Ideas for the 4th

Looking through many of our favorite blogs, I've found some great ideas for the 4th of July.

We always have a big get together with lots of neighbors, friends and family on the 4th for some hot dogs and fireworks. Take a look at these great ideas I've found that I plan on trying to use this year:

First off, a vintage decorated table. I love anything vintage, so the theme and colors of this are right up my alley. Love, love what they did here. 

source: pizzazzerie

Also, from the same great site I found some FREE awesome printables. Not only do I love this poster of Uncle Sam, but the colors are my fav. And they all match with the table setup.

source: pizzazzerie printables

And how cute are these little flags!

{And they give a great little tutorial on how to make them.}

source: saltwater-kids

Of course we need some tye-dyed cupcakes.

{I have made some similar to these when I did camo cupcakes for my sons Army Party. They really were easy and fun.}

source: caffeinatedglobe

These brownie kabobs look awesome and easy.

My husbands favorite, chocolate and strawberries.

source: craftyconfessions

And one more thing for the kiddos. What a great idea!

source: cometogetherkids

Have a fun and safe 4th!

A&J



Sports Birthday Party

We had my son's 6th birthday party this last weekend. He kept saying that he wanted to have his party at one of those Bounce house places (where all the kids run around and jump on the inflatables). I wasn't too thrilled with the idea because how in the world was I supposed to put all my decorative little touches on everything??

I convinced him to have the party in our back yard again (we did this cool army party last year and the kids still talk about it). He agreed, but only after I said I was going to paint our entire backyard like a football field! Score! I got my way... :)

Here's a shot of 50 yard line of the field.... (the K is for our last initial).

The snack table was loaded up with all kind of ballpark goodies. Cupcakes that I decorated like basketballs, soccerballs, footballs and baseballs. Oreo truffles decorated like footballs (these were good and went fast!), tons of hot dogs wrapped in foil (ballpark style), bags of chips, popcorn, peanuts, twizzlers, chocolates and bubblegum and sunflower seeds.

{The two tier metal bucket was a find from Hobby Lobby and I found the cool popcorn buckets at the Dollar Tree! Love them!}

The kids did some relay races (spin on the bat &, carry the ping pong ball on a spoon down the field and back), some bean bag tosses, throwing contests, stick the ball on the target which was left over from last years army party (played like pin the tail on the donkey), a homerun derby and we had a pinata for the kids to swing at! We had several other games on our list, but actually ran out of time.

The invites were made in Photoshop and just printed on white cardstock. I used papers and elements from this Game On Digital Scrapbooking Kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I actually used the balls from this kit also for the target game and also for labels for all the food etc.

  It was such a fun and easy party to put together! Perfect for all those sports fanatics!

A&J

Roller Skating Birthday Party

Party time again...

After googling Skating Parties, and visiting all my favorite party blogs, I realized there are not a ton of ideas on roller skating parties.  I felt on my own and that I would actually have to resort to using my own creativeness.  I must say, I've gotten quite spoiled to finding cute ideas online.  I felt a little bit in a panic.  So, I buckled down and put my creative juices to work.  It all started with this fun image of these cute roller skates I found online.  Used it to photoshop this invite below.

Thus, establishing the colors.  Purple, Pink & Green.

Next, I created these matching cupcake tags.

To be put on these cute little cupcakes in coordinating colors...

Then I made a larger matching cupcake tag for the birthday girl's cupcake. I had this scallop shape that my partner in crime found online.  I printed it to the size I needed then just used it as a guide to cut out the purple paper stock.

Next up, birthday girl's matching attire.  I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I chose to make her shirt myself so I could match it to the party colors.  Can't help myself when it comes to animal print.  Had to add it.  I might be slightly addicted to animal print. :)

Here's a close up.  I simply cut out coordinating fabric pieces and stitched them onto the shirt.  The purple bows are ribbon that I put a stitch on and then tied in a knot.

For the party favors we decided on extra large pixie sticks.  I usually stray away from too much candy, but we handed these out for Halloween and it was so fun seeing how much kids faces light up when you hand them one.  It's my new go to candy to hand out to "other kids."  Sadly and I hear about it often, but my own poor, poor kiddos have only eaten maybe two themselves.  Anyway, I digress....I then tied on a glow in the dark bracelet, zany band rings, and of course the thank you tag.

Here's are the tags themselves.  Feel free to print and borrow.  I fully intended to have Brynley sign them to add a personal touch, but that did not happen. 

To complete the party...Add a cute little sister in a matching shirt.

And a few great friends....

What more could a sassy 7 year old girl ask for? 

