Shirley's party advice part 3 - in which Shirley may make a guest appearance

[stealthsquiggle]

We appear to have filled another thread

I'm wondering whether a plain bag might not be a bit, well, crap and I'm not sure I'm up to applique.

My Mum wrote a bloody book on the subject (machine embroidery that is) and I'm scared of my machine. How does that work?

oooh, really (the book)? "proper" machine embroidery is something I have always wanted to try. My sewing machine probably sulks about how little of it's real capabilities I use .

A plain bag with a bottle of wine or something in it would be fine - or you could let DS loose with fabric pens/crayons?

I think these things skip generations - my grandmother made almost all of my mother's clothes, plus dancing costumes and the like, my mother sewed (and sews) only when absolutely neccesary (although she did used to knit a bit) and I sew all the time.

I think there were just too many of us to teach. I have 2 sisters and a brother and 1 sister can make her own clothes on a machine but the rest of us are clueless.

I have some of the sample clothes from the book still that the model wore, I wore when I was little and DD will wear too. She might fit the apron now actually, I'll try it later and tweet you a picture :)

Hi everyone.

Stealth - I had to come back and let you know that DS has barely taken his pirate waistcoat off!

I'm just making a list of the games for the pirate party and I have:

Pass the treasure chest
Musical islands
Sleeping pirates
Captain says
Walk the plank (if I can get one)

I think I'll need this chunk of games to last between 30 - 40 minutes - do you think it's enough or any other ideas? I've ruled out a treasure hunt (too hard for the hall) and anything to do with swords (potential for too many tears).

I can't remember if I came back and said - but I did manage to get some blue jelly, so I'm very excited about that!

I linked to that jelly so let me know if its any good as i want to do a rainbow party and rainbow layered jellies. This is a hypothetical dream party though.

Will do. Thanks for the link. I bought some spare packs to try it out. In fact I might make some just now!

I am glad DS likes the waistcoat, Scottish. Probably best to wash it on a cold wash though as I wouldn't want to vouch for how colourfast the black is (they are both cotton though so should be otherwise ok).

I have spent the day making asparagus put of sugarpaste and a BatGirl costume out of lycra for a 'dress as your favourite superhero' sponsored walk DD is doing next week

I've spent the day just round the corner from DW :) I'll give you more notice next time and maybe we can meet up again?

Just sewn name tags into DS's pirate outfit as he has to go to school dressed as a pirate tomorrow and Friday as this terms topic has something to do with pirates.

I need to make a sample butterfly and caterpillar for my first party next weekend - oh and practice the facepainting a bit more. I am getting scared now!

I went on a family photo shoot, it was a groupon offer. I thought it may be tricky with a 4.5 month old but nooo she was a dream. The three year old however played up a treat. Dd2 cant sit unsupported so dd1 had her between her legs cuddling kissing etc ...lovely. Then she pushed her away so she could get up and dd2 just crashes face down. Luckily she was just shocked.

Then dd1 sulked so bad. We actually paid for the worlds grumpiest photo as its just hilarious. Dd1 laid on these lovely teddies scowling. I may put it in the playroom as its so funny. But i wont be in a hurry to do it again!!!

LOL at the grumpy pics. I did one with DS when he was about 10mths as a surprise for DH. Halfway through, DS went flying (as he often does did) and smacked his head hard. Even after I had calmed him down, the photos from the second half of the shoot had him looking distinctly blotchy from crying . I only bought one picture, though.

This weekend I have made a Batgirl costume, 3 Scottish dancing sashes and a load of sugarpaste asparagus. Bedtime now.

I saw on the baking thread about the asparagus cake the link looked brilliant. Its for your dad or fil isnt it?

Oh and squeeeeeeeeeeee remember i said my mil has a wholesale card for some place that sells ribbon? Well its floristry place so i should be able to do my flowers for cheaps!

very very good news on the flowers - that's brilliant.

Yes, asparagus cake is for my father. All I have to do now is to make the actual cake and assemble it all and hope against hope that I have enough asparagus tips. I don't actually have a present for him yet though - or for DH, whose birthday is next (and is next cake up).

Stupid question then, is the asparagus made from normal sugarpaste? If not, if its modelling paste etc can you actually eat it? I always take it all off?!!

It is normal sugarpaste but I am beginning to regret that as it is quite fragile - I could have added sugarcel to make it more resilient but it's too late now. Modelling paste and gumpaste are both perfectly edible, but TBH everyone in my family except DD takes the icing off anyway as none of us particularly like it (we have chickens with sugar highs after birthdays ). DS won't even eat things with buttercream on - he generally just eats the trimmings from cakes / the reject cupcakes that didn't get iced. Strange child.

I'm going to have to go looking for this asparagus cake aren't I? :)

DSis got a Gruffalo's Child cake for her DD at the weekend. It was done by the same lady that did my cake roses. Will try to upload a pic

Blathers - I will link to it/ tweet it to you tonight when it is assembled. So far it is a kitchen table covered in sugarpaste asparagus here

Bumping this before it drops off my active convos. We can't have run out of parties surely?

Bumpity bump.

I wasnt ignoring you, my house and car were trashed in the leics storms. Car is likely to be a write off. House is badly damaged so landlords been. Just as im moving in two weeks!!!

Buuut dd has told me forget playdoh or fairies, she wants a rapunzel party so ive been trawling pinterest for ideas.

Oh no! Sis was saying that her car seems to be the only one she knows that wasn't damaged in that storm. It totally wrecked some of her garden chairs though.

Rapunzel could be fun. Get everyone to come in their favourite princess dress and make them all headbands with long woollen plaits. Castle cake with a figure in a high window. You could even do those chinese lanterns if you were doing 'Tangled' Rapunzel....

I've not been ignoring anyone either. DD has been poorly with a rash that saw us end up in hospital. She's better now but it was very scary for a while

Oh no what was the rash???

Not sure. The blood tests didn't show up so it could be anything. Possibly a virus.

Well i hope she's ok now. Must have been sooo scary.

She's fine. You'd never know there was anything wrong with her this morning :)

Hi everyone, I'm no further forward with my mr tumble party yet but I'm going to start properly organizing in the next few weeks. Very excited!

Sorry to hear about your car and house TheDoctorsWife, hope you get everything sorted.

Your poor dd Blathers, that must have been so scary for you. Strangely enough, a few weeks ago I had to go to the doctors with a rash (it looked like purple pinpricks, very strange) Nothing came back from blood tests either and doctor said they thought it must be a reaction to a viral infection (I know it's much worse when it's happening to a child, I just mean that it may be some sort of bug going about) Really hope she's feeling better :)

Aaargh on the storm damage, DrsW. It was nowhere near as bad here, but I was 100 miles away and knew nothing until I got in the car to come home and it was all over the news - was dreading what I might be coming back to, but all fine as it turned out. Was the new house damaged as well?

Blathers, did they ever decide what was up with DD or did it end up being generic "virus"?

I have done DH's birthday (well, it's today, but cake done and about to take him out for lunch). So now I need to sort end-of-year pressies for teachers and find time to work between attending dozens of bloody end of term things and then I can start thinking beyond the summer to Dragon parties.

Rapunzel sounds fun. We can do rapunzel. Don't forget you need lots of whatever sort of lizard Pascal is - maybe you could pin his tail on???