30th UnBirthday Mad Hatter Tea Party

 It's Friday!  I love Fridays!  (Who doesn't??) Do you know what I was doing last Friday?  Throwing a suprise party for a friend's 30th birthday - that's what!  A Mad Hatter 30th Unbirthday Tea Party.  That's what the birthday girl wanted - she mentioned it to me a year ago (on her 29th birthday) that it would be fun to have a Mad Hatter Tea Party for her 30th.  I'm kind of proud of myself for remembering LOL.  For a few years now I've thought the whole Alice in Wonderland theme is full of cute and fun ideas and I've tried more than once to convince my daughter that it would be a fun birthday party for her.  I even had some ideas Pinned already.  

 And let's face it - what better way to spend an afternoon than having a tea party with these crazy ladies?
So my friend and I started plotting and had the birthday girl set aside some time for a "craft day."  First on the list - hats!  About a week before the party my friend and I got together to make fun little Mad Hatter type hats for everyone.

 The guests got black and white with some sort of variation on the heart (Queen of Hearts) theme for the ribbon.

And the birthday got one a little bigger and brighter.  We used this tutorial for the hats and it worked like a charm.  We used plastic cups and the fabric still attached to it with the hot glue just fine.  We didn't use the cup lids for the tops of the hats - we just traced around the lip of the cup and cut a piece out of an old cereal box.  Then we attached it all to alligator clips so they would stay in our hair.  If I were to do it again I probably would have gone with headbands.  I think the hats would have stayed in place on our heads better with those.

This little guy was the only kiddo not old enough to be in school while we were working on everything.  He wasn't a fan and made it very hard for his mommy to do much.  Luckily he was in a much better mood on the day of the party and the entire time we were setting up he had that cute smile plastered on his face while he happily played in the playpen (phew!).

 On to the party details!  I'm so pleased with how everything turned out.  It came together very easily and with very little expense as I tried to use what I already had or make most things ourselves.  The only things I bought specifically for the party (other than food, of course) were the mismatched tea cups and saucers and the little tea pot from the thrift store.  To get the biggest effect for our efforts we kept the decorations confined to the dining table and the food display.

The clock came directly off my kitchen wall ;)  I already had it taken down and the hands off all ready to pack up and it made the perfect base for the centerpiece.  Add in a few colorful flowers, the misdirection sign posts and mismatched tableware and the bright eclectic look was pretty easy to pull off.

 Each table setting was different from the rest.

And aren't the key adorable?!  I ran across them at JoAnn's a couple years ago in the dollar section with the intention of framing them somehow but haven't done it yet.

 Can't forget the Cheshire cat!  He hung out above the pantry.  We also thought about doing a playing card garland hanging from the chandelier, but we ran out of time.  We had also planned to have the Very Merry Unbirthday song playing in the background when the birthday girl arrived, but we forgot to download it and our hurried attempt to YouTube it and play it on the cell phone wasn't quite as effective.  Oh well.  ;)

 On to the food!  All tea parties need lots of food in teeny tiny portions, right?  We grabbed random tea cups and mugs to use for the food display.  The giant tea cups are actually flower pots that I use for decoration once in a while.  And the Happy Birthday plate was one I made years ago on one of our Saturdays with The Girls at a paint your own place.
The menu included: southwestern egg rolls, pigs in a blanket, buffalo winge, fruit skewers, individual 7-layer dips and chips, miniture chocolate cupcakes and tiny caramel tarts.  The teapot was filled with cold sweet tea and we also had pumpkin hot chocolate to drink.

Total success!  Our friend was very suprised (yes!  it's hard to keep a secret like that!) and we had so much fun no one wanted to go home.  We ended up crafting after all, just to prolong the our time together.

