Engagement Party!

The count down has begun, again. Our vacation officially starts in T-minus 6 days. I cannot wait. We are flying into Spokane, Washington and driving the four hour drive across the border this year. (Way cheaper!) Check out here, my countdown last year to our vaca!

We are actually getting married on Thursday of next week and then having a HUGE fun engagement/celebration party on Saturday Aug. 13th at a beautiful vineyard in Penticton called Blasted Church.

The picture below is shot from the street to the back of the wine house. The pool and reception area is in front of the house on the Skaha lake side.

Blasted Church Vineyard

Blasted Church Pool

The party is around the Blasted Church Pool!

This is a picture of the gazebo at the end of the pool. Arielle took this picture a couple of weeks ago. The flowers are blooming and the pool is filled in and ready to go now!

So excited for the party and to see everyone!

Mums for the Moms!

I know it's been forever and a day since I last posted but life happens!

We recently threw a baby shower for our good friends Brooke and Dee who are expecting a baby boy very soon! We came up with this great and fun idea of doing Mums for the Moms! Tina made Dee a beautiful mum by hand!

Then in lieu of cards everyone brought their favorite childhood book. It was really funny and brought back a lot of memories at Barnes and Noble looking through these books!

Tina made the book basket by adding grosgrain ribbon to some storage boxes. They turned out really cute!

I used old Animal Cracker tins that I saved from the garbage can for the flower arranging and the blue's and reds looked great!

I also stuck in some pin wheels to all of the vases, they were cute! (Ignore the Gin bottle in the background, we didn't break into that for this party, ha!)

We also made a baby clothesline, which was so adorable on the fireplace mantle. There were little socks hanging in between the onesies.

Group Shot: (From left to right, Tina- made the Mum, Ali- hosted at her house, Dee-pretty pregnant lady pictured in the middle, Nikki- hostess, then me, and Brooke- new momma to be, far right) were very happy and loved everything! I think it was a success!

Baby Showers!

I was just looking through all my picasa album and finding pictures from a couple of years ago of a baby shower I threw with Jessica for my friend Lindy. Im looking at these now because Im throwing another one in March and I need some inspiration!

We did a "clothes line" of onesies spelling out REESE, Lindy's baby daughter's name.

We also did milk glass vases filled with tulips throughout the house.

There was plenty of food, desserts, and pink lemonade on hand:

We asked all of the shower guests to bring a baby photo of themselves. We then put them on a board with a cooresponding number for people to guess from the shower guests which baby photo was theirs.

(Hint: I'm # 8!)

I think I've got some inspiration now for the next baby shower!!!

Nora's First!

Alison's daughter Nora had her first birthday last month. It was mermaid themed and check out these cute invites Alison created!



She tied up tiny little sand dollar and/or star fish punch outs with twine around the hand delivered invite!

The inside was really cute too. She glued on some die cuts and printed on vellum. The whole party was "under the sea" inspired! It was so cute! 

Great job Alison!

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Kissing Balls!

For Jenna's Wedding this past Memorial Day weekend I made kissing balls among other items.

Jenna wanted to order these kissing balls off etsy:

Black Berry Kissing Balls via Etsy

At the time of ordering they were $20 each. (Right now they are on sale 50% off). Well I couldnt swallow that price. I knew I could make them for much less than $20 plus shipping each! So I thought using plastic bead necklaces, and wrapping around 4" styrofoam balls may work!

I hot glued the strands of mardi gras beads. (Which I cut first to make it one continuous piece.)

Then I punched a hole it it at one end with a phillips head screwdriver so I would be able to fill it with hot glue and insert a 30 gage wire:

Then I hung the wire from a broom stick so I could easily spray paint each ball (they do drip a lot!):

I then tied ribbon to the wires and cut the wires off as short as I could with out unwinding:

I tied two knots at the top and made robin's tales with the ends of the ribbon.

They looked really good out on the white ceremony chairs:

The ceremony site was really pretty:

 If you look closely you can see the balls hanging at the end of the three rows. I estimate that Jenna and I spent $20 total making these 6 kissing balls. Not bad at about $3.33 each!

 The wedding was beautiful. Congrats Tom and Jenna!

 Stay tuned for the centerpices and other things related to Jenna's wedding!

Party Hats!

