Sunday, January 31, 2010

Nathans FIRST Birthday Party!

first let me start with special thanks to melissa from so wonderful, so marvelous for many of the ideas. my other great friend melissa for designing the party invitation and being the photographer for our cake smash session. and lastly my cousin rachel for the invitation wording idea. lets get started...


here's the invitation... it was printed on heavy photo cardstock with a 5x7 ready to frame picture of nathan on the back.



a few weeks before his actual birthday, we had a cake smashing photo shoot for memoir sake.
here was the birthday boys party attire. the stovetop hat i made and the shirt was purchased on etsy.

his gifts from mom and dad were 3 dr seuss dvds i picked up at target ($5 each!) and a new swing for our swingset in the backyard.
this is pretty self explanatory ;) cat in the hat cupcakes, starbelly sneetches cupcakes, one fish two fish cupcakes and just cotton candy cupcakes. word of caution with the cotton candy, it melts in about 1 hr. so put it on shortly before you plan on serving them.
food... we kept it simple. pull apart pork sandwiches, potato salad, chips and salsa, and lemonade.

favor bags... i made 25 stovetop hats, found the swirly suckers on oriental trading, the horton socks and mini notepads were from the target dollar section MONTHS ago, color goldfish crackers, made toothfairy bags, and found a dr. seuss activity book that i shrunk down in size and printed out. the cat in the hat tags on the gift sacks were also from oriental trading.
my decor was anything bright in color. tried to stick with red, blue, orange, and lime green. i found the plates/napkins at the dollar tree with coordinating plastic tablecloths. i wanted huge balloons! i found 36 inch ones (standard is 12 inches) at party city and tied them to my centerpieces down the center of each table. my centerpieces were dr seuss stuffed characters i picked up at kohls. $5 each w/ coordinating book :) i found the idea on melissas blog for the sign-in book. i found a happy birthday to you dr seuss book at barnes and noble. i printed up a sign that read... "WAIT! stop here you see, and write a very special message to me! a birthday wish, or just say hi, to your very favorite one year old guy. on the front, or back, or any pages. it will be something i will treasure all my ages."
of course the cat in the hat himself watched over our party. he stood over 5 ft. tall and was made out of cardstock. also found that at oriental trading. the birthday banner i made myself just using scrapbook paper. i found a dr seuss font called grinched for the letters and used the remaining cat in the hat tags as spacers. now here's the best and worst idea i came up with. i wanted to make a "bunting" (aka flag banner) that would wrap around the entire picnic shelter. in the end i absolutely LOVED it! but it was SUCH a pain to make! the picnic shelter was around 200 ft all the way around. that would have required LOTS ($40 worth) of bias tape. so i made bias tape the old fashion way, with 3 yds. of white fabric cut and sewn into one SUPER long 2 inch strip and a steaming hot iron. the flags were 7 1/2 inches wide and i had 12 yds of bright colorful fabrics in stripes and polka dots. it took me about 4 days to make the whole thing, LOL.
he loved opening presents and especially all the tissue paper! on the invitation i had put no gifts required! santa was very generous with nathan this year! with christmas being a month ago, this boy really didn't need much of anything. but if they must bring a gift, he is in need of clothes and books for the coming year. and that's all he got :) lots of adorable and awesome outfits and many many cool books!
just a few of the guest...
all in all there were 50 people total who came to show their love for my baby boy, who isn't a baby anymore :( i am SO thankful to have such great friends and family who drove many hrs. to attend. can't wait to do this again next year! now to start thinking of a theme....lol...

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fabric Scrappy Sandals

people wonder how i'm able to craft with 2 children... well here's a typical everyday scene at my house...

jk jk, obviously! the real reason how i'm able to craft is i have no clue! LOL. my son is 12 months old and i babysit an 18 month old. they just play very well together. i can see the whole living room from my dining room and have a baby gate that keeps them on that side. and my sewing machine table and all my projects are spread all over the dining room, counters, piano, hutch and everything. and my husbands ok with the mess ;)

now onto todays craft... fabric scrappy sandals

cut fabric scraps 1x6 inches. tie twice around the sandal strap. once finished, i trimmed them a tad shorter to even them out. tada, all done.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

more climbing from nathan. this time its the baby gate thats suppose to keep him on the other side.

Tooth Fairy Bags

i just love these tooth fairy bags! my version is a little different than the original version i saw here at the purl bee. for one, i used my sewing machine, not hand stitching. second, the raw edges are on the inside, not the out. third, i used ribbon instead of yarn. and lastly, fourth, i sewed the tooth all the way around, not like their pocket version. but hey, it works :)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Brookes SWEET 16

you know you're getting old when you go to a sweet 16 birthday party and its not for your friend, but for their daughter! LOL.
the word sweet was taken literally!

there were yummy treats EVERYWHERE!
um hello... can you say chocolate dipped oreos and cupcakes. YUMMY!!!






birthday girl with her daddy
nothin like a little sister spoiling your big moment :(

weekend events

i attended a babyshower. here's ms. preggo with my sister :)
the 2010 kickoff for relay for life was on saturday. the energy there was amazing!


there were inspirational speakers. music and dancing. and good food :)
i've kept my resolution of donating at least 1 blanket/month to the project linus organization. this month i was able to donate 5. next month i'm shooting for at least 4.
i made a girlie version of a car seat tent. i added fabric flowers on the handles. i love this fabric! if you're peaking lisa, this ones already on it's way to you. and i may have thrown in a minkee/flannel blanket because i'm a sucker for cute babies :) hope she likes them!
i know 2 women who just had their first baby boys and were talking about peepee teepees and how they can't find them in a store and don't want to order them. so i whipped some up for them. so if they're peaking at this, these are on there way to you too :)

Monday, January 11, 2010

pictures of whoelse but our nathan :)

monkey backpack

spaghetti warpaint went to the front door and started waving bye to me :(

climbing stage

he slept in his crib for the first time EVER earlier this week. yep, he's a few weeks shy of 1 yr old.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

jaren and i joined a team that is participating in the 24 hr. relay for life in may. more info later on this. but we are looking for people to "sponsor" us. for $10 you can order a luminary that lights the track as we walk during the night. the luminary is is made out to someone you know in honor of or in memory of. cancer has affected my family and i'm looking forward to participating in this event and raising some money :)
i made a swaddling blanket. it's kinda hard to tell exactly what it looks like since i don't have a small enough baby or even a babydoll to test it out.

here are the pictures from the pattern...
if interested in purchasing the pattern.... it's found here at while they sleeps etsy store

nathans FIRST birthday is coming up. any guesses what the theme of his party is? i have 24 more of these to make.... ugh! jaren made playdough cookies on saturday
nathans learning how to undress himself. and today jaren caught him on top of the coffee table. yikes!
oh and here's a new one... lets smear our dinner all over our head!