It really is a Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas season is my absolute favorite time of the year.  I love everything about it.
Decorating the tree

planning the perfect gifts, buying and wrapping them (even better when I find great coordinating paper that matches my tree!)

putting out the Christmas decorations and adding a few new ones

the tree all sparkly and shiny during the day and brightly lit at night

that feeling of accomplishment when all the little gifts are accounted for - like the one for the dance teachers, classrooms, bus driver, etc.  And even better when we reach the end of the last week of school before vacation and all of them have been handed out.  All the parties and the dance recitals - done!

and all of the fun family activities like seeing Santa and baking yummy treats.  And did I mention the Christmas music?  I'm a sucker for Christmas music, especially the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and any version of the Carol of the Bells.

That's just a quick glimpse of what we've been up to this month as I feel like this poor blog has been thoroughly neglected throughout.  What does your Christmas season look like?

Craft Day - Deco Mesh Wreaths

Did everyone enjoy their Thanksgiving?  We had a pleasant day of it yesterday with good food and great company.  It was a great way to spend the holiday.  But with Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror I of course woke up with big plans for Christmas decorating, gifts, and some Elf antics (we do our own version of Elf on a Shelf) swirling in my head - such a fun time of year!  Unless there is something super-fantastic in the Black Friday stuff (Sam did spot a great deal on a TV but was too late to get in on the 4 they had in stock at Walmart last night *sigh*) we usually choose to avoid the crowds and instead spend the day after Thanksgiving at home putting up the Christmas tree.  So that's the plan for today - yay! 
Of course I'm up before the sun once again this morning.  My internal alarm clock seems to be set at 5AM or earlier the last few months.  It's still dark outside and if I start pulling out decoration boxes this early I'll wake the kids up so I thought I'd play a little catch up with the blog.  May I present a fun collection of Christmas wreaths from our nieghborhood/friend crafting session a couple weeks back :)

In October, a friend of mine had run across some great deco mesh wreath ideas and asked I could teach her how to make one.  It quckly turned into fun plans for a craft day with a few friends, including a shopping trip for supplies all together the week before - always so fun to have some time out with the girls.  It was very interesting to watch the creative process and see how the personalities of each individual showed throughout the whole process - how they decided on what kind of wreath to make and the embellisments for it, and the different methods of putting it together and all the different styles of wreaths we ended up with.
I went a slightly different route and tried out the curly version for the first time, making the base for a fall wreath for myself (which I posted about here yesterday).  My MIL had seen part of our planning photos and discussion on Facebook and requested a wreath of her own.  The result is the purple one above - her absolute favorite color is purple and this year she decided to change the decor on one of her Christmas trees (she has three I think :)  It's so great that her enthusiasm for Christmas carried over into my husband because it makes life so much more fun when he's just into all the Christmas fun as I am) to a purple theme.  I love the colors, but have to admit that it threw me for a loop.  Once I got the base done I struggled with how to make it read as a Christmas wreath instead of say, something for Spring or Easter.  Thus the addition of the Merry Christmas sign and the ornaments. 

As with my own fall wreath, I didn't finish the purple one on craft day.  My friends, however, did complete their own wreaths (it was a much longer crafting session than any of us had originally planned but it was worth it) so I was able to snap a few photos of their finished wreaths.

Cute right?  I love the color combination

I love this one too.  Great colors and I found myself wishing I had a use for that fantastic floral pick (above the bow) with the swirls and the glitter - too fun!

Ooooo I can't wait to go pull out the boxes and get my own Christmas decorations out...!

Happy Fall...and Happy Thanksgiving!

I did it again!  Too wrapped up in all the things going on right now that not only did the blog get neglected, but I didn't finish my fall wreath until this week!  Awww....oh well right?

You see a couple weeks ago I got together with a few friends from the neighborhood and we all worked on deco mesh wreaths.  As the one "in charge" of the project I made sure everyone got theirs done, but mine...  Well, I did finish the base! lol  I hung it on the front door to get a good look at it, and it sat there for a couple of weeks, in all its unfinished glory.  Actually I was pretty happy with the base - the colors are so pretty and so very much "fall."  But it was missing a little something.

