In a sudden burst of creativity this weekend I have designed a new little felt fox. Fergal stands around 30cm high and has arms and legs jointed with buttons. Hand sewn out of red felt he is a handsome little chap. Lying behind him in the picture is the unfinished Ernestine, I think she will be wearing a tutu.
We have been thinking for sometime that we might start a Mrs Fox's Handmade brand. It will include items that we have designed and made for parties that we feel others may be interested in purchasing as keepsakes. Handmade to order Mrs Fox will be keeping a numbered archive of all of these items along with purchase details to authenticate them in the future, and to keep track of all our little foxes.
Fergal and his friends are available now for the very special price of just £20, please drop me an email if you are interested in giving him a new home. info@mrsfoxs.com
A Fairy Teaparty was the first party Mrs Fox was asked to create.
Having thrown some great parties for our own little foxes, and helped friends out with theirs, Mrs Fox's was asked if we could put together;
"a fairy party that isn't like all the other fairy parties, not too much pink if that's possible..."
With these words ringing in my ears I decided to use yellow and lavender, with just a touch of pink. I made a few fairies to get into the mood; wooden peg fairies, pom pom fairies, bead and pipe-cleaner fairies...
and finally came up with a rather nice paper craft fairy for the children to do at the party and take home in their party bags too.
I'm a bit of a bunting fan, so to create a fairy arbor I made large crepe paper flowers and machine sewed them onto bias binding strung them from the ceiling to help create our magical fairy realm. This is still one of my favourite, although perhaps the most fiddly, buntings I have made.
I've tried to write up how I made it in another blog post here. Inspired by the amazing Disney art director Mary Blair, I'd been watching Alice in Wonderland at the time, my flowers were huge magical monsters...
The next thing I came across were great fairy cake toppers. The cup cakes can be made and decorated before the party and used for the party tea. Or make the cakes and let the children ice and decorate their own at the party, wrap them and tie with a pretty bow for them to take home.
The tea table was laid with yellow, lavender and pink paper plates and cups with fairy napkins that match the cup cakes. For a table centrepiece Mrs Fox made a magical giant mushroom. Made from Papermache it stands on a cake board so is nice and fim, but it has a secret. The base is hollow and can be filled with sweets and the mushroom cap forms a bowl into which the sweets can be decanted.
Our ice cream van ice cream cups coordinate beautifully with the rest of this tableware. You don't have to use the little bowls for ice cream, we used them for fruit cups at our last fairy party.
And the great thing is the ice-cream van box looks beautiful on the table, you can make holes in the top and use it as a stand for lollipops. I made some great marshmallow lollipops with the little foxes the other day, they are easy peasy!
And of course we have the fairy party bags; cotton drawstring bags contained a paper fan, fairy glider, felt-craft accessories kit, myo paper fairy and sweeties. The little guests were thrilled with their hoard.
T
his party was Mrs Fox's first and created the pattern for our Fairy Tea Parties. We've changed the party bag a few times and added a few games, but, this is the template for our Fairy Party Box, which is available here on our website. It contains everything you need for a fairy tea-party of your own.
Mrs Fox loves cooking with her little foxes. I like to wait until my kitchen floor needs a clean and then I don't care so much what ends up getting spilt on it, and the work surfaces, and the walls, and the children... well, you get the idea.
One of our fool proof recipes is for Oat and Raisin Cookies. I kid myself that as they contain oats and raisins they are healthy, but that is me deluding myself just a little.
YOU WILL NEED:
270g unsalted butter at room temperature
160g caster sugar
160g soft dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teasponn vanilla extract
380g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
110g rolled oats
220g raisins
4 baking trays lined with grease proof paper
Makes 20
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (325F/ Gas 3)
1. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the vanilla extract.
2. Sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and oats and mix well. Stir in the raisins until evenly distributed.
3. Arrange equal amounts of cookie dough balls on the prepared baking trays. Make sure there is space around each to allow for spreading while baking.
4. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and firm. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on their trays before using a fish slice to placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
The cookies can be wrapped and included in a party bag. It's a really sweet idea for the children to find something made by their friend in their bag, and a little healthier than all those sweets that usually end up in there.
Pictured above are the oat and raisin cookies we made for the wedding party bags. We wrapped them in grease-proof paper sealed them with a sticker that says "YUM YUM".
We used to make paper windmills when I was little. They are a great craft project for a rainy afternoon and are easy to make.
They are also a great way to decorate a party venue, or a craft that can be done at a party and can be taken home by the guests. We made paper windmills for the wedding party bags for Nicky and Nigel's wedding and printed the date of the event onto one of the sails. To make them yourselves...
YOU WILL NEED:
a square of paper - Mine was 12.5cm (5") x 12.5cm (5")
a nail or pin tack
dowling, garden cane or drinking straw - I used a slender bamboo cane
a bead
pencil, ruler, scissors, hammer
1. Take your sqare of paper and fold it in half to make a triangle and then fold that in half again.
2. Unfold the paper and refering to the diagram below cut 2/3's of the way down the diagonal fold lines towards the centre point.
3. Working in a clockwise direction take your nail or pin tack and push it through the top corner of each sail, as in the diagram above. Carefully push the nail or pin tack through the centre.
4. Holding the windmill tightly turn it over and put a bead onto the nail sticking out of the back. This acts as a spacer and will help the windmill's sails turn smoothly. Then push the nail into the dowling/garden cane or whatever you are using as the windmill's stick. Tap the nail into place with a hammer, if it goes right trough the cane I just tapped the point bending it into the stick.
It's best to use paper that is different on one side to the other. We used plain brown paper first painting a design onto the back before cutting out our squares. You can also use the scrap booking paper that has different patterns on either side.
For the windmill's stick I used bamboo canes from the garden, with the "help" of my Patterdale who obviously thought these were new dog chews for him. I've also tried garden canes and dowling, the garden canes often split, but the dowling works really well.
Our wonderful friends Nicky & Nigel got married this weekend. It was a fabulous wedding, my foxy feet are still throbbing from all the dancing.
As they have lots of friends with children, they asked Mrs Fox to create party bags. They both work in the music industry and with the request for "something a bit retro" in mind. We put together party bag containing balloons, specially designed stickers, sweeties, and a kazoo. With the help of little Louis-fox I made paper windmills, with the wedding date stamped onto one sail. The bags were decorated with an adaptation of the sticker design and brightly coloured parcel tags with the children's names hand stamped.
The children ate a little earlier than the adults, around 4.30 - 5pm, and left as the adult's evening reception kicked in around 8pm. So along with the usual party treats a snack for the trip home was essential. So, Mrs fox added a home made organic oat and raisin cookie and a banana to the bags.
Mr Fox, the little foxes and I had a wonderful time both at the wedding, and creating the party bags. To see how we made the windmill and for a recipe for the cookies click on these links.
And Congratulations to Nicky, Nigel and their little foxes Marley & Mia, a beautiful, beautiful family who sure know how to throw a party! xxx
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