Babies and Bumblebees

Not Your Momma's Easter Baskets

2012-03-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

If you are like me you love the holidays but hate all the commercial decorations and want something a little special.

One of the first items for Babies and Bumblebees are these adorable easter buckets.

Each bucket is personalized with vinyl child's name on top of either chick/bunny design, rhinestones or polka dots, and assorted ribbon handle embelishments.

Simply fill with grass, and other goodies. Then, your child will use this sturdy plastic pail and shovel to provide hours of fun!

Check them out at my etsy shop! http://www.etsy.com/listing/95550525/personalized-blinged-easter-bucket

Follow my blog or place my item in your favorites and receive a 5% discount. Apply coupon code BLOGFOLLOWER at time of checkout.

Babies & Bees...Now Open for Business

2012-03-01T23:43:00.000-08:00

After much prayer, thought and discussion...I am thrilled to announce that my husband and I have decided to open a small Babies & Bumblebees business. Because we have so much extra time...haha...no because we love to craft and create beautiful things! We're hoping that we can share our crafts with you.

We are going to start small with an online store and visiting a few local craft shows in the area. I'm already OBSESSED with the amazing sign pillars my husband made. I think they are absolutely perfect for a front door to hang a personalized sign, or wreath without having to put a hook. :) This weekend I promise to put up a few more items.

Birthdays, Bows, Banners, Bling and Many Other Beautiful Things

Here's a sneak peak at the line of boutique bows that are already available. Visit our shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/babiesandbumblebees?ref=ss_profile

Love Is All You Need

2012-02-22T22:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've posted and the Emmons' family has been very busy. As usual work has been very consuming we just launched two major projects in January and February and I'm in the midst of three more large scale projects. While after a long day (VERY LONG!) I haven't had the energy to get close to a computer, I have been crafting (to keep sane) so I'm very excited to tell you show you what we've been working on. :)

We've also been trying for # 2 in the process. Since Drew was so easy to have we were certain that #2 would be a synch and we could plan our life. Once again God has reminded us that He is in control. After almost a year and half of trying the old fashion way, we've sought out some help. Fertility Treatments are no joke! Not only can they be physically demanding it's quite the emotional rollercoaster. I am so very thankful that I have the most amazing, loving, and humorous husband in the world! When life seems to be coming in at all corners he has been my steadfast rock. We are hopeful that we are getting close to finally being able to provide Drew a sibling and I'm learning to relax and enjoy the family that I have been blessed with. Letting Go and Letting God....

But back to the crafts... Here's a little sneak peak from Valentine's Day

Halloween Fun

2011-11-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween! We had a great time and here are a few pictures from our Pumpkin Carving Party... I kept it very simple this year but wanted to still make it special for the little ones so starting at 9:30 pm the night before the party I made a few last minute decorations. (The pictures aren't very good...my husband had an "accident" with our camera, so we no longer have one ...tears )

The frame in back was a great frame I picked up at a garage sale for $2, I had a smaller frame from Drew's birthday party that was orange and fit perfectly. I placed in it the great pumpkin my husband made me and it was the perfect backdrop.

I had picked up a few packages of these great Jolee's three dimensional Halloween stickers and was able to use them to make most of the decorations. I love crearting dimension. I added a sticker onto toothpicks to make some great Halloween toothpicks for the appetizers.

To hold the silverware, I spray painted a can orange and tied some ribbon I picked up at the dollar store around the center and topped it off with a spider sticker.

I made some great food labels the same stickers, scrapbooking paper that I picked up at a garage sale. I got two complete tablets of amazing paper for fifty cents...score! I had some white glitter letters already that I used to create the labels. To keep with the simplicity, we just picked up a few pizzas, and had some pasta (spider legs), salad and a few appetizers. It was perfect.

To finish it off, I created some treatbags and cupcake toppers. I used some pumpkin doilies as a garland ...so easy and I left it up for Thanksgiving. :) We played games (apple bobbing, donut eating contest, ping pong ball toss. I found some great spooky eye ping pong balls from the Dollar Store). Finally we carved our pumpkins of course!!!

My Big Bad Wolf

Pucker Up Lemonade Party

2011-10-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

It was my niece's birthday a few weeks back and she's my little party planner. We've been talking about having a lemonade party for almost a year and she was so excited when it was finally her time. We were able to re-purpose many of the decorations we used for Andrew's construction party.

I loved how the stripes turned out and my brother-in-law added a wood slat roof...LOVE!

