Meadow Party

On Saturday Lillia turned 6 and had a "meadow" themed party at home to celebrate.  There were far too many sweet treats of course, with a few carrot sticks and cucumber slices thrown in to balance it out a bit. But most of all there were plenty of games and fun. I had a lot of fun making crochet bunting and other little decorations. The flower bunting above was inspired by this tutorial and it was perfect for a meadow theme.

I made up the pattern for mini bunting and used yarn left over from other projects to make it...

I was very pleased with this, I really love the colours. In fact all the bunting is still up! I don't think I will take it down until well after Easter is done :) As well as bunting there were many bunches of cheery daffs dotted about the place looking festive...

I love daffodils. Yellow is my favourite colour and they are only 99p a bunch, so at this time of year I can afford to have fresh flowers in the house!

I made a meadow cake of course...

And I also made plenty of butterfly biscuits...

...and toadstool muffins...

...and faced with leftover green buttercream icing I decided to create some "meadow muffins" too...!

Honestly I think I had eaten a ton of buttercream before 10am just from the odd lick of a spoon or finger! Myum myum! Good job Lillia was too busy making fairy rings using pink helium balloons to notice.

Every guest had their own butterfly cookie with their name piped on in icing, and we had little colourful windmills scatted about as well as in the party bags. They looked so pretty poking out, I totally forgot to take a photograph of them all lined up, it was just all so manic getting everything ready!

The vase holding the yellow windmill is one of mine by the way, do you like it?

Then of course we had our paper pom poms adding the finishing touch...

We played Pin the Tail on the Cow, musical statues, musical bumps, Pass the Parcel, we had an Easter egg hunt and then there was Wally the Wicked Wasp - our homemade pinata! Sadly I completely forgot to take a proper photo before he was smashed to a pulp by 6 sugar-fuelled 6-year-olds with a rolling pin. But here he is in action...

 

Lillia didn't want the pinata to be anything she liked, like a bumble bee or a toadstool, as she didn't like the idea of whacking it otherwise! Bless her. So a wicked wasp was the solution! He was stuffed full of chocolates and party blowers, they had a great time!

It was a tiring but lovely day.  Lillia had a wonderful birthday, I just can't believe she is 6-years-old.  Where did that time go?

There is still a bit of cake left so I best get on and help with the eating of it, might be some wine left somewhere in the fridge too :0)

Happy Birthday Lillipops

xx

Paper Pom Poms

This weekend Lillia turns 6.  I can barely believe it has been almost six years since we were hurtled into the path of parenthood and our lives changed forever!

This year we decided to step away from the frightening practice of inviting the entire class (30 kids!!) to birthday parties and to allow her to choose just 6 friends to invite to a small party at our home.  As a result we are all rather looking forward to the big day on Saturday!  The theme for the party is to be "meadow"- think all things ladybird, toadstool, bunting and flowers! I have had much fun whipping up various little decorations (more on these later this week) but none so much fun as making these wonderul paper pom poms...

The instructions are on the Martha Stewart website, all you need is some tissue paper and some floristry wire, they are incredibly simple to make, yet SO effective don't you think?

I made a white one and a pink one before I completely ran out of tissue paper, so it'll be off to Hobbycraft for me tomorrow!  I think a few of these hung around the house and garden will be just beautiful.

 

Perfect for a spring-time birthday! And what good timing as this week Spring has really arrived, it is warm and sunny, I have washing drying in the garden. We've been able to start pottering around outside clearing up dead leaves and planting seeds, and generally enjoying some vitimin D from the sun! Phoebe is particularly enjoying being outdoors, she is enjoying playing on the slide and see-saw and picking up twigs and leaves...

My own handmade garden pot has been placed in its new home on the patio.  The green glaze on the main body of the pot is patchy as this is how it goes during firing, I love it as it makes it look mossy, like it has always been in the garden.  I just need to decide what to plant in it...

Strawberries perhaps?  Or sweet-peas? Hmmm.  A nice decision to need to make!

Hope you are enjoying the Springy weather wherever you are!

xx

Luna the Unicorn and crochet flower bunting

Amazing how the weeks skip by isn't it?  Life here in the snipsnaphappy household has been manic to say the very least, I am beginning to wonder how anybody mixes work and family life as I am finding it near on impossible to be a mummy at the same time as being an employee all whilst attempting to make sure everyone has clean clothes and the house doesn't crumble under the weight of dust and grime.

