August 1, 2010

The Girl's Birthday Party

An amazing AND fun day with family and friends!
I wanted to just share with you some snap shots of the party.  Here we go...
 
Sweet little favors filled with BFF's amazing iced sugar cookies that were tiny pink and yellow stars to match the theme.
Yummy berry lemonade punch and silly straws make having a refreshing drink so much fun!
Mmmmm...chocolate chip scones made another appearance along with some yogurt parfaits.
Pretty paper cones filled with sugary sweet cotton candy
 
Flowers were yellow and two shades of pink :o) in mason jars with lemons. So fresh and pretty.
The girls became fairies with tutus I made for them and fairy wands made of felt and ribbons. 
Each tutu had a little girl's name on it and they had to find them hanging from the trees.
I love this photo of them finding their own tutu and Fairy Cati looking on full of excitement.
I made baby fairy wands with Popsicle sticks instead of dowels to keep those little ones safe.
After the boys and girls became pirates and fairies, they went on a little scavenger hunt in the yard searching for treasure and little fairy houses in the trees.  Apparently some little fairies have been up to some mischief in our new yard and it was up to the pirates and fairies to find the little toys and treats hidden in them.
Fairy Cati finding some treasure.  
Fairy Ella refused her Fairy Tutu and was somewhere clinging to her daddy.
 
Cati's birthday pin.
 Here are the felt eye patches and telescopes I made for the pirates but you can kind see them in the photos of all the cute pirates.  The telescopes were made from the tulle tubes I used for the tutu's.
 Instead of one cake, I used a muffin tin to make individual little ice cream cakes topped with hot fudge, Oreo crumbles, and whipped cream.  The bottom was also Oreo crumbles.
My amazing family full of smiles on the girl's special day!

P.S.  If any of you Sweet Friends want to know how I made anything just let me know and I would be happy to do a tutorial later. Just wanted to give you a party glimpse for now.
OK then. Off to RELAX!

July 20, 2010

Simple Chairback Covers Made From Placemats

When we first moved into our house, I was not sure if I wanted bar stools at the little bar area of the counter. But a friend of mine was having a yard sale and selling these chairs that were her mom's...
I knew  I could breathe some new life in them and decided to paint them white.  I would have left the seats alone but I have too many things already that have that white and wood look so I committed and made them all white.

These chairs are really sturdy but the country look of the back of them is not really the look I am going for.  Since power tools are out, I decided to cover them up a bit.  My first thought was using a kitchen towel or cloth napkin because I was looking for a no sew project.  But they proved to be kind of big until I realized a placemat was a good size to work with.
 I found these at Pier 1 on clearance and since they had the color of my kitchen in them, I grabbed them up.  I also figure I can make a few sets of these if I grow tired of this one.
 I needed to fold it over to give it a clean look and to fit the back of the chair. 
I stitched it closed on the bottom.
 They had this cute ball fringe on them but I had to cut them off on one side for this to work.
Velcro is a delightful invention, is it not?  I used it for my closure since I wanted to be able to remove these easily. I also used it to secure the one side I folded down. I used super duper, stickier than sticky Velcro too. 
At first, I was going to do it like this but I wanted the look to fold over so I changed it to this...
It was fun.  Hope you might be inspired to do something similar.  I will let you know what else I come up.  I have another idea to do this but I have not found the perfect placemat or material yet.
I want to do one like this pillow from Pottery Barn... 
 So ridiculously cute!  
I promise to post it when I do it. I am totally inspired.

Let me know what you think!  Your comments make me happy.  Really.  They do.


Linking to:



http://www.thethriftyhome.com


July 19, 2010

Summer Strawberry Vinaigrette

Yesterday, we had our neighbor friends over for dinner and they made this amazing Chicago style pizza (which I do NOT have the recipe for since it intimidates me. I mean, I was in awe of the size of pan it came in).  

But I added a salad as my contribution and decided to use this awesome Strawberry Vinaigrette recipe.  I haven't a clue where I got it but have used for several years. And it is ALWAYS a winner. Honest to goodness.

