Happy Birthday, Ayla!

Rory's friend Ayla just celebrated her fifth birthday!  We made her some flower hair clips and a set of my newest felt food: Millie's Midday Snack.  It has saltine crackers, cheese, deli meat and a fruit cocktail with kiwi, mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits.  Creating these sets always seems to take a while, but once things start to take shape, I always think it's worth it.  My favorite in this are the kiwi slices!  Bonus: I think I've finally conquered my fear of the french-knot.

I made a felt garland to dress up her present.  It's sort of a blend of this and this.  I used circles and stars and hand-sewed them together with embroidery floss.  I imagine there are more of these in my future, because I've always got scraps of felt.  I think tiny bits of brightly colored felt mysteriously multiply when I'm not looking.

I love kid's faces when you reuse a box for a gift.
"Oh yeah!  I got...a box of Great Value Raisin Bran Flakes..."

I also redesigned the topper for my felt food packaging.  I'm still catching up after updating The Pretty Bean logo.