Birthday Girl

My little girl is going to be 7 tomorrow. I can't quite beleive it. 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, really, promise' I used to say to Mum when she said it all goes so quickly. I wish it would all slow down.

We are about to hit a big milestone after the summer. Samuel moves on to High School and Ruby goes in to Key Stage 2. It seemed bad enough when Ruby went in to school and I was no longer a Mum of pre-schoolers. That didn't seem possible. And now I've turned in to one of those Mum's that has 'grown up' children. Almost 'independent'. It's all so crazy. And whilst part of it is great. It's fantastic to see them developing into independent people. Fab to sit down and have a chat with my 11 year-old son. (Let's face it soon all I'll get is a grunt!) A blast to go in to Urban Outfitters with my daughter picking up pretty things, chatting and oohing over them and moving on.

But it pulls at your heart strings too. It just doesn't seem that long ago and we so need to treasure every moment of this...


Before it turns into more attitude of this...

Sleeping Beauty

It's a month to go to Ruby's 7th birthday. And having spent the whole year being 6 planning number 7, she's suddenly lost interest. I tell you, when the going gets tough...

Needless to say, I'm just revving up. Throughout the year we've planned swimming parties at the local aqua slide centre, bowling followed by fish and chips back home, a BBQ in the park and yet another bouncy slide/arty party back home. We've done the latter FOREVER and whilst I had in my head that we would do that again, yesterday I was hit by a bout of inspiration. So instead of our usual format of this...

and this...

followed of course by this...

Instead I've gone for something entirely different. I'll post more about it in the aftermath but my very clever friend Roz has come up with this gorgeous invitation which is perfect for the event.

I for one can't wait!

Yeh or nay?

Sometimes I design something that has been sitting in my head. I guess like alot of you out there, images of ideas pop in to my head at all sorts of times. Sometimes they begin and don't actually make it out. Sometimes they sit there for ages and eventually do. And sometimes they are out before they've fully formulated at all. This is one such idea.


Last night I decided I wanted to do this design. I must have been thinking about it at some point, but before I was even conscious of that thought, here it was. Because I hadn't had time to think it through, when I saw it I wasn't sure how I felt about it.

The kids' response was the best confirmation I needed. They were fighting over who was having this one ('guys, this one is mine! I still have to photograph it!') and after they realised they couldn't they started to put in orders for actual shirt fabrics. 'can you do it in spots?', said one. 'I want checks' said the other. 'Can you put an 'S' on it?'

I guess it's a 'yeh'. Thanks kids!