2012 - Where have you gone?

Wow, can you believe how quickly 2012 has gone? I certainly can't.  This time last year I was suffering from 'all day sickness' while trying to get organised for Christmas - this year we have a gorgeous, almost 6 month old baby!! Time goes way too fast and he is growing so quickly.

 

He really is a lovely baby & a joy to have in the house! He has recently started rolling over & now gets himself up onto his knees like he wants to crawl :( So sad I want him to stay a baby just a little longer! 

Tom and Max have grown up so much lately too & I am finding it hard to believe that at the end of next month I will have a Year 2 & a Year 1 in the house.  

Alec has been such a good baby that it's allowed me to keep up with Pink Apple & I have so many things to share with you - lots of new stock as well as a lot of old favourites coming back!

Top Row - Button clips & elastics, small yoyos & bird clips 
Bottom - Large yoyo brooch/clip, boutique bow & crochet flower

 Gifts:  Best Seller at Christmas time - jar of beads (not suitable for under 3) gorgeous handmade bunnies custom made for Pink Apple by a lovely lady in my local area, Pink Apple best seller box of ribbon

 One of my favourite products to make - the Just Because birds. For that special person who you want to give a little gift 'just because' Shop now:  www.pinkapple.biz

I am absolutely loving the gorgeous Summer colours that are around at the moment and have something to suit every outfit! A plain white t can take on many different looks just by changing your necklace.  My Summer staples are denim shorts (fave at the moment from Target - they're a dark, light weight denim with a navy bow at the front and cuff.  love them. ) and a white top.  I change my sandals & necklace & I have a new outfit!

Pink Apple is going eco-friendly!!

There are many changes coming to Pink Apple, some you have seen already & some are taking shape behind the scenes to be released soon!
I am very excited about the New products coming to Pink Apple and the direction that Pink Apple is heading. 
I have done a lot of soul searching in the past couple of years and 2012 has been a year of growth {not just business wise either - I seem to have 'grown' a little too in the recent months ;) }.
2010 was a crazy year which I promised to never repeat, not only to myself but to my family.  I had markets on every second weekend, I was on my sons kindy fundraising committee, I captained a team in the local Relay for Life & I kept on adding to my growing stockist list.  It seemed like I never had a spare minute to myself let alone time to see my friends! I always found myself saying.
I swore 2011 would be different then I decided to take on the role of Weight Watchers leader for an exisiting meeting + open a new meeting.  All the while trying to get organsied for the Pasky Field Days, by far the busiest event I attend! Things calmed down toward the end of the year when we found out that we were expecting our 3rd baby :) 
I have learnt a lot since starting my business as K - Lou Jewels IN 1997. Fast forward 15 years there have been many product changes & 2 changes of business name!! 

THEN -  Some of my earlier products!

NOW - I've learnt so many new techniques over the years :)

There will be many more eco-friendly products coming to Pink Apple for Spring/Summer 2012/2013 - in our house we try to stick to the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" so it seemed like a natural progression to take this over in to Pink Apple! 

Eco - Friendly Shopping Basket - so many uses, $29.95 + postage 

These are just 2 of the new eco-friendly products coming to Pink Apple, I have a gorgeous collection of organic & recycled materials here just waing to be made into hair accessories & jewellery! 

Kathryn xx

Wow! So much has happened in the Loveridge household since my last blog post.  
We've moved house, (moving while 7 months pregnant, not ideal!!), celebrated my Mum's 70th Birthday and welcomed out 3rd baby boy into our family. 

 The family at Mums party - Brett, me (pregnant with Alec), Annabel, Harry, Verity, David, Judith, Charlotte, Mike
Front - Max, Dad, Mum, Henry

We are so lucky to have moved into the family home on Brett's farm (how lucky are his Mum & Dad though - they've moved to the beach!!) and we all love it here.  We have emus, sheep, cows and bees.  The ducks are still on the to do list, I plan to buy 5 white indian runners and I will name them Hermione, Clementine, Gertrude, Harriet and Philomena.   They aren't names we had picked out if our boys had of been girls, they are just names I think would be suited to my 5 ducks :)
I've just planted our vegie patch - love it - and they are starting to look fabulous - I can't wait to see what our vegetable Harvest is like come Summer!  

 Now onto our little man.  Well he is gorgeous, amazing, beautiful, I could go on all day!! I worried when I was pregnant that I wouldn't remember what to do with a baby but he's just slipped into the fanily like it was meant to be! We all love him & the poor little man hardly gets a moments peace.  Everyone is obsessed with him & everone fights over him, from Tom & Max to my sister Judith & niece Charlotte even my Mum & Dad, from the minute Alec enters the room they all want him!! 
Here he is in a gorgeous pic Anna Nelson took for me a month or 2 ago x

I hope you are all well and enjoying the beautiful weather Mother Nature is throwing our way! 

Kathryn xx

Morning Out in Moonta

My Iced Coffee From Henry on George - YUM!!!

