you are our sunshine

In France it is traditional for weddings and baptisms to hand out candy coated almonds called "dragées" as a souvenir of the event. Looking it up on the www I found that this is what they are actually symbolizing with regards to weddings:

The "bitter" almonds and the "sweet" sugar symbolize the bitterness of life and sweetness of love. The treats are often packaged in groups of five to represent happiness, health, longevity, wealth, and fertility.

source

When I was planning Lara's baptism I knew what theme I wanted to use - my favorite flower - the sunflower! I actually had the theme in mind way before I even got pregnant, so I was ready to put it in place when the time came!

To hand out your "party favors" you can use little bags, pouches or an array of baby themed objects that can be found in stores. But I had always thought it would be fun to recycle baby food jars. Lara was not yet onto solids, so I asked some friends to help collect the number of jars I needed. My mom helped me paint the lids in a bright sunflower yellow!

At the same time m&m's just started launching their personalized m&m's that you can order in the color of your choice with names & dates printed on them.

I opted for yellow and orange since I got the brown almonds, so the full pallet of sunflower colors was there! The m&m's would substitute the label that one usually makes with the child's name and date of baptism.

The final touch was to add in a small fake sunflower inside the jar which tied in with the theme and added a nice little touch. Here's the final outcome:

 

I really like having used the baby food jars. On the one hand it's recycling rather than just throwing away... and on the other hand it really says "baby". It would work great for a baby shower too!!

What other traditional gifts are there for baptism's?

hear ye!

Getting ready to celebrate my mini munchkins 4th & 6th birthdays!! Since their birthdays are only 4 days apart we have opted for a joint kiddy birthday bash in the last few years, coming up with themes that work for boys & girls. So far we've done Dora & Diego and Neverland (i.e. Fairies & Pirates).

This year we have opted for a Princess & Knight theme, and so I've worked on the invites and am prepping the decorations for "Château Kobtzeff"!

And what castle would be complete without it's very own coat of arms??

Inspired by Lara & Ilya's colors, Pink & Green (Misha is Blue), I browsed the web for ideas and decided to go for a shield divided in four plus a space in the middle for the Kobtzeff 'K'. 4 green Stars for Ilya, 6 pink Fleurs de Lys for Lara, a dragon and a sword et voilà:

 

What's fun with this is that I can now make bunting and other elements to decorate the entrance and table using the different elements from the coat of arms.... but more on that later!

What are your favorite party themes?

mélimélo matriochka

You may recall from my bio that my hubby is of Russian origin. Russian dolls have kind of become the latest big craze here and you can find them on almost anything and in any style.

I thought it would be fun to make Lara her very own customized "matriochka". I looked for some inspiration on Pinterest for different styles and designs, although I did already have some elements in mind:

- I knew for sure that I wanted to use the fabric that I've used to decorate Lara's room. It's a typical Chinese red peony fabric, which includes also birds and other bright colors (pink, green, yellow, turquoise...) I find the fabric girly enough, but not too pink-girly, and the peonies to me are a strong yet beautiful flower - a bit like our little Lara actually!!

- I also have a weak spot for jeans fabric (see my Christmas stockings here), and I had already tested the combination of the two fabrics in Lara's baby room.

- The rest would be bits & bobs or ribbon & buttons etc...

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I actually used two pieces of dark jeans fabric as the basis to work on. On what would become the front side of the doll I covered the top half with the peony fabric so that it would be the scarf of the doll. Two layers of ribbon in bright red & yellow would define the neckline and cover the seam.

On the matriochka's belly I decided to use a jeans' back pocket, which could potentially hold something secret... To decorate it I delicately cut out one of the pink peonies from a piece of fabric. Since the fabric is very thin I decided to mod-podge it to make it stiffer and not quite so fragile. Then I hand stitched it onto the pocket with red thread.

For the little lady's back side, I decided to play around with the top bit of a pair of jeans, and added some ribbon for a little frilly feminine touch! My stitching isn't that great I must admit....

Now, for the mademoiselle's face....button eyes were a must and she needed rosy cheeks for sure. Again I used more jeans, stone washed this time for the face and some unraveling darker bits for the hair. A little red button mouth looked cute and for the nose I used part of a push button that gives her a shiny little nose!

 

Those who know about my "attention to detail" obsession, will surely not be surprised to know that the fabric I used for the cheeks is actually cut out from a small silk pouch that they put jewelery in in Asia, like below. Pink was a must, which is the color I also chose for the big fat ribbon I made and sewed on to the neckline.

I cut out the shape I wanted for my doll's body from cardboard in order to outline where to pin, pinned both parts together, sewed away, stuffed her with some foam I still had....et voilà, here she is:

And in situ on Lara's bed...

I gave it to Lara for Russian Christmas, and she was thrilled - has been sleeping with her since!! I love how expressive her face is!

Has anyone else ever made a matriochka, or another doll?