Some Links for Veda's party How-To's

With the explosion of Pinterest, it not only made my planning for Veda's party more organized, but also a lot more detailed that I would have probably planned on my own. I just kept finding more ideas that I like, and I didn't even end up using all of the ideas I found!

Here are some of the links I found via Pinterest (and others) for some of the decorations for Veda's party:

Tissue Paper Pom Poms: Martha Stewart: I had posted the link several years ago when I used them for Sienna's first birthday party, but thought I should probably post it again, since not everyone will want to surf all the way back to 2009 in the blog.

For these, I cut the tips of the folded tissue paper in a quarter circle, so when opened up, it was a much larger scalloped edge.

*I also used these instructions for the backs of the chairs, except I only used half the tissue paper, since I needed it flat on one side.

Hanging Rose Balls: This link takes you to the site that originally featured the balls, but I couldn't find instructions on their site. They're pretty straight forward though, dollar store wiffle balls, dollar store rose bunches (about 4 per ball), hot glue around each hole, and stick the heads of the roses in them! Hang with ribbon.

Crepe Paper Rose Balls: Follow instructions as posted on blog. I used the twist method for mine. She'll explain two different methods.

The Return of Feed Me Friday: Watermelon Salsa

I just love the summertime. I always have. I grew up in North Idaho most of my life, after spending my major formative years in Southern California. Though my time spent up North WAY exceeds the time spent in sunny California, I think I always carried that need for warmth with me, no matter how many harsh, four-feet-of-snow, ice-crusted-windshields, and power outaged winters I endured. Though strikingly beautiful, the downfall of North Idaho is definitely the lack of tolerable seasons. You get a nice Fall for the first part of September, (though nights are promptly returning to below-freezing temperatures), by October, snow is fair game. Though there can be some beautiful Autumn days, they are short lived, and very cold, even if you have little to no snow fall. There's almost always snow in November, and by the time the holidays are past, you're sick of it, and you still have 2-5 months left! Now, fast forward to April. Spring, right? Not necessarily. My birthday is April 30th, and I had snow the day before my birthday a couple of years ago. Think that's crazy? We had a snow storm in June in 2008. BUT - once the summer weather DOES kick in, it is SO beautiful, and really I always long to be there, when it's warm.

But you can see my desperation for that blessed season of summer in Idaho. You really try to live and soak up every minute of it, knowing it will be taken from you so quickly!

One of the ways I learned to enjoy summer to the fullest is by cooking like it's summer! Tons of fresh foods, produce, and lots of grilling! Though I live in the South now, and my seasons are generally warm year-round, (LOVE it!!) I still enjoy treating the entire summer like a holiday, even though it's much hotter, and much longer lived!

One recipe I came across (while living in Idaho), was this great Watermelon Salsa. I've played with it, and come up with the way I like it best, though it's still pretty straight forward. I originally used it for Sienna's Watermelon Party, which not only fit the theme, but impressed all who partook! ;) I loved it, and hopefully you'll love it too, because it's what's on the menu today for Feed me Friday!

Watermelon Salsa


2-3 cups seeded and coarsely chopped watermelon
3 tablespoons chopped onion
4 tablespoons seeded and chopped Anaheim Chiles
3 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon creole seasoning

In a mixing bowl, combine the watermelon, the chopped onion, and the chile. Evenly coat the mixture with the balsamic vinegar, then the garlic salt, then the creole seasoning. Put into the refrigerator, and let sit at least one hour so the flavors blend. Serve with chips, or whatever your heart desires!

Party for our Little Rose

Well, my baby turned a year old...

Not too sure how I feel about that. On one hand, the stage she's in right now is so cute, and her personality is blossoming everyday. On the other had. I really don't like how quickly all the time is going. 

We decided to celebrate her party this year with a dessert party. No games or activities, because, well...she's one. So we kept it to eating and entertaining each other! 

We celebrated with a rose theme, using rose decorations and (attempting) rose-flavored food. Among my food casualties were these really neat looking rose water meringues. I'd never worked with meringue before, and it just didn't work for me. Something to set as a goal!

