Personalised Kids Bday Party - Lolly bags

A little bit more to share from the party. This time the consumables in the lolly bag, Biccie Boys and the actual lollies.

I didn't want to fill the lolly bag with rubbish, but at the same time I didn't want to deprive the kids (um parents?) of their fill of yum. So, I figured the Smurf's favs would be easy and a few lollies for the kids old enough to eat them.



I thought that having the consumables in little bags would help the kids feel like there was more to the lolly bag experience.



The bags were bought many moons ago probably from Spotlight or Lincraft. The stickers were a cinch. Just print your sticker onto label paper, cut, peel and stick. Download my templates here or use your software program of choice to lay your stickers out.



Next up, homemade colouring books.

Jammy Goodness

I'm a fan of baking karma. You see a few weeks ago I sent out a couple of jars of my tomato chilli jam and last week in return I received a jar of plum jam goodness on my doorstep, from the lovely Loz and Dinny.

And a lovely vinyl pouch


Wrapped in hand stamped wrapping paper.

It's beginning to look a bit more like Christmas

The oven has been going - well technically the microwave too. First up, Melting Moments and Chocolate Fudge for the Smurfs' Child Care teachers. Big hit it was, I dropped off that box above with the Smurf on Friday morning and by the time I picked him up the entire batch of fudge was consumed. I thought it might get lost amongst the boxes of Lindt chocolate and Ferrero Rochers parading through the door, so I was chuffed to hear it was consumed with gay abandon!

Oops I forgot to take photos between the baking/making and packaging so instead, here's the dregs which formed my afternoon tea.




I'll make up for it by giving you the secret easiest ever fudge recipe - kinda like the Chocolate Slice but, even easier, promise!

2 x 250gm blocks of Cadbury chocolate
1 x 400g-ish tin sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

- Line a slice tin with baking paper
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave
- Add the condensed milk and vanilla
- Stir like crazy till it's all combined (this will get a bit tough because it's not cooking chocolate, but don't fret too much about perfection here) I'm happy to sacrifice appearance for deliciousness.
- Pour into the tin, spread it out the best you can and put in the fridge to set
- Cut into squares and try not to eat too much before you give it away.

See, seriously easy and this will be a hit everywhere for you forever more I double promise. Now just don't tell anyone your new secret! And please don't bring it to my house when I invite you over for a BBQ cause I will already have made it to impress you.

Now I'm off back to The Toy Society to keep posting those 100+ toy drops that happened for this weekend's World Wide Christmas Toy Drop. I'm so inspired by all the people involved!

Revealing

Alas Rose Red, the baby sized dress is not for you - not that I don't think you would look fab in an adult sized version of this teamed with one of your 4,562 pairs of shoes...it is in fact for devine little Miss Wink, who I can't wait to squeeze!

Like I said, I winged it and made the pattern up myself based (very) loosely on a pair of overalls in a recent issue of Ottobre, a picture in my mind and a Smurf singy. I'm really happy with the finish, just a little nervous about the sizing. Will the neck line gape enough to fit Miss Wink's big sisters' favourite doll inside? I hope not. Will the sleeves be big enough to fit her arms in? I hope so. Will it be long enough to cover her nappy and not look like a weird shirtvest? I hope so.

Speaking of squeezing babies, some twins emerged from their very snug oven this week - and I'm thinking of lining up for a squeeze next week.

Don't tell

A sneak peak of a little dress I made recently for a little someone. Can't say who, yet.

I drafted up the pattern myself. I had no idea of sizing so I used one of the Smurf's 00 singlets as a starting guide. I hope it fits in all the right places.

More soon.

The yellow quilt is off the stash!

Yes, yipee, finally the yellow quilt is properly finished and gifted to a little Popstar. At the last minute I remembered to take photos, sorry the lighting was crap so lets pretend it's art blurr, okay?






I did decide as I bundled and wrapped the little quilt up that I would like to stitch in a blue border around the edge of it like I did with Jake's. But too late, not enough minutes before gifting time so it was gifted as-is.

Oh and PS I totally forgot to mention I met this rockin' lady while in the nation's capital. I experienced that weird "I only just met you in person but feel like we're life long friends" thing again. Well we have been blog friends for a long time. Oh and I got to squeeze her cute little paddy cake (scroll down) too! Wee hee.

PPS I can assure you the Smurf's legs are not hairy...yet.

