Caterpillars, cars and celebrations

Toby turned 1 on Friday! We took him to the Riverside Museum, where Colin used to work. He and Rose love it there - there's a real subway you can sit on, cars, planes, trams, and even a picture of cousin Jamie on his bike. It's such a brilliant place to visit - and it's free.

We had a party yesterday to celebrate, and all the family came round. I always panic I haven't made enough food for parties, though there's always loads left at the end. Toby's cake was a giant brownie . I also made jelly oranges, strawberry mice, rice krispy cakes and this very hungry caterpillar sandwich. I was very cross with Colin after he put cling film on it and the cheese and basil eye fell off. It took me ages to stick it on again ....

I won a £50 Amazon voucher by answering a survery on mumsnet! I was ridiculously excited - I never win anything. I've been wanting to read Pippa Middleton's new party book, Celebrate, although I'd heard some people criticising it as being a little too simplistic. I spent part of the voucher on that and it arrived last week.

There are definitely parts where she is guilty of stating the obvious - such as the section on Halloween where she suggests sparklers for a Halloween party and advises that glowing pumpkins are a great Halloween decoration.  However,there are also lots of lovely ideas and recipes - I really want to make the mushroom cappuccinos. And I did love the pictures of her celebrating with her posh friends at various parties.


I had a craft fair last Sunday that was run to help raise funds for the Children's Wood campaign - it was really busy and my stall did pretty well. This has been a good month for Violetfizz - I've had quite a few orders through Etsy and some from friends and family which have kept me busy in the evenings. I have two more orders to make for customers before Christmas, fortunately both going to the UK which gives me a little more time, then I'm focusing on making my own hand made gifts for Christmas. I still have a Scooby Doo hat to finish for Rose, plus various other things - time is definitely ticking away so I think I need to step it up a bit!