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Sunday 20 July 2014

Fun Frozen Party for Nancy

I am not  big  into kids parties, I think  when kids are small they are  more  for  the parents than the kids and  all  that beige food  and sugar overload is not  great for  the dieter in  the family (i.e. me !).Having  said  all  that we haven't had  any parties  for our two wee ones since  their first so as Nancy turned a big 4 last weekend  we  thought it was time  to give  her a fun party.



Nancy and  her little sister Florence  are crazy into the Disney Movie Frozen and their  big sister Lily was buying Nancy an Elza costume  it seemed like  the perfect idea for  a theme.

Disney's Frozen is a huge hit, the highest grossing  Disney film of  all time. You  would  think  that being  the case all the merchandising  would  be ten a penny, yes? No! No cups, plates, napkins  balloons table covers or anything  available  to buy in all of  my usual haunts. I didn't  venture into  the Disney store and  only had  a week to get everything so didn't want  to risk Amazon or online party stores, so we improvised.

I am a HUGE fan of Pinterest and always find inspiration for all my creative projects so naturally I turned  to it  first of all . I found  some great ideas from various  pinners like here and some  great free printables here.

DOH and  I spent  last friday night making snowflakes  from blue wrapping  paper. I wanted  them for  my table display and was  thrilled at how  well they turned out. I still have  them out  in  the dining  room  and  when I put  them away I may keep  them for Christmas as they gave just  the right level of blue frostiness.





Blue food items are really hard  to come by here in the UK but I bought an excellent  blue food colouring and blue "candy melts" in Lakeland . So was able  to blue ice coconut cupcakes and dip marshmallows in blue candy  and white sprinkles. We had lots of Olaf bits  and pieces in the form of marshmallows  and twiglets, matchmakers and chocolate raisins. His  orange  nose proved troublesome. I thought I was brilliant  when I found  some orange tic-tacs- until I opened  them and discovered  they were white- in a bloomin orange  box!


I tried  to get a blue juice to serve, but  couldn't get one  that wasn't  very fizzy or caffeinated and  as most of  the kids attending were under 5 that wasn't  suitable, so I had  a brain wave. I bought lightly flavored water and added blue  food colouring. I served  the juice in glass bottles in an ice bucket and it looked fabulous.

I got  another great idea  from Pinterest to display the balloons by hanging  them upside  down from the ceiling. I  thought  they looked fantastic. 

All the  kids had  a great time  and dad and I enjoyed  the afternoon too. one  of Nancy's friend's parents   said  she had had  the best day ever, what more could  you ask for ?



Tuesday 1 July 2014

Making a House a Home

I was walking  about my local area this afternoon posting flyers  through letter boxes for  my new at home ironing service. I'm trying  to put a little money away for luxuries like holidays  and haircuts- I'm serious, we spend a clean fortune on childcare, and  the cost of  everything has gone up up up, and my pay rise  this year is  below inflation so is effectively a pay cut. I like ironing  and had a pretty successful little cottage industry  when I was a single mum with just DD1, so why not? It's  something I can do in front  of  the TV, or  when the girls  are here playing, I just need a few good customers.



That's  not  where I was going  with today's blog though. What struck me while I was walking apart from how lucky I am to live in  the best area in our city was how fantastic people  are at making  their homes individual and welcoming. The weather is beautiful today and all the flowers in bloom would  make  anywhere look good, but East Belfast is lovely, tree lined avenues, every road holding 4 or 5 different types of  house, Victorian villas,  white walled cottages , grand  4 storey terraces and sleek modern palaces.

I was very naughty and  took a few snaps  of  some of  the lovely details people had added to  their little castles.










Aren't they lovely? I love  the oil tank in particular! I was very fortunate I didn't  get caught!

If  you know  anyone  who hates ironing in East Belfast or Holywood send them my way!