When all else fails outsource it

Outsourcing, especially to bloggy friends, is a clever thing to do in life I have decided. I was never going to get the time to finish a knitted hat for the Smurf in time to keep his head warm when he actually needs it (like now). So I outsourced to a lovely lady (with questionable taste in football teams) who I wished I managed to actually meet in person when we lived in the same state.



It was also a clever use of outsourcing on my behalf because look what delights accompanied the head warmer. And she's quick, a matter of days for a custom order, quick sticks indeed! So if you need some knitting assistance you too can outsource to her: http://www.sheepsclothingknits.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday parties... did I tell you the party is for twins?

It's raining birthday parties this week, little girl birthday parties. I thought some Black Apple action would be in order for the one year old and the 2 year old. The parties were today back to back and on opposite sides of the city.

Present making was all on track, fabric cut, stuffing ready to go, machine plugged in. Roll clock forward through dinner, a couple of sneaky beers, some feet up time on the couch to 9.30pm when Mr S+L has a brain wave. I think the 2 year old is actually twins. What the fark I say? Twins? You forgot to tell me? Now I need to make 3 dolls?! Geez I was about to go to bed. So I drag him upstairs thrust the scissors in his hand and demand: "CUT" "HURRRRRRRRRRRY!". And finally we got to bed ready with three dolls ready to be stuffed and finished in the morning after breakkie.





I allocated the travel time to the twins' party across the city for final sewing together of gaps and stitching on the faces. But um I forgot to account for time to get car sick. Blag. Imagine that, getting car sick for the first time in your life because you're desperately trying to finish off the last minute hand made pressies for the twins you thought were only one child just a matter of hours before. Arrggg.

I had to contemplate arriving without a present(s) to a lovely party in a wonderfully warm welcoming house full of people I'd never met before (Mr S+L's work friend) - the sheer embarrassment. Lucky I found a quiet 5 minutes to make a phone call escape to the car to finish and wrap before we had to leave.

And we made it to the second party back on the original side of the city, albeit 10 minutes before the finish time. But for obvious reasons I have no finished doll photos to show.

The Smurf couldn't have cared less about the present debacle and thoroughly enjoyed himself at both dos, laughing, making friends with a 6 week old staffy puppy (oh and other kids), eating tiny morsels of bday cake and doing some context appropriate clapping at the clown.


And so begins our new life on the kids birthday party circuit. And I'll forever more check and double check the number of children celebrating at each event.

PS We bagged the lolly bags. Sweet.

Slowly slowly slowly said the sloth

I had every intention of finishing this cardy by the time my nephew was born.

I didn't finish by the time I originally hoped but I am pleased to tell you that I finished almost exactly 9 months before his first birthday. Yay me.

Details

Pattern: from an old Women's Weekly baby knitting book given to me last year by Ingrid. I can't show you it or tell you the name because I copied the pattern into my notebook and then packed the book away into storage. It's a great book full of nice knits made with bad eighties colours and yarns.

Yarn: Naturally Haven. 4 ply 100% NZ Merino. 2 and a tiny bit balls. I had to dial into Clegs to get me another ball to finish the hood. I contemplated many avoidance tactics (hello AADC!) in lieu of buying another ball of wool...smaller hood, no hood, give up etc...but in the end I bit the bullet and bought the extra ball.

Sticks: My favouritest of favourite sticks. Sadie's Mum's tortoiseshell sticks. I deliberately seek out patterns that require these sticks just so I can knit with them.

Time: Umm I already told you that, don't embarrass me by making me say it again!

What I learnt:
- Some people are excellent assistant button selectors.
- I should just suck it and get on with knitting when I'm working on these projects.
- I can finish a knitted garment AND give it as a gift. (This is the very first knitted garment I have finished and actually been happy enough with to give it away. I have, despite my ADC tendencies, finished other garments but have always felt they were too inferior to gift. I also usually then find them in amongst the stash months later and wonder what the hell I was thinking)

Feeling the lerv

I know I know it's so very 2001 to use the word lerv but I can't help myself cause it surely was flowing freely in response to my last post about the Toy Society. Thanks for all the positive feedback I am floating about the place full to the brim with ideas and excitement for the project. I'll post answers to all the questions in the coming week...after the next drop. Yep this weekend. But I'll be posting most Toy Society info over on that blog including details on how you can get involved.

my pet ghost

Speaking of lerv there was also lots of lerv felt at a certain Newtown Thai restaurant last night too. Craft love that is. There was another meet up. It was great, lots of good conversation, excellent (and very cheap) food and crafty gifts. Woo Hoo. I unashamedly announced that the presents were the thing I missed most when I missed our last meet up. But um it's true. This is a talented group of girls and the quality of gifts is high.

