How to make ribbon wands...

Today I'm going to show you how I made the ribbon wands for Minty's birthday.  I made these in lieu of lolly bags since some of our guests had food allergies.   In any case I'm sure all the kids were already pretty hopped up on sugar after their cake and ice-cream!  These were a fun party favour since the kids could enjoy playing with them at the party, as well as being something they could take home to keep.  

You will need:

- dowel cut into 31cm lengths

- 10mm screw eyes

- brass barrel swivels (size 6) - you can get these at a fishing tackle supply store.

- small pliers

- ribbon

Let's talk ribbons.  Much like men and chocolate, not all ribbons are created equal.  For a ribbon wand you need something that is going to give you a lovely rippling effect as you wave the wand.  Silk ribbon is ideal but if you can't get your hands on any or are finding the cost prohibitive you can just buy a synthetic satin ribbon, as long as it is double faced.  There is no point buying cheap satin craft ribbon, as it won't give you the twirling effect you are looking for.  For my wands I mostly used ribbon that was 1 inch thick (the purple ribbon was 1 3/8 inch thick).  

On most commercial ribbon wands I looked at the ribbon was around 2.4m long.  Personally I think this is way too long for kids aged 4 and under.  They tend to end up getting tangled up or the kids trip over them.  After a few trials I decided the best length for the ribbon was 1.6m.  This is still long enough to get some good twirling action happening but not so long as to cause catastrophic tangling accidents!  Obviously you need to be guided by the age and dexterity of the kids you are making these for.

Assembling the wands is fairly straight forward.  Cut your dowel into 31cm lengths.  Sand the ends to ensure there are no splinters.  Screw a hook into the end of each dowel.  Use the pliers to open up the hook a little and allow you to slip the swivel in place.  Close it back up with the pliers.  Stop your ribbon from fraying by holding the ends under a flame for a couple of seconds or by using a couple of drops of fray check.  The fray check will leave a dark line where it dries so I prefer to melt the ends as it looks a lot neater.  Next, thread the ribbon through the swivel and tie a knot to secure it.  Now the wand is finished take it out for a twirl!

Duck, duck...

I know I was supposed to be doing a 'how to' post for the ribbon wands today but I'm a little busy trying to choose a front door pull for our new house.  Instead, here a few quick pics of the kids getting ready for their swimming lesson today.  Is there anything cuter than a kid in a duck robe?

A party for Minty...

I just have to preface this post by saying that I'm absolutely terrible at taking photos at a party I'm hosting.  I'm always a bit burned out from all the pre-party organising and just want to relax and enjoy myself.  At one point I handed the camera across to my sister-in-law Nat to get a few shots so some of these pictures are hers.  I basically only had the camera out at cake cutting time, so you're just going to have to imagine the rest!!

This is the first year that Minty has been involved in her birthday plans.  Up until now she has been highly suggestible.  Frankly I think I could have served her a slab of tofu with a candle in it and made her think this 'cake' was her own awesome idea.  But this year she was adamant.  I tried to suggest that we invite one friend and go to visit to the zoo.  She turned to me and frowned and said, 'maybe we could clean up all this mess,' as she gestured with her hand around the room, 'and I could invite me friends over for a party'.  It's a little worrying when the children are beginning to think the house is a mess!!  So I compromised and suggested we have a party at the park.  She wasn't completely convinced but conceded saying, 'alright mum' in the kind of bored, conciliatory tone I'd expect from a 16-year-old, not my little baby girl.

So we had the party at a local park.  I decorated the rotunda with some pretty bunting and a vintage sheet for a table cloth.  We had a BBQ lunch and the kids had a great time playing on the equipment and chasing each other in and out of the trees.  It was a bit of a windy day so after lunch we did a spot of kite flying.

The cake was a devils food chocolate cake covered with pink swiss meringue buttercream ruffles.  Minty had seen a picture of a similar cake a few months ago and decided this was what she wanted.  And then of course the week before the party she changed her mind and decided she wanted a rubbish truck cake.  By this stage I didn't care anymore and just forged ahead with the original plan!!  I think she was happy in the end!  For those who are interested you can find the cake recipe here, and a video tutorial for how to pipe ruffles here.  I made two 6 inch cakes (one was a backup in case there was a disaster when I transported them!!).  I used wilton #125 petal piping tip which was a little too big but was all I could get my hands on.

I also made four flavours of ice-cream: Philadelphia style vanilla made with AAA Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans; watermelon sorbet; chocolate and raspberry; and strawberry sorbet.  These were served in mini waffle cones with plenty of sprinkles and chocolate chips.

For party favours I made the kids ribbon wands - I have a bit of a 'how to' post planned for these tomorrow.

All in all, I think everyone had a great day.  All of Minty's friends are such sweet little kids, with lovely parents to boot, so I'm really glad Minty forced me to make an effort and get everyone together!