I accented with some plastic lemon slices from Michael's and flower garland that I picked up from Tai Pan Trading company.

Does that Lemonade sign look familar? It's one of the construction signs from Drew's party. Yeah for the re-usable letters!

I picked up these amazing felt citrus stickers by Jolee's and attached some extra glitter paper for some adorable cupcake toppers.

The cupcake wrappers are doilies... I love this trick and how beautiful they look.

My Sweet Birthday Girl. She loves lemonade... I love her!

For favors, my sister and I made lemonade kits... it had everything a kid needs to create their very own lemonade stand, cups, lemonade mix, wooden spoons, chalk and paper for the sign. I found these great strawberry felt boxes and we added some change in them to get the business started. I made some citrus hairbows to tie it all together.

Candy Bar

Was able to restring the fabric pennant banners and remove the blue and viola new decorations!

Halloween Treat Bags

2011-10-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I've blogged. We had a major deployment at work and I've been working late days and nights sometimes 17 hour days. With school back in session the commute has almost doubled The good news is .... I carpool with the hubby and I found a way to be productive during that time.

My mother-in-law taught me to crochet!!! Whoot Whoot!

I found this great free pattern for the adorable and FREE happy bat bag crochet pattern on Red Heart. I added my own special touches the google eyes instead of buttons amd put the buttons on the handle. I then used the same pattern and various colors of yarn to create the other bags. I'm going to be giving them out to all the kids at the Halloween party we are having and I'm obsessed with making them!

To make the bat wings, I just printed out a clip art graphic and then cut it out and pinned it to the felt and was able to use it as a pattern.

Each bag takes about 3 hours, so I've been able to complete about a bag a day. Until I can find a glue gun that plugs into the car, I do that part at home when the lil one is fast asleep.

Everyone is So Creative!

2011-09-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! It's been a really hectic week and next week is gearing up to be awful so I'm very excited to enjoy the weekend...

Throughout the week as I've really enjoyed seeing every else's creativity here are some of my favorites...

Hungry Happenings displayed this hysterical roach covered popcorn on Tip Junkie...they are chocolate so they only roaches I would tolerate and would be perfect for Halloween or April Fool's Day or pretty much any day if you have a little boy. :)

Me and My Boys featured this Birthday seat link up by Freshly Completed

This is adorable! I LOVE it!

Burton Avenue displayed this adorable spider web garland on Southern Lovely. I love the detail of this!

Spider Cap! Yes Please!

And of course I love me some Pinterest....here are some of my favorites this week:

Polka Dot Cake?!? LOVE!

Grilled Swordfish

2011-09-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

I love when my husband grills anything. It's his hidden (not anymore :) ) talent! He can cook just about anything and it's always delicious. Tonight we decided to grill swordfish and it was absolutely delicious so I had to share! Plus I love using my Savona Woodworks serving board. They make such beautiful and unique boards that are like little works of art. If you are interested you can check them out here: Savona Woodworks

My husband and I have this thing...I'll marinate or season and he'll grill and then we both get to share the credit!

Here's what I did (Not that much):

Got Three Swordfish steaks and patted dry with a clean paper towel.

Brushed each side of the fish with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, lemon juice & Add a dash of salt and pepper. I have an obsession with garlic salt so I used that but regular salt would be fine too.

I topped each steak with a slice of lemon to place on the grill, the lemon slice not only looks super cool, the lemon juice cooks right into the meat and is SIMPLY delicious!

I let it marinade for about 30 minutes and then let Brian do his magic: He grilled on each side for 3-4 minutes and placed the lemon on the top each time he flipped. Brian's grilling tip of the day, don't rotate the meat too much, just once is fine. It keeps the meat tender and oh so yummy!

And because it was just so cute, I had to show you what Andrew was doing! Yes, we had to plate and serve the plastic vegetables too! So adorable!

Here are some other great things Savona Woodworks offers:

How cute is this little guy?

SERIOUSLY! I WANT ONE OF THESE!!!

Happy Fall!

2011-09-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I LOVE fall! I love the cooler weather, the colder nights when I can snuggle up in my blankets, the great comfort foods, the beautiful landscape and of course the holidays! Today, when I drove thru the Starbucks drive-thru I was happy to discover that my Pumpkin Spice Latte was back! Oh how I missed it! (Even if it is $4! ) I know it's not quite fall yet and the tempurature outside is still 100 degrees but the site of that drink on the menu made me want to start decorating for Halloween. My husband stopped me before I brought the boxes in from the garage but I was able to start my first Halloween craft of the year.