This time I made a fabric scarf. (We Are Spiralling if you're still out there I owe you one from last year!!).






And my gift is from the lovely Jade of My Art is My Outlet. Beautiful fabric supplies and she says there's a crafted something or other to come too. Lucky me! I hope I remembered to say thanks last night Jade and that I didn't just drool or get all vague cause it was after 10pm?

Anyway if you're a crafty Mum in Sydney and want to join in the present fest meet up go visit Belinda and let her know you want in.

I'm finished

Yep that's right, me finished something! All from start to finish, all me.


Granted I cut some corners, like not binding it:


But I hand stitched it and I'm satisfied with that.


I had my usual AADC issues and also my usual moments of 'this handcrafted gift is a piece o' shit, I better just put it back in the old to do pile where I can forget about it for a few years'. But lucky I've got a personal cheer squad who reminds me that it's 'not as bad as I think and just bloody well get on with it OK'.

And then I wrapped it and off we went to the partay where I placed it amongst the birthday booty

and when it was opened there were squeaks of delight (from Mum and other party guests - bday boy was busy getting happy with the envelopes). It was declared that I should have another kid cause I've got too much time on my hands if I can manage to make something like that. Har, I didn't tell them about all my corner cutting nor that I was up till after 1am that morning finishing off the hand stitching. But whatever I felt smug.

Fishing

Some fishermans rib for the Smurf from Great Grandma Sadie.

It was a semi DIY gift as I had to sew the buttons on as it was a bit hard for Grandma to see them but I don't mind. Grandma supervised me closely and gave me some gentle suggestion that the buttons should all face the same way - and they do

...well they do if I twist them all in the same direction! And did you know that there is a boy way to front flaps on cardy's? No, I had no idea either! This one is obviously a boy one as the Smurf is afterall a boy - so left over right for boys and vice versa for the girls.

Here's the Smurf spending some fun time with Great Grandma Sadie

Thanks Grandma we love it and can't wait till it gets a bit chilly so the Smurf can wear it.

The Mojo

Thanks for the mojo vibes, it worked a treat along with a Friday morning outing to meet with some Sydney crafty bloggers . We chatted craft, Japan (extensively!), fabric, knitting, and serious craft world current affairs. it was so great to put a face to a blog and also great to be included in the Sydney blog scene so quickly. You gals are alright! We all brought a little gift to swap and I scored a gorgeous gift from Belinda



I left with a massive smile on my face and my mojo in my sights. I capitalised on my newfound energies and suggested a little gathering of others on Sunday. Lo and behold I managed to knit 10 rows and that was even with the Smurf as my date! Only when I picked up my knitting later last night I realised I stuffed up on the new section. Usually under these circumstances I would quietly put the project away and pretend it's not there till I next see the knitting gurus. But no not this time, not me! I taught myself how to pick up stitches and frogged back to the bit I made the mistake and away I went again. I surprise even myself!

There was also a small matter of a gift voucher bday present that may also have contributed to the return of my mojo!


I should be able to implement most of your suggestions for my mojo returning with this baby.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Inspired by Lark I thought some christmas redwork was in order. So last night while Mr Sadieandlance was dancin it up at Daft Punk I whiled away the night wishing I was there and finishing these babies

I googled "Redwork christmas free vintage patterns" or something like it and hit the jackpot of cute little images to sew up. I donwloaded a few more but decided I would be hand sewing till next christmas if I didn't stop at 5. Besides I also have this project on the boil


Hopefully I'll be ready to show the finished products tomorrow....hopefully.

Would I lie to you honey?

Oh no no no...

So here is the evidence that this is a craft blog. These projects are so simple I feel like it's hardly worth posting them, but the reality is that this is about as good as it gets round here at the moment. So, the wraps




and wraps in action


The purple wraps went to Yogi (Murphy's 17 week gestation cousin). My sister exclaimed how great they were...but I fessed up that all I did was overlock the edges (didn't even need to cut them out straight). ((edited: Whoops that is my Sister is 17 weeks up the duff with Murphy's cousin))

The pillow case


I find orange and white stripes handy for disguising the spew stains - unlike plain white.

