Baby Bonkie also makes a Bonkie Bag (sleep sack) for older babies in similarly chic designs.  These have to be ordered from the US.

Add comments

 

Birthday cakes are special.  It's one of the things that everyone remembers at a party, especially the birthday boy or girl.

We were lucky enough to find Cake Occasions just before our daughter turned one.  From the day we started talking to them about the cake, it was a great experience.  They asked us about the theme of the party (which is something I didn't even know was required at that point!), the style of the invitations and what kind of cake we liked. 

Having the time to work all this out was great, as it let us match everything (invitations, gift bags, decorations, personalised candy - more on that later) to get a more consistent feel.

Cake Occasions' principal designer, Christopher Chavez has more than 15 years experience as a professional cake artist, and this really shows in his work.  

Dealing with Alisa in the design phase was terrific.  She made great suggestions that ended up becoming the entire theme of the party. And she was happy to provide sketches to illustrate ideas, which helped enormously. 

So how was the cake?  Amazing.  It looked and tasted fantastic.  We went for chocolate mud (they have 8 other flavours to choose from), which in addition to the most decadently delicious cake I've ever tasted, has layers of icing inside as well as around the cake.  Not one person wanted to leave before the cake was cut and we had a line of guests wanting to take cake home.

Cake Occasions is located in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and delivers all over the country.  Cakes start at $150 (ours cost $250) and require about two weeks' notice for best results. 

They can deliver all over Sydney with the average delivery price being $60, depending on location. They also deliver interstate using Australian air express and delivery cost varies depending on location.

Cake Occasions is going to run a Kids Birthday Cake class in the last week of January after the school holidays. The classes will run from 10 – 4 on a Sunday and will include basic cake set up, making ganache, creating the perfect base for decorating, covering the cake in icing and learning how to decorate or finish the cake – with different themes. All tools will be provided and the cost is $300 per person. At the moment they are calling for expressions of interest so please email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on if you are interested in participating.  What a great way to perfect your technique. 

 

Cake Occasions is about to launch a new website so enjoy having a look around at some of their amazing creations, and here are a few more below.

 

Add comments

There’s only one sure way to stop your little boy from turning your expensive couch into a three-dimensional road for his cars and trucks. And that’s to give him a road of his very own. The only problem? Every road rug I’ve seen – including the one that graces the floor in my son’s room – is a little on the cheap and nasty side.

Well, that’s something no-one would dare say about the sensational Miles carpet from Balouga. Created by designers from the Big Game agency, it’s quite possibly the only stylish road rug for mini motor fiends anywhere in the world.

Here at Babyology, we like the grey for the family room or the Ferrari-red racetrack for jazzing up the kids’ bedrooms, but you can also select your own colour from anywhere on the Pantone colour chart.

The rug is made to order from hand-tufted wool and costs UK£1039 – or roughly $2290 in our own Aussie dollars – plus shipping. Of course, at that price, you might prefer your kids drive on the couch! The Miles is available from Little Fashion Gallery, who will ship anywhere in the world. Contact them via their website for a shipping quote.

Add comments

I’m as modern as the next mum when it comes to most things. I organise play dates for my kids via SMS. I buy their designer clobber online with the click of a mouse. And the grandparents get their latest brag snaps via email. But I’m very old-fashioned when it comes to marking special occasions. You’ll never find me firing off an email – or worse, a text message - to congratulate a friend on the birth of their baby or some other momentous occasion. And party invites by SMS? I don’t think so.

No, the only acceptable (and truly stylish) way to mark these events is with a proper card. That’s why I’m deliriously happy to have found these letterpress printed cards from Sweetbeets that capture a bit of the innocence of childhood with a twist of nostalgia thrown in for good measure.

The so-sweet line drawings from designer extraordinaire Lisa Zuraw show kids in superhero capes, splashing in puddles, holding balloons, toddling on wobbly legs with a pull-toy or – my favourites – blowing on a dandelion and having a tea party with a stuffed toy. Lisa has also paired numbers, from one to five, with old-fashioned spinning tops, dominoes and other traditional toys in another series of cards perfect for marking birthdays. Or frame the entire set and use them as a rather stunning and original counting frieze to decorate your nursery. Gorgeous. 

The cards are printed in Canada on 100 per cent recycled paper using a vintage letterpress and vegetable-based inks. So they’re incredibly eco-friendly as well as incredibly adorable! You can get selected cards in Australia from Three Little Trees for a teeny handful of our own gold coins. 

 

Show comments (2) - Add comments

 

If those tradtionally-structured baby name books are straining your eyes, and you only get from A to D before zoning out, let alone to the boys' section, then help is at hand! Name nerds already know there are some creative means to search for baby names online these days.

Featuring a fabulously fluidic graph called the 'Voyager', the Baby Name Wizard provides parents and name afficionados with an easy way of viewing name usage statistics over the decades. Type in a single letter and many names will pop up with their popularity trajectories displayed in pink or blue in the background. Move your cursor over the names to see their ranking decade by decade. Of course, just plug in a single name to see it's specific rises and falls in popularity. It's just fascinating to play with!

I have the book that partners the site. It contains ideal sibling names and interesting comments on name character and usage in past and present times. There's a mini graph that correlates with the Baby Name Wizard Voyager and fantastic lists at the back of the book according to style rather than alphabetic order. It's surprising how very spot on the author Laura Wattenberg is, in categorising hundreds of names! My boys' names very much fit the 'Ladies and Gentlemen' style, as do the other names on my lists. Sibling suggestions for my two include Leo, Julius, Clara and Josephine.

Second time parents can sometimes be a desperate lot. We've already used our very favourite name in the world - now what? That was us in any case, and we had a lot of fun with another naming site, Nymbler. Type in your existing child's name and voila, Nymbler will suggest more potential sibling names than you'll ever be able to use! Laura Wattenburg is also a contributor to this ingenious site, recruited by a group of scientists disappointed with online naming resources. Nymbler uses a 'patented "hunch engine" - a tool that suggests ideas for people who know what they like, but don't necessarily know why.' Names that you dislike or can't use can be blocked from appearing in the results.

Check out the blogs of both sites - they make for excellent reading. They are also continuously evolving with readers contributing new information every day. Jennie Baird, President of the Baby Name Wizard site also tells us that a new suite of amazing baby naming tools will be launched very soon!

Have fun while you search for the perfect name and shelve those alphabetised books until you've done your shortlist. They're still handy to compare name meanings and historical tidbits, but they no longer need to be your only hope! Make the Baby Name Wizard and Nymbler your first ports of call when you're looking for "The" name!

Add comments