Our little girl Leah turned 5 last week, it also rained, a lot. So the planned trips out got cancelled but we still managed to have fun. She was desperate for a skateboard, here she is on Friday morning, eyes closed with delight.
We organised a little party for her on Saturday hoping that the sun would shine and the children would be able to run around outside. I’m not a great fan of children’s parties, I certainly don’t do a great themed event or decorate the house (it gets cleaned beforehand and that’s it). I see amazing party photo’s in blog land and if you are blessed with the time, money and energy to do it great, but that’s just not us.
BUT…I do like a good cake and I don’t like plastic party bags, well I don’t like giving them out when I know I could make something so much nicer.
So last week Leah and I had a rummage through the fabric stash, scraps and all to see what suitable fabric we could find for her friends. Her 2 girl friends she told me really like dogs so she immediately pulled some Sherbet Pips scraps left from the Siblings Together quilt, then we found scraps of Sock Monkey and some pieces of rocket fabric and surfing monkeys for the boys. I pulled out Jeni’s Lined Drawstring bag pattern and used the custom formula to make the bags bigger than the tiny size but smaller than snack.
The one in the middle is the ‘party bag size’:
And this is what Leah handed out to her friends after fun games in the garden and lunch.
I’m linking these up to the Summer Sewing Contest hosted by the amazing Jennifer, it may not seem like summer here in the UK but hopefully it will soon.
And the cake? Influenced by gorgeous photo’s of rainbow cakes I’ve been wanting to make one for a while, usually I ask the girls what sort of cake they would like but this time Leah had no choice, but also knew nothing about it.
Thanks go to the wonderful Christy (a lady who I used to hang out with a scary number of years ago at 6th form college) a baker of wonderful looking things (I live too far away to actually taste them), I knew she had previously made one and took her advice.
Enter one not so exciting looking cake but an excited girl:
and then that first cut with no fingers free to cross but hoping that it had worked
Hurrah it did, not only looking but tasting good too. I hope there is more sun than rain with you this week although the sight of a rainbow wouldn’t go amiss.
Also linking up with:

i love the fabrics you chose for the bags – i make them as gifts too! and the cake came out perfect!
Great makes and superb cake!!
Happy belated birthday to Leah xxx
That is the best cake I’ve ever seen! And a very cool skateboard! Love the bags too, so much nicer than plastic! X
Happy birthday, Leah! Your caked looked fantastic!
Oooh, yummy looking cake, and love the goodie bags! Happy belated birthday to Leah 🙂
The rainbow cake is amazing, that would’ve blown my mind at 5, pretty much blows it now!
I love the rainbow cake!! My little guy is really into rainbows right now and would love that so much, but wow, it seems like so much work!
And the party bags are awesome!
(I’m like you about parties except maybe even worse? I have never given out party favors, and most of our parties are potluck! Decorating? Themes? Hahaha! But we have fun! Maybe when Joe’s older and requests a certain type of party, I’ll try to do something a bit more organized.)
The bags are adorable, the cake is impressive and the smile on the birthday girl is priceless.
So glad you entered the contest. Good luck!