Quick crafty ideas - Harry Potter Party bags

Fabulous daughter is turning 10 this weekend.  For her lockdown birthday, she is having an online party with three friends, using Zoom to do a virtual escape room together.

She is very keen on Harry Potter, so I've put together a party bag for each child, which I'll be dropping off at their homes on my daily exercise on Friday.

I had some plain white paper bags, like this:

They struck me as a bit boring, and as many of you will know.  I don't do boring if I can avoid it.  So I followed the instructions on the brilliant...

Drawinghowtodraw.com

on this page:

I drew them in pencil first, then painted with water colours and finally went over all the lines with a black fine-liner.

Here are the resulting party bags:

I'm so proud of them.  Do you like?

In each party bag, I'm putting:

 a wooden door plaque

Some Harry Potter badges

Some Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans

They will also get some snacks to eat while playing the escape room, and a Chocolate Cupcake (still to be made) with a Harry Potter cake-topper.

Please note - this post does contain some affiliate links.  That means that if you follow my links to buy the products on Amazon, I get a small commission.  It doesn't affect the price you pay at all.

The Beginning of my Birthday - trip to Diggerland!

My Birthday began this weekend.  I actually turn 40 tomorrow, but my birthday treat was a trip to Diggerland in North Devon so it started on Friday.

First, my husband gave me the first part of my birthday present.  Over the last few years, I've lost two wedding rings and the diamond from my engagement ring.  For my 40th he got the engagement ring fixed and a new wedding ring.  I feel very loved.  This is definitely not a need, but is something that has made me feel very loved and special.  He also gave me a cord necklace on which to hang them when swimming in the sea, making pizza dough, or any other occasion on which I might take off / lose any rings.

We headed down on Friday evening to Cullompton in North East Devon where we camped in the campsite behind Diggerland.  Blossom, our crazy four-month-old Cocker Spaniel puppy had never been camping before but she settled really well in the campervan.  She doesn't realise that this is what we do in this family and that campervan trips are going to be a key part of her life in this pack.

photo from Diggerland website

Dogs aren't allowed into Diggerland, so on Saturday morning Mum came up from South Devon to take care of Blossom for us.  C was feeling a bit under the weather and complaining of a sore tummy but we reassured him and went in.  Diggerland is AMAZING!  Driving a digger is on my bucket list, so this was a big tick for me.  There are digger themed rides, you get to dig holes with proper diggers, and I got to drive a JCB!  Unfortunately C really was feeling rotten and was sick twice.  He felt rubbish and sat out of all the rides we went on that morning.  After a sit-down for lunch, Hubby took him back to the campervan for a sleep, leaving Bug and I to play...  Thankfully after a couple of hours resting he felt much better, and came back into the park for the last couple of hours, so was able to enjoy plenty of rides and even got to drive a real car!

this isn't C - it's a photo from the Diggerland website

As the park closed, we headed back to the campervan where mum was waiting with Blossom.  We got changed and headed for a pub in Cullompton called The Weary Traveller.  I would definitely recommend this pub.  While the carpet could do with a clean, the service was friendly and the food absolutely delicious.  I had slow cooked belly of pork in a red apple and cider jus with dauphinois potatoes and seasonal veg, followed by Eton Mess ice-cream.  Mmmmmm!  Also a pint of Otter Ale.

This morning dawned sunny and I got up to take Blossom out, only to hear a strange sound.  As I returned from the toilet block I realised there was a hot-air balloon being inflated in the next field!  I headed back to wake the others and tell them about it, but the campervan was empty.  They had already heard it and we sat under a tree watching as it inflated and took off - very exciting!  Hot air balloon riding is also on my bucket list, and I hope to tick that one off as soon as the children are old enough to join us for the trip.  

We packed up and headed to the Bluebell Restaurant (tucked behind the service station at Willand if you're ever in need of a hearty breakfast, a carvery or anything in between - we opted for the breakfast).  Then we made our way to Weston-super-mare for Blossom's first beach trip.  It will be the first of many, and it was fairly limited today as she's still on a short lead, tires easily and there are dog restrictions on a large part of the beach.  She did have a paddle though, and was interested in the sand.  By the time we got back to the campervan she just landed in a floppy, doggy heap of cuteness.

As I'm back to work tomorrow morning, we decided to have present opening and cake this evening.  Aside from feeling very special indeed, the gifts I received are all very reflective of me, they've been thought out so carefully.  From Mum and Dad I got garden centre vouchers, which I will spend on plants for my new pond (when I build it).  From my big sister new Trollbeads for the bracelet she bought me for my 30th birthday.  From my little sister a beautiful edition of Jane Austen novels and a replacement rainbow mug (she keeps buying me them, but they are my favourite mug so I use them all the time and eventually drop and break them and she just keeps on replacing them).  From C, a rainbow coloured stripy towel and another rainbow mug.  From Bug, a giant fairy castle which will take pride of place in my Utility Pants* when I've sorted it.  From Hubby, as well as the rings, a canvas of the Periodic Table of Elements, which I've coveted since seeing it on the wall in Sherlock's flat on the TV.

