Birthday weekend

Well, another year older and wiser for me this week. I observed the tradition of not working on my birthday so enjoyed a long weekend with a couple of days off work.

The boys were very excited about birthday stuff as per usual and were really hyper about their present to me. Shrivelled apple Emporer Palpatine anyone!?

Reuben made me wear my birthday stickers...




Not quite the same as wearing your 'I am four' badge eh?

I accomplished lots of crafty stuff too including the laying out and coding of Jo's wedding quilt and creating miles of wedding bunting - no photos till after the big day!

I also sewed a replacement cover for Dave's car boot find of a beat up old directors chair.

From this...



Via this...



To this...



I ordered the material for our bedroom curtains AND I made a table cloth ...



Boy what a busy few days :)

We had some good stuff - grown up tea out for the two of us, first time in goodness knows how long . And some usual stuff too - family snuffles coming on and appalling customer service and traipsing about trying to get my watch fixed! Such is life.

I'd just like to ask one question. How did I get so old?
Toodle pip
J
x

Party time

Normality returns after a hectic week at the patch. Visitors have departed, the cards have been put into the memory box, the balloons have been deflated, the bunting has been taken down and packed away, and the last crumbs of birthday cake have been snaffled with a cup of tea.

Yep, the birthday party of the year is done and dusted ... and I can finally get round to blogging about some of the things I've been up to over the last few months. I can't quite believe how much planning went into one little tea party!

We had the hand knitted birthday tank top...



The hand knitted present...



Just in case you can't tell these are wonky cast of animal characters from his favourite book 'Monkey Puzzle'. Here they are lined up ready to be popped into their jungle print bag...



We had the crazy idea last minute bunting I sewed from my scrap bag ... not pictured how did I manage to miss snapping that?

And finally the (very badly) hand crafted birthday cake...



This highly engineered structure was meant to represent the little man's favourite toys - stacking cups - but it turned out to be just one giant pile of highly coloured sticky icing :) It slid all over the place during construction yet the icing was like working with glue. Well at least it holds memories!!

As you can tell we gave him a hand made birthday - the best kind if you ask me.
Toodle pip
J
x

One year old today

Happy birthday little man! Oh my how you've grown :)



We've had a soggy old day in this neck of the woods. The birthday treat to the local rescue zoo was a bit of a damp squib, not much to see apart from a very cute baby wallaby. Most animals were sensible enough to hide deep in their various enclosures well away from all the rain and the scary looking wet people. Then our celebration lunch out was a rain check too as the place we wanted to go was closed. Doh!

So we just stayed home and played with new toys this afternoon. Grandma and Grandad came for tea and to play and we did a little mini celebration for the munchkin .... here is R enjoying his smoosh cake :)



I'm just out of shot panicking slightly about the impending clean up! Proper party shennanegans coming up at the weekend so more birthday news to follow in a few days.

Toodle pip
J
x

Tea party of the year ...

So our baby boy turns one in a few weeks time and the tea party invites have gone out to various Nanas, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. We've quite got into the spirit of planning a proper celebration for the munchkin, which is most unlike us - this baby lark is obviously going to our heads :)

Much of the effort is (and will be) going into the home made feel that represents us lot as a family. Lots of homemade edible goodies will be made for the day itself, R will be getting a home made present (if I ever get the blinking thing finished in time) and I've a home made birthday boy outfit almost done and dusted.

But the first home made thing I can share with you all is the party invite...



A hand crafted embroidery portrait of the birthday boy himself!

This was inspired by an embroidered portrait of the White Stripes we've had hung about the place for years. It was quite scary doing his face, I traced the basic shape and positioning of features from a photo and agonised for ages about what colours to choose for skin, lips, eyes - there were a few 'oh my god he looks just plain wrong' moments where I thought I'd created a picture of a funny looking alien but I think it turned out ok considering. The finished article was then photocopied onto card and bingo - one dozen party invites!

We also let the little man loose with some poster paint and he signed every one with a lovely splodgy hand splat. When I say let him loose I mean we pinned him down painted his hand red with a brush and then forced him to splat 12 pieces of paper in quick succession before plonking him in the bath!! I cannot imagine the carnage that would have ensued had we really let him go with the paint.

Toodle pip
J
x