Home's

Last Friday we celebrated Bilbo's birthday and the official Hobbit Day that was encouraged around the world.
We made plans for this day that involved a lot of food in fact 6 meals for the day.
Eden prepared the invitations for everyone. Handwritten on a rough looking parchment type invitation. I especially like the Elvin script. Complete with a Hobbit name for each of us
Rogan was very keen to make the banner that we put up on the balcony for the 'party goers' to see
 So to start the day off we had First Breakfast which consisted of mushrooms, with sourdough fried bread, eggs, bacon and tomatoes
 Through out the day we had tea and coffee Drinks -Ginger beer, honey and lemon drinks.
 I LOVE HOBBIT DAY, IT GIVES ME A MAJOR EXCUSE TO PIG OUT AND NOT FEEL GUILTY COZ   I'M A HOBBIT :] thank you for writing this Autumn sweetie.
Second Breakfast - strawberries with cream,
 Elevenses  was scones with jam and cream.
Corbyn loves making these Spelt flour soaked scones
We set the table with our beautiful white table cloth and of course we had to have our special  tea cups
Oh yes these were extremely yummy
Our little Hobbit kept getting in his hobbit hole over and over again
Each year we add hobbit feet by simply drawing on with textas
Our Hobbits are all dressed up and ready to party. We left the elf, who seemed to be unable to keep up for the day asleep inside.
Some of our youngest hobbits, Arwen, Corbyn and Myffwyn, all dressed up and ready to party
Moran and Rogan ready as well
Could this be Merry and Pippin? NO it is Vellvin and Eden!
Musical chairs was one of the  most favoured games we played on this day.
Back to the food.
Luncheon  was fried potatoes, onions and apples. Might I add by this stage we were starting to feel a little full
Our children love to decorate and we had fun preparing our new home  with streamers and balloons (well they got blown up but the little kids played with them before we could  put them up).
We had Luncheon out side on the decorated balcony.
Afternoon Tea  consisted of Apple pie and custard
I did print out some pictures for the children to colour in. It is so sweet to see our littlest on enjoying sitting down at the table and  colouring.
Have I mentioned that this year we made a gigantic cake for us to light up and sing Happy Birthday to Bilbo. One of the funny things about the day was the children themselves decide on characters and Arwen wanted to be Bilbo. So all day she kept going around telling us all that it was HER birthday and it was her birthday cake.
Starting to decorate with whipped cream.
Saxon with the help of the little ones decorated the cake.
The finished cake complete with Frodo on top of what I called "Mount Doom"
We made these glow stick lanterns to decorate the table for dinner
Glow stick lanterns were super easy to make. I cut up the glow stick into the jar and shook it up. I left the the cut sticks in the jars, even though I know other instructions did not say to do this, they added to the glow effect
We had dinner outside on the balcony with the glow lanterns.
Quite frankly we had had enough of preparing and eating food by this stage and of course washing up so we actually combined Dinner and supper together.
We had meat pies, cold cuts, pickles and eggs  as well as the supper of cheese, crackers.
Lighting the candles on the cake is always exciting and I love how the kids set it up so that  it looks like Frodo is lighting the candles
See that huge slice of cake being cut out? Well we did not each much of it due to the fact that we had eaten almost non stop it seemed all day.
This is the remainder of the cake after we had taken that first slice. In fact we did not even eat all of this slice and the rest is in our freezer waiting to be eaten still.

After the clean up we all pretty much went to bed as it had been a very long and exhausting day and we had a big day the next day with our Kynan coming home to celebrate his birthday late too. It had been months since we had seen Kynan and we were all so very excited to be seeing him in the morning.

So until next year we hope you  had a Happy Hobbit Day in your homes too!!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

As this year is the 75th year of the release of the Hobbit book and the fact that the movie is released in December there seems to be a great many opportunities available to celebrate this day.

