Easter Craft Fair with The Fairytale Fair

We are so excited to share with you that we will be attending and selling at The Fairy Tale Fair Easter Craft & Design Fair next month. It's our first time selling at a Spring fair as we usually mainly sell at Christmas time, however this year we have been dabbling in some Easter makes and also fashion accessories. In this blog post, we want to give you a quick overview of some of the products we have been working on lately and hope to sell at the event. 

If you haven't already, you should definitely check out the Fairy Tale Fair website and find out more details about the day. As well as over 60 stalls selling their handmade creations, you can also enjoy and meet special guests, including the Sussex ghostbusters, The Mad Hatter stilt walker and Jon the Singing Chef. This fair is a fantastic community event, in aid of St Barnabas charity and there is definitely something for everyone.

The first set of sneak peek products we are going to share with you are our Spring/Easter makes, which includes a variety of decorations to celebrate the season.

After the success of our Christmas Gonks, we couldn't help ourselves to making some more for the Spring season.

If you prefer to place your Gonk on a mantelpiece or shelf then you are in luck as we also have these standalone Gonks too!

These fabric bunny decorations come in beautiful pastel shades and will look so cute hanging on a decorative twig tree.

It wouldn't be Easter without some eggs, and these decorations are simply beautiful! We will have a variety of different designs to choose from so you can pick out something that will suit your decor.

We have some more bunny decorations in the form of wood this time. Each beautifully painted and decorated, perfect for hanging on a twig tree.

Moving onto some fashion accessories now and these vinyl card holders are perfect for storing your essential cards in whilst on the go. Each come with a handy swivel clip so you can easily attach them to your bag or belt loop.

These Itty Bitty boxy bags are one of my favourite new products and are so handy for carrying around essential items, such as loose change, car keys, dog poo bags, lip balm, face masks and more! These bags come attached to a coil hair tie which can easily slide around your wrist to make them hands free.

For more sneak peeks of the items we will be selling leading up to the fair, make sure to follow us on our Instagram page.

We hope to see some of you there!

JoAnn Autumn Haul from the USA

We are so excited to share this post with you about our recent order from JoAnn craft store in the USA. About a month ago we found out that we could order from the JoAnn website and have it shipped to the UK for a reasonable price! I'm sure you all know as well as us that buying from the USA is never usually cheap with shipping rates at a crazy price which doesn't make sense for what may be a low value order in comparison. Alternatively a lot of USA craft stores and brands don't offer shipping to the UK which then makes it impossible to get hold of these lovely items!

Since we had been looking at USA haul videos lately we couldn't wait to start perusing the Fall and Halloween shopping category on JoAnn's website to find out what goodies we could buy! There were pages and pages of lovely home decor, craft items, fabric and more - so much to take in and choose from!

We did manage to restrain ourselves quite a bit and didn't end up purchasing as much as I thought we would, however this is only the first order!!!

So let's start with my purchases, I got a couple of kitchenware items and a home decor piece...

Hello Pumpkin Ceramic Mug

Just Enjoy Ceramic Mug

These mugs are lovely and chunky and can definitely contain a lot of your favourite hot drink come the Autumn time. They also look beautiful displayed out on your counter top ready for guests when they come over.

Hello Pumpkin Spatula Set

This set is excellent for those bakers out there when you want to whip up an autumnal treat. Additionally they look wonderful sat inside your utensil pot on the counter top.

Small Lit Amber Pumpkin

This small light up pumpkin is an excellent piece of home decor and looks great sat on top of a shelf or windowsill. When night time comes, switch on the lights and let this little pumpkin create a wonderful Autumn ambience.

So that's all that I included in my part of the order, let's move on to my sister's Autumn stash...

Hello Pumpkin Spoonula

As well as the same pumpkin spatula set that I bought, my sister also picked up this Hello Pumpkin Spoonula, excellent for cooking and baking this season.

Pumpkins & Leaves Mini Baking Cups - 100 pcs

If you love baking cakes then these mini baking cups are a must for the Autumn season!

