“In a field of horses be a Unicorn” – That is definitely the best way to describe my daughter. Perfect example here on her birthday as everyone wore Unicorn headbands that I crafted she had to wear her tiara.
This year was geared for thinking about the mystical unicorn and creativity. The imagination of this child is starting to flourish at the age of 6 and I can already tell she will soar with ideas.
Here are some of our party ideas and images – vendor credits will be listed on the bottom.
Each favor bag was crafted by myself, none were alike so no fighting girls š
Here are some of the crafts we incorporated for this party –
Pencil Water colors
String your own candygum ball necklace for your unicorn
Make your own Magical glitter confetti bottles
No party is complete without a game – What is more perfect than ‘Pin the horn on the Unicorn’
The BIG surprise for the event was to have a real life white UNICORN come – but instead we got a pony unicorn due to the weather apparently the white unicorn couldn’t fly in the rain as we had some issues that day with showers. In the end I don’t think the girls minded the pony unicorn and even stuck through it all cold and wet – excited as ever!
The expression on my daughter’s face was priceless!
I hope you enjoyed this themed event as much as we did!
I ran across some adorable crayon melt projects. Truthfully, I had a hard time deciding which project we would attempt from social media sites like pinterest, facebook and youtube. After much deliberation I finally made my decision and we used this one here. From Katarina’s Paperie.
The only difference in my post here that you will not see in the link above is I will give you my tips for making this project go a little smoother for us 1st timers š
Use an exact knife and cut the crayon labels straight down for easy removal when breaking crayons apart.
Definitely make sure you over fill your Wilton heart molds with more crayons than less or your crayons will be shallow and smaller.
Make sure you keep your oven on 225 and bake for 30 minutes ( I found a slow steady temperature makes a better crayon instead of cranking the heat up)
Do NOT put them in the freezer , let them sit for 3 hours or more you will get bubbles in the crayons
After your crayons are ready to be peeled and popped out of your tray you might experience a small sinking hole or some unevenness in the crayon heart , you may need a peeler as shown to make your crayon level for pasting onto the paper valentine.
Use double sided heavy scotch tape with weight for 1.4 lbs to hold into place.
Use zip-locks and cut them for a clear cello look or use cello envelopes and cut to shape. Fold over access and use decorative washi tape (as shown)
We separated by color.
Pictured above is after our melt.
Here I shaved a section down to make even so it could adhere to the card evenly.
I recommend using scotch guard double sided tape for heavy weight or glue dots.
Result after colors were separated.
I found the clear cello or zip- lock give a nicer appearance than inserting into envelopes. It is also awkward when trying to close a regular envelope.
I hope your Valentines like them as much as we did making them!
This post I wanted to get up in December but it turns out it benefited me to wait after the New Year as I am able to share two sample ideas in one blog post.
Here goes… Some of my friends caught some images of my daughter on my personal Instagram account with her 1/2 birthday and asked me a bunch of questions about her attire. Yes you read that correct. 1/2!Ā My daughter could not wait to turn 4 1/2 as most of her friends are older than her and apparently when you are 4 every second of getting more mature and independent counts! Oh to be young again , because all I do is try forget my age when people ask!
With some thought and deliberation I decided that my daughters excited feelings of this day has to be acknowledged in a tasteful way without breaking the bank.Ā After all each moment of a child’s life should be celebrated if they care enough about it enough because you’ll never get it back again.
My simple ideas with some pizzazz were hanging glitter pink balloons, organizing a surprise special friend over for a play-date. I also made crown window sprinkle nutella sandwiches, printed castle and crown images for color time and because it was Christmas time our Elf “Ellie” got dressed in her princess dolls dress. I used bracelets as a necklace for added glamour & blew up a water balloon and put it on a chocolate pop stick. When it came time for cake we had 1/2 of a cake for dessert.
*note candle -melt wax and stick š
What I also did was do a totally affordable DIY personalized bodysuit for that day that and that is what I am going to address now from that one famous photo on instagram.
What you will need :
1 plain bodysuit (any color)
Iron on Stencils or stick on letters (note stick on are temporary will not wash). I chose Gold.
Gold Glitter optional
Elmer’s glue (only if you chose to add glitter)
Fancy tutu of your choice
Above you will note that I mixed both stick on numbers and Glitter.
Lay Flat as pictured. Here I started to make for the slash in the half the outline of the lower case letter l.Ā I than realized as I started to work that I had an extra gold arrow and changed it later.