So I decided to share it with all of sweet you.  Your welcome. :)


2 pints strawberries (extra berries to garnish salad)
1 cup brown sugar
1 oz honey
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
2-3 oz. extra virgin olive oil
2 oz. cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients in processor, adding oil and vinaigrette at the end until desired consistency.

I halved this recipe last night and it still made an entire bottle of dressing.  Just so ya know. :)

For the salad, you can use whatever leafy, green, yummy stuff that you like.  All I added were cucumbers, extra strawberries and Kashi Summer Berry Granola.

Hope you enjoy it.

I am linking this recipe up to my sweet friend Keren's blog...Free Pretty Things for You

July 18, 2010

A Shout Out to Good Old St. Nick!!!!

The Scene:  
Today's drive home from church.

The Dilemma:  
My ability to understand some aspects of CATIese.

The Subject:  
Cati singing.
Picture it as you read...

Cati:  "Ho Ho to Santa! Ho Ho to Santa" (She is moving around and I think it's dancing)

Confued Me:  What?

Cati:  "Ho Ho to Santa!"

More Confused Me:  Cati, what are you singing?  Ho Ho to Santa?  Is that what you sung in Sunday School today? 

Cati:  Yeah. Then Silence. Apparently no further clarification is needed.

Growing Impatient Me: Are you celebrating Christmas in July or something?

Cati:  I think I heard crickets and possibly a distant cough. No response available at this time.The singing then resumes.

Exasperated Me:  After 801 more rounds of a ho ho to Santa, I say, "Cate?  What song are you singing?"

Equally Exasperated Cati:  HO HO TO SANTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Suddenly Enlightened Me:  OHHHHHHHH!  Are you singing HOSANNA????

And this is the song she is trying to sing...

Hosanna Rock

Hosanna (Put hands to mouth like yelling) I was wondering why she was bellowing for Santa.
Ho, ho Hosanna (put hands to mouth like yelling)
Hosanna (do the twist) this explained the animated yet limited movements that one can do in a car seat.
Ho, ho Hosanna (continue doing twist)

Whew.  So happy to clear that up but that's when she starts singing the next chorus...

"Everybody, Everybody plays the Lord!"
"Everybody, Everybody plays the Lord!"

Ever LITERAL Me: "Um, Cati?  It's PRAISE the Lord." (this took like 5 minutes for this correct pronunciation to sink in).

Then I hear Ella chime in..."Airbody Airbody paze the WARD!" Waving her hands enthusiastically for emphasis.

Just precious. 

So when we got home I asked Cati to do the hand motions so I could snap some pictures.  
I am a proud Momma of my gospel loving, getting her praise on, cutie patootie girl.
Ho, Ho to Santa (Translation...Ho, ho, HOSANNA!)
Action shot :)
EVERYBODY PRAISE THE LORD!

This was a big finish on the word LORD and if I am not mistaken she may have added jazz hands.

God, thank you for these girls.

July 13, 2010

My Brother and I Need an Intervention

OK, OK. I have a Brother sewing machine.  

There is nothing more delightful to me than a play on words.  Remember...I am a word geek and you choose to read my silly blog...SO THERE! And I actually have 3 brothers.  And none of us need intervention. 

But I am serious.  I can not use it. I am horrified at what is produced when I attempt to use it. I actually lost sleep over my complete ineptness in all things sewing machine.

Let me back up.  My girls are having their birthday party at the end of this month.  Wait, have I told you that they have birthdays two weeks apart?  I think I have but if I have failed to tell you this, I am so sorry. They do.  So since I am FANATICAL about birthday's they must share a party or I will craft myself to an imminent death.  And I have this cute favor idea I want to do inspired by this tutorial for reverse applique bean bags.  They are so stinking cute!

Let me show the heinous creations I have made...(could I be more dramatic?)

Now don't look at these too closely.  It will look like someone who is legally blind and can not see the BIG E on the eye chart with the naked eye put these together.  

Oh wait.  

