Well and truly over the rainbow!

Once upon a time, I pinned this image...

Source: ohdeedoh.com via Sonia on Pinterest

I was planning Matilda's rainbow party and of course anything that looked remotely rainbowish had me at hello!  Of course, I never actually did it as I had so much else going on at that party, the fruit got left by the wayside. 

 

Since then, everytime someone repins it from my pinterest page I get an email notification.  All fine and dandy really as they normally only come through occasionally.  I am not very pinteresting.  Until the other day when I opened up my email and had hundreds of notifications racing into my inbox.  So far it has been liked 456 times and repinned 2648!!!!!  Seriously, is it really that exciting!?

 

Needless to say I have changed my pinterest email notifications!

Somewhere over the Rainbow: Part Two: The Cake

Rainbow cakes really do rock! 

How pretty was that??!!

My tips on successful Rainbow Cake making:

- Make life easier for yourself and use basic butter cake mixes!  I know baking traditionalists will scoff, but I just bought 3 cake mixes (Greens), made them up, weighed them and divided them in half and ended up with perfect cakes!  In fact, I made them a week before the party (in case of a cake fail) and froze them (wrap each colour individually in glad wrap) which made it very easy to ice them on Saturday afternoon.  I popped the whole complete cake back in the fridge after icing, got it out on Sunday morning and by the time I cut into on Sunday afternoon the cakes where defrosted, the icing had set beautifully and it was really yummy - nice and light and fluffy and moist!

- My cake colours are nice and bright because I used the Wilton gel colours.  Apparently these work better that the runny liquid types which change the consistency of your cake batter and produce less intense colours.

- The icing is literally butter and icing sugar and lots of it!  To get it nice and white, whip the butter like buggery for ever and ever and then whip it even more!  I also found some white icing dye at Spotlight and added this in as well and I am really happy with the crisp, white result.  I also used a clear vanilla essence (again found at Spotlight) for some added flavour.

- I only cut a slice or two of this at the party and then had all the small people pick which colour they wanted to eat.  The cake ends up being really tall and I dread to think what all that cake and icing in one tall piece might do to a three year olds behaviour!!!

- Dont be scared to try this cake!  It really was simple to make.  It looks fantastic and has been one of the best cakes in terms of Wow Factor that I have made.

There is still some left over if anyone wants to come over for a slice!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Part One

Matilda had such a lovely birthday yesterday.  Being super organised payed off because it meant that we could have a nice relaxed morning, opening presents and revelling in our baby being three, before the Rainbow Party in the afternoon. 

We kept it fairly small and simple and it really was lovely.  And of course, Rainbow Cakes Rock!

Prepare yourself to be photobombed!!!

The Rainbow Outfit

Me and my baby girl

 Attempting to get nice family photos in this house is clearly a waste of time!

I made that skirt!

 It's not Rainbow party hair without Rainbow Ribbons (Spotlight) and the most adorable Rainbow clip (GiddyGiddy) that my girlfriend arrived at the party with!

The Party Table

m&m shots, marshmallow clouds, fairy bread, hundreds and thousands biscuits, popcorn, chips, snakes, rainbow chocolate balls.... and of course The Cake (which deserves a post all on it's own!)

Looooove Cake Bunting!!!!

Love these girls debating the merits of which colour m&m shot is best!

The Entertainment

 Rainbow Drawing Table

Rainbow Ribbon Dancing

Rainbow Pinata (Spotlight)

Pass the Parcel

There was also lots of self entertainment.  Thank goodness for trampolines, slides and backyard swings!

The Decorations

 My girlfriend made these Rainbow Tissue Paper Pom Poms!  Super easy and super lovely!  I have them hanging in Matilda's room now cause they were too pretty to get rid of!

 These linkyloos balloons I found in the party shop but I have also seen them in my supermarket too.

More effectively done on Pinterest!

Rainbow bunting I whipped up!  Also now hanging in Miss M's room!

Matilda was well and truly spoilt in the gift department too and as the day progressed she became very savvy at sticky tape removal and wrapping paper ripping!

