Monday, June 23, 2014

Mini BBQ Invite

The weather in Galway has been phenomenal the past few weeks. It is such a rarity that we felt compelled to take two days holiday from work and head to the beach.  After the winter we had, it is nuts to miss out on the few sunny days coming our way.

We packed up the camper and headed to the coast on Saturday morning with Daisy (the moped) in tow.  If you ever see this camper bumbling around Ireland, do pop over and say hello.  I would love to meet you and chat a bit.


Here we are in Kinvara for a quick breakfast.  Yum!

A weekend camping means a weekend sitting in a lawn chair while chatting with friends, so I had to bring hand work to do.  Recently, I have been thinking of inviting our neighbours over for a 4th of July BBQ.  They are so nice to us, so I wanted to do something fun for them.  Dinner outside on our long summer evenings seems like a great way to spend time together.  This is a classy BBQ - no texted invites.  They are getting a bespoke hand made request to join us.  

I packed up my stamps that I bought in Liberty of London last summer and my blue and red ink pads, then set to work Saturday night after dinner.  It's my first time really stamping at length.  I could use some practice.  There's no confusion that this was hand made, is there?!?

Their surname is cropped off on purpose...don't think I'm that miserable with a camera, please?

It is signed from the dog only because I miss calculated how much space it would take to write out the whole invite, so I couldn't fit on the full 4 names in our family.  I thought since our dog and their dog are best friends, it suited.

On the front, I wanted to make an American flag.  I brought a Kona FQ with me to hand embroider white stars, but I was VERY not impressed with how "organic" they were.  


Instead, I thought I would carve a star stamp and use a silver ink pad to make the stars.  Bad decision.  The silver ink was lost on the blue fabric.  I tried embroidering over star prints that were in the shop, tried to forget the star and instead just do french knots on blue Kona, etc but they all looked pretty awful.


And then it finally hit me!  My Blueberry Park charms might work!  I pulled out a Blueberry Park panel and paired it with Riley Blake gingham to make this liberal take on an American flag.  I love it.  Looking at the photo now I wish I aligned the gingham on the top and bottom, but in real life I am 100% pleased with how it turned out.  It's bound in Kona white with the little invite serving as the backing fabric.


So I pinned it to Molly's collar this evening and let her loose in the neighbour's yard.  The girls were absolutely delighted to have a hand made invitation and wanted to know more about how it was made, how to stamp fabric, etc.  I'll make crafters out of them yet!  Needless to say, the whole family will be joining us on the 4th for burgers, home made ice cream and a few pints.  Molly's friend Oscar is coming too.





29 comments:

Tomomi McElwee said...

Somehow I thought you would have anold VW van. Yours is cute too, a lot of space inside I believe. Nice invitation too!!

Isisjem said...

Great camper. Chief wants to get one. It's just not right for our lives right now. Also I want to see inside the kind of van he wants so I can fantasise about making the soft furnishing that I think will be essential ;-)

Rachaeldaisy said...

That has to be one of the best invitations ever!! I love the way you even got Molly to deliver it. What a fun camper van!

Sarah said...

So unique and what a lovely way to spend time with your neighbours.

Henry's Shed said...

What an amazing invitation!! Love it! Hope the weather holds for you and you have a fab BBQ :) xx

salamanda said...

Fab camper van. We used to have a van but gave it up as my other half worked most weekends but plans are afoot to remedy that.

Ruth said...

Molly makes a great postman! Lovely idea!

kathy said...

I love Molly running around as postman.
We have a 4th of july bbq in our tight neighborhood. This year, we are bringing back the lawn mower tractor races!

I like how your invitation evolved. Sometimes we just need to persevere to come up with something 'artsy'.

Nicky said...

Haha glad there will be human food too - not just biscuits and bones! My youngest's birthday so we always celebrate 4th of July too!

Very cute we invite and sneaky attempt at craft conversion!

Erin @ Billy Button Design said...

Are you sure Oscar and Molly are not plotting all this to get a bit of sneaky time together?????? Stamping is hard and I can forget about those french knots. You did very well improvising Cindy.

Erin @ Billy Button Design said...

Are you sure Oscar and Molly are not plotting all this to get a bit of sneaky time together?????? Stamping is hard and I can forget about those french knots. You did very well improvising Cindy.

pennydog said...

Love the idea of sending your dog in to deliver an invitation!

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

What a great way to invite people to a BBQ!!

Indianna said...

Love your van, maybe one day our van "Liberty Blue" will meet yours!

Sophie Belle Designs said...

Cindy you are hilarious! I love it. I would love a camper van but I'm the only one who feels that way!

Two Wednesdays said...

Sounds brilliant - both the trip and the barbecue. I am laughing though as the dogs have the same names as my two younger children - they probably need the same amount of exercise too!

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

How fun! What a great way ti issue an invite!

Dianne Neale said...

Great invitation. Have a splendid night won't you!

Katy Cameron said...

There were several part of this that made me LOL, but I think signing it from the dog was the highlight ;o)

tink's mom said...

I'd love being invited to your BBQ. What a great job you did on your invite. Thanks for sharing your path to the finish.

Sarah said...

Cute invite. Don't you look like young carefree backpackers travelling around in your van! Fun times.

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Henry said...

These stars look so great and they are so easy to make as well. i will also try this with my kids at this weekend. Now it's time to avail derma rollers for more information.

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