Birthday Weekend!!!

This weekend we celebrated my love's 28th birthday with a small family party at our house.  The guest list was small, just my love and I and some of his family, but that didn't stop me from trying to make it a beautiful birthday.

A few days before the party I was inspired by a paper banner I saw on the Joyful website and decided to make one for Granite's birthday as well.  I have a stack of paper I bought at the craft store over a year ago that was perfect for the job, and armed with my scissors, paper, and cricut machine I set about to make a birthday surprise.

I was very pleased with the way it came out, and because I used push pins to hang it it was very easy for me to take it down and wait until the last minute to re-hang it so it was indeed a surprise.

Another thing I did for the party that was inspired by the joyful website party was I wrapped all the utensil sets with napkins and secured them with a band of the paper to tie it in.  I had also wanted to make the little toothpick flags that was on the website but nothing on the menu for the day required toothpicks.

Speaking of the menu, for his special day my love had:

Grilled salmon with mustard dill sauce

Blue cheese with candied walnuts and raspberries salad

Mushroom rissotto

Waldorf salad

Dill biscuits

Fresh squeezed lemonade with mint leaves

Sun tea

And for dessert I made him a vegan fresh fruit tart:

 

I did a few other little things to freshen the house up a bit.  One of them was that I stopped by Trader Joes and picked up a bunch of irises to have on the table.  I also covered the lid of our tea dispenser with a square of linen and secured it with a ribbon.  Not only did it look pretty, but it disguised the fact that the lid of our tea dispenser is a bright purple plastic, and not very pretty.

 

All in all the party was very fun and I had a great time with the family.  But probably the best thing about the party?  It was relatively stress-free! (though I do have to admit, I have yet to wash the dishes)

A Doll for Emilia

After spending three days straight researching, reading and writing for a paper for one of my classes I've been happy to be able to spend the past two days working on a birthday present for Emilia's 2nd birthday party this Sunday.

Ever since I laid my eyes on Alicia Paulson's Stitched in Time I've wanted to make the doll on the cover 

I thought she was so pretty and she reminded me of a doll my mom made me as a child that I loved and treasured for years (currently she's in storage, but I'm sure she'll come out someday when G and I have a daughter). 

Monday morning I set out to my local Joann's and scored some pretty sweet finds in the remnants bin.  When I got home I put together a big pot of soup and made some rosemary garlic foccaccia then set down with my sewing while I watched some Lark Rise to Candleford.

And thus with time and love, this...

became this...

and then eventually this...

 

It's difficult to see in the photos but the green velvet trim I put on the skirt is very pretty (if I say so myself-- and I do).  The doll, which I've been calling Laura after the main character in Lark Rise, also has a pretty flower in her hair and a green bow around her waist.  

And because no birthday is complete without a book we picked out a beautiful copy of Beatrix Potter's Nursery Rhyme Book to go along with the doll.  

I think I enjoyed making this doll so much that I'll have to make myself one...

But in the meantime it's time to make some birthday cards, one for Emilia and the other for my Nana who turns 86 this week.

...And after that?  Well, I just picked these beauties up on clearance at Target so I'm thinking, sock animals?

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I just finished making the cards.  Both of these were made with my "paper pups" Cricut cartridge.

Emilia's card

And Nana's card

 and the inside of Nana's card

Baby Shower Cards...

I was recently commissioned by my good friend Lindsay to make two cards for baby showers she will be going to in the upcoming weeks.  She gave me full reign over what I did with the cards, she just told me that the theme for one was zoo/animal themed, and the other was ocean themed... and with free reign I had a lot of fun planning what to do with each card. 

For the zoo animal card I went through my various cricut cartridges and looked at what animal shapes I had.  When I came across this giraffe shape I knew I had found the one I wanted to use...

 

I added a tag with "little one" around the giraffe's neck and tied a bow to show that it's a gift for the baby.

 

I used paper from Anna Griffin's line for the backdrop, and with 3D scrapbook foam stickers made the giraffe stand off from the page.

 

For the second card I knew I wanted to do a whale theme right away.  

For some reason I find big cartoon whales to just be so fun and welcoming, I thought it would be the perfect thing to welcome a new baby boy.

  I had the idea to use vellum curls for the whale's blowhole, and I tacked them down with glue.

 

Once all the pieces were ready, I put the whale and waves down.  It's difficult to tell from the photos but the whale pops off the the card with the aid of my 3D scrapbook foam stickers.

I think both cards look very good together.  I hope the families enjoy them, I certainly enjoyed making them.