Pinterest Fail (yeah thanks.)

I'm thankful for failure.  Humbling failure.  There is nothing like failure to remind you that easy things aren't always easy.  I have a way of underestimating the skill, time, and resources needed for a project.  Failure (if you are really willing to look at it, square in its ugly face) also acts as a cautionary tale, a guideline for how not to do it. 

I'm not always willing to stare at my failure and analyze my missteps.  I would prefer to keep moving forward, no looking back. My recent Pinterest Fail I threw in the garbage and didn't tell anyone.  I was trying to make the cute DIY tank top from an old t-shirt (Source: Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth). 

Cute right?  That's not the one I made.  The one I made and put in the garbage can looked like a mock turtleneck.  I'm the only person in the world who sets out to make a cute tank from a t-shirt and manages to make a (lopsided) turtleneck.  FAIL.

I never examined the reason I failed at that Pinterest project.  Maybe I wouldn't have failed again if I had actually considered why my tank top failed.  But I didn't, so when I set out to make these pretty yarn balls (Source: Hostess with the Mostess) for my mother-in-law's birthday party.....

I ended up with this utter failure!

During the 24-hour drying period my balloons exploded at random intervals.  Do you know what happens when a balloon covered with glue and gunk explodes?  It sounds like a gunshot AND the gunk tends to fly all over the place.  Thank goodness I read the instructions and set the project up outside!  That was about the only thing I did right.  

I overinflated the balloons so the stress and weight of the yarn and gunk was too much.  I also attempted to accomplish this project while dealing with my littles.  Parenting with your hands covered in glue and yarn isn't really parenting.  It's screaming from the garage and then running down the street trying to grab your child without  using your hands. * parenting fail and crafting fail.  

The balloons didn't start popping until later that night.  And I just laughed.  There was nothing to do but laugh.  It was a ridiculous failure and I owned it.  I knew I had messed up.  I texted my sister-in-law and she laughed too.

This is me.  Perfectly imperfect and grateful for that.

Let's talk about the weather

I hate talking about the weather.  But really, what is up with the triple digits in October?  Everyone around me is either pinning pumpkin spice everything or talking about how dang hot it is here.  Tomorrow is another day and fall may actually make it to our neck of the woods.  While I wait for fall, I've been obsessing over figs and gum balls. 

So I bought some figs (first time!  I've never bought a fig before in my entire life!).

And made some jam.  Balsamic Fig Jam by Celeste.  Super easy and true story.... we already ate an entire jar!  It is great on toast, sandwiches, and this weekend I'm making my man a fig and brie pizza.  Lauren just eats it by the spoonful (she consumes all of her condiments like that).  The boys refuse to even try it.  more for me.

The Littles and I worked on gum ball necklaces.  We will count this as our first draft since Lauren tried to eat her necklace before I could spray it.  She took a couple of good chunks out of it.  Good thing this was cheap and easy.  total cost $1.

This is how I roll with the craftiness.  Right in the middle of everything else.  Making a mess on top of a mess.

Lauren's finished product! 

Keith working on his necklace.  Learning patterns... Poking his fingers.... Begging to eat a gumball.

Lauren's First Birthday Party part 3 of 3

All the goodies!  If you want to see my inspiration board you can click here.  I couldn't get everything I was dreaming of done on time with a limited budget but here is what I was able to pull off....

First things first, the theme.  Real talk. I've been planning this party for a year.  I picked this theme to coordinate with the pettiskirt Santa found for Lauren on Zulily last Christmas.

 

Amy Durham at Morgan James Photography took Lauren's pictures.  She's done lots for us, including the maternity pics.  Michelle Lowe at Exclusive Creations created the bright and beautiful cards.  Two of my favorite people to work with, very talented!  On a side note, Amy and I went to Dry Creek together and Michelle and I went to Clark!  

All of the party day photos are the artwork of Alice Addington.    Everything turned out so bright and beautiful.  ** Alice and I were the best of friends in elementary school.  :)

Every little girl needs a pink car.  Lauren loves her Cozy Coupe!  Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

The outfit!  Kelley Menzes (my niece's Kindergarten Teacher)- Obnoxiously Cute made the shirt.  She also made a cute bow that Lauren didn't want to wear.  The custom skirt I found on etsy.  Unfortunately it looks like the shop isn't open any longer: Bella Creations if you want to try.  I just wanted something a bit different.  I absolutely love this skirt.  She's already worn it again.  The shoes (not pictured here) are from Old Navy.

