A pirate interlude...

It's less than 12 hours until I draw my 2012 Christmas giveaway (if you haven't already entered, click here).  While we wait, I just wanted to show you a few photos from today.

Two of my good friends here had a pirate-themed combined birthday party for their four year old boys. It was a great party.  My friends really are a clever pair, each combining their numerous creative talents to put on an amazing afternoon that I know my kids won't forget in a hurry.

I offered to bring a fruit platter since I know it can sometimes be a bit fiddly and hosts usually have their hands full with cakes and other party food.  I had a wooden treasure chest I bought for the kids to play with and decided to make the fruit platter look like opened pirate treasure.

I cut thin slices of rock melon and pineapple and used a small round cookie cutter to cut them into lots of circles (to be silver and gold coins), and then just included as much seasonal fruit as I could find, as well as dried dates, spilling over the chest.

The treasure chest lay on top of a cake board that I covered in kraft wrap, then cling film.  I took all the bits to the party in bags and the whole thing took only five minutes to assemble once I was there, which was a good thing as Miss M was on my hip the whole time!

And speaking of Miss M, I decided at 8am this morning that I wanted to make something a little piratey for her to wear.  I managed to find a pair of velvet-feel pantaloons at the supermarket(!), and decided to make her a quick neckerchief to go with them.

I found a jolly roger image online and printed it out on the computer.  I placed it behind the fabric and then traced through on a window, using a pencil.  I then used fabric paint to paint the image on the neckerchief, which was just a slightly larger (and only single sided) version of my baby and toddler neckerchief pattern.  Sometimes these last-minute projects can be so satisfying.

Happy birthday to Bowen and Tyler!