I was frustrated by my lack of even edges,

But I spose that might be my fault for cutting freehand using another pillowcase as a rough guide. Besides once I turned it the right way and stuffed it with a pillow I forgot about them.

And a little bag for my small knitting projects to be stored and carted around easier.

I tried the ziplock bag approach and I loved it but now that my small knitting projects are living mostly in the lounge room and occasionally in the nappy bag I am liking the fabric storage. I'm definitely doing more of these.

Wagger

I'm wagging my blog next week. I've got a faked note to show Principal Blog though, it looks like this:


Yes, we're moving house. Tomorrow in fact. When I say we it's actually got nothing to do with me, I'm not allowed to move boxes. It's all Mr S+L and our volunteer grunt force friends. I'll be the one making the sandwiches and cutting the fruit (while wishing I was drinking the beer).

I had today off work which turned out to be just like a work day with all the housey things that needed to be tended to. But I can't complain cause I distracted myself very briefly with a quick shopping expedition to my favourite of all favourite fabric shops where I found this little beauty


I hope it will turn out a bit like this but of course it could just end up in the stash like most of my other fabric and good intentions.
The fabric shop is at Westgarth in Northcote (I forget the name of the shop) but they have all vintage and reprinted collectable fabrics and vintage wallpapers. Including Florence Broadhurst. They have a website, I'll post it when I finishing wagging.

Oh, I forgot to tell you that I played pay it forward with the delightful Jade from My Art is My Outlet. Lookie!


One of her gorgeous pram blankies for Unit 1. Yay! And some fabric


Can't wait to try it out. I'll be paying it forward once I get back online after the move, so keep an eye out if you wanna play.

Oh did I tell you that right after settlement on the house today the smooth agent called me to say he'd lost the keys?! WHAT the f%^*? We got them e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y but seriously we just forked out all this money and you tell me you've lost the keys. It was all very unceremonious in the end, no hand shaking or anything just the key shoved under the door of our current place in a crumpled envelope. Sheesh. Lucky when we went for a sticky beak tonight though the last owners had left us a bunch of tulips and a really sweet card. Touching. They had also left us a box of rubbish and a crappy old chair on the nature strip. But we forgave them for that when we saw the flowers and card. I'm still waiting for our bottle of champagne from the agent though.

OK, I'll be back in a week unless I wag work and blog from there....fingers crossed the phone company does what they're told (HA!) and I'm back online in a jiffy - I'm already hyperventilating from withdrawls.

Oh and feel free to drop me a comment or two so I can feel the blog love when I get back.

OK make sure you cover for me with Principal blog while I'm gone OK.

I see Red

In my non craft life I'm seeing red at the moment - a lazy builder who I've come home early from work to meet 2 days in a row without him showing, bastards (of all genders) who won't offer me a seat on the stinking hot overcrowded tram - despite their eye contact and secret peak at my belly (interestingly mostly young women wearing ipods - or maybe that's eyepods? Darling just cause you've got earphones plugging your hearing holes doesn't mean I can't see you looking at me - may the karma goddess hit you with her pointy stick if you ever need a seat on a tram when you're 7 months up the duff), and meanie bobeanies at work who despite being high powered successful women are acting like a pack of high school girls bitches.

In my craft life however I seem to be seeing pink...

Umbilical hat from Stitch n Bitch (not for my bump). And I've cast this on again in another shade of pink for a different girl bump.


A beautiful cotton beanie from Sam at Wizz Me together with her ace pattern for a baby beanie in 4 ply cotton that I can't wait to try out (just need the right size needles) - sent in response to my weak pleas for help. Oh and Sam I was overly excited by the duck shaped paper clip. Sam has an etsy shop by the way.

At least the pink can cheer me up and I have been right into the pinks lately- even though I'm not a pink girl. Ingrid and I were discussing over email how the bun in my oven may be trying to send me some signals. Maybe but we'll all have to wait another 10 or so weeks to find out. Shit 10 weeks, really??!

Oh and this too can cheer me up - I forgot all about it and found it in my pile of bday cards (surprise bday bash I never told you about way back in March).

Care of Brownpants who can jump on my bed any time! I think I will get a proper frame for this and put it on the wall over our bed.

Oh and did you hear the Up the Duff bug is going around?