Perfect gift for a little princess

This is Chole.... isn't she beautiful?

Chloe was lovingly handmade

by Hattie Willow in England, UK

 

Chloe has dark brown hair in a side ponytail made from fabric to make her easier to care for. Chloe has hand embroidered brown eyes and wears a removable dress made from a soft blue floral fabric decorated with a cute little pink ribbon bow.
Chloe's shoes are made from a lovely pink floral fabric and are non removable.  Chloe is safe for children of all ages and comes with a blank Hattie Willow birth certificate for her new owner to fill in all her details.

I just have to introduce you to the master mind behind Hattie Willow, Kristy Callanan!  She is an amazingly talented lady who makes hand made dolls. Kristy has always loved crafts ever since she can remember and bought her own very cheap very small very rubbish sewing machine when she was seventeen. At the age of twenty-five when she had her daughter Colbie like a lot of young mums felt the urge to sew again.

She wanted to make a patchwork blanket from her newborn clothes so she borrowed my Mum's sewing machine and made a start.  While looking for help on the internet Kristy stumbled on a sewing pattern for a very basic doll and decided to try that out.  She bought some other doll and softie patterns and fell in love with making dolls. 

Around May in 2010 Kristy realised she wanted to make a go of selling dolls so she bought a nice shiny new sewing machine now named Jessie and started to do some research, finalise her business name, logo's and finally a year later she opened her facebook page and made an online store through Etsy.

Kristy will always remember her first order which was for three custom dolls in June  of 2011 who were going to live in America. She nearly cried she was so excited but at the same time was so scared of sending her girls out in to the world in case she was the only one who loved them! How she could think I will never know.

After around six months and many dolls later Kristy decided that she wanted to make my own doll pattern so she stopped using the bought pattern which she had originally started with and designed her own, which is the pattern  she still uses today although it has evolved slightly as her sewing style has changed and moved forward over time.

Colbie, now four, still remains her chief tester and number one fan.  She has several of dolls from all the different stages of the sewing journey.

Kristy has been sewing now for two years and has lovingly handmade around three hundred dolls.  It is a labour of love and loves every minute of making dolls  from her home. What is fun about this story is that the patchwork quilt that sparked off Kristy's little adventure is still very much unfinished and she hasn't seen it for two years since she started her journey!


She is extremely talented and if you would like to see more of her work pop over to her facebook page Hattie Willow.  Make sure you tell her I sent you!

Felicity

Easter Shenanigans

Well what a beautiful Easter we have had!! It was my four month old son's first Easter and my daughter who has just turned two real first Easter where she understands and can participate in the Easter activites.  We also had a lovely surprise when my brother and his wife and their four children made a spare of the moment decision to come out from Brisbane to visit.  I have very fond memories of my cousins coming to visit when we were kids and all the interesting shenanigans we used to get up to.  So if warms my heart to finally have kids just the right age to play with my brother's kids.

We have a festival called Easter in the Country in a little town near us called Roma!  So we travelled into to Roma to go on a miniature train ride, watch a stage show "The Wizard of OZ" and go on a crazy Easter Egg hunt and finished the day with Beautiful Fish and Chips!

Today my two year old was introduced to Easter and lots and lots of chocolate! Last year she was only one and really had no idea about what Easter and chocolate was and we were happy to keep it that way! My two year old started the day with putting chocolate in her mouth, spitting it out and saying yuck to me taking the chocolate off her as she was stuffing it into her mouth saying more, more? Oh how a day makes a difference!

What a magically way to wake up this morning with two little bunnies out the front of our yard and kangaroos out the back, cockatoos flying over head and rain settling in for the day making a cool change and a lovely day. The bunnies were keeping their distance which is good I say as only a month ago we found a bunny in our yard which had been unfortunately killed by our puppies!! Dead Easter Bunny may have scar my daughter for life. 