I than used Elmer’s glue and wrote in script “Birthday”
Shake off excess glitter and dry overnight. Voila – Your done!
Below I gave another friend of ours the idea of DIY for our friends birthday. She swore she couldn’t do it. I assured her she could and make it fabulous. Only this was not a half Birthday but Riley’s actual Birthday!
Mom went to Michael’s as I suggested, got some iron on numbers and letters found a sparkle tutu and was the talk of the town for the day. Kudos’s to Riley’s Mom! Great job. Glad I was able to inspire you! Keep following me for great tips and tricks I have another one coming this week. Promise š
This year as hard as it was for our family personally. We had a lot of losses this year so unexpected. I was not going to let that get in the way of traditional Thanksgiving. I still did our typical fixings and made myĀ Spiced – Cured Turkey just as Martha explains here. It happens to be my favorite recipe. The only thing I do admittedly do with this recipe is I will cut back on the portion of the salt by almost 1/2 as I am not a lover of that and try not to avoid it at all costs.
Our table definitely was not as elaborate as had in the previous years but it still was a pretty tablescape.
I never know what flower will strike my mood, I just walk into a florist see what flowers they have that I think will work and home come and create.
All of my dinnerware was found by antiquing and I have been by collecting by stalking craig’s list, IG accounts, ebay and thrift stores. This year’s find was the bread plate. The images are hard to see in the photograph but they were gold foil swirls. As luck would have it anything gold foil is trending.
Ofcourse we cannot forget Ellie the Elf that comes out each year on Thanksgiving. Look closely to spot her š
I can still say we are truly blessed regardless of this years heartaches and loss. We have such wonderful support group from our family and friends. Our daughter is the Greatest gift of all and that is all I can ask for ā„ Happy Thanksgiving from Ours to Yours!
What is trending? #SugarSkulls. This year I gave our theme a bit ofĀ a festive feminine edge for our Halloween ‘Spook-caular’ event with Candy Corn colors and Sugar Skulls. Ā After all I cannot really spook the kids at 4 & 5Ā years old with real creepy goblins and goolish treats.Ā I would say this was a perfect compromise with lots of fun traditions from the previous years.
Some of our activities included, decorating pumpkins , doughnut string game, Halloween egg hunt with festive prizes for the occasion inside, bobbing for apples, halloween Tattoos, and a special appearance from Raggedy Ann from Clowing around town which was super symbolic to me this year š
The cookie witch hats was an idea I saw on pintrest, however they were all milk and or dark chocolate that I saw, and I thought why not make it white chocolate to match the stripes on the cookies. The red velvet cookie was my daughter’s idea instead of the typical coco color on the fudge stripes. It definitely was an experiment.
Our little goolish guests were given orange, silver and black bat beaded necklaces that were put on each plate and besides the sweet treats and crafts they also took home a fun pumpkin tissue surprise. That you can learn how to make yourself with this tutorial. I had to try it out the moment I ran across it because it was super adorbs from One little project at a time.
Here is a free printable for the NO TRICKS, JUST TREATS sign. Click here.
I was very busy entertaining all of our friends so please forgive me for not capturing every detail. Some of the Mommy’s were kind enough to share some shots they got from the day. Here is one of the kiddie table.
Credits: Assorted small festive cookies,Ā Candy Corn Marshmallows, Pumpkin Marshmallows, Chocolate eye balls – William Sonoma. Candy Corn Marshmallows dipped in Chocolate – (directions on previous post) , Devil food organic cupcakes with marshmallow frosting , coconut candy apples, clementine and celery for pumpkins, chocolate covered pretzels, witch cookie hats & chocolate sugar skull wafersĀ –dearjeni. Pumpkin face cheese: The laughing cow.
My goal next year will be to have our party weeks before so that maybe you can grab some ideas prior to Halloween. I hope you enjoyed reading about our fantabulous day!ā„
Who doesn’t love candy corn? That candy that is oh so terrible for you but yet also such fun sugar triangle to pop in your mouth.Ā I do admit it is a bit of my guilty pleasure and I still eat them by color to this day.Ā So this year’s Halloween theme is inspired by Candy Corn and I will post photos of our annual ‘Spook-tacular’ event after it is over. In the meantime, as I prep for the party to come and our pre-k party I decided to make treats for the whole class to take home and ofcourse the teachers.
They came out quite darling if you ask me. I just added a little fun touch with festive stickers that were 60% off from Joanne’s since we are vastly approaching Halloween and everything is on sale.
