Baby Shower Gift Idea

As stated in the previous post it has been a big baby boom this year and I thought it would be nice to do a post on a gift idea of something different rather than the usual clothes, blankets and toys etc. You may or may not know that I love anything handmade, just knowing that someone has put hard work, effort and thought into the craft and what they have made just puts a huge smile on my face. So it may be no surprise that this is a handmade gift made by yours truly.

Embroidery hoop art has been all over the internet for a while now and I have always wanted to try it but never had the chance. The great thing about these are that you have 100% creative control and do whatever you want with them and make them for any occasion. In this instance the lovely mother to be hadn't found out the gender of the baby so instead to going with all neutral colours I went with all different colours. You can use any shape/size hoop, any fabric, buttons, beads, ribbons and anything you want. 

Just a couple of tips

• Always cut your fabric about and inch bigger than you need and tighten it as much as you can on the hoop.
• When finished fold and glue the excess fabric to the inside of the hoop to keep it secure 
• You can also cover the hoop in washi tape, fabric, ribbon, lace or whatever else looks good around it
• Just have fun with it, let your imagination run wild and you never know what you will come up with  

Here is the set of three colourful embroidery hoop wall art, ideal to hang in the baby's nursery  

A button hot air balloon 

Who doesn't love colourful bunting

Colourful ribbons 

The wholes on the side of the embroidery hoop are perfect for threading ribbon through

Close up of the cute teddy bear ribbon 

All read to be gifted 

Afternoon Tea Baby Shower

This year has been full of pregnant ladies and babies, and two of those pregnant ladies just so happen to be my sister and her sister-in law. This seemed like a perfect excuse to make up a dessert table and have an afternoon tea (here is the first dessert table we did). Afternoon tea's and dessert table's are brilliant because they give you the creative licence to do whatever you want with the decor and the menu.

We decided to make the invitations ourselves (which we had a lot of fun doing), most of the pom poms were home made as was the bunting hanging from the table. Food wise we had a mix of home made and shop bought which turned out really well, because if you don't have time to make all the food there are so many bakery's, deli's and other food places that do brilliant food for occasions like this. It always worth having a look around in your local area for places like that. For serving dishes we used a combination of things that all three of us had, what our mothers had and we hired the tea cups and tea pots from the bakery where we got the cake from (And the dish ran away with the spoon). Flowers also make everything look prettier, we decided on one big pitcher of flowers and a few smaller jars of flowers dotted around the table.

All in all I think it was a big success and it just goes to show that a mix of home made and shop bought can work really well, and just have fun with it. Here is the vlog of the whole thing

  

First Birthday Party

Now we all know that children never remember their first birthday party, so bearing that in mind my sister really wasn't intending to do anything for my niece's first birthday. Also it did come a day before my cousin's wedding and everyone was busy with that. However my mother, brother in-law and sister's father in-law started talking about do something for the occasion. On the actual day we just had an impromptu lighting of candles on a bakery bought cake with just the people who were already over at our house. Then a week later we ended up doing a proper thing at my sister's in-laws. This was an excuse to make up a dessert table, which to be honest me, my sister and her sister in-law were more excited about putting that together than anything else. Here are some pictures from the occasion.

I wasn't going to put any pictures of the impromptu thing but I like this
 picture of my brother in-law light the candle

On the party day, barbecue on the menu

It was lovely eating in the garden 

For the dessert table: Brownies with hearts on made by me 

Biscuits made buy my sister's cousin in-law 

Vanilla cupcakes with strawberries and Thorntons smiles on top of buttercream
made but my sister's sister in-law

The whole dessert table 

Buttons, paper straws and mini spinning wheels  

Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream and gold glitter covered cherries, also made by my sister's sister in-law

Even though my niece was actually asleep when we did the actual cake cutting a lot of fun was had. I can't believe my niece is actually 1 years old mashallah, it just seems like yesterday my sister told us she was expecting. Here's wishing her a long, happy and prosperous life inshallah.

The Untimely End

As you can tell from the title of the post there had been some bad news. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that one of our new chicks has passed. It was the youngest of the brood and we think it was attacked by a bigger bird (maybe a magpie). My granddad found it under one of the trees with injuries and wounds. I can just imagine the horrific struggle that it went through to try and get away, but it just wasn't enough. Even more bad news is that four of the eggs that the other hen was sitting on have been broken. We think this must have happened when the other three hens have wanted to lay their own eggs. So all in all it hasn't been a good week for the Big Chicken House. Here is the last video I made of all six of the chicks together when they ventured outside on to the grass and just enjoying life.

The saga continues......

Just when we thought we had all the chicks we were going to get, another one started cracking so at this moment in time the is a half hatched chick trying to get out of it's egg shell. However that's not even the end of it. One of our other hens has started brooding as well so we have another mother hen and in about a months time we will have more chicks hopefully :-)

 

Party of Five

Baby chick update............we now have five and what an adorable little family they are. Our hen is a very proud mother and has taken to motherhood rather well. It is so cute to watch them communicate with each other.

Lovely little family

Proud mother hen

Lunch time

Having fun

Don't forget me

So yesterday we were all excited about the new chick and it was all good. However during the night something happened which got us even more excited in the morning. Baby chick has got a sibling YAY. My dad and I went to have a look this morning and there were two little chicks chirpping under their mum. I had to film it so here you are watching them have their breakfast:

A new member of the family

About three weeks ago one of our hens started brooding and we were all over the moon. We don't know how it happened, one day she just stayed sitting down in the place where our hens lay their eggs and didn't move. For the next few days she would collect all of the eggs that the other hens had layed and was brooding in her own corner of the hutch. We had marked the calender and eagerly waited for any sign of new life. Yesterday (31/05/13) the wait was over and one of the chicks had hatched. I was at work all day so I missed the actual egg hatching but when I woke up today I went to have a look. Even though we have had our cockerel since he was an egg, the excitement and the cuteness factor was still very high.  

Mother hen and baby chick 

'Mummy can I have a cuddle please'

Cuddles

Mother hen staring right down the barrel of the lens 

My dad giving the both of them food 

'Mummy I don't want to eat anymore'

Snuggling back under mother hen