Slumber Party - Grown Up Style

My mom's best friend (and the kids' honorary grandma) just turned 60. My mom, of course, wanted to do something special for her and when she asked for my input the first thing that popped into my head was "slumber party!" :) I admit, there are parts of me that long for those long ago nights of girl talk and junk food. So that's exactly what we did.

The Decor:
-have you seen this table idea? It's making the rounds in blog land, at least on the party circuit and I think it's totally cute - make the table look like a bed by adding a pillow at one end. Simple and effective - right up my alley. We kept the rest of the tablescape pretty simple because we were doing fondu for dinner and didn't want a lot of stuff in the way.
-downstairs we set up our munchies. We had caramel corn and regular popcorn too.
-and a "just for fun" table to help set the mood, with games, movies, and the matching sets of pjs that we used for party favors. (side note - those tissue paper pom poms did not turn out anything like they did on Martha Stewart's site. ugh)

The Party:
-as I said, dinner was cheese fondue and strawberry salad (lettuce, craisins, strawberries, candied pecans and raspberry viniagrette dressing)
-dessert was a raspberry cream thing (no name because Mom got the recipe from a friend who had served it at Bunco) - very light and yummy. It has a graham cracker crust and the filling is mini marshmallows, melted with a bit of milk then mixed with whipped cream (unsweetened) and raspberries.
-we then went downstairs, changed into our party pjs, then sat around talking and doing each other's hair. We also had supplies for manicures and a ton of game options but in the end we just decided to watch a movie. That took us until midnight and at that we were all ready to turn in. (I had sent my dad to my house with the kids and needed to relieve him anyway. Good thing I hadn't left him alone with them all night because I found him sitting up with my little one who was all stuffed up. So I spent another half hour getting him all set up to sleep better)
(mint truffles on the pillows, of course)
-First thing this morning, the kids and I headed back over to my mom's house for breakfast - strawberry/banana crepes MMMMMM.

Know what I'm doing today? NAPPING! :)

Linking to: Weekend Wrap Up Party (Tatertots and Jello)

Valentines Craftiness

My friend, Audrey and I had one of our craft days yesterday - so fun! Just wanted to share :)
After I took the above photo I realized I hadn't put anything in the frame. This is a detail of the final product.

A close up on one of the hearts. We LOVED the glitter! Isn't it great?

And this little baby will be put away until I pull out my spring stuff.


A couple tips I thought I'd point out.
-at the wood place where we bought most of our supplies, Audrey had the prescience of mind to ask them how they got the glitter on their finished products. The trick? Dip the object INTO the glitter (we put wax paper over a cookie sheet and sprinkled the glitter onto it. The wax paper made getting the glitter back into the jar easy) while the last coat of paint is still WET. Then when it's all dry, spray with a clear coat of GLOSSY glaze.
-for any sort of decoration that has a stick and a stand, glue only the TOP to the stick. That way you can remove the base and they'll fit in your storage totes more easily.

I've had a lot of fun working on my little Valentines vignettes today. Still need to find something suitable for those apothecary jars! I'm betting they stay empty for this year and hopefully I can find something on sale for next year.

Gift Box Tutorial

I had a couple of requests for the tutorial on this gift box and since I wanted to make another one anyway...here you go! (because honestly if I knew where to find the original tutorial for this I'd just point in the there right direction)

You will need:
cut from cardboard (cereal boxes worked well)
-4 - 2 1/4" x 5"
-1 - 1" x 5"
cut from patterned paper (any combination of colors/patterns you want)
-1 - 12" x 6" (this is the outside of the box)
-1 - 4 7/8" x 10 1/4" (this is the inside of the box)
-1 - 7" x 7" (this is the box top)
-4 - 6" x 6" (these are the smaller boxes inside)

Step 1: on the back side of the 12" x 6" paper, draw a line along the top 1/2" from edge. Draw another line along the left side 3/4" from edge.

Step 2: use the lines you just drew to start placing the cardboard pieces on the back of the patterned paper, spacing each cardboard piece approx 1/8" apart. Glue the cardboard onto the patterned paper.

Step 3: cut the corners off the patterned paper (as shown)

Step 4: fold all edges of the patterned paper over and adhere to the cardboard

Step 5: cover the back of the patterned paper/cardboard with the 4 7/7" x 20 1/4" piece of paper. Glue down, making sure it's smooth. Fold between each piece of cardboard.

Step 6: Take one of the square pieces of paper and draw diagonal lines from corner to corner (on the back of the paper, obviously)

Step 7: Fold a corner to the center point

Now fold the folded edge to the diagonal line. Crease each fold well. Unfold. Repeat this on each of the corners

You will now have a grid like this.

Step 8: cut along lines as shown, making sure to stop as indicated (sorry this is the hardest part to explain. Hope the photo illustrates it well enough)
Step 9: Take the larger, triangle-shaped piece and fold the point into the center. You will notice that this folds along a crease you already made.

Place the point of the second triangular piece on the center point as well

Step 10: Fold these pieces up to form 2 sides of the box. Now the ends of each piece form little tabs. Fold those tabs in to make the 3rd side of the box.

Step 11: Take the point of the 3rd side and put it on the center mark. You will notice that this completely covers the tabbed side.

Repeat with the remaining side.
Adhere all points into the center and there you have your box!

Step 12:Repeat this process with the rest of the square pieces.

Step 13: Adhere one side of each of the smaller boxes to the back of your cardboard part. (as shown - note the stairstep pattern.)

