The Boys space themed 7th birthday party

Warning lot's of pictures ahead!!! We had a BLAST (pun totally intended!) But sleep overs!!! That's for the birds I NEVER want to do that again and in my opinion every one was well behaved!!

sign posted on front door

Birthday Boy! he chose the shirt :O

Favors:Milky way fun size, glow sticks, space erasers and other fun things :D

My BABY!!! Handmade paper mache moon pinata!!! It turned out perfect!!!

Cake pops: I used colored candy melts and tooth pics to create continents and gasses etc....

Shooting star cheese

Flying saucer crackers

Alien Head grapes

Rocket Fuel

"Meat"eors

Party central

The crew minus the boy - he was having a moment!

She dressed her self! I did make her some adorable ruffle space pants - no go!

game: Pop the alien -Green balloons with alien faces drawn on stuffed with candy :D

Some of them were extra tricky!

DOG PILE

Glow stick dance party!

Pinata time!

Gluten free cake pops: easy peasy - I use gf cupcakes from whole foods much em up with the frosting on roll them into a ball and dip in candy coating each cupcake makes about four which is great for her!

the moon cake pop complete with alien dude!

The Mrs! Me the party maker, cleaner upper, baker etc...

so much boy girl stuff in 1st grade its unreal!

Moon shoes!

Awe

Sweet girls no boys party would be complete with out them :D 

  

Logan and his BEST bud!

Happy Birthday to my little man! Your an amazing smart handsome mix of two of the greatest people on earth if I must say so myself! It was a BLAST to celebrate another wonderful milestone in my little mans life! looking forward to more....with maybe less party ;)

Enjoying one of his gifts, a book about space ~ me enjoying my favorite moment of the day with him....I adore the end of my days with this little guy, thought I should finally capture the moment just the other night! This picture is burned in my heart forever!

Sweet Practically Free Art

Cell phone Pollaroid action ;)

This weekend I cleaned and purged my sweet little ladies room after an awe inspiring visit to another equally as sweet(type1) friends house. Said friends room was so organized the toys were out of sight and just seemed so much more serene then Ava's toy isle style bedroom (More pics of her new sweeter more serene bedroom soon). Upon cleaning up and purging I realized she has NO art! She did have fun tissue poms but one naughty monkey(the little lady herself) jumping on the bed decided it would be fun to rip them down and jump on them :O ugh terrible 2's! So again why buy when you can DIY and completely personalize ;)

DIY Embroidery Hoop Art: 
Embroidery Hoop ( I got mine at good will for .99cents!)
Fabric(enough to over lap about an inch) my fabric is a vintage sheet I have been holding onto ;)
Other textiles - Ribbon, felt, canvas, buttons, lace, ric rac - here you can go crazy!

For my specific hoop I printed the letter a onto heat and bond. Ironed it onto a small piece of canvas, heat and bonded the back of that and ironed it onto felt then went crazy with my FUN stitches on my machine. a couple of rolled felt flowers and bow and some buttons and it's PERFECT! Lay fabric over inner hoop, lay outer hoop over top and tighten the screw as you pull fabric taught(takes a little finesse mine ended up not being taught as I like), fold over excess fabric and glue down so it will lay flat on the wall.  She loves it too!

DIY Pretend Salt & Pepper

Pardon the cruddy pic, it's early AM :)

I went a little over board on the kids play kitchen accessories. All of it was quick and easy because I had a big list to tackle in order to get it all done by Christmas. Some of the accessories include: Apron's, Chef Hats, Felt Cupcakes, Plastic Eggs, utensils, dishes, cook book, etc,etc....the list goes on and on, a lot of it I made or purchased very inexpensively. My kids especially love the Salt and Pepper (they also love to put salt on their food at the table, the play ones have actually curbed the novelty of real salt shakers;). I thought about making them in felt but wanted them to have sound like real ones, that's when the light went OFF! Dur! Paper! So here's a quick little super satifying fun to play with DIY - you'll be thinking to your self why didn't I think of that!

