Butterfly Kisses

Today my cousin, Gabrielle, had her baby shower. She wants her little Payton Elizabeth's nursery to be in lots of pinks with butterflies. I know she loves the Raspberry Tiddliwinks Bedding Collection at Target so I crocheted a baby blanket with matching hat and toy for her little princess Payton. I made the butterfly on the blanket in the same design as one of the butterflies on the Tiddliwinks set. I was a little weary about having little buttons sewn onto the baby blanket, but I know it will be more of a displayed heirloom keepsake. I kept with the same design for the tiny butterfly on the hat but could only fit one button on instead of two on the bottom pair of wings. For the little butterfly toy, I went ahead and made it without the buttons. I wanted it to be loved so I embroidered the eyes, mouth, and rosy cheeks and hand sewn the crochet wing spots on. Gabbi looks so radiant with her pregnant glow. She absolutely loves the butterfly set I made for her little princess too. :)

A Sweet Sneak Peak

This coming Saturday is my cousin's baby shower. The following Sunday I am hosting my best friend's baby shower. Both are expecting baby girls. My aunt told me that my cousin was wanting to do the baby's nursery in butterflies, so I got an idea and worked with it. Her set is all finished but I unfortunately cannot share it quite yet because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I do have friends and family that visit my blog, so I will instead share a tiny sneak peak. :)
Now I am working on my friend's baby shower gift. Her baby's nursery is going to be done in pink with brown teddy bears which is also the theme for her baby shower I am throwing for her. :) Summer officially starts in one week from today, but it already feels like summer here. The girls are out of school for their summer vacation and the weather is starting to heat up. The sweet smelling summer flowers are blooming and are beautiful.

Fairy in the Garden

The talented Karen of Layla and Stitch Children's Boutique created this beautiful fairy dress for Xiera to wear at her recent fairy birthday party. Xiera adores the Michael Miller Petal Fairies Border Fabric used to create it because of the Cecily Mary Barker fairy images it has.
We had a lot of fun modeling and photographing the dress at the beautiful Wegerzyn Gardens Metropark. She looked like a real flower fairy frolicking in the gardens. It really is a wonderful dress to twirl and spin in and Xiera loves how comfortable it is too. Comfort is a BIG DEAL for this little girl these days. ;)

A listing for the same dress in a custom 2-8 size is available in her Etsy store. You can find it HERE.

Sweet Sister Love

Yesterday I took the girls to the beautiful Wegerzyn Gardens Metropark to take some late spring photos of them. This park is absolutely gorgeous as it has so many pretty flowers to see and smell. I had purchased their matching sister dresses from mellonmonkeys on Etsy for them to wear this past Easter. Last year I was so disappointed in myself for not taking more pictures of the girls dressed in their Easter dresses, so I vowed this year to not make the same mistake twice.
These two have such a special bond with one another as most sisters do. Most days they play so well with one another and share their dolls and make up special games to play that only they understand. But then there are those certain days or even a particular time within a day that their moods will turn from sweet to sour in a blink of an eye.
It is a beautiful thing when they do forgive each other and move on to new fun and exciting sister adventures where they share secrets and play make believe.
Zella looks up to her big sister and wants to do everything Xiera does. If Xiera is playing games on the computer, well Zella wants to play too. If her big sister is coloring a picture, well of course she wants to color too. A few months ago, Zella had asked us if she could wear glasses just like Xiera. We told her that Xiera has to wear glasses to see better and that she didn't need to wear them because she can see just fine without them. This answer was not acceptable for Zella, so hubby had a wonderful idea. He took a pair of Xiera's old glasses and took out the lenses. Now Zella has her very own pair of glasses to wear; just like her big sister. Sisters are a true blessing!

Wordless Wednesday - Welcome Baby Birds

A "Fairy" Special Day

Xiera's 8th birthday was yesterday so we celebrated it in a "fairy" special way. The theme was woodland flower fairies and gnomes. I hung tulle from the fan to drape around the table and hung pink and purple streamers mixed with flower and leaf ribbons to hang in the center. I hung a fairy banner from the ceiling with Cicely Mary Barker's fairy prints. Xiera loves these fairies so much. The BEAUTIFUL fairy mushroom cake and cupcakes to match were made by my sister-in-law's friend Vanessa. I can go on and on about how wonderful this cake truly was. Every little detail was perfect down to the little marshmallow icing mushrooms and rocks sitting by the perfect little fairy door that resembled real wood. There were even imprints of grass around the base of the cake.
All of the cupcakes had Cicely Mary Barker fairy toppers on them to match the banner and Xiera's dress.
I found the adorable fairy cake topper keepsake on Etsy. It was made by fairiesbynurias.
For party favors, Xiera and I made little fairies to give to the girls and I purchased gnomes for the boys. I crocheted the mushroom centerpiece, and I purchased the pattern to create it HERE.
I created the fairy goody bags using plain brown goody bags purchased at the local dollar tree. I then stamped a Cicely Mary Barker fairy image onto each bag. I hot glued craft butterflies onto each bag's center and punched holes to thread ribbon through to tie into bows.

They were filled with fairy/gnome treasures that I purchased from the Oriental Trading Company. As our guests began to arrive, we had fairy and gnome coloring sheets set out with crayons for them to color. This was the ice breaker and kept them busy while we awaited for all of our guests to arrive. All of our guests arrived at the same time this year so we began preparing for the fairy / gnome scavenger hunt. I had printed out a list of items for all of our little guests to find and stapled them securely to each bag.
My wonderful husband made a wooden picnic table the night before which came in handy for the party activities. They decorated their scavenger hunt bags with decorative foam stickers at the table. After their bags were decorated, it was time to begin the scavenger hunt. For our younger guests who were unable to read, we either paired them with an older friend or adult to help. Xiera's fairy dress which had the Cecily Mary Barker fairies print was created by Karen of Layla and Stitch. After they gathered all of their scavenger hunt finds they then came back to the table to put all of their finds into pails to make their fairy or gnome's habitat home.
The kids enjoyed doing this and made some fabulous homes.
After everyone was finished, we headed in so that they could choose a fairy or gnome from the party table to put inside their new home they made. Soon after it was present time, and Xiera received so many wonderful presents. Xiera must have made a truly wonderful wish because she paused for a few seconds before blowing out her candles.
The cake was not only beautiful, but it was delicious too! After cake we had one more BIG surprise for our birthday girl. We gathered everyone outside to unveil.... A NEW BIG GIRL BIKE!! Star wheel bling and all!! Happy Birthday Xiera! I hope all of your fairy wishes came true! I can't believe you are 8 years old already!! *sniff* *sniff*