Baby it's cold outside

My partner in crime is having a baby boy this March!! I was blessed with the fun of planning the baby shower! It was a small and simple but memorable morning none the less!! The catch? She is the one person I brainstorm ideas with for all things crafty and the day was a surprise.  Uggghhh.... Literally one of the hardest secrets I've ever had to keep. I picked the theme in October.  I knew it was a winter baby shower and I wanted the theme to be something original.  Drum roll please....the theme was BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE!!! I went with a silver & baby blue color scheme.  Because it was so close to the Holidays, I had a LOT of help from friends to pull it off. These ladies were amazing!! I literally sent out an email with all my crazy ideas and one by one they signed up to do each part.  Anyone that knows me knows I can be a bit of a control freak when it comes to parties.  I see a vision and I get stuck in it so although it was hard for me to give up control and delegate, everything came out even better than I Imagined!! 

I was obsessed with the idea of a Hot Cocoa bar.  The ingredients in the jars with pretty little chalkboard style tags were sheer perfection! A few weeks ago on my drive back from picking up my kids from school, I saw a freshly cut birch tree in the street and knew it would make for pretty scenery.  My son grabbed a bunch of limbs and my hubby cut it up into pieces to use around the table.  The Rosemary is from my backyard. We used sprigs here and there which not only looked pretty but made the room smell fantastic.  The sign was found in one of my many trips to Joann's in the Christmas section.  It was so perfect I may or may not have jumped up and down in the aisle. 😬

At the entrance we placed this cute little sign I designed and little note cards for the guests to leave a message for baby.

Next to the note cards were these yummy sugar cookie snowflakes my hubby and I made the night before.  the tags read: Thank you snow much for celebrating Steve & Julissa's little snowman! Baby Boy Large.

For the table, I wanted a chic winter wonderland. Because there were only 8 of us ladies coming we were able to set a beautiful table scape.  We used metallic blue chargers from Michaels and white plates.  More of the white birch branches and rosemary sprigs.  I cut tons of silver and blue snowflakes using my Silhouette Cameo and strung them with fishing wire to the chandelier so that the snowflakes had a falling effect.  Something we never see here in California.  The snowman used here and on the cocoa bar were ones I already had.  The table cloth I already had as well.  You can't tell in the picture but it is a silk and organza cloth with silver snowflakes embroidered.  I never use it because I always worried the kids will stain it so it was nice to take it out for once!

 

For the napkin rings again I used my trusty Silhouette Cameo to cut out these very intricate snowflakes.  I bought cheap plain silver rings at the dollar store which I think were in packs of 5 and glued the snowflakes to them.  You can also tell in this picture that we wrapped the glasses for our mimosas with silver wire star garland and little silver bells. 

Elf on the shelf 2014 part 3

EIt's sad to see this tradition once again winding down for the year. I so look forward to Bob's visits! Sometimes I wish he could stay all year! 

Day 21: Bob is looking very festive in his ugly Christmas sweater! Oh and what is that in his hand? Our Christmas card! I'm glad it arrived in time for him to enjoy it!

Day 22: We ordered pizza the night before after our sons Christmas recital.  Bob ordered some too! I hope he tipped the driver well for coming all the way from the North Pole!

Day 23: Bob brought the kids a photo book with all the things they did last year! This one has actually become a tradition!

Day 24: The littles camped out in the living room to kick of the first night of Christmas vacation.  When they woke up they realized Bob and his friends joined the camp too! Their tents are books with napkins on top. They sat around a firesharing stories all night!

Day 25: Bob dressed our bathroom mirror up with Christmas bows!

Day 26: It's a bird! It's a plane! No, It's Super Bob!!! He is trying to fly with out ceiling fan! Oh and in case you were wondering, we never turned the fan on but gave it a nice manual push so the kids could see him "fly! 

Day 27: Bob and I both hope the kids never grow up! I made his Peter Pan costume using little felt scraps! 

Day 28: It's Christmas eve!! Bob is all set to take the reins to night and help Santa out!

Day 29: Christmas morning.  Time to say goodbye to this special guy!! He really was so much fun! Goodbye Bob Twinkles! See you next year!!

Elf on the shelf 2014 part 2

I can't tell you how amazing it is to see our littles faces light up every morning when they get up to search for Bob Twinkles! 

Day 11: Our oldest son had a few friends sleep over for his birthday.  Clearly Bob wanted in on the fun so he made a sleeping bag out of one of my slipper socks. 