We live in such a small house (really, it's teeny) that I have to stay on top of clutter and mess at all times or we just won't get in the front door - but how am I supposed to do this when I leave the house at 6:15am three days a week?  Mind boggling.

Enough of my grumbles though.  Amidst all the daily mayhem I have still had to make some time for creating - with Lillia's 6th birthday coming up very soon I have been hard at work making presents and decorations.  She wants a "meadow" themed party, so lots of bunting, animals, flowers, butterflys and toadstools are the order of the day. I have made flower bunting and mini bunting so far...but more on those in another post. Here's a wee sneak preview though...

Then of course there's the annual handmade present that Lillia chooses.  In previous years we have had the Pink Ripple Blanket and the Patchwork Scotty Dog and Mr Skelly, this year she wanted a crochet unicorn.  I found the perfect pattern on Etsy and made Luna the Unicorn...

I rather love Luna, the pattern was great fun to do (I never used to understand it when people described a pattern as "fun" but this really was, nothing too fiddly, lots of new little techniques to learn, it really was fun...)

Plus she came out really cute, Lillia is definitely going to love her.

For now though she is hidden away in the ottomon in our bedroom, waiting for the Big Day :) 

Thanks to everyone who took part in our recent swap!  I have some beautiful gifts to share with you this week!  Except, I may have eaten one of my gifts...oops...

x

13th March 12 - Edited to add: Forgot to mention that the pattern for Luna the Unicorn is from this shop on Etsy!

Happy 1st Birthday

One year ago today at this very time I was in a whole world of pain. 

Having driven two hours through a blizzard to get to the hospital (usually just a ten minute drive) and having enlisted the help of the police to get us through, I was about four hours away from meeting our beautiful second daughter, Phoebe Elizabeth. Phoebe was born not long before midnight one year ago today.



The world today looks very different with blue skies and sunshine and not a hint of snow to be seen.  But we will never forget the blizzard of 2010 when our little podge decided it was time to make an appearance regardless of the weather.

Celebrations have been relatively low key - a family meal, a sing-and-story class, lots of playing and singing, some presents and a ton of lovely cards. I made a few things, which I shall share with you later in the week when I have had the time to take piccies :)



Hubby and I will toast our little Phoebe with a glass of champagne shortly, it's been quite a year and there were times I thought I might not survive it!  But I did, we did, and here we all are remembering that snowy day a year ago when our lives changed for ever...again!

Happy birthday Phoebe-be-be, our hilarious, happy, funny little chubby girl xxx

Preparations

There are preparations under way...

It was 51 weeks and five days ago that we had that massive snow storm here in the UK.  I know because 51 weeks and five days ago I was in labour and stuck on the motorway for two hours whilst trying to make the usual ten minute trip to the hospital. 51 weeks and 5 days ago Phoebe Elizabeth arrived.

Today she is wreaking havoc by emptying out my handbag and attacking Lillia's Sylvanian Families house...I am glad she is at school or there would be hell to pay.

Lillia has chosen what Phoebe's handmade present should be, something from our old favourite bible of ridiculous toys...

Of course I need to make two, as Lillia couldn't be without :)  A creature is slowly forming, but it is causing me some grief...it requires bias binding, I've never used it before and it's all getting rather messy.  Hopefully he will be ready by Wednesday...

It is difficult to get these things all completed with Phoebe crawling about the place investigating every nook and cranny...

...and I have still to package up my little birdies for my swap parcels, so many things to do!

I have a couple of fun crochet bits nearly completed for the Big Day...

But they require the addition of an old enemy...

Yes, I need to make Evil Pom Poms...poms poms and me just don't get on, I just never seem to be able to get them right, but I am willing to give them another go with the help of my new Pom Pom maker, I shall let you know how I get on.

5 years ago today...

5 years ago today I was still in hospital in a daze wondering how on earth I would ever be able to look after the tiny helpless creature in my arms.  Well, it was a long road but somehow we have made it through five years without too much incident and we have a perfect, gorgeous, opinionated, clumsy, clever, beautiful, funny, quirky, firey, skinny, energetic, imaginative, sensitive, lovely 5-year-old girl to show for it.

She is in school today then afterwards we are treating her to afternoon tea at the Cadburys Cafe, I don't know who is more excited about this :)  As is our tradition I made her one of her presents.  This year she chose something out of my Curious Creatures for Immature Adults book.

A pretty floral print doll perhaps?  A cuddly princess?  A cute little animal? Nooo...

