A successful, Pinterest Inspired Pink Party!

As I had mentioned months ago, I was basing F's second birthday party entirely on concepts found on Pinterst. With a little tweak here and there, modified to my own ideas, it was quite successful and fun!!  The entire family got involved it was amazing. My mom made F a pinterest inspired pink cake. She used her own cake recipe and frosting recipe and not the one on pinterest but she did utilize the concept of graduated pink layers. It was delicious and so cute and pink. My little girl loved it.

Another componant that my mom decided to do was a Pink Lemonade served in little mason jars for the kids with a pink straw and lemon slice. It was a huge hit. My little girl loved it.

I went with Pink chocolate dipped treats from cake balls to marshmellows and pretzels. Candied apples, cupcakes as well as cookie pops.  There was also a Pink Popcorn on pinterest however they used pink tinted butter. I didn't want a greasy buttery treat since we would be outside and I didn't want it to get soggy so I instead made a pan popped corn, covered in a pink tinted Candy bark. That WAS DELICIOUS. Since the party it has been made a few times and will continue to be served on family movie nights, slumber parties etc. It was the same pink popcorn concept but with my own personal twist.

For foods we just went with things my little girl liked and a few things that our family liked to noche on.

For Decor I used a Hot Pink Pop Up canopy with pink tablecloths and pink tulle pinned around the table as a skirt of sorts (in the picture on corner was pulled down unfortuately, I didnt get a picture with it completed).  I used Pink Lanterns, paper poms, TONS of pink balloons, Pink Mums and pumpkins. It was an outdoor party complete with our favorite dogs, and Papa giving the kids a hayride on his little trailer and ride on mower. The kids LOVED it. Even the dogs had a blast with the hay and balloons and treats for them. After all, what is a party for F without her Bff's Dixie, Yankee and Belle?

Here are pictures from the day: She was all ooh's and aahh's, OH MY PARTY!!, Balloons, just everything she saw she had to say ohh look pink, presents..........She talked about it for days. She even tried my mom's cake. Knowing F, You would know how much she hates all things dessert. She doesnt eat cookies, cakes, pies, donuts etc. She is a savory kid. However, she loved blowing out her candles (6 times) and when my mom cut her the first slice, she was in awe of the pinkness. She dug right in and instantly with the first bite explained "OHH YUMMY", which made my mother's day. After all, Mom did stay up until 4 am making that amazing fresh 6 layers of varying shades of pink cake with scratch frosting.

For the joy on my little princess's face, I would do it over and over again.

IT is VERY Picture Heavy!!

Fabric Scrap Tutu

On my previous blog (My Life With One Eye Open), I had a lot of sewing tutorials but regrettably I didn't save them before I moved over to this blog. So we start from scratch in our sewing section. No worries though, with Christmas around the corner there will be tons of sewing goodness.

For F's Birthday party outfit, I wanted something whimsical but also something she could easily move in and play outside. I didn't want a real dress or a pants outfit so after trolling through pinterest I found a scrap skirt. I changed a few of the steps because I like to tweek thinks to fit my needs.

I wanted a pink skirt of course!! I had appliqued and embroidered an adorable 3 tier birthday cake with the number 2 candle onto her shirt. Once completed as I was taking it out of my machine, it got snagged and ripped. My luck is amazing! So I ran to the store and bought an Iron On number 2. This particular one, I purchased at Hobby Lobby. It went with her skirt so I was fine with it and she was none the wiser.

The scrap tutu Supplies:

Fabric scraps ( I used a variety of pink prints)
1 inch wide No Roll elastic
Pinking Sheers


Step one:
Measure your little girl from waist to where you want the skirt to fall.
Multiply by two and add 2 inches. (this is because you are folding the fabric in half and tying around the one inch elastic)
Measure her waist and add 1 inch to that measurement (this is to compenstate for sewing the elastic band end to end)

Step Two:
Cut your elastic band to size then over lap the ends approximately a half inch and zigzag sew a nice secure square crossing over in the center creating a X with your stitches, for stability.