At a trip to Dollar Tree (There is a new one by me and it's big and beautiful!) I found these great mini baking cups. They had spiders, ghosts and pumpkins and I needed all of them! I made three topiaries and painted the wooden dowels. I put them in a bucket that I already had and added fog (or cotton balls).

I finished each flower off with a ribbon and the whole look off with a sticker that I got from Michaels!

Yeah!!! I love the holidays!

I Love Hair Bows!

2011-09-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

I found this great towel rack a few months back in Target's dollar section for $2.50. I picked it up for my nieces since their bathroom is decorated in a monkey theme.

I loved the facial expressions of the monkeys. A few weeks ago I went over to take my niece to school for family day a knew that towel rack needed to be transformed into a BOW HOLDER! My nieces have tons of adorable bows but they are in a large basket and it's very hard to find which one you are looking for without dumping the entire basket on the floor.

This is a great solution and it's very cute too. The best part...it was so simple to make!

Here are the Supplies I used.

1 - 1 Robe/Towel Rack

2 - 1 spool of ribbon, I used 1 1/2" thick ribbon

3 - Glue Gun

4 - Staple Gun (For Extra Support)

Step 1: Glue a strip of ribbon in the center of each monkey head, I was able to use the screw as a guide. I added a single staple to each of the ribbons for extra support, but make sure not skip the glue part or the ribbon will rip.

Step 2: I added a bow to each monkey...Afterall it is a bow holder and I thought it made the monkeys a little fancy.

Step 3: Add Some Bows & Hang!

Here's a few of the bows I made to add to her collection:

Nifty Thrifty

2011-09-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

After a couple weeks without yard "sale"ing we were able to hit up a few this weekend. Although this weekend seemed like we got there just as someone else was taking the great bargin or find. I hate it when that happens! I wish I would never have known what I was missing. I did find a few great things! Here's a couple of items we picked up.

The first was these great candlestick holders ...breaking the bank at $1 each!

I loved the antique look of these calendars and as soon as I heard the price I knew I had to have them. Eventually I'll probably be cleaning them up a bit, but for now, I added cake plates to the three and created my very own three-tier stand which worked great to hold my husband's cookie birthday cake!

My next find was a whopping $10. This bench seat will be the perfet spot to store our shoe basket. We can just take a quick seat as we put them on! I don't have any white furniture and the cushion needs at least a good cleaning but the paneling matches my dining room table perfectly. I was very excited and was extra pleased when I found out it was of solid wood!

From Trash to Treasure

2011-09-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

With summer just about over....the flies around us are insane! We live on old dairy farm land and the cows aren't that far away so it's been a constant battle to eat outside (and sometime inside, still teaching my little one the door does not stay open!) without sharing your meal with a few flying friends.

My sister lent me some food covers she had picked up at the dollar store, which has been great and allowed us to enjoy outdoor bbqing! One small issue they are hideous! Some had plastic flowers, some had cheap little ribbons ... all were ugly!

I knew I had to do something about those flowers and since I'm obsessed with buttons and polka dots...I tore them off and replaced them with.... BUTTONS!

Awww...Much Better!

Happy 2nd Birthday To My Little Man - Part 5

2011-09-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well after five days, this is the final post on my little man's birthday. I have to admit I'm a little sad to be done with this party. I had planned and crafted for so long and it just went by way too quickly. The good news is I've got two more birthdays to celebrate this weekend. Coincentenly my two favorite people were born on the same day!

I'm a big believer in making sure that favors are age appropriate so when my husband built toolboxes for the goodie boxes I knew that the babies coming to the party wouldn't really go with the somewhat sharp edges so I found these great trucks at Michael's for $1.00. I filled the back with puffs for the little ones to enjoy and they were perfect.

For the older crew members we gave them a hand crafted toolbox (painted the colors of the party and topped off with measuring tape ribbon that I found on sale at Joann's. I loved these toolboxes so much and the fact my husband made them made them that more special. The hard hat tags were the same ones that I used for the food tags but these labels read "Thanks for joining my crew. I hope you DUG my party!"

