Friday, December 30, 2011

Bath Basket

I had my sis-in-law Johanna for Christmas this year and I asked if there was anything in particular she'd like. She replied that all she wanted was less stress. So I made her a de-stressing basket. Ha! I'm so funny.

My essential oil obsession made it really easy to make some bath salts and sugar scrub. They are a quick go to gift. I tried out making a rice heat pack too and they are EASY! Sewing 4 straight lines is all it takes.  I thought it turned out pretty cute so I wanted to share. Maybe you can file it away for next year's gift giving.


Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas Card photoshoot with my brother

I know, I'm a cliche. I'm a stay at home mom who got herself a fancy camera and likes to play photographer. I can't help it, I just feel so happy when I see pictures turn out like this.




Yes, 2 girls smiling and facing the camera on the bench the parents got engaged on. Booyah. Ok, you know it is a lot of luck. And funny noises on my part















Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Cinch bags

A friend loved the fabric I reupholstered this chair in and I told her I still had some scraps if she wanted them. She said she wanted to make some bags for her girls to bring their church things in and it would be perfect. Well I took so long and kept forgetting to give her the fabric so I just sewed them up for her using this tutorial. I added a felt monogram, but afterward regretted the font choice since it doesn't stand out very well. Ah well. They really only take 10 minutes start to finish after the 20 minute "figuring it out" period.






Friday, December 23, 2011

J's first bday

Yes, I know she won't remember. I know it is ridiculously elaborate for a family party. I also know it was a creative outlet for me more than anything else. All this over achieving energy I have needs to go somewhere right?
Prepping for the party was awesome because everything was in a beautiful gradient. And I was able to spend hours playing with my new Silhouette. Not to mention the balloons entertained J and her cousin for a full hour.


Purse boxes with a 1 cut out, filled with skittles

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Here is the birthday girl who resembles Rainbow Bright, although that wasn't really the intention. I made the leggings from knee high socks, the onesie using the applique method I showed you here. The cherry is a fuzzy scrap from the socks I sewed the heck out of. I found the little jacket at Goodwill for a buck. The tutu is just tulle tied around some elastic.

My mom took a bunch of the cute pictures of her, but I can't find the disc, so you get this lame one


I used my mad student council balloon arch skills to decorate the front of the house. The neighbors may have thought we had a gay pride  party going on, but I like to insist that little girls have liked rainbows long before it took on a new meaning.



In case you think all of my projects and ideas work out, you are wrong. I wrapped yarn around balloons just like I did with the string balls decorating my ceiling. I experimented with spray starch and corn starch and they just didn't hold up like the flour and water I typically use. Flour leaves a white film though so I thought I try other options. The rest of the tablescape looks good though. The purses kept the plates from flying quite nicely. I used brown craft paper as a tablecloth and spread crayons all over it so people could draw. Bubbles, playdoh, and tops were party favors spread down the center.


I stole this idea from pinterest. Patterned duct tape is way faster than printing water bottle labels.


 The dessert table was my favorite part of the whole thing.





The paintchip bunting was my own creation, not even stolen from the internet. It took 2 minutes to sew and was absolutely free. Of course, now that I looked on the internet, someone else had the same brilliant idea. Ah well.
cupcake wrappers compliments of my Silhouette. Of course, the proximity to the edge of the table meant a nephew systemically licked each of those front cupcakes :)




Funny story. I had seen this really pretty gradient cake which inspired the whole rainbow theme. I colored and cooked each layer, but the green broke on transfer. No worries, I think to myself, I'll just add more frosting to work as glue. As I add the 6th and final layer, I realize my cake has started expanding and is moving like lava to the out edges of my cake plate. I use my freshly washed hands and try and push it back together but the whole thing is sliding like crazy. I rinse off my frosting covered clubs and pull out my spring form pans. I dirtied all three finding the right size, but was able to provide some little stability to cake's bottom layers. I smeared more frosting along the outside edges, laughed at my terrific cake wreck and slid it into the freezer. Day of the party I scattered skittles along the top and called it good. Full of low expectations, I was mighty surprised to find it actually looked great on the inside!





But before we ate the cake, we enjoyed typical BBQ fair. Mid December. My dad has some sort of deal with the Good Lord that gives good weather for his events. I asked him to put in my request and was delighted the week of rain abated for a day to give us a gorgeous, warm, sunny day.


On the food table I had these little frames I found years ago at target for 25 cents. (A sneek peek of our xmas card pics too). Some of the paint chips had a perforated circle that made excellent confetti.


Everyone had a good time I think.


Especially the bday girl who enjoyed her very own cake.
  
That crown was inspired by my sister-in-law Piper and took all of 10mins to make






And even though she didn't need anything, she loved all the presents. Generous family





Thursday, December 22, 2011

Party Invites

So we had a ridiculously elaborate bday party for J (When did I get a 1 year old?!). Everyone knows ridiculously elaborate parties start with ridiculously elaborate invitations.

Forever ago I got a card from Anthropologie that I saved with the idea to copy for something, soimeday.



It was a rainbow themed party so I used a favorite medium of mine: paint chips.





They looked so pretty all sewn together.



 Since they were so small, I decided to fold my own envelopes with the help of a little internet origami tutorial.



I thought it would be so fun to get an itty bitty invite in the mail


Unfortunately, the mailman returned them all to me in an envelope. Apparently there are minimum dimensions for letters. Lame. So I threw them in some bigger envelopes and off they went.

Party pics tomorrow!
 

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