Happy Birthday to a little big girl

{ 4 today}

 

Our little big girl is 4 years old today! Wow, it was only yesterday that she came into our lives, a tiny little person, with lots of black hair who made the funniest movements and smiled in her dreams. 

We were totally besotted with her; my husband refusing to give her to the nurses for the nights and me completely confused, both scared and delighted with this little person who smelled so lovely.

There have been many surreal moments that I had to pinch myself to actually believe that this little girl, who has her own character, her own thoughts and ideas is our daughter – nobody could have ever prepared me for the love I’d feel for this little person.

And today this little girl is not so little – she proudly announced this morning that she is 4 and now she is a big girl! 

She amazes us ever day, draws the most beautiful pictures for us and can write hers and our names, insists that mummy and daddy take turns to read a story each night and gives a big count down before we switch the light off. She loves pretending to be a cat and packs her dolls and clothes and goes on pretend trips with her imaginary friends. She is just so special!

To our little big girl we wish a Fabulous Birthday!

Love,

Irina aka mummy and Lovely Husband aka daddy xx

Birthday party - part 4

{ Silhouette Invitations}

I know I should have started with the invitations a week or so ago, but I simply had no idea what to do. I Googled for ideas but nothing caught my eye. So I was getting desperate and slightly worried (I am going to London tomorrow for the rest of the week, so the invitations had to be done today and given to the little people at close of Kindergarten today),  and I still had no idea.

So this morning I logged into a lovely blog called Nifty Trifty Things in order to link to a party, and there it was, my inspiration, in the form of the loveliest silhouette pictures and I knew straight away what I’ll do.

So one hour later and they were ready - silhouette Unicorn invitations for Lovely Little Daughter’s birthday party, made out of purple glitter paper...And which four year old doesn’t love glitter?

 

My little girl loved them and proudly gave them to her friends.

Hope you are having a lovely start to the week.

Love,

Irina

Birthday Party - part 3

{Simple Birthday Crowns}

I really wasn’t meant to make crowns. Wait, that’s not entirely true – I thought about making felt crowns but than I made the magic wands so I had to do something quicker and easier.

The crown making happened by mistake. What I thought were 6 pink sheets of A4 paper turned out to be 6 pink sheets of paper 50x70cm – in other words huge. Well, I ordered from a German catalogue so that tells you how good my German is.

And since I am struggling a bit with the theme of the Unicorns I thought I would make crowns with a Unicorn, very simple and trust me – you can’t find it in the shops.

Here is a little tutorial for the crowns. It can easily be tailored to fit any Birthday party theme and you can also involve your little ones.

Here is what you need.

Unicorn heads – free printouts from the Internet. Pre-cut.

Stick glue

Glue with a pointy nozzle

Sheets of thick paper (50x70cm) in matching colour – each sheet makes 4 crowns

Glitter – as required. I used purple for the mane and gold (not pictured) for the horn.

A hand made stencil for the crown – you only need a half

Using the stencil, trace out your crowns and measure the middle (sorry for the bad photo).

Glue a Unicorn head on the front of each crown. Use the stick glue.

Here you have three crowns which now need to be cut out. The fourth crown has to be traced “head down”. Make sure you have enough space to do this.

I cut the crowns following the outline, but when I reached the Unicorn head I left some margin. The reason for this is that is much easier to cut around the Unicorn head when the crown is cut from the huge sheet of paper.

Cut around the head and leave about 1mm margin of the pink paper.

Use the glue with the pointy nozzle to “draw” some glue lines mimicking the mane curves.

Sprinkle some purple glitter.

Tap the glitter out on a piece of paper and you are left with this pretty glittery mane – a delight to any four year old (soon to be).

Repeat with each crown and leave to dry.

Once the purple glitter is dry, carefully repeat the same step by using gold glitter for the horn.

Here it is a Unicorn Crown.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend!

Love,

Irina xx

Birthday Party - part 2

{ Fairy Wands Tutorial - Birthday Party Favours}

I have been wondering what to do for party favours and since I’ve always wanted to have a go at fairy wands I decided to try.

It was easier than I thought although I got out of my comfort zone, sewing , and ventured into a less known to me area called crafting. Oh it was so much fun…and I simply have no idea how I managed to live without a hot glue gun, and without crafting.

So after the wand design got the stamp of approval from my soon to be 4 little girl, I decided to put together a small tutorial.

So here is what you need:

Felt sheets

Ribbon

Wooden sticks – my sticks came in 1m lengths and Lovely husband cut them into 3 smaller pieces of about 32cm each

Wooden stick for the corker ribbons – about 50 cm in length – big enough to fit in the oven

Plastic glitter hearts or stars

Hot glue gun

Start by covering your sticks with ribbon. I used two types of ribbon to create a fancier look, but you can use only one colour if you prefer.

Cut the end of your ribbon diagonally and attach the end of the ribbon to the end of the stick (so sorry for the bad quality photo), that way the ribbon allows for a smooth twisting.

Start twisting the ribbon around the stick taking care to leave a little gap for your second ribbon.

If you are using a second ribbon than repeat the step. 

Finish off the bottom end of the wands by applying a blob of hot glue. Leave the wands to dry. 

Now prepare the ribbons. If you are using korker ribbon, you’ll need extra length of ribbon. I used this tutorial. It is always so much fun. 

 

I used three types / colours of ribbon cut in slightly different lengths. The corker ribbon and the purple organza ribbon are almost identical and the pink grosgrain ribbon is shorter. 

Attach the ribbon to the top side of the wand using your glue gun.

Prepare the stars. I used a small star template and cut out two stars per wand.

Using a decorative stitch sew two of the stars together leaving a small gap on one side to be able to insert handle.

 

 

Insert the handle into the star and use your hot glue gun to glue in place.

Glue a small ribbon to cover the place which has no decorative stitch. Glue the heart or star in the middle and you are ready!

Simple birthday crowns coming tomorrow.

Love,

Irina

I am linking this post to

Birthday Party – Part 1

{Gather your items}

Look what the postman brought for me today…a box full of goodies! Lovely! All ( well, almost all) the things I need to start preparing Lovely Little Daughter’s Unicorn Birthday Tea Party – a mere three weeks away.

I always like American birthday parties - OK, I think that sometimes they are a bit over the top but never the less all the colour coordination, and the themes, and the yummy ( not always healthy) food…it is just nice.

So I have thrown myself a challenge – to make a yummy looking buffet style table in white, pink and purple, to create some pretty room decoration, to make some little favours for the girls and…well that’s about it. Did I mention the cake and the food? And did I mention it is all on a budget? I already feel a bit overwhelmed and think I should have started before Christmas, but it is supposed to be fun, so I am not stressing about it.

Can you see my new Hot Glue Gun – I can’t believe I haven’t acquired one of those clever tools ages ago…I mean people have been using it for centuries, right…I can’t wait to give it a try.

Love,

Irina xx

Home Sweet Home

{ Fabric Houses}

I wish I’d thought about that...fabric houses! How cute, very easy and yes, so addictive. I saw some fabric houses a couple of months ago and when Lovely Mum requested a key holder for her house keys for Christmas I knew what to make for her. Lovely Mum does not like small key holders, she has to look forever in her bag - so this one was just perfect.

I used a very easy tutorial from Retro Mama, although I made a few changes and actually indulged myself in some freestyle hand embroidery. The house is only 8cm high. 

For more cute fabric house inspiration check Mami Made It blog.

Hope you are having a creative start to the New Year.

Love,
Irina xx