What I've Been Up To

I have been swamped the past two weeks or so!  Which is a good problem to have, but with the end of the school year and all the craziness that ensues with that I am tired!

Here is some of what I've been working on:

  Beach Towels for a Destination Wedding

Pocket T-s for a Sorority Sister to give her friends

Birthday Presents for PD#2's friends

Robes and Bath Towels for a 10 year old's Spa Party

A Zurg Shirt for a little boy to wear to his Toy Story Birthday Party

Not that you will need a Zurg Shirt, or even a robe with a zebra stripe applique...but I encourage you to call One Pink Duck to talk custom costumes and party favors!

A little Sewing: The Pencil Sharpener Jumper

Just a quick picture and description:  This started life as a pencil skirt...for me.  This pencil skirt.  Which I have made before and fit awesome.....  I cut the skirt but made an error in trying to size it down just a touch and there was NO WAY it was going to fit.

I ended up just adding two little inverted pleats in the front, a little jumper top and straps and turned it into a jumper for Greta!

Yearlong Teacher Appreciation

One of the gifts we have done for Teacher Appreciation this week has been a yearlong gift.  At the beginning of the school year I created a Back To School Print and framed it, for PD#1 and PD#2 to take to their teachers. 

My intent was to make something new for them every month, that they could then keep all the printables in the frame and change them out every year in their home or classroom.  

Well, let's just say there were a lot of months that I did not make it!

However, I did get one done for spring...

and today the girls took one in that had a K for Kindergarten or a 2 for Second Grade, and then all the names of the kids in their class.

(This is a poorly Photoshopped idea of what the classroom print would look like framed.)

While they won't rotate this print next year, I thought it was a fun way to sum up the end of the school year, and also fun for the kids to find their names!  If you know ANY photo editing software you can EASILY make something like this, and the frames were only $8 each at Hobby Lobby.  

Teacher Appreciation Week

We actually made these for the end of school last year, but they would be perfect for Teacher Appreciation Week!

I'm not sure what Target has in the way of Metal Vases/Pails this year, but I'm sure that they have something to adapt.

REPOST from May 2012

Plus, they can be wiped off and re-written with name, for a birthday, with a monogram, for Bunco night...whatever!  For the last day of school we wrote "Thank you for helping me bloom!" 

I purchased the vases for $2.50 in the Dollar Spot at Target.  I already own chalkboard paint from Greta's Paris Spa Party. 

I simply filled in the space between the grooves with two coats of chalkboard paint freehanded.  You could also use a stencil to fill in a simple space, but your writing area would obviously be smaller.  The chalkboard paint dries pretty quickly, so if you make a mistake you can use a damp paper towel to wipe it off. 

Once your two coats have dried for 4 days (or the recommended for your paint brand) you can just cover the entire chalkboard surface with the side of a piece of chalk to "season" your chalkboard.  Then wipe that off and you can write and erase to your hearts content!

We filled my MIL's with water for Mother's Day and realized it was not water-tight...so when we did the teacher gifts I just tucked paper towels around a plastic party cup and filled that with water.
Ta da!

Greta's Peace and Quiet Sleepover 8th Birthday!

 Greta (PD #1) turned 8 in January.  She wanted a sleepover birthday so we limited it to a few friends instead of the craziness we have had in years past.  (Paris Spa, Princess, Butterfly Gymnastics, Snow Party, and no links, but Cupcake, G is for Greta and Wear Pink before that.)

We decided to go with a Peace, Love and Party theme - with PINK of course, and polka dots!

I tried to play on the Peace Sign and use it for PEACE of Pizza, and RSVPeace.

I saw these peace signs at Hobby Lobby in the Christmas Craft section so I bought ALL OF THEM  and the girls help me paint them and we constructed a garland with Christmas Lights and Tulle.  I was worried about the girls getting scared sleeping over so I thought a soft glow would help.  Let me just add that they weren't, it didn't and I finally had to sleep on the couch so everyone would go to sleep!


When her friends arrived we had them sign a blank, white one with permanent marker as a fun "autograph" book of her party.  The garland is now in her room around her bed canopy. 

After all the girls arrived we went in the backyard to tie-dye some t-shirts.  What is a Peace and Love party without tie-dye?  I have a lot of cute pictures of this party that I can't show because I really try to limit showing other people's kids faces on the internet!

We had Pink, Lime and Orange and the shirts had the same "logo" as the invitations with the peace sign, heart, and party hat.

Then we came inside for a PEACE of Pizza.  I had set our table up like a bed, with a peace sign flannel cover and a minky monogrammed pillowcase at the head (which we gave a party favors as well.)

