DIY Baby Shower

My sweet friend and neighbor was pregnant with her first baby, so two of her dear friends and I decided to throw a bash to celebrate her and the soon-to-be baby!

Scrabble pieces added to a spring

wreath announce the theme of the party

We put touches of 'baby' all around the areas that guests 

would mingle

 Baby blocks spell out the theme.  Frames filled with baby pictures of the

mom and dad-to-be made this party perfectly personalized.

  It's sweet to imagine what baby might look like

editor's note: I am a blog fail...the baby is way born and SHE IS WAY CUTE.

Vintage baby clothes that once hung above my daughter's bed,

were strung on twine and clipped with small clothespins.

 My sweet Logi wanted to add to the festivities

 Paper pinwheels and flowers.  Very simple,

DIY, decorations for this celebration.

Here's how I made the pinwheels:

I had a lot of scrapbook paper sitting around.

I do not imagine I could scrapbook to save my life, 

but I do love the color options and use the paper often.

When I started thinking about decorations for this party, I 

decided I could probably use the same technique 

I use to make puff pastry pinwheels, out of craft paper.   

 I only had single sided paper paper on hand.

I would imagine (but don't quote me) that

one can purchase these squares of paper

with patterns on both sides.

Since I was working with paper on hand,

I used a glue stick to glue the backs of 

2 pieces of decorative paper together.

I mixed and matched the papers looking

for funky contrast.  

After the glue fully set I cut from the 4 corners

of the paper square leaving about the size of

a half dollar coin in the middle.  The square

turned into 4 triangles of paper, attached at the center. 

I put a dot of hot glue in the center and quickly

folded the right side of each triangle to the center.

How cute are they!! So fun and funky and

OH SO EASY!!!  To cover up the gluey mess

I used random buttons, and an additional dot

of hot glue to secure the button.

 

How adorable would these be hanging in

a nursery?

 I used a paper punch in one corner of one of the

protruding triangles, then used fish line to hang

them above the dining table and outside on the

porch to help welcome guests to the celebration.

 DIY floral arrangements.  Use what is seasonal, and

just pop them in jars or buckets you have on hand.

Spray roses in spring neutrals and button mums were my go-to 

favorite all spring, so it was a no brainer for this party.  I placed

them in a vintage milk bottle crate.

 The mom-to-be opening presents.  Her sweet

mom (and a couple of aunties were able to fly in

for the celebration)

 

Mom-to-be with her mama.

 I bought this felt banner in the $3 bin at Target.  It was just the felt 

letters on ribbon, so I dolled it up and with little rounds of burlap and fabric 

(a few layers, held together with a decorative brad).  

I then glued the circles on the store bought banner.

 We of course threw it down with the delcious

spread of food.  I will blog that at a later date...

goal: before baby turns 1

 xo

Flavor Filled Cream Cheese & Bagels

Bagels and delicious, flavor-filled cream cheese give me a 

bad case of nostalgia.  Maybe it's because they were all

the rage in the 90s, with shops popping up everywhere in the

midwest? Maybe it's because I worked a stint at a bagel

shop in college? Whatever it is, I love kicking it old school

(ugh, the 90s officially feel old school as plaid has officially

come back around) and toasting up chewy bagels and

slathering them with cream cheese.  Here are two 

quick and simple recipes for flavor-filled cream

cheeses to whip up.  

One sweet and One savory, so I gotcha covered.

8 oz container of whipped cream cheese

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 cup honey

pinch of salt

Blend with a spoon to fully incorporate all the flavors

Starting with whipped cream cheese prevents you from 

having to get out the food processor.  Score!

the addition of chopped, lightly toasted

pecans would be delicous, FYI

8 oz container of whipped cream cheese

1/4 cup chopped scallions (chop up into the greens)

1/4 cup chopped sweet peppers (I love the mixed

bag of sweet yellows and red baby peppers)

salt & cracked black pepper, to taste

Blend with a spoon to fully incorporate all the flavors.

 Enjoy.  

I pop the flavored cream cheeses back in the container

the whipped cream cheese arrived in, and the spreads are 

good and ready to go!

Slather on, my bagel loving friends. 

xo

Gift Idea: Homemade Marshmallows & Cocoa Mix

My love affair with homemade marshmallows began years ago, when my husband was in grad school, we were living in Oregon and I made a ridiculous purchase of marshmallows at Williams-Sonoma.  I still, to this day cannot believe I paid so much for those marshmallows, but they were good and I figured I would give it the o' college try (errr, grad school wife try, rather) and see about making them myself.  I did, with great success (cutting them into shapes that first year.  Trees for Christmas, hearts for Valentine's Day), and have never looked back (well, I do still look at the back of the box, when I pop into Williams-Sonoma, to see the price climb each holiday season).  Here are two recipes that will make you feel like a gift giving champ!

Find my recipe, for fluffy marshmallow perfection in a blog post 

from several years ago.  Marshmallow link.

See all those delicious flecks of vanilla bean?  Be still, my heart.