As a last minute idea, to thank my amazing family for all of their help, I made them Drew's Crew t-shirts and hats that they wore to the party. I love the Avery Transfer Paper! I bought 4 x 6 sheets of it and it was perfect. I wasn't sure if the hats would work out but I was able to pick them up for 75 cents a piece at Michaels so I had to try. I got the adult shirts at Michaels too for $2.50 and the little girls shirts at Walmart for $2. This was my first time using the transfer paper and at first I didn't have the iron hot enough so make sure yours is turned all the way up. For lighter t-shirts they require that you flip your image prior to printing so keep that in mind. I wrapped the t-shirts up with a small tag and handed them out when my family came over for cake and ice-cream on his actual birthday! They were a hit!

As a final comment about the birthday, I'd like to thank my amazing family who over the past few months put in countless hours painting, sawing, crafting, baking and cleaning to get ready for the big day. I love you all! And I love how much you love my son!

Happy Birthday to My little Man Part 4...Outdoor Activities

2011-08-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome back. I hope you've had some time to check out the earlier posts about the big day. Today, I'm excited to show you my favorite part the party the outside!

To decorate the outside, we made plenty of construction road signs personalized for our party theme. My husband cut them out of wood but we found the metal piping was just not in our budget...the solution, silver spray painted pvc!

As guests walked out they entered the New Home Development Site ... The speed limit on this street is 2 of course.

My aunt offered to purchase some construction hats from Oriental Trading Company and I was tickled when the box showed up with not only traditional yellow but pink hats as well. I added a label that read Drew's Crew and they were set. We also picked up some foam hammers from Target's dollar bin. The boys had so much fun getting them wet and attacking each other. We also picked up some tool belts from Home Depot and some construction vests also from Oriental Trading Company. Any crew member that rode the crane had to wear the gear and they LOVED it. (So did I!)

Andrew also got this great sand and water station for his birthday from my parents. Coincidentally it was the perfect colors and we filled it up with sand and let the kids dig. Of course we had to add a sign!

Our Ice Bucket

To help quench our guest's thirst my husband built a roach coach. We added aluminum on the roof but painted the top gray so it wouldn't be as hot. I printed roaches onto clear labels and then added them on for an extra effect.

This was my favorite part of the whole party. While searching for ideas, I found these great ideas for wrecking ball set-ups. They were a basketball wrapped in black fabric and on a string usually hung from a tree. I loved the idea immediately and knew I wanted to do it. When I told my husband he and my brother-in-law immediately wanted to build a moving working crane and that's exactly what they did. I'll post the tutorial coming soon but they built a frame on a lazy susan type of material. The kids were able to move the wrecking ball back and forth and knock down the brick wall. To make the brick wall I wrapped several sizes of boxes in red wrapping paper and used brown paint and a sponge to make the bricks. I love the way it turned out!

Due to the crazy heat we also had a waterslide and jumper. Here's a picture of our water hazard area:

I've got one more day of the party to show you tomorrow .. The tool box goodie boxes my husband built, our Drew's Crew T-Shirts and of course thank you cards! I hope you'll be back!

Happy 2nd Birthday to My Little Man! Part III..The Dessert Table!

2011-08-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

I love dessert tables and was really excited to put this together. I've been cruising Pinterest for months getting ideas and originally wanted to use fabric as a backdrop but decided to use a window instead.

I hung paper lanterns from the ceiling. (You can't really see the paper lanterns hanging above in this picture, but I promise they are there.) I found this polka dot material at Walmart for $2. which I used as a tablecloth.

Due to last year's lack of photos (I didn't take a single one!) I made sure to spend a few minutes before the guests arrived to snap a few photos. The only problem I hadn't laid out all of the desserts so it's an 80% done picture. I did take about 200 photos but didn't capture everything I wanted to so next year I think we'll either need to hire a photographer and designate a family member "Photographer of the Day".

I added a pennant banner in the center and finished the backdrop with dumptrucks I made from my Cricut machine. I just attached them to clothespins and viola! I fell in love with these little guys so I made enough to embellish all of my windows.

I love dessert tables flanked with the guest of honor's name, so when I found these foam letters at Joann's fabric store for 25 cents a piece I was so excited. Originally they were pink and purple which simply wouldn't do for my little man so I painted them in line with the colors of the party. I added a painted wooden dowel wrapped with ribbon and found these great construction cones at you guessed it ... Dollar Tree!

Originally I wanted to make two large polka dot ribbon bows for the sides but my husband was adamant that there would be no bows...so instead I hung two large yellow shovels with ribbon (not bows :) ) and attached them to the table with clothes pins. I thought it ended up better than my original idea. So thanks Babe for the great decorating advice.

