How-to-make an owl pinata

I'm doing well on catching up with my lost blog posts, I hope you agree. Unfortunately this may prove to be a rather unsatisfactory how-to as I didn't take as many pictures as I should have of the process. However I know that my readers are very intelligent and will quickly figure out what you need to do. If you do have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

Blow up a massive balloon (bigger than your head) and cover it with three layers of paper mache. You can find the recipe here.

Cut off one of the smaller end.

Let kidlets fill the pinata with sweets.

I have cunningly missed out a stage here for added confusion. Reattach the end with plenty of packing tape but reverse it so it is con-caving into the balloon (this is so the pinata can stand up).

Then allow kidlets to paint the pinata with acrylic paint.

Cut two hole in the top and thread ribbon through, see here also.

Cut up strips of crepe paper and fringe them. Attach with a glue gun starting on the base and working your way up to the top of his head.

Add a beak and eyes with a glue gun.

Admire your creation.

Then let ten 5 year olds batter it with a stick until all that is left is dust!

xxx

Twisted-Fete cookies

Hello lovely people!

I'm afraid that once again I must apologize for neglecting you.  I have just come back from a lovely week away with Mr LD and the kidlets, and before that things were going a little crazy!

So it's time, now that things have calmed down, to catch up.

First is a batch of cookies I made for a 40th Birthday. The theme was a Twisted-Fete.  So I decided to paint some old fashioned fayre freak shows.  They still needed to be be beautiful and women.

I made entrance tickets for the tags.

I think the bearded lady was my favourite, although I do like the strong woman's frilly leotard!

xxx

THE BOOK PARTY

Hello...don't be shy...come on in!

Come on a little closer.

Come on, we won't bite (well maybe some of the children will, but we're working on that!)

There you are, welcome to the book party!

Big kidlet has been planning this party for a year, the invitations were made before Christmas, but to be honest, I don't need much encouragement to be drawn into the fun!

Her favourite book is Tatty Ratty by Helen Cooper, so I was instructed to make a cake with the aforementioned rabbit as the star. BK has her own rather scruffy Tatty Ratty, that, like it's namesake is often lost.  You can read about one of his escapades here, and how he was found here.

I have also been collecting old children's books on my travels for displaying the goodies.  Although when I was putting the display together I realised that in this case more was better, so I scoured the many book cases in our house for some of my old books.  I think I found three copies of Anne of Green Gables. (I'm filling up a little just thinking of those red plaits...and don't get me started on Pollyanna!)

We cut up some old picture books that the kidlets didn't read anymore to make bunting.

The dessert buffet, obviously the most important part of the party (to me!) included Tatty Ratty's favourite treat, doughnuts. (Although his were made by the Man in the Moon.) BK expressed her opinion the real doughnuts would take too long to make. So we whizzed up some cupcake mixture, half filled the holes of a shallow cupcake baking tray, a circle cutter, some glaze and sprinkles later and Bob's your Uncle and Tatty's your rabbit.

We also had mini cupcakes, cake pops, iced gems and strawberries to be a bit healthy.

For starters I made some old book pages into cones for their fish/sausage and chips.  I had suggested that I make some fish goujons, but this idea met with dismay "No, Mummy, they have to be packet fish fingers".  I was quite glad of one less thing to do so I agreed.

I used some more old book pages on the water bottles.

This actually came in handy as the revellers wrote their names on the bottles, so no germs were spread that day!

We had plenty of booky crafts on offer.  I had found these secret book here.  BK painted them a few days before the party, ready for the guests to create their own titles. We also had note books to be decoupaged and scratch bookmarks. 

I especially liked the tale of "The Big Bad Botom!" 

Then, of course, a pinata.

 I will write up a tutorial for this soon, it is so easy to make and one of the most enjoyable parts of the day.  Well who doesn't like to hit things with a big stick?

Mr Lemon Drizzle tried to read the the story of Tatty Ratty but quickly gave up as high spirits seemed to be the order of the day.

Each guest left with a party bag bursting with their crafts and some other goodies.  There was a beautiful hair band from Heartfelt Handmade. I had copied some text from a Milly Molly Mandy book and transferred it onto felt for Marie to use.  We also had a book biscuit for the bags made under BK's supervision.  I had her drawings to copy and the titles of each book handed to me.  There was also some letter sweets and a mermaid book each.

The whole two hours were over in flash, unlike the six hours leading up to it where we were constantly pestered with "How long now?"  "When are they coming" and "I want my party now!"

Anyway it was all worth it to see a happy kidlet curled up that night, clutching her raggedy rabbit and dreaming of cake!

BOOK PARTY INVITATIONS

WARNING!!!!

This post will contain gratuitous scenes of book destruction!  Do not continue if you are of a sensitive nature.

Did you guess from my sneak peak the theme of this weeks party?

It's books!

I can't quite remember how we came upon this theme, as it was decided a year ago, pretty much as the last guests were leaving the Hello Kitty party.  But, it's a good theme, so we ran with it.

Big kidlet, as you may know loves to be involved with any craft project, especially if it's for a party.  So together we came up with this idea for an invitation.

When you were young did you have 'How To Be A Spy' books?  I remember, along side the 'using lemon juice as invisible ink' and what a 'drop' is, there was always a section on how to turn a book into a secret hiding place.  Of course anyone who is a spy now would know to look in a book immediately, having read the same manual as me! (My spy name is 00CAKE.)

So we decide to create a book within a book.  Big kidlet (BK) wrote a party themed story and drew the illustrations to go with them.

I photographed them (I don't have a scanner) and fiddled around on picnik, under her supervision to create a little book.

I cut them out and she glued them all together.  We cut out the holes in the proper books with a scalpel and glued the sides together.  Fortunately my measuring was spot on and the little books fitted snugly in their holes.

