b is for baby shower

Karri and I hosted a baby shower for our work friend Magan a few weekends ago. It was a vintage-ish ABC theme. I thought everything turned out adorable! I found the ABC banner on Etsy and that kind of jump started the whole look.

a close up of the stinkin’ adorable banner! I loved it! I wanted to keep it for my phantom second child’s nursery, but I gave it to Magan instead.

on the menu was pasta salad, spinach & artichoke dip, veggie pizza (to die for!), fruit with marshmallow-cream cheese dip, veggies with ranch and tzatziki sauce, and sausage biscuits (one of Magan’s daily cravings!)

Magan doesn’t like many desserts so we bought her favorite Publix vanilla cupcakes and had a candy buffet with hard candies that she likes. There were mini mason jars to take some candy home! They were so cute!

and the favors were delicious homemade sugar cookies that spelled out his name, OWEN!

the makings of a play kitchen

 

I can’t believe we actually pulled this off! :) I saw multiple play kitchens, like this one and of course from Pinterest, that inspired me to make Presley one. I found an old entertainment center on Craigslist for $35. It was more than I had originally wanted to spend, but I was tired of looking at bunch of furniture and Christmas was less than 3 weeks away.

First we lightly sanded everything and my dad cut out the back where the TV would normally be. I debated between leaving it and painting a window scene on it, but ultimately I liked the look of it being open. My dad also cut the hole for the sink and the faucet. We then primed it all with Kilz. We removed the door underneath the “fridge” and left it off because I wanted to hang a curtain there. And the “fridge” door was actually glass, which would not work with a toddler slamming the door often. So we replaced it with a sheet of birch wood from Lowe’s . We painted all of the insides of the fridge and under the sink and stove, white and the rest of the kitchen is the color Surf Spray from Valspar. Which I love! It’s blue enough to be boyish or you can girl it up!

The sink is a red plastic bowl from Wal-Mart and the faucet was free! It was from a stash that my carpenter brother had. The knobs were also free because I went to Lowe’s looking for some and the only knobs that they sell were $20 for 4. Ummm….no thanks, that was a little steep! So I asked the guy in the appliance dept if they had any others for sell, and he gave me these for free. They were replacement parts sent to Lowe’s from the manufactures', so they are two different sizes, but we made it work! (My brother figured how to actually make them turn! So if anyone is interested on how he did that, let me know and I’ll ask.) We painted the oven door and the eyes of the stove black. And put two towel holders on the side. We also put three screw hooks on the top shelf to hold some utensils. We put a tension curtain rod under the fridge for the curtain, just to give the kitchen some personality!

I love it! I think it came together so well. and I love the fact that we made a sturdy, handmade kitchen for less than $85! I still want to add some other touches like lights to the shelf that shine down on the sink and stove and some other accessories. But we made it presentable for Santa to give to Presley for Christmas. (:

 

Supply List:

craigslist- entertainment center $35

Lowe’s- white and blue paint $22, free oven knobs, fridge & door pulls $10

Wal-Mart- red bowl $2, towel hooks $3, screw hooks $2, curtain rod (not sure, my mom bought it), towels $2

Joann’s- fabric for curtain & towels $4

we already had the faucet, Kilz primer, and black paint.

Kole’s Tangled Party!

Kole turned 5 on Saturday! I still can’t believe she’s that old! The kids had so much fun and my mom and I had fun planning it all. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that the kids love Tangled. So for Kole’s party, Tangled was the only way to go!

Rapunzel paint as favors and Pascal party blowers! Almost all of our great ideas came from this site.

Kole was in awe of the tower! I was so happy that she liked it, cause it was a pain in the rear to put together! When reading the directions, it seemed simple enough. I took a wrong turn when I decided to do a cake base instead of a styrofoam base like Bakerella said to do…pssh, what does she know anyway? ;) so even though I hot-glued the dowel rod to the cake board, it was still too much weight and it ended up leaning and eventually falling over. We used fishing line to try to salvage it enough for pictures! I guess this is where the ghetto Rapunzel would live!!!

An up close of the jello boats we made. Such a cute idea for any party!

Tangled gifts!  =)

Presley couldn’t figure out how to do it, so she just held it for her Daddy to blow it for her!

The playhouse got a Tangled makeover too! My Dad & Kameron did this with no directions and I have to say that I was impressed! Most of the time if you give men some streamers and balloons and tell them to just decorate it however, it doesn’t turn out this great!!!

No Tangled party would be complete without painting! Even Presley got in on the action, but would only hold the brush for a second, then say “yuck, my hand id stiddy” (sticky) and promptly command me to paint what she wanted to paint. That girl’s a mess!!

The result of the above painting! It kinda stained their skin! Oops!! Presley found the cure though, when she soaked her hands in the watery soap basin for like 15 min. No, she’s not a small genius. She was just having fun playing in it! Her feet though were a different story.