So far this year our puppies have killed a brown snake, a bunny and a goanna.  Maybe I need a sign up animals enter at own risk!  The brown snake incident was when my son was a week old and ended up with two extremely expensive vet bills and one dead snake!  I would rather this then wondering if our puppies would or would not take on a snake.



 

 

This morning my husband then asked my two year old what she wanted for breakfast and she said "pink pancakes!" So we thought we would get creative and make her a pink bunny pancake. She thought this was yummy and had so much fun eating it!

 

 



 

Then our visitors arrived for the great Easter Egg hunt!! We had the kids running all over the yard trying to find Easter Eggs. We paired the younger kids with the older kids and told them they had to work as a team and help the younger ones!  This just about killed the older ones but they worked together just the same and had heaps of fun.


Typically thou just  we were setting up for lunch on the deck with the family including eight kids and eight adults, the rain starts to blow in and everything had to be moved inside. When the BBQ was just about finished and we were sitting down for lunch and a few wines the rain stops and we could of stayed out on the deck for lunch after all! So the photos of our Easter party are sadly missing in action due to the weather but not to worry!!!

After a few wines, lots of laughs and good food we settled into a lazy afternoon with the kids! Love relaxing at home with the family!

Hope you had a wonderful Easter! What did you get up to? I would love to hear! Why not let me know how your Easter went!

Felicity

Pink & Aqua Spa PJ Party

This beautiful pink and aqua spa party was styled by the very talented Courtney from Glamour Avenue Parties.  

 

 

Courtney styled this spa party for Savannah Grace's 6th birthday and was also a sleepover with PJs as the dress code. What a beautiful idea to have a sleepover spa party!  The party included four activity stations and a mini dessert table. Courtney added a little cute party addition by serving breakfast for dinner. 

 

 

 

Savannah Grace's guests enjoyed their

 "beauty treatments" in robes and PJs.

 

 

The activities at the party included, the girls making charm bracelets as well as having their fingers and toes painted and try out make up.

 

The girls took home their charm bracelets and each girl received a personalised pillowcase with their name on it.

 

 

Favour lolly bags

 

 Courtney Price is the owner of Glamour Avenue Parties - an award winning event design boutique specializing in stylish children's parties and mobile spas for girls! Make sure you pop over and say hi and mention that we sent you

 

Mad Scientist Party

I recently had the pleasure of chatting to Mindy from the blog Creative Juice!  A very talented lady who decided to host a MAD SCIENTIST Party for her son who turned two!! By the looks of it lots of fun was had by everyone involved including Mindy who dressed up as a mad scientist!  What a wonderful idea for a little boy's party and I have to confess that I just might use this one myself when my son gets a little older.  Mindy did a wonderful job on the decorations and all for approx. $50! Wow this just goes to show that you really can have a stylish party on a budget!

 

 

The mad scientist invited guest into the lab to participate in all sorts of experiments.  But first they had to go through the SANITIZING STATION!  What a brilliant, fun and cheap idea!  Each child went through the decontamination process where they put the lab coat costumes on and singed a laboratory wavier, sanitize their hands and took an antibiotic and past through the sanitizing shield (cut up plastic tablecloths hung from the ceiling) into the laboratory and ready to be help the mad scientist with her experiments!

What a crazy mad scientist!!! What an awesome mum dressing up to play the part of the mad scientist!

 

Budding scientist wait eagerly to participate in experiments. How cute do they look in their lab coat costumes and their sweet glasses and bow ties.

 

The look on Mindy's daughter's face is just priceless and says it all!  She is just so engaged and loving every moment of it! This is just one of the experiments that the Mad Scientist demonstrated at the party!

 

These little cupcake toppers are just to cute for words. Personally my favourite is the brain!!

This beautiful cake of the Scientific Periodic Table of elements just caps of a very stylish party.

 

If you want to see more photos and check out the experiments that the Mad Scientist performed at the party including elephant toothpaste, slime and fizzy balloons or you want to get the creative juices flowing visit Mindy's blog:
 

CREATIVE JUICE. What a talented lady!