Here are the invites. They were printed out as pictures, mounted on cream parchment paper, with a bow in the upper left hand corner. They were also scented like roses!

Our mantle...Pictures of Veda each month 

The entryway

The backs of the chairs

The table

The cake

The labels

Rose Lassi, and Indian yogurt drink

Rose petal jam

The Verdict? Well, she sure enjoyed her cake!

I will also be posting different tutorials and references on how to do some of the things I did for this party. Stay tuned!

Super Easy Top Re-Do

Have I mentioned that I'm tall?

Pretty sure I have. But in case you didn't know... I'm 6'1". Yeah, not just kind of tall.

I have the same issues that every other tall girl has. I have trouble finding pants long enough, sleeves long enough, and most mid-length skirts end up looking like mini skirts on me.

Oh, and then there's my torso. The torso is a story within itself. My torso is WAY long. Like, almost too long for the rest of my body. Really, the length of my torso almost suggests my legs should be a few inches longer...which we all know I don't need...

I have to preface that because, due to my extreme lengths, I tend to have devastating results when items shrink up in the dryer. I need every inch of fabric my clothes can offer, and if any of it gets lost...I'm outta clothes.

Well, unfortunately it happened. A shirt I loved previously ended up in the dryer, and shrunk in the torso length. The cry of death for any of my tops.

The top had previously been one of those loose, boxy-fitting, v-neck shirts. It was a very silky and slinky knit, a peachy pink color, with light grey feathers printed here and there on it. After washing it, I felt like a little kid wearing it, because it was too short, but not intentionally short. Like I was a 5 year old wearing a 3T.

I just couldn't let the shirt go, so I thought about what I could do. Make it into a dress for one of the girls? No. Make it into a shirt-dress? No, it's too loose fitting in the sides for that. But wait... if I were to cut it, and make it intentionally short, then I might be onto something!

I thought about it, went back and forth, decided to scrap the idea in fear of looking too much like Bill S. Preston, Esquire.

But no, I couldn't let it go. The day before Thanksgiving, I made the cut. And the hem. And got one of the easiest, flub free refashions, I'd ever done. No regrets.

So here's what I did:

The shirt...after the wash, before the cut.

The pattern

 As seen below, I cut an arched line from left side to right side. Then I hemmed it, but you don't have to, if you use a top with a knit fabric.

Another variation could include making it a "hi-low" shirt with the arched cut in front, gradually descending into a reverse arch down in the back, so the front is cut high, and the back is cut low.

And here's how it looks all put together:

 These pictures are not the best quality...we are looking into getting a new camera since our camera broke...so these are with my phone, hopefully you get the picture.

Simple Gifts: Memory Game

For Christmas this year, we decided to hand make a lot of the gifts. Some were Simple and easy, yet very appreciated. Some were complicated and made me more angry making them, than I should have been in a happy season. 

Of the simple ones that left me feeling happy and crafty, I found particular joy in the ease of the Memory game.

I used 20 of the thin, unfinished wood sqaures from Michael's. I think they were 25 cents each. 

I also used paint, scraps of fabric from 10 different types of fabric, and mod-podge (I suggest using a matte, it's a little less tacky feeling). 

These are so easy, I feel silly even posting instructions... but I will, just to prove to you haw easy, and how possible it is for anyone to make a cute gift. 

1. Paint your squares front and back with desired color. (Easy enough, right?)

2. While paint is drying, cut out 2 squares of fabric from each of your ten different kinds of fabric. The squares should be slightly smaller than your wood squares, so there's a border around the fabric when you attach it to the wood. If you're concerned about finding ten different types of fabric, look through old clothes, or heck, you could even use scrapbook paper!

3. Apply a layer of Mod-Podge to the square. Add a layer of Mod-Podge to the back of your fabric piece and attach it to the square. Let it dry.

4. Once it is dry, apply mod-podge over entire square, front and back to finish it off. Repeat for all Squares.

I added a few more pairs after this, so not all is shown, but you get the idea. 

I printed out a fun design and covered a box I had, but since not everyone will have a perfect square box lying around, I didn't include this in the instructions!

Completely Simple, right? Now, stop telling me you're not crafty, and go make this for someone!