She chose "Mr Skelly", the cheese-eating, dancing skeleton!  Not one to disappoint my daughter I set to work last night and after three hours of sewing and stuffing, a bit of swearing, and two glasses of prosecco our very own Mr Skelly was finished...

Of all the things I have made her Mr Skelly was the one that has had the biggest reaction.  She came downstairs to see her pile of pressies with Mr Skelly on top and ran squealing across the living room yelling "Mr Skelly Mr Skelly!"  So it was well worth the effort :)

I have to say I do rather love him.  He is settling in nicely and is currently sat in the armchair opposite me reading Lillia's new copy of The BFG.

Now earlier this week I promised you a dancing skeleton and a cake the colour of a dead fish.  Having delivered on my first promise it is only fair I share with you the cake.  Before I do I must first explain.  I made a fabulous (and huge) two layer madeira cake sandwiched together with jam and buttercream.  I then went to ice it using ready-to-roll royal icing but failed miserably.  I just couldn't get it to look like anything other than a big white lump of wibbly wobbliness.  So hubby whipped up a ton of buttercream and we dyed it pink, not counting for the fact that buttercream is slightly yellow and therefore the whole thing went a kind of dead salmon colour...

Believe me it tasted divine...it just looked like salmon mousse.

I am now off to get ready for the next round of celebrations and chat to Mr Skelly about cheese.  Happy 5th birthday Lillia!  

My first arigurumi - Blue Monkey

March sees the start of Birthday Season here in the Snipsnaphappy household.  It starts with Hubby's birthday (god he is scarily old now...closer to 40 than 30) and ends with mine in April with various parents, siblings, friends, god-chidren and relatives in between.  It is utterly exhausting and more expensive than Christmas.

For my nearest and dearest I always like to give a little handmade gift and this year is no exception.  I've never really tried arigurumi before, I made a little heart but not a proper creature, so being me I waited until three days before Hubby's birthday before starting.  Nothing like a little pressure to get things moving. 

Now, I don't know if it was the lovely yarn (Patons Smoothie in cream and Rowan Alpaca Cotton in blue) or the pattern, or just the fact I love monkeys, but this project was thoroughly enjoyable.  Best of all though is that at the end of it I had a new little friend...

Lillia has named him Bluey White, which suits him well I am sure you agree!  I added a jaunty little bow made from Cath Kidston ribbon as he seemed to be a dapper little fellow.

He was waiting with Hubby's pressies when he got home from work.  Hubby was delighted!  Though possibly more delighted with the lovely bottle of Chateauneuf...

Bluey White will have to spend his days above floor level at all times though.  You see his bottom is stuffed with lentils and the last creation I made with lentils in its bottom (a gremlin named Rosie) had a rather unfortunate injury when we had mice.  The mice have now been evicted and Rosie has recovered well but still bears the scars and doesn't like to talk about it...

Bluey will therefore be protected from a similar fate, just in case the mice sniff a treat and return :)

More birthday makes from me later this week, including a cake the colour of a dead fish and a dancing skeleton...you have been warned.

Happy Birthday

Four years ago today we were embarking on the start of our parenting journey.  Sitting in our living room in our flat in East London, where we lived at the time, we sat and stared at this little bundle without a clue about what to do and the most overwhelming feeling of responsibility hanging over us.

Today though, four years on, we still don't have a clue but we do cluelessness with confidence and finesse! It has been a lovely day of fun and games, presents and cake, balloons and dancing.

Our little girl is suddenly 4, about to head off to school and take on a small part of the world on her own.  Our clever, funny, kind, caring, bright little girl is growing up.

Although we are still a few years away from teenage tantrums yet!

She loved the gifts I made her - the pink ripple blanket (made using the neat ripple pattern from Attic24)...

And her own pink patchwork dog (made using the pattern from DS quilts, though slightly modified)...

 
I really love making these little dogs, I hand-sew them so they are perfect for cosy evenings on the sofa in front of the telly.  It's lovely to be able to choose the fabrics to suit the person you are making the dog for.  Needless to say this one had to have an abundance of pink!
 

 
Our big girl is now snoring away cuddling her bears, I just can't believe in just a few months her limbs will be even longer, her personality even stronger (hard to imagine it being stronger than it already is!) and her pre-school years behind her. 
 
For the next five or six months though she is still my little girl...in fact she always will be :)
 
Happy birthday Lillipops!
 

xx