 We only live 15 minutes out of Moonta, but on a lovely day like today a morning out in Moonta feels like you are away on holidays.  No trip to Moonta is complete without visiting Henry on George for a coffee - I decided to have a splurge & have an Iced Coffee with cream instead of my usual cup of tea or latte & oh my it was sensational!! Tom & Max both had Iced Chocolate - that certainly kept them quite for 5 minutes!!!

Max enjoying his Iced Chocolate!

Tom loving his Iced Chocolate too

Some sweet Treats from Moonta Chocolates

 Our next port of call was Moonta Chocolates, Sweets & Treats.  Paradise for a Sweet Tooth let me tell you!! Their chocolate is homemade & delicious, I am very partial to the strawberries & cream truffles!

Gift to myself from "Make it a Home" in Moonta

Mum's Bday present from the absolutely Gorgeous Miners Couch

I finally used my gift voucher from my lovely friends Meg & Sharyn at the Miners Couch - a gorgeous little arrangement & an equally gorgeous scarf

Our last stop was the absolutely gorgeous shop - The Miners Couch.  I could spend all day in there, there are so many gorgeous things.  It was a quick visit today though as I had 2 'helpers'  not so easy to browse with Max on board!!!  I got a gorgeous little present to give Mum for her birthday tomorrow - her 'real present' will be a photobook from Mango Ink which we will organise after her party.

Hope you are all enjoying this glorious weather!!

Kooky Kidz Markets - April 14th - Moonta Area School

Well, I have to say I had a fabulous day at my first Kooky Kidz Market yesterday, I missed the first one because we were at a family wedding (although I was very lucky to have 2 fabulous friends Nat & Rach run a stall there for me) so I was very excited to head along.  Markets like this one remind me why I love markets - the atmosphere is lovely & I am pretty sure I spend more time talking than selling!!!

I had fabulous neighbours - Heidi from Shiny Things of Black Springs and oh my goodness her new necklaces are absolutely STUNNING!!!  Heidi's stall display was fabulous too - I really wanted to sneak one of her boards into my suitcase to use at home - it really would look gorgeous with some of my jewellery hanging on it!!

My back neighbours were Little Blue Helicopter and I am not quite sure how I managed to stop myself buying more toys for my boys! There were so many things they would've loved but we're moving house soon so no more toys for now!!

Across the road was Katie-Lee with her other business KooKoo Kidz - I really think we chould nickname Katie-Lee superwoman, not only has she single handedly created this fabulous market for our beautiful area of The Copper Coast but she has done it with out the backing of any major corporations.  Not just that she's got 2 young kids with another on the way yet she still manages to have a smile on her face & something nice to say!!

As usual the KooKoo Kidz stall was gorgeous - who could resist those gorgeous owl beanies?? Can't wait to see what our next baby is (9 weeks to go - woohoo!!) because he/she will definitely be needing one!

Other highlights for me were Buggyboo -  absolutely LOVE their canvases, can't wait to custom order one for a special someone soon & also pick out our lounge so I can buy myself one.  The sayings are just gorgeous and I am pretty sure once you start buying them you'll want one for every room of the house!!

Finally saw the Neat 2 Eat stall in person, if you haven't checked out their fanpage, it is definitely worth a look, since I have started following Ebony's page I have certainly cut back on the amount of pre packaged food I send for school lunches - what Ebony packs for her son is amazing!! I refrained from buying any cutters telling myself I don't need any more I have a massive tub, but you know what, I don't have any miniature ones so they're on the shopping list for when we've moved!

As usual there were gorgeous creations from Handmade by Stacey, 4 Little Babushka's & Fizz by Felicity - 3 more locals with lovely products!

Let's move onto the food, glorious food ... My first sampling of the food & drinks on offer came from Jitter Bean with one of their amazing coffee's.  I first met these ladies when we both had stalls at the YP Field Days in 2010 and have watched their business bloom & grow everytime I have see them since then.  For lunch I had a chicken sushi roll & vegetarian spring roll from Yayas Fresh Delights - without a doubt this is hands down the best sushi I have ever had!  My sweet treats for the day came from Edible Temptations - just writing their name is making me get all giddy and my mouth water.  Their truffles were to die for, I bought 6 and should've bought 36 so I had lots of spares for the weeks to come.  They were amazing.  Look on their page, become a fan and find their next market because you really need to try them!
Cupcakes from Cupcakes & Co were also on our sweet treat list & they certainly didn't disappoint.  How lucky am I that my has organised Kylie to make the cupcakes for her 20th Birthday celebration next Sunday so I won't be hard to find - I'll be hanging out with the cupcake stand... just making sure they all taste ok ;)

For more info on the next market & see a sneak peak at the photos from Danielle Myers Photography head to the Kooky Kidz market fanpage :)

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!!

