Birthday countdown ...

Just a few more days to fit in some time to get the last things together. I am going to make these rice crispy "sushi" as we did a few years ago at another party. There is a recipe at FamilyFun which I will probably use.


I love these candy sushi ideas at notmartha too.



We have dragged out all the little panda bear stuffed animals. And we have two little bears made from a pattern by mollychicken.I made one of these for each child for Family/Adoption day several years ago.


These are two of the ones I made for my daughters based on her pattern.

A little cold out there!

Yes, I'm glad to stay in today and work on my art/custom orders. With wind chill making it feel like -10 F I have no interest in braving that kind of cold.

I am finding it difficult to keep up with all the daily activities, working, and trying to get my daughter's birthday party worked out for this week. Not to mention Valentines day and two sets of class cards to print out. I have the girls draw a Valentine picture then I scan it and resize it and usually add a photo of them. These make cute personalized little cards which everyone usually enjoys.

I found these adorable panda cupcakes from blempgorf which I may try for the party.





My daughter hates cakes and cupcakes and has requested cheese cake for her party. But I wonder how many kids will go for this and thought cupcakes would be a good alternative. These look perfect too!

More birthday planning ...

I am still trying to pull together a few things for the party next week. This is a little panda mask I made for the kids - I still have to adjust the sizing for the kids head's though.



The activities for the party will be:

1. Musical "panda footprints" : Instead of chairs I just print/paint a themed picture on about 8 pieces of paper/cardboard. They are easy to move around and less bulky and dangerous than chairs.
2. Pin the bamboo on the Panda
3. Craft: TBD
4. Spin the bottle "Panda/Chinese" charades where the kids spin the bottle. The person whom the bottle points pulls out a little rolled up paper out of the bottle. They read this and act out the word while the other children guess.
5. Tossing game: TBD

Pandas

Yes, that is the theme chosen by my soon to be 7 year old for her birthday party. So I am finally getting around to making up the invitations.

The pandas, bamboo, and footprints were drawn in photoshop with basic ellipse/round tool. My daughter loved it and had a lot of fun making the bamboo. Now I just have to find the time and energy to make up a few games, decorations, and a craft to do.

Here are two pretty treasuries from Etsy to share ... The first has one of my needle felted nests of eggs and the second a pair of my red love birds.

Ahoy thar mateys!

Shiver me timbers!...and all that Yo Ho Ho!

I did finally finish my little pirate set of birds. I know its completely silly and fun but I have been wanting to do this since I started making these little birds. My daughters are completely in love with them as expected - pirates being a big hit around here.

Making these little things brings me back to the days as child when my sister and I spent hours making doll house furniture out of balsa wood for our little wood cigar box house. Carving with our exacto knives, a little glue, and fabric occupied hours of our free time. I just loved dreaming up things for that little house so its no wonder I had so much fun doing this little themed set. Of course I am a little more skilled than those days -- where did that come from? My daughter is always asking me how I sew such neat little stitches when hers are big and crooked -- the only thing I can tell her is practice. And I can picture myself at that age with the same frustration!

So here is a photo of the listing in my shop



Anyway I will leave you with this tune:

Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

Lost without LOST!

Well no not really. But I am looking forward to indulgently watching this show again. Life really has been too busy to miss it but there is something relaxing about being completely absorbed in a rivoting tv program. I have been thoroughly enjoying the Jane Austen movies on Masterpiece theater but Lost is just something that you have to pay attention to constantly so you don't miss some important clue.

The end of the month approaches and I am finished with one of my big custom orders -- a wedding set with bride and groom, maid of honor, best man, ring bearer, and three flower girls. They are all so sweet but my what an undertaking! The little birds are so difficult to work with given their smaller size. For this set the bride provided beautiful colored crystals for the eyes, fabric for the veil and bridesmaids, and tiny brightly colored mushrooms for the base. Last week I was out hunting through a birch forest deep in snow for the perfect branches with my hand saw in tow. I couldn't bear to cut down a living tree so searched out a bent or recently dead one still standing. I was definitely out of breath after that bit of adventure. The moss for the cake topper base was from Michaels.



I am busy working on a big set of my fabric birds as well as more pretty little wedding bird couples. I finally have my pirate themed wedding bird set almost complete. The birds I had finished before Christmas but I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do for the base. This isn't a custom order and I should be listing it in my shop within the next few days. Certainly it is a bit whimsical and I don't know how practical it would be for a wedding and yet I could help wanting to do something completely fun and silly! It is a little amusing that I have to use my "free" time to do these things while my "work" time is spent keeping up with my custom work. I never would have expected this when starting out last winter. Well its all good!

On being busy...

I guess there are advantages to being busy. (I'm looking on the bright side here!)

Too busy to wallow in winter blues
Too busy to watch the stupid tv
Too busy to waste hours online
Too busy to clean house much -- and I have an excuse
Too busy to volunteer for everything -- learning to say NO
Too busy to snack too much
Too busy that its ok if I make a few mistakes along the way -- missed appointments, etc

In any case January is racing by and February is on its way! And February means Valentines Day!

This is a Valentine treasury on Etsy that I love. My new pair of red birds are included.