I will post the marvellous rainbow cake in the next day or so.  I think it has been my favourite cake so far for wow factor and highly recommend everyone give one a go.

I also had loads more ideas and things that I wanted to do for this party but simply ran out of time in the few days leading up to it due to new work commitments and an absent husband.  My rainbow pinterest board is full of inspiration if you are looking for ideas.

A sneaky peeky.

I squeezed in a bit of cake decorating today! 

We are almost ready and raring to spread some Rainbow love tomorrow! 

How good is licking the beaters!!!!????

No, I didn't let her lick it!

Tonight, I am having trouble processing the thought that my baby will be three. 

It feels like a mere moment.

Matilda meeting her big brothers

Matilda at two weeks

Matilda on her first birthday

Matilda on her second birthday

I'm sure I'll be back at some point during the next week with a Rainbow Party Post wrap up!

My creative space... Back on the hook

My creative spaces have been all about birthdays lately and I was having SEVERE hooky withdrawals!  I was actually getting a little concerned that I might have forgotten how but lo and behold, it's just like riding a bike!  My hooky claw hand came right back within moments - there must be some kind of crochet muscle memory!

I have been vegging out these last couple of nights in front of Offspring repeats (thank you Channel 10 - it's just as funny the second time round!) and churning out these snowflakes and christmas trees.  A friend requested some to be made into a garland for her tree so I do hope she likes them.

I follow the most excellent and free tutorial over at The Royal Sisters.

Go here for trees and here for snowflakes.

And because I couldn't leave without mentioning the Rainbow Party that will be happening in three sleeps...

...the cake bunting is ready!

visit other creative spaces

My creative space... Rainbow Party Prep!

Even though the rainbow party is still a week or so away, the cakes had to be baked (and are now sitting colourfully frozen in the freezer)!  We are just a bit snowed under at the moment with Christmas, Birthdays, School, Prep Transition, the sale of our beach house and the need to clean it out by early December, my new job, my husbands work travel.... I could blather on but I imagine that many of us are all in the same boat, yes?

So yes, those babies got baked early and they are soooo pretty!  If you look closely in the background you can see that my baking methods rely quite heavily on drinking alcohol and baking butter cakes from packet mix (dont tell!!!).

I finished these babies too this week.... and yes they are Cloudy Rainbow Ribbon Dancing Wands!  They were quite simple to do although they involved a number of glue gun burns.  Those things are tricky to manage!

The rainbow cake and the rainbow ribbon wand tutorials can be found on my rainbow pinterest board.

You can join in 'my creative space' too if you like. 

My creative space....

This post should be called... 'My failed attempt at using a hot glue gun!'  I am making some rainbow ribbon wands for Matilda's birthday next month...

Source: icingdesignsonline.blogspot.com via Sonia on Pinterest

...and the instructions say to just use a glue gun to stick your two pieces of fluffy cloud together.  Sounds simple enough.  I did a quick Bunnings run, purchased said glue gun, plugged it in and gave it a test run!  I must say, there must be some knack for using one of these without burning your fingers, having messy strings of hot glue attach themselves to everything but the thing you want them to and then having the hot glue harden and firm before you get anything glued to it!  Any tips from seasoned hot glue gun users????

I am totes just going to sew around these babies instead!

I've also decided to try my hand at quilting this week (cue laughter!!!!).  Surely it can't be that hard, right???  I've had two packs of these squares (moda little apples by Aneela Hoey) in my fabric stash...

 ...for a wee while and was going to crochet into them to make a combination crochet/quilt but have decided instead to try this tutorial for an easy (!!!????) mini quilt.

Source: gingercake.typepad.com via Sonia on Pinterest

Please don't ask me why I am starting new crafty projects 5 seconds out from Christmas with absolutely no actual Christmas shopping done.  I of course am not really prepared for this Rainbow party in early December either and am supposed to be finishing off my handmade kris kringle gift.  I started a new job last week too, my house looks like a pigsty and there was so many clothes sitting in my foldups/ironing chair that tonight instead of folding and ironing it I picked it all up and delivered it to the couch in the front room where I didn't have to look at it anymore. Please tell me I am not alone in this!