I found the orange and white striped flower pots in the $1 bin at Michaels and embellished them with construction stickers I found in my collection. I used those to house some chocolate and toffee marshmallow pops and a cute bin to hold the dessert forks.

I got some tool cupcake toppers from Shindigz and made my own road sign toppers

For dessert I made cupcakes, cookie pops, chocolate cake, and my favortie chocolate covered marshmallows rolled in toffee pops. We also had See's candy which I didn't make but I did eat!

To finish it off I found these great plates at Target that were 75% off! Yeah for sales!!

So I decided to use some to make my own cake plate! For the center I used a blue bucket I found in the $1 bin also at Target.

Speaking of cake... on Andrew's actual birthday, we went to Disneyland and were just planning on staying a couple hours (we have passes so we usually just jump on a couple rides and head home.) however, he was having so much fun we stayed longer than expected. The cake I was planning on baking got scrapped. Instead, I bought an ice cream cake from the local grocery store. Have you noticed how expensive ice cream cakes are? Good thing they are delicious and with the heat wave we are experiencing totally worth it. Since I spent more than I wanted to on the cake and felt guilty for not baking one, I made my my own cake toppers. Handy Manny of course! I found a free printable from Disney Family.com for a Handy Manny toolbox craft I've been wanting to make. I just downloaded and printed out the printable (did I mention it was my favorite...free!) and added toothpicks. Click Here for the Free Link

Overall I was quite pleased with my table! I hope you liked it to...

Next Up ...The Backyard. (It's My favorite part! )

Happy 2nd Birthday to My Little Man - Part II

2011-08-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back! Here's a tour of how we decorated inside...

If you missed it Check out Part 1 here!

I started planning this party months ago, which gave me a lot time to keep my eyes open for party decor and a lot of time to make the decorations I wanted. Unfortunately, it gave me a lot time to spend money...next year, maybe I'll just go on vacation.

Step one of getting ready for the party included a good house cleaning scrub down! (My least favorite part :( but it was a must!) My sister had the brillant idea of removing the majority of the toys from the playroom. Our playroom is immediately to the right of our front door and the kids always love playing in there but they never seem to keep the toys in the room. It worked out great since we ended up having the photo booth there.

If you've read my blog before you know this lil momma is a working woman so I planned ahead this year and took of the two days before the party and the Monday after (just to recover.) The great news is I made it all the way until Sunday without logging on to the computer. Yeah for me!!! The Friday before was a great way to get the decorations started. My sister and brother-in-law were over all day helping which was wonderful!

I got these great paper lanterns from Shindigz for $1.99 each on clearance of course. The lime green one I bought at the dollar store. I hung them above our kitchen island and the dessert table. I love the look of paper lanterns but haven't used them because every time I see them they are so expensive and I never knew what size to get. (The yellow aand orange ones are 12" and the perfect size I think. Although the cute green one would be perfect for under an umbrella. I am excited to use these throughout the year. They were a great quality and I wish I would have ordered more!

I made a banner with my cricut machine and made a couple of wreaths using polka dot balloons that the dollar store had!

Here's a closer look. I love that they let almost look like they are made out of fabric!

I made two other types of garland throughout the party...circle garland and pennant banners which I love. Check out my earlier Pennant Blog here. The circle garland was so simple to make, just punch out cardstock circles using your circle punch which I took with me in the carpool for a few days. Crafting makes traffic a lot easier (Don't worry my husband drives and I ride passenger..it works out very well for me on our 1 1/2 each way commute!) This garland is cheaper than any you can find in the store and soo much cuter!

We moved my kitchen table against the wall and set up the food table in the family room. Usually we have the computer on small table in there too but moved it out for the party and replaced it with a candy bar! So much more fun! Our family has had some run ins with pinatas in the past. A trip to the ER and a broken window later we finally gave up and just let the kids fill their own bag up. The adults find this idea way cooler too. But don't worry we still let them wreck stuff...afterall this was a construction party!

The Candy Bar ... At a yard sale a few weeks back I found these great cookie/candy jars. I got the whole box full for $15. It came with three large ones and six small ones! I simply added ribbon around the tops and made a small dump truck label. I purchased some digital clipart that I was able to use on the invitation and throughout the party. I loved tying everything in and loved making it.

Here's peering into the family room!

The food table was covered in lime green polka dot material from Walmart for $2. We served most of the food out of dump trucks or buckets (new of course!) but when we set the food out I was in hostess mode so I'm trying to see if friends have more picks!This is of the before picture. I also added large shovels into the chip bags with the words DIG IN imprinted on them!

