Little Mermaid 5th birthday

Last weekend was my daughter's 5th birthday and we decided to go all out for it. We even had Ariel attending the royal celebration!  I searched all over pinterest for ideas for a classy, fun, beautiful party and here was the outcome!

Royal guests were directed into the clubhouse. I made this sign from scrap wood, some tulle, and flowers with shells glued inside for a beach effect.

Once inside, the royal guests were able to select wands and crowns (for the girls) while the boys were able to pick out an eye patch and sword.

The dessert table was a huge success! I worked on cupcakes with brown sugar on top and chocolate shells all week. The chocolate shells were very easy to make with molding chocolate (bought at a local craft store) and a plastic mold also bought at the craft store. I handmade the seaweed as well. This was probably the easiest part of the party! I found tulle type material at the local fabric store (on clearance even) and cut into long strips. I tried to make the edges uneven for a better seaweed effect. Then I took the strands and sewed a straight line down the middle so it would bunch up. Looked great and got a ton of compliments on it!

The blue cups are actually blue jello with a sweetish fish inside. Also easy to make and were a big hit. Just take blue jello, refrigerate, and right before serving cut a slit in the top and place the fish inside.

 

The marshmallow octopus were not hard to make at all but, were time consuming. Making sure all parts of the marshmallow was covered and making sure the legs were long enough to show after the marshmallow was placed on top. I did these 2 days before and stored in an air tight container.

 

Rock candy made a nice effect to the table and the bonus was I didn't have to do anything to it other than place in a nice cup!

Stained and decorated treasure chest with the party favors in and around. I decided on small sand toys along with a bottlecap necklace for each kid. The girls had princesses to chose from while the boys had pirate necklaces.

Fall wreath

With the kids going back to school, the leaves falling off the trees, and the weather cooling down scorching heat, it is starting to feel like fall is coming! It was time to pull down my summer time sandals on my door and put up a new wreath. I searched far and wide on pinterest for a good fall/autumn wreath but, nothing really struck me as my style. What to do, what to do... make my own of course! I scrolled through pages of ideas and came up with something that kind of mixed a bunch together. A trip to the craft store was in my future.

Here is what you need:
-wreath (I always buy the green foam ones since they are cheaper)
-bag of spanish moss
-floral bunches (I bought two with mixes in them)
-small foam pumpkins or other veggie that represents fall to you
-yarn (this is the standard cheaper yarn in a burnt orange)
-letter
-arcyrlic paint
-round sponge brush
-spray glue (I used elmers)
-hot glue gun

TOTAL: $40 and I have enough to make something else

This is what's left after making the wreath.

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Instructions:

Step One: Use small round sponge brush to paint polka dots on wooden letter. Set aside to dry.

Step Two: Wrap yarn tightly around the wreath. Go about two-thirds around the wreath and make a knot at the end. I made an indent with my nail so I knew where to stop.

Step Three: Spray glue on the part of the wreath that does not have any yarn on it and carefully place moss. Make sure to not have any wreath showing (other than the back side which is fine).

Step Four: Pull the flowers and leaves off of the floral bunches and figure out where they would look best in the moss part of your wreath.

Step Five: Use the hot glue gun to place said pieces in step four.

Step Six: Tie the wooden letter with the same yarn used on the wreath. Tie tightly around the wreath.

Step Seven: Use yarn or ribbon to make the top hanging part of the wreath and tie off.

Step Eight: ENJOY!

Fruit ice pops

Found these on pinterest and knew they would be a big hit with my kids, since they love ice pops!! We try to avoid artificial colors in our house since it makes my boys go a bit loco! We made them in the evening, and the first thing in the morning, the kids ran to the freezer to check if they were ready! I was able to save them for a playdate we had, and all the kids enjoyed them. The only thing I did differently was to cut the juice with water to reduce the sugar.

Original pin is from here
http://www.lilsugar.com/How-Make-Fresh-Fruit-Popsicles-18393455

Cut up fruit, we also used fresh strawberries and kiwi, some frozen blueberries and grapes I had in the freezer.

