Crafty shower

 
I'm so lucky, I have such an amazing sister-in-law. She threw me a crafty baby shower, just my kind of thing. And the best part was that she let me be a bit bossy and say what things I wanted to do. In fact she let me organize all the crafties.

I had to think of a crafty activity that would be easy for everyone to make, even if they thought they weren't crafty at all. So I made these origami stencils using THIS free font. Everyone got to choose which one they wanted to make and what colour they wanted to use. The onesies were all the plain secondhand ones that I've been given.

I thought they turned out amazing! I love them all and can't wait to dress our little one in these. Hopefully he/she will fit into some of these as some of them seemed so so tiny. I love the bear and the elephant and the birds, oh I love all of them!

And it wasn't just my darling friends who got involved.. After all the stencils were used, I had an onesie left so one of the guys wanted to draw a little something for the little one. How cute is this little chick onesie.

Thanks Shelley, you truly are the best! And thank you all my lovely ladies who stepped out of their comfort zone for me and did something crafty. I am so ready now to have this little baby. Oh no I'm not actually.. I still don't have any pants for the little one. I shall do them next.

Cpr for an apron

One of the latest finds from our little op shop was this cute apron. Well, the only cute thing about it was the materil. I do not understand the point of these half aprons. I, at least, get all the flour and dough on my shirt so why would I want an apron that covers my pants? Oh well, the material was too cute to leave it there. I think I paid 50 cents for it.

As I looked at the apron closer, I realised that it was handmade. Oh how could I make something new out of it knowing that someone had created this apron with their own two little crafty hands. I felt like I was taking away it's life, and that is just too brutal. All this old apron needed was a bit of cpr. I had to keep it's original purpose alive. I just modified it a little bit and made it into an apron for my little helper in the kitchen.

She loves to "mix, mix, mix", as she says herself, and it does get a bit messy everytime. So she really did need an apron. I'm thinking of wrapping this as a Christmas present though. I think it would be perfect as that. First Christmas present of the year, done!

Proud, so proud

We don't often get to go out on a date. There just isn't much to do in this little country town and we don't have that kind of close circle where there would be someone who could look after Emma. But when I saw on the internet that one of my favorite Finnish groups, Rajaton, was coming to Perth, I just knew I had to go see them. They sing acapella and are amazingly talented. This time though, they performed with WASO, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, singing ABBA songs.

So hubby, oh my awesome hubby, bought us tickets. The concert was two weeks before my due date. Yes some thought it was a risk, I didn't. I was determined to see them. And they were awesome!

We were singing and dancing, the whole audience was! I felt so so proud to be a Finn. And so happy to see so many Australians excited about them and loving their performance. They asked if there were any Finns in the audience and I went crazy! After the concert I got to talk with them. It was just a little dream come true. So thank you darling for taking me out on a special date.

The pictures are taken with out phone camera, very sneaky sneaky, hence the quality isn't very good.

I'm two, painting

Last year we started a new tradition; whenever our child (soon children) turns a year older they get to make their own painting. Last years painting you can see HERE. This year, her painting looks like this.

Where as last year I chose the colours, this year she got to choose the colours herself. And as last year she painted with her fingers, this year she used two different brushes. Oh she's not a baby anymore! I like this little tradition of ours.

Spring, you beauty!

We felt like Emma didn't have enough toys outside. I whinged and hubby went to the internet and found us a second hand swing set. We set sail to get this swing set, and on our way to Perth we somehow managed to get another one too. And if that wasn't enough, we also got some grass for free.

That patch of grass looks like a beautiful and soft green quilt. It'll take a while before it roots itself, but hopefully it'll start spreading and take over our whole backyard. We also planted some capsicum, tomatos, cucumber, lettuce and snow peas.

Spring, you beauty! Time to start growing things, time to play outside and why not also eat outside. Emma's favorite at the moment, sushi.

There's nothing better than gardening with the family. Loving these moment.

I want to be like daddy - dress

It is Father's day in Australia and it is needless to say (but I'm going to say it anyway) that our little girl is her father's biggest fan. Last night we made him a card, we made him a goodie bag for work with all his favorite treats (as he had to work today) and wrapped the presents. Then after daddy's little girl was fast asleep, I thought what next? And so this super easy and quick I want to be like daddy - dress was born.

