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).

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!

St Ives

When I woke up this morning there was a very definite autumnal nip in the air.  Even though it looks like we are forecast some warmer weather still to come it feels like the end of summer today.

Backing up the photos on my phone I found all those I took on our holiday to St Ives, Cornwall at the beginning of August.  It was the first time visiting for the children - the all day drive down has put us off since they came along- and they had a fantastic week.  The weather was a little mixed but we mostly had glorious sunshine and made the most of the beautiful beach.

It is such a pretty little town, although packed with visitors in the high season, and I quite enjoyed walking up and down the streets with the pushchair trying to get Nell to sleep!

Nell had her very first splash in the sea and was very enthusiastic, we had to hold her back from walking right in.

Bea was not so keen on the paddling but had days of sandy fun building sand castles and dams.

St Ives also has some lovely little shops.  I can't remember the name of the shop in which I took these photos but they had lots of pretty things.

Goodbye summer, until next year!

My little flower fairy turns one

It was Nell's first birthday last week (boo hoo!) so we celebrated with a little family party at the weekend.

  The theme was flower fairies and Nell looked lovely in her pretty dress and tiny wings.  She didn't keep them on for long but I managed to get a couple of photos!

I had fun finding fairy themed gifts for the party bags which I packaged up in pretty paper bags decorated with mini doilies, ribbon and a flower fairy tag with each child's initial.  Even the boys got one of these very girly bags but I did put boy stuff inside so hopefully they can forgive me.

My sister made some chocolate cupcakes and I made toadstools from fresh strawberries and mini marshmallows to go on top.

My sister also made the fantastic toadstool house cake.  It was a crime to cut it.  We did though.

Pretty fresh flowers on the food table.

Three days later I haven't taken down the honeycomb balls or bunting yet.  They look lovely with the green kitchen walls and its nice to feel festive while eating breakfast!

For the food I went tea party style with 6 kinds of sandwiches and finger food followed by scones, macaroons, cakes and biscuits and yummy fresh berry cones.

I think the birthday girl enjoyed herself - Its hard work turning one!

Stop the bandwaggon, I'm hopping on

I've finally made my first Geranium dress!  I've seen so many beautiful versions of it floating around the web and when I came across this linen look cotton fabric it came to mind as the perfect pattern for the colour block dress I had in mind.

I made the age 5 with fingers crossed (the pattern only goes up to age 5 so I was praying it would be big enough) but luckily it fits really well, with even a little room for growth.

I wanted to line the flutter sleeves in the same fabric as the bodice lining as I thought it would look cute peeping out so I rejigged the sleeve pattern piece a bit to allow for the extra seam.  I love how it turned out.

The fabric is really soft and drapes nicely.  I went for the gathered skirt option.

Bea objects a bit to my button choice, but at least she can't see them once its on!

And Miss Fussy is happy with it thank goodness!  I will definitely be making more geraniums for both girls.  I can see why the pattern is so popular!

See you next year!

Will they ever forgive us?

Christmassy things

The tree is up and as usual we have had fun adding new decorations to our collection.

This I my favourite - Because Bea made it at nursery!

I got this one from Jo Heckett on Etsy for Eleanor and its lovely.

Bea chose this one for Eleanor too.

And this was her choice for herself this year!

Now the rush to finish my customers Christmas orders is over Bea and I have started on some festive projects - including this toilet roll and cotton wool snowman.

I'm very much feeling the Christmas spirit this year as Bea is sooo excited - she has even been waking in the night thinking its Christmas day!  Cute, but not much fun being the one to tell her it was just a dream...

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!