I took another picture of one of the blank pages from one of the books, they have a lovely aged quality, some more picniking and we had some tags.  BK was sooo excited giving them out and the party guests were quite impressed!

I shall hopefully have a post with the full party story soon when I have recovered, (probably about a months time then!)

xx

SOMETHING EXCITING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!

We shall be having a party in our house this week to celebrate a certain someone's 7th birthday.  We have been planning this party for a year and collecting bits and bobs along the way.  Here's a little taster of the theme.

These are books that neither kidlet or her friends have ever heard of, let alone read, but I loved the covers and they remind me of my own misspent youth reading under the covers with a torch.

 I have never read Hideaway in the Hills but loved how gutsy the horse rider seems.  I would have wanted to be her when I was a child, just not on a horse.
I was forced to read Watership Down by my mother when I was at school even though I really wanted Tarka The Otter, that's what the cool kids were reading!  We went to see the film too, I still have nightmares!  (Love the Art Garfunkel song though.)

I'm sure I read the Enid Blyton story as I read nearly all of her 'cannon', but as all the stories merged into one (plucky children eat sandwiches, drink ginger beer, stumble upon bad guys being bad, discover a secret passage way and save the day) I couldn't say for sure if this particular one was on my shelf.  A shelf, by the way, which was organised alphabetically!  I also had a book to sign any novels out if friends wanted to borrow them.  I took my reading seriously then!

Little Women was one of my favourite books, I wanted to be Beth, everyone loved her and she was so good,  then either Amy (beautiful and artistic) or at a push Jo (spirited), but never Meg (boring!).  Now, considering my life, I think I've turned into a Meg and who ever aspired to be her? 

Anyway I shall be sharing more of the celebrations soon.

BIRTHDAY FOOD

Sorry that I wasn't around last week, I was busy sorting out cupboards and doing taxes etc.

So I'm catching up with all the posts that have been hiding in my camera memory.

I shall start, of course, with some nice food!

I had a morning brunch for some girlfriends the week of my birthday and went a little bit Martha.

As I was trying to lose a bit of weight before the big day I went for some healthier options rather than a fry up.

I made a lovely fruit salad and had some Greek yogurt and seed to go on top.  I baked a loaf of spelt bread the day before and roasted figs as a topping with some ricotta, honey and walnuts.  So easy to do and very gorgeous.

We had freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee with healthy muffins.  I had also made some cereal bars but we were too stuffed to even try them.  It was a very delightful morning.

The photos aren't great I'm afraid as the light was appalling and I was in a real rush.  However Mr Lemon Drizzle was kind enough to treat me to a new camera for my birthday.  So I have gone from a fairly basic point and shoot compact to a lovely Panasonic Lumix fz35, which I took out on my birthday lunch.  

We went to The Grove a lovely hotel near us (very footballers wives).  They have three restaurants, one of which, The Glass House has a running buffet.  the food was amazing.

 I tried my best to sample everything but didn't quite make it.  I managed to take some pics for you (mostly of the puddings which were fabulous) but as I just received the camera that day I hadn't read the manual (still haven't)  so they are not quite right.  I need a few weeks to teach myself all the different functions, I'll really understand it just in time to upgrade!

Anyway I need to go and iron school clothes...I know, me and my glamorous life.

If you have time pop over to therikrakstudio where they are holding a handmade Olympics.  You can nominate yourself and one other person for each category.
Whats stopping you? Go on...right now! (Oh bossy!)
 See you soon!
xx

HAPPY BIG BIRTHDAY ME!

Yes the day has been and gone, I am no longer the Birthday Queen (boo).  Although I still have few celebrations in the pipeline.  Mostly though, I am feeling exhausted from a huge lunch yesterday.  It was a buffet style meal in a very exclusive hotel (Mr LD though it was a bit footballers wives) and I wanted to try everything.  So today I am on a soup and chocolate diet!

Anyway I decided to take some time to review my life so far, and so far so good.  I have lived a very blessed life and I don't know why, I'm not especially good or talented, I'd put myself down as more of a plodder!  

My parents are and have always been amazing, loving and very supportive.  They never pushed me to do anything I didn't want to do and were happy as long as I had tried my best.  They have definitely instilled in me a love for creating and cooking and baking and gardening and making!  They are fun, and I know that even now would help me with anything I need.  

I have a lovely brother, sister-in-laws, in-laws and nieces.  We are all easy going and enjoy spending time together.

Then, of course, there is the fabulous Mr Lemon Drizzle, he makes me laugh, alot.  And more importantly he thinks I'm hilarious!  He is kind and thoughtful (incredibly handsome!)  I am very lucky to have found him, as he likes to remind me.  We have our gorgeous kidlets who bring so much laughter into our house, there is nothing better than a six year old giggling uncontrollably!

And I also have some really lovely friends who I know I can rely upon in a crisis, or for a great night out.  

I live in a gorgeous town, in a lovely house.  Really the only thing I am lacking is some more sun and a cake empire, but I'm working on that!

Finally a big thankyou to my lovely blog followers.  You really cheer me up with your lovely comments, and inspire me onto better things.

Gosh that reads like an Oscar speech!  

(Drips tears onto the keyboard, imagines cheering.)

Enough of all this and onto the most important thing, the cake!

I have devised a gorgeous decadent chocolate cupcake for you.  It was inspired by a chocolate tart Heston Blumenthal made for Christmas.  I have to admit the popping candy didn't pop after it had been put into the chocolate but still gave a nice crunch.  You could use chopped nuts instead!  But for a really special occasion you must have the gold leaf!

I hope you enjoy!

All I can say is YUM!

ps. see here for last years birthday cakes.