The Teacher prints you can downloadĀ here .TeacherTreat
I am sure whomever you decide to make these for weather it is your child , child’s class or teacher they will enjoy these pretty wrapped treats.
*tips on the Marshmallows
-make sure your orange chocolate is completely dry before you decide to add the yellow chocolate.
– colored sprinkles must be put on one color at a time as chocolate is still wet.
– I used coconut oil instead of crisco to make the chocolate consistency easier to work with. The bonus is it much more healthy for you and your family!
Here we are late September and finally in Pre-K.Ā I received some papers in my daughters backpack from the teachers and it was requested that all outerwear should be labeled. I thought back toĀ my Mom taking a black sharpie and making a graffiti like name and or initials on my jackets and truly thought I have to do better than this. How could I make a label that would not destroy her beautiful clothes with an updated look? Than it came to me…
Solution – Iron on ribbon labels. These came out simply adorable and my ‘princess’ really enjoyed the customization that I put into it.
I started by creating my template in Photoshop, than I used the “place” tool for the crown. I have made the template now available for my fans here š So you can now open it up and just type in the name you want with custom font for your princess or prince. You can also take out the crown and add your own clip-art with the “place” tool.
After I printed the template I cut to fit the ribbon strips.Ā Now,Ā because I am a thriftier and save all scraps of ribbons I was able to use natural colored heavy ribbon and some white silk ribbon that came with some napkins I purchased – SCORE!Ā Ā Therefore that eliminated the purchase of a roll of ribbon for this project.Ā Ā Follow the Avery instructions for iron on transfer and it’s important to wait for the cool time. You can even leave the back of the strips on and peel when your ready to use them.
Some tips –
Make sure you use your ‘free transform tool’ to flip your font to horizontal for that mirror image.
Just be sure that when you cut the template you cut off all the black as I made the mistake of missing some and it ended up on my design. (take note to the first column on the lft side on the bottom you will note the black on the ribbon)
You can attach on the back or make them like a tab for the sides of the garment.
I hope you enjoy my free template I created for you little pretties and feel free to comment and let me know how yours turned out. š
Each year during the summer months I get the privilege to pick and collect beautiful hydrangea’s from my neighbors property. This year I felt it was long overdue that I should repay my sweet friends with creating a wreath with drying the hydrangea’s.Ā I also was lucky enough to grab enough to make a smaller wreath arrangement for myself. š
What you will need:
1 branch twig vine from any craft store
1 pair of clippers
*optional – faux berry stems as seen in images
To make this wreath I cut the hydrangea to approx 5″ on the steam.
I than started to arrange each hydrangea in order of size and color going from darkest to lightest to create a ombre feel.
I stuck the stems in and twisted them around the back to secure.
I than decided to add some faux green berries I had lying around from a wreath that was falling apart to createĀ texture as well as interest.
Viola !
Wreath 1
Wreath 2
The best part about these wreaths is they will last all year round remaining the same in color. Happy picking!
Sweetapolita is always inspiring me by either making these little pretties myself or to create events with cakes similar to what my eyes lay fest on.Ā I found this Gem just in time before summer ends.Ā I decided am going to attempt this for our neighborhood block party in the next week. I will let you all know how it turns out.
In the meantime enjoy this recipe from Sweetapolita.
Pink Angel Food Cake
Yield: One 10-inch round cake
Classic, light as air, moist pink angel food cake topped with billowy swirls of pink marshmallow frosting and rainbow sprinkles.
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (140 g) cake flour
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (150 g) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (13-14 egg whites), room temperature (left out about 1 hour)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (180 g) superfine sugar (see Sweetapolita’s Notes)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
Few drops pink soft gel paste food color (see Notes)
For the pink marshmallow frosting:
6 egg whites (180 g)
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons (390 g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (45 g) light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or pure vanilla extract)
Few drops pink soft gel paste food color (see Notes)
Rainbow nonpareils, optional
Instructions
Make the pink angel food cake:
Arrange oven rack to the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350Ā°F (180Ā°C). Sift the cake flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt together 4 times. Set aside.
Wipe the bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer with paper towel and lemon juice, to remove any trace of grease. Add the egg whites and beat on the lowest speed until they start to become frothy, about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and sprinkle the cream of tartar over the egg whites. Beat on medium speed until the egg whites thicken just slightly and you can see swirl lines in the mixture from the whisk (very soft peaks), about 1 minute. Add the superfine sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and beat until the egg whites thicken and reach soft/medium, droopy (not stiff) peaks, 1-2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and almond extract, and a few drops of the food colouring, if using.