As you will see below, my sister has already put these to good use!

For home decor, my sister picked up the following items....

Small Lit Pumpkin - Orange Leaves

This pumpkin is beautifully decorated around the outside with an embossed leaf pattern and also contains LED lights which you can switch on at the bottom to light up your room at night.

As you will see in the picture above, my sister also picked up a decorative sign to display...

Time to Get Cosy Autumn Wall Decor

This small sign looks great displayed amongst your autumn home decor and creates a cosy atmosphere.

Autumn Extra Large Flip Top Storage Box - Pumpkins & Love Fall

A fantastic piece of storage that you don't mind displaying around the house. It also provided a great space to place our glass light up pumpkins during the packing process and kept them from getting broken! Unfortunately the box did have a couple of tears around the edge of the lid but easily fixed with a bit of tape to secure in place. Not sure if this was caused during shipping or if someone picked a slightly damaged box in the first place!

Autumn Textured Throw - Orange Checks

This beautiful autumn throw measures approx. 50 x 60 inches and creates a wonderful backdrop across your sofa for a cosy autumn feel.

So moving on to a few pieces that mum ordered...

First up is a couple of pieces of Christmas check fabric...

Red Buffalo Check Christmas Cotton Fabric

Red Checker Plaid Christmas Cotton Fabric

As I'm sure you can imagine, this fabric will come in excellent use for Christmas sewing projects and I'm sure we will share with you any makes we have made with this fabric nearer to Christmas.

It's worth noting that the minimum order quantity for fabric is 2 yards.

Lastly mum ordered an autumn wreath that matched in with the colour of her front door.

However, unfortunately the wrong wreath was included in our delivery and therefore we are still waiting for the correct wreath to arrive, but I'll include an image and link below so you can see what it will look like. Once it has been delivered I will include a picture below, with it displayed on mum's front door.

Autumn Triple Berry Wreath 24" - Cream, Orange & Gray

So that sums up our first ever order from JoAnn in the USA. It is definitely worth checking out if you want to get something a bit different for your home and also it seems to be an area which UK shops are still struggling to provide. And if you do find shops that are selling these cosy autumn home decor items, they seem to be selling out in just days of discovering them! JoAnn is always offering great discounts on their products and even extra discounts at the checkout so make sure you look out for those offers to save even more money. In total it took just under 3 weeks for our order to get to us and we were updated every step of the way so we knew whereabouts our parcel was at all times.

We definitely think it's worth making an order, especially at this time of year when you want to get your hands on some lovely Autumn/Halloween and Christmas goodies!

Knitted Pumpkins

Today we wanted to share with you a brilliant make for the Autumn season which are these knitted pumpkins! 

Lately we have been getting a bit carried away (and almost obsessed!) with pumpkins and Autumn decor. We have been hunting for some great makes for this season and have also been perusing all the homeware shops for their Autumn homeware collections, especially Homesense/ TK Maxx.

Mum found this fantastic pattern to make knitted pumpkins from Handy Little Me and found some nice chunky wool from Wool Warehouse in a range of colours to start knitting some pumpkins. Both mine and mum's house have coastal influences so we wanted to create some blue pumpkins to co-ordinate with our decor. Mum also purchased some neutral shades and an orange for more traditional pumpkin colours.

I was so excited by these creations that I wanted to make my own and for the first time ever -  I learnt how to knit!

It took me a couple of evenings to finish it but I am thrilled with the result and proud that I made one for myself.

You may notice from the picture above that the stalk for the pumpkin is also handmade. Mum found a pattern for this from LuannDanzlDesigns on Etsy and sewed up these stalks in no time. 

To give the stalk a blackened edge, we used the flame from a tea light candle to carefully cinged the edges to get the look we wanted. You need to be extra careful when you do this as to not set the whole stalk on fire so make sure you use quick and gentle motions.

The blackened edge helps make the stalk look more realistic and adds some dimension. 

