sweet birthday package.

It’s true, I love to shop for gifts, I also love to buy gifts and then wrap them all up.

But even more than that…
I love to make birthday gifts for special people in my life.So that’s just what I did for one of our dear friends Rinny who just had her birthday (and also just got a new macbook!!) I jumped at the chance to make her a lovely little laptop cozy (similar to mine).Then I had fun wrapping it all up :)!

Oh yes, and I am still quite obsessed with brown paper packages, paper doilys and pegs ;)

engagement #7

Just some extra images from the day that make me smile!

Rachel’s pretty braids.
(amazing image taken by Morgan - he has a good eye huh?
– I also love how this is one of his favourites from the day!)
My adorable grandpa (one half of the 'original young lovers'!).Coloured paper in a jar.
Cute shoes.
our congratulations morgan & katie sign
- from here martha stewart.com.k + m = love
roses in the garden.
roses in jam jars.
tied with string (we had these on all the tables).
& more cupcakes – the dodgy ones, but they really do make me smile anyway!
:)

engagement #6

The Guestbook.
I am so glad we decided to put a guest book together. Not only did it give our guests something fun to do during the party, but we got some really neat responses and they were so fun to sit down at breakfast the next morning and read together. I am planning to scrapbook them together in an album with our engagement photos and photos from the party.To set up it was as easy as hanging twine between two palm trees, supplying some pens (provided in jam jars of course), a vase full of pegs, a vase full of scrap booking paper which I cut into small squares and some instructions. We also used the string to display some of our favourites images from our engagement photo shoot.
The papers and photos looked so pretty all hanging up they were the last decorations to come down too!!Here are some of our favourites:

“Grandma and Grandpa (the original young lovers) are so happy to see you continuing on our family tradition. Lots of babies for God and country please
xxx love ooo”

“Make sure your couch is longer than 6ft so I can sleep on it”

"Still learning about wisdom... but so far this is what I know.. don't stop talking :)"
"Dear Ktbear & Morgan hmm a word of wisdom what can I say? be grateful for every act of kindness. Remember to say thank you"
“Katie I love you and Morgan love ebonie”
From my parents:

engagement #5

The Photobooth.

Photobooths have been going around blog land like crazy lately and it looked like such fun I decided we just had to give it ago too.For the backdrop I headed to Spotlight’s sale rack and found this cute country fabric for only $4 a metre. I simply cut the length in half, sewed it together and then roughly sewed up the side seams to make it neat. Then it was as simple as hanging a rope between two trees and pegging the sheet to the rope (we also used safety pins to make sure it was extra secure). And because it was slightly windy during the party we secured the bottom of the sheet into the ground with a few tent pegs.
I also found this tutorial for felt moustaches (it has down loadable stencils too) and I cut them out while Morgan used the hot glue gun to piece them together. Lets just say… they were FUN!
To capture our photos we set up one of our point and shoot cameras on the tripod and tada – hours of fun and cheap entertainment :)
It was a hit and took some of the best (and funniest) photos of our guest see:
This is Jesse-the-cupcaker-icier-extraordinaire and Aaron who were such a huge help with cooking and setting up :)Little Katelyn is just so funny & dramatic. She "made her crown especially for the party" and "just in time too!!"
aaawww
& my lovely little cousin Ella made this special paper heart for me :)

engagement #4

Ok so this is a game, but after all the hours put into it I decided the much talked about twister quilt (which is actually and sadly not quilted) deserved a post all of it’s own!

Here it is in all it’s glory, cute and patchworky and fun!To make I googled pictures of the original twister game and made it larger (8 circles x 8 circles) so lots of people could play together, I’m sure around 20 could play at once.
For the quilt front I used sheeting - it was the only material whose width was long enough. For the circles I once again headed to spotlight’s sale rack and came away with these fun prints (some at only $2 a metre!!) I cut out circles with a 21cm diameter and used visafix to adhere them to the quilt top (although this step isn’t necessary & some I just tacked on roughly). Then I zig zagged around them to secure.For the quilt back I used the leftover fabric and pieced together large 30 x 30 cm squares (easy!). I then had to put a white boarder around them because in my excitement and rush I forgot to add in some seam allowances. The idea is that the quilt is reversible and M and I can use either side for many picnics to come. I also quickly and roughly sewed the back and front wrong sides together before sewing on the binding on to secure them together.
And I even made my own binding, which is the first time I have ever done this & I may be hooked!! A few chats with Fairlight who gave me some tips and encouragement and this youtube video and I decided to give it ago – I’m so happy with how it turned out, so much nicer than store bought binding!
Because it is meant to be a picnic quilt and used outdoors I also added some tags which were placed into the ground with tent pegs and helped the mat not to scrunch up under foot.For the spinner I scanned the fabrics and photoshopped them into a simple a design which I simply printed and then taped onto thick cardstock. For the spinner we borrowed one from another game and drilled a whole through the cardstock to attach it to the board. – it took all of about 15 mins.
I didn’t get to play myself on the day (I did play the night before with cousins) but plenty of our guests adults (including my parents) and kids alike had fun getting twisted in knots! Here is Aunty Mandy and Aaron and Jesse having a go:
One of our guests even commented on what a great idea it was and how it could even become a family heirloom and how our grandchildren could even bring out the famous twister quilt one day (when it’s possibly even more scrappy) and play– oh how that just makes my heart sing!!