Fold up the box and add the lid and voila! Now you can embellish any way you like. Fill each little box with goodies and give to someone you love.
Linking to: (7/19/10)

Checkered Flag Birthday

My husband turned 30 last week and you can't hit a milestone like that without a party right? So of course we pulled a big group of family and friends together for it. I have to admit I was doing my best to keep this one streamlined. I'm a bit partied out at this point (and have to admit that is shows in the photos too, sorry. I was more interested in playing hostess than taking photos). So I enlisted a bunch of help with the food and kept the theme really simple.
Sam is really into NASCAR, and since I had some black and white stuff left over from the last big party I decided to go with a checkered flag theme. A package of flags and a plastic checkered tablecloth is all it took to pull everything together. And I have to say, Sam walked into the party room and was impressed, so that's all that matters. And he said he had a great time - yay!

The decor:
-white tablecloths with a small piece of the checkered tablecloth (I cut it into six 18" squares for the tables, one large square for the buffet table, and used the leftover strip on the cake table). Then I alternated centerpieces. Some were black and white balloons tied onto a wooden block and others were altered paint cans with flags stuck in them.

The food:
-I wanted to go with a tailgate theme so we had hot wings, pigs-in-a-blanket (biggest hit of the party, I need to do these more often), chips, veggies, pasta salad, chinese chicken salad, and a nice selection of drinks. I set the drinks up on their own table, with the beer (that my hubby snuck in) in a big metal bucket. The cake (Boston Cream Pie) got it's own table, along with the other goodies.

The entertainment:
-well it's a grown up party so everyone is pretty happy just sitting around visiting. The only planed entertainment was singing happy birthday and having Sam blow out the candles. But I did grab a big race track game from the party store to keep the kids occupied.

Coat Racks

The lastest in my 2010 Quest to Get the House in Better Shape - coat racks. See where we used to have the coats in the laundry/mud room?

Pitiful right? Just be glad I didn't think to take the photo BEFORE we moved all the coats off because that just looked like a big ole' pile of coats and boots and backpacks. Ugly. And not enough space. Most of the time the kids stuff would fall off the hooks and then the wet dirty shoes would end up on top of them. And the stuff that didn't fit on hooks ended up hanging on the ironing board. Not good.
So as I stood looking at that mess a couple weeks ago I thought, hey there's LOTS more space on that other wall, wonder if we can move the coats? Turns out we can. And did. (hehe) Check out my new Wall of Coats.

Custom built by my wonderful handy husband. He was going for "sturdy" instead of "cute" but that's ok, I'm still in love. Because guess what - everything has it's own hook! And in such a prompt fashion too - probably less than 2 weeks ago it was that I mentioned I wanted new racks. And here we are - you all wish your hubbies were that on the ball doncha? :) That was due in part to me being lucky that he got MLK day off and had the time, but mostly he's just that good!

Stay tuned. I know exactly what I want to do with that space where the coats used to be. And Sam has a 4 day weekend this week!

Word of the Year 2010

I've spent the last week or so thinking about what word I would like to use for my Word of the Year. For those of you that haven't run across this concept before, the idea is to select a word for the year that represents what you want to focus on throughout the year. I first ran across this idea last year on Ali Edwards blog (and yes she is doing it again this year). My word for last year was Enjoy (see post here).

This year I am expecting a lot of changes - events that I won't really have a lot of control over. My husband is in the middle of a career change. The military (husband is in the Reserves) is also going to mess with our lives, possibly more than once. And life with young children is a constant state of changing plans and adapting. So my word for this year is

live

"Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed"

I want to keep my focus on living in the here and now, being happy with where I am and what is going on. I want to dial back my "planner" tendancies and go with the flow. I want to quit putting off doing things because I think there will be a better time for it (as in "I'll start eating better after the holidays" or "I'll take that class when my life settles down" or "when we get a bigger house I'll...").

Now that I have decided on my word, I want to explore it further using this Word of the Year Discovery Tool and figure out specific goals that fit in with this. Like how I'm going to manange to motivate myself long enough to finish losing this "baby weight" (I can still call it that even if the baby is 3 now right?). And of course plaster it all over the house so I can remember it - but that requires a craft day so the plastering will be cute as well as functional :)

Has anyone else been thinking about their own word for the year?

*I am also participating in the Feeling Fabulous Challenge over at Somewhat Simple. If you're wanting a ready made way to track/work on some of those typical New Years Goals, this is a great system.
*update (1/5/10) - I had the chance to sit down and make a few signs for me to put up around the house. (thank goodness for craft Tuesdays) Cute huh? I love that I was able to use up scraps from some of my favorite papers.

*linking to 2010 Word of the Year over at Tip Junkie

Magic Elves - 2009

I introduced our Elves to you last year (see this post) and of course they are back for more fun this year. Kaitlyn could not wait for them to arrive and checked the porch for them first thing in the morning on Dec 1st. And most mornings since then, the first thing she does is find the elves (and clean up after them if necessary).
Some of the elf-capades include:
-wrapping each other in wrapping paper
-stealing the chocolate from the advent calendar
-hiding in the stockings with new coloring/activity pages for the kids
-riding on Katy's Barbie horses
-making snowflakes and hanging them from the ceiling

-getting stuck in the cereal box while trying to find something to eat
-writing all over the bathroom mirror with the dry erase markers
-wrapping up in blankets on the couch reading books, including a new book for the kids
-leaving post it notes all over the house with messages for the kids
-making "snow" angels in the kitchen using powdered sugar