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

[stealthsquiggle]

We appear to have filled another thread

I'm here. Not much use, but I am here.

Just as I go to bed... I shall be obsessing about cake topper making again tomorrow though :)

Has DSis expressed an opinion on the cake topper yet? It doesn't look that hard to me...

My first and quite major issue is that I cannot find peg doll blanks with the bigger heads in the UK. Looks like I'm going to end up shipping them from the US unless someone can come up with a better plan.

DSis thinks it's do-able but it bogged down with orders for the hand-stitched felt bootees she makes and might not have time.

Do you mean something like this?

More like this

no good, then?

It's not that much more for the American ones which look to be the same as the ones in the original doll...

£6.45 for 2 from USA or £5.70 for the not-quite-right UK ones.

Go for the US ones then, especially as that should come in under any customs thresholds - you have time, after all. (My dragon fabric came from the US - plus customs charges [ouch])

I've got the lady packaging me up 3. One for me to mess up, one for my Sister to do beautifully and one spare...for DW?

Yes yes yes yes please. I forgot to check my threads. Ive been looking for these non stop after i linked to that rainbow one is australia. Please please please can i have it? I'll pay you!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Right i just read the rest from stealth marking her place.

Stealth you absolutely have to do all our ideas. All of them! Its the law. (or at least tell us which plans you are going for) no i dont think my mum gets it at all that i was really in a bad way. I had haemotology last week, despite saying i had to go to see consultant with both kids she just looked blankly at me. At the appointment they stopped my warfarin etc etc but i told them i still had chest pain. They re-checked my original ct scans and it shows my heart was under strain. So now ive got an echo booked for later this month to check my heart etc. my mum didnt flinch at that either.

Blathers- i wanted to buy that rainbow doll but they'd finished and all others available were brown haired and dd has white blonde hair. So then i started looking for kits as im more than artistically able i reckon. But us ones have a large wooden bead on the head and uk ones dont. I was trying to think of a way to get a big bead but i think uou've saved the day. If i could please have one then i reckon i could do something lively for my little lady.

Good job I asked her for 3 then :) You are welcome to one.

Ouch, DW - fingers crossed for that. On the plus side, any issues are v. likely to be treatable nowadays. DH had an echo while he was passing time in hospital after last year's holiday (Dengue Fever) which was good, because I had been twisting his arm hard to go and get checked after his cousin was diagnosed with a heart condition. Being DH, he found the whole process fascinating (this is the man who was highly entertained by looking at my insides during C Sections ).

Revised party action plan now reads:

• find a hall. I am hoping that the person who just beat me to #1 choice hall fails to send their cheque in by tomorrow, as the booking person said I could have it then. Otherwise it is back to Doreen.

• wash that bloody fabric. This may have to wait until party girl is back at school on Monday as she doesn't want to see it and I have a pile of mending and nametaping to do. I then need to take a swatch of it shopping for cheap lining, and decide what sort of bags to make - drawstring, or with handles - what do you think?

• review thread and make a decision about wings and tails

• make invitations (I got scratch art dragons from Baker Ross to do this, but it's going to take for ever)

• plan the rest of the party!

Wow stealth that is some list. How do you plan to do the invitations?

Thank you blathers xx

I've now started towards the rapunzel party. Wait for it...dd1 insists baby dd has to come as Pascal the chameleon! Ive got my eye on a hooded romper suit and i'll have to make the eyes spikes and tails. Shes started crawling so reckon she'll be cruising by nov so she'll look pretty cute as a chameleon! I got a 50m yellow vinyl tablecloth roll on clearance ehich i'm going to use as hair draped around the room.

DD2 as Pascal sounds like a fantastic idea

Invitations - um - yes - I was coming to that. I don't know. The scratch art dragons these were an impulse purchase. I guess I was planning on scratching enough detail onto each to make it clear they were dragons, and then adding party invitation text (and possibly recipient's name) . I keep telling myself I can't really start until I know where the party is going to be (see hall booking dilemma).

I also really need to phrase an email to the mother of child with birthday on the day after DD's as they met up at school (other child also has a sister in DS's year) and declared themselves to be "best friends" again, so DD would be devastated if their parties clashed.

Oh you are so good with the invites. Come on do it now, send that email right now and lets get this show on the road.

Dear dd's friends mum.

Please dont think i'm batty but dd has already started making mammoth plans for her birthday arrangements. I know she would be devastated if your dd couldnt make it and vice versa we'd hate to clash with any of your plans.

I thought it may be wise to let you know what her hopes were for the party so as to ensure that any plans didnt clash. We were hoping to have our party on this date around this time. Would that interfere with any potential plans for your dd's birthday? My dd would dearly love her to be able to come. Ta muchly. Im not telling you where it is in case you try to poach my venue and im already hoping the current booker falls thro so there.

Love stealth x

Yes, blame it on an overexcited child. If she knows you well enough she'll know it's you anyway :) This is the one bonus of DD's December birthday, I get to make plans stupidly early and blame it on Christmas

She won't need to know the venue, just the date to stop clashes.

Oh, she'll know it's me - but will probably be polite enough to pretend to believe it's DD.

Sayhellotomylittlefriend...

I saw these and thought of you
FreePrintables

Thanks DoctorsWife, that is perfect for me!! Wonder if dp will be up for helping to make party hats / boxes tonight haha.

The party is next Saturday and I'm getting very excited about it now. I'm still waiting on my party bubbles and spotty cupcake cases being delivered but I think I have everything else (apart from the food).

We're going to a pirate and princess party this weekend that I totally forgot about it. Dd wants to go as a pirate so will have to find something for her, might dress my youngest as a princess since she can't argue with me about it :)

Dollies are ordered. Just got to wait for them to be shipped from America now

I washed the dragon fabric (now hiding in the drier) and emailed DD's friend's mother. (and emailed 3rd choice hall just so that I am ahead of her in the queue if she wants it too [evil]). I suppose I had better call Doreen back now.

I have more fabric than I thought, because there are 4 repeats of dragons across the fabric, not 3 (makes for better proportioned party bags as well). So - I have choices. I could do bags with handles, drawstring bags, or (I suppose) a mixture - what do you think?

Those printables look fab, but potentially expensive in terms of ink [miser].

...and you could make extra bags for other dragon obsessed girls you know

Those printables do look ace. You'll need some nice card to print them out on too. It'd still be cheaper than buying though I think. I'm definitely going with the IKEA plates. I'm going to pick some up next week once I've had a chance to write a preliminary guest list and then I'll find fabric to match and make some bunting. The plates are dishwashable and endlessly reusable so the effort of making bunting seems worth it and I'll be able to use it over and over. Do I need to do proper, double sided flags do you think or just single layer, pinking shears cut ones?

If you Pirate and Princess party wasn't this weekend I'd suggest you get the reversible Pirate/Princess dress that Stealth'd DD has and I am just looking for an excuse to buy as it would work perfectly even if she decides to change her mind at the last minute or even half way through the party

If you want your bunting to last, I would say double - sided would be best.

I could indeed make spare bags for other dragon - obsessed girls of my acquaintance, especially if said girl's mother helped me decide what sort of bags to make....