It started with an invitation

My daughter Annike's 5th birthday is fast approaching but we decided NO PARTY this year! Well I decided no party, Annike had other ideas and has been quietly but persistently been whitling away at my resistance on why she WILL be having a party this year and yes its a good idea to invite lots of friends with a lovely big cake to boot. I compromised, only 6 friends and it will be a BBQ outdoors, no decorations/balloons and NO stress on my part. Yeah right, its already started with some lovely handmade invites for her 7 friends (she managed to sneak an extra friend onto the guest list) which were handed out yesterday. In keeping with the casual/outdoor theme, I was thinking lovely sunny weather (a lottery when you live in Melbourne), homemade lemonade, lots of fruit and picnic blankets.

I found some lovely Tanya Whelan & Cath Kidston fabric and made these adorable envelopes from this website SKEBBA its actually quite simple to make. The name and stamp for each person was printed on some A4 canvas (bought from the $2 shop) and cut out using my scrapbook scissors and then sewed onto each envelope.

The invitation itself was just a simple white broderie anglaise blank card (from the Martha Stewart range) onto which I printed a black and white sketch of some mice playing in the garden with toadstools, which I snitched off the web (hence not showing a photo, incase I get sued lol) The party details were printed inside, easy peasy.

Now I am pondering on what cake to make ;-) and I have paper lanterns, vintage bunting and gingham checks floating in my head, very much like a picnic of yesteryear. But its going to be simple...........with no stress!