Step Three:
Cut your fabric Strips.
You want a 1.5 inch wide  by your desired length (x2 plus 2 inches). For sake of making things non-complicated. Ex: F's length from waist to knee was 10 inches. I cut my strips 22 inches long by 1.5 inches wide.

I used 11 different types of Pink Fabric. I cut 3 from each for a total of 33 scraps.

Next I would like to thank once again my husband for being such a trooper! He was nice to iron ever single one of those 33 scrap strips as I was cutting them to help cut down on the time. Since this was once again a late night project after the wee one went to sleep.

Step Four:
 Seperate your strips  as you see here into sections in the order your want your prints to appear on the skirt.

Step Five:
Take one strip from each pile and stack them in consecutive order. So looking at this picture from left to right. I took one from each and stacked them into 3 piles in the same order. This way the pattern of prints would repeat in the skirt. Here you see my husband being my model LOL! After they were all cut and ironed it was just quicker to use him to make my stacks. (excuse the cell pic). (as you see a fourth pile, that was for something else I only used 3 for the skirt). However for sizes larger than the 2t that my little girl is, you will need to cut more strips. Just as long as you keep repeating the pattern sequence, it's all easy peasy to adjust.

Step Six:
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of putting it together because I tied the fabric onto the waistband while in bed watching a late night movie.

You want to take your elastic waist band and simply fold your strip in half length wise over the elastic and tie into a Knot on the band...DONE........Rinse and repeat until finished.

Step Seven:
Finishing the skirt. You can leave it as is or you can trim the ends into a rounded trim, or a pointed corner. I Used Pinking Sheers and trimed the ends into a Point.  There will be fraying and that adds to the Character of the skirt but do know if you wash this after being worn it will continue to fray. It is typically a one use type of skirt but I have washed and ironed it and F has worn it a few times since them.


Here you will see her wearing the skirt and how it's Knotted at the waist. It gives it a poofy appearance with a great twirl factor.

Any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

Peace, Love and Shutter Clicks,
Mandy

Cookie pops and various treats!

Another concept we went with for our Pinterest party was lots of chocolate dipped foodie goodness!

While F doesn't eat sweets or any sort of sugary foods, we were still going for the eyes wide open reaction from her. She loves pink and over the top anything. She is quite the girly girly and loves boots and skirts, jewelry and purses, Pink nail polish and hair bows. Anything pretty and pink was going to be exciting for her.

We decided on lots of single serving on a stick types of goodies. I apologize in advance for the stinky cell phone pictures. This was another late night and I had forgotten to get out my camera until we were almost done. 

Earlier in the morning, I let F help with making the cake for the cake pops. Later in the day she was so excited to help decorate the dipped pretzels and marshmallows. It's funny because she would never taste them but had a blast creating them.

We dipped Pretzel rods.............RIDICULOUSLY Easy! You can buy colored Chocolate melt at most any grocery store, michaels, joanns or hobby lobby. I have a fancy smancy baby cakes chocolatier (yeah nothing more than a wee little crock pot).  The good thing about it is that I can leave the chocolate in there and go do other things and come back to the dipping later.

Back to the pretzels...no before pics sorry
Simply take your pretzel rod and dip half into the chocolate then garnish while still wet with sprinkles, m&ms, nuts, coconut...the world is your oyster.

Marshmallows...
Insanely easy. Stick a lollipop stick almost all the way to the top of the marshmallow and dip the top half into the chocolate and again garnish while wet.  We used Pink Strawberry Marshmellows with a standard chocolate and the very top dipped in a pink chocolate with glitter sprinkles.

Cookie Pops... These serve to be a bit more tricky because they melt and fall apart (shockingly the marshmallows really didn't).
I used a chocolate sandwich type cookie. Pushed the lollipop stick into the white center and then froze them. Freezing them helped with the melting process. It pretty much eliminated that problem. Once semi-frozen, I dipped quicking into a pink chocolate and F rolled them in sprinkles

Candied Apples.....Standard Caramel Candied Apple, dipped in chopped nuts. once dry, dip the bottom half in traditional chocolate...Let dry then dip the bottom quarter in pink candy bark.

Luckily, I once again had some help from my husband. He deserves some kudos for staying up late rolling cake balls and sticking lollipop sticks in things.

