Birthday Parties and Pintrest

I love birthday parties. I am the kind of person who will stay up all night to decorate. I start planning the birthday theme months in advance so I can keep an eye out for things to pick up when they are on sale. I make as much of the decorations as I can. For the goodie bags, I try to include as much as I can but spend as little as possible.

I have friends who do not like parties as much as me.  Being the great friend I am, I have told them "look on Pintrest." Yeah, that's not really helpful when you are not a crafty person and don't like parties.

Here are some simple things that you can do to make your party great, without having to be crafty.

1. Use streamers. Streamers are inexpensive and make for a quick party place dress up. If you don't want to hang streamers from the ceiling, just drape them on the wall, or put them up the wall.

I like to bring the streamers down the wall a little.

I removed a picture to cover the wall in streamers.

Streamer flowers

2. Make a birthday sign. You do not have to buy the "Happy Birthday" sign in the store. Use colored paper or book pages to make a unique sign.

The name banner is pages from a winnie the pooh book.

I took pages from a winnie the pooh book that had pictures on them and made a banner for the food table.

3. Cover the tables and surfaces with table clothes. Use solid colors, use the ones from the dollar store, use them on lots of surfaces. If you buy one from the store that has characters, use it on the table that will be the center of attention. Use accent colors for the area where the presents will go or if you have a table on the side with the goody bags. If your character table cloth is not big enough for the table you have, place solid color ones under it and then use it in the center of the table. Don't be afraid to layer them.

The table cloth made this table with the goody bags a part of the decor.

4. Balloons. Balloons. Balloons. We all know that nothing says party like balloons. I use them on the mailbox by the curb to make the party guest feel festive as soon as they pull up. The balloons don't have to be helium filled. I like to blow them up and tape them to the walls. (See picture above.)

5. Have fun. If you do nothing more than the above, the party will look great. The most important thing is that you set the tone for the kids. If the kids think you are unhappy with the party, they will be as well. Remember parties are a celebration. Don't stress if everything is not perfect or PINTREST worthy.

Which brings me back to Pintrest. I think as moms we tend to compare ourselves to other moms. We look at what they do and feel like we are inadequate. Don't fall into that trap. Use Pintrest to gather ideas not to get down on yourself. Use Pintrest as a tool to help you, not as a tool to make you spend more money.

I hope I have helped a little to make that next party less stressful.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bows From Tights

I spent the morning going through my daughter's closet and her dresser. We tried on all the shorts, skirts and jeans she had. Then we went through her shirts, dresses, sweaters and jackets.

I do not really need to go school clothes shopping this year. She has received some new shirts over the summer and had some new ones in her closet. She also had some shorts that I picked up on sale a while back.

While going through everything, I came across some tights that no longer fit. While I could just as easily put them in the donation pile, they looked fit to be made bows!
These bows can easily be made without sewing, but I like the added strength that sewing adds to the bows. (I have been knows to make bows right before school. In those cases I have used a small elastic to gather the ribbon and then just hot glue.)

Here is how it went:

The tights I found.

I love the color of the spots.

Cut off the top of the tights.

Cut the side seam of the "panty" part.

Cut along the waistband and the center seam.

Overlap the toe of the leg with the cut end.

Pinch and stitch.

Take the part cut from the panty and fold it over itself.

Use the panty to cover the center of the bow.

Now, I just hot glued the hair clip onto the bow at this point. I didn't get a picture of this yet, but promise to update it.

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by.

Yadi

First Face painting Job

I have my first face painting job lined up in October.

Last night I layed in bed with my mind going round and round on what I would offer, what designs would be fast, which ones would the kids want...that kind of thing. I find it very hard to go to sleep when my mind is still going full blast.

I woke up this morning and decided to practice a few designs.

My 6 year old loves Frozen. I have a feeling she is not alone. I decided to try my hand at Olaf. I need to buy some brown paint for his arms, but I think the one I did came out cute.

 

The line-up will be : Olaf, Hello Kitty, a pumpkin, a bat, a dragon and some hearts. I am super excited.  