I totally forgot to take a picture of the front door that day. There was a long Rapunzel-like braid hanging on it. Oh well, my mom said she’d re-do the door and get a picture!

Thanks Mama for always allowing me to help with the kids’ parties! I have such a great time doing it! :)

Jaden's 6th birthday!

Jaden turns 6 on Wednesday, but we had his party Saturday at the West FL Railroad Museum. Tropical Storm Lee decided to grace us with its raininess and that made for a wet party, but I think everyone still had a good time. Luckily they're at the age where it doesn't really matter what you do, cupcakes equal fun! :) Prepare for an obnoxious amount of pictures.....I didn't feel like making collages of them!

How fun is this? The parties are in the dining car! Presley got a kick out of this!

Presley helped make the "happy tuptates". Haha! That's what she calls them. I guess because you sing Happy Birthday in order to eat the cupcakes!

The museum has a little train for the kids to ride. It was sprinkling rain at this point, but they didn't care!

They also have a huge model train display built like a little Milton. It's really cool and we all loved it.

There is a train car that you can walk through at the front of the museum that's pretty cool.

This last one is funny. Presley was saying "too youd" at all the kids in the dining car!

another day, another wreath

Obviously I have some craft fever going on over here! I have been dying to make a rag wreath. I first saw it here. I fell in LOVE with the colors and the sheer happiness it exudes! :) It just screamed summer to me and since it feels like summer in the Florida panhandle, I decided our front door needed to wear it! It was super easy to make....WAY easier than coffee filter wreath and less hazardous! ;)

I meant to take pictures along the way and do a tutorial, but I forgot until I already had a bunch of fabric on the frame and I was not taking it off then for a picture! But I promise The Cottage Mama does a great job showing you how to do it all. Probably better than I ever could. She used scraps of Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey that she already had in her scrap bin. I don't have a scrap bin like that so I had to buy my fabric off Etsy! I found a seller who had what I wanted in a bundle of a 1/2 yard of each fabric. I decided to go with Hop Dot Sky, Swing Toss Pink, Hello Roses Olive, and Slim Dandy Stripe Pink. So in total I got 2 yards and cut them into 11 inch long strips and varying widths (thinner strips tie better on the wreath...fyi). I ended up using about 3/4 of the fabric I bought. & I used a thin wire frame, but in the blog I followed she used a dollar store wooden one. My wreath is definitely flatter than hers, but I still love it!

who knew coffee filters could be creative?

So, I'm sure that you have seen these before. They are everywhere right now. People on Etsy sell them for $40, but mine cost $8...and a hunk of my skin off by the stupid glue gun! That seriously hurts! It took me a few hours to complete but I gave myself lots of breaks. I could have probably hammered it out in one hour, but watching Little Women and casually gluing did much more for my sanity, at least for the first time doing it!

So pretty! I just love it! I have a bunch of filters left, so I will probably make another one, or two. The picture below is of the whole wall. I might replace the white ribbon with a red one to match the curtains. I think it might make the wreath stand out a little more.

zoo party!

We've been busy doing a ton of fun things this weekend! We attended a birthday party Saturday for one of Presley's friends. She had a GREAT time! What more could you ask for in a party....pb&j, toys, friends and of course....cupcakes! The theme was "celebrating two with a zoo!" and Presley dressed up as a zebra. She was so adorable! She didn't wear the ears at the party, but I had to get a picture of her with them on. Surprisingly she left her outfit alone. Don't be surprised if you see this little zebra reappear around Halloween! ;) Then today we had Kameron's party. It was also a ton of fun, but that's a whole other post for tomorrow!

All this outfit was, was white duct tape on black clothes and foam ears on a headband. I wish I was so creative that I could claim the idea myself, but alas, I'm not that good! I got the idea from here.

Yummy cupcakes!

Presley took one of the lions (that was part of the decor) and totally toted it around for about half the party. It was pretty cute!

I'm no Pioneer Woman,

but I can follow her directions! Ha ha! MAN her cinnamon rolls are delish! I, no, WE made them yesterday. I say we because I drove my husband batty with "but they don't really look like hers do" and he so lovingly rolled them out with me! :) So I'm giving him some credit! Everything is from scratch so they took forever to make. Seriously, like hours. But I think they were worth it. The recipe made 48 rolls, so we gave away a lot, ate a lot and still have some in the freezer! In true Pioneer Woman fashion, I took photos of the process. ;) Well, not all of it, because my hands got kinda messy!

raw dough, then below sprinkled with the good stuff

all rolled in a pan...the second batch came out MUCH prettier!

YUM! the finished product!

The icing is very maple-y, coffee tasting. It's good, but I will probably try some other icing recipe next time just for something different. Oh, and her orange rolls look insanely tasty. You better believe I'll be trying that recipe soon!