Weekend Round-Up: Drums, Paper Flowers, and the Dress My Son Picked

It’s Sunday night, I’m in my PJs at 6 pm, and we’re having a family movie night (although I’m using the opportunity to write a blog post).

It has been a pretty hectic weekend! Honestly, I could go to bed right now and fall asleep pretty solidly until morning.

Here’s a quick recap of the highlights.

Markets and Marketplace

Saturday morning kicked off with my son and I heading to the Yandina markets bright and early while the hubby went fishing. My son always gets a fruit smoothie and a pretzel for breakfast (not exactly nutritious, but it’s his weekly treat). And my husband, when he’s there, always gets a curry puff and chicken skewers from the Asian stall there. I guess my son chose to honour his dad, since he got curry puffs and chicken skewers instead.

We had just finished at the markets when I saw I had a message from someone on Facebook marketplace that I had reached out to weeks ago.

He told me that if I collected it today, I could have it for only $100.

What was it?

Presenting my latest 52-in-52 purchase – an electronic drum set!

Once I got home and set it all up, I realised that the kick pedal was missing, and the hi hat controller pedal doesn’t work, so that was a bit of a bummer. I’m hoping to find some cheap replacements on marketplace so it’s fully functional.

I won’t lie, though – I’m already feeling overwhelmed and possibly a bit of regret from the purchase. But learning the drums was one of my 52s for 2026 (52 things to do in 52 weeks), so I’ll just give it a bit to sink in. I think I’ll have to break it down into steps, starting with replacement pedals, then getting it connected to my computer, and then signing up for the drum tutorials online.

For now, it’s been shoved into a corner of my office. That’s a future Kelly problem.

Paper Flower Craft

One of my friends, M, had reached out recently to ask if I was interested in taking a paper craft class with her.

More craft? SIGN ME UP PLEASE.

It was so much fun. The session was hosted at Little Sister, a cute arts and crafts store in Eudlo, full of amazing hand-made gifts and accessories.

The teacher had a vase of roses set out for us on arrival, and they were stunning. I have a lot of regrets for not stopping to take more photos, but thankfully, their Facebook post had them on display. And, of course, this means I get to plug them on my post.

In true Kelly form, I talked non-stop. My anxiety kicked in afterwards, and I spent a good chunk of time apologising profusely for it *facepalm.”

But all of the ladies in the class were so fantastic, and I had such a great time. M and I have already talked about going to more classes in the future, including a very cool one coming up using alcohol painting techniques.

This is what I ended up making and taking home – disclaimer, one of the orange ones was made by the teacher (whichever one you think is the better one, that’s probably it). The store that hosted the session, Little Sister, has also posted more photos on its Facebook page.

Enjoying the sun

This morning we spent several hours at Coolum beach, catching up with friends of ours that we haven’t seen in years.

My husband met them all when he used to kitesurf, and honestly, barely a week would have gone by when we didn’t catch up for dinner or see them at the beach. Now, with all of us having grown families, it’s been so much harder to find time.

It was honestly so good to see them. We spent a few hours just sitting in the sun, watching the kids, catching up on years’ worth of life.

All the kids played so well together. The others are more familiar with each other, and it was the first time that a few of them had met Luca, but by the end of it, they were happily digging in the sand together.

We’re already making plans for the next one, and I hope to see them again soon!

Wedding-attire shopping

With the last of the energy we had for the weekend, this afternoon we braved the shops. We have several weddings coming up, and having dropped weight, it means I now don’t have any appropriate dresses to wear.

My husband checked out his wardrobe, and while he still had suit pants and a jacket, none of his shirts were up to standard. Plus, we wanted to be a bit matchy-matchy.

Our son is invited to one of the weddings, and he’s so excited. It won’t be his first; he was part of my sister’s wedding, but he doesn’t really remember a whole lot. He is growing so fast that we realised we don’t even have a collared shirt that fits him.

So, with our shopping list ready, off to the shops we went.

My son was first, and we managed to snag him some dress pants and a shirt pretty quickly. The lady showed us a cuuuuute little vest, and my son and I both declared it was a “must-have” item. My husband was grumbling, but when it rang up at only $29, he gave in.

And seriously, look at how cute he looks. That proud little face!

I turned out to be a bit harder. We tried Forever New, and surprisingly, didn’t find a single dress that looked worthy of even trying on.

We then walked out, and on a whim, I saw Portmans in front of us. I pointed out a dress that looked really lovely in the picture at the front, then saw it on the rack. I grabbed that one and kept looking. Across the room, my husband found a black dress that he thought was nice.

“What’s your size?”

“Um, I have no idea…”

Happy to report he erred on the safer side and got something slightly bigger so that when I put it on, I was able to say “oh no, it’s too big”. Well, I chose to take it that way anyway, not that he thought I was bigger than I am.

Not to be outdone, my son also insisted I try on a dress that he saw. It looked ok, so I agreed and went into the changing room.

Guess who won?

My son!

My dress was not bad, and the print was gorgeous, but the neckline was high. Both my husband and the store assistant did the hesitant “mmm….yeah maybe…let’s see the rest.”

My husband’s pick was a near-instant no. It just felt…off. The only thing it had going for it was pockets. Maybe two sizes down, and a bright belt around the middle perhaps, and some killer bright heels? But nah.

Then came my son’s pick. The one I never would have tried for myself.

I’m going to save the picture for when we get all frocked up for the wedding so I can take a proper picture. But know this – my waist is back, baby! I put it on, and said “oh….wow….this is flattering!” When I showed friends all of the dresses, they all picked this one. My husband, son and assistant all picked this one. I trusted them, and I bought it.

It’s super comfortable, though I’ll want some spanx underwear to hold all the jiggly bits in. And I know already that I want to be rocking some fake tan just so I feel a bit more confident in my skin. But I’m super excited to wear it.

And, of course, trying to be frugal, I’m going to wear the same dress to both weddings. They’re both cocktail dress code, and two months apart, so that’s not so bad, right? We rarely go anywhere that something dressy is needed, so I just don’t want to spend a lot of money for something that won’t be worn all that often.

One of the weddings will be in the thick of winter, so we also bought a gorgeous trench coat to wear over the top. I’m actually super excited just to wear it in general – it will look amazing with jeans and boots for winter.

Movie Night Is Over

And in the time it took me to write this post, my son declared that Harry Potter – Chamber of Secrets is too scary, and to switch it off. He only made it to the first time Harry heard the whispering in the walls.

It’s now time to put my son to bed, and I may not be far behind.

I’m right at an exciting point in my book, too, so I kinda want to cram it to reach the end!

How was everyone else’s weekend? Has anyone else had their child style them recently?