She had such a great time with her goodies and the guests loved them and took a bunch home.  Sure they could have been prettier or more refined but my 2 year old daughter got to help and I would never trade that joy of us being in the kitchen working on things together for anything. If that means a lopsided cake or partially burned pie crust, then so be it. Togetherness is the most important and they were made with love!

Craft gone terribly wrong.

Another little concept that I had wanted for F's birthday party was Pink Topiaries.............FAIL

Like OMG I hid it in a drawer.......... fail.

We had a bunch of round decorations so we had decided to make some nice pink square topiaries. It was a great idea. It went along quite well  the top portion of the topiary went together perfectly however our construction method for standing it up, in the end was a huge failure.

Here are the step by step instructions on how to construct the top of the topiary. I need to think about how I will construct the base in the future because this bad boy is getting redone so I can at least say that I finished it.

Supplies:  Foam sphere or block in our case
Crepe Paper for a small sphere you will need around 300sqft for our big ole honking block it too almost 600 sqft
Hot glue
wooden dowel
Pot/jar/container of sorts
Patience!!!!

1) First you want to roll out about a million strips of crepe paper approximately 12 inches in length.

2 ) From there you want to fold your strip in half width wise so that you have a narrow 12 inch strip of paper.

3) Next simply start rolling the paper strip from on end to the other. You can twist and pinch as you go if you want more of a carnation type of look but if you want tight rosettes then simply just roll. And glue the little end in place.

4) Once I had a bunch already rolled, then I started gluing them to the foam block in no particular order. I simply hotglued the bottom of the rolled paper and stuck it to the block and held it just for a couple of seconds. Lather, Rinse and Repeat until you are finished covering the foam in it's entirety.

Fortunately for me, after a little kicking and screaming (ok not really) my husband pitched in. Nothing says happy birthday baby girl, like daddy crafting pretty pinkness for her 2nd birthday party.

My down fall was those pink pots right there!! Do you see them??? they are evil. Be sure to get one WAY bigger than your topiary so that it doesn't constantly topple over.  I took terracotta pots and my husband painted them pink. from there was stuffed more foam into them (gluing the foam into the pot for security, hahah was I fooled). Then using a wooden dowel (also painted pink), we gorilla glued one end into the rosette topiary and the other end deep into the pot.

Sounds simple right?  Nope. Once we were outside in a slight breeze.....................................BAM over, off the table. It ended up in the drawer waiting for me to come back to it and fix it for completion sake. I have yet to go tackle it. Which I will.....Someday.

Lesson learned??? After 2 nights creating various decorations for her party, we thoroughly agreed with each other that F will never have another topiary EVERRRRRRRRRRRR. If she wants them at her wedding, we will be hiring out for that service.

It just proves, no matter how crafty you are......Somethings are just not your Forte and should never be attempted again! Lol
Peace, Love and Shutter clicks,
Mandy

Craftapalooza

It's finally over.....for the moment.

F's second birthday party has come and gone. Halloween has passed yet again. I now have a break from our incessant traveling and crafting, cooking and concocting.

We have an 8 day break from any doctors appointments. For the next 8 days, it's just hanging out and working on F's walking at home. Luckily, my mom and dad help to chase her around the house which gives F some good practice on speed before we go back to the Siskin Hospital (boo the day before her birthday).

Her pink pinterest inspired party was a huge hit. She talked about it for days and my non sweet eater even ate her birthday cake as she exclaimed "Oh yummy!" which totally made my mom's day since she stayed up until the wee hours of the morning making it.

Her Halloween costume was a hit! I couldn't find an idea on pinterest that I liked so I devised my own design which I will share soon once I catch up on party posts!

Happy Halloween! Stay tuned for some pink goodness!

Just a sneak peek. A crapola cell pic of her partial costume.

It's a Pinterest Party: Faux Gumball Machines

Another Pinterest componant to F's Party is the Faux Gumball Machine as snack bowls...I LOVE THEM! I plan to keep them in my party arsenal of inexpensive items to make to impress! They will also make great gifts for someone's office/desk who likes little treats to keep on hand!  I plan to fill them with Pink M&Ms and another Pink Candy treat (to be determined later). This Tutorial will have tons of pictures so bear with me in it's length!

