Hair clip card

To go with the birthday girls dress I wanted to make a card. I had some yoyos and buttons lying round, so I sewed these onto hairclips. I then cut small slits in a plain white card so that I could poke the yoyos through with the clips on the inside. I then made the yoyos look like flowers by using a felt pen to draw stems and leaves. I think this will now be my card of choice for little girls!

Double bows and ruffles

The first of the second antenatal babies (if that makes sense!) had her first birthday party today. I wanted to sew all the second babies (who are mostly girls) something special to show that they are just as special as our firsts. I decided on a pattern in the Summer 2011 Ottobre and started to make it from some cute link pink seersucker material. Only issue was it was a bit small, so Ellie gets that one! So then I had to sew another dress and pants set in blue broderie anglaise for the birthday girl!

I am pretty proud of them! They are fully lined and the ruffles are so cute!

Mia's 3rd Birthday - cake and butterfly wings

Last Saturday we had a party for Mia who turned 3 on the 13th. We had a house-full of pre-schoolers dressed up as animals. M at 1st wanted to be a Tiger but then decided on being a butterfly with a Tiger cake!

Her daycare has some great costumes, including some monarch butterfly wings that she is pretty fond of. I borrowed the wings and cut a shape out from an old very light knit scarf. I overlocked around the edges to stop it fraying and put elastic so that they would go around her shoulders and wrists. It was actually pretty easy! M and I got some puffy fabric pants from the Warehouse and decorated the wings. Mia didn't really get moving the pen while squeezing it, leaving piles of puffy paint that would never have dried! I modified these into "smears" of paint. Ok it wasn't as beautiful as the original monarch butterfly wings, but she had fun doing it!!! We also made some antennae from a headband, some pipecleaners and some foam shapes with holes stuck on the end of the pipecleaners. Here is the final result:

I also got to make another cool cake - a Tiger, which I was pretty happy with. Again no horrible tasting fondant, just yummy and less perfect buttercream!!

Birthday Season!

I haven't posted much in the last couple of weeks due to a trip north to see my parents. I had visions of getting sewing done, and even took some with me but as I had to look after the girls each day while they were at work, pretty much nothing got done. Also Miss E has taken to doing a lot of waking during the night, which means I have to use nap time for naps rather than crafts! I am working on matching tops for M, myself and her doll, but they are still a work in progress!

While away, Mum gave me a stack of her old fabric so I am excited about using that. I also created some felt finger puppets and patterns, but again those are a work in progress and not ready to be reported on yet!

M turns 3 in just over a week! Because obviously her antenatal (boy) friends all turn 3 at around the same time, and I happen to have friends with kids who are pretty much exactly a year and two years older, it is big time birthdya season. We have birthday parties every weekend except 1 for 8 weeks! In lieu of a present my friend Mel asked me to make her big 5 year old boy a birthday cake, which we were both stoked about as I love making birthday cakes, and she hates it! I hate the polished creations of this day and age with their fondant (which I think tastes like c**p!). I am an avid fan of the 1980s Women's Weekly Cake Book that my mother had when we were kids. I remember choosing a cake every birthday and it would magically appear in the cabinet in the lounge to be stared at until the candles were lit and the cake devoured at the end of the part. I love this book so much I even paid pretty much full price for a second hand copy (in very good condition!). I am continuing the tradition of letting my little girls choose a cake each birthday.

Anyway, B wanted to have a Pirate Birthday Party for his 5th, and wanted me to create a skull and cross bones cake. Again I was excited as this was about as boyish as you can get and with 2 girls, I can't see me having too many opportunities for such masculine cakes! There isn't one in the cake book so I made up my own. I think it looked great, although I had to add some extra milky bar to the sides as it was a bit lacking in lollies!!

Mia's party is in 2 weeks, can't wait to create her Tiger cake!

Animal Costume Challenge!

M is turning 3 next month and wants an animal costume party. For some reason Tigers are the flavour of the month and we have to make a tiger cake and a tiger costume. I have ideas of the tiger hoody with ears and a tail that I am going to make but here are some links to help you make an animal costume for your child:

• A variety of animal costumes from tigers to butterflies


• Generic animal costume making instructions


• Printable animal masks


• Masks to print out and colour

The masks look like easy wet day projects (and we have had a lot of those recently!!!)