You'll see the full step by step on the old marshmallow post, but 

I cannot get over how much I love cutting huge, square marshmallows!

I bought cute little paper 'fruit' crates at the craft store (they were

labeled as food safe, FYI) and then popped the filled crate

into a clear cello bag and tied with hemp rope.  I decided I needed

to send hot chocolate with the homemade marshmallows, so I filled 

large Ball jars (they were narrow, yet rather tall...a style I had never

seen before, but am now obsessed).  To create this hot chocolate

concoction of love I put the grater attachment in my food processer

 and shaved big bars of dark chocolate (I bought the large bars

from Trader Joe's).  The shavings yielded quite a bit, but I decided

I wanted to gift more hot chocolate so I did equal parts dark chocolate

shavings, unsweetened cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar and a

pinch of sea salt. 

YUM YUM YUM!

On the back of the little label I attached to the 

hot chocolate mix, I placed the directions of

1/3 cup mix to 1 cup hot milk.

I think this is a gift that should extend well into the New Year!

Who wouldn't love to receive this from their Valentine?

xo.

DIY Tree Skirt

I made this beauty, before I was a blogging fool...but it is too dang cute (easy and cheapy) not to share!!! 

Let me set the scene: I was on the hunt for a tree skirt, on the cheap, and wasn't having any luck!  So, I went to my mother ship, flipped through the rack of tree skirts on hand and wanted to cry, as it was more of the same...super traditional and stuffy (in my uneducated tree skirt opinion)!  One can't visit TJ without walking through the home section (that is like rule #24 of shopping, right?) and I happened upon this fantastic throw blanket that just screamed 'MAKE ME INTO A TREE SKIRT!!!!'.  I thought, 'no worries new blanket friend, I shall get on that, asap!'.  The blanket was under $10 so I gave a nod and a wink to the big guy up north, as this had to be the Christmas magic we all dream of...for this I am certain! 

While the blanket was totes adorbs, it needed a tad bit of whimsy, so we (blanket and me) headed to the fabric store, where the pom pom trim basically jumped in my shopping basket.  Score.  Done and done, I was then off for the world's quickest date, with my sewing machine. 

I put the blanket flat on the ground, and used scissors to cut an opening to the center (from one corner of the blanket I cut in at the diagonal to the center) and then roughly cut a circle in the middle of the blanket (for easier draping around the tree stand). 

I sewed up the cut edges of the blanket and then sewed on the pom pom trim. 

It is a total doll baby of a tree skirt, if I do say so myself! 

As Susan Powter so poignantly said in the 90s

STOP THE INSANITY (of cuteness)!

Paper Mache Pumpkins

This is the first post of my brand new blog (yay, me!) and I am so excited to share a great little Halloween project (or heck, fall project) that you can enjoy year after year!

Here are the supplies you will need:

1. Fake pumpkins (now would be the time to go find them 1/2 off sales, and enjoy for the rest of fall!!!)
2. Glue
3. Tea Bags (4)
4. Computer, Printer & Paper (if you don't have a way to print, don't fret, just used a different paper application, such as scrapbook paper, grocery bags, newspaper)
5. Wax or parchment paper to cover your work surface
6. Plastic cups to set your pumpkins to dry
7. Clear acrylic spray paint (for a final dose of protection)

Here are some easy to follow steps:

1. I bought some cheapy 'fug-kins' (yes, they are often called funkins, but these were extra ugly and fake looking, so I will refer to them as 'fug-kins') at the grocery store. 
2. Googled 'lyrics to Monsters Mash'
3. Copy and Pasted the lyrics into a Word document (repeated the paste until I had a full page of lyrics). I changed the margins on the page so there was very little white paper around the edges.  Then I printed 10 pages of lyrics.
4. Tore the lyrics up into random sized pieces
5. Heated 4 cups of water, then removed from heat and added 4 tea bags.  Let tea steep (bags sit in heated water) for 10 minutes.  Then squeeze bags and remove from water.
6. Add the torn up lyrics to the tea, leave to stain in the tea for a couple of hours
7. Mix equal parts glue and water.  Run the strips of paper through the glue/water mixture and start placing on the pumpkin, starting at the bottom and working your way up.  Press into the groves of the pumpkins as you go.  Overlap, layer, you decide...can't mess this up.
8. I set  to dry with the stem sitting in a plasic cup.  I let them dry overnight.
9. The next morning, go check your cute, new creations (pinch yourself, it was that easy...), and have a few reserve strips of tea stained paper to 'patch' any areas you might have missed (just use a little glue/ water).
10. If you want (and I am thinking I will do this) spray with a coat of clear acrylic spray paint, just to preserve your holiday treasures for many years to come!!!
11. ENJOY!  I have received rave reviews already, and it is so gratifing to say, 'I MADE THEM!'

The pumpkins above were $4.95 each.  The little ones you will see paper mached were  $1...so great! 

  

Final Results!  What a fantastic centerpiece, right!  I am so excited to get a blogging, and hope you will find some inspiration from the things I do, and get aMUSEing today!