The water bottles were wearing rainbow ric rac and Hippie Shrinky Dink Necklaces the girls and I made one afternoon before the party.  These were a cute decoration AND served to help tell the water bottles apart for the girls.

After pizza I got out our cake which was covered in white fondant and let the girls decorate it with food color markers...graffiti style.  I added the first graffiti earlier though!  I also had some stickers for Maren and Daisy to put on the sheet so they didn't feel left out.

Of course the inside was tie-dyed too!

We let the girls each paint a wooden peace sign (like the garland) to take home, and we also made Shrinky Dink Necklaces.  I figured I needed a lot of activities or they would run wild!

After that we opened presents and gave the girls their sweatpant/loungepants with their names in rhinestones on the back (Greta's idea) and Lime and Hot Pink Pillowcases (from One Pink Duck obviously!) as their party favors and sleep necessities. 

We tried our first major Pinterest Fail - Kool Aid Popcorn.  I thought this would be easy and DID NOT read the directions.....  Well, apparently that is a KEY part in Kool Aid Popcorn and it is more than just dumping Kool Aid on Buttery Popcorn and shaking it up.  Bitter grossness.  

The next morning I had fun getting the drink bottles set up with sprinkles around the edge.  (Target Frappucino brand work the best for this - the labels are FAR less sticky than Starbucks brand.)  We offered cereal or yogurt that you could "tie-dye" with a rainbow of fruit choices.

The girls counted down to 8:23 am - when Greta was born - and then Conga lined around the house.  

Happy 8th Birthday Greta!

Have a Fairy Happy Birthday!

Time For Pink Duck #2's Birthday Party now...just from August...I'm not that far behind!

Maren turned 5 and wanted a Fairy Gymnastics Party, along the lines of Greta's 5th Butterfly Gymnastics Party.

I let her pick out the invitations, and she chose these, which are beautiful!

We had the party at our local gym where the girls take classes.  I made this tied fabric banner, which, like most of our party decorations, now resides in the party recipients room.  So fun to make things that can be used as room decor!

The banner was very easy to make - one long strip of torn fabric...lots of smaller strips...tied around the longer one.  It's not rocket science.

Downstairs we decorated the main tables with a wood-grain tablecloth my MIL had, and then some moss sheets from Joann's.  These are pricey - so be sure to use a coupon when you buy them.  Friends of ours gave us the wood stumps they had used for a previous fairy party, and I cut out leaves and fairy silhouettes with...wait for it...my Silhouette!  We also added some Fairy Houses (1$ bird houses from Joann's) that Maren and I painted together.  

The loose gemstones you see were part of the craft the girls did when they arrived (same as Greta's!)  They decorated Dollar Tree wings from Halloween (such a great time to stock up!) with the jewels and glitter glue.

Notice the re-use of the green Target buckets with the chalboard labels from Daisy's Frog Pond Party!  I discovered, accidentally, that if you have two-birthday's-two-weeks-apart, keeping the color scheme similar can really pay off!

Next the girls went upstairs for gymnastics.

While I changed out the craft supplies for Fairy-Sized (mini) cupcakes!  

In keeping with the Purple and Green color scheme we had green hills with Mushroom toppers and purple cupcakes with Fairy Wings.  

The mushroom toppers were cut out with the Silhouette and then sandwiched with glue around a toothpick.  Super simple.

The Fairy Wings are purple Molding Chocolate piped onto wax paper and sprinkled with purple sugar.  I really needed some Disco Dust...but the candy store I visit moved further away from us, and I had to make do with what I had.  

Brian and I drilled holes in this log to use as a cake pop stand.  The cake pops were supposed to look like flowers.  I'm not sure they do, but the leaves helped.  They were cut from the Silhouette and then I used an Exacto Knife to cut a small x to slip the cake pop stick through.

The girls drank Fairy Refreshing Punch - Juice Boxes wrapped with bark-like paper and glued on cut-outs.  I also slipped a leaf (as above) over the straw.

The Goody Bags were also Silhouette creations.  (I had just gotten the machine.)  I cut out grass, Fairy Silhouettes, and Mushrooms and glued them to simple Brown Paper Bags.  Included were: a White Chocolate Pretzel, made from a 4th of July Molding Kit, as a Magic Fairy Wand,  A green Fairy Fan (Oriental Trading) and  Wooden Mushroom Top (also Oriental Trading.)  I cut the tags and names with the Silhouette as well, and used raw edged fabric (like the banner) to tie the tags and the top of the bags.

Happy Birthday Maren!