Dinosaur Party! RAWR!!!

Okay, I am SO not used to posting regularly! I've got to get my system back in order...

Anyways, March was my Little Man's 5th Birthday!! I couldn't believe it! It really doesn't seem possible that 5 years have already come and gone since I became a mother! Isn't he handsome?? ;)

Well, anyone that knows this energetic little tyke, knows that he LOVES dinosaurs! He loves that they run around screaming, so they naturally became his mascot. He begged me to let him be a dinosaur for Halloween. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but we made it work, and he was the happiest kids alive. For his birthday this year, I let him pick his theme for the first time (last year we didn't have a big party because we had just moved, and before that he didn't really get what was going on), and he of course, picked a dinosaur theme.

Now, as a mother who likes to plan parties, I was a little disappointed because I thought, "Dinosaurs?? How do I make that cute??"

But soon my brain started tinkering, and I was finding ideas right and left, that left me thrilled to be putting on a dinosaur birthday, against my expectations!

We went with a grass green, and navy blue striped color scheme, with little tan accents here and there.

These were the invites. Super simple. I created the inside on my computer, had them printed off in 4x6's. Then I took regular 8.5x11 green paper, cut it in half, hamburger style, and placed the picture in the middle, folding each side over the picture for a 3-way fold. Then, I added a strip of teeth I cut out myself onto the top flap, and stuck the name labels that i also created on my computer on the front. Done.

 The decorations...I'll post a tutorial on the green polyhedrons soon. They're super easy and cheap!

Also, though you can't read it, The sign on the meat says "Carnivors", the sign on the veggies says "Herbivores", and the sign on the water says "Watering Hole".

 The Food: Fossil Cake, Jello Roll-ups, Dinosaur Eggs (Oreo truffles), Dinosaur Bones (breadsticks), Dinosaur Cake Pops, and fossil imprint cookies (not shown).

The Favors: Nests with Dino Eggs (jelly beans), and a little toy dinosaur

The Activities (The pictures will speak for themselves)

Super fun, and easy theme. Hope this helps you jump start your planning for your own little dinosaur lover!

Oh, Hi.

Sorry I've been gone so stinkin' long! But I'm very happy to say that we have a connection!!! We live kind of in  the sticks...pretty close to a bigger city, but far enough away from it (I guess 5 miles is super far??) that we don't have any options for internet. Our options included, get a mobile hot spot (poor internet quality and speed), maybe get AT&T (reliable internet, good price, but only offers to really extremely random locations; your neighbors could get it, but not necessarily you), or the dreaded local cable company who "doesn't have the technology" to only offer internet and not cable along with it (c'mon, we lived in a small Idaho town that was probably 1.5 miles in diameter who offered cable internet without cable!!), thus forcing you to pay what is already an insane amount for those two services, but couple it with the fact that it's AWFUL service! There were days where we wouldn't even get service!! I seriously hated it, plus, I prefer not to have TV, because if we pay for it, we feel like we have to get our money's worth out of it, so we watch it more than necessary. We've always chosen to not get cable, and I hated being forced to have it.

Until a week ago, I found a 4th option! Satellite internet! They come out here, and it's a WAY better price! And I don't have to get cable with it! Wahoo! So we are back online!

And don't you worry, I haven't been idle these last 6 months. I've got lots of stuff to show you.

Here's a look at what we've got coming up:

-LOTS and LOTS of refashions
-Gift Ideas for kids
-New fun recipes
-Birthday Parties (Yay!)
-New series
    -"Pinned it, Did it" reviews - trials of popular pinned projects from Pinterest, and my review
    -"Tipped Off" - Tips and Tricks for around the house, with kids, with projects, etc.
    -"Frugal and Fabulous", - my own personal secrets to saving money while crafting, gifting, decorating, dressing, and cooking wonderfully. I will open this up for submitted tips as well.

SOOOOooo...lots of great stuff. Stay tuned. Thanks for all of the support!

Love, Sarah

Halloween

I hope you all had a great Halloween. As you've probably noticed, I never posted the tutorials for the girls' princess dresses. I really expected to have them done sooner, so I could post the tutorials in time for Halloween. I grossly overestimated my free time with 3 kids!