My outfit (I have to brag): The jeans and the pink flats were from my closet.  The flowers on the necklace were recycled from Lauren's first birthday photo shoot (see above).  And she was none too happy about me borrowing her flower clips.  The tank top I found at Old Navy for $2.18 (lipstick stain meet OxyClean!).  Hair by David Carona.

Now the decorations:

Cute and simple gift bags from brown paper bags.  Scalloped by Martha Stewart

 Pink Manzanita branches with pictures of Lauren.  I love the Manzanitas.  I'm painting them to use every season!  Find them here at Blooms and Branches.  I should have trusted my instincts and bought a sturdier base for the trees.  Lesson learned.

 Pink Velvet Cupcakes by DADDY.  Except I helped with the icing and totally messed it up!  Kevin saved it and I went about my business.

 Smash Cake by Daddy of course.    I made the monogrammed sun cupcake toppers  and the smash cake "L" with the Silhouette.

 

Favors: I went back and forth and around again about favors.  I finally settled on Sunshine Wands (more on that in a minute).  I figured that the boys wouldn't want wands so I put together gift bags for the boys...Mistake.  The boys all wanted a wand.  They are so cute and easy to make if I had known that I would have made enough for the boys!  The Ribbon Wand Tutorial is at the Ribbon Wand Shop.  She uses real ribbon, I used the curling ribbon I already had for the balloons.  Everything else was the same.  Also, I found all of the supplies at OSH.

 The poem is a Lindsay Original:
Sunshine Wands

Take a wand and you will see

Just one wave will bring you glee

Wave it here and wave it there

Now you can spread some birthday cheer

Thank you for making my birthday bright

You are a sweet friend and that is right

 In the process of designing all of this stuff I was trying to figure out how to move my plain stuff to pretty on Publisher, with no patience.  I came across a post from Ink Spot Workshop and I didn't even read the entire thing before I was able to churn out these puppies.  CD Favors for the adults!

Then I was on a role and made food signs, the Sunshine Wand poem and these cute wishes.  Even the kids filled them out!  The notes were really sweet and I'm going to make her a little book with the pictures of her guests and their wishes.

But really I was most proud of my sign....

It's yours!  You can take it and print it.  Just don't do color correction if you have it printed at Costco, the pink turns brown.  If you want me to email it to you I will, or any of the other designs for that matter. 

 Most of the remaining decorations were pictures from around the house!

The food I kept simple and yummy.  BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, Coleslaw, Fruit Salad and Sun Chips.  It's not a party without the crock pot!

Thank you to everyone who helped us make Lauren's party so fantastic.  Especially my dad and my mom, my brother Robby and his girlfriend Destiny, my sisters Rachel and Katie, and my Costco partner Jonathon... and everyone else who pitched in to help. 

We have a VERY happy one year old!

XOXO

One of those weeks

Have you ever had one of those weeks?  It isn't a bad week, just an organizationally challenged week.  The kind of week when your boys run out of clean socks.
The kind of week when you forget an appointment and spend an extra $40 to feed your family.
The kind of week when you realize on Wednesday that the milk isn't going to last until shopping day on Friday.
The kind of week when your baby pukes on an outfit before you have even put it on her. 
The kind of week when you focus on your to-do list and continue to forget to do things.

So in honor of this organizationally challenged week, I'm going to show you my new organization system.  All of you parents of school-aged children know how much paper comes home every day from school.  I am pretty diligent about sorting, signing and sending it off to where it belongs.  But I hate clutter on my counters and some things need a second look or to be saved for a later date or reviewed by Dad (what do you do other than stack this crap on the counter?).  I also have been trying to save money, use coupons and get better about menu planning.  There's a lot of paper that goes along with this process!  So......

Our new back of the pantry door organization system.

 I implemented this system before school started and it has worked brilliantly.  All you need is:
1) A pack of file pocket folders
2) 3M picture hangers
3) Letter stickers
4) Clips

 The boys got red and yellow (obviously).  I put the folders low enough so that Patrick can reach his.  Patrick's folder is mostly homework. Having one place to put things makes the whole process so much easier.   I also clip any items for the week (money for snack shack, reminders about school events) to the outside of the folder.  Smaller items also get put on the front clip.

 Keith's folder has information for the month about Kindergarten, speech homework and coloring pages. 

 The food folder contains: coupons, menus, Costco coupons, recipes and weekly ads.  Thing of beauty.

 I wasn't sure what I would use the fourth, unlabeled folder for but it has quickly become the MISC. folder.  Field trip information, school menus, any information that comes home and cannot be sent back or trashed gets stuck in this folder. 

