Lego love - the party edition

We celebrated a 5th birthday here last weekend. It was a very bleated party, with the real birthday being in early January. But with lots of little friends away on holiday during that time, it made sense to celebrate a bit later.

I've long wanted to host a "Lego" themed party, we are a Lego loving family. Lego is the single most played with item in our house, played by family members young and old. I did a little Internet research for party ideas, adding some to this Pinterest board - Lego party ideas. I wanted to keep it fairly simple and easy to prepare keeping in mind a budget too, I do believe you don't have to spend a fortune to have a fun and memorable party.

I kept the cake simple (it was his third cake!) butter-cream icing and some stack-able Lego lollies that I bought from Crazy Candies. They stock an impressive array of confectionery mainly imported from the USA.

We kept the menu simple too, but I had spied this amazing Jelly recipe a while ago and was keen to give that a go. You can find the recipe for Glass block Jelly here. If like me, your country doesn't have sachets of gelatin, each sachet mentioned in the recipe is equal to 2.5 teaspoons. I was so impressed with how it turned out, as were the guests! Not to mention it can be made ahead of time, always a winner in my books.

I bought a Lego silicone mould off Trademe and poured melted crayons in it for take home gifts. Along with a printed Lego colouring in book. We also spent an afternoon in the school holidays making polymer clay (Fimo)  pendants, squishing the clay into the moulds. It was a fun activity that even the youngest member of our family could take part in.

I printed off some little Lego guys and hid them around the garden - "I spy a Lego guy". Super easy and the kids had a blast trying to find them. I set them a task of finding three each, although I'd hidden many more, just in case some went astray.

Simple white bags were transformed with printed Lego guys and washi tape, other than the colouring in books and crayons I included a small bag of the Lego candy and the Lego pendants.

We greeted the guests with VIP tags, attached to a lanyard so they could wear them easily during the party. There were five activities planned so I added some little check box circles at the bottom to mark them off as we did them. Once all the activities were competed each child could have their goodie bag. It was amazing how enthusiastic they were about getting their passes marked off and asking about the next activity, it made the time go so quickly.

We had a "Lego spoon race" and we played "don't eat Pete". I printed off the game from Delia Creates and had enlarged it to A3 size, instead of laminating it, I just used washi tape to attatch it to the table. Don't eat Pete was the biggest hit, probably my favourite activity of the day. It was a new game to me, but I love how you could easily make one to match any party theme.

It was such a fun party and the feedback suggests it was the "best birthday party ever" possibly a slight exaggeration, but I'd definitely do it all again!

sew sweet

Cat recently hosted the Sew Sweet swap, I was partnered with the uber lovely Talia. The colours that she liked were - mustard, rust and grey. Normally that palette would have stumped my fabric stash, but lucky for me, I had just stumbled upon a grey wool skirt at my local thrift store. One thrift store in town is currently having an "extended" $1 sale, all out of season stock is just one dollar! It's meant I've picked up some absolute bargains, merino tops in perfect condition, wool skirts, I won't brag too much, but I'm feeling lucky! I teamed the grey wool fabric with a little off cut of hand printed fabric that I bought last year in Christchurch, by the talented designer : In my back yard . In a strange twist of fate, my scrap bag swap partner also sent me a wee bit of the same fabric!

I made a very bad attempt at some free form sewing and popped some delicious chocolate in to hopefully make up for sewing!

I've got some plans to make a few more of these zip bags, them seem to come in handy for so many things don't you think?

a scrapin'

I've taken part in Nin's Scrap Bag Swap for the last few years. It's been a great way to pass on a little of my fabric collection and receive a surprise parcel in return. It's always so nice to get mail and fabric in the post, well, win/win I say! 

This years format is slightly different and also includes a blog-hop which started today! The oh so talented Juliet from Tartan Kiwi is talking about Paper piecing, I think it's above and beyond my sewing patience but Juliet makes it look easy with her beautiful patterns! 

Below is a list of the other bloggers taking part, you'll notice my name in the line up too! I'm looking forward to sharing a quick and easy scrap busting tutorial. 

