It's six years since a live wire arrived in my life

This is my gorgeous girl who was 6 today. She was born in this kitchen, in a birthing pool, just me and her.

My husband was on the phone requesting that the midwife come now please! I had thought he had called her earlier when in fact he had not.

It was an unusual start to life and this is the only home she's known. Despite the intermittent rain during her party the bouncy castle in the garden was well used - at one point I think possibly all the children were stumbling about on the large red hills which were noisily swaying under the pressure of 11 screaming girls and 2 boys.

My husband had bought the ingredients for the party bags and on impulse I decided 24hrs before the party to hand paint 13 tags for them. ( For some reason we make party bags for our own children ..)

24hrs sounds like a lot, but when you paint the gesso in say half an hour - go crystal healing for the evening, get back, string bunting, make up bags (as far as possible), do the 13 red base coats, prepare the birthday breakfast, decorate the kitchen with balloons, sweep the floor, arrange the presents...get to bed at 12.30 am.. get up at 5.30am to an excited daughter (who you convince that it is the middle of the night, but not for long)....You get the picture...When both children are dispatched to school continue painting shapes in the shed and do a third coat on the tags, hair dry them a little for speed.. then do a 4th coat - of pale pink, ditto, (do a butterfly doorhanger for a client) then distress the tags, then paint names on all before threading them with narrow red gingham*.... all before 2pm... it doesn't leave much time.

I am fully aware the above must be an English teacher's "how not to construct a sentence" but language is ever evolving ;

The parents loved the tags and I have definitely found another product line :)))
* not pictured - this was a photo I took on route from studio to kitchen; when I develop these in the future they will have all sorts of colour possibilties and the wooden tags will be 4mm thich birch. These were very lightwieght ply that were bought in stock for me to play with. I do love this wire platter, it will possibly feature in more photos in the future.