 

If you would like to host a party like this then Mindy also has the link to the printables she used for the party on her blog!! 

 

Felicity 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sumbit a stylish party to our blog

I am looking for some stylish parties to blog about!  If you are interested in having your party on my blog, email the details  of your party to HCstylishkidspartypacks@gmail.com

  

The details I need to blog about your party need to include the party/event name, who the party was for, who styled the party, if there is a business attached so I can promote your work and redirect people to your business and finally a little detail about yourself!!  The more information you give me the easier it is to blog about you!  You also need to send lots of photos of your stylish party for me to use in the blog. 

 

I would love to hear some feedback from you!!  So comment on my blog about some of the things you would like to know or see will help me blog about the things that interest you!

 

So get emailing!!! I am looking forward to blogging about your beautiful parties!

 

Felicity

 

 

 

 

Top cost cutting tips for parties

I have been blogging about parties for about two weeks now and I have decided that it is time to let you in on a little secret!!! Parties can be expensive but you can also save a few dollars by shopping around! The one thing I recently found on the internet is free printable party goodies!

One I particularly love is the ice cream parlour party printables found on Eat, Chic, Drink by Amy Moss. It may have something to do with how much I love ice cream and so want to host a party like this that I like this little freebie.

Amy gives step by step instructions how to make your ice cream parlour come to life as well as free printables to make your stylish kids party look professional!!

Another cool website with Easter just around the corner is Bird's Party Blog. It has lots of cool free Easter printables. Below is just one of the free party printables on Bird's party blog and there is lots of Easter ideas there as well.

When looking at party goods I also try and buy party goods that are reusable from party to party. For example little milk bottles are awesome! Just add what ever drink you are having just add a paper straw and you have a beautiful way to present drinks for any occasion.

 

Also cooking your own sweet treats.  Now I am not very clever in the baking department but a little recipe that can be used in a number of different ways is coconut balls (see photo above). One can of condensed milk,3 1/3 cups of icing sugar, 4 1/4 cups of coconut and mix well. Add what ever food colouring that suits your party and roll into balls.  You can also make these into pops. Just wait til they have set in the fridge and stick a cake pop stick in them seen in the photo below - a cheats way to get the pop look!

One of my other top tips is buying fabric to brighten up your party. Often it is cheaper then the plastic table covers and it is reusable just throw it in the washing machine and good as new.

 

Also fabric bunting is a fantastic way to brighten up any party and can be reused over and over.  Just make sure you get enough different shades and patterns to fit with different themes.

A lot of the decorations that you can buy now can be reused like paper tissue pompoms and paper lanterns.  If you are on a budget tissue pompoms (originally designed by Martha Stewart)  are really easy to make.

What you’ll need:

• Tissue Paper
• Piece of floral wire to tie the middle
• Ribbon to hang

Step One:
Martha recommends eight sheets of tissue paper to make her tissue pompom.  If you want fluffy smaller pompoms cut the sheets in half and stack

Step Two:
Accordian fold the tissue paper really tight one way and then back on top of itself. Keep folding until it looks like accordian.

Step Three:
While the paper is lying flat tie the wire around the centre of the paper and twist off. Tie a ribbon around the centre so that you have something to hang the tissue pompom.

Step Four:
Cut the ends of your strip into a rounded or pointed depending on the look you are after. A rounded edge gives a soft flower look. The pointed end give a sharp pompom.

Step Five:
Separate out the tissue folds by pulling gently so it opens out like a flower. DO it carefully so not to rip the tissue paper.
Pull half the sheets out towards the top and half the sheets out towards the bottom. Keep separating until all the sheets have been separated.

Step Seven:
Now you have a tissue flower!  You can manipulate the tissue pompom to be as fluffy as you want. 

Well I hope some of these tips help! If you have anymore cost saving ideas please comment below and share with others.  If the idea is a good one you may even receive a giveaway!

Felicity
 

Pink and Blue First Birthday

This beautiful first birthday party was planned by the very talented Chizuru for her friend's baby's first birthday.  

