crafty preview

The Spanish Inquisition is almost one! I know; that's insane. It feels unbelievable. It's been almost a year since the initial scare, and the long hospital stay, and the big, upending change in our lives.

She is still perfect.

Anyway, we are having a party — or rather, a series of parties; it's a long story that inevitably ends with "... and we have a small house" — as befits a Big Girl Birthday, and I have been crafting up a storm.


The paper pinwheels are party favours, from a Martha Stewart kit. The pom poms (above) are also from a MS kit. I've since attempted to make my own poufs; I'll show them to you in a party retrospective.

I've also been making buntings, diving deep into my chiyogami stash for the little flags —

Of course I had to incorporate chiyogami in there; it's an important birthday. I even broke into the Brazilian marbled paper I've been saving up (that's the green, in the picture, and there's a red-peach series in there, somewhere). And there's another, bigger bunting that I haven't taken a picture of (but will when it's up); it's lovely patterned paper with blue-and-white twine, says "happy birthday" on it.

The favours are wrapped in matching paper. I was also going to do a vellum overlay, but I think I'm out of time (and paper), and Pd is starting to give me that "I think you've gone nuts" look and backing away slowly.

I do know that the Spanish Inquisition won't care, not really, and that she certainly won't remember any of this (although it will live on in pictures, I'm sure). But let's face it: the first birthday party isn't really for the kid, it's for us, and I demand decorations, and crafts ... and, apparently, gluten-free cupcakes.

(That last one is a bit of a surprise. We'll see how that goes.)