Throughout the planning process..I was looking for cute ideas to name the food items. Originally we were planning on making "sand"wiches but at the last minute decided to go with the traditional hot dog and hamburger barbeque. We had sides of "Corkscrew" Pasta and Bolder Salad (Potato Salad) Jello Salad (Concrete walls) and Fruit Sledgehammers (Fruit Kabobs). For Appetizers we had "Demolisher" Veggies, "Wrecking" Meatballs, and a few varities of Dry wall (Chips) and Concrete Dip.

I found these great hard hat die cut outs at the dollar store ($1 for a pack of 25 and used them for both good box tags and food tags, I just printed the names of the different foods on to clear labels and added them to the decal. For the food tags, I glued two together and added a small piece of cardboard in between so they would stand, it was a great finishing touch! I also made a small garland with them although I didn't end up using but it was super cute.

We also hung a Present Unloading Zone sign from the ceiling so guests would know where to place the gifts. I printed it out on photo paper and it looked great and shiny!

Coming up tomorrow... Part III The Dessert Table

Happy 2nd Birthday to My Little Man! Part I

2011-08-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

After months of seriously planning ...my son turned two! This Mommy can't believe I already have a two year old! I'm very excited to be bringing you pictures from the big day. There's so much I want to show you so I decided to take a few days and show you the pictures.

Drew loves Handy Manny and all things construction these days...so we did a construction/polka dot themed birthday. I found my inspiration months ago at the Dollar Store...where I picked up these adorable truck balloons! I loved the fun summer colors and great patterns and knew they would be the perfect start to a great party. While they had them I picked up 15..which is like the price of 3 mylar balloons at the party store. Save your receipt and you can bring them back the day of your party and the store will inflate them for free!

Greeting Our Guests...

We lined our driveway with the cute traffic cones we made and I showed you in an earlier posts. Click Here if you missed it!

We made a Project Birthday sign to welcome guests and hung it from our front porch. On our front door I hung my curly ribbon wreath!

I had originally planned on using my Cricut to cut out the vinyl letters for all our signs since they were going to hang outdoors but while at Michael's one day (umm..I'm there almost everyday!) I was looking for wall stickers for the playroom and ran across these removable letter stickers from Me & My Big Ideas. The font was adorable and I love the fact that they are removable so I've been using them ever since. Usually they are quite expensive but the store had them on clearance for $5 a package so I bought ever single package they had and then went to the store by my work and bought them out too. (Yes, I have a problem... but $5...seriously..you can't buy vinyl that cheap!) They also come in pink glitter and I know I don't have a girl but I do have a niece so I bought them too. I also got adorable baseball ones for the playroom. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I run out. Good thing they are removable. I've been using them on banners, buckets and pretty much anything else I can label.

Ok so back to the party...Guests "Clocked In" at our Clock In Table by signing in a bucket I embellished with these mettalic letters I found at Michael's clearance aisle. At the end of the night it was a lot of fun to read all of the sweet messages our friends and family left.

Of course our mild California summer decided to come to an end this week and it was 105 degrees! I decided to move the photo booth inside and set it up in the playroom. The lighting wasn't the best but at least guests weren't so sweaty while they smiled for the camera. Unfortnately the only photo stand I had was a coat rack holder so it was a little shorter and narrow than I wanted but we made do. I put a bench in front of it so our taller guests could sit.

I made a bucket of props that included silly hats, road signs and mustaches. I found these great 3-D mustache stickers from Jolee's botique that were amazing. I stuck them to card board backing and added a wooden dowel. Our guests were so creative and funny in with our photos and it was a great way to ensure that we got pictures of all our guests!

Stay Tune for more pictures...Tomorrow is Indoor Decor!

GIVEAWAY..... GIVEAWAY!!!!!

2011-08-19T05:14:00.000-07:00

Twisted Sugar Twine ... For Free? Sign Me Up!

GIVEAWAY..... GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Happy First Day of School

2011-08-14T20:38:00.000-07:00

Flower Vase I made for my niece's teacher!

My niece's teacher passed out a list of supplies she needed. Here is the bucket of supplies she brought for her first day of school!

Back to School Party!

2011-08-04T23:02:00.000-07:00

My dad watches all of my nieces (6,5 & 2), nephew (8) and my son while we work! He's Super Grandpa!! Drew gets to play with his cousins and Grandpa all day which he loves. It makes going to work so much easier. I know he's with someone that loves him as much as I do!

