Little Cotton Rabbits

Amy's creations

Just thought I'd show you a picture of some of the things Amy made at the sleepover:

On the top row are the shrinkles - sheets of plastic that you draw on, colour in, cut out and bake so that they shrink down to about a seventh of their original size. We had some pre-printed flower fairy sheets and some plain sheets that the girls used to design their own fairies (my favourites). Below are the Bindeez - little plastic beads that you lay out on a tray and spray with water to make them stick together. Amy made a pig and a girl to her own design. Being plastic neither are particularly eco-friendly but they are great fun and quite magical to 8 year olds!

sleepover success!

The girls and I had great fun on saturday night / sunday morning. We had take-away pizza and ice-cream sundaes with all the trimmings, put on make-up, sang and danced along to high school musical, did some crafts (bindeez and shrinkles), they had a posh bath with bath fizzers and it was topped off with scarey stories and a lot of giggles very late into the night (I think I fell asleep at 12.30 and they were still whispering and giggling!). I thought they'd have a lie-in but there they were, bright as buttons at quarter to 7 in the morning. After a full english breakfast they dressed up and played the morning away and then at lunchtime the party sleepover was over. Needless to say we had a quiet afternoon and an early night yesterday.

I'm really glad that Amy enjoyed it so much but it will be a while before we do it again - it's definitely the kind of thing that you need to psyche yourself up for and have a couple of quiet days for recovery on the otherside! Thank goodness for monday mornings and knitting!

Pigs ear scarf

I'm a great one for impulsive yarn buying - I see something I like and have to get it without having any idea of how I'm going to use it (don't tell H!). Sometime last year I spied some gorgeously soft Debbie Bliss Cashmeriono Astrakhan in a beautiful smokey duck eggy kind of colour and I just knew I had to have some. You'd think I'd stand there, check the yardage and ponder over how many balls but no, I grabbed 2 and they were mine!

So when I finally get out my needles (a year or so later) and start knitting up a simple scarf all seems fine - until I run out of wool and end up with a scarf that is way too short to be worn how I like (folded in half with the ends pushed through the loop). So some serious thinking was needed to save this scarf from being consigned to the bottom of the wardrobe and then a inspiration struck in the form of a button!

With a little bit of gathering and the attaching of a big antique mother of pearl jobbie I'm now happy to wear it (and it goes perfectly with my gorgeous Kirstencan corsage). And the morale of the story - plan your project before you buy your yarn (yeah, like that's going to happen!). Happy weekend all!

Happy Birthday to my Princess

I still clearly remember when she was a snuggly little bundle!

Luckily for me she wants a simple birthday party (far from last year's nightmare party with 8 girls-with-attitude who scorned my party games, jewellry making and trinket box crafts in favour of running around the house screaming!) This year will hopefully be more refined (and give me less grey hairs). Today we're having a little party tea and then at the weekend she's having a sleepover with just one friend. I'm putting together a little sleepover kits with lipgloss, nibbles and crafty bits and we've got the high school musical dvd ready to go so we're all set for a girlie night of mayhem and fun (Toby and H are escaping to the Grandparents).

I am really looking forward to some special time with my special girl.