When I made my quilt for the Endeavourers May Challenge, I did not expect to be trying to create another map anytime soon (or ever).

After the christening in March, I had also resolved that there would be no more elaborate cakes in the foreseeable future. But when my eldest son and eldest daughter decided to have a joint first birthday party for Grandson # 1 and Granddaughter # 2, who will both be one year old this month, I found myself back in the throes of both map and cake making.

At the eleventh hour, it was decided that the theme would be a zoo and, serendipitously, that coincided with my discovery that Apple Pages (which I have always regarded as an annoying and inferior imitation of microsoft word) can remove the backgrounds of images fairly well if you are careful with your choice of background and also allows for images and text to be collaged by dragging image and text boxes about and selecting to bring highlighted boxes to the front or sending them to the back.

This revelation enabled me to turn a rough sketch of my daughter’s garden…

Into a map of the zoo we wanted to create.

And to make a ‘spot the animals’ leaflets for the older children who came.

I made signs for the various animals, which we tied up last week and then yesterday morning, Granddaughter # 1 and I went round the garden putting the animals in place whilst my daughter and daughter in law prepared the food and my son in law put up decorations.

I definitely had the fun job but I was up past midnight on several days last week making the cake so I think it was well deserved!

Luckily, we had fantastic weather and it was a lovely party :)

I think this is probably the most unusual make ever to have appeared here on Rainbow Hare and it is very off topic but this month my blog will be 12 years old and I live in hope that if I can manage to keep it ticking over I might get back on track with it one day…

I hope you are enjoying whatever season you are in and finding time to make whatever you enjoy making :)

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

(If you subscribe to my blog by email, firstly, thank you :) Secondly, I really recommend you view the web version because otherwise you end up with a random scramble of photos and I don’t know how to stop that happening).