All in all, a pretty wonderful weekend.  I feel very pampered and loved.  This weekend was all about doing the things that I love doing, and having a very special time.  

What would your ideal birthday weekend look like?

*It's probably best not to ask about my Utility Pants.  It's a room in my house, not an item of underwear.  It's a cross between a utility room and a pantry, and I've decided that it will be a den, a "mum-shed" if you like, decorated so that anybody wandering in there to get a can of beans or load the washing machine will think for a moment that they have stumbled inside my brain - rainbows and witchery, wildlife and craziness.  I'll post more on that this year as the decorating and sorting comes to fruition.  

Zentangling

For the uninitiated, Zentangling is basically just doodling.

The Zen bit comes because when you're zentangling, you can pretty much zone out of everything else, so it's a good way to clear your head.  

For more information about Zentangling, check out the Zentangle website.  Zentangling can produce some really beautiful art, and a quick search on Google Images will get your jaw dropping and your fingers itching to get on with it.

For many people, they'll have been subconsciously zentangling during boring RE lessons or board meetings for years, without ever knowing that it had a name.  I'm one of these.

Discovering the Zentangle website was something of a revelation - they even have Zentangle teachers!

A pretty good way to start is to just draw a loopy line across the paper, crossing over itself many times.  You then fill in each space with a very simple repeating pattern.  You can, however, get much more creative, and put in some very deliberate shapes and patterns, as you'll see with your Google search, and the one above, which features flower shapes.

The "proper" zentanglers only use very fine black pens, but it isn't absolutely necessary.  You'll see from the example above, which was my first attempt at a Zentangle greetings card, that I've used an italic handwriting pen, and coloured pencils.  It's not rocket science, just go with what you've got to hand.

Enjoy your zentangling!

Party Party Party - Jungle theme children's party.

Bug has just had her third birthday - I can't believe she's three already, as I still remember blogging before she came along!

She decided that she'd really like a party, and as her birthday fell on a few days holiday from pre-school, we decided that we should make a trip down to Devon to see all the family, so it would be a tea party for Bug, C and all the cousins (five of them aged from 1.5 to 7 years old).  I can't stand big children's parties with stacks of children racing around.  The pack mentality seems to rewind evolution and turn them into rampaging animals.  I was quite pleased to be organising a sensible sized family gathering.

I offered Bug the choice of five themes: number fun, jungle, British wildlife, flowers, and under the sea.  She opted for a Jungle theme.

Together we made some jungle theme invites: these were simply green card (postcard sized), with some snakes cut out of snake-print paper, some frogs and leaves stuck on, some ants drawn on and all the relevant information written on.

I don't like party bags - in fact the idea of spending money on some rubbish that will be imminently thrown away gives me the heebie-jeebies.  At a previous party we made paintings on canvas that could be taken home.  On this occasion I decided that we could do a craft activity (making snake decorations) and these could be taken home, but we'd want something else too.  I found a party website, but was disappointed how many "jungle theme" items included giraffes, lions, zebras etc. - as far as my knowledge goes, these animals live on the savannah not in the jungle!  However, I was able to find some plastic cups with monkeys on (in the end they didn't have these in stock and we got penguin ones - but never mind!), some little jitterbugs, packets of toy insects, and some foam flying butterflies.

Decorations: Bearing in mind that we were travelling for ten hours to the venue, and I could only take so much with me to decorate my sister's sitting room!  I hung a large mosquito net above the table, and filled it and the surroundings with 25 green balloons, then hung green crepe streamers liberally around the place.  I also made some bunting with green leaves, frogs and monkey faces.  We finished off with the snakes that we made at the beginning of the party.  My oldest nephew (it was his house) also brought out his box of bugs and distributed those around the place.

Activities: We started off making the snakes - these were brightly coloured A4 construction paper.  We drew a spiral on to the paper and invited the children to decorate them with felt pens, holographic paper and stickers.  When they had finished we cut around the spiral and hung the snake by his tail.  This took about 20 minutes.  We then played Pass the Parcel, I had put plastic insects between all the layers, and then the prize was a wooden snake model to make.  Of course, with this game it's important to choreograph so that everybody gets a layer.  We followed this with Musical Monkeys (it's a bit like musical statues, only everybody has to dance and pose like a monkey).  Youngest nephew wasn't interested in this game at all, and Bug was pretty oblivious too.  C doesn't go to many parties, and this was his first time joining in with a game, so I was sad to see how devastated he was at being out at an early stage.  The other cousins had monkey dancing down to a tee though.  I asked Big Grandad to adjudicate this game, he used to do all our parties when we were children, but he didn't get into the spirit of it at all, and ended up delegating to 7 year old nephew!  After the games it was about an hour into the party, and time for the ...

Food:  Keep things simple.  At parties children don't eat nicely and make a beeline for anything sweet or fattening.  I went for plenty of pizza, lots of fruit, some iced buns (with bugs/butterflies on top for the jungle theme) and the cake, which was simply Blackforest Gateau.  Normally I would have liked home-made pizza, buns, cake etc. but since I was away from home, in this instance it was Sainsburys.  Drink was "Jungle Juice", half a carton of tropical fruit juice, half a carton of orange juice, half a carton of mango juice, a bottle of lemonade and a tin of fruit cocktail, all in a punch bowl with a ladle - that went down very well.

