Wash cloth party bags

I hate throw-away plastic party bags. I hate the waste of it mostly. To be honest, I don't like the whole concept of party bags very much, but the children are used to them, so I give them out at the end of children's parties.

Every time a birthday party comes round I'm tempted to make my own cloth drawstring bags. Then I remind myself that it would take me several hours to make just one, and that I can't borrow my mother-in-law's sewing machine anymore because I've moved away, and that I'm not that great at sewing in the first place. A girl I went to school with started a company making cloth party bags in the UK, - they look stunning, have a look: www.charliemoos.co.uk 

In the past I've used paper sandwich bags which are recyclable and biodegradable. You can also write on them so they are easy to transform from boring old brown paper bag to something special. For my daughter's mermaid-themed party I drew a mermaid on each one and let my daughter colour them in.

For the latest birthday party I was really struggling for ideas for party bags. I was about to go down the plastic bag route out of desperation (though it had got to the end of my allocated shopping time and I hadn't seen any of those either). Then, on my way out of the shopping mall I walked through the towel department of the shop I was in and I noticed some pocket face towels. If you're not familiar with them, they are two small rectangular towels sewn together to make a kind of glove to put over your hand. Perfect, I thought! It's a party bag, but it is also an object that is useful, reusable, pratical and, crucially, not very expensive (I needed 15).

I managed to find some face cloths in bright happy colours, and to tie them up I chose to pass a red elastic cord through the little loop which these face cloths have on the side. I initially considered using a ribbon, but most 5 year olds can't tie bows, so I went for the elastic instead, and to make them more interesting I printed out a the design I had made for the invitations, punched a hole through each one and ran the elastic through the hole before tying it.

I try not to fill my party bags with plastic tat, and I think very carefully about what to put in. The filling for the latest lot was: bubble mixture, Post-It notes, a coloured marker, a few sunflower seeds for planting, a small bag of sweets, and of course the wash cloth party bag. In total the cost was 3 euro per party bag.

Banana screen

My son HATES bananas. Everyone else in the family LOVES bananas. But the four year old goes bananas when he sees a banana. He does it all - shrieks, gag, chokes, kicks, screams, throws stuff. Crazy stuff. Especailly because he used to love them too. Now he can't stand the sight of them.

Solution: the banana screen. Masterfully crafted out of some cardboard I saved from the packaging of the IKEA play kitchen, it is now part of our daily breakfast routine. The inside is decorated with pictures of Spiderman and other things dear to a little boy's heart, mostly cut out of toy packaging, wrapping paper and birthday cards. The outside is a collage portrait of said little boy eating his banana-free breakfast.

Brown paper parcels tied up with string

On a visit to the supermarket one day in the first month we were in the Netherlands I came across some white and red kitchen twine. So of course I had to buy it. Turns out it is very common here, and really nothing special. But I loved it. 

Here it is making the Christmas presents look Christmassy (btw, the brown paper is from a roll I have had for seven or eight years I think - I've used it a lot and it still hasn't run out - looks great every time with just a simple ribbon or a colourful card).

Strawberry cupcakes

We brought some cupcakes into school for my daughter's birthday. They were super easy to prepare - I made a plain vanilla cupcake, squirted some whipped cream on top (it's called slagroom in Dutch - one of many, many Dutch words that sound hilarious to English ears!) and popped a strawberry on each one in an attempt to make them vaguely healthy. I cheated with the extra decoration by buying a set of cupcake cases with matching toothpick decorations.

The problem I have is always how to transport food. This time I lined a laundry basket with a small red and white checked tablecloth which I was able to fold loosely over the top of the cupcakes to keep them covered. Looked good, don't you think? 

Ikea hack - Duktig kitchen

So now I live in a country that has IKEA... so.... I bought a DUKTIG play kitchen. I thought it looked a bit boring in the plain wood colour, and I thought it would be fun to add another function to it, so before assembling the kitchen I spray painted the side panels with blackboard paint. It was my first spray painting experience and I was very impressed with the result - a lovely smooth surface and very quick and easy to do. I did three coats and it seems to work well. To rub out the chalk we use the little sponge you can see by the sink - works perfectly.

Now we have two chalk boards that take up no extra space in the house, and my daughter uses them to write the menu for her cafe'!

Windmill

I've just recently moved to Amsterdam with my family. For our going away party I made this windmill out of cardboard.

For the red part I cut and painted a flat piece of thick cardboard - it was the back of a wad of watercolour paper I think. I never throw those away. I used two long pieces of lighter cardboard to make the sails, and used a split pin to fasten them to the red part so they turn.

To keep the windmill upright I cut a slit in the bottom of the tower and cut another piece of cardboard with so that it would slot in snugly.

Not sure how many people who came to the going away party noticed it but I thought it was cute and it made me happy!

First patchwork project

My first patchwork project - made from old shirts and scraps of fabric from previous projects, including the blue dog in the picture. It's a duvet cover, not a quilt, so I didn't have to bother with the quilting bit. The corners don't meet perfectly because the grey squares were made from a stretchy T shirt and they pulled out of shape easily, but I'm happy with how the colours work together.