Pinwheel Spring Party

Last spring my sisters and I hosted a little family gathering. We threw together this spring inspired party complete with tissue paper poms and felt pinwheels. And of course, delicious food and even better company!

Here are some photos for your inspiration!

Freezer Paper stenciling

Have you tried it yet? It's awesome!! It's so easy! And so versatile!

All you need is:

Freezer Paper. Found on Amazon, Walmart or your local grocery store.


Fabric paint.



Clothing, pillow cover, etc...


And then supplies.

Scissors, exacto blade, printer, and an iron.

Then follow this tutorial from one of my favorite blogs. I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar!

The only suggestion I would add to her video is that instead of printing the picture off then using it as a stencil, just run it through your ink-jet (not laser) printer. Or use your silhouette, cricut cool type machines.

Plus, to hasten the drying process just use a hair dryer to get that paint to dry more quickly. And wait at least 24 hours for it to completely dry before washing or wearing.

Here are some more tips: http://www.quiltbug.com/articles/freezer-paper.htm

And then you end up with something like this! More of these projects to come! Seriously, it's so easy!

It's a baby gnome onesie for my cousin's baby! Now go and make stuff!

C's Caterpillar Birthday Party

Happy Birthday banner in bright colors, found in my shop.

My baby turned 1 yesterday! Oh, sigh. She is a wonderful little bug. Hence the theme, the Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday party. It served more as inspiration and did not reflect literally in all the decor.

I took the colors in the book and brightened them up a bit. I also used the holes in the food the caterpillar ate as inspiration. So polka dots and pom poms came to mind.

I tried to have the food from the book as well. I interpreted that very loosely too. You can see the lollipop and cupcakes on the table. The rest of the food we had for dinner in the form of yummy homemade panini's! The fruit was represented in the trix cereal! Haha. Hey, it's winter, good plums and strawberries are hard to find!

Thanks to my dad for being the resident photographer. One less thing for me to have to worry about!

Fabric leaf garland found in my shop. The tablecloth is a shower curtain found on clearance at Target. Last minute purchase that matched perfectly!

Such cute wrap around bloomers from Rae Gun! Oh, what a fun addition! Thanks Marissa! The leggings are actually ladies socks from Target. I used this tutorial.

I wanted to make a variation on this cake bunting. I debated the many options. Making felt triangle pennants. Making paper triangle pennants. Making fabric triangle pennant bunting (like I did for this party). Making scalloped fabric bunting. Making pinwheel bunting. And on and on. There are so many options! Until I realized I wanted to match the pom-poms and go along with the polka dot theme found in the "holey" food that the caterpillar ate through. Plus it resembles a caterpillar, just a bit, don't you think?
And so it is
fabric pom-pom cake bunting!

Twine purchased from the etsy shop Cupcake Social. The frosting is this recipe. I have tried so many and they were either too buttery, shiny, greasy, etc. This was perfect for decorating. And not too sweet tasting!

Caterpillar cupcake "cake" inspiration from here.

The fabric poms. These little babies took an hour each to make. I made six in total. Let's just say there was a lot of late night Netflix watching going on this week! I interpreted this tutorial here. I deliberatly chose colors that will be used in my girls room. I will hang them in there once they share in a few weeks.



The archway of pom poms and another fabric leaf garland.



The bowl of "fruit", ie Trix. I stole this whole concept, of the Ikea $1 frames on top of a filled jar, from my friend Tiff (She has a fabulously creative blog here). I'm just aching looking at this photo though because I didn't have time to put a ribbon with a little "c" tied to it around that vase. It's so tall and bare. Ah, well. There were more important things to make like the bib and the hat!


The bib. Made with scraps of some of my very favorite fabrics. How I miss you pink circle fabric.

The hat. This is my second attempt at making a birthday hat. The first was way too small and this was a bit too tall. I'll keep trying. I am happy with the way it looked though and functioned just right.