My dad is incredible, but when summer is ending he's one happy man. He often runs around singing "This is the happiest time of the year" I know... he's seen the Staples commercial a little too much.

He's finally reached the finish line and this year we are sending another one off to school! Our local school posts the kid's teachers at 5:00 p.m. on the Friday before the new year starts! (Smart...parents can't complain; they just have to show up Monday morning!)

I love that all the school supplies are so cheap right now, I've certainly stocked up so that I can keep creating at a discount all year long!

I started off with making a pencil flower vase for my niece's teacher. As soon as we find out the teacher's name, we'll add it to the apple! Cameryn is going to pick some flowers from her garden. We can keep refilling the vase throughout the year.

Cost was under $3.00 (Glass Vase...$1.00 from Dollar Tree, Pencils (2 packs of 24 on sale $1.00) and an Apple Wooden Decal .59 cents, Ribbon from my stash!)

Since I've been in cupcake tower mode lately ... I thought I'd make one using the same techinque I used for the flower vase!

I also found these great first day of school sign printable on I Heart Naptime. I loved the printables so much, I was able to incorporate them throughout our whole party!

I Love Being an Aunt!

Yard Sales Make Me Happy!

2011-07-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

I LOVE LOVE LOVE a bargin and over the past year my husband and I have become frequent yard sales shoppers ... Today we struck YARD SALE GOLD!!!

I got this fantastic stand-up cabinent that swivels that I transformed into my craft cabinent! The lady that sold it said that she used it for her home schooling. She attached wire baskets on the sides. GENIUS!

The cabinent cost me ... wait for it... $25!!! WHOO HOO!!!

Now if only they had a few more for sale. I'm on a mission to have my husband make me more!

I also got a few candle stick holders that I have plans to turn into a cake stand, an amazing lamp, a chalk board, halloween lawn decorations and my husband got a Ryobi mitar saw for $20!

Total Spent...Less than $60! An amazing shopping day!

It's Potty Time

2011-07-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

We're a month out until Andrew's 2nd birthday, he has been hiding when he goes potty so I finally decided to start introducing potty training. A moment I've been dreading since I found out I was pregnant!

Watching Toy Story from the Potty

I don't want to force him...that will make it just more frustrating for both of us. Over the past few days, we've strategically added several potty seats around the house. We've been spending a little time each day with Andrew not having to wear a diaper (Which he absolutely LOVES!...my little nature boy!)

Today, we let him pick out some big boy underwear. Which was very interesting. Picture this... Brian, Drew and I standing in the underwear aisle at Walmart with Drew screaming, "Put them Back! I don't like them!" Not the most positive way to start this whole potty training business. We finally convinced him that he would match Daddy so he picked out the generic Fruit of the Loom pants and we were off.

I am not above bribery!

I introduced Andrew to the Potty Jar and he helped me fill it with candy. After explaining that if he wore underwear and went potty in his chair he would get to eat them, he decided to put the new additions on. After about 20 minutes of strutting around like and Abercrombie model and when I turned away for 2 minutes he did go potty!!! Half on my carpet..half in the potty...all with the underwear still on. We celebrated anyways! If a drop goes in the toilet I'll take the victory.

So Day 1 of the Potty Training...I'll consider a success. At least he knows what underwear and a potty is!

Super Simple Wreaths

2011-07-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm officially on vacation and after a roadtrip with family, I was in desparate need of craft time. My new obsession this week... making wreaths! I've done a few before but found some great materials at the dollar store (My fav!) If only I was planning a Cars or Spongebob party I would be in business...

My first wreath...

Total Cost: $3.00
Time to Make: Approximately 30 minutes.
Materials:

Foam Wreath ($1.00)
Ribbon: One Spool from the Dollar Bin ($1.00)
Polka Dot Bow (50 Cents)
Buttons and Hanging Ribbon (From my Collection)

My Second Creation:

Total Cost: $4.00
Time to Make: Approximately 10 minutes.
Materials:

Wooden Wreath ($1.00)
Polka Dot Bows ($3.00)
Ribbon & Cricut DieCut(From my Collection)

My Third Creation....

Total Cost: $1.50

Time to Make: 1 hour

Materials:

Wreath($1.00)
Fabric : Left Over from My Pennants
Polka Dot Bow (50 Cents)
Buttons and Hanging Ribbon (From my Collection)

Brian and Me... Enjoying our vacation!!!

