Halloween 2015

I thought I'd share some photos from our Halloween. I seriously love dressing up!

We have a very Harry Potter obsessed Chloe (luckily, otherwise I'd have to disown her!) so this year I decided to do a Harry Potter theme for our decorations. SO. MUCH. FUN.

I did a fair bit of research, pinterest and the like. But as usual bumbled my way through using a mix of tutorials, photos, imagination and flying by the seat of my pants!

It all turned out pretty well though!

 Just follow the spiders...

 Oh my gosh my Sorting Hat! I was SO happy with how he turned out, seriously, just look at him!

He was surprisingly easy to make too! I made a hat from thick card and sticky taped some arch shapes to make his eye sockets and mouth. I sprayed the whole thing with quilt basting spray and just draped the fabric on!

Mandrakes and a wand. I made two wands, but Chloe used one for part of her costume.

 Potions kit.

Eva was Dyna Mite, one of the Lalaloopsy dolls. I used this tutorial for the wig.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Homemade Elsa

Chloe had a pyjama party to go to on the last day of school. So I thought I'd make another Betty Doll for a gift. But this time I made her into Elsa. Clearly the best idea ever ;) I even got a text message from the girl's mum saying how much she liked it.

Snowflakes in her hair.

I drew the face on with sharpies, little crooked, but it's homemade so you get that!

I think she turned out pretty well. Now I have to make Elsa dresses for Chloe and Eva's dolls...

Quick fun.

Just a little quickie idea for the kids these holidays.

Not from any particular tutorial, I've seen a few around on Pinterest. For mine I used a little pot trivet from Ikea and some push pins I've had forever. Kept Eva busy for a good hour!

Hope you're all keeping cool (or warm) wherever you are =)

Christmas Day, Our Way =)

 Just thought I'd put up a few pics from our Christmas day, even if it was a while ago now!

 Christmas PJ's the girls got the night before =)

 Handing out the presents...

 Yoghurt parfaits have become our Christmas morning tradition...

 Having a play with the new toys...

Obligatory Christmas tree photo...

 Lebkuchen, a traditional German spiced biscuit...

 Christmas table at my mum's...

 The kids all waiting patiently for their gifts...

 And ripping into them!

Can you see her "lisstick"?? (p.s. why do they colour kids lip gloss??? Just an uncoloured lip balm for kids would be great!)

 Stollen, another traditional German treat...

 No words for this one...

 Playing with bubbles, nothing beats bubbles!

I hope you all had an awesome Christmas! Even if it was awhile ago now...

More Cake!

Thought I'd share a few more cakes I've done so far this year. Nothing as fancy as previously, we haven't had any big parties this year. Next year though, is Eva's first year of school so she gets her big party!

 My first "cheesefake" was sooooo good!

 I actually didn't do this one. My girls made it with their dad for my birthday!

 Easter bunnies the girls made.

 This one I did for a friend's daughter =)

 Snickers Cheesecake.

Pancake is a type of cake right??

Hopefully next year I'll make some more exciting cakes!

Rainbow Quilt.

Chloe's teacher is having a baby. She ended up finishing at the end of last term even though she isn't due until September because she, unfortunately, has had some problems. Baby is all healthy and growing nicely though :)

So I thought I would make her a quilt for bub. She isn't finding out the sex, so I thought rainbow colours would be perfect. I went with a chevron pattern, it's my favourite one to make!

I put  strip of rainbow onto the back as well to make it big enough. It breaks up the blue nicely I think :)

I am really, really not very good at making quilts :/ BUT I really, really enjoy it! So what they lack in workmanship, they make up for in love and joy!

I very nearly kept this one for myself, I just LOVE rainbow colours!!

If You go Down to the Woods today....

So we had a (very) little party for Eva this year.

I thought we'd have a Teddy Bear's Picnic theme, one last party before the princess and fairy and pinkness I'm sure she will beg for next year.
I kept it simple

 Home printed birthday banner.

 Teddy bear cupcakes all with natural food colouring, and as many of the lollies as I could with natural colouring, flavors and no preservatives. Bottles of water with home printed labels. Reusable kids plates.

The rest of the food was again as natural and healthy, but still yummy as possible! Fruit, veggies and popcorn.

I made some Teddy Bear Pizzas using English muffins for the base and also some peanut butter and honey sandwiches that got devoured before I took a photo! They were Teddy Bear shaped too. We had the table down low so the kids could all help themselves. I'm so glad we did this, it made it much less stressful for everyone to get their food!

 We set up a little picnic tent with a net we found at bulk collection (and washed very well and aired out in the sun!)

 A teddy bear cake, again as natural ingredients as possible.

Having their picnic.

 For activities everyone brought along a teddy bear. Using scraps I made up some scarves, mittens, skirts and chopped up some ribbon for everyone to dress up their bears for the party!

I also printed out some teddy themed colour pages for everyone to colour in.

 I grabbed some face paint crayons and painted everyone's face. Very amateur! But the kids loved it! You can see the butterfly faces above too.

Mr Teddy Bear!

 The birthday bear!

For some reason I didn't take photos of what was in the party bags! I made the little Teddy Bear ear headbands that Eva's wearing for everyone. I also popped in a sheet of Teddy Bear stickers, an all natural fruit stick and a stamp.

It was such a great afternoon! Very relaxed and simple, but still plenty for the kids to do. We were very lucky to have such beautiful weather too. Eva had a great time!