Birthday Party

Its been all stations go around here lately!

We are in the Birthday season and its a Party Year.

My Children get to have a Birthday Party, where friends are invited, each second year and alternate years are celebrations at home with family.

My Boy has turned another year older and after attending a Bithday Party at AMF bowling that is what he decided he would like to do. "Mum I want to take my mates bowling for my Party" 

Prior to that declaration I had been planning for a Mario party, and had a pin board with lots of great ideas, I kept some of these in the works for the party.

Mario Party ideas Pinboard

The day of his Birthday Super star cupcakes went off to school.

These are shortcrust pastry stars with yellow icing :)

Superstar cupcakes

We didn't actually book a Party package, instead I called and booked the lanes and asked if it was Ok to take some food and a cake, they were more than happy for me to do that which was great. We had the party in the afternoon and I set up a few bowls around the back of the seating for the kids. One with Natural Confectionery Company snakes, one with tiny teddies and another with Choc chip shortbread squares.

Cheese plate for transport to party

I took a plate for the grown ups too.

I was able to prepare all of this in advance, I put the kids treats in containers with lids for transport and simply removed them for serving, the serving containers are of no concern to the children, its the contents that matter :)

I have real issue with 'party bags'. I seem to have a pile that have been bought home, they sit in my fridge, full of 'treats' that my kids will never eat but that they also don't want to relinquish. I try to make our bags with minimal waste, minimal expense and activity as well as treats. We try keep our number of guests equal to the year of age the child is so for example turning 8 would get to invite 7 friends + a sibling. so preparing this kind of bag is manageable and this year he actually did most of the bag preparation himself. :)

Party Bags

This year his bags were transparent pencil cases. In each pencil case was 2 chocolate frogs, one Big tedz, and a pack of 3-Dees Mario jellies. A tiny tube of pencils, a little monster notebook, and a bouncy ball.

These were a big hit with his closest friends and most of the mums complimented me on them, which was really nice.

His Birthday Cake was Chocolate.

A round cake cut to form a One up Mushroom which I iced as appropriately as I was able, he liked it which was the main thing. 

One up Birthday Cake.

All in all it was a no fuss, easy party but I was still exhausted afterwards!

We have another one coming up too so there will be a second Kids party post in the next month or so!

In other news I am frantically trying to sew for a Blythefest trade table which I secured at the 11th hour. Hence, I feel largely unprepared for this in terms of stock levels. I still have the best part of 4 weeks to sew so will just have to see how it goes :)

We are heating pretty much all day and night now, there was a really good frost this morning, partially freezing the surface of the fish ponds and solidifying the water in the bird baths.

Enjoy what is left of your weekends Sweet readers! x

Crochet ripple finished.

I finished it!

In truth I finished weeks ago but hadn't updated here, I ended up just doing one last repeat of the teal, which was the first colour of the various bands.

So there are three repeats of all the other colours and 4 of the teal, The blanket lives on my chair where I craft, It covers my lap frequently on chilly evenings as I knit up dolly wear.

This was the largest Crochet project I have tackled and I am so pleased with how it turned out! I wouldn't mind doing a bigger ( wider mainly ) ripple in the future sometime as it is quite a soothing and rhythmic pattern to work, I really enjoyed it.

Autumn Glory

Our days are glorious showing of weather this week, perfect Autumn,

colourful leaves cover the ground and the sky is the most beautiful blue.

Mornings are chilly

Days are warm.

If there is a wind its crisp ( sometimes cold )

We are wearing long sleeves and pants ( occasionally scarves )

Winter pyjamas are in rotation.

We have had our first couple of below zero nights.

The fire is lit about 50% of the nights and really takes the edge off the cold mornings

 Its not really cold enough to put the blankets on the beds just yet.

Bulbs are beginning to break ground in the garden.

Violas and Cyclamen are the cheerful flower faces I see.

I just adore this time of Year!

I wish you all a great weekend sweet readers. x

Yarn

Hello sweet readers!

If there is anyone still there after such a long absence from me. In my defence our hard drive is having issues and so there's no computer at the desk. 

However as I adapt to using my phone as a camera and doing my essential internet work via my Nexus7 tablet I decided to give this Blogger app a whirl and see how I go. 

I decided to ease my way back in sharing the lovely yarn that arrived from Denmark yesterday. 

This is holst garn super soft and destined for more dolly knits, my yarn horizons are getting much broader lately as I search for the finer ply in interesting colours and textures.  

I first got this from the lovely suzy hausfrau but then found I could buy smaller sized balls direct from the manufacturer.

 This is yarn exploration is a problem in that I am now accumulating a yarn stash to rival my fabric stash. 

I am having fun along the way though.

Have a lovely weekend. x

Easter Weekend

Its over! Well tell me where did those 4 days go? 

I missed my #ripplealong update yesterday as I was enjoying the sunshine and family vibe here, though to be honest there wasn't really much to update on :)

For now I have decided to continue on with my blanket until I run out of white yarn, I don't think I'll get in a full pattern repeat but I feel totally Ok with that 'Que sera sera' . I only did 3 rows of ripple during the week and almost completed another two last night.

I did get quite a bit of Dolly sized knitting done hence the lack of blanket activity.

On Friday I headed over to Katies house where she had a little working Bee going in preparation for Blythefest. There were 4 of us there working on different things. It was great to have a nice girly, crafty catch up.

On Saturday The eldest had his guitar lesson to attend and other than that it was quite a gentle relaxing family day. 

Sunday after a early morning egg hunt that had to be bought indoors due to a light shower of rain, Grandma and Grandpa took the children out to some of the national touristy destinations which seemed to be fun for them ( the children at least ) The Mr and I went out too and headed over to the other side of town for a little shopping and to collect the newest addition to my Blythe doll family, the 'Parson Grace' middie I bought from a Canberra friend. I've named her Peanut.

Sunday was also the day I worked out that there are two weeks of School left not just this one. My poor Children! I thought they just had these 4 days to go before the end of term but they have another full week after that! They are so ready for holidays and in a way a 4 day weekend now was a bit 'mean' slipping us into holiday mode then having it revoked!

 Yesterday I spent some time outside with the Children enjoying the morning sunshine, I wandered around photographing the inhabitants of and visitors to the garden. The Mr put up the new blind in my sons room. Then I made them some sandwiches which the Children sat on the trampoline and ate. In the afternoon The Mr took the biggest boy back to his mother and my fair haired Children and I mellowed out with a movie. My girl is always quite emotionally affected when her big brothers visits are over, so a quite easy afternoon was in order.

Now I have a long weekends worth of housework to get on with and some sweet ( tiny ) middie sized knitting calling me. The sun is shining and the birds are busy. I sign off with a contented sigh.

Have a great Tuesday sweet readers! x