Fill the mold with the cut up fruit, then fill with juice/water mix, then add the sticks, we lost a handle, so made do with a Popsicle stick!

One of the kids enjoying the finished product!!

Cute homemade card

Found this super cute idea for cards to make from the kids for the grandmas for Mother's day.

Found the idea here
http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/2011/09/grandparents-day-card.html

This is the version we made, basically took some scrap paper, and then got the kids to do their handprints, added a photo, and voila, a super cute card the grandmas loved!! I also made extras so I could keep them for myself!!

Kitchen Chalkboard

Chalkboards are all the craze right now. I loved the idea of having a chalkboard on the kitchen wall but I just could not bring myself to paint the wall with black. I took down a bunch of pictures to re-decorate a couple months ago and this frame was left over. The inspiration hit when I saw it sitting at the top of the stairs, empty, and such a big beautiful frame. 

Taking out the glass was the hardest part (believe it or not) as the manufacturer put the tabs in after they put the glass in. Once the glass was carefully removed, I painted the backing of the frame (it was a light weight wood) with chalkboard paint (3 coats) and let it dry. Once it was dry, I placed back in the frame and hung up.  My only quirk with it is when I write against the grain, it takes a little more effort. But all in all, it works just as well as it needs to!

Viola! A beautiful framed chalkboard in the kitchen without painting the wall!

Mexican Pizza

Looking around on Pinterest the other day for a recipe, I came across a dish that looked SO good and easy to make! Out of all the ingredients I only needed the crescent rolls so I sent my husband on a quick grocery store run. The original recipe can be found here. The only thing I changed was no green onions and I put the tomatoes under the cheese. The kids (all 3 of them) had seconds and my husband scraped off the olives and had thirds on it! Also, we do not normally eat red meat but I thought I would stick with the recipe the first time through. Next time will be with ground turkey.

Pretty good, easy, fast dish if you ask me!

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef

1 envelope taco seasoning mix

2 (8 oz.) cans Pillsbury crescent rolls

1 (16 oz.) can refried beans (I used the jalapeño kind)

2-3 cups shredded cheddar cheese or Mexican blend

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup sliced black olives

4 green onions, chopped

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Brown ground beef or turkey and drain. Add any taco seasoning to the ground meat according to the package directions.

Unroll crescent rolls into rectangles. Place in ungreased 11 1/2 inch x 16 1/2 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Press dough over the bottom and 1/2 inch up sides to form crust. Bake at 375 oven for 11 to 13 

minutes or just until golden brown (this took about 15 minutes for me).

Microwave beans in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute. Carefully spread beans over warm crust creating a thin layer.

Top with cooked meat mixture, sprinkle with cheese followed by tomatoes, black olives and green onion. Return to oven for 3-6 more minutes until cheese is melted. Serve immediately. 

Custom initial

As I am sure you have seen the initial of your last name displayed is very "in" right now. I, personally, love the look but everyone has one. Thinking about what I could possibly do to make it stand out, I thought about scrapbooking paper! It took less than 20 minutes to do (which is good if you have little kids like me) all while being easy and inexpensive.

What you will need:

• Wooden initial - Mine was from Michaels and cost under $3 
• Scrapbooking Paper cut up squares - I have a bunch that I saved from other projects or you can just cut up 3 pages into squares and rectangles.
• Mod Podge
• Small Paint Brush
• Spray Adhesive

What you do:

• Lay your wooden initial down on a clean surface. 
• Pick up a retangle and figure out where it would fit best. You may need to trim here and there but really the more colors and shapes the better anyway!
• Mod Podge each strip with paint brush and lay down on letter. 
• Once you have them down go over the seams with more mod podge making sure to spread evenly to not leave white streaks.
• Take outside and spray with adhesive
• Let dry :-)

Super easy and you can customize to the colors of your home or room it will be displayed in.

ENJOY!