Some more new products from Pink Apple

There is something about Houndstooth fabric that I just love - especially these 2 gorgeous colours!! Houndstooth always reminds me of David Jones and walking through there front doors as a little girl and being greeted by the delicious smell of cookie man cookies wafting up from the basement and the man playing the Grand Piano on the Ground Floor!! Does anyone else remember him?? xx

I love making these flowers, there is something so therapeutic about hand stitching.  These are perfect for our Pink Apple Winter Beanies or to brighten up a Winter Coat go to www.pinkapple.biz to buy

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My name is Kathryn & I wear my nightie to Woolies

A few weeks ago I went to Adelaide to drop my Mother in law at the airport and we popped into Tea Tree Plaza on the way for me to grab a few things, one of the things on my list was a casual navy maternity dress, which I planned to team with navy leggings and navy ballet flats for an outfit that I could dress up or down.

After searching in many shops I was thrilled to find the perfect dress (pictured above) in Big W in their fabulous "Nine & Mine" matenity range.  If you are looking for maternity clothing, they're certainly worth looking at, they're affordable, comfortable & stylish too.

I couldn't wait to wear it and had the perfect place to wear it to that weekend - into Kadina to pick up my boys from Church as they'd had a sleep over the night before at my Mum & Dads.

I'm not going to lie to you, I felt pretty - the dress was so comfy, it sat on the right places and my Mum told me that I looked lovely.

I swanned around in Kadina feeling fabulous, the boys & I headed to Woolies to pick up fresh rolls & meat for lunch and we went to the playground where I sat loving life reading the paper. 

So imagine my horror when I came home & started sorting the weekly receipts and putting them into my expenses diary.  There it was in black and white on the Big W docket "Nine & Mine nightie".  Um what??? I didn't buy a nightie, just my dress and some stationery for the boys.  Didn't I??

I looked down at my lovely stripey dress and it hit me - it did look rather nightie-ish, with the horizontal strips & soft stretchy fabric.  It also hit me that I had paraded around town in my nightie - lucky there isn't a Big W in Kadina....

I have to confess that my "nightie" is still hanging in my wardrobe - I can't bring myself to put it in the bottom drawer with my owl & cupcake flannies, and also I have to confess that it had a second outing to Mum and Dads for tea Friday night (and another outing to Woolies when I ran in to grab the hot chickens...) But now after sharing my secret with you all I guess I'd better leave my nightie home in future... :(

Hope you are all having a lovely Easter!!

Wow, 2012, where are you going???

 2011 just flew past me, and 2012 is looking to be much the same!
Some of you may have missed our exciting news from last year, we will be welcoming baby number 3 to our family in June/July this year.  After a rough start (lots of morning sickness) we are doing much better and can't believe that we are now at the "12 weeks to go" stage. 
It will be very different having a baby in the house again, our two beautiful boys Tom & Max are 6 1/2 and 5 and will both be at school next term so it will be a shock to have nappies & bottles again!!

Tom

Max

Max with bees

 

Tom with bees

It was very exciting over December 2011, January 2012 for Pink Apple and welcomed two new stockists to the Pink Apple family.

One is the most gorgeous childrenswear shop called Eastside Childrenswear, you can find them at 222 Kensington Road, Marryatville and once you go in you won't want to leave!! There are so many gorgeous things to look at, clothing, toys, gifts, all gorgeous!

The second new Stockist is South Australian based clothing company, Bullrush.   I have been a fan of Bullrush Clothing for many years so it is quite exciting!!

In February I decided that it was time to head to markets again (don't want you to forget me!!) and went along to Lollipop Markets.  What an amazing day.  I'd never been to one at the new location (AAMI Stadium) and it was HUGE! I didn't get the chance to look around much but it was lovely catching up with some favourites who I haven't seen for a long time, including Kirsty from the gorgeous "Gracie Lou", Toni from "Fairydust", Anna from "Tillytom", Bree from "Chikkie Moo & Lollipop Markets" as well as Zoe from "Under my Wing" I also came across a new business who I have to mention, Chook Shed Designs - oh my goodness, gorgeous!!!

That's enough from me today, I must get off the computer and get organised for Max's kindy graduation

Something new for 2012

Sweet Holiday Treat

The little people in my house have been loving these "Fruit Bubble Bump" treats (ok, I admit it - the big people have been loving them too!)
They are so quick & easy to prepare and a great way for me to get a tiny bit of fruit into my kids without them knowing.

"Fruit Bubble Bumps"

Preparation time : 10 minutes

(Recipe says it makes 12 but I use the mini patty pans and it makes about 60 - they are a little too sweet to have too big anyway)

200g butter/margarine

4 tablespoons of honey {for more flavour use honey that you've bought directly from a supplier -Brett is a beekeeper and our honey is amazing - you'll never go back once you've had fresh honey :) }

4 1/2 cups rice bubbles

1/2 cup dates, chopped

1/2 cup dried apple (I put mine in food processor to make it even finer)

1. line your muffin pan with cupcake cases
2. Bring butter/margarine & honey to boil & simmer for 5 minutes
3. Combine other ingredients in a mixing bowl, pour the honey/butter mix over dry ingredients & mix
4. Divide mixture between case, refrigerate until firm. Store in an airtight container to keep fresh.

So easy & so delicious!!