DIY Pretend Salt and Pepper

Supplies:

Salt and Pepper shakers (dollar store or .97 @ walmart - for the pair)

1 piece ea black and white paper plus a piece of paper to catch punched holes (I used computer paper and kids construction paper)

Hole Punch

Step 1 put your husband to work while he watches sports(he'll love you for this)

Step 2 Have him fold the paper in half and in half again (4x the work in half the time) :D

Step 3 hole punch like crazy onto extra piece of paper (it takes forever this is why you have the hubs do it, you don't want the hand cramp TRUST ME!)

Step 4 use paper as a funnel to pour your salt and pepper in your shakers

Step 5 twist lids on very tightly or if your worried about the little monsters taking them off rub glue around the threads before doing so ;)

You did it!!! They will LOVE it!
The best part?! This whole craft cost me .97cents! What's stopping you now?!
The important stuff! Please do not re-use this tutorial as your own idea - you may however share it all you want and are more then WELCOME to sell any finished products you make using this tutorial(if you have the time and patience to do so!)

This to That! Nasty old cabinet makeover to play kitchen

DIY Play Kitchen

 We had a tiny plastic play kitchen that Ava got a couple years ago which was great but they were quickly out growing it and as much as they play with it I thought about purchasing a good quality wood one but that just wasn't in the budget - so of course we set out to make our own(DIY)! I'll give you a quick break down to hopefully inspire you to do the same and keep the cost down :D
The nasty and I mean NASTY old cabinets are from Re-Store I paid $25 bucks for the pair. I picked the wider one for it's height which we took the kick plate off of so it wouldn't be too tall(we had to add a top and back to it with scrap ply-wood) and I picked the narrower one for the fridge and because it's front some what matched the other(I had my husband add a bottom to it to make it taller and cut half circles out of the front for a retro flair) I am fairly certain these are from the 70's!
Sink aka stainless bowl $7 - Cash and Carry restaurant supply store you'll pay about 30% less then retail.
Paint is country white color place satin - Walmart $16.97 for the gallon and we still have lot's to spare!
Pulls for "oven" and "fridge" Lowes $4.27 ea
Faucet also from restore $5 bucks(we had to check back several times to find one we wanted, so be patient!)
Oven burners are soccer ball wood things from Joann's $1.27 each flipped upside down and spray painted with black spray paint then nailed on with the nail gun.
Oven Light - Tap light from dollar store
Most everything else we had! So if your looking for something that I didn't mention please feel free to ask. Just takes a little creativity and man power to create your own custom Kitchen! And my kids LOVE this thing. The WHOLE neighbor hood loves it! 

So cost break down -

25
7
16.97
4.27x2
1.27x4
________
about 60 bucks!

In all fairness I did go a little crazy since it was a Christmas gift and purchased a few new things for them to enjoy! Like the tiny colander(TJ maxx 5 bucks) and kids cook book(goodwill) and I made them matching chef hats and easy Velcro aprons from fabric I owned. The pans are from dollar store and the felt cupcakes I mad too ;) tutorial for that soon! Again, see something I didn't mention just ask ;)


Special Thanks to Papa for coming down here to paint it - aka my professional painter! I don't think we would have finished on time with out him!

Ugly desk re-hab!

Stenciled Desk

First off let me say that I CANNOT believe my husband actually made this craigs-list deal for me. (I hate dealing with craigs-listers as a buyer or a seller I have been flaked out or had an all out bidding war on my computer over a paper bag of baby pajamas!) I was sure he would take one look at it and run the other way but he made the deal and brought it home for I think 20 bucks(we have had it since the spring!) I re-painted it in an antique white paint which I bought for....wait for it......35 CENTS!!!!! Yep that's 35 cent quart of Dutch Boy  paint. It was marked down as a return at Walmart for 2bucks which I was more then OK with paying and it rang up at 35 cents! DEAL I'll take it!

DIY:

1- Find the uggliest wood piece of furniture possible

2- Strip it down with a nasty chemical. Don't by the spray can kind either it's a waste of money and won't strip more then a 2x3 area regardless of what they say. This thing had years and layers of paint! 

