When faced with yet another kids birthday party I tried to think a little outside the box this year. Since my daughter has been friends with many of these kids since 3 y/o kinder and she was now turning 7 (that's 4 years of birthday parties x at least 8 kids), lots of the kids had been to most of the traditional party places in the area. I wanted to find something fun, age appropriate, a bit different and somewhere that wasn't going to need a personal loan to pay for. After some serious 'google-ing' and a bit of negotiating we decided on The Mermaids Tale and my daughter had a fantastic party.
The birthday girl/boy gets to choose their theme (horses, elephants, dragons, aliens, fairies etc. etc) and on the day all the kids make their own ceramic sculpture in that theme with help and guidance from Antoinette and her partner. They tailor the sculpting to make it age appropriate, the younger kids make wall tiles, my 7y/o started with a basic cone shape already made for her and then added face, wings, feet, arms, textures and I guess the older kids do the whole lot from scratch on their own.
My daughter chose dragons and we arrived in the studio to find it decked out with personalised 'Happy 7th Birthday' signs and a Birthday Girl throne all set up. Antoinette guided the kids through the basics of working with clay and each child was given individual help when they needed it. They all completed their own unique clay masterpiece in about 90 minutes. Being clay, they had to be left at the gallery to be dried and fired and then picked up later in the week (a small draw back as far as the kids were concerned since they wanted to take their creations home with them). The kids also had the option to do a follow up class (extra cost) where they got to paint and glaze their dragons with ceramic paints or they could take them after the initial firing and then paint them at home. After the sculpting we moved to the outside courtyard where we played party games and then sat down for cake and snacks. All up the party went for about 3.5 hours which was pretty much the right amount of time for 12 excited and noisy 7 y/o's.
The party was a great success and I would absolutely recommend The Mermaids Tale for a kids party. Antoinette is lovely and very easy to deal with and at $120 for the first 6 kids and $17.50 for each guest after that I think it's fairly reasonable when compared with most other party venues in this area. Plus the kids all got to try something new and were very proud when they got the chance to show off their creations a few days later.
Antoinette also runs a holiday program for 2 weeks ($15 per child per session) during all the school breaks which could be a good way to check this out before you book your party if you're not too sure.

Approximate cost: $120 for 6 kids

I had driven past this cafe several times before I finally made the effort to stop in, now I'm a regular customer. I love, love, love this cafe! My (vegan) eldest daughter and I often stop in for lunch or just a (soy) coffee when we are shopping in Frankston and some mornings I sneak off by myself for a coffee (non soy!) and one of their DELICIOUS vegan cupcakes. I"m not a vegan myself, but these cupcakes are just so yummy that I order one anyway. They have a decent selection of 'eat in' food, usually 3 kinds of salads, individual pizzas (homemade and can be made vegan), wraps, falafels (YUM!!), burgers, pies and sometimes daily specials. The best thing for me is it's all vegetarian and all really, really tasty. They have 4 tables and 3 stools at the window table inside and 2 more tables outside. Be warned though, if you're planning on stopping in for lunch (and you really should) the inside tables are often booked out. I usually sit outside or try to get there outside the usual 12 to 2ish lunch times. They also have a range of eco-friendly clothing, some jewellery, gifts and a selection of fair trade coffees and teas to buy too. The staff are lovely, the atmosphere is friendly and the food is delicious, healthy and really reasonably priced...what's not to love?

Mornington is full of cafes so it takes something a bit unique for one to stand out when I walk past. In this instance it was the pink tables out front and the french language music crooning from their speakers. This place is so pretty inside, my favourite spot would have to be the black velvet love seat and a high backed hot pink lounge chair set up in one corner, although they do have regular cafe style tables and chairs if you want something a bit less ornate when you eat! Lovely little scrolled display shelves are filled with gift boxed handmade chocolates and other tempting goodies. Up on the counter is a yummy looking selection of cakes, pastries and multicolored macarons. The ultimate test for me though is the coffee. I took a seat outside (someone was already sitting in 'my' velvet chair) and my cafe latte and lemon friand were quickly brought out to me. The little touches here are so lovely; my friand was served on pretty floral crockery with a lacy paper doily and the teaspoon with my coffee was topped with a little silver teapot, it made the whole experience feel kind of decadent. I'm glad to say the coffee ($3.50) was really good, after such lovely decor I was hoping that would be the case, and my lemon friand was just perfect too. A couple of days later I arranged to meet a up with a macaron loving friend here and she really enjoyed her chai latte and her 2 macarons (I think she actually bought a third macaron as we left!). They have lots of tempting treat ideas on their menu: tea for two, grand high tea, chocolate tasting plates, although I haven't had a chance to try any of those yet and they also do savory dishes and have a specials menu out front. I'm looking forward to visiting here with my daughter, I think we will indulge in the afternoon tea (an assortment of sweets and scones served on a two-tiered cake stand) and try to pretend we have stopped off in Paris for the afternoon. Tres Bien.