In the past years we have concentrated on the fact that 22nd of September was the birthday of both Bilbo and Frodo. This year I think it will be a more Hobbit themed idea, well mostly.
This was our first impromptu Hobbit theme birthday
The year we made a quest (treasure hunt with items to collect)

Last year we went on a trip interstate and tried to keep journals of our adventure

In preparation for our day on Friday we came up with these ideas~
First off you need invitations to the party, we are making ours in old style with a little bit of elvish writing or old dwarven runes on part of them. Or here is a runic translator for you
Of course you need to have a Hobbit name and this name generator will set you up
Decorations are a must and consist of streamers, balloons, a birthday sign, a party tree (if you can), bunting around your celebration area.
Glow Stick Lanterns these are going to be such fun to have and to make. Simply find a jar, some glow sticks and then cut the glow sticks into the jar (add glitter if you like) put the lid on and shake.
Do not make too far in advance though as they don't last that long

For fireworks we have sparklers and party poppers (sadly no fireworks permit for us)

Music for dancing or listening, my preference is good Celtic music or some old English folk melodies

Watching this old movie and the new trailer also the party scene from The Lord of the Rings
Games are lots of fun. our list includes charades, blind man's bluff, musical chairs, quoits, riddles, poem memorization, murder in the dark (cause of the cave scene), scavenger hunt here is a trivia question game
charades
Food is very important and we have made up this list of essential foods for us to consume over the day~
First Breakfast -Of course there will be mushrooms, with sourdough fried bread, eggs, bacon and tomatoes
Second Breakfast - strawberries with cream,
Elevenses -scones with jam and cream
Luncheon -potatoes , onions and apples
Afternoon Tea - Apple pie and custard
Dinner -meat pies, cold cuts, pickles and eggs
Supper -cheese, crackers, tea and coffee
Drinks -Ginger beer, honey and lemon drinks

Here are some fantastic recipes if you have the time or inclination to try them
An invitation below with other great ideas
Hobbit second breakfast ideas- word search, bunting and food ideas
Here  is an amazing menu for meals for Hobbit day as well as this one and another menu
Other information-
Reference Guide
Readers guide
Educators guide
Party Ideas
Miniature  Bag End

May you have a great celebration of Hobbit Day or Bilbo and Frodo's Birthday this year.
Why not check back later for how we celebrated this year, we would love to see you!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Tasha Tudor day is a day I usually reflect on the beauty of a simple life and the desire I have to live a life surrounded by femininity, cooking, sewing, gardening and craft making.

For past years I have made a big effort for this celebration, even though it is actually our son's birthday.
Here are some links to our Tasha Tudor links:
Our Sparrow Post..... I am contemplating a make over for our dear post office
Our books and why I love them and Tasha's inspiration, 2009
Our plans for 2010
Our day in 2010 including making sparrow post notes, cookies and other ideas
My thoughts in 2011

As we are in the last days of our move I was planning on doing some gardening, in fact taking some cuttings to take with us to our new home. As we will be in rented accommodation until we sell our home in Tassie I am looking at doing some container gardening. Thanks for the book Kendra!!
 As I went to start doing this I found that the small hand shove I was going to use had already been packed up by the movers and as I needed to dig some earth as we had not potting mix either I resorted to use of the spoon as my main digging implement.
 Corbyn was my helper, well on and off as he got  distracted. In fact Myffwyn was keen to be my helper all week but lost interest today. I have had to dodge the rain spells and finally made it outside this afternoon for my long awaited garden time.
 While I was filling the little tubs with earth Corbyn had already started cutting what he thought we should have as a cutting.....part of their favourite wattle tree from their favourite play space. This has featured in many games and posts in the years we have lived here.
 Corbyn was the carrier of the little pots to where we were putting them to put our cuttings in
 We planned to fill all these little pots with as many cuttings as possible.
 I just love our honeysuckle and geraniums
 Now he is cutting what I want. I have transplanted this honeysuckle now four times. The first time was when Vellvin was a baby.
 Roses are a hug favourite flower of mine. I rally love the' rambley' bush kind best.
 Yes we used root powder to help our transplants successful
 Corbyn really loved helping me and especially cutting the plants
 While going past the being moved dog house Corbyn spotted a couple of snails and of course he had to investigate.........
 and pick them up to move as well.
 After about an hour we had these little pots filled  and ready for the move!!!
As I was finishing Autumn came out side and we were picking up odd things around the yard and of course she found a little spade for me to use. Pity I was already finished, but thanks sweetie.

So that was our, well really my own Tasha Tudor day for this year.
But for more inspiration Tasha Tudor style be sure to visit  both Clarice and Suzanne.

Oh and I hope to share our Doll's Fair that we have celebrated in the past, Tasha inspired of course, and have never done a post on soon.

Blessings to you and your homes,