Once you have let it cool for a few minutes you can just use a few stitches around the stalk to secure your stalk in place on your pumpkin.

Alternatively if you are lacking in these sewing skills you can simply find a nice looking twig to pop in the top of your pumpkin.

Mum made my sister a stack of pumpkins and used a twig for the stalk of the top pumpkin.

We think these pumpkins look fantastic around the home and are a nice nod to the Autumn season. If you are a knitting pro then I'm sure you will make these up in no time. However if you haven't knitted before, such like myself, then you may want to have some guidance from a knitter or find a good YouTube video to teach you the basic stitches before having a go at the pattern.

Autumn Shopping Haul

Yesterday we had a fantastic day going shopping to see what Autumn/Halloween treasures we could find!

Recently my YouTube has been swamped with Fall/Halloween haul videos from the US and they have some fantastic product offerings this year, so much so that I wanted to see what our shops in the UK were offering right now - if anything? The shop on the top of our list had to be Homesense - the homeware branch of TK Maxx. They source a lot of their products from the US shops including TJ Maxx and Home Goods and from what we have seen so far from our neighbours across the pond I wondered if anything had started arriving in our stores.

So we headed to the largest Homesense store in our region - which happens to be in Tunbridge Wells.

We were in luck as they had some displays of Halloween and Autumn homeware at the front of the store. They also have displays of candles and autumn kitchen accessories in their relevant departments around the store so make sure you search the whole store depending on what area of the house you are looking to decorate.

In terms of decoration I picked up these beautiful ceramic pumpkins which come with a lovely scented potpourri bag inside. This can be taken out from the bottom if you prefer not to use it and then you could put some LED lights inside instead. They had these in a range of colours including gold, white and orange and at £4.99 a piece, they were a bargain!

If you are looking for Autumnal fragrances then I definitely recommend you check out Homesense/TK Maxx first as they have a very wide selection and at some very reasonable prices! Deciding on which fragrance you buy will take you the longest time to decide as there are so many to smell! For now I decided to go with a small candle that has a Spiced Apple and Pumpkin scent. I also got a diffuser that I plan to put upstairs in my house and this one includes an autumnal floral sprig which helps add a bit of decoration at the same time.

This next item was actually purchased in TK Maxx but you may possibly find one in Homesense which is this glass storage jar with a ceramic bat on the top. They also had some jars with a witches hat on top too so look out for these in your nearest store. These type of items are great for adding a subtle hint of halloween to your kitchen decor.

My sister also joined us on our Autumnal shopping trip and has recently shared with me some purchases she has made lately at TK Maxx and Homesense...

Joanne loves a good candle and has definitely picked up quite the selection this year so far...

Other purchases from TK Maxx also included this set of 'BOO' cushions...

Also these decoration plushies...

If you are looking for some kitchenware items, Joanne also picked up these decorative plates from TK Maxx too...

These plates are perfect for get togethers leading up to Halloween and help get you in the spirit of things for the month of October.

If you don't have a TK Maxx local to you then make sure you check out their Halloween page on their website and it's worth noting that they add new products almost everyday so always keep checking back to see what you can find.

The next purchase is from Hobbycraft who have started putting out their Halloween items in store and are also available online.

I found these adorable plush pumpkins in my local Hobbycraft and as soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them! They come in a few more colours to what you see above, I think there are also some available in black, purple and dark blue. The large plush pumpkin is £4 and the small pumpkins are £2 each. These pumpkins will look great dotted around the house, maybe stacked in a jar, placed on a mantelpiece or even decoration on your bed! The sales assistant I spoke to in Hobbycraft said their Halloween items were selling very quickly so I recommend visiting your local store very soon or purchasing online if you can!

The next item I want to share with you is not specific to Autumn but it will be a fantastic piece of home decor to display some Autumnal/halloween decorations in. We found this glass dome with wooden base in Primark's homeware section and at £5 we couldn't resist. The wooden base could easily be painted if you want it a different colour. Alternatively they also sold some that had a silver base as well.

