DIY Retirement Ambulance!

One week ago today, my dad officially retired! Such a huge milestone to reach after 38 years in the NSW Ambulance Service. I couldn't be more proud to call him my dad and Papa for my kids, he is truly a super hero!
Dad let his immediate family know about his impending retirement 2 weeks before the official day it came into action. Instantly my mind starting to race with what little gift or trinket I could buy or make him in celebration of such an event.
Finally inspiration hit (thanks for the one zillionth time to Pinterest) and I was off.

From eBay I found a second hand walking frame for a few $$ that by sheer luck was the colour I needed it to be - red. Saved me painting it!!
Next stop was somewhere that had a novelty horn that would sound like a siren. I must admit I went into quite a number of places from bike shops, to hobby shops, to car parts stores hoping to get what I was after but found nothing to suit until one of the auto parts store salesmen suggested Jaycar. Within 5 mins of explaining to the gentleman that asked what I was after I had a siren, a red flashing light and a battery pack to make it all work. Winning!!
Another eBay purchase of some red and white reflective checkered tape and a simple first aid kit to sit inside the basket of the frame and I was sorted.

I would love to claim I wired it all up myself but I wasn't too confident I could get it all right so my brother came to the rescue - (pun intended).

Dad, and the rest of the family, had a good laugh when he was presented with his new 'Retirement Ambulance'.

LEGO Gift Wrapping DIY!

Do you have a little LEGO fan in your house? or maybe a friend of one of your kids? a niece, nephew, grandchild? Who, like my little guy, LOVES LEGO?? If so, how about this little idea for the next time you are wrapping a gift for the LEGO fan...
LEGO Gift Wrapping!

Master Giggleberry turned 5 just last week so a few days before I was thinking I needed to get his presents wrapped. I like to have a bit of fun with gift wrapping but bows, ribbons and 'pretty' things would not be quite right for my little Superhero, Ninja, Star wars loving boy. Then **DING** I had a light bulb moment. I would wrap his gifts (that were mainly boxes of LEGO) to look like blocks of LEGO!

What You Need:
Plain coloured wrapping paper (I went with traditional LEGO colours of red, yellow, green and blue)
Single pieces of single coloured cardboard (make sure they match the wrapping paper colour)
Sticky Tape
Scissors
A Round Circle Punch (mine is a 2 inch punch)
1) Wrap your gift in the wrapping paper trying to keep it as tight to the square or rectangular shape as possible (maybe even pop the gift inside an empty box if it is not quite the right shape top wrap alone)
2) Take a piece of the coloured cardboard and punch a set of circles. Depending on the size of your gift will determine how many dots you will need. I had some with 6, some with 3, some with 4 and some with 12 to suit the different gifts.
3) With a loop of sticky tape (just a small piece of sticky tape looped around on itself) stick the coloured spots to the gift evenly to look like the bumps on a LEGO piece. (You could also use double sided foam tape)

You are done. Write in a card or gift tag and hand it to the receiver - I bet it gets a great response!!

You could easily do this in pinks and purple for any little LEGO Friends lover too! Have fun xx

Maple Bacon Birthday Cake!!

Birthday are kinda a big deal around here! There is early morning wake ups to rip opens gifts in PJs, there are breakfasts of birthday persons choice, there is our birthday chair cover, there are birthday badges to wear all day long and of course there is a birthday cake to suit the birthday boy or girl.
Today is Mister Giggleberry's birthday. Mister Giggleberry is not too much of a 'sweet tooth' and just recently we have started to try a paleo diet at home, stepping up from just clean eating & to match our new love of CrossFit. With all these factors to consider I went cake hunting for inspiration on Pinterest and struck gold with a few ideas rolled into one EPIC cake!
One 3 Layered Paleo Spice Cake with Cashew Maple Frosting wrapped in Candied Bacon!!

The recipe for the cake and frosting can be found HERE thanks to The Paleo Mum. The recipe I followed for the candied bacon is HERE by Recipe Girl

This flavour combo is just like the Candian favourite of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup... something hubby LOVES!!

This is gluten free and dairy free but not strictly paleo due to the sugar on the bacon but it's a birthday cake after all... maybe I need to find a more paleo way to make candied bacon. Any ideas?? If you leave the candied bacon off OR found a paleo way to make it then this recipe would also be refined sugar free!!
Happy birthday hubster!!!