Muddy Puddles Party

 Just realised I have never posted about Eliza's third birthday theme - she is going to be 8 this year!!

No idea how I missed this.  I loved this party!

Eliza loved Peppa Pig so we had a Muddy Puddles party for her third birthday.

         Such a pretty party theme raindrop backdrop, watering can full of marshmallow flowers, a tiny cupboard of tiny cakes , mini trifles....I could eat all this right now.

          White paper pompoms hanging above the table for clouds

 Every party needs a meringue - these are my go to baking choice for every occasion

                      My sister made some cookies

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                        Marshmallow flowers

- do not make these ahead of time they have to be done that morning - the ones I made overnight shrivelled up and died :(

Mini cupcakes in a min cupboard - so cute!

Individual trifles made in the Ikea spice jars - I made these for our Easter picnic too

Chocolate gingerbread bites with nutella (see recipe at bottom of this post for similar)

July birthday so lots of lovely juicy strawberries in season

 The cake!

 All of the little characters Eliza loved to watch

 So fun to make these miniature versions out of fondant

All sitting on their own muddy puddle

It has been a long time since I made a little figure but these were actually quite easy to do and Eliza knew who they were supposed to be so job done :)

 We did have some savoury food too but that doesn't look as good as the dessert table!

 Umbrella babybell (I love babybell art check out Eliza's 2nd birthday party ladybirds here)

Mini quiches - these are great for any occasion so tasty and easy to serve hot or cold 

Little blue party bags - everyone had a little felt cloud attached - every party needs a felt decoration 

see Princess and the wizard

Woodland

Under the sea

Mr Men and Little Miss

for other felt party bag decorations I have made 

Lovely little Snow White - how time flies.  How can she be 7 already??

Noone was allowed to eat the little characters she kept them in her room for a long time - yuck! Haha

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Kilner Painting: it didn't go well....

Painted Kilner jars - seemed pretty straightforward.......

Who was I kidding?  I never take the right steps and prepare properly I just go in gung ho 😡

Delighted by my find in Home Bargains I purchased lovely little Kilner jars for 79p each!!!  I had just come from a shop where the same jars were £5.99!  They only had three left - lucky for me because I always go mad when I see a bargain and would have stockpiled Kilner jars I didn't need.

I knew I had some Annie Sloan at home but they had seen better days. They were in storage in a cold garage from January to June so I really should have known better.  The pure white one looked ok just the tin looked rusty.  The sample pots though were dried to the bottom.  But did I let that stop me?   No I just cracked on with the advice "a little bit of water and they will be fine"...My mother in law also gave me some Rustoleum in Flint so I was all the road.

First coat and the Rustoleum did not do well.  Very runny and not a good consistency (never used it before and assuming it was my Mother in law's storage of it that made it this way too).  The Annie Sloan white went on a dream except for tiny air bubbles I am not sure if that is a thing with off paint or what the story is there but I didn't bother googling I just popped the bubbles and left it to dry.  The Annie Sloan duck egg blue sample pot I had was a different story.  As it was totally stuck to the bottom I had to add quite a bit of water to even get it to move.  Then I poured away the excess and tried off and on with different mixing and water consistencies until I decided to add in some of the thicker white paint.  That went very well.

After this stage I watched a You Tube video on how to paint Kilner (yes I should have watched it before.  She painted the bottom of hers AFTER the sides had dried.  Oh.....)

Still looked very simple and I thought I was on to a winner.
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But then it was the next day and I half forgot what she said in her video and I waxed the jars before remembering I was supposed to distress the KILNER lettering.  So I tried to do that and just ended up chipping huge flecks of paint off everywhere.  Instead I touched up those bits as though it had never happened.   Except I didn't keep any of the duck egg blue ensemble I made yesterday did I?? 😐😐

By this stage I realised my plan of tea, coffee and sugar jars were flawed because they didn't open nicely without the lids falling in so I superglued them.  The paint kept rubbing away when I shut the lids despite the wax and I just know my husband will hate them (offshore at the moment!) He hates shabby chic.  So all in all they were a waste of time but very little money.  I acually really like them as little storage jars and I am working on getting my new walk in pantry (💚) organised and I think they will look lovely on the shelves in there and I might even do some more if I find any cheap ones or some of my original ones.  But as tea, coffee, sugar jars they have a lot to answer for.  I even bought label making paper I was so gung ho that these would work out but I have not made the labels yet luckily so can wait to see what they are going to contain

Tell me this was not a fool-proof project or am I just a fool?

