Fun Teacher Gift Idea

I found this unique teacher gift over on Nichole Heady's Blog. It's called a teacher's journal jar. There are questions that you can print to put in the jar and they have some free downloads to go along with it. There is a full description on Nichole's Blog. (I'm finding some fun things over there! Nichole's blog was one of the very first creatively inspiring blogs I came across in blogland a couple years ago when I first started blogging!)

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This would have been perfect!

Just came across these today! They would've gone perfectly with the baby shower theme I just posted about!! You can download a free template and see the instructions over at Nichole Heady's blog.

Baby Shower - Bless the Nest!

here are some pictures from the Nesting Baby Shower I recently threw for my SIL and nephew.

The invitation

The guest of honor...my SIL

A little birdie made of colored chocolate sitting on a bed on chow mein noodles for the nest atop the cake. I literally had to hand paint SEVERAL of them with food coloring to get a color variation in the next. Then I threw in some coconut for good measure as well.

The table setting with all the goodies and a bird cage for all those gift cards.

Baby Sundaes were a yummy treat!

Especially for big sister, Miss D.

Some nesty goodness... sent my dad to the store to get blue jelly beans...he came back with orange.
To his credit...they were out of blue, but ORANGE? Love you Dad! =)

It was a gift card shower because she was moving across country a couple days later. So we filled some of the time with a couple rounds of bunco! Good times

Felt Food

FELT FOOD...I've been noticing it around blogland. Seems to be "all the rage"! Right now One Pretty Thing has an entire feature about it. It's cute...but I don't totally get it. I think people are making it for their kids. Am I right? Have you seen it? Have you made any?

And the other question that enters my mind....how come I haven't seen Beckie making this yet? She makes everything else!!

Dance-Slumber Party Details

The Invitation.....

The Gift CD (with all the music from the dance party!)
The Birthday girl....


The Sweet Treats & Party Decor.....









I had the girls help me with the dipping and sprinkles on the cupcake pops! It was a fun activity~!
The little cupcake bites and cupcake pops were inspired by Bakerella.

Save the Drama for Your Mama!

I'm planning a birthday party...a SLUMBER PARTY for my 10 year old daughter! We have invited like 14 girls or something like that! Why did I label this post "save the drama for your mama!" BECAUSE I REMEMBER slumber parties at that age! So I am going to be wearing a t-shirt that night that says "save the drama for your mama!" It will be perfect! *sidenote...when I was that age my parents would let me have sleepovers with like 25 girls...BLESS THEM!

I have so much to do but I wanted to give you a sneak peek at a couple thingsI have planned. The invitations and some goodies!

here is the invite we sent out...

here are some of the Cupcake Pop goodies I'm planning to make which are inspired by Bakerella.....



stay tuned for more!~

What the birthday girl wants.....

My daughter wants these for her birthday party at school.



I'm gonna give it a shot. I've already eating 3 oreos and the cupcakes aren't even done baking yet. I'll let you know how they turn out

I'm completely Insane!

Ok, I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to add a new blog to my to-do list....but that's what I've done! It's a blog all about great party ideas. The plan is to feature party ideas from women all over blogland! People will submit a post from their own blog featuring their fabulous and creative party/entertaining ideas....... and then I will re-post their content and feature them on my new blog. The blog is www.creativepartiesandshowers.blogspot.com

All the info is over on the new blog...so hop on over and check it out! And don't be afraid to sumbit your party post! The whole idea is for it to be a place where other people can come and be inspired!

Cute Party Goods!

My not so baby girl is feeling better today. We definitely had the 24 hour bug!

Ok, so a few posts back I made reference to a blog client with super cute Party Decor! Remember her? Jess at Polkadots & Pirates.....


Well, I finished the blog and I have to say, it's one of my all time favorites! Everytime I look at it I get a smile on my face. It's one of those that just makes me happy! Have a look....