Remove the bowl from the mixer. Sift the dry ingredients 1/4 at a time on top of the meringue and fold gently but thoroughly with a rubber spatula. Gently transfer the batter to an ungreased 10″ angel food cake pan and smooth the top with a small offset spatula. Bake on the lower rack of the oven until the top of the cake springs back when touched lightly, and when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Don’t check the cake before 35 minutes, or you could deflate your cake, but also try not to over-bake.
Remove the cake from the oven and invert the whole pan onto a wire rack so it cools upside down. Let cool for one hour and then loosen sides around the center and outside of the cake using a thin metal spatula or knife. Gently coax the cake out of the pan onto the wire rack and let cool completely.
Make the marshmallow frosting:
Wipe the bowl and whisk attachment of an electric mixer with paper towel and lemon juice, to remove any trace of grease. Add egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt and simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly but gently, until temperature reaches 130Ā°F (54Ā°C) on a candy thermometer.
Return the bowl to the stand mixer and beat on low speed for 2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 more minutes. Increase the speed to high and beat until it is very thick and glossy, about 5 minutes. Add vanilla and food colour, if using, and beat to combine. Best used right away (for best texture to apply frosting to the cake–after that it’s best enjoyed up to 1-2 days at room temperature).
Frost the cake:
Place the cake wide end down onto a cake plate, board or pedestal. Pile the frosting on top of the cake and use a metal spatula to spread the frosting from the top down. Create swirls using the back of a spoon and sprinkle with rainbow nonpareils). Slice cake using a serrated knife in a gentle sawing motion. Cake keeps at room temperature for up to 2 days. Best enjoyed day 1 (the cake stays very moist for days, but marshmallow frosting is best enjoyed sooner than later).
And Mommy makes them come true! Before I knew it the ripe age of FOUR closed in on me pretty quickly, and without further adieu my daughter dictated the theme before I could blink my eyes. Of course it had to be no other than an Aurora Sleeping beauty tea party. The problem: the boys. How was I going to incorporate this event where it could work for both genders?Ā Ā With some deliberation I figured out that I would make it so our list of boys that would be invited willĀ decide if they will be a Prince or a Knight for the day. Problem solved.
Many fun games like Royal ball and Knight bubbles would keep our little knights and both Prince’s entertained as the girls got dolled up at the Beauty Bar with nothing else but the royal makeup from our latest Disney Trip at the Bippity boppity boo Salon.Ā Each little princess sparkled with jewelry and light up rings and wands that was given.Ā Gems for the face , Tierraās, Crowns for the Prince and Knight Masks were more of the fun accessories for the day for these little cuties.
Surprisingly enough the boys even got into pouring the tea and adding fruit into the cups and china plates…
Only Secretly Mommy took a heart attack every time I watched the passing of the tea take place, not because the tea was hot. (No – I am not that stupid, it was all different flavors of organic chamomile iced tea) it was because I bought vintage teacups. My original thought was to buy all mismatched cups I would not care about, but than the control person that I am couldnāt have mismatched colors since my daughter insisted on āMAKE IT PINKā!
Everything for the event had to be shades of pink, “no blue allowed”, said the Birthday Princess. Such high opinions for such a little age donāt chaā think?
So the purchase of the Vintage china tea set happened at a local tag sale.
The set I got lucky to stumble across had lovely dark pink roses and gold trim. It seemed so fitting since Sleeping Beauty’s nick name is ‘Rose’ – mixed and matched also with a light pink and gold demitasse set that I was so lucky to acquire from a beautiful bridal shower I attended some years ago. Accented with a pretty pink runner with a rose print and cushions to match was a last minute touch in the fabric store’s scrap isle.
I thoroughly enjoyed putting this princess tea party together . It really was a perfect fit for our little sleeping beauty and nothing was more gratifying watching the reaction of our Birthday Princess upon arrival along with all of her friends as they took in all the details of this Enchanted Princess Tea Party.Ā The mini table that my Husband and Father put together the night before was a perfect fit to sit and sip tea on the rose DIY cushions.
Party Highlights: Slipper Tea Cup Relay, Sand Castle Necklace Crafting
Royal Photo booth and a Fairy Godmother who told Story time in the Enchanted Woods.
āIf you dream a thing more than once itās sure to come trueā ~ AuroraĀ
VENDOR CREDITS:
– event design, planning & styling: dear jeni
– name sugar cookie, cake pops, candy apples & cupcakes: Rhapsody Cakes
Ā 
