a few of my favorite things 2 * A BIRTHDAY PARTY *

Up next on the diy menu for Zadie's birthday is this cupcake stand.

I think my crafting theme for this party was keep is simple-sweet

(an old saying from my cheerleading days- don't judge. ;)

If you missed my last post about the painted glass vases you should check it out.

I let you know in that post that the color theme for the par-tay was turquoise and pink.

This cake stand does not exactly fit in the color theme- but I thought it was close enough

and these plates... yes i said PLATES

were far to cute to pass up. 

I have seen similar ideas to this cake stand on other blogs where all the supplies were bought at the dollar store.

Unfortunately I do not have a dollar store near my house that I feel real safe going into...*insert* ghet-to 

One of the few negatives to living downtown in my city.

If you choose to buy your supplies at the ole' dollar tree you could definitely save some mullah,

But seeing as I only spent a whopping 10 bucks on this cutie...

and I didn't have to paint it...

I'll stick to Target :)

I used two large and one small plastic plate from Target.

Then I buggied (totally a verb) over to the candle section and bought two glass taper candle holders.

When I got home I whipped out my handy dandy E600 and glued those bad boys together.

(I tried hot glue at first and it was NOT strong enough!)

It goes a little something like this:

large plate

glue

candle stick

glue

large plate 

glue

candlestick

glue

small plate

Wha~LA!

This little cutie was born.

Here is how it looked at the party

Just perfect.

Much love

Linking to these great parties!

a few of my favorite things *A BIRTHDAY PARTY!*

I mentioned recently that my oldest goose just turned two.

Young birthdays are sort of tricky for me because Zadie can't tell me what she wants the theme of the party to be.

I mean, she LOVES Curious George, but the idea of a yellow and red theme didn't really appeal to me.

Plus all the game ideas I came up with for that theme were just to old for Zadie,

and a birthday is meant to celebrate the birthday girl so we should be doing things she enjoys right?!

cutie putooty!

So the decision was made- it would be a day all about Zadie.

I went with the theme "A Few of Zadie's Favorite Things"

The color theme was pink and turquoise...

and it turned out PERFECT!

The next few post I am going to share some of the things I made for the party.

Today I want to show you a super simple project that I am in. love. with.

I wanted to put fresh flowers on the food table but I didn't have anything to put them in

luckily I had two glass bottles just lying around ;)

I used this tutorial and it was so informative!

I mean glue and food coloring...

I like that supply list.

And if you don't mind an itty bitty picture,

this is what they looked like on the table.

A little bottle with big impact!

<3

Play time :: clean painting

I decided to start a new little feature here on this ole' blog.

It's called Play Time because, well, everyone love to play right!

This is a space were I will share what I have been up to with my girls.

You know, a few ideas to help you keep your little's entertained and learning.

I'll also tell you the age my goose was when we tried the activity,

just in case that helps you any :)

***  ***  ***

18 months +

We love to paint in our house...not walls 

(although we have painted EVERY wall in our house at least two times in three years!)

instead we love to pretend that we are artist!

This is generally a pretty messy process. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a mess when we are having a good time

But this way of painting was a nice break!

I just put a couple of squirts of paint into a large ziplock bag.

Then I layered it on top of a white sheet of paper (for contrast) and taped it down.

It was so easy to set up.

The goose was a a little wary at first but that soon passed.

Soon we were practicing shapes and colors,

having a great time.

Can't you tell :)

I think as she gets older this would be a fun activity to use to explore how some colors are created by mixing two color, or even a fun way to practice letters and numbers.

The possibilities are limitless!

Have fun playing!

erasable weekly calendar { Tutorial }

Today was back to school day where I live.

Thank goodness that doesn't effect me anymore/yet!

Oh I hated those first day of school nerves when I was a teacher.

As a mother,  I am TOTALLY not ready to send either of my children off to school.

They  need to stay with this mamma for.ev.er.

(Today I feel that way. Tomorrow I may be willing to pay someone big money to take them ;)

I know back to school means busy. busy. busy.

I made this little beauty a couple of weeks ago and it has been a life saver.

a weekly calendar

erasable

cute

Yeah, I'm loving it.

You want to make one too?

First go find a frame with 7 or 8 openings.

If you are lucky- you'll find one on clearance like I did. Whoop!

Take the mat out of the frame and cut the burlap about one inch larger than the mat on all sides.

Fold the burlap over onto the back of the mat and glue down (I used hot glue).

Be sure to snip your corners so they don't end up to bulky.

Your mat should look like this from the front once you are done.

Take your scissors and cut from the center of each frame to the corners.

Fold each piece of  burlap back and glue. Trim the excess burlap off.

This is what your mat will look like when your done.

Pretty pretty :)

Use a picture (the size of your frames) to cut out the scrap book paper.

I used the paper that came with the frame- you know the one with all the random smiling people- to tape my scrap book paper to.

