Flitting and Flying

21 Apr 2012

Drawstring quilt: A quilted play mat that turns into a bag

I found this great pattern for a "Drawstring Quilt", designed by Tickle and Hide and available on Etsy. It was a fun little project. Hopefully the finished product will be useful to the new parents, who it was made for. By pulling on the drawstring (which has been tucked under the corners in the photo), it turns from a small little quilt into a shoulder bag that actually has quite a large capacity. I definitely recommend this pattern!

12 Mar 2012

Co-ed baby shower -- cuteness, love, and crafting heaven

Our friends, N and M, are expecting a daughter in April. To celebrate the the parents-to-be and the upcoming arrival of their bundle of joy, Keith and I hosted a co-ed baby shower for them this weekend, a sunny afternoon in March. We wanted a laid back afternoon, suitable for the co-ed affair and therefore held back on the traditional baby shower games and general "girliness", instead opting to minimize the organized events to a simple toast before the gift opening. It was wonderful that both the father- and mother- to-be could be there and that not only could one of the grandmothers-to-be participate, but so too could the uncle-to-be. Furthermore, this was by no means one of those alcohol-free showers: wine and beer were in abundance and we had special bellinis provided by M and N. People could eat, drink, and be merry.

I had a lot of fun with the decorations. In fact, my plan for a simple decor ended up spiraling out of control into craft craziness. After bouncing round a few ideas for themes, I ended up using a motif that N had drawn for their wedding website and amending it with the new addition (O:

(Note, all artist credit for these little guys goes to N, who I blatantly plagiarized for the theme).

My bird plan called for a branch, which evolved into a tree, which involved into a forest that took over our living room. Moreover, my first plan to have the branches bare, looked rather eerie which led me to add a few dots of crushed up green (two shades) and pink tissue paper, to easily transform them into budding trees. In retrospect, this was a cute way of subtly hinting at spring and new beginnings/new life, which is conveniently very suitable for a baby shower (albeit stumbled upon quite by accident).

(not shown: the branches coming off the other three walls of the room!)

The three birds gave a natural -- and quite lovely -- color scheme: orange, grey, and yellow. So, with my plan already a little bit bonkers, and me back in full crafting mode -- feeling like the good old days of wedding planning -- I expanded on the color theme by making poms in the respective colors -- lots of them. I used this wonderful tutorial by Jacin of Lovely Little Details. So simple; yet so effective! Love it.

As was becoming a habit with my "ideas", the poms also spiraled out of control, starting out as a means to decorate the branches but expanding to ultimately cris-crossing the living room, decorated with ribbons in the same colors.

I brought a few personal touches to the food too: using the bird motif to decorate the cupcakes, and making bacon-gouda biscuits to reflect M's Dutch heritage (Gouda) and N's love of bacon. These turned out quite tasty and appropriately (but in retrospect, probably quite unsurprisingly) tasted a lot like "spek en kaas pannenkoeken" (bacon and cheese pancakes) one of my favorite Dutch foods.

Unfortunately, M's family are overseas/on the East coast and were unable to attend in person; however, they were there in spirit on account of a diaper cake from them. They provided the concept, the ribbons, and the decorations, and I put it together. A photo of them next to the cake made them feel closer than ever. One of M's sisters even sent a video message that we played for them...a lovely surprise (O:

As mentioned above, the only organized events were a toast, which Keith did a great job of, and the typical gift opening session: we had to get our quota of "ooohs" and "so cute" into this shower somehow! As described in my previous post, I painted this as our gift to them (it incorporates Dutch, Russian and British cartoon characters from M and N's childhoods).

With the shower behind us and a lazy day to recover, I can look back and say that I'm really pleased with how everything panned out. I think N and M appreciated the personal touches and I'm so glad that Mom, Dad, Grandma, Uncle, and distant relatives could be involved. So all there is to say now is: N and M, I wish you the best for the adventures and joy to come. You are going to be amazing parents.

11 Mar 2012

Special baby shower gift - Favorite childhood characters

For a baby shower gift for our friends M and N, I decided to do something personalized. N is Russian and M is Dutch, but grew up mostly in the UK. This therefore provided me with a great opportunity to paint a special gift for them: A painting in which each of their favorite childhood cartoon characters co-exist in a magical world. With a bit of research and some important insight from respective family members, I identified the characters. The web gave me the images to copy. I loved painting this, partly because I really liked the concept, partly because it was refreshing to paint using the cartoonish whimsical style (easy on the brain). From the response upon M and N opening the gift, I know they were touched by it. Those reactions were definitely the best part of all.