All in all I was pretty pleased with the party.  I think it was just about the right balance between excitement, and being low key enough not to be overwhelming.  There was plenty of time for the cousins to play together with toys, to exchange presents, but they came together for the craft, the games and the food.  There was space and time for the adults to chat.  There wasn't too much food left over.  It didn't take too much clearing up (important since it was at my sister's house).  And of course, most important of all - Bug loved it.

A few little successes.

A few little successes make all the difference to your state of mind.  


On Friday night I finally finished Molly Dolly (1st Birthday present for Sis) and last night I finally finished the dress also:

Yesterday C and I made the birthday cake (it sunk a little on removal from the oven, but hey, you can't have everything!  We decorated it together this morning - he helped beat the buttercream, painted the cake with heated apricot jam, helped roll out the marzipan and the icing, and mixed in the food colouring... and licked the spoon.  It looks very "Mel" - which means very obviously home-made and not all that good, but I don't care because it went down well, we made it ourselves and it tasted yummy:

This afternoon we had a little  first birthday party.  Four little friends and their Mummies and Daddies, they played with the dressing up box, then we did some painting with glitter paints on canvas (something for them to take home - I don't do party bags), and then we ate!  Can't go wrong:

And based on those three little successes, I feel great.

Daddy's Birthday Card

I love this card specially made by C for Hubby's birthday today.  Little C listed the things that Daddy likes - campervans, Landrover defenders, our hill, beer and cheese - for me to find pictures of, and he stuck them on to the card.  He then stuck on pictures of him, Sis and the Waggy-tailed-one so that Daddy would know who it was from.  Then he stuck on some sparkles and added some colouring and drawing.  How gorgeous!

Birthday present inspiration

What to get for a two year old little girl?  It might sound easy... but she has an elder brother and between them they have all the toys.  I thought I'd done well with a tea set made from recycled plastic for Christmas, but the next time I visited it turned out they have about three tea sets.  The only things they don't have so much of are the "girly" things (which she's really in to) such as handbags and purses, dolls and dolly things.  Thing is, I'm not so much in to the girly thing.  Especially since it's all pretty much pink.


So I decided to get creative.  It's also so much nicer when you know that  you're giving a gift which they definitely won't already have and which can't be bought anywhere.


I searched for "wooden box" on Amazon and bought this one: 
I then printed out some flower borders and some butterflies from the internet and made some lettering using WordArt.  I cut these bits out and stuck them on to the box using PVA glue, and then added some details and also some swirly patterns with glitter glue.  Mine were from Tesco and cost £1



The finished result looks like this:

(you can see the recipient looks well unimpressed - oh well!)

The boy's birthday

Apologies to begin with that I abandoned the blog yet again for a holiday.  We've spent a week in Devon with my family and friends.  We've had a lovely time, but the days just seem to rush by.  We managed to spend a week in a seaside resort without once making it to the beach!  As for train rides lasting over eight hours with a baby and toddler in tow... regular snacks for toddler are essential.  I found the trip down relatively easy, though neither of them slept.  Little C was good as gold.  The return journey, after a week of disrupted sleep routine, when all three of us were tired, was less successful, but we all made it back in one piece and on time - without upsetting any of our fellow passengers, so it can't be all bad.


Anyway, skip back a week and a half to the birthday:


My Little C has turned two!


He came downstairs to find this from mummy and daddy and Little Sister - 

and these presents too - 

and spent the day playing with them and making cake - 

For birthday tea it was just the family, and we had Little C's choice of sausage and chips from the chip shop, followed by our home-made cake - 

What a lovely relaxing day!  I think all the demanding what cake/party/presents they want comes later, so for now we're just keeping it simple and enjoying his delight at his "Happy Birthday".

Ideas for a two-year old's birthday

So it isn't very long (three weeks yesterday) until my little man turns two.  Now that the holiday is done and my topsy-turvy brain seems to be functioning again it's time to come up with some ideas for his birthday present - yikes!

From Mummy and Daddy we'd like to get him a pedal trike, but so far I can only find the ones with the handle on the back for the parents, or character ones.  I'd like a sturdy one that he can bomb around the garden on, the type that you often see outdoors at nurseries, but I can't find one cheaper than about £75 and I'm not spending that!

I'd also thought about a set of sports equipment that he can grow in to.  A collection of wooden cricket bat, small tennis racket, bean bags, a hoop, tennis balls and so on - I think I'll probably go down that route, so will need to get my head around it.


In terms of other ideas.  It's difficult because I think most children have far too many toys.  So many that most don't get played with, the children are overwhelmed by them all, and have little appreciation for them.  I think Little C has plenty of toys already, he plays with them all, and also has the opportunity for creative and imaginative play exploring the environment around him.  Having said that, these are some of the things that I'd be happy to see added to his shelves:

• Anything from this website: www.toys-to-you.co.uk 
• junior magnifying glass or bug collecting and viewing equipment
• animal figures  - zoo animals, farm animals or dinosaurs
• more wooden track for his trains

That's all I can think of really!