But, I will write them up and post it next year. My goal is to have costumes done by the first week in October next year, so you'll have FIVE costumes to learn how to make next year! Yahoo!

Also, we're switching internet providers right now, hence no formatting in this post, as I am posting from my phone. My posting will probably be slower for a week or so, and less than beautiful in appearance.

I hope you had an awesome Halloween, can't wait for Thanksgiving now!

Feed Me Friday: Worm Burgers

Oh this grossed me out so bad when I saw it! Isn't it funny how during Halloween, we seek to eat stuff that makes us want to vomit looking at it??? I guess it's all part of being festive!

These, like the other posts, are ridiculously simple.

Worm Burgers:

You'll need:

hamburger buns
hotdogs
BBQ sauce
any other condiments you prefer (we didn't use anything special)

The concept behind this, is that you cut each hot dog in half, length wise. then you cut those halves in half again length wise.

Boil them for a few minutes, they will curl on their own. Drain water.

Cover them in BBQ sauce, and serve on hamburger buns. So easy.

You'll need 3-4 "worms" per hamburger bun set, so with each hot dog producing 4 worms, you can plan accordingly how much you need.

Breck the Dinosaur

Well, I'm ashamed to say I don't have a tutorial for this costume. The reason?? I honestly didn't know what I was doing the entire time. Making animal costumes is just something that's foreign to me, and without a pattern, I'm at a loss. I was lucky that it did turn out, but I just don't have a tutorial, and if you copied everything I did, you would be running around like a chicken with it's head cut off like I was while making this.

However, I will say, that if you want to make this exact costume, I can give you some tips.

First of all, get a pattern for pajama pants and a hooded jacket/anorak.

Once you've cut all your pieces out, you need to apply the knee pads and the tummy patch with an applique stitch. I just eyeballed how big I wanted mine.

For the spikes:

Next, cut out about 12 squares of fabric that are about 4"x4". Cut them each in half diagonally so you have 2 triangles for each square.

Cut pieces of felt (1 for each set of 2 triangles) in the exact shape of the triangles you just cut, just about 1/8 inch shorter per side.

Sew each triangle together, then turn inside out. insert felt triangle, and sew along edges of the triangle. Bottom of triangle does not need to be sewn. Do this for all 12 triangles.

Attach triangles along the center hood seam, the back seam (you may need to cut a line down the back to make your own seam), and down the tail.

Sew all the other pieces together, according to the instructions, leaving the bum seam of the pants open and unsewn for a tail.

Use similar concept for the bill of the hood as the spikes, just using a bill of a hat as your guide to the shape. when sewing the fabric together, add little white felt triangles on the edges of the inside, and sew the curved side of the bill together. when turned inside out, it will reveal teeth. Then put the felt inside the bill, and sew along the curved side again. Attach to the hood.

I just added googly eyes for the eyes with hot glue, velcro for closures, and white felt claws.

For the Tail:

Cut out tail shape. (I know real specific, huh?) But that's all I did, I just decided what shape I wanted the tail, cut out 2 of the shape, sewed the spikes (triangles) in the top seam, and sewed the rest together. When I turned it inside out, I stuffed it with poly-fill, and I sewed the end up.

I then placed it into the unsewn hem of the pants (the bum seam) and sewed it up.

Then, you just finish up your pants, put elastic in, or a tie, depending on your pattern and preference, and you're pretty much done!

Sorry these directions weren't more specific, with pictures and instructions, but like I said...you probably wouldn't have wanted to follow my exact lead with this costume. Just make it easy and get the pattern, and then you can copy my embellishments!

Luckily, Breck was thrilled with it, and he can now live out his life-long goal of becoming a dinosaur!! Rawrrrr!!!

Sneak Peak on 2011 Halloween Costumes

Not finished yet, but progress is being made.

Here's some sneak peaks at what I have in store for this year:

Three-year-old girl rite-of-passage

Crazy Boy's dream come true

And one not-even-begun-costume for our littlest princess ;)

Must keep going...must keep going...