I Loved putting this party together.  I know we say that about every single party, because we secretly would love to be party planners for little kids birthday parties, but this was a neat one to put together.  The Skating center is available for private parties so we were able to take over the whole place and they even played our own music for us that we brought on the Ipod.  We played red light green light and danced to a few line dance songs to close the party.  From the kiddos to even us bigger kiddos, we all had a great fun time.  Brings back so many memories strapping on a pair of roller skates. :)

A&J

Shabby Bedroom

I just realized I've never blogged about Brynley's room.  Since her middle name is Rose, I have always felt that she's a soft shabby chic kind of girl accented by roses.  And since she's now decided she does not like pink, I'm slowing working on transitioning things to blue or turquoise.  So, here's a few shots of her not much longer pink room.

 Bed:  Land of Nod

Bedding:  Rachel Aswell, Target

Accent pillows are MIA.  I make her make her bed herself and she claims all the pillows are too much work so she actually hides them from me so she doesn't have to put them all on.

I'm also comissioning a painting now to go over her bed.  :)  (that's a really fancy word for I bought a 1/2 off canvas from Hobby Lobby and I've asked a relative who can paint really well to copy a very expensive art piece that I found. :)  It's a big rose basically and yes it's going to be pink.

 I made this framed B piece myself.  I found the wood "B" on ebay and then found a fancy frame at Hobby Lobby and painted it pink.  Just added fabric and ribbon to some wood with the B on top and popped it into the frame.  The Rose knobs are from Anthropology and are the perfect match to this room.



A&J

Fancy Chandelier

I've been looking for the perfect light fixture for Katie's room.  You might remember from and earlier post that everything in the room is Pink/Black and White.  I originally ordered a fancy all black, more traditional looking chandelier only to find out that it had been sold out and I couldn't find it anywhere else.  I was devastated because her sister already had her fancy chandelier and Katie had a terrible looking, cheapest you could find gross ceiling fan.  Not that I have anything against ceiling fans, it just wasn't a very cute ceiling fan.  Not to mention it simply had not glamour.  This room needed some BLING.  So here it is in all it's glory.

Ta da....

These pics do not do it justice at all.  In fact, it is so glamorous that everyone that has walked into the room has said "WOW" that's an incredible light.  I found it on Overstock and even for a great price and looking at just the pics, I never would have chosen it.  But I happened to stumble across a similar light at a booth at a local designer market and fell in love with it.  It was even 1/2 the price of the original light I was trying to order.  Just proof that some things just work out for a reason. :) 



A&J

Valentines Day Cards

I know, you've seen these everywhere in blogger land and I really don't know who to give this credit to, but here's my spin on it and I do love how they turned out.  The girls loved them as well.

I love blogger land.  You guys always have such fun fantastic ideas.  I never fret anymore when parties roll around because I know someone out there will have the perfect idea for me.

Happy getting ready for Valentines day!!

A&J



Audrey Hepburn Sign

I think this project deserves it's own post.

I found this decal quote on etsy and knew I had to have it for the girls playroom.  Since it is Audrey Hepburn I couldn't resist Tiffany's box blue.  I bought a sheet of wood and had it cut to size at the local hardware store.  I did have to make some modifications because the decal wasn't in this square format.  I simply cut it by sentence and placed it where needed.  I also googled the closest color match to the Tiffany's box and found out that the closet match is Behr Sweet Rhapsody.  I was so pleased to find out that it actually is a very close match.  I also added the infamous white ribbon.  At first I debated painting a white line around the edges and hanging it with the white ribbon, but my wall space did not allow for what I wanted exactly.  So I came up with this and I do like it.  It's also removable so if I ever move it to a different wall space I may change it back to the original plan.

It's a perfect accent for the girls playroom.

A&J

Incorporating all those gifts...

Ok, now that Christmas is over, what do you do with all the extra STUFF you thought was a great gift idea, but then didn't give much thought to how it would actually fit in your house.  Luckily I was able to make a few moves in the playroom for these fun new gifts.

Katie got this adorable Disney talking vanity from Santa...

It can't sit in a corner all by itself, so I made this Audery Hepburn sign to go with it.  I tried to make it look like a Tiffany's box.  Decal from Etsy and I googled the actual paint color for a Tiffany' box.  I can save you time and reveal the big secret here..... Behr Sweet Rhapsody.  It's a perfect match and I love it.  I bought extra so I can use this color more.

 Added a few other frames and voila.  Her own vanity corner.  I already know I'll add more to this corner.  I'm loving it.

Since I was taking pics of the playroom, I couldn't help to snap a pic of the kitchen corner just because I really like it.

I found this little shelf at a garage sale and painted it black.  Guess what color it's going to change to now. :)  Anyway, I digress.  I let the girls pick some items out of the pantry that they thought would be fun for their pretend kitchen.  Yes, they are all empty.

This playroom is so much fun to decorate.  It is a challenge because it's one big long room with an odd angled ceiling.  It makes decorating the walls almost impossible.  It's always a work in progress.  But it sure is fun.  Makes me want to post more areas.  I actually have to clean them first.  As you might guess, it's not exactly pristine. 

A&J