The party

Well needless to say, I am totally and utterly exhausted after Eloise's 4th Birthday party. She had a wonderful day. Here are a couple of photos of the day.

Our little fairy.

The food table

Gorgeous cupcakes made by Eloise's Godmother, Melanie

The paper flowers (I stuck them on balloon sticks)

Dainty fairy sandwiches made by Eloise's other Godmother, Carina.

The branches have pom poms and butterflies glued onto them.

The pink lemonade (made by mixing lemon and raspberryade).

It tasted truly revolting but the kids loved it!

The fairy Queen.

We set up a throne in the corner and every child had their photo taken on it (to be turned into thank you cards later on. We borrowed the fantastic toadstools from Eloise's ballet teacher.

 

Our other fairy Queen, Madeleine. She was such a huge help on the day!

And finally, our two gorgeous girls playing pass the parcel.

We also played Musical statues and pin the star on the fairy wand (Maddy and I painted a fairy on a big piece of paper and the kids had to stick gold stars on the picture and try to get it on top of the wand.

We also had art activities so that everytime there was a lull (or there was a queue for the pin the star game), they could go off and amuse themselves. They made butterfly wands (I used butterfly cards from the John Sands range, cut in half to make single butterflies.) The kids decorated them with stickers, pens and glitter and then glued them onto lolly sticks. We also had the fairy colouring in pages to keep them busy if they finished their butterfly. I really couldn't have managed the party without an awful lot of help from my lovely friends and of course from Richard who spent the vast majority of the afternoon washing dishes, taking video and making coffee whilst I had all the fun directing the party games.

Eloise had a wonderful day which was of course the whole point of it. Now I have to just get used to the fact that my baby is 4 years old and this time next year she will be starting school. I am so going to miss that funny bunny when she does!

Market Anniversary

Tomorrow will mark the first birthday of the Devonport Craft Market. Just over a year ago, I had a conversation with Pam, the Manager at the Devonport Community House, which went roughly like this: "Sarah, you spend so much time down here, why don't you do something useful and run a craft market." 

{Poster design by Cat Taylor}

Of course, I jumped at the chance and it's been an amazing year. I wanted to create a market that I would enjoy visiting and selling at; somewhere that showcased the incredible talent we have here in New Zealand but which was also accessible and sold something for everyone. Sarah M o Songbird Designs came on board with me in August 2009 and I think we've achieved an awful lot in the year its been going.

{Teacup Teatowels}

Many of the stallholders who are selling at tomorrow's market, started selling at that first market and we are thrilled to have them with us. We have lots of new stallholders too and it's a testement to the local crafting community that the we never run short of incredibly talented stallholders to sell their wares at the market. 

{Unisex baby elephant onesie}

I've made some wonderful friends and learned an awful lot about what it takes to run an event like this. We've had amazing support from the community which means an awful lot because we set out to run it as an event that would benefit the community as a whole and we continue to strive for that goal.

{Boys helicopter apron}

So if you happen to be around tomorrow, why not come down to 32 Clarence Street, Devonport between 10am-3pm and see what we have to offer. I've been busy making all the new things you see in this post plus some other goodies so don't forget to pop by my stall and say hello.

{Boys dinosaur apron}

p.s. Sarah M did a meet the seller blog post on me over on the Devonport Craft Market blog. Why not check it out if you have a moment?

Domestic bliss

Today I have been busy in the best kind of way.

I made mince pies from scratch with Maddy's help and raspberry and mint vinegar (yum!)

I used some gorgeous Alexander Henry puppy fabric to make skirts for my girls last night.

They wore them to the BEST puppy themed birthday party this morning. I loved the puppy birthday cakes and the shrinky dink dog tags the kids made. The party food was hot dogs (of course) and gingerbread dog biscuits. They played puppy training (for treats) and pin the nose on the puppy. Just fantastic! Happy Birthday Skye!!

Tonight is Craft Social and I've made a beach house for the swap. Some of the mince pies are coming too. Hope to see you there. 7.30pm. Devonport Community House. The swap theme is Summer Holidays if you want to join in.

To do list

This time of year is always pretty crazy. I bet you have a list of things to do a mile long don't you? Me too.

There has been a special birthday in our house too.

We had 15 children over on Sunday for a party. Lots of fun but totally exhausting!

I've also been doing lots of making for Christmas fairs and markets. Here's my stall at last Friday's Devonport Creche Christmas Fair. It started at 7.30pm and involved large amounts of wine. A fantastic way to do your Christmas shopping in my opinion!

I got my Christmas cards out to our international friends and family by the skin of my teeth. I dragged the girls down to the beach last week to take some photos to put inside the cards. My plans to include a lovely picture filled newsletter fell by the wayside yet again but the photos came out great! Here's a couple of the best ones I took.

Sisterly love.

I've been indulging in little personalised gifts for the girls (really for me!) recently. Have a look at these stunning embroidered heart decorations by Stephanie of Liberty Lane. They are meant to go on the Christmas tree but I think they may stay where they are all year.

