Where have I been??

Good question! well, very busy doing lots of new things. The Joyess brand has been growing and developing and has now come together in two new gorgeous blogs:

www.joyessimages.com/blog

and

blog.joyessdesigns.com

This blog was such a great learning curve for me and I am sad to say goodbye to it, but very pleased to have these new blogs to share with you. Please jump over and add us to your subscription list - you won't regret it - promise :)

jess

x

Farmyard Party

Inspired by other stay-at-home-designer-project-mode-y mums I decided to try my hand at creating party printables. I mentioned this to my friend Jen who cunningly got me to design some stuff for her daughter's upcoming 2nd birthday. Miss 2 loves animals so it had to be a farm party!

yummy food! I love love love the butterfly fairy bread! 

Here are some of the printable bunting, cupcake toppers and tags I designed.

 I do love how cute labels and ribbons make even the simplest things look lovely. Printing the juice labels onto a4 stick on labels was a stroke of genius on my part (if I do say so myself!!) much easier than glueing every single one  - like I did for Little Man's 1st birthday!

Here's the birthday girl herself! All the other kids were invited to dress up as farm animals and Miss 2 was the farmer. Jen picked up these cute overalls and hat at Kmart (I think?) and I added the fabric  belt and flowers to it just to girly it up a little more. Don't you think this gorgeous family look like they belong in a magazine?

Speaking of farm animals... here is Little Man as a cow.. You can see the hat didn't last long. Fluffy chickens were far too interesting to bother about a hat.

 Jen had a Kiddy Farm come to the party and it was so cute seeing all the different reactions the kids had. Miss 2 was besotted with these chickens (perhaps she knew how well they matched her outfit??) and sat with them on her legs for ages being very gentle. I love her little hands carefully holding them.

 Another little cow makes his way through the party and this little miss on the right may forever be known as chicken choker! I've never seen 1 year old hands go so fast for a chicken's neck. It was hilarious!!

 The party favours were these super cute piggy banks - such a great alternative to lolly bags!

All in all a very beautiful party. Jen did such a wonderful job putting it all together and lovely time was had by all!

Christmas Present idea!

For those of you following along in Sydney who may also have kids here's a great (and affordable!) idea for Christmas presents for the Grandparents!

new venture!

I'm so excited to announce a new business that I'm partnering in with the very talented Hristina Piltz. We have just today launched Joyess Images. Feel free to come and visit the website www.joyessimages.com and to "like" us on facebook.

photos photos photos

so... I might be blog obsessed at the mo... I've just started a second one. This one is more about the photos and less about the words. Just pics of things I've been doing, designing, photographing, liking etc etc. Head on over if you'd like to have a squiz.

Here's a preview....

Pop on over to www.joyessphotos.tumblr.com and feel free to follow me on my pictorial journey!

baby and tea

Our great friend Taz (who is about 8 and a half months pregnant) recently celebrated her 30th birthday with a 50's themed party. I took along my new whizz bang camera and was unofficial shutterbug for the evening. Here is one of my fav pics of the night. I love Taz's flashy red nails and her gorgeous bump.

I also tried using a frame on this pic. I can't decide if I like it or not, but I got 50 free vector frames here and thought "hmm.. worth a try!" And... we always love a freebie over here!

cheap thrills

With my new whizz bang camera and lens, there isn't much more that makes me happy than being able to take pics of my Little Man. 

spying on the neighbours

having a rest

showing me his sore hand (he burnt it on the heater.. poor little muffin)

A new arrival

and no... I'm not pregnant.

but I am almost as excited to announce the new arrival of a Nikon D90 into our family! (apologies to those who don't really care for camera talk.. feel free to look away now)

ooooh look at it! All shiny and new... I haven't even taken off the protective film yet. (mainly because I haven't started using it yet.) My Father-in-Law has very VERY kindly and generously been lending us his D90 for the past oooh 12 months (!) and we thought it was time to get our own. Also.. Little Man MAY have broken his Poppy's lens, so Poppy gets the kit lens that our D90 came with and I'm getting 2 new ones. (yet to arrive, hence the protective film still sitting there, tempting me)

So look forward to improved pics on the blog - hoorah!