Farmyard Party

Inspired by other stay-at-home-designer-project-mode-y mums I decided to try my hand at creating party printables. I mentioned this to my friend Jen who cunningly got me to design some stuff for her daughter's upcoming 2nd birthday. Miss 2 loves animals so it had to be a farm party!

yummy food! I love love love the butterfly fairy bread! 

Here are some of the printable bunting, cupcake toppers and tags I designed.

 I do love how cute labels and ribbons make even the simplest things look lovely. Printing the juice labels onto a4 stick on labels was a stroke of genius on my part (if I do say so myself!!) much easier than glueing every single one  - like I did for Little Man's 1st birthday!

Here's the birthday girl herself! All the other kids were invited to dress up as farm animals and Miss 2 was the farmer. Jen picked up these cute overalls and hat at Kmart (I think?) and I added the fabric  belt and flowers to it just to girly it up a little more. Don't you think this gorgeous family look like they belong in a magazine?

Speaking of farm animals... here is Little Man as a cow.. You can see the hat didn't last long. Fluffy chickens were far too interesting to bother about a hat.

 Jen had a Kiddy Farm come to the party and it was so cute seeing all the different reactions the kids had. Miss 2 was besotted with these chickens (perhaps she knew how well they matched her outfit??) and sat with them on her legs for ages being very gentle. I love her little hands carefully holding them.

 Another little cow makes his way through the party and this little miss on the right may forever be known as chicken choker! I've never seen 1 year old hands go so fast for a chicken's neck. It was hilarious!!

 The party favours were these super cute piggy banks - such a great alternative to lolly bags!

All in all a very beautiful party. Jen did such a wonderful job putting it all together and lovely time was had by all!

penny pincher's party

Well, Little Man turned one on Sunday, and of course, there was a par-tay!

I wouldn't say it was completely budget conscious, but there were definitely some bargains to share.

Firstly, bunting. So easy to make and so effective as a decorating tool. These ones are "no sew" ones that some day I'll put up a tutorial for. All you need is fabric, rope, an iron and some iron on binding. The great thing about them is they can be used for more parties, or as room decoration - these ones are going into  Little Man's room very soon! (Don't you just love this paparazzi moment of Little Man eating his first piece of birthday cake!)

How great is Etsy! I ordered a printable party set from Dimple Prints for only $10 and it came with over 100 pages of great things to print out. From paper bunting to cupcake toppers (as seen here on the right) there was so much to choose from. Amazing value for money and while I probably only used about a third of it, I still think I got my money's worth.

Glass bottles - $2 - Reject shop.

Not much more to say about that! Such and affordable way to add a special touch to something that normally gets shoved in a corner in a laundry bucket with some ice.

Matching outfit. Ok yes, you need a bit of sewing skills to whip these overalls (there are straps, they just kept falling off!) up, but the little tee is very easy to make, and just another way to personalise your little one's party. I picked up the white tee for $5 and used fabric scraps and some iron on binding to make this matching top.

Bubbles! So cheap and so much fun for kids of all ages (clearly!)

Containers for food. So I bought a LOT of stuff from the Reject Shop here in Sydney for this party. It's one of those places that if you can look past the cheap and nasty stuff there are a lot of great buys to be found. I got the red and white tin buckets for $3 each and the big glass jars for only $5 each! They are my favourite bargain! A quote from a friend when I told her the price "No WAY! Get out! I thought they would have been at LEAST $20 - $30!" Ahhhh the satisfaction of a bargain buy!

Much like the bunting, the great thing about all these containers as they can be used again and around the house. I'm thinking crayons and pencils for the tins and cookies or craft supplies for the jars.

And finally here are just a few more of my fav pics from the day.

(the candle was a little bit scary for our poor little muffin!)

Latest bargain purchases

So after our big move I realised I needed ("needed?" debatable) to find and check out all my local charity shops. I was not disappointed! Here are some of my recent bargain buys...

Some shoes and gloves for my Little Man. The shoes are leather, look brand new (I don't actually think they've ever been worn) and were $4. The gloves are so cute and super soft. $1, but then slashed to 50¢. 

Some more leather... a leather shoulder bag for me. Perfect size for wallet/ phone/ keys/ spare dummy and some wipes! Originally $12, but the shop this one came from was having a 50% off sale - $6 for leather?... yesssss!

And a bumper seat for Little Man. Not sure how much these retail for, but probably not the $6 I got it for!

Ok, so these didn't come from a charity shop, but they were still a bargain! They match the theme for Little Man's upcoming 1st birthday and at under $2 a pack - bargain!

Who else has picked up some bargain treasures lately?