Supplies (creating 2 machines).

2 small terracotta pots
4 terracotta water plates that match the pot size
2 glass bowls
2 small wooden craft balls/spheres
Spray paint/acrylic paint in desired color
Acrylic Glaze (spray).
Goo or E-6000 bonding glue.


I took the 2 pots and plates and spray painted them with a Watermelon Pink. Once they dried, I used my Modge Podge Acrylic sealer that I had from a previous project.  They will need 48 hours to drive overnight or else they will be super tacky.

This is what they look like after a couple of coats of paint and the acrylic sealer. In all honesty, It took 2 days to complete this portion due to being busy. I would paint them, then leave it to dry until I got home later at night then would either spray a second coat of paint or acrylic which takes time to dry but it is worth the wait.! There are a few areas where the terracotta would not absorb the paint so you can see a few wee little crack around the rim of the plates. I think next time I make use a brush on paint versus a spray in hopes of being able to better paint those cracks.

Next you want to take your pot and place it open end down...Apply your glue liberally around the edges. I prefer E-6000 because it is thick and holds well to prevent slipping while drying however it takes a bit of time to really bond and dry which is great for making adjustments.

As you will see once I got the plate on it was slightly askew and needed to be adjusted. THANKFULLY E-6000 allows room for corrections in the placement!

After adjusting the plate placement...next apply turn your glass bowl upside down and apply a liberal amount of glue to the base.

Now as you can see I was super lazy and didnt attempt to remove all the price tag residue. Had this been a gift then I would have used a hair dryer or hot air gun to melt it off but in all honesty, This is one use kind of deal. Most likely one of the kids at the party will break it. If they dont then eh, it's just for us anyway.

Next, slowly flip over the glass bowl and place it on the terracotta plate that had already been glued to the pot. Again make any adjustments to the gumball machine as you see fit as far as it being centered.

The lid isn't complete yet (we are about to start on that in a second) but It has a nice weight to it so I placed the other terracotta plate upside down on top of the glass bowl to help hold it in place while it dries.

Now for the lid. As you have already seen, those extra two terracotta water plates are going to make the lids!! Seeing that they have already been painted and sealed with acrylic we can just leave them in place as they are right now (holding down the glass bowls) and move on to making the knobs.

I purchased a couple of little wooden craft balls/beads and needed to paint them to match. However, I was perplexed as to how I was going to spray paint these little things without making a mess or putting prints on them but then I was like LIGHTBULB moment!! I took a fireplace match and broke it in half and shoved it into the little hole in the ball.  From there I was able to hold them like little lollipops and paint them. Also very easy to set down in something to try without putting prints on them or paint everywhere.

ALMOST DONE!!! Once they have dried simply place in the middle of the cover. To help keep me centered, I placed the wooden piece on the center of the plate. I then used a Kabob Skewer to pierce the center and make a little dot to keep placement after I added the glue to the ball.  Place a dab of glue and replace the ball to the little marked spot and let sit for about 48 hours to dry. then Voila!! You are done and ready for use!

On Party day, I plan to have a sticker on the front with Her name and what the treat is inside. You can also you a dab of chalkboard paint and make a square of sorts like the gumball dispenser part in functional machines.

The Crafty cost of making 2 Faux Gumball Dispensers:

2 Terracotta pots : $2.39
4 Terracotta Plates: $3.96
2 Wooden Knobs: $0.50
2 Glass Bowls : $1.98
Spray Paint: $1.50 (I have half a can left)
Acrylic Sealer: $0.50 (I barely used any from a previously purchased can)
E-6000 Glue: $0.75 (previously purchased tube. A little goes a long long way).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total for 2 Gumball machines : $ 11.28
OR Only $5.64 each!

I could have made them cheaper had I purchased the pots at Michael's with a coupon but at the time, I hadn't realized they sold them. Alas, either way I love them. I have seen a few others floating around the interwebz but those only use one Terracotta plate for the top and you have to find a footed bowl..I personally like my version with the two plates better this way it gives the glass bowl a base of sorts.