My mother-in-law had also requested a Christmas wreath which I had also started on craft day and which also sat unfinished in the sun room.  Knowing that she would want to be able to display her wreath soon, and that I would need to use the sunroom to set up the dining table for Thanksgiving I finally took the time to finish them both.  (I will post pictured of her wreath and some of the other wreaths my friends made in a day or two - they turned out so great!)  I took a scrap piece of wood and stenciled the saying "Happy Fall Y'all" on it then wired it onto the wreath base and covered up the wire with a nice bow.  The final touch was this gorgeous floral pic I grabbed along with the wreath supplies because I was totally in love with it.  Still on the fence about if I like the tiny pop of red or if I will take that part out...

For now though, I'm happy.  And my front door will be fully dressed up for the guests that will be joining us this afternoon - Yay!  I'm so happy that today is Thanksgiving.  Happy to have my three favorite people asleep upstairs all warm and safe and happy.  Happy to know that I have so many great friends and family, both near and far away today.  Happy that my life is so full right now.  Happy to have friends coming over to spend Thanksgiving with us (that's always one of the big dilemas when you don't live near family - how to celebrate the holidays and who is available to spend them with??).  Happy to have a good start on the prep for the big meal, and that my husband is taking over the hard parts of the cooking (turkey and home made rolls) so I have no reason to stress or rush around today.  And happy that tomorrow the focus switches to Christmas - my favorite holiday! ;)
Today is going to be a great day!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you all a fantastic, and thankful day!

Cake Stand Tutu (31 Days: Day 16)

For today's post (day 16 and I think I've only missed one day this week!) I thought would give a closer look at the cake stand tutu I whipped up for Kaitlyn's Rainbow Dance Party.  This is something I have been wanting to create for a while and I was very excited at how well it turned out - and how easily it came together.  And let's face it - what's a Dance Party without at least one tutu?!

The hot pink stuff is actually a stretchy beanie I picked up at a consignment sale for $1.  I just cut the seam holding it together at the top, then looped the strips of tulle through the holes along the unfinished edge.

So what's holding it up?  Just a vase I had in the cupboard.  The plate holding the cake fit very nicely on the top when it was all put together.

Don't be surprised if you see this reincarnated at a later date.  I'm hoping it fits a certain little cutie that will be due for a cake smash session for her first birthday in a couple of months...

 

Ruffled Tablecloth Tutorial (31 Days: Day 15)

**UPDATED 4/2015** This post is now also reposted HERE on the blog at the new domain www.alaynascreations.co  Please follow the link to see all the photos and a detailed tutorial.

Fall Beadboard Pennant Banners

School has started and the weather is starting to cool off (love that!) which means that fall isn't very far behind.  I love the feeling of fall.  The cool crisp air.  The colors.  And the excuse to make more decorative crafts! :)

I've been wanting to use up some up the extra beadboard we have laying around, so I came up with these fun beadboard pennant banners.  The first one I made is double-sided - one side says "Trick or Treat" and the other side reads "Give Thanks."  Two holidays - one decoration!  Halloween and Thanksgiving are so close together the decorations don't have a chance to be on display very long.  Plus the color scheme works really well for both holidays.

It also gave me a chance to use this great grey/teal/brown/orange argyle fabric.  I fell in love with it months ago when I picked some up to make baby gifts but haven't had a single project for myself where I could use it.  So I'm excited about that too  (yes, it's the little things) 

Side #1

Think it's too early in the year to leave the mantel like that? ;)  I had to dress it up a little bit for the photos - poor thing was very sad looking this summer.  I still haven't fully figured out what my permanent/non-holiday decor should be in that room.  Now I don't want to pack the stuff away and look at a bare mantel for another month.

Side #2

And because I was on a roll, I put together a generic fall banner too.  I think this one will end up on the decorative ledge by the stairs. 

I'm pleased enough with both of the banners that I think I will make some for the upcoming craft fairs (a friend and I are going to share a booth at a couple this fall and see how it goes - eek!  Craft fairs sound like so much work - and what if I don't sell anything?!) and of course I will list them in my etsy shop.

 

I've had so much fun with this idea that I've got a lot more ideas swirling around the brain - parties, photo prop, other holidays...stay tuned - I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these from me soon! Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog
 

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