Under the Big Top!

I thought I would do a throwback post of Audrey's 2nd birthday party. She loved balloons at that age so I decided to have a circus party. It was a great time!

Birthday girl enjoying a little pre-party milk

With the help of my mother and littlest sis, Suz, we made clown collars and personalized bean bags as favors. (I had just gotten my embroidery machine so of course I wanted to use that somehow and you can't have a circus party without clowns!)

Games and Food were the easy part. Who doesn't like circus food? Hot dogs, soft pretzels, nachos and rainbow cupcakes. All the healthy stuff! My mom had the great idea for the rainbow cupcakes. This was before pinterest so everything new and exciting was found in a magazine. Remember those? (For the cupcakes just take 2 boxes of yellow cake mix. Prepare as directed on the box, separate the prepared mix into as many bowls as you want colors and then and the color and mix. Scoop the colored mixture into cupcake/cake pan in whatever order you would like. If doing rainbow you would start with purple.)

For games we had pin the nose of the clown, bean bag toss, face painting, clown stickers on balloons and I think my mom was making some pretty fantastic balloon animals! You could say that my mom is the "ring leader" of us girls when it comes to all things creative. Very last minute, like, the morning of the party she came up with the idea that we should have clown hats. So she ran to the store to get party hats. She covered them with construction paper and added pom poms. Super easy and super cute!

Birthday girl at the bean bag toss (my melamine stacking bowls)

pin the nose on the clown

What a great trip down memory lane! Maybe I'll do a circus party for Wyatt some year. :)

Rebekah

Be My Valentines!

I've never really been into the whole "Valentines" thing.. maybe because I'm a believer in showering me with love and gifts all year round;-) But this year I decided to put a few quick, cheap and easy decorations up! 

Ask the people that I live with how many times I am rearranging/redecorating things in my house... they will probably say every week but its really more like every couple months. I get tired of the same old thing so I move, add to, and "fluff" about every area in my house! Since I am doing this so often I have learned to be "thrifty" with how I do this!  My most favorite place to go besides a thrift store is a good dollar store!!! I love walking in with a few dollars in my pocket and leaving with bags full!! I get my shopping fix without having to spend a lot:-) If you search Pinterest you will come across a ton of Dollar Store projects... some our amazing!! I have done a few off there but also love to come up with my own ideas!! My last visit was in search for some cheap Valentines decor! I wanted to put up a little just to be a transition between Christmas and Spring!

So "Insert" picture of my stash of finds.

(I had a picture of "before" but had technical difficulties getting it off my cameras card)

Ill just go through my "after" pictures and point things out:-)

Mantel

The heart banner is doilies strung on string and hung! Easy. I added a couple red candles. I made tissue paper flower with tissue paper(left over from Christmas), skewers I had in the kitchen and glue! I cut the tissue into circles and wrapped around end of skewer with a dap of glue. I went crazy with the bunting:-) Loved it!! I had felt left from random other project so I cut a bunch of triangles out and glued the back to some string! Its so cute I'm going to do some more in different colors!! I will defiantly be making it for Annabel's 1st birthday coming up!! I had the clear jars which were from the Dollar Store a long time ago! The taller one is just glued to a candle stick!! I filled them with pink plastic hearts, also from the Dollar Store. The deer is left from Christmas but I like him so much I may keep him around:-) He was a thrift store find!! And them of course its always good to show case the ones you love so pictures of A are a given!!

Dining Room Table

Blurring picture, sorry! 

This is simple! I love to have a big center piece on my dinning table. Its just fun! Candles, white vases, tissue paper flowers and more bunting! Add height with books, candle holders, cake plates(I have a cake plate drying outside right now that I spray painted white to add some more height). I love to save wine bottles for candles.. and since I do my far share of wine drinking, I'm never in want;-) Just doing my part to reuse, recycle!! I like to leave the stickers on them and everything so super easy! I love white vases and bottles... some came white and some I spray painted white. I always have white spray paint on hand! Another thing about me is my love for spray paint! You can change almost anything with it! (When I blog my thrift store post I'll talk more about it) The candle holder/small cake plate is a Dollar Store candle stick and a plate glued together and painted white! Love it and want to make more with some varied height in the candle stick!

"Wreath"

 So this is a spot in my kitchen where I always like to have a wreath! This is kinda a wreath?... well I'm going to call it that! Three heart place mats from the Dollar Store hung with clear thumb tacks. Easy Peasy!! A white vase with gold painted branches left over from my Christmas decor and a red candle! The vases are both thrift store finds! I put white sand in the clear one! (For Christmas I put colored bulbs in it and it was super cute!) 