I thought, how nice would it be for her to prance around all Father's day wearing a dress that is made of daddy's old shirt! Perfect way to also recycle a shirt that he isn't going wearing anymore. And daddy thought she looked super duper cute.

Here's a how to picture:

1. As you can see, I used her other dress to get the right size. First thing is to cut it the right length.

2. Then cut the sides and the arm holes. I wanted this dress to be a sleeveless. Remember to leave about 1cm-2cm seam allowance.

3. Finish the arm holes. I just used an overlocker, because I was lazy and wanted to finish the dress quick. Then sew the sides together, remember to have the right sides together. And lastly finish the hem. Again I just went around with my overlocker.

That is it! How easy and quick was that!?? Well I did make a belt for the dress too which took a bit more time, but that's a totally different tutorial. You could just use an already existing belt or not wear a belt at all, looks cute that way too!

Our COW party!

This year, Emma's birthday party's theme was COW! Yes, cows! Oh I had so many ideas, but only few of them came true. But I didn't stress. I had so much fun crafting and creating. There is lots to share so let's get going shall we.

 

Invites were cows, of course! The nose of the cow was felt which added that extra specialness in them. It was hubby's idea and I totally want to give him the credit as I thought it was awesome! Not many people have had cow themed birthday parties so as I was thinking of the text I searched a lot of cowboy parties and took some ideas from them.

Because of all last years presents were noisy and flashing plastic toys I had to step in somehow this year. Hense the text at the bottom. I absolutely hate all those type of toys and don't really want them at our house. But how do you tell that to your family and friends? Any ideas?

I admit that I did slip up a bit with her outfit. She looks more like a Grease girl than a cow girl. It's the skirt.. I thought it was very cowgirly when I got the material, but somehow it just doesn't work. I still love the material and the way it turned out, just a bit wrong theme. Oh well, I'm sure we can get many more uses out of it this summer. And it was so easy to make! Yes, easy was the way I went this year.

Couldn't find any boots, but her aunty did her hair which was so pretty and fitting for the occasion. Thank goodness for awesome aunties!

As the guests arrived they were greeted by a line of cowboy scarfs. Everyone got their own. I got 5 different patterns so that they didn't all have the same. All the kids looked so cute with them on and I think my own cowboy was pretty darn handsome too. I made a few bigger ones for us parents.

I also made some buntig to hang around the place. All made from old things like sheets, mens shirts, table cloths and so forth. So very well recycled and it didn't cost me much more than time used for sewing and cutting.

I didn't make it in time to get good shots of our food. That's ok, at least it means that people were enjoying it. I think the coolest thing we did this year, concerning food, was our milkshake bottles. And of course that's the one thing I didn't get any pictures of, so I'll explain. We had a white metal bucket (you can see it in the furtherest corner of the table) filled with ice and full of glass bottles that had milkshakes in them. Flavours were chocolate, strawberry and spearmint. Oh it looked so cool and tasted even cooler! It was a massive hit.

My favorite food was the frozen banana pops, so yummy! We are going to make them all summer long. I also made little custard jars for everyone, and instead of a one big cake we had lots of cupcakes. On top of Emma's cupcake there was a cow with two candles on it. One of those silly ideas of mine according to husband, but yet he kindly did what I asked and I think it was groovy.

Loved the food! I put the most effort in it and it was gooood. Three different types of vegetarian pizzas, quishes, coctail sticks, home made dips, milkshakes...

We didn't have many games since all the kids were aged 3months to 3 years, but I did want some sort of activity. Photo wall was the answer! It was a massive hit, so much fun and guess what, so easy to make! We just got a big cardboard box (this one used to have a washing mashine in it), I drew some cows on it and then painted over. Then hubby cut the holes for the heads and ta da!

Notice the chicken who wanted to be a cow. Or then it was just trying to get away from the dog. I kept the heads that were cut off so that when there were three or two people getting in the photo, the extra cows were made to look like cows. I love this picture of the three little cousins, all doing their own thing.

For a party favour, all the kids got this little bag that had a small chocolate milk and a set of farm animal stickers in it. I didn't want to give any candy to the little children so that's all I could come up with. And hey, they got their scarfs too!

Oh what a happy day it was! I felt so blessed that we have so many wonderful people in our lives who care about Emma. Many came from over 2 hours away just to celebrate with her and that means so much to us. She was the happiest little girl I have ever seen and she fell asleep in my arms at 5.30pm. It really took all her energy. I think it was a perfect day!