first day of school and hair bow tutorial

It was our first day back at school today.. first day ever for Cyan!



The school colour is green, which I love..

I had bought hair clips, and a whole selection of lovely ribbons in green and white.. gingham, striped, polka dots, organza..
The ribbons are all from craftyribbons.com



I am planning to craft a hair accessory each night this week, to go with Cyan’s uniform..

Tonight I decided to add some bows to the hair clips.. so on Monday we have..

Simple interchangeable bows for hair clips tutorial

You will need:
Assortment of lovely ribbons (see above!)
Hair clips
Fray-check or craft glue
Sharp scissors

Take a length of ribbon, about 8" worked out well with the 10mm ribbon..

(For wider ribbon you would need a slightly longer length, for narrow ribbon slightly shorter.)



Snap the hair clip onto the centre of the ribbon length..



Tie in a knot, twice, pulling tight each time, this means the bows can slip on and off the clips later..



Tie bows, according to this method for simple bows on the crafty ribbons blog.. keep adjusting and pulling tighter until bows look the right size and shape, then trim the ends with sharp scissors..



I fray-checked the ends and also added a dab of glue under the bow knot, top and bottom..



I made five pairs of bows with different ribbons..



They can all be swapped onto different clips..



They turned out so cute and they are really so simple to make  – I think I may have to do more in non-school colours, I have a HUGE stash of ribbons and Cyan has LOADS of hair clips which we could slip bows onto..

Why don’t you make some really simple interchangeable hair clip bows..





After all the comments on the uniform, I added this photo crop where you can see the detail on this dress more clearly – it really is a lovely one (click photos to enlarge). Gingham dresses in the school colour are standard summer uniform for girls here, you can buy them from a variety of retailers and the style does vary a lot. This particular dress is one my mum picked up in a charity shop a couple of years back and we’ve been saving it for when Cyan started school.

cyan’s 5th birthday.. um dress for barbie

It was Cyan’s birthday on Tuesday, my little girl is now 5!

I bought her these collector’s edition Alice in Wonderland and Queen of Hearts barbies for her birthday. They were released a few years ago apparently.. I was struck by the similarity of the Alice barbie’s dress to some of the dresses worn by Mia Wasikowska in the new Alice in Wonderland film..



I decided I would try and make the Um dress for the Alice barbie, Cyan was very keen on this dress when we watched the movie.. it is the dress which the Red Queen orders to be made for Alice when she is very large, and calls herself Um (from Umbridge)..

“Someone find her some clothes, use the curtains if you must, 
but clothe this enormous girl”..

I made the base dress, using ribbons for the bodice and fine tulle for the skirt.. but with everything we’ve had on over the last few weeks I just ran out of time.. I wrapped it up anyway and Cyan is very happy with it as it is.. I will make the overskirt which I planned to make as a separate piece anyway.. soon.. when I find the time!

I found black barbie ballet pumps on ebay, which work well as Um shoes with the addition of little red ribbon bows..



Alice barbie had to try on her Um dress within minutes of being unwrapped! (I knew I had to make this dress!)

This is the Um dress we are trying to replicate:



I think I might possibly be making another version of this dress soon.. perhaps a five-year-old girl sized one?

Naturally Cyan then had to go and dress herself as Alice for the day..



And of course Oliver was Spider-man?!





We are planning a party for Cyan in a couple of weeks, after she starts school (tomorrow!)



We had cake of course, and used some of the vintage tea set pieces I have been collecting to use for Cyan’s party.. you’ll never guess the theme for her party ;)



A mini birthday tea party..

holiday and camping

It’s been two weeks since I posted here.. This will be a long post but mostly pictures..

Karl & I had a couple of weeks off work and we spent some quality family time..

A day out to Paignton beach..



We took along the leftover cupcake flags from Oliver’s party to use for sandcastles.. (inspired by Joey's Dream Garden sandcastle flags)
Oliver made a sand dalek!



Cyan made a sand castle..



Oliver made a speed boat in the sand, and marked the edge with cocktail swords and mini daleks!



Got chased by waves..



Determined to transfer as much sea water as possible from the sea to the sand..



We also went camping for a few days at local River Dart Country Park..



This was the kids’ first time camping..



Happy campers! They loved it..



There was an awesome adventure play park in the woods..





The assault course was a big hit!





Oliver climbed all the way to the top of this rather large ‘spider-web’..





There were zip-wires..



A tree house..



A pirate ship!



Which you had to ‘walk the plank’ to get to/from it..



A little sandy beach..



A Victorian kissing chair by the house..



(Notice the white roses..
Cyan insisted I help her paint all these roses with imaginary red paint before the imaginary red queen who lived in the house (‘castle’) woke up and caught us!)

There were swings and climbing frames galore to keep the kids happy..



A full moon on our last night camping..



We had another day out later in the week when the weather was sunny again, to Woodlands this time..

More sand play..



Cyan found a zip wire just the right size for her, which she was very happy about!



Lots of rides and stuff, most of which I went on - so didn’t photograph..



The kids love this merry-go-round..



And they loved these goat kids even more..



They were cute! Kids feeding kids..



They didn’t want to leave..