Sunday 31 July 2011

My month in numbers: July

Hello. How have you all been? Sorry I've not been around much, I'm dropping in on your blogs whenever I get a chance!

We've been getting along fine, baby boy is quite well behaved, and already sleeps a lot at night. Still settling into things though, especially now hubby has gone back to work, and my mum and step-dad who came to visit have both returned home - it's going to be interesting trying to cope on my own when hubby is at work!

I wanted to share you a few more photos, and decided to do so by joining in with Julie Kirk's 'My month in numbers' which is a regular blog post for her throughout the year - see her latest here.

My month in numbers goes like this:

2 = the number of children I now have. Still seems a bit surreal!:








































14 = the number of photos of my daughter NOT looking at the camera before I got this photo, when we went to feed the ducks. She was too busy running around and getting her socks and shoes wet in the river!:


46, 47, and 48 = the numbers of our 'ducks' in the rubber duck race our town has as part of carnival week. We didn't win even though we were at the riverside, cheering our ducks on in the rain:


15 = the number of buttons my daughter chose to put on the 'thank you' card she made for the staff at her pre-school, to give to them on the last day of term:


8 = the 8th and final instalment of the Harry Potter films. Me and hubby went to see it with our good friends Rosie and David - we have seen almost all the Harry Potter films at the cinema with them. We went to see the first one with them in Rosie and I's first year of university. It felt like the end of an era going to see the last one, so to commemorate the evening me and Rosie went in costume, wearing cloaks and taking a chopstick each as wands! It was fun. The boys pretended they didn't know us though! 

(P.S. the film was awesome by the way):


7 = the number of slices of bread I buttered for a picnic on the beach with my mum and step-dad:


1 = 1 well used picnic blanket now being used as a comfy bed on the beach for the newest member of the family:


30 = the factor of sun-cream we put on, only for the sun to disappear five minutes later:


3 = 3 lovely hours spent with my Nan and Grampa when they came to Bournemouth for the day on a coach trip. We ate fish and chips and then sat on the beach. It was great for them to meet baby boy, and spend some time with little miss:























A Gazillion = the number of cuddles I've had with baby, each one super lovely!:



I have a couple of crafting projects in progress, so I should return soon with some to show you! x

Sunday 10 July 2011

Welcome to the world...

My little man, born on the 7th of July 2011 at 11.35am. Born on his due date - let's hope he's always this punctual!


He weighed 8lb 1oz, and was delivered with forceps because he decided to turn back-to-back just before delivery... grr!


But he's worth all the pain!


Now we're enjoying the new addition to the family. His big sister is very proud of him, and she's being very helpful looking after him!


I'm sure you'll understand if there's a bit of blogging absence over the next few weeks, I'll be back with you when I've settled into the new regime!

xxx

Monday 4 July 2011

Hen Party Gift Bags

I can now show you one of the things I'd been working on during June. It was my best friend Rosie's Hen Weekend last week, and we had a fantastic time (Hen Party also known as Bachelorette / Stagette party for those reading in America / Canada!). I was in charge of organising the weekend - although Rosie chose all the activities, location etc - I was in contact with all the hens and planned a few surprises for Rosie too. You won't be shocked to hear that some of these surprises were crafted items!

The crafted items that took the longest were gift bags which I made for all the hens, including Rosie, so 13 in total. To keep things a little easier I stuck to a theme when creating everything, using book papers and a vintage style. Rosie loves books so that was a perfect excuse to go with this theme, and the weekend was quite grown up and genteel for a hen party - partly because her mum and mother-in-law-to-be were attending, but also just because that's more Rosie's style - so the vintage theme fit the bill.

The first items I made were welcome cards. I used Papermania A6 kraft card blanks for the base, watercolour painted a piece of book paper for the background, and added some vintage bird images which I downloaded from the Graphics Fairy blog (Rosie's surname is Bird!). I also added a quote to each, and some ribbon and buttons:


The quote on each card was different, some funny, some inspiring, some about women, some about friendship. I turned this into a game, by not writing who said or wrote the quote, but giving a list inside the card of all the right answers. The hen then guessed who spoke or wrote their quote by handing the slip back in to me. It was just-for-fun, a way to get people chatting to each other if there were awkward silences while we got to know each other!


So the inside of the card had the game details, the answer slip tucked behind the details, a welcome message, an itinerary, and a map of the city of Bath where we spent the weekend:


I also decorated the envelopes with a stamped frame for the hen's name, and glued on postage stamps with different images on. I couldn't get the envelopes to photograph well though.

The next thing I made for the gift bags was name badges. I cut a circle of card from a cereal packet, glued a circle of book paper to it and inked the edges, then stitched a smaller circle of vintage material to the centre. I stamped the names with black ink onto cream card, and then used brown watercolour paint to darken the edges and make them look a bit vintage. I used a hot glue gun to adhere a safety pin to the back to turn them into badges. Hey presto!:


It worked out that the badges co-incidentally matched the clothes people were wearing on the Friday evening!

Another paper-crafting item I made for each Hen was a notebook. I made them A6 size, by cutting six sheets of A4 paper in half to make them A5 size, then folding this in half again to make an A6 book of paper (so I got enough paper for two books from the A4 sheets). I then cut patterned scrapbook paper (the thicker sort) down to wrap around this as the covers - making sure they were a bit larger than the plain paper so you wouldn't see the pages from the outside. I stapled the covers onto the pages using a long-reach stapler.


I decorated the covers with images copied from vintage children's books which I own, along with a stamped flower image, a book paper flower with a button centre, a gem, and the word 'notes':


I also made lemon biscuits to go in each gift bag, three biscuits for each hen, one flower shaped, one heart shaped, and the biggest biscuit was a gingerbread-girl shape, which I wrote 'Rosie's Hens' on using black food colouring and a paintbrush:


Sorry it's a bit shiny - they were all wrapped in cellophane!

Lastly I made the gift bags themselves, following this tutorial here. I adapted it a bit, by cutting slots for the handles instead of attaching ribbon, as it would have used up so much ribbon! I also had to use a hot glue gun to stick them together, as my tape-runner wasn't strong enough for the DCWV metallic cardstock I was using.

I added a tag which I'd made in publisher, with a 'welcome' message and an embarrassing photo of Rosie dressed up in costume as a young girl. She says the costume was a Victorian lady, but she looks quite bride-like in the photo so it worked well for the hen weekend! I also added a little pack of love hearts and a pencil to the gift bags. Here's a complete bag:


I think everyone appreciated them! I loved seeing everyone wear the badges all weekend.

I'll do another post to share the other handmade surprises for Rosie, and show you a couple of photos from the weekend. That's assuming I haven't gone into labour before I get a chance to type up the post - only 3 days until I'm due!

In the meantime, Rosie has been blogging about her wedding invites, and some bunting we've been putting together to decorate her wedding venue, so if you're interested head over to her blog here. xxx
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