She considered that there would be both boys and girls at the party so pinks and blues were used in all the decoration

 

Popcorn for boys and girls 

 

Yummy juice

These amazing sweets made by Chizuru's friend 
aligned with the party concept

Egg free cupcakes in case of egg allergies 

Pink and blue lollypops

Such a sweet idea to colour code to suit your guest!!

Chizuru Morris, who lives in Tokyo Japan and is the master mind behind STYLISH PARTIES for Mums and Kids.

Make sure you pop over to Chizuru's facebook page and say hi! Tell her we sent you!

Easter Celebrations

Easter is just around the corner and it is time to celebrate!!!  Why not add a touch of class and confetti to your easter celebrations.  

 

 Karli and Sheridan are the creative duo behind

Confetti Affair,

a boutique event styling business based in Toowoomba. 

 

The beautiful talented ladies at Confetti Affair designed and styled these Easter celebrations.

 

 

How cute is the little easter bunny pancakes? It maybe my sweet tooth but I think I am going to make these for Aaster morning!



 

What a sweet little bunny.

 

 

 

Beautiful Easter decorations which the ladies styled for their children's breakfast.

 

 

 

Yummy Easter breakfast, my favourite boiled egg.

 

 

Yummy Easter Treats for Easter morning.

 

 

 

A touch of Confetti to your Affair!

 

 

Of course lots of chocolates!!!
 

 

These ladies create tantilizing sweet tables for both the eyes and mouth. They source delicious desserts and candies from local businesses. 

 

They also create a fully customisable, themed table scene with co-ordinating backdrop and stationary. 

In addition to a sweets table they create personalised decor which includes a bunting, welcome sign, pom pom garlands, themed invitations and matching thank you notes.

Make sure you pop over to Confetti Affair and see what they can do for your next event.

 

Wishing all of the visitors to my blog a very Happy Easter!

Vintage Kitchen Tea

This vintage kitchen tea is just devine!  These talented ladies, Katerina, mother of two lovely children and Yvonne a mother of three beautiful children have a passion for creating beautiful sweets, styling dessert and candy buffets.

 

 

A pale blue ruffle cake with soft pink handmade butterflies as the perfect centre piece for the table.  The flavour of the cake was a moist red velvet cake with mousse filling. YUM YUM !!

 

 

 

The theme was carried throughout the party with the beautiful sweets including these vanilla bean cokies with a vintage style fondant in matching colours.

 

Stunning vanilla bean cupcakes with a coconut buttercream frosting and handmade sugar toppers with were individually handmade and brushed with a metallic lustre dust.

 

Beautiful cake pops were a mixture of chocolate, caramel and vanilla fudge coated in white chocolate.

 

 

 

As you can see their cakes and sweets create a beautiful focal point the vintage kitchen tea.

 

Stylish Little Parties is the brain child of two good friends, Katerina and Yvonne with very similar tastes and styles. They launched their fast growing business only last August.  

They surely exceed their clients expectations as they work closely with them to bring their cake dreams and visions to life.  They use only the highest quality ingredients and pride themselves in working to a high standard.

All I can say is I wished they lived closer so I could taste their beautiful treats!!! Love it ladies!

Pretty in Pink

This Pretty in Pink party was styled by my very talented sister in law Amy for my beautiful niece's first birthday. Amy is a mother of four children who manages to find the time to create a magical experience for her children for their birthday!

The beautiful birthday girl!!!

 

 

The outdoor area

 

 

Pretty in Pink lollies

 

 

Yummy Marshmellows

 

 

 

Yummy chocolate covered strawberries

 

 

Pink Musk Cake

 

 

 

Pink drinks

 

 

 

Pink Crackles

 

Yummy Food

 

 

 

A place to sit...

 

 

 

Beautiful pink decorations

 

 

 

 

Yummy birthday cake for the birthday girl

 

 

A first birthday to remember for a special little girl!!!

What a beautiful day.