Mon 10^th February             Tartankiwi – Paper pieced koru

Tuesday 11^th                      Make. Life. Beautiful. - Dolly Outfit

Friday 14^th                         Mousehouse – Pocket Organiser

Monday 17^th                      Catalina's Cottage – Hexie love 

Tuesday 18^th                      Make. Life. Beautiful.  Scrappy quilt Part 1

Friday 21st                         One Paisley Apple – Fabric Flowers

Monday 24^th                       Kiwi at Heart  -   Scrappy Rope Coaster

Tuesday 25^th                       Make. Life. Beautiful.  Scrappy quilt Part 2

Friday 28^th                          Works in Progress – Scrappy Pot Mitt and Trivet

Monday 3^rd March              NZ Green Buttons – Floral Wreath Tote

Tuesday 4^th                         Make. Life. Beautiful.  Childs Bike Seat Pad

Friday 7^th                            Catalina's Cottage –  Giant Star Quilt

I hope that you'll follow along some of these lovely bloggers, checking in to see the amazing scrappy projects.

for me

The times that I sew clothes for myself are few and very far between. It seems one bad, ill fitting sewing experience is enough to put me off sewing for myself for quite some time. But ever the optimist I try my hand at it again and again.

I've been searching for a pattern for a top for a long time, searching in vain. It's pictured in my mind clearly but no pattern designers seem to have the ability to read my mind! Then, quite by chance while waiting for some fish and chips at a sea side town over the holidays, I popped my head in a little store. It was one of those little poky stores that have way too much stock for the size of their footprint and items seemed to be falling out the door. It just so happened that I found the perfect top amongst all the bric-a-brac.

Perfect pattern yes, but not the perfect top for wearing. The fabric wasn't soft and comfy, more itchy and sticky, and not to mention the colour wasn't really me. I spent an evening carefully unpicking ALL the seams, trying to carefully maintain the pattern shapes without the fabric fraying away to nothing.

The effort paid off! I made this top up quite quickly using some fabric that I dyed with Inko Dye using a doily. The rest of the fabric came from an over-sized thrifted cotton top, that I had tried to "refashion" and re-size. But although Refanshionista seems to do it with ease, it just wasn't the case for me! I was very pleased to find it was an almost perfect match for my dyed fabric.

I fixed that little bump on the bodice once I spotted it in these pics.

I'm so pleased to have finally found an easy to sew pattern that I love! I just had to go the long way around to get it!

ch-changes

The women in my family have a habit of breaking into song if the conversation contains known song lyrics, one of the kids says to me "I want to hold your hand" and I start singing The Beatles song, I want to hold your hand. Yip I know you are probably thinking we are cr-crazy, crazy no, but I'll give you eccentric. It's something I avoid doing in the presence of the general public, for obvious reasons! Sometimes people probably think I'm not listening to them, it's just I'm trying hard to not to burst out into song! No, not crazy, eccentric! 

This blog post title has been floating around in my head for a few days now, so I keep breaking into singing David Bowie's Changes at the drop of a hat. The kids look at each other, then at me and roll their eyes, I'm sure they are thinking " there she goes again!". 

All of that doesn't have anything to do with the ch-changes around here and now I'm pretty sure you all think I'm crazy (it's inherited I'm sure)

The big change is -  I'm rejoining the workforce. After eight years of being a stay at home it's a big change, but with my (baby) son starting school next week, it's time. I'm working part time at a local high school, which is in fact my old high school. I'm really looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life and the new challenges it will bring. I don't think it will bring too much change to this space, I'll still be crafting, creating and sharing! I've got a couple of projects lined up to share over the coming months. I hope you will continue to join me!

mosaic

I know some might not like it, but it's been my kind of Summer. A fair bit of rain, lots of overcast days and cooler temperatures. It's meant we've spent less time poolside and more time indoors. I've been putting my thinking cap on to come up with some different ideas to keep us busy. It's not always an easy task, it's got to be something we all can do together and keep them interested at the same time, not to mention keeping me interested too! 

I went hunting in the garage, the poor dumping ground for my craft supplies of years gone by. I discovered a box of Fimo (polymer clay). I was a bit dubious if we could make a go of using it, sitting in the hot garage for a decade! I had one keen helper who quickly deserted me once he discovered all the kneading involved to make it pliable, though to be fair for a five year old he put in a valiant effort!  Once all the hard yards were completed (me kneading it for an hour) I quickly found a new friend, she was suddenly super keen to try out this new crafting material. 

