Chatty's circus Extravaganza

For Chatty's 5th birthday party, we went with the circus theme inspired by the phoenix cards we picked up at my friends' "Home party" thanks to this amazing lady I barely had to even think of anything it was all laid out for me already!

I made these pennants, the bowties, and the hats are simply the cheap ones with a pompom hot glue to the top! The photo booths, and games were all homemade too. I picked up the noses, animal masks, tattoos, plastic goldfish, circus loot boxes, photo cut out and the very popular body boppers from the Oriental trading company. I'm fortunate enough to have friends in the states that I could have the items shipped to who then shipped them on to me, to circumvent the extreme shipping prices that American Companies charge anybody outside of the country.

I didn't get photos of everything since I was a bit busy, the weatehr was all over the place, we had light showers at one point which meant everything had to be brought in, unfortunately the weiners for the hotdogs were cooking on the stove at the same time, when I got back to them all the skins had split, and the whole lot were a very unappetising pink mess, thankfully Hubs had insisted on sausages for the adults, we had enough to cover the kids appetites too!

Food was kept pretty simple for a change, some candy, popcorn, cupcakes, cake, watermelon, BBQ'd sausages, drink was simply lemon cordial or water.

Games, were kid led with the exception of the pinata, that Chatty, myself and a lovely friend from Canada, who is now an expat herself made together, we had the goldfish toss, a stack of clear cups with a mix of plastic goldfish or goldfish shaped envelopes with bubble bath gel inside, the kids were given a goldcoin to toss, whichever cup it landed in was theirs to take home, there was a basketball throw, a very small cardboard clown ring toss, the body boppers, plastic bowling pins, and lastly a clown face with holes where the nose, mouth and eyes should be for the kids to try to throw balls in. We also had Chatty's new trampoline set up, the sandbox and the cubby house were all available.

I wish I could say I had made the cake you see in the photos, it was amazing. One of my friends made it. Isn't it beautiful?

As much work as this party was to put together, it has gotten my creative juices flowing and now I'm dreaming up all sorts of other theme related party fun, eg -

dinosaur - use the sandbox to recreate a dinosaur dig;

robot - spray paint all the empty cereal, yoghurt etc bits and pieces silver and then set the kids loose on them to make their own desktp robot or even their own costumes;

rodeo/cowboy - make stick horse with wrapping paper tubes and self coloured horse heads, wool/yarn for reins and then hold stick horse races! ( I already have a cowprint fabric in brown & white for the photobooth for this one!)

Needless I can't wait for Mischief's 5th birthday!

Another recap

So many things have been going on in the last few months, so instead of doing everything in one post I'm going to break some it all up!

The last couple of months

The lovely Homemade pasta I made the other night, thanks to my amazing new mixer!

The Holly Jolly Blocks I designed, the horrible computer drawing I did (I am NOT good at freehand computer graphics!) and the finished block, with the 9 patches that were included in the swap. I went for something a bit more summery and less traditional than the usual green & red. If recollection serves me, the shifted colour pallette was inspired by a Christmas item I saw by Hot Possum.

A few of the cards made in the last few months at parties, workshops and a couple I've come up with myself. I'm really enjoying using the sweet treat cups from stampin' up.

The purple card uses Versamark Resist & The Brayer.

These three cards were done at workshop hosted by Vanessa Webb.

This sweet little stamp set is one of the ones I picked up over the Christmas Holidays in Vancouver. I probably need to use markers on the bugs instead of chalk, but I'm happy with it for now.

We're planning on a circus themed party for Chatty's 5th Birthday, I picked up some invitations, which is where we got the circus inspiration, at a friends Phoenix Cards party and quickly realised that the package of 10 wouldn't be enough, so instead of buying another set, Chatty and I sat down and did our best to case the Phoenix ones, I think we did a good job!

Today while making these two magnifying glass cards, Chatty made himself an elephant - cute isn't it!

cooking

Many projects on the go atm, including some handstitching that I can't wait to be through with.

But the best thing is my fabulous new Kitchenaid Mixer, so far I've made pizza dough, banana bread, pasta. I'm finally enjoying cooking again, which is huge for me, since I've been hating it so much lately.

Random thoughts

Random Thought 1 - I'm currently watching the Olympics Opening Ceremonies, they are so good! Doesn't hurt any that they are boosting my pride in my hometown. I really enjoyed (bear with me on the descriptive part instead of proper names - there's no captioning) the Blizzard with the Aurora borealis (Northern Lights) that finished off with the orcas swimming in the ocean culminating with the native symbols for the wildlife, that was brilliant!
The Punk River dance is an absolute visual treat, of joy and spirit.

Random Thought 2 - Meanwhile my heart breaks along with so many others for the family and teamates of the Gregorian Luger. I had a look at the photos of where he hit, and wow, I'm not surprised at all that someone might hit a pole, they look like there might be 4 ft in between each pole, at best. I desperately hope that his death was not in vain and that this will lead to some serious design changes, in theis day and age I would have thought that there would be a much safer way to design a tube/run meant to contain a human hurtling along at the same speed as most cars on the highway. I have read many nasty comments, regarding the sport and how any participant should expect to be injured/die if engaged in it, I can't fathom why anyone feels the need to be so heartless.

Random Thought 3 - On that same note of heartlessness, someone I've known for a few years is on the outs with her husband and has been quite scathing in her posts and info on Facebook. Her most recent post was to complain about her husband for having the nerve to send her flowers with a printed card which he'd ordered for her online. Personally, not that I am complaining, it simply is, I cannot remember the last time my Hubby got me flowers and I'm not expecting any, but I'd like to think even if I was annoyed with him and he made the effort and paid the money to get me some I'd at the very least try to acknowledge that with a smidgen of grace. Even though it will likely bite me in the backside I did try to point out to her that she was lucky, only to be usurped by another ungrateful woman who was filled with the same sort of festering hate toward her husband for the very same reasons.
We are so quick to point out our partners failings, especially so when angry with them, frequently I hear stories (and I'm sure have told the odd few) where the woman complains about how little effort their spouse puts forth, and yet when things are going sour, even if it may seem like a pathetic last ditch effort, these ladies are being so vile. It's no wonder so many marriages do not work.

Random Thought 4 - Mischief is INHALING water, and it's not all that hot today. I'm starting to feel a bit concerned.

Random Thought 5 - Quilting has been on the backburner for a while, but I have a couple of deadlines looming so need to get back into the groove.

Random Thought 6 - Studio is almost 90% done!!

Random Thought 7 - Working hard to acquire and make all the things needed for Chatty's 5th birthday and have got almost everything needed, now to make the bowties and pennants.

Random Thought 8 - In-Laws have bought a house 5 mins drive away. I have mixed feelings about this, see below.

Random Thought 9 - Cochlear surgery is likely going ahead, I have been told that my balance may be at risk for 2-3 months - which likely means no driving, great timing for the in-laws to moving down!