Possibly more organised creative types hang out at Our Creative Spaces every Thursday.

Editing to add this:

One finished quilt top!!!!  Now what's the next step again???

My creative space... I can sew a rainbow!

When I spied this Rainbow skirt tutorial over at Aesthetic Nest I knew I had to attempt one for Miss Matilda's rainbow party next month!

image from Aesthetic Nest

The problem was the whole wrap around concept that this tutorial uses was a little mindboggling for me (it required making a buttonhole and me and buttonhole making have not got a good relationship at all) and I really wasn't too fussed about the whole white ribbon tie at the side.  I figured I could create a simple elastic waisted skirt by modifying it a wee bit and this is what I have come up with.

I mostly followed Anneliese's tutorial right down to step 2.  Her instructions for working out the measurements you need for each panel of colour are easy to follow.  I think you should read through her tutorial as it is much clearer than mine and it might make what I have done make more sense if you see where I was coming from.  Also, I have used 12 colours in my skirt because that's how many were in the fat quarter bundle of fabric I purchased at Spotlight for a bargain!

My version of this fabulous skirt starts here:

Once you have measured, snipped and joined your rainbow panels together and cut out your lining fabric piece to the same size, place them right sides together and sew only the bottom long length together.

Here I have spread the entire skirt out flat so it is one big rectangle with the coloured panels on one half and the white lining on the other.

Next, fold the two short sides of your rectangle together like so...

...and stitch from the top of the white fabric through to the bottom of the rainbow panelled section.  In the picture above this would mean from the top right corner down to the bottom right corner.

You should have a big cylindrical shape skirt that you then need to fold so that the wrong side of the rainbow panel and the wrong side of your lining fabric are together.  This will give you your bottom hem.  Below is a picture of my sausage fingers holding that bottom hem open (even though it's at the top of the picture!).

Now to make that hem nice and secure follow Annaliese's instructions again and sew right around the bottom of your skirt very close to the edge.  Just like I am doing below!

Now, look how messy and untidy the top of my skirt is?

Solve this by sewing the lining fabric and the rainbow panels together about a centimetre from the top and then just snip all those dags right off!  Highly professional sewing going on right here!

Ok, the next bit involves gathering the top of your skirt together so it fits the small person it is intended for.  This involves a basting stitch which my sewing maching and I don't love.  I discovered the best thing for me is to use a nice strong cotton and hand sew a long running stitch across the top right around then grab the two ends of this cotton and gather and spread your material to your hearts content.

Well, gather until it's as wide as it needs to be anyway!

To create your waistband cut yourself a nice wide piece of your lining fabric.  I used the above 12 inch gathered waist measurement, doubled it and then sewed the two ends together.  It was about 5 inches thick.  In the picture below you can see I have ironed some creases into it (kinda of like you are creating bias binding) so all your messy edges are hidden away.  Pin and sew one edge of your waistband to the inside of your skirt and then you can remove that basting stitch we made because your waistband is now holding all those nice gathers together.

Fold your waistband over to the outside of your skirt and pin and sew again leaving a nice little spot to insert your elastic into the waistband.

Sew your elastic ends together, neatly sew your waistband gap closed and

TA DA....

One gorgeous Rainbow Skirt!

Or two!

The smaller one is of course for Miss Matilda and the bigger one is my very first piece of commissioned sewing that someone is going to actually pay me money for!!!  Yay me!  Although I really don't know how many $$$$ I should be asking.  Any thoughts?  What would you expect to pay?

Hope these instructions are clear enough for you but if you have any questions feel free to ask.  I would also like to make it really clear that the original Rainbow Skirt idea and fabulous tutorial comes from Anneliese at Aesthetic Nest.  This is just my modified version of it.

Have you signed yourself up for my wee lego giveaway to be drawn on Monday 14th November?

Other creative people hang out every Thursday.