Jess has an Etsy friend that makes bibs that compliment her party decor. People...these are fabulous. I've never seen anything cuter for a birthday bib. I did iron on's for my kids. But this is waaaay cuter and to die for!
You can check out GOLDEN's etsy store to see more!



She makes hats too!

I've got a client on my design schedule and I'm super excited to do her blog because she is selling the most FABULOUS BIRTHDAY COLLECTIONS EVER!!

You simply MUST hop on over to her etsy site and take a gander at all her wonderful party goodies! This girl totally speaks my party language!

Visit her etsy site www.polkadotsandpirates.com

My Magaizine File Makeover

We all dream about having not only an organized space to work in, but we want it to be beautiful too! The problem is....money! Organization that is pretty generally doesn't come cheap. All those fabric covered boxes and magazine files cost a pretty penny!

So, what's a girl to do? Go to IKEA! They have all sorts of boxes and files there and you can cover them, paint them...whatever! I bought these magazine files from ikea. They are just cardboard with a nice brown floral design. It's not bad...but it didn't go with my theme...but if the price is right....I'll take it and work with it!


Sorry, I wasn't smart enough to think to take pictures of the actual process. But basically I just recovered the boxes with scrapbook paper that matched my room theme. The boxes that are on the end of the row...I covered the whole thing. But the boxes in the middle I only did the back/exposed side and just wrapped it around the edge about an inch or so. And this was my result!



VOILA! Magazine files that match my room....and it was WAY cheaper than buying the fancy fabric covered ones!

I've been nominated!

Tip Junkie is announcing the nominees for all the different categories on the Annual Tip Junkie Awards. I was informed that I've been nominated for "Best Organizational Tip" My husband thinks that is pretty laughable....in reality it kind of is! I'm really good at coming up with organizational concepts and ideas, but I STINK at maintaining them.

Here is the post with my idea for trying to help organize your kids as far as school papers, chores, etc. This is one of those posts that always seems to pop up on my site meter referral list. People find it through google searches, or tip junkie and then they post about it and link to the post. Oh the good old days.....back when my blog was actually full of ideas! Remember that? Probably not! I'm sure all of those readers have long gone away! LOL!


I posted this more than a year ago. I still use the ones for chores...but I've totally slacked on the other ones. Anyway.....you can hop on over to Tip Junkie and VOTE FOR ME..... because I do still think it's a good idea AND I WILL WIN SOMETHING!!! Don't you want to help me WIN? You know you do!

More Answers...kind of....

Well a few of you asked for some new creative ideas. Sadly these days I don't really have any...or more to the point I don't take the time to do them. Most of my creativity gets channeled into my blog designs. However I've pulled up an archive post from last christmas with a great gift wrapping idea that I had time for a year ago!



Since I don't have any I'll point you in the direction of a few....
Jenni has a great tutorial on how to make these beautiful paper snowflake stars with your kids.


Emily has a great tutorial on how to make the cutest paper ornaments. You could totally do it with your kid!


Beckie over at Infarrantly Creative has a fabulous tutorial for how to make a fabric envelope for all of you budget minded gals who use the envelope system


There you have it....they aren't all mine...but they are CREATIVE!

Cute idea for Thanksgiving Invitation

On years when it is my turn to host Thanksgiving I've come up with this little tradition where my kids are actually the host and hostess. I just simply cook the food and provide my home. My kids make the invitations, and a few years ago we made napkin rings and placemats together. This will be the third year we've used them. I'm excited to pull them out again! I saw this idea on HGTV's website for invitations and it seems right up our alley. We've got tons of leaves outside on the ground since we have a ginormous maple tree in our backyard. If we end up doing it I will post pics of our...but for now, here is the HGTV pic and a link to the page....it has all the instructions on how to do it.

HGTV

Creative "Birthday Card"

As I was blog hopping today I came across this ADORABLE idea for a "birthday card" from Kim at For the Love of Paper. She has some more detailed pics as well as a ton more great paper projects!