If you are trying to find that elusive scrapping item, the 'whatever' tool to help you recreate the effect you've seen on a page in a crafting magazine or a 'something' to finish off your papercraft or scrapbooking project, chances are it will be here. This place is massive! They run classes, give advice, source hard to find things and have lots of inspiration on display. There are little nooks where you can sit and contemplate your design and even somewhere to print out photos (kodak booth). They used to hire out the use of their cutting systems, although I'm not sure if this is still offered. I can never leave this place empty handed, and even though I try to always have a concise list when I walk in the door, once I'm inside I inevitably discover that I actually NEED several more things than I wrote down LOL, it's just that kind of place. They have roll after roll of ribbons and trims by the metre and drawers filled with little loose embellishments which you can buy just one or two of if you want.Their stamping supplies seem pretty extensive, with supplies for embossing, stamping on glass, vellum, metal etc., although not being an avid stamper it's a bit hard for me to judge. My only tiny negative is that their prices are definitely at the higher end, not by much, but don't go in expecting bargains. However, if you're like me and just have to find that 'thing' you saw in last months scrapping magazine, this is the place to find it.

First off, remember this is a NOODLE BAR, not a 5 star restaurant. With that in mind, these guys are great. In a household with several different dietary restrictions, we can always find something for each of us here. They do a pretty standard mix of Thai/Malaysian/Chinese/Vietnamese/Japanese style noodle dishes.They do a couple of entrees (satay,soup) and also dims sims, rice paper rolls and Vietnamese spring rolls, which come with lettuce leaves and dipping sauce...one of our favourites! What we love about this place is that they have vegetarian and meat dishes, they have egg or rice noodles, they have some spicy and also some not spicy choices so everyone at my place can get what they want. Also they deliver, which on "mid-week I can't face cooking" nights is just perfect!! Lovely friendly staff, freshly cooked food (right in front of you if you eat in or pick up) and the serves are really generous, most times we have plenty left over for lunch the next day. YUM!

Approximate cost: $9.80 to $10.80

I went in thinking I needed to replace all my tyres and my spare as I was getting a roadworthy done on my car. Since the roadworthy had already included a new windscreen and other minor (but still costly) repairs I was dreading the bill for 5 tyres. The guy that helped me listened to what I needed and then after checking out my tyres told me that I only needed 3 and not the 5 I was dreading. Since money was pretty tight he sold me 2 new tyres for my front wheel drive car and a good quality (85% tread) second hand tyre for my spare. Over the following months I have also replaced the other 2 tyres, one at a time. At no time was my car unsafe or illegal, but he was able to spread the cost of replacing my tyres over a couple of months instead of all at once. I have had quite a few visits to this business over the last few months and have always been helped quickly, efficiently and I appreciate that they are understanding of people that have to live on a pretty tight budget sometimes.

I originally went into this store for food for my guinea pigs (priced on the high side) but while I was there I decided to finally buy the fantail guppies I had been thinking about getting for years. I explained to the assistant that i was a complete novice when it came to tropical fish and would need to buy everything from a tank, filter, heater thru to fish. I told her how many fish I wanted and then left it with her to recommended what would be best. I bought all the tank stuff, plus water conditioner, pebbles, fish food etc. etc. All up it was close to $200. When I went back 2 days later to chose my fish (after letting the tank settle for 48 hrs), I was served by another person. When I indicated how many fish I wanted she said that I really couldn't have that number of fish in the tank I had bought! This was after clearly telling the first assistant EXACTLY what I wanted to put in the tank so I was stuck with either buying another tank ($100) and starting all over again or just having less fish. I explained that I was directed to buy this exact set up just 2 days before but was only met with blank stares and a shoulder shrug. Since I had my 6y/o with me and she had been patiently waiting the last 2 days for 'her' fish, I decided to just stick with what we had & we settled for 3 less fish (down to 7 from the original 10 we wanted). After getting the fish home and settling them in, 2 days later we found one dead fish, which I took back to the store and they replaced. 6 days after that, another dead fish (which I had to hide from my 6y/o who was already upset from losing 1 fish!)They have a 7 day replacement policy and this was already day 8 and at this point I was getting kind of over the whole fish experience so I didn't take this one back to them. We cleaned the tank, added the water stuff, feed the fish as instructed and 4 days later...another dead fish!!!! That was now 3 out of 7, admittedly they weren't expensive or hard to replace but that's not really the point, nearly 50% dead in under a month. Distressing for my kids, frustrating for me and after the initial bad advice, also the last straw for me. I have since replaced 2 fish from another store and now 3 months later they are all thriving and even having babies. I have no idea what was wrong with the first fish we got but I think that losing nearly 50% is beyond just 'bad luck' or 'shock' and I am also still annoyed to have ended up with a tank that was never going to be able to hold the number of fish we originally wanted. I now get all my fish/supplies from an aquarium, which I probably should have done in the first place!