We worked together on a couple of projects, some beads for necklaces, some Lego inspired pendants using a mould that I also used here and today inspired by the view outside our window, some brooches. Did you know that Fimo can be baked twice? That's how we made our mosaic pieces! Rolled out sheets were scored and baked. Once baked the scored lines were cut through. Then the little pieces were applied in a design on a fresh piece of unbaked clay! Cool huh?

Now I'm off to my Pinterest boards to find some more kid crafting inspiration, here's hoping I've got the supplies stashed away in my garage!

happy place

The Auckland Botanic Gardens is our family "happy place". It's the first choice for something local to do on the weekends, it's appeal increases dramatically when the Sculpture in the gardens is on over the Summer months. The sculptures are always amazing and very diverse, some with materials that are inexpensive but used in such effective ways. Not surprisingly all my favourites used recycled materials!

These pictures show just a small ( very small ) snippet of the gardens and a few of the sculptures on display. If you are in Auckland sometime before Sunday the 16th of February I can recommend a stroll in these gardens would be a stroll to remember! No entry fee and they have a lovely cafe too if you need refreshing after your stroll.

Handmade Christmas link up!

I thought I'd like to wrap up my handmade Christmas series with a link up. I know that not everyone blogged about what they were making for Christmas presents with the threat of potential receivers reading/seeing the posts! Now that threat has passed I've seen some great gift ideas and handmade gift posts popping up in blog-land. I particularly love this idea from Leonie of Kiwi at Heart, I have plans for making some of these gift sets up this year. 

My own handmade efforts fell a little short, not all gifts were handmade by me, many were handmade by others. I let my fingers do the walking and bought quite a few handmade items from online sellers, just as good in my eyes, if not better as I was also supporting some wonderful talented crafters.

In the handmade Christmas journey I did figure one thing out though, I kind of like that last minute rush and flurry of making right before the big day. Sitting up late at night and making and wrapping and preparing gifts for those that I love and people I want to thank, it's something that I enjoy.

A Hydrangea cushion for someone who grows them.

A zip purse and  crochet hooks

A crochet Kokeshi for a dear friend.

I'd really love it if you would link up some of your handmade presents! It will hopefully inspire me and others when Christmas rolls around again!

forgive me

Hey! It's been a long time I know, forgive me I've been in holiday mode, easy meals, a messy house, no fixed plans and not blogging! But in order to start back in this space I need to do a quick Christmas wrap up. It's hard for me to do, seriously!  I'm the person who strips down all the Christmas decorations down on Boxing day! I can't stand them up a minute longer and the house just seems so much fresher once they are packed away, that being said the box of decorations still hasn't found it's way back into the cupboard yet! So here goes, I'll keep it brief so hopefully not too much forgiveness required!

I love now that the kids are older and we can make the most of some twilight Christmas traditions. Visiting MOTAT for their Christmas light nights, and also local houses that get into the Christmas spirit. The bonus was taking them out late on Christmas eve gave my husband and I a wee sleep in on Christmas morning too.

The Waiuku Christmas display has become a firm family favourite Christmas tradition. The Waiuku town hall, jammed packed with musical and mechanical Santa's and the biggest array of amazing Christmas decorations that you have ever seen! It's noisy and so magical.

This year I started another tradition too, new Christmas Pyjamas for Christmas Eve. I hope that some years they are homemade, this year I went with bought ones (I didn't want to start a precedent!) . They were a total hit and they stayed in them all day, convincing all the visitors that they just looked like normal clothes and there was no need to change. I think that personalised anything always goes down well, especially have a name that isn't common, if only they came in my size! Thanks Stuck on You!

I made some simple drawstring bags to put the pyjamas in, complete with their initials on them I also popped a handmade decoration in each for them to put on the tree before popping into bed. It was a lovely way to celebrate Christmas eve and I'm looking forward to doing the same next year.

So that's me all caught up now. I'm looking forward to sharing lots of things with you this year. I've got a feeling 2014 is going to be an amazing year, I hope you'll join me!