Real Wreath

I love this little creation!! Its hanging on my gallery wall in my living room! I will put pictures of the whole wall on here sometime but I have to rearrange it first;-) This was created with a frame, honestly don't remember where from, probably the thrift store;-) I added bunting, and the heart is cut out of a left over Christmas shirt box and pieces of tissue paper glued on and tied with a ribbon!! I did break up a skewer and glued it on the back for a little sturdiness. Its so cute! I want to add a little Valentines saying to it somewhere but haven't done that yet!

Mr. Deer

And of course my deer head needs a little "bling" so he gets some bunting too!

Hope you enjoyed these ideas and maybe try a few yourself! Its always fun to add a little change to your houses decor and I think it cost like 15 bucks at the Dollar Store so you really cant go wrong! 

Have a happy day!

Emily

Our instalife

It's January, and with that comes organization of all things from last year. Pictures can be incredibly overwhelming. First, it was just pictures off your actual camera. But now, it's pictures from your camera, your iphone, your ipod, instagram, etc, etc...Last year, I wanted to do something with all the pics I had on my instagram account. I had all these great memories from throughout the year and they were just forgotten, stuck on my phone. I looked around to see what was out there to print off small, square pics. I ended up finding Kanvess. You download their app on your device. Then you log into your instagram account through that. Now is the time consuming part...You have to scroll through all your hundreds of pics and "click" which ones you want to print. I decided to just print off the pictures I had taken in 2012.

Each one is $.25 and 3"x3". If you buy more than 100, you get free shipping! :) So easy to do! A few days later you get a fun package to open and all these cute, little pictures to look at!

 

Now comes another time consuming part! Putting them all back in order by date. A few hours later you can start taping them all in your photo album. I chose to tape them on black paper, no captions, quick and easy.

 

 

 

What a fun way to look back through the year! I hope you have fun making your "instalife"!

 

Rebekah

If you were stranded on a deserted island what would you take?

If you were stranded on a deserted island what would you take?....... Ask me this question and one of my answers will alway be mascara, yes I am very aware that this won't help me at all with getting off the island alive but that's ok! If wearing false lashes was an easy go to everyday I would but let's be realistic, nobody has the time or energy to put lashes on everyday so when I came across a tip for making your lashes look better (from Pinterest) I had to try it out. We've had those Pinterest fails that at the time seem really easy and fail proof but then we put the time and sometimes money in only to end the experience with a saddened attitude...... But not this time! 

What you'll need:

Eyelash curler 

Baby powder 

Make-up brush 

Mascara 

I've started to use an eyelash curler but it's not a must if you find them terrafying! Put one coat of mascara on then after both eyes are mascaraed up take your brush and lightly dip it into your baby powder and  brush onto the mascara that was just applied, after applying the baby powder you are free to apply as many coats of mascara as desired, I myself like to put at least 3-4 coats on but I can get a bit excessive! 

Here you go!  Sorry for the bad picture( it's a lot harder to take a good picture of yourself than I thought) the right eye has the tip I explained and the left does not! Try it out and hopefully you love it as much as me! Happy Mascaraing! 

Three sisters. Three friends

I had this great idea tonight to start a blog with two of my sisters. This may be a disaster as none of us are bloggers. Or it could be fabulous because each of us is pretty fabulous in different ways!


This picture is pretty old (Emily's wedding weekend in 2010 ) but I realized it's the only one I have with just us 3! And I look pretty great in it! ;)

Rebekah

Breakfast of Champions!

Text, after text, after text.... that is how the last few days have been from my oldest sister "demanding" my younger sister and I to blog our first posts!! So, I finally sat down to write it with Annabel down for a nap and the house relativity clean;-) I have no excuse!

Annabel is almost 9 months and LOVES to eat!!! She is not picky at all so I'm trying to branch out and give her lots of different things in hopes that she will stay a good eater into her toddler and beyond years! The last few mornings have been plain yogurt, fruit and a dash of cinnamon! Seems to be a big hit, but I wanted to try something different, change it up! I had the idea of "baby" pancakes, so thanks to Pinterest:-) I found a recipe for applesauce, banana pancakes!! So, as I hum the song from "Rocky", to pump myself up and keep baby girl entertained, I get started!

Banana Applesauce Pancakes

               Ingredients:

                        1 cup pancake mix

                        1 ripe banana

                        1/2 cup applesauce

                        3/4 cup water (or milk)

               Directions:

                       Add mix to bowl

                       Add banana, mash with a fork until small chunks are left

                       Add applesauce and water till you get the right consistency

Easy enough!