Paint the frame white.

Put it all back together and Wha-La ~

You have a cute new calendar!

I hope this helps make your busy school year run a little more smoothly :)

Much love

Birds of a feather

Do you watch Portlandia?

I tried to resist.

I fought the good fight and told Brent it is too stupid..

a total waste of time.

Then this episode aired and I was sold.

And a little embarrassed because I immediately kind of like anything that has a bird on it.

Gotta hate when I'm typical. ;)

Anyhoo, a friend of mine had a birfday

(yeah I said birfday... it's what all the cool kids are saying)

and I made her this sweet necklace.

Now don't look to close.

I am a newby at this jewelry making game

and man am I hooked!

It is so much fun!

I got the idea for the lace pendent from my favorite local jeweler.

She was selling something similar at the farmers market a few weeks ago.

I would have LOVED to support her but it was a wee bit to pricey for me.  

Sad day.

The other two pendants came in a pack of three.

I picked the two I wanted and then I shortened the chain on one of them to make it a little more asymmetrical.

My friend loved her necklace.

I did to (I really wanted to keep it!)

Do you like it? Do you want to know how I made it? I was thinking about making one for myself. So, if your interested I'll take some pictures. Let me know!

xoxo

I love to party at all these fun places!

I have bell peppers coming out of my... :)

(photo via)

This is absolutely how I feel right now!

My hubster picked 50- yeah you heard right- 50

bell peppers from the garden last week.

And that was not the first picking...

or the last.

Guys I just may turn into a bell pepper soon.

I am currently sitting on my couch with my feetsies up

for the first time all day!

I have been using up the bounty of my garden.

Yum!

50 bell peppers down...

and there are still more a-coming!

I wanted to share a quick run down of how I preserve my peppers in case any of you are looking for some ideas.

1. Freeze

I blanch the peppers (though I just read this is not necessary) then I chop them up all different ways- I leave some whole too- lay them out on cookie sheets then pop them in the freezer.

When they are nice and frozen I pop them off the sheet and put them into freezer bags.

This is my favorite way to save them because half the prep work is done when I need to use them in a

 recipe.

2. Roast

Seed and slice the peppers then stick them under the broiler in the oven until their skin is a little chard and bubbly (just a few minutes).

Let them cool and peel the skin off.

Then follow the same freezer instructions as above.

All you have to do is thaw these bad boys out and you have instant yummy-ness for all your sandwiches and pizzas!

3. Cook

Yesterday I made this tortilla soup and popped it in the freezer for a busy day.

Tonight for dinner I made mexican stuffed peppers (recipe below) and I had enough filling for dinner tonight, lunch tommorow, and a batch for the freezer!

4. Preserve

I am a newby in this department so I only tried one this year, green tomato relish.

The recipe is delish-

Now all we have to do is wait and see if I actually canned them right!

mexican stuffed peppers

6 large bell peppers

(I used peppers from my garden and it filled 10)

1 cup of cooked brown rice

1 lb ground beef (local if you can find it)

1 can of black bean rinsed and drained

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies

1/2 c frozen corn

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

1 c. mozzarella cheese

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

Brown the beef in a large skillet. Drain. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer until most of the liquid is gone about 20 minutes. 

While that is cooking cut the tops off of the bell peppers and remove the seeds. Trim a little off the bottom of each bell pepper to help them stand upright.

Find a dish that the peppers fit nice and snug inside of and place them in it. Put a layer of rice in the bottom of each pepper and then fill the rest of the pepper with the filling. Layer the cheese on top of each pepper.

Cover with foil and and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer.

(To freeze complete all the steps, but do not add the cheese. Put in a freezer safe container and store.)

So do you have any tips recipes to  share for my next batch?

I need all the help I can get!

a month of celebrations

The past 30 days have been full of celebrations for our family.

The hubster and I celebrated five years of marriage.

Mattie got to celebrate 6 months of life as the sweetest baby on the planet.

Brent had his ten year high school reunion.

And we all celebrated Zadie's 2nd birthday.

Pretty Amazing month.

I am truly blessed!

So, now I have a 0,1,2, and 3 year old-

you know, dogs included ;)

Here are some pictures from our latest photo shoot.

Don't let these pictures deceive you any...

This shoot went so poorly my photographer didn't charge me.

Well we bought a really yummy pizza for dinner because we were all pretty frazzled!

(Such a pretty girl)

(This is really the best picture we got together)

( we were already an hour past Mattie's bedtime when the shoot began- Mommy fail)

(She was such a trooper though :)

(I love that little face)

(My high school sweetheart)

(She was so tired)

(This is part of the reason the shoot when so bad.

If water is near Zadie HAS to be in it.)

So it has been an incredible month,

but it has also been exhausting.

My month of no sleep has now caught up with me and I am in the bed sick.

Do me a favor will ya?

Enjoy this beautiful day for me please!

xoxo