I also bought these fantastic fridge magnets from HJRD Design. They look gorgeous and they are a great way for kids to learn to spell their name (if you can bear to let them 'mess up' the design!

This Sunday is my last market of the year thank goodness. Much as I have loved all the thought, design and creativitiy that has gone into creating the goodies for all the Christmas markets, I'm keen to spend a little time making some gifts for my girls and the rest of my family. This Sunday's market is part of the Devonport Christmas Festival which is set to be huge. We have 20 stalls on Windsor Reserve in Devonport from 10-3. There will be a Santa Parade (11am) and loads of other entertainment including a bouncy castle, fire engine, kids rummage sale, food and the wonderful Dance in the Park. Hope you can make it!

Catch up...

Phew. It's been a busy old week this last one. It's our biggest Devonport Craft Market of the year this coming Sunday so we've been running around like crazy things sorting that all the little bits and pieces that need to be done for that.



Sarah of Songbird Designs (who organises the DCM with me) and I shared a stall space at a wonderful school fair last weekend. It was at the Michael Park Steiner School in Ellerslie which is an extraordinairy and magical place, full of beautiful wooden buildings and lovely grounds.

It was great to meet lots of lovely new people and lots of our things went to new homes.

That means a lot more sewing and making before this Sunday!

After all the excitement and exhaustion of the weekend, I ended up with a horrible migraine on Sunday night and missed out on the Craft Social. Sarah very kindly took my Santa for the Christmas themed swap down and I was lucky enough to get these beautiful beaded decorations from Helene of Mira Design.

And if that wasn't enough excitement for one week, it was my birthday yesterday.

I wasn't "seventy something" as my darling daughter told someone at school. Still 30 something but edging very close to the big F word! I had a wonderful day with great friends who made it very special for me. My lovely other half managed to come home far earlier than I expected from the event he was organising and brought me these stunning flowers.

I wish you could smell the roses. They smell like gardenias. Just beautiful!

Its Birthday time again

We celebrated this gorgeous little boy-scout's birthday this week.


This is what he chose for his birthday cake. Chocolate swirl cake. Milk, white and dark chocolate ganaches swirled together on top. The filling is white chocolate butter cream and the outside is toasted almonds. YUM!


The girls strongly encouraged him to blow out his birthday candle despite most of the cake having been eaten already. You can see how many layers of buttercream and chocolate cake there are!

We've given up on the right amount of birthday candles and have started again. Happy Birthday Richard!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Our beautiful youngest daughter, Eloise, turned 3 today. I can't believe that those 3 years have gone so quickly. She is such a wonderful child. So easy to be around, so quick with a smile and so happy. Today was a quiet family day as her party is on Saturday but I still wanted to make it special for her. I've been working on a birthday bunting which will hopefully become part of our family's birthday tradition. Here's a sneak preview but it isn't quite finished yet. But it will be by Saturday (party day)!

I made her a chocolate cake to share with family and her Godmother who can't make it on Saturday.

Can you tell she is quite keen on Dora? Her lovely godmother Melanie bought her a sleepy time Dora which was a huge hit.

Melanie also brought some gorgeous cupcakes so Eloise got to blow out 2 lots of birthday candles today!

Yum! Chocolate!

She got a Sleeping Beauty dress from us which I didn't make.

and a dolly called Rosie which I did.

Eloise asked me to make her a dolly called Rosie to share her birthday cake. How could I resist? She is my first attempt at soft sculpture and I love the way she turned out. She has white lacy undies, lace topped party socks, Pink and yellow felt shoes and a party dress with icecreams all over it. I really did enjoy making her but I may well have palpatations when Eloise tries to feed her chocolate cake. I don't think that curly hair would survive a trip through the washing machine! I will post more pics of her and the bunting when I get the chance to take them.

Personalitee

Wow, I've been really slack at posting on here. The last Devonport Craft Market seemed to take a lot more time to organise and we had lots of lovely visitors last month too.

Here I am again though and I haven't been totally idle. Its birthday party season again and I've been really enjoying creating personalised gifts for Maddy's friends. Sorry about the lighting on the t-shirt pic. I made it on the morning of the party so this photo was taken at the event itself!

This is a covered notebook that I made for Maddy's wonderful little friend Lucy (could you tell?). She loves to write and draw. I made her a matching pencil case too.

And finally, here is a wonderful brushed cotton blanket commissioned for a new baby. I really enjoyed doing this one. The lady who commissioned it was great and was really keen for it to be something that could be used by the little girl for a long time so it was fun finding just the right size and colours.

We have our first Crafty Get-together this evening and I can't wait. I've just bought myself a new cupcake book and I'm torn between making frangipani cupcakes or button ones. I'll post pics when they are finished. I'm really looking forward to hearing ideas from the others about what we can do with the social time we have together. With all those creative people in the room, there are bound to be some fantastic ideas. I'm just going to take a bit of knitting and some wondeful craft books to share and see where we go from there.