The First Birthday

It finally arrived.

After months of planning, weeks of having the dining table covered in my craft crap, and what seemed like hundreds of tiny, but seemingly terribly important decisions, a First Birthday Party was had.

I already had paper and string, so this bunting was FREE!

 You know how when you have something in your head it never turns out that way?

I sent out two versions of the invites, only because I couldn't get enough of this paper.

It didn't matter. They looked good, and came with a Fleur de Lys magnet made from Fimo, which I already had... = FREE!

Well, that didn't happen this time. The party looked and felt just like I planned. Just like I worked for. Just how I hoped.

You know I love a theme!

We celebrated surviving the first year of keeping a Tadpole alive in style.

Everything labelled in French

Finally an excuse to buy one of these babies!

Cheers!

Mr Frog doesn't celebrate birthdays. He's a weirdo. He knows it's a big deal for me so he said I could do what ever I wanted, and he'd just be there on the day.

Sweet!

And so I did. All the little lovely touches I found on Pinterest ( The Devil!) I could tweak to suit our little family.

This was meant to be on a blackboard looking fancy but that would've meant buying one and that was not an option. Make do people!

 And some ideas, I just kinda made up.

Leave a note for the birthday girl to read on her 21st birthday.

Tadpole was, understandably, quite overwhelmed by the people and noise. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and family.

I drank bubbles. I forgot to eat.

A good time was had.

This little handmade act of love was wonderful.

Eiffel Tower shaped biscuits with edible glitter instead of lolly bags.

To our friends and family who made it a special day, and who for more than a year have helped us in ways big and small...

I say Merci Beaucoup.

And to you I say "Wanna know how I did something from the party? Just ask!"

MC

Au Francais!

Last week, I finished the second canvas for bubs room. While sticking with the same colours, and papers, I went a little French this time... given I am having a tadpole.

I painted another canvas cream, along with left over letters from the  $3 pack I used for the alphabet. I splurged on the wooden Eiffel Tower, but already had the Fleur de Lys. The papers are from the pages I already started cutting up for the first canvas.

Using PVA glue sparingly, I arranged the squares in a somewhat co-ordinated fashion. If you look closely you'll see there's a bit of canvas poking through here and there...that's why I painted it first!!





Some artful arranging, some hot glue et voila!

So, next up there's a tissue box cover I couldn't pass up for $3, a cream lamp that was given to us is crying out for a new lampshade, and Mr Frog fell in love with a wooden tree when we visited Kaisercraft last week... I am yet to work out how to decorate any of these things but they do help to take my mind off the foot currently lodged in my ribcage.

There's also I chest of drawers I've had forever that needs some fresh melamine edging, some new handles, and hopefully a vinyl Eiffel Tower stuck on the front...

Then I really need to start arranging all this stuff and work out where to put what...

Yikes, good thing I enjoy doing this stuff huh?

MC



Mon Amour

For months now I have been working on a scrapbooked frame thingy for my lounge room. It has taken ages because of my need to buy cheap supplies, and my complete inability to make a decision. Being a Libran is not easy.
Finally, today, I finished it!

In the process, I made a wonderful mess. I don't have a designated craft space so I just use the coffee table, or the kitchen bench, the floor (as in this case) or a combination of all three which I can assure you my husband loves. Here is some of my work in progress:

That's an opened up shopping bag protecting the ugly green carpet.

The frame, due to it's missing glass, fell off the back of a truck. It's quite big, but the picture window is small, and off centre. What to do? Well, after faffing about deciding on if I wanted the picture to take up the whole window or not (not) I then consulted a scrapbooking magazine for inspiration. The problem with that is that some of those projects are so full of stuff you can barely see the original photo... not my style. So, I took this idea:

And tweaked it!

  I found a fab pic from one of my weddings (long story- another time) to use. I think we look like movie stars but my husband has just decided he doesn't like it but HA! I thought of this already, (and the fact that I may change my mind), and I've just used photo corners so I can change it when I want!

The colour scheme was a no brainer because my lounge room is black & white with touches of red (copied nowhere near as well from an Instyle spread of Lara Flynn Boyles house a million years ago. I also copied her bedroom!) But what to do with the rest of it I had no idea. Now after going backwards, forwards, round and round... here it is!

The text in the middle says: "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a Fairytale". Now, if you knew our history, and had overheard some of our first conversations, you would understand why it had to be this quote. The fairy castle means a lot to me for various reasons, and the Eiffel Tower is for Mr. Frog... and it has come to mean a lot to me too.

Now, at this stage I'm not too crazy about the heart behind the castle, but I needed some red in that corner so there you go.

Dedicated to the one I love. Toujours.

MC