Finally I just want to share a couple of bits that my sister found in The Range...

This Happy Halloween cushion is only £6.99 and was found amongst the regular cushions - so make sure you have a good rummage on your next visit!

Joanne also picked up this wicker tray and the Knitted Pumpkin Pick that you can see coming out of the vase. Both of these pieces look great set up on a coffee table with some of your Autumnal candles and home decor pieces.

So I think it's safe to say that UK shops are definitely starting to sell Autumn and Halloween items so if you want to start early we recommend visiting your local homeware shops soon to grab these items before they are gone! I'm sure we will be back soon with another haul blog post and hopefully some Autumn/Halloween crafting inspiration!

Pirates of the Caribbean Hen Party

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of celebrating my long awaited hen party!! Unfortunately my hen party had to be delayed due to Covid-19 and it meant that I ended up getting married before I was able to have a proper shin dig with my friends and family. However with restrictions lifting earlier this month, we were finally able to celebrate and have some fun. Even though I knew the hen party was happening, I didn't have a clue about what the theme of the party was as this was being decided by my sister and mum who were planning the whole thing.

Late morning on the day of my hen party I was visited by my mum and sister who were dressed up as pirates and came to deliver me a message that my hen party was going to be a Pirates of the Caribbean theme and they had a costume with them for me to dress up in! I was so excited to find out this was going to be the theme of my hen party and couldn't wait for it to begin!

When I arrived at the party, the decorations had already started before entering the house, with some boat sails coming out of a wooden bucket, a lantern and also a sign on the door greeting my guests to the hen party.

The sign was ordered from an Etsy shop and then my mum attached wooden poles to the top and bottom and some black yarn to hang it.

As I entered the hallway there was a skeleton in a crate that had been dressed up in pirate attire, holding a bottle, with some treasure on his lap!

The hallway had also been decorated with black sails!

To make the party Covid-19 friendly, the whole set up was done in the garden (thank goodness the weather held up!) and this is where all the little details came together.

As you can see from the picture above my mum got hold of some old wooden barrels from a seller on eBay and these were used as bar tables which were decorated with a pirate map, a light up bottle, some snacks, hand sanitiser and a pencil and paper for the party games that were coming up in the evening! 

There was also a wrist band for my friends to take home with them as a thank you for coming to my hen party. These were bought from a seller on Etsy called Wishgem

All the bottles at the party were recycled bottles which my mum and sister had printed some pirate "Rhum" labels for and then got some LED bottle lights to put inside of them. These were also a gift for my friends to take home as a memento from the party!

Other decorations around the gazebo were some iron wall candle sconces which were sourced form an antique shop in Hove called The Interior house. These were hang on old pieces of fencing trellis that my mum had kept hold of, which was definitely worthwhile, as they came in handy for added decoration around the party!

There was a hanging centrepiece in the middle of the gazebo which my mum had made using two metal hanging baskets. She then added a semi melted candle inside.

There were also some hanging lanterns and bird cage lanterns which had candles inside. 

All of this added to the aesthetic of being on board a pirate ship and when the sun set in the evening, the lights looked magical around the garden!

The other decorations that looked so effective at the party were the boat sails that my mum created around the garden. The main sail looked amazing and had been stencilled on with a pirate design and put together using some old bits of wood and calico material. She also put a black washing basket on top.

There was another set of sails towards the back of the garden which were similar in design to the sails outside the front of the house. These sails had the addition of a pirate flag at the top.

At the back of the gazebo was another umbrella which had another sail attached to the back.

To finish off the back of the garden, mum also displayed a large pirate flag on top of one of the garden sheds.

Since it was my hen party, I was the Captain of the ship and was assigned my own special Captain's table, which was decorated with all the usual gubbins including a pirate map, compass, telescope, tankard, feather pen and more! Also can't forget the chocolate coins!!

I also had the treasure chest on my table as well, as all the rewards need to come back to the Captain of course!

