healthy party food...

Gosh, I have a very busy week ahead of me! My little man will be turning three years old next weekend (I can't believe it) and we are having a little dinosaur party for him! I didn't realise how much there was to organise for this little party! I have been writing lists, buying bits and pieces the last few weeks... I'm on track, so far! I've been having fun testing out party food recipes for the last week... much to the delight of my partner and little man... not so much to the delight of my poor waist line!

:: my happy little taste tester :)

I made a small batch of rice crispies and marshmallow bars the other day. I don't have much of a sweet tooth but I nearly died of shock at how unbelievably sweet they were...Yikes!! I'm not sure I can put that on the party table, everyone may need to book an appointment with the dentist straight after the party! So, I have been looking for healthy alternatives. I will have a few yummy sugary things, after all it is a birthday party, but I would also love to have lots of healthy party food too!

So I was wondering what are your favourite, easy to make, healthy and yummy party foods recipes? I would love to know :)

my creative space: more knitting

Gosh is it Thursday already... that week went way too fast! There seems to be quite a bit of knitting and crocheting going on around here lately! I think it's because it is easy to pick up and do at any free moment (5 minutes) in my crazy day! I can get quite obsessed with trying to find those precious minutes! :)

I saw these cute little knitted bunnies on pinterest by Dangercraft and thought I would have a go and knit something similar!

Source: dangercrafts via do a bit on Pinterest

I made up the knitting pattern as I went and knitted the body and ears in one piece. It was really easy and I loved knitting with these pastel colours that I got from my grandma.

:: little bunny in progress

:: what is really going on when I'm taking photos :)

:: hello cute little bunny :)

:: little bunny's pom pom bottom

The pom pom bottom helps little bunny stand up by herself! I love how little bunny turned out... so cute! Little bunny is off to the new home, a friend's lovely little girl (a belated birthday present)... hope she likes her new bunny!

I really love making these little knitted toys.. to much fun!!

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

my creative space: dinosaur amigurumi

My little man is completely crazy about dinosaurs at the moment... I mean totally obsessed!! And when I saw this dinosaur crochet pattern on Amigurumi Patterns, I just couldn't help myself!

:: crochet dinosaur

I used the pattern as a guide. I used 8ply wool, used a 4.0 mm crochet hook and made a slightly bigger dinosaur! I also added the spikes on the back, I'm not sure if he's historically correct or there is an actual dinosaur that looks like that but it doesn't matter because my little man just loves his new dinosaur... ROAR :)

:: a bit of dinosaur love

I'm really enjoying learning about all the different dinosaurs! My gosh I can't believe that there were so many different and weird looking ones with names I can't possibly pronounce! Looks like I'm getting a second education through my little man :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

my creative space: little bunny softie

This week, I have been doing lots of other things, getting out and about with my little man, bought a new large screen printing screen with squeegee (so excited), bought some t-shirts to screen print on and I've just been busy doing - I'm not sure what - but the week has flown by! So there hasn't been much time for doing anything crafty... bummer... and I'm really dying to do something soon or I might explode!

Last week, it was my neighbour's little girl's first birthday and so I got out the knitting needles and whipped up a little bunny softie! I couldn't help myself :)

:: knitting little bunny with some pretty colours

The pattern is from petite purl... in the past I have changed it slightly and made it bigger, see here. I knitted this little bunny from memory, mostly, then had to find the instructions when I got to the ears!  I think I cast on a few more stitches for the body than I should have, so little bunny has ended up a little bit chubby and he does look a little cross but still very cute :)

:: a stripey little bunny

:: a stripey little bunny with a pom pom tail

My neighbour's little girl loves her new stripey little bunny... I love making these softies for the little ones :)

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...

an apron for me :)

Last week I caught up with my lovely, fellow crafty friend Jo from bubala... we had such a great time chatting about all things crafty while watching our little boys play together.. so much fun!

A while ago, I lent Jo a screen printing screen and squeegee, so she could have a go and experiment to see if she would like screen printing which she totally did and loves now... not surprising as it is really addictive! It's so wonderful to have someone to gibber gabber to about screen printing! Love it! Anyway, to my surprise, she made me a gorgeous apron as a thank you! How lucky am I :)

:: my little man is much better at modelling than me :)

It is so beautifully made and also has some of her gorgeous screen printed beetroot design on it too!

:: beetroot screen printed apron by Jo - bubala

:: beetroot apron - love the corner detail

I just love it! I haven't used it yet, I am enjoying looking at it on the back of the chair in the kitchen... but only because I don't want to mess it up... just yet! Don't worry Jo, I will use it! :)

There is more about her beetroot design here... and she has loads of great recipes too!

Hope you are all having a great week so far! xxx

my creative space: drypoint etching workshop

I went to a free drypoint etching workshop with Rochelle Summmerfield today, which was run by the local council where I live and it was free. I was so excited when I got the email to say that I was in the workshop!

The workshop was great fun and I learnt a lot. We spent the first half of the day etching out the cardboard surface. I decided to keep it simple - rain drops and a cloud.

We etched our design on the cardboard. I made a bit of a "boo boo" on my design when I was pulling away the top layer of cardboard for the cloud, I accidentally also pulled off one of my rain drops and had to adjust my design and ended up with a few dark raindrops! If I had more time I would have redone the whole thing.. Oh well!!

:: etching on cardboard
(apologies for this bad photo)

Then we inked the whole design and then rubbed off all the excess ink - ink is left in the etched areas. We did our first prints on butcher paper to test the design and then we could adjust the etch if needed.

:: rain cloud prints on  butcher paper

Unfortunately, my clouds didn't work out how I envisaged.. I was hoping for more texture but they ended up quite dark! But I don't mind it now :)

:: rain cloud detail

It was so exciting seeing my print for the first time... but even more exciting when I printed it on beautiful archival paper! Here are my finished prints...

:: rain cloud on archival paper - black

:: rain cloud on archival paper - paynes grey

I am so happy with how they turned out, especially considering it was my first go at drypoint etching! My favourite one is the paynes grey coloured etch.... the colour really suits the design so much!

It was such a fun day today and I just love learning new things! I would love to do this workshop again and I'm hoping they will run another one in the future!

Hope you are having a great creative week!
There are loads more creative people over at our creative spaces...