Caterpillar onesie I made complete with a holey piece of fruit. I bought the strawberry fabric for another project and it worked perfectly for her shirt and bib! The fabric is from the etsy shop Frolic Design.

And now for some fun classic photos!

Luckily, she decided to keep it on!

I love you, little cuddle bug!

One afternoon

I saw this on Ohdeedoh and thought it looked like something my son would love to do together.

Build a tower with toothpicks, mini marshmallows and Hershey kisses. We had all the supplies. It entertained Samuel for a good while. And his favorite part? Destroying then eating it.

Back to School Party

I was looking back at old posts on my personal family blog and realized I had never posted this party! So, perhaps you'll want to plan a return to school party this week!

I threw together this little dinner party for my boys (ie, my son and husband) who were starting school. My son was starting kindergarten so it was a big year for him! My husband was starting his second year in Law school.

We ate homemade pizza, garden salad and bruschetta.

It was inspired by this and this. I love that NieNie had a theme for the school year. I haven't thought of one yet but I think I should. I like this dinner idea and hope to make it a tradition.

The theme was loosely based on Curious George.

Announcement inspired by this.

Fabric cake bunting inspiration from here. I love how it flutters in the breeze.

I think Samuel is a bit nervous because he hardly ate pizza, one of his favorites and didn't even want any cake!

Good company, good food, gorgeous weather.

Bonne Chance this academic year my little family!

J's baking birthday party

I decided to throw my daughter a baking themed birthday party clear back when I saw kid sized rolling pins in the $1 aisle at Joann's early last summer. And then I had to wait until December when she turned 4.

Always dreaming, but never implementing, the desire to add children's aprons to my etsy shop, allowed me to make them for this party. Some inspiration started with my cousin here. And then Brittany, my favorite and most inspirational party planner, from One Charming Party, threw this party! The timing couldn't have been better! (Seriously, this woman is talented. She was then featured on Amy Atlas and then the ultimate, Martha Stewart!)

So the details started to come together.

The theme: Red, White, Pink baking and confectionery delights.

Perfect for the Christmas season (or Valentine's).

Upon arriving, each girl was given an apron and handmade paper chef's hat.


The aprons were a simple cotton gathered half apron tied together with a 1 3/4" grosgrain ribbon. Satin would have been too slick and wrinkles quicker over multiple uses. I used my wood burner to trim the edges in a "v" to prevent them from fraying.


The chef's hats were made with 1 piece of white tissue paper and a trim of poster board. I pre-cut each piece and labeled each with their name in stickers found in the holiday $1 aisle at Target. I measured each girls head then stapled the poster board trim together. Then stuffed the tissue paper inside and taped and fluffed. It was easier, to note, to tape the tissue paper in before stapling.



The party activities consisted of playing with my daughter's new kitchen set, tea-set and decorating cupcakes. That was about it. They didn't need more to fill their 2 hours together.





The decorations. I let the food speak for itself. The cupcake assembly table was just a white table cloth topped with red and white striped wrapping paper placed on top (pictured above). The pennant banner I made with fabric I already had. The red and white striped bias tape was the inspiration! It's vintage! Love it!





The food was the most time consuming for me as I had to limit the amount of candy and sweets I wanted to make and buy! There were so many choices! I also had to limit the treat to cupcakes since they were already taking home so many others.

Cupcakes with handmade felt pinwheel toppers. Also sold in my shop. Recipe for cupcake found here.


Milk was served with red and white swirl straws from Hobby Lobby. I used little Avery sticker labels with their names so there wasn't any germ spreading going on.



Twirl lollipops found in the $1 aisle at Target & mini rolling pins found at Joann's. Tied with several ribbons.



Frosted animal cookies are every kids favorite!



Marshmallow pops were giant! I found them at Walmart.


Party favors were the mother's worst nightmare. Candy, cupcakes and more candy! Plus the rolling pin, apron, hat and straw. Tied all the goodies together in a large plastic cup filled with marshmallows and candies to weigh it down and finished off with some left over bias tape.





I had as much planning and hosting as the girls had attending!