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First Birthday Aeroplanes Party

How quickly does time pass when you have a baby?  It is incredible that this little man has been here over a year now.  What did we do without him? ❤

Happy little one year old wearing LoveBeeBaby planes romper 

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We were in between houses for Sturrock's 1st birthday which I was gutted about.  I love having a party and all the jazz that goes with a party table but we were at my Mum and Dad's so had to keep it tame - that and all my props were in storage :( 

He didn't seem to mind he had a great time with his big brother, sister and two cousins.

Who?  ME? 1 already??

Love the soft blue and white together

I didn't have a clue what I was doing with this cake and had his name in all different directions and the dodgy plane I made with none of my tools available (all in storage).  I managed to borrow number and letter cutters and then made up a bag of icing and started squirting.  It doesn't even make sense the plane has no trail coming from it but I stupidly stuck the plane down before I finished decorating it and I have no idea why I didn't just take the trail right up to the plane.
                                Typical of me really :D

The baking of the cake was an actual nightmare.  All 5 of us moved in to my Mum and Dad's as our house sold and the one we were planning to buy fell through.  The week we moved in Mum's oven broke and she couldn't decide if she wanted to re-do her kitchen and have a free-standing oven and hob rather than fitted.  (The decision took another 4 months!!)  So I went to my sister's house to bake the cake using her oven while the kids were at school so just me and Sturrock.  Had everything weighed out and ready before going to our Tiny Talk class then back for some dinner.  Put Sturrock for a sleep ready for my baking and icing marathon.  Got my first cake into the oven when the school phoned to say my nephew had forgotten his packed lunch but had already been injected (Type 1 diabetic) = complete nightmare he needs food now!!!  Handily I was in his house so was able to take the forgotten packed lunch (and his brother's!) in the car after I bundled sleepy Sturrock into his car seat when my sister phoned to say she had also heard from the school but that she had forgotten to put his crisps in his packed lunch box that morning and they had been counted in to his carbs.  Rather than turn back towards her house I carried on and went to the Spar after a quick scrabble about the car to see if I had loose change.  Parked quite close to the Spar got Sturrock out and to the doors when realised it was not bl**dy open!!!  Back into car seat and head onwards to Tesco aware that time was wearing on from Roman's injection.  Mad dash through Tesco with babe in arms to pick crisps for the boys and then back into car seat before making it to school.  Roman's greeting was "Where have you been???" .....Needless to say I was pretty frazzled by the time I got back to my slightly overdone cake  😥

Mars bar krispies - feature at every party! 

I didn't make too much food for this little party because it was just a morning with Sturrock's two sets of grandparents, his great Granny, his Aunty and Uncle and his siblings and cousins.  A bit of cake was really enough for that time of day.  I got these little pinwheels in Home Bargains and had them in my party box ready for an occasion and they fit this theme well.  Plus Sturrock loves windmills,  I had considered one on his cake but too complicated for not being in my own kitchen.

I think he did like his cake though 

His first ever taste of cake







Little paper aeroplanes to decorate


For the party bags I used brown paper bags  (6th Woodland birthday and 2nd Ladybird birthday)

 Inside were some coloured paper and instructions for paper aeroplanes, a windmill, keyring aeroplanes that light up, a balloon, a felt aeroplane and a sweety aeroplane.

A felt aeroplane or as Grant likes to call it "Blind Shamu" Ok it was more like a whale than an aeroplane but I didn't have the things I needed at Mum's house.  We are all delighted we have finally moved out after 3 months living there :) 

Found the tutorial for this on pinterest but mine is made with polos and chewing gum.  Just wrapped a mini pack of polos in blue paper, used two from another pack as wheels, got a stick of chewing gum (hard to find in any shops!) and used Eliza's clear little elastic hair bands to hold it together.  So cute! 

Almot as cure as this little boyo :)  Again from Home Bargains I found this pack of stickers to put on a box and make your own aeroplane.  Roman and Eliza had a great time making these and Sturrock had a great time asking to get in them

Number one t-shirt Granny gave him from France Okaidi I love that shop.  Sturrock had a fantastic day for his birthday and the sun was shining.

Tired out boy having a lie down with his big brother ❤

Next year I will be in my own house so should be a lot easier but this theme was so lovely for his first birthday but the next year better not fly in as fast as that one! 

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