Well I think that is a round up of most of the decorations, like I said earlier, there were a lot! In addition to the decorations creating a perfect atmosphere, I just want to quickly comment on the music that was played throughout the evening. A mixture of music from Pirates of the Caribbean film was played and also a backing track from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from the Disney Parks was also used. If you have ridden this ride at Disney, you will know the music and I have to say that listening to it at the party made me feel like I could have been in the queue waiting to go on the ride!

Now let's move on to the Hen Party games - this was all my sister's hard work and she came up with some great ones that were right up my alley!

The first game of the night was "How Well Does the Wife know the Husband?" Previous to the party, my sister had sent Conor some questions. I needed to match Conor's answers to get the question right and for any I got wrong, I had to add a pirate costume accessory, such as a hook hand, eye patch etc to myself!

My friends had to guess at the beginning how many questions they thought I would answer correctly and then the winner would win a prize! As you can see from the picture above, I don't get them all right and some of them were a little bit tricky!

However I managed to walk away with a score of 7 out of 10 which I seemed pretty chuffed about above!

The next game was inspired by my love of Disney and was a simple quiz sheet called Disney Love Quotes. This game was sourced off Etsy

We simply had to match the love quote with which film it was from. Luckily the films were all listed at the bottom so we could only pick from those films as some of the quotes were a little bit tricky.

On introduction to the game I was also given some Minnie Ears that were nautical themed and had a veil coming out the back of them. The tulle veil was added to the ears by my mum and the ears themselves were sourced from an Etsy seller called Mouse Hatter.

Of course being a huge Disney fan, I managed to win the quiz and got to pick a prize from the treasure chest!

The prize treasure chest was an inflatable chest which can be sourced from places such as Amazon or eBay. The prizes were wrapped in small Hessian bags.

The third game of the evening was a very funny game indeed, which was good old Pop Up Pirate! We each had to take turns in heat matches against another player to see which two players could finally make it to the final! It may seem like a straight forward game, but once you've had a few rum cocktails it suddenly became quite interesting!!

The final game of the night was a creative game and was mainly for my crew mates to take part in as my role as Captain was to judge their creations. They were each given a pot of play dough and a few carving tools and they had to make a pirate ship. There were definitely a few interesting creations made by some of my friends but Bobbie managed to walk away with a prize for her very creative ship, including a wheel, flag, pirates on board and also a wave along the side of the ship!

Alongside these organised games there was also a game that my guests could play throughout the party which was to find the Pirate medallions that had been hidden around the house. There were 6 medallions to find and my guests just had to simply write down where they had found them on a post it note that they were given. Those that found them all, won a prize! The post it notes were sourced from a website called Zazzle and were personalised for my party.

Additionally my friends were also able to create their own pirate name for the party using the Pirate name code sheet. Next to this was a Bucket List that my friends could fill out as ideas for an adventure that me and Conor could have during our lifetime together.

A party wouldn't be complete without a cake and I couldn't have a pirate party without a pirate ship cake!

This fantastic cake was made by my sister who used a Pirate ship cake tin from a company called Nordic Ware. The decoration on the cake, including the sales, pirate and Kraken (Pirate of the Caribbean 2 reference) cut out looked amazing and it was finished off round the bottom with some sea blue icing!

And of course it tasted delicious!

For the final stage of this blog post I just want to touch on the theme of costumes! I thought everyone looked fantastic at the party, using a mixture of bought costumes and whatever people had lying around at home, e.g. striped t-shirts and shirts. A tie around the head for a pirate scarf, you get the jist! Here is a little look at everyone's outfits!

All in all it was a fantastic night and I enjoyed every second of it. The theming was amazing and I can't thank my mum and sister enough for everything they managed to put together for this. Also a huge thank you to my friends who came along to the party and celebrated with me! 

If you have read this post for some inspiration for your own pirate themed party then I hope you have managed to pick up some ideas and inspiration to help you throw a fantastic party!