3- Sand it, a lot!

4- Paint it, a lot!

5- add new knobs

6- Admire - unless your me! Move on to step 7 ;)

7- Get out your stencil, I found this one at Micheal's its a Martha Stewart stencil(don't forget your coupon! this one is 16 regular price)

8. Gather a stencil brush, baby wipes, tape and paint I used a basic acrylic that was on sale at michaels.

9- Go to town( I mean follow the instructions for you stencil)! It took me a while and I now admire people who can do a whole wall!!!! But the out come is way better and hides the flaws of the old UGLY desk ;)

10- Wait a few more moths to decide if you want to clear coat it ;)

That's it!  A one of a kind inexpensive piece of furniture to fit your decor!

Chevron...Yep I jumped on the hot decor trend! DIY curtains...sort of.

 
Hopefully my kids wont be saying our house looks sooooo 2011 in a few year's ;D right like I won't change the curtains before that!

So I purchased the taupe curtain panel's at Target for 8.99ea. Pretty good deal, except they were almost 2 feet too short! So yea I had high water curtains for over a year trying to decide what to do with them :O

Then I found this fabric on the good ol' WWW I knew I HAD to have it! It was a super deal(on sale apparently) and I found a code for first time purchase's cutting the shipping in HALF.

***I cut my panels apart a 12 inches down, seem ripped the side seems on the curtain about 2 inches down or up on the cut sides so I had all raw edges exposed, measured across the whole width of the raw edge cut and added in my fabric(right side together and repeat for lower half of cut panel), pressed and sewed the hemmed sides and tada!***

My total for "custom" curtains(I have 4 panels...2 window's)....about 60 bucks!
P.S. I have enough scraps from the width for a couple of throw pillow's..woot, woot!

I'm new forgive my lack of blogging...Short, Sweet DIY to make up for it!

*****DIY Printed Pillow with Art Links*****

Who needs front porch pillow's?! Me....really, we don't ever sit on the front porch because we live on a corner (traffic) and can't see the kids playing so I usually sit on the step at the end or the walk way :) maybe I will make a "step" pillow next. But with the sun shining and plants being planted I felt our dingy little chairs needed some froofing...so here it goes!
The cost to me NADA...I have a lot of crap...oops I mean craft stuff :O
The cost to you cheap, cheap, cheap assuming you have a functioning printer or a friend with one...and a sewing machine.
Supplies:
Drop cloth or plain fabric of your choice (I have a ton of drop cloth I attempted to sew a chair cover, it got SCRAPPED!)
Iron on transfer paper
Stuffing (I reused some from old pillow's) I hold onto pillows for the very purpose of re-purposing
sewing machine and supplies
Stay with me it's EASY I promise:
1: Cut 2 squares per pillow 15x15
2: Sew right sides together leaving a 4 inch gap along the bottom center
3: Trim corner's and turn right side out and press
4: Print keep calm freebie and summer freebie onto your iron transfer paper.
5: Trim iron transfer, center on front of pillow make sure hole is on the bottom
6: Iron on per manufacture's direction(my keep calm had an iron incident :O)
7: Stuff and sew hole shut(I HATE hand sewing so I ran it under my machine...not as easy as it sounds stuffed full!)
8: Enjoy...sorry no pic's this was purely an after thought!

More great DIY ideas and CHEAP coming soon....This momma's on a BUDGET!

Painting!

My Brother and Dad came down from Vancouver this weekend to help me break the seal and finally put some paint up in our new house. I always wanted to paint Ava's room pink with pink stipes but I seriously lacked the knowledge and skills to pull it off so I was thankful they "volunteered". So the recipe for her gorgeous room is:

1 gallon satin Alysum paint color from Sherwinn williams (wall color)
1 quart satin Loveable paint also sherwinn williams (stripes)

painters tape and skill!!

one good tip I learned is once we had our tape up for the stipes you go over the inside edges with the wall color, that creates crisp clean lines for the other color. Happy painting!

Questions? Feel free to ask I am glad to help!