Day 12: Bob is all wrapped up! This isn't exactly what we meant when we asked you to always be present Bob! Silly elf!

Day 13: Drag racing with the Toy Story gang! Go Bob!!

Day 14: Bob brought a cute window cling for the boys to play with!

Day 15: we had a big storm hit California on this day so it's a good thing Bob and Spidey were well prepared! 

Day 16: Bob brought us a gingerbread village! So far he has brought us one every year!

Day 17: it was a warning day.  Bob was not happy that the littles room was a mess! 

Day 18: Bob decorated our tree with candy canes from his shop in the North Pole!

Day 19: We found Bob hanging out in our gingerbread village!

Day 20: We found Bob trying to hide in this reindeer disquise! Him and his reindeer games!! 

Elf on the shelf 2014

Ok so I'm a little late posting these but let me tell you, they will be well worth the wait!!

Day 1: Bob returned with a bang this year.  He was in the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade!! 

Day 2: he brought the littles official elf jammies from the North Pole!

Day 3: Hot air balloon rides!! He made it using a plastic cup, lantern and ribbon. Bob is so creative!

Day 4: sunday football in his own little chair! I just love his jersey!!

Day 5: Bob brought us a tiny magic snowman that grows in water! It was so fun to watch it get bigger each day!

Day 6: Bob built this amazing cup pyramid with cups!! Amazing!

Day 7: Our oldest son turned 18! So Bob was hanging out on Nicks bed complete with hat and blower.  Looks like he's ready to party!

Day 8: Bob made me a shopping list.  He sure does love sugar.

Day 9: Bob on safari! He must have seen pics from our safari party!

Day 10: Bob found the rare Frozen disks for Disney Infinity so that the boys can make a winter wonderland in the game!

Christmas Card wreath

This was a super easy, quick and even better cheap craft!! I bought a quilters ring at Joanns Fabric Store for $1.99.  It actually came with 2 rings. I only used the inside ring so technically you could use the other ring to make a second wreath as a present.  Just a thought!

I started by painting my ring red. I used chalk paint but you could use acrylic.

Then I hot glued the clothes pins to the ring and covered them woth washi tape!!! And that's it!! Easy peesy!!

Ruffle tree skirt tutorial

I have been hoarding this stash of burlap since I threw my son's safari party almost 2 years ago.  When I bought it, I knew I was going to make a ruffle tree skirt after it had served its party purpose.  I have just been procrastinating which may have a lot to do with the fact that I had been recovering from a nasty neck injury.  

Let me start by saying this project is very very time consumming. It took me about 3 days. Probably 8-10 hours total. I did however have to take seceral breaks because of the before mentioned neck injury.  You could probably do it in one days time.  

Things you'll need:

2 yards of red fabric or which ever color you prefer.

2 yards of burlap so 4 yards of material total. I have also seen these made all one color and that looks great too.

Lots and lots of glue sticks. I probably used 10 or more. 

Glue gun.

Fabric glue

Dollar store felt tree skirt for the base

Sewing machine

I started out by cutting all my fabric into 4 inch wide strips.  The red fabric I cut just a smidge wider to allow for a very small hem which I did on my seeing machine.  I only hemmed the edge that would show. For the burlap, not going to sugar coat it, it was messy! I tried to zigzag around the edges to keep it from unraveling but it was just too thick. Then I had a stroke of genius and decided to use fabric glue around the edge that would show.  Once that was done I laid down my dollar store tree skirt upside down and plugged in my glue stick.

Then I carefully hot glued and overlapped each of my layers all the way around the circle.

As I finished each row, I alternated burlap and red fabric. When I got to the center I made a very small ribbon from the red fabric abd glued that around the center to give it a finished look.  

It looked even better once we had our tree up! I seriously can't stop staring at it!! I love it so much!!

Toddler crafts for Halloween: Spider Web

Everyone that knows me knows I love all things kid and all things craft. So if you know my kids they are exactly the same! Be little but think big!! Even if your 3 in my house your covered in paint and glue already.  This morning Drew and I spent at least an hour making spider webs out of a left over paper plate and yarn! I just punched holes all around the plate.  I taped one end of the length of yarn I cut to the back of the plate and watched as he endlessly weaved the yarn in and out of the holes to form different patterns. He would have kept going if we didn't have to leave.  This little craft was also good for developing motor skills valuable for all preschoolers! Now all we need is a spider for our web.  Stay tuned...we might just catch one!!