I am hoping against hoping that tomorrow, the sun will shine upon us for a little while at least…forecast to clear…so we might have a snappy cold day without showers…

So tomorrow off I go to Lardner Park event organized by the craft markets australia, looking forward to it as I have not been at this event for nearly a year.I am looking forward to catch with my lovely customers from that region….

Yes I will be displaying my full range of Personalized products and my Christmas range…welcome to place your orders….there and it is a great time to see the full range on display.

Have an awesome weekend everyone….rug up and you can still have a great day out.

Bloggers Brunch organized by Parenting Group TV Show, “Room to Grow”…..& Sponsors….

   Late April, I received this invite.. from the lovely Elisa from Parenting Group TV Show, “Room to grow”, to attend a Bloggers Brunch. This was an organized event on Elisa’s behalf  by Christie Nicholas, from Kids Business Marketing and PR and also sponsored by Kleenex Mums.

The event was held at the “Daydreamers Kids Indoor Play”. It was a lovely venue, as mum who brought their kids along with them, had the facility for them to have a play while mums attended the brunch.

I was very honoured to be invited as only 50 Bloggers were invited to take part in this Bloggers Brunch, a very special Mother’s Day event to celebrate motherhood and blogging
.
Little Red Photography captured the event extremely well…and you can see some lovely snapshots of the lovely people that attended here.



They had six awesome speakers….who showered us with knowledge and their life time experiences. These lovely ladies were Nicole Avery, Bronny Fallens, Catherine Cervasio, Alli Price, Amanda Cox and Renee Mayne. I think every single person in the group left the event very motivated and lots of soul searching………

I also enjoyed meeting some lovely young mummy bloggers who I am in contact with on line…and who also some of them have reviewed some of my products. The message that I got was loud and clear…these young mums are thriving to find themselves through blogging, they also would love that BRANDS out there realize what POWER they have if they are given the chance to show it. They are the voice of the future…they are the “new marketing evolution”. I have to say,  I have a business of my own, and I started blogging for just over a year now, I enjoy it, and I feel that through blogging, my business is growing, and more people are getting to know about my products that I create and also represent. I would also be looking  in the near future..to be able to blog about other opportunities.

I have to say I also looked at this event from a lot of different angles. Personally I have been involved working with kids for the last 29 years…My career evolved from one thing to another ….and my experiences working with kids has led me to different opportunities. Blogging has come into the picture now….

After the wonderful speeches..a lovely spread of food was offered where we had the opportunity to mingle and get to know other mummy bloggers, we also had the opportunity to browse and acquire some great information from some great Toy Companies who displayed and talked about the products that they had on offer. We were also given some products to take with us to try and use. I will speak about these products in other post…as it is quite late now and I think I should call it a day…

Thank you Elisa for inviting me and look forward to be there in any other events that you may organize in the future…

Looks like the next 3 weeks will be lots of fun….doing this Hunt….

   Do you feel like having some fun and at the end of it, you will be in the draw for some fabulous prizes?
Well you cannot go pass this one…Over $1600.00 in prized to be won….check it our for yourself at Mums who Make.


Romantic Flair Original is part of this….so why don’t you join the fun and invite others to do so to

Master Chef……cooking…cafe’s…..pretend play!

  On Television these day…almost every channel has a Cooking show of some sort or another….
I am sure we are aware of this as most of us are hooked on these shows…
Everyone seems to want to learn and excel in how they cook and present food in a  professional way.
Cafe’s are springing everywhere….and they are all competing with each other to impress us…Let’s face it, the young and the older generation, we all love to meet up with friends over a coffee to catch up. I know quite a few cafe’s are catering for younger mums with kids, where they provide a play area for the children to have a play while mum’s catch up with each other over a coffee. It is just an opportunity for one to have a break and at the same time socialize.
This awesome Cafe Shop Play Set  offers great extended pretend play.

• The 2 gorgeous dolls dressed up with Chef Hats and aprons as well.. have flexible arms and legs.
  
• Amongst all the accessories, it comes with cups, saucers, coffee pot, toaster cake,  tray, tables, chairs, tablecloth etc.…
  
• One can put everything back in the box when finished play and can be taken anywhere they want….The front of the box is illustrated with a coffee shop image.

A great set to introduce or perhaps extend the experience of you going to have a meal or a coffee in a cafe. This set encourages,

• social skills
  
• encourages new language skills
  
• manipulative skills

And finally but not least….lots and lots of fun…
You can also find some interesting ideas below.

Red hill Market, looking forward to be there ….

I have a soft spot for Redhill Market….
I love the atmosphere, the hustle and bustle of the Saturday Morning event!
I will be exhibiting there this weekend ….so it will be great to catch up with some of you lovely people. It is the last one before the winter break. Will be back in operation again in September…So please feel free to come and see me if you want to organize yourself and place some orders for later on in the year.

You will find me in the shed next to the playgrounds.

I will have my full display of Personalized Gifts and Christmas Display. Also feel free to ask if you are after something you can place it via my On Line Store…and I am quite happy to bring it over at the market for you.

Okay today lucky state is Canberra (ACT) free shipping…keep on reading!

Spend $80.00 and over TODAY on My On Line Gift Shop and shipping is free (regular mail extra to register or for express post)!
This is for Thursday 5th May only for all orders going to Canberra (ACT).
Simply enter "FABKTHURS05" in comment box on checkout and Invoice will be amended.
P.S. this does not apply to items already on Special or with any other offers!
Check out our specials offers on Facebook every Thursday, will be announced on Facebook Wednesday night!

How to make a button for your blog either for WordPress or Blogger, so your readers can share around!

   <a border="0" herf="http://romanticflairoriginal.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx27/romanticflairoriginal/logo150.jpg" /></a>

Well today, I read an awesome, Guest Post On Mummy Blogger Blog, by Kelly from Be a Fun mum, “ If I Could Go Back: Word Press Blog Setup To Do List”. Please read it, as I am sure you find it very fruitful. She also talks here how to do a blog button for your WordPress blog…but as you can see my blog is a blogger…so I decided to find out how to do one on my blog…as I have been meaning to do one for a while now. 
It is so exciting and fulfilling when you achieve something…and I am so grateful with the help that I find on the net..so I decided to share it with you. If you need the exact directions please go to this blog post by Carrie from  Oikology 101
She explains it extremely well and I found it so easy to follow…. and to make it simpler for you after you read her post this is what you need to do your button, simple change details where it says your blog url and your image direct link url  and then copy the whole code and put it in the gadget with the Html option and save…It is as simple as that…of course when you learn how to do it ….Wow it feels so good…!

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<a border="0" href="yourblogURL" target="_blank"><img src="yourimagedirectlinkURL"/></a>
<textarea rows="4" cols="20">
<a border="0" href="yourblogURL" target="_blank"><img src="yourimagedirectlinkURL"/></a>
</textarea>

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Hope you enjoy doing yours and please feel free to link to my blog…the more we help the more we create a better world

   <a border="0" herf="http://romanticflairoriginal.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx27/romanticflairoriginal/logo150.jpg" /></a>

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About Marthese

Marthese is the face behind:

• Romantic Flair Original ( My on line Gift Shop, where I create and source out unique and special products)
• Founder and editor of Blogs,  Romantic Flair Original and Christmas by Romantic Flair Original
• Learn more about her here
• You can sign up for her newsletter
• You can now connect with her as well by pressing the below buttons

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