That would be me. 

True story.  When I was little and needed glasses I kept saying I could not see the biggest letter on the chart.  Me being the jokester from the womb, my mom thought I was making a funny for the nice doctor and kept saying under her breath...(quite menacingly I might add..."KNOCK IT OFF!"  Sadly, that E was a big blob of smeared ink for me.  I was telling the honest to goodness truth. 

Yet, I was wearing my contacts when I produced this...

Um, what on earth?  
It looks like I was a bit of a lead foot. And what made me think a project such as this should be my first endeavor after accomplishing only a "sort of" straight line using a sewing machine?  But I had to show you this because I still plan on giving this to little children that I assume will not be examining my sewing skills and will only delight in beaming this at someone in close proximity.  (Not it's intended use)
In this photo, one that would make any seasoned sewer proud,  the rice is spilling out where I have failed to sew a hole.  So instead of starting over, I go over and over and over it again until it looks...well, like THAT.  I basically cut the fabric underneath the circle a tad too small.  To add insult to injury, I did not pin it since I am the most impatient person and arrogantly deem that prep work is for amateurs.  Which I have gloriously proven in this magnificent piece of work. Oh, the horror.
Oh, for the love of all things crafty. If I could just stay away from the blasted fabric!!! But I must say the circle actually looks like a circle rather than a crazed, haphazard sewing frenzy. Sort of.

Do you hear the hallelujah chorus?  LISTEN! I think...I think I am actually improving!  
By golly I think she's... Alllllmost got it. 
Still went wayward onto the fabric.  I am driving myself crazy. Oh and just so you know, the original tutorial has the circles kind of messy on purpose.  And I DO like that.  But not my kind of messy.

So.  All you sewers out there. Wait...even if you at least know how to thread a machine, you must leave me a comment.  For the love of all things SEWN WELL you must give me guidance. Yes. I am begging.  

Do I just need to practice?  Am I trying something too difficult?  I admit I have not used one of these mean things in YEARS! Was that shocking?  

Do you think I should just go for it and keep going even if they are not perfect because they are still, kinda, sorta, cute?  Be honest.  I don't want to give away the favor idea yet since every parent of the kids read my blog...and I don't want this post to make them...cough cough...call in sick for the party.

Help a novice sewing girl out. Please.

July 10, 2010

It's Not Fun Anymore

Dang it!  I missed my ONE year anniversary with this blog.  July 5th was the day and what did I do?  

Nothing.

So guess what I decided to do instead?

Nothing.

Can you tell the blog glow is fading for me?  

It's funny.  I decide to give my blog to God.  Totally.  Fully.  And it is not so important anymore. This utterly shocks me.  I'm serious.  I used to lose a follower and it was hard to choke down the ice cream I would turn to in total defeat and failure, lamenting at how I LOST ANOTHER ONE. In this carbohydrate induced haze, I would feel like a blog loser. 

But suddenly it is not so important.  In fact, I am actually wondering why I MADE IT so important. Well, I am not wondering.  I KNOW.  It was to feel good about myself.

But I have decided that I want to do more. WRITE more.  Share my heart.  And funny as this seems, I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to do Two Tips Tuesday anymore. So I am saying goodbye to my weekly post.

And I feel f r e e.

No worries, though.  I will post a craft now and then if I think they are fancy or fun for THE BLOG. I am a craft girl.  Can't change how God made me.  But I realized I was a slave to that Two Tips post.  If you had any idea how much effort I put into them...well, it doesn't matter.  What does matter is that it was fun but I am done.  Poetic. Nice.

I am sure this is not a big deal for a lot of you but it is for me.  This is just one more step to my being obedient to God and doing His will.

Funny that I find His will much more joyful than my own will.  And I find that when I trust Him, He never fails me.  Ever. His ways are so not mine.  Well, good.

Because my way never works.

So I am humming a sad but a kinda happy little dirge to Two Tips Tuesday.

So long, Tuesday post.  Now you will arrive each week as just another Tuesday.

And that is OK.