Love My No Sew Pennant Banners

2011-07-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

Oh I how I love pennant banners... I found that they were so simple to make and I could make them without breaking out the sewing machine or the bank so I was in! I started by wanting to make some homemade banner's for Drew's birthday that wouldn't require sewing skills that I don't have and could be reused.

When I visited the fabric store, they were having a half-off sale so the fabric was very inexpensive. I also found that the remnant pieces they sale will be perfect for this project and are usually sold at a discount.

Already I've made a pennant banner for the 4th of July, one for my son's birthday party and now with my niece's birthday next week I created a Littlest Pet Shop banner.

Total Time Per Banner... Approximately two Spongebob episodes or 30 minutes, but you can definitely split the project up into multiple projects.

To start: Get approximately 1 yard of total fabric.

(I got approximately 1/4 yard of each color)

Step 1: Create a cardboard template. You can also purchase a template at the craftstore, but the one I saw was over $20...so I made my own.

Step 2: Using the template, trace out the pennants onto the backside of fabric. If the fabric is not double-sided, you will need to create a mirror sided fabric. With both sides, back-side up, spray with fabric adhesive. and stick together.

Easy-Peasy!

Step 3: Using a hot glue gun, attach the ribbon to the top of the banner. After each pennant, I tied a knot for extra decoration. I added some buttons for extra detail on one banner, although decorative ribbon is just as cute.

For the Littlest Pet Shop, the fabric I found wasn't exactly symmetrical enough to fit the pennant shape, so I just cut out the individual images and attached them to some other fabric.

So fun and so festive! I love it!

Happy Fourth of July

2011-07-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun with celebrating Fourth of July with my family... but as soon as the fireworks were finished, I promptly climbed into bed!

The day started with a Fourth of July breakfast celebration. My in-laws weren't going to be able to join us for our annual Fourth of July BBQ with my side of the family, so I did a last minute Fourth of July breakfast celebration. The night before I decorated our breakfast area with some quick circle garland, which I was able to put the banner together while finishing up some last minute items for work. (Hey...I needed to enjoy the holiday off!). I made the fabric pendant banner (No Sew!) the day earlier. My table cloth... was a left-over piece of fabric that I had purchased for my fabric banner... love it! Some festive plates I picked up at the dollar store and my traditional patriotic leis which have become a family tradition in my home finished off the look.

Fourth of July was the first holiday my husband I first celebrated together when we were dating and I made him wear one of these throughout the day. Despite his greatest efforts to get rid of them, I always find a new supply of patriotic leis to make sure he remembers! :)

With work so busy the past few months, I had to dust off my favorite breakfast accessory... my belgian waffle maker. LOVE! Our breakfast consisted of eggs and fresh berry waffles and whipped cream...yummy!! I set each place setting with a goodie bag to help start the day. While it made my table awfully cute, not sure convincing a toddler to eat waffles and eggs with candy staring at him was such a good idea... but it was a holiday and I brushed his teeth a lot. After breakfast we had a little play time before naptime for Drew and getting ready for the annual Fourth of July party began. My aunt always throws the best celebration and this one was no different.

She had a country fair theme so I made some country style goodie bags of course. I was able to find these great felt sticker stars which were great on a standard clothesline. I loved them so much I picked them up in both the bright red, white, and blue and a more subdued tone as well. I was able to use them for the bag toppers, a shirt I wore and made a few bows for my nieces and myself.

Simple?...Check!

Adorable? ... Double Check!

I also made the standard bag topper with some great country style paper. The poppers, ring pops (Let Freedom Ring!) and patriotic lollipops were all found at the dollar store.

Our contribution to the pot luck...fruit salad and fruit skewers for the kiddies. I knew that battling with candy was going to be a challenge so my husband I used a star shape to cut out stars from all the fruit. I'm happy to report that all 40 skewers were gone by the end of the day! When it looks this fun...who could say no.

But I couldn't just bring fruit... so here are some fun treats I whipped up while Drew was napping...but before you get too impressed they are "semi homemade" by that, I mean I bought the marshmallows and put them on a stick! I did dip half in melted white chocolate because chocolate always makes everything better. :)

Our day ended with a firework show viewing in our backyard. I'm not sure about you but our area doesn't allow fireworks. We were able to watch a few great firework shows from surrounding areas from our backyard though! So after a fun filled day of swimming and eating, I put together a few last minute items, for the firework finale. Some cake pops and pinwheels made the show so much better.

We had such a fun day... Can't wait for vacation time 9 days and counting...

Happy of July!!

I'm partying with ...