Let the Crafting Begin!

Little Miss turns 3 in (gasp!) 8 days and her new bed arrives this weekend, so it was time to really get busy this last week. As typical I've been mulling ideas over for months but not actually beginning them until the last minute. What fun is a party if you're not a little panicked in the days and hours beforehand, I ask you? :) Fortunately the celebration is the weekend after her birthday, so I get an extra four days. Those are the invitations in that first photo; it's a fairy party. Here's a little peek at what's in the works:
I had to make her a birthday crown when I saw them in Amanda Soule's wonderful book. My main alteration was to put some velcro on the front instead of embroidering or appliqueing directly on the crown (though I did do some embroidered flowers on the sides). Then I made a little felt cake with three candles for this year, and cut out a few more shapes I can complete in future years with her birthday number or initials or other special things.
I figured I could also do a non-birthday design to stick on if she insists on this crown being used for dress-up, too, though I hope to keep it special for her birthday. These photos are from when it was in process (hence the pins), but I finished it last night--yay! The lovely wool felt is from this store (plant dyed pink) and this one (the green and blue, they have a lot of great colors on the bolt).

This is one of the pillows I'm making for her new bed. The little fairy stitch pattern is from Hilary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls and I'm hoping she's going to prevent the meltdown I expect when Clara sees that there are no Disney sheets, blankets, or anything else with those tarty little princesses thrown up all over them. She saw a set in Sears months ago when we looked at mattresses and hasn't forgotten about them. Her desire is so great I went as far as to order some Sleeping Beauty sheets for her and then returned them because they were a) ugly b) hideous quality c) not Belle, so probably not what she wanted, anyway, and d) disturbing my conscience. I'll let you know how many tears we have. Last night I made her a MAGENTA pillow (her favorite color) with green pompon fringe, so hopefully that will help her forget about Belle and Cinderella's absence, too.

One more pillow, half of the party favors, and maybe a cake trial still to go. And, of course, any party-related cooking. All the school stuff I'd planned to make for her birthday is going to have to wait for the first day of school, I think. I can't wait to start on that, though! She went to her school for the first time today to see a little play and was sooooo excited. She left me behind without a thought and went directly over to tell the oldest and most dramatic girl in the play that she did a good job. Ha. We're going to make her a Schultüten for the school items I make for her. What's that, you ask? Stay tuned!