In which Minty turns four and I gift her with abandonment issues...

Happy valentines day everyone!  Lots has been happening about these parts, hence the lack of consistent posting.  

Minty turned four yesterday and also had her very first full day of kinder.  I think it all went OK... until I forgot to pick her up.  OK so that's not entirely accurate.  I didn't 'forget' - I got the times mixed up and thought I was supposed to pick her up at 2:30 instead of 2:15.  And then Turi and I fell asleep on the couch together and we were running late for our incorrect time.  So all in all she waited for us for… ahem… almost half an hour.

I'm sure this is the kind of story Minty will be telling her psychotherapist in twenty years time.  Lucky I'm not embroiled in a custody battle since I'm sure this would be lauded out as evidence of my extreme parenting incompetence.  (I would counter with tales of the time when the Mr accidentally slammed the car door on Minty's head).  Clearly we are both shooting for parents of the year!  As it is, I'm sure I'll just beat myself up over it for the next few months until I manage to push it to the recesses of my mind in an attempt at self preservation.

Thankfully the birthday wasn't a complete write off.  We did manage to put together a nice party for Minty on the weekend with some friends and family.

I will share some pics of the party tomorrow but in the mean time here are a few of Minty in the party dress I made for her.  She insisted on carrying her new umbrella (a present), so the shadows are a bit all over the place.  I used this pattern but left off the pockets and gave it a round neckline.  The fabric is double gauze Nani Iro, which I picked up on sale while we were in Japan.  I'm not sure why I keep making things out of double gauze, possibly I'm some kind of masochist.  This one was fraying excessively as I was putting it together but I think I managed to encase it all within the french seams.  I used much less fabric than was recommended in the pattern (which always makes me feel very thrifty).  I cut the fabric so that the top and bottom panels were densely patterned, with the lightly dotted section in the middle.  Luckily the print is very forgiving since Minty has already managed to permanently stain the front with chocolate and raspberry ice-cream!

Ever wondered how Turi would look as a girl?

Now you know.  Pretty dang cute.

And to answer your question (because I can of course read your mind), yes we did leave the house like this.  We went supermarket shopping.  And no I did not dress him like this as some kind of whack experiment in pushing gender stereotypes.  We were visiting friends and he 'accidentally' turned on the outdoor shower and soaked his clothes.  These were the only spare change of clothes I had with me, curtesy of Minty's kinder bag.

And before any of my feminist readers (bless you all) are offended by this post… yes, gender stereotypes are mostly stupid.  And yes, everyone should be able to wear pink love heart pants and a frilly cupcake shirt if they want to!

Winners and a partial house update...

And the giveaway winners are…

Manu wins the measuring jug!

Lien wins the book!

I'll be in touch with you both shortly to organise the logistics.

And now for a house update…  OK so this is a limited house update since my camera battery went flat mid-way through my last visit to site.  

The claw foot bath is now sitting in the bathroom.  It's obviously not plumbed in at this stage but it gives you a bit of an idea of what it will eventually look like.  Originally I had planned to paint the outside of the bath black and put very dark tiles on the floor.  Now that the bath is in-situ I think I actually like it pale blue and I might even just leave it shabby.  I kind of think the rustic look suits the big timber window.  I'm in the process of hunting for floor tiles and I'm honestly completely confused about what I want.  Does anyone have any thoughts?

Meanwhile, this is our enormous evaporative cooler that is currently squatting in the lounge room, before it finds its permanent home on the roof.

The main toilet has some plasterboard up and will hopefully be installed soon.  Our workforce is getting a bit inpatient to have proper facilities!!  The picture on the right is the view from the toilet.

The big changes are on the outside of the house, as much of the cladding has gone up - but of course I don't have any pictures of that.  Stay tuned!

Kinder!

Minty had her first day of kinder (preschool) today!  She was so excited and had a ball while she was there.  Her highlights from the day were that she played duplo lego and 'someone else' wet their pants and cried!  

The start of kinder of course meant that Minty needed a new bag.  I wasn't particularly keen on most of the ones I'd seen in the shops so I decided to sew her one as an early birthday present (she turns four next week).  The pattern was from Little Things to Sew.  I used Denyse Schmidt quilting cotton for the main fabric and lining (I used fusible interfacing to bulk up the main bag since the fabric was a bit light weight).  I think the red chunky zip and bright pink straps help to make the colours pop.  Minty loves it and Turi is very jealous.  He wants to have a kinder bag too.  I really think kinder is going to be a harder adjustment for Turi.  He couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to stay and play with all the toys.

These photos were taken while we were waiting to go inside and she was too hyped up to stay still, so apologies for all the cut off legs and strange running shots!

I realise I need to announce last week's giveaway winners - I'm hoping I'll get a chance tomorrow.  I've been really busy creating so I haven't had much energy left to spend time on the computer.