I would add pictures here of each process but I hate my pans and my stove is a mess so lets use our imagination and picture beautiful, expensive bowls and frying pans that don't make a mess of your food and have scraps all over the bottom and then picture a brand new, amazing stove in a newly renovated kitchen!! Okay, everyone have that in their minds? Good.

I just bought bananas the other day and they aren't very ripe yet so I threw them in my magic bullet (which I love by the way) with the water and made a really creamy banana smoothie so it would be easier for A to eat! You could use milk in place of the water but since Annabel isn't having cows milk yet I went with good old water! I whisked it all together and fried them up into little "baby size" pancakes! 

Since the pancakes were too hot to give to the screaming baby in the highchair, I popped them in the fridge for a min. while I whipped up some kiwi yogurt! While she enjoyed the yogurt, the pancakes cooled perfectly! I broke them into pieces and she went to town!!

My sweet bundle of joy!!

She LOVED them!! Ate almost two whole ones...

She is getting her first tooth in so she how do I say this.... she is not her usual happy self! I'm glad that this mama could make something tasty for her to enjoy! And it was super easy for this mama which is a plus:-) I made extra and put them in the fridge for a snack or for breakfast tomorrow! I even made up an "adult" size one for me... it wasn't bad at all! I of course added some butter and syrup but that's beside the point! 

I hope you enjoyed my first post... (cough, cough, Rebekah) I had fun writing it and hope to put another on soon! Maybe a trip to the thrift store;-)

But for now, 

    This is the most fabulous sister, Emily, signing off!!

Wyatt's zoo party

Wyatt turned 2 this past week. If you know me at all, you know I love to throw a good birthday party. Since he was turning 2 I thought I would have a zoo party (two, zoo, get it?) I don't know what I did before pinterest so of course, I started there. I found these super cute invites that were on etsy. The seller was really nice and I would highly recommend her. (She made numerous changes for me because I had no idea what I wanted them to say.) :)  https://www.etsy.com/shop/saralukecreative

I will admit that I probably spent too much money on invites for a 2 year olds birthday party. Since these were a digital file I then had to get them printed off. I love mpix and always get things printed  there. They are so fast and usually get things within a few days. Not to mention the quality is always amazing.

Once I had the invites set I had to juggle between getting ready for Christmas and planning the rest of the party. So again I went to pinterest as my time saver. I found some more great things there. Like these awesome paper balloon animals from Pearl River.  I also got the paper lanterns there. They have a TON of colors in all different sizes. I could have bought many, many more.

 

I also checked out my usual Oriental Trading Company and got these fun foam animal masks.

They are $6.25/dozen. You can't beat that price.

 

 

I went to a great local craft fair in December, A Handmade Christmas, and one of the shops had travel crayon cases. I loved the idea so of course I wanted to make my own. I like having useful/fun things as party favors so I thought this was a great idea. So I went to work. I only needed 10, that should take no time at all. ;) I will admit that I had an ulterior motive...I also wanted to add them to my Audrey's Room shop and I needed to make some so I could take pictures. I got them all done and they turned out great. (Feel free to purchase some for your next birthday party, or Valentine's gift,  or Easter basket, etc. "Shameless plug." :)

Crayon cases

 

A few days before the party I had an amazing idea to make an edible arrangement! (Thank you Lis for having a Pampered Chef party were I saw an awesome fruit and cheese cutter that I just had to have) Maybe making an edible arrangement in the middle of winter wasn't the best idea as fruit is REALLY expensive. Oh well. It was in my head so I wasn't backing down.

 

Ta da.

I cut a little watermelon in half and stuck everything in that. Used another Wilton flower cookie cutter set to make different sized flowers and you can't forget to bust out that melon baller. I added a few chocolate covered strawberries and added extra fruit to the bottom.

 

Next came the cake. I really had no idea what I was going to do other than make the cake part look like a zebra (alternate scoops of chocolate and white cake in the cake pans, thanks again to pinterest) The night I was going to construct it I realized I probably needed to have supports since it was going to be two tiers. Thank goodness for google, I figured out how to do that in no time. As far as decorating goes, that really was last minute. Wyatt has some Little People Zoo animals so I stole a few of those. Then took some cans of frosting and went to town. I used graham crackers for sand, pretzel rods for the fence, and marshmellows sprayed with Wilton silver color mist as the rocks around the water. I have never made a "real" cake before so I thought this turned out really well. Best part is that Wyatt LOVED it. Once he saw it, he wanted to sit on the counter next to it and look at it.

 

 

 

There's the party. I hope everyone had a great time because I know I did. And I'm pretty sure the birthday boy did as well. Now I get a month off and then I have to start planning Audrey's birthday in February... :)

Rebekah