Cushions!

New in the shop are these cushion covers featuring my new prints.

They are printed onto lovely soft smooth Kona cotton and all have contrasting piping.

The bears on bikes cushions will soon be available personalised with a name hand embroidered by me.

I love them so much I'm already working on the next range!

Dressing my girls in my drawings

I have been creating some fabric designs lately which has been lots of fun.  And its even more fun to make them into something!  These designs are really for new products for the shop I couldn't resist trying them out on clothes for the girls.

I made Bea a Geranium top (pattern by Made By Rae) in my Bears on Bikes pattern.  The colours will be great for spring.

For Nell I drafted my own pattern for a little A line dress with collar in the Foxes in the Rain fabric.  Its pretty cute.

Can't wait to for my much larger order of these fabrics to arrive so I can transform it into cushions!  Meanwhile you can order these fabrics plus coordinating designs from my Spoonflower shop (link in side bar).

Baby blocks

I have just added a new product to my etsy shop.  It is a lovely set of four blocks spelling out 'baby'

They are currently available in pink or blue, and yellow should be available next week.

They feature sweet illustrations, painted patterns and hand drawn letters with soft colours.

Someone kept using them to build towers while I was trying to take photos!

They make lovely nursery decor or a gift for a new baby and come in a draw string calico bag.

September seaside party

So firstly I'd just like to say that anyone who manages to organise a party and take beautiful photos of all the details has my total admiration.  Despite months of forward planning I was still running round like a headless chicken the whole time during Bea's 4th birthday party.  So that's my disclaimer for the not so brilliant pictures, here they are!

We went through quite a lot of theme ideas from Bea before she decided (with persuasion - she had some pretty crazy ideas) on a seaside party.

I of course started looking for inspiration on Pinterest (my board is here) which is where I saw the idea for lolly invitations.

My husband made a lovely sprinkle number four to match the invitations and I sewed up some simple paper bunting.

Instead of lots of chaotic party games we set up a few activities for the kids.  We had Catch a sea creature (bath toys in a paddling pool to catch in a net) which was suprisingly popular, Get a glitter tattoo, and Make your own windmill.  We also had a colouring table with seaside themed pictures to colour in, and we did pass the parcel at Bea's special request!

After all the fun the food was served in yellow boxes with a lolly name sticker on each.  The food in there was pretty healthy, to make up for the jelly and ice cream and ice cream shaped cupcakes that came afterwards!

I was really pleased with how these looked, and apparently they didn't taste too bad either.

Loved these mini honeycomb decorations from Ikea.

While the kids were eating we served fish and chips (from a quick dash to the chip shop) for the adults in cones.  The birthday cake was another wonderful creation by my sister - a sandcastle of course!

The party bags were mini buckets and spades full of goodies including a stick of rock and real seashell.

All the photos I took of Bea at the party are literally a blur as she was whizzing around having such a good time.  This one was taken before the party and is of her 'excited' face.  Her dress went with the theme pretty well!

Phew, thats the birthday parties done until next summer.  On to Christmas then!

Over the rainbow

Bea has known virtually for the last year that she wanted a rainbow birthday party and we were happy to oblige!  There is a big trend for rainbow themed parties at the moment so I was able to find plenty of inspiration for my pinterest board!

This was the invite and we used the rainbow design elsewhere in the party too.

I made a balloon garland using this tutorial which looked great over the arch in our garden.

Bea wore a fantastic rainbow tutu from Strawberry Annies.  Here she is attempting to bash the pinata.  When asked what the best bit of her party is she says the hitting - I can assure you she is talking about the pinata!

Another game we played was stick the pot of gold on the end of the rainbow using the rainbow from the invitations.

I had lots of fun doing the party bags.  I used these striped paper bags

And filled with lots of rainbow themed goodies!

I can't take credit for the cake - my sister made it - right before flying to Singapore.

The striped layers inside got a few 'oohs' when the cake was cut.

The whole dessert table was rainbow themed - there were rainbow jellies, cupcakes, fruit kebabs, oreo pops and chocolate dipped marshmallows.  All inspired by the pins on my rainbow party board.

It might have been nice to have a real rainbow on the day but I was happy to settle for the last hot day of the summer!

Christening invitations

I recently designed and made some christening invitations for a friend of my sister. She is christening her son and daughter at the same time so they needed to be unisex. They are printed onto a pearlised paper which I think is perfect for invitations.

A personal Christmas gift

This Christmas we put a bit of extra thought and effort into a present for my Mum and her husband and came up with a design for some labels featuring a drawing I did of their house. They like to grow their own vegetables and enjoy making things with them, even entering the village produce show so we thought they might like their very own brand!

We made them a hamper including stickers and tags as well as jars such as the above, a book on making preserves and a few ingredients to get them started. Unfortunately I didn't get to photograph the finished hamper as it wasn't ready until about 10pm the night before we went to stay with them for Christmas!

I would love to have time to make more homemade gifts at Christmas but never get organised in time. Maybe that should be my new year's resolution!

Gifted

I have just been virtually flicking through the fantastic Gifted from Creature Comforts. Its full of christmassy inspiration and lots of interesting interviews that I haven't had chance to read properly yet.

Some highlights for me are this article about Rifle Paper Co, their christmas stuff looks lovely.

And a feature about gift wrapping which lead me to discover this fantastic blog about packaging. I want to start wrapping christmas presents now! Do you think there is a gap in the market for a professional present wrapper? Thats a job I'd like to do!