I will have to add pictures as I practice the designs I am going to do!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yadi

Ribbon Stash...new challenge

I think that it is very typical for a woman to think about having a little girl and all the cute things that come along with that. We picture cute bows and lots of pink with frills. There are some women who are lucky enough to have a little girl who loves the frills then there are the little girls that don't.
My daughter HATED anything in her hair. She would pull out any bow I put in. Now that she is 6, she will wear bows for specific situations (think picture day) but they come home in her backpack.
When I found out our second child was going to be a girl, I went out and began to buy ribbon. I started learning how to make bows and even made my fair share of them. Now I have a ribbon stash.
As I keep working towards a compressed craft stash, I decided it was time to work on the ribbon stash as well. I am going to make as many bows as I can and then maybe see about selling them. Depending on how many I can get made, I may just go to a local craft sale to sell them instead of listing them on Etsy.
I find making bows really soothing. I can do it while watching TV. (There are very few shows that I can say I actually "watch." Most shows I just listen too.)


Anyone else have a ribbon stash?

Doll Carrier

I found a canvas laundry bag on sale at Walmart the other day. The bag is 22 inches by 60 inches (or something close).

While I have no need for a laundry bag, I did think it would be perfect as a base for a doll carrier. My daughter loves her new Liberty Girl (American Girl knock off) and likes to take her places. I try to limit this since I could see her leaving the doll somewhere and then it getting lost.

I have seen a few doll carriers, all priced more than I would like to spend. Since the laundry bag was less than $5.00, well, I see it being converted into a carrier.

Now here is my dilemma:
Do I make the carrier a simple one to just carry the doll?
Do I make the carrier as a bag with the doll that hangs on the side?

Not sure what I mean... Here are some examples of bags/doll kind:
http://www.dolly-outfitters.com/doll-carriers/backpack-doll-carrier/
http://nonni-and-b.blogspot.com/2011/01/draw-string-backpack-with-attached.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002N80S7C/?tag=meissa-20
OR just for the doll:
http://nestfullofeggs.blogspot.com/2014/03/doll-carrier.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006J64SCU/?colid=3M22L0BDX5Y91&_encoding=UTF8&coliid=I1P55OQY65PV4Y&ref=gl_it_dp_o_S_ttl

I may have to sit my daughter down and go through the different choices to see what she would be excited about. She has 3 dolls so I think I need to take that into consideration too.
Maybe she would want something like this which allows her to carry two:
http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/item/id/226408/ctc/XSCOORD

Decisions, decisions.

Fabric stash

Oh my. Recently I have begun to sew for my daughter's 18 inch doll. In doing so I have realized I have a large stash of fabric. 

When did this happen?

I have cotton fabric, heavy fabric, flannel, tulle...

I think when my daughter was born I got the idea that I would make clothes for her. Yeah, didn't happen. Now she is 6 and I find myself sewing for her dolls.

Our home now has 3 18 inch dolls. We have a Journey Girl (birthday gift), a Be My Girl (picked up at Tuesday Morning for $7), and an Our Generation (picked up at thrift store for under $4). 

Pintrest has given me many free patterns to try and I have made a few skirts, but need to work on my shirt skills. Let me just say that 1/4 inch seam allowances are really a challenge for me.

Simple skirt with trim as detail.

Reversible skirt, side 1.

Reversible skirt, side 2.

Pillowcase dress.

Two dresses from an old toddler dress.

Tutu with lots of layers.

One skirt from a jean leg, another from a toddler skirt.

If you find a cute, easy pattern let me know.

Making a doll area wall or floor

I have been spending quality time with Pintrest looking at American Girl crafts. I noticed that it is common to make an American Doll play area since a doll house needed for 18" dolls is huge.

On a trip to our local Dollar Tree I noticed they had some decal back splash which would make a great floor.

With a dollar store foam core and a decal back splash I made a floor/ wall for my daughter.

I lined up the decal on one corner of the board. I attached this corner and slowly pulled away the decal back. I had to apply a little tension to prevent bubbles.

Here is the package

I pulled the backing off slowly to prevent bubbles.

Finished!

In all the project took a few minutes and my daughter loves it! I picked up some wood grain contact paper for $2.00 at Big Lots. Just need another foam board and I have another floor/wall...think 70s wood paneling.  

Here is the finished foam board in action!! Bet I could l make it too sided as well. Enjoy :)

Here it is as a wall.

Here it is as a floor.