Here are my Mod Podge clippies.  Easy.
EDITED TO SAY: The clips serve a dual purpose.  Since the expanding folders like to expand, the clips keep everything nice and tight.  Otherwise the folders gape open.

Do you want to know how I know this system was a good idea?  Patrick said to me, "Mom, why didn't you think of this before?"

I heart....

PINWHEELS!!!!  

I don't know why I love them, I just do!~

I made these for Lauren's dedication brunch a couple of weeks ago.  Look!  You could do a whole pinwheel party!

I love the scalloping (that's a word right?) on these featured on Hostess With The Mostess

When I was looking for a cake pop cake inspiration I found this awesome party on Amy Atlas.  Love it. 

Maybe LoLo needs a Pinwheel Birthday Party!

Keith's Star Wars Party

Keith has been talking about having a Star Wars party for a long long time.  We finally got to make his dream come true.

In the past we have always hosted our "friend parties" at an all-inclusive party location such as Pump it Up.  For Keith's 4th birthday I just wasn't feeling it.  There are lots of great party locations in town, but he wanted a Star Wars party... so that's what he got.  At our house. For the very first time.  I was feeling very brave, Kevin humored me and did most of the heavy lifting.

There are lots and lots of great ideas for Jedi Parties.  Tip Junkie has some great ideas and printables.  Make and Takes had Jedi robes for each party guest!  And Vesna named her son Aniken so of course she had a fab party for him featured on My Little Jedi.

So, first things first.... The invites.  Keith loves the invite I ordered for him.  I'm not sure why people don't send pretty little invitations anymore.  These were super fun and totally affordable.  I ordered them from an ebay shop called Makaty Designs and you can print them yourself.  She printed them for me, included the envelopes and got them delivered quickly.  When Patrick had his Star Wars party I made some pretty cute invites but I just didn't have time for that this time.

 The final determining factor to have the party at home was finding A Wish Your Heart Makes because what is a Star Wars party without Jedi Training?  The company provides characters for an hour and a half.  The Jedi Training package includes light saber training, music and games, face painting and an appearance by Darth Vader.  If you have ever seen the Jedi Training at Disneyland it is a lot like that.  Super fun and cool.  The other two actors are Princess Leia and a Jedi Master.  They really have fun with the kids and are in character the entire time.  Keith had no idea they were coming to his party so he was very surprised.

 

After a bit of training.....

Lord Vader showed up.

Keith used the force.

And summoned the courage to fight him.

And pose for a picture.

So that was the entertainment.... The food and the decor:
The whole theme was a light vs. dark theme.  Green and blue for the Jedi kids and black with red for the Dark Side.

The kids had Jedi Dogs, Chewbacca Cheetos, Yoda Ears (edamame) and Fruit Sabers (that were the last thing on my list and were put in a bowl instead).

 This is the Dark Side.  The adults had Dark Side Dogs, Light vs. Dark Salsa, Vader Sabers (red vines), Sarlacc Dip (red pepper hummus), and Sith Strawberry and Spinach Salad. 

The cake was the best cake we have ever had.  Donut cake!!!!  Keith isn't a big cake or ice cream kid but he loves candy, marshmallows and donuts.  So I "made" him a donut cake.  Again the Jedi and Dark Side theme.  I wanted the Dark Side donuts to be chocolate but their was a bit of a language barrier and he was a little befuddled that I was asking about red sprinkles.  I made the stars and his name on the Silhouette.  The C3-P0 was from our Easter Decorating set.  Best cake.




The tables were decorated with Star Wars toys from our personal stash.  The kids were welcome to play with them.

Each guest received their very own light saber.  I found a couple of websites that carry decent light sabers. 

I also wanted to give them a little something more (because I'm crazy like that).  So I made Hoth Pops.  If you haven't heard of them that's because I made it up.  They were large marshmallows dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with sugar crystals.  Because Hoth is the icy planet. 

 I had so much fun planning the party for Keith.  He was lucky enough to receive some really nice presents from his friends.  Lucky boy. 

I wish I had got Lauren a little Star Wars onesie.  I found one in my endless searching for ideas that said: "This is not the baby you are looking for." 

Oh and one more thing.  You saw the Darth Vader picture for the Dark Side Buffet.  That was a photo my father in law took in Disneyland.  Cheap and easy... Costco.  And I like decorations that come from our existing belongings or can be reused.   Keith and I also found this poster
and it is his new obsession!  He loves it.