Happy Pinning!!
Peace, Love and Shutter Clicks,
Mandy

It's a Pinterest Party: Paper Poms!

I have finally begun all of the Pinterest inspired decorations for F's Pink Birthday Party! This first project was not my best to date. With each Pom I improved however the first couple are quite tragic to say the least.

Items Needed:

8 sheets of tissue paper (size 30x20)
Floral Wire (I used a self cutting wire! Fabulous stuff no need for wire cutters).
Scissors
Ribbon/Fishing line/embroidery floss (just to hang them I plan on using fishing line since it's transparent).

Take the 8 sheets of paper, stacked. Slowly start to fold in 1 to 1.5 inch wide accordian pieces (as if you were making a paper fan).

Once you have completed the length of the sheets, take a piece of your floral wire and in the center use it to tie the sheets of tissue paper together.

Once secure, Then cut the ends of the paper in a design that best suits your needs. Here I simply cut them in a rounded edge. IN the final product you will see I attempted different variations. The rounded end was my favorite of this project.

Once you have finished cutting, simply take one side of the stack of paper and carefully unfan it and slowly pull apart the sheets...repeat on the other side then fluff. When you want to hang it just tie a bit if string/floss etc to the floral wire and hang in desired location. It's super quick and cheap to make.

Cost:

4 Packages of Tissue Paper (Hobby Lobby):$3.96
200 yards of self cutting Floral wire: $2.97 ( I only used perhaps a foot of the wire leaving me with an insane amount left for future projects estimating my usage cost at $0.20)
------------------------------------------------------
5 Poms total cost : $4.16

Happy Crafting,
Peace, Love and Shutter Clicks!
Mandy

It's A Pink Pinterest Party!!

You would think that as the mother of 12, 18, 20 children (I jest, I jest), I would have thrown a lot of parties in my day. However, that isn't the case. With my one little sweet princess, we have yet to have any sort of party for her. It started out with a conflict in christianing, so we haven't gotten to that yet (deciding god parents is quite the feat). Then with her very first birthday, my husband was deployed so we really just had a very intimate affair and there really hasn't been anything else requiring a big ole shin dig. EXCEPT NOW!!!!!!! My princess is going to be 2 years old!! Can you believe that?? 2....2 years old. For all of yall who were a part of our journey from before we conceived her, to her birth up to now, can you believe she is going to be 2 freaking years old already??? So We are having one hell of a party!!

I have decided that with my obession with Pinterest, I want to have a Pinterest Party! What that means is, I 100% aside from the help from my mom in the cooking of the food that will be served, will be creating this entire party solely from ideas and inspirations found on Pinterest.

That means everything from the desserts, the food, the beverages, the decor and party favors...RIGHT down to her outfit will all be inspired by Pinterest. Here is the kicker though.....It's all going to be pink. That's right.....PINK. Because we all know that Pink is Pimp and well my pretty little princess loves pink. She is such a girly girl already at her age it's nutty! So It's all going to be pink for her. Ahhhh the grand Ideas for an outdoor party (good lord pray for good weather!).  I am even asking guests to please wear something pink if they chose. Food, drink, desserts and prizes...all Pink or Pink themed (aka braised beef (pinkish center...you get the idea).

I am so very excited. I am not currently home at the moment (yet again....we travel. I told you that would be quick) but once I return to TN shortly, I will begin my series of posts on the Pink Pinterest Party Planning!!  Full of tutorials, recipes, and crafty goodness. Why right away? Because her party is in a few short weeks. We want to celebrate her birthday in October because we will be away (the 3 of us) at a retreat at a vacation destination during her birthday week and with Halloween the last weekend, we don't want a halloween themed party so it must be soon....like ASAP! There is a lot to do between now and then!

If you have any PINK Ideas that you think would be great for a 2 year olds party feel free to leave them! And be on the look out for some fabulous pink party fun!! I promise to link back to the Pin in which I found the inspiration!!

OH and if you haven't fallen prey to Pinterest yet, let me know. It's by invitation only and I have just a couple left. From there I expect you to pay it forward and invite some crafty mamas to Pin Heaven!!