Jessica just sent me another picture of her freaking cute party hats that she made.  I love all of the colors and different patterns! Thanks Jess, they are amazing!

Mom's Ornament Party!

My mom had an ornament gift exchange party and we made her invites here. The table was so pretty I just had to take a few quick pictures!! Wish I got some more!

She placed a white table cloth with silver and gold plaid stitching down like a runner. Then placed individually hung glass ornments on their own little hooks on top down the center of the table.

The red place settings really stood out on the white table cloth witht the white plates! Love the Christmas Crackers!

And she added a few bubble vases with rosemary! Smells so good!

It looked great!!! Mom reported that the party was a success!

Check Mom out here making Margaritas!

Growing onesies!

My friend Jessica went to a baby shower last week and saw onesies on the mom-to-be's registry and decided to create her very own flower pot-o-onesies!

Jessica said she picked up the white flower pot at Ikea for $1.99! What a steal!

I love how colorful and bold the 'flowers' are! And the crinkle paper grass makes me so happy!

The candy hued ribbon matches perfectly with the bright sports themed onesies!

I love the football rattle and green tag all wrapped up with the polka dotted celophane!

If you would like a step-by-step tutorial on how to make your own flower pot onesies check out my post on it here!

Jessica has a really good green thumb and took to growing some of her own onesies and they turned out so great! Thanks for the photos!

6 Dollar Halloween Happy Hour

For my moms birthday and for Halloween we decided to have a Happy Hour instead of a full blown party. I was determined not to spend over $10 on decorations because my mom already has so many decorations and the party was at her house. So at Wal-Mart I found some cute and cheap favors and decorations.

I bought favor spider rings for $2, stretchy skulls for $2, and a windsock for $2.

I thought they would look cute in martini glasses for everyone to grab as a favor on their way into the party.

We had a great time, and I didn't spend over $10 on favors or decorations!

Onesie Flower Pot

For Lindy's Sprinkle I grew some onesies! Not really, I did buy a set of five onesies like these cuties:

and then folded them like this:

Then in half again like this:

Then I rolled it from one end to create a "rose" shape and held it tight with a rubber band:

Then, I used chopsticks that I painted green as the stems and stuck them in a orange flower pot filled with styrofoam and moss at all different heights:

To cover the rubber bands I tied on some white rick rack that I had:

(Ummmm if you are sober this picture is clear.. Guess I'm wasted.)

I also then added some faux greenery.. is that taboo?

Nothing this cute could be taboo, could it?

I added some grosgrain ribbon as "leaves" for the onsie rose petals.

Then I wrapped it all up with some ribbon to make it a presentable gift! I had to use iridescent cellophane because I ran out of clear. Man, fake greenery, rubberbands, and now iridescent cellophane? What am I turning into, my mother?? Just kidding Mom, love you!

I added a sweet little gift tag with a Congrats stamp and a glittery "It's a boy!" trinket that I found at Home Goods and then this painted lady was ready to go out for a Sprinkle!

Lindy said it was too pretty to unwrap!! But when she does she will find some cute newborn boy onesies, so cute and practical!

Have y'all seen those diaper cakes? Hummm another cute practical present idea.. I may have to save that one for a future Sprinkle.

Let me know if you have made one before and I'll need a thorough tutorial with that as well, thanks!

Sprinkle Sprinkle, Little Star!

We threw Lindy a Sprinkle last Sunday at Mattito's. A Sprinkle is traditionally thrown for the second baby since the mom already has most of the supplies left over from the first. So, this gathering was because we wanted to celebrate the arrival of the second baby. We decided that brunch and a bottomless mimosa was the perfect idea! (Drinks for the un-pregnant ladies, that is.) Well, we kept this affair small and intimate; as intimate as you can be at a big, busy restaurant during a crazy brunch rush with bottomless mimosas! So, on the eve of the shower, I thought we should have something to signify that we were there all together. I had a bunch of left over fabric courtesy of Alison and started putting together these fabric corsages.

I started with this cute flowery fabric:

I cut a strip, about a foot by four inches, with peking shears.

Then, I made about a half inch folds alternating to create this:

Then I put a staple in perpendicular to hold it all together... Ummm I mean I sewed a stitch with my hand crank sewing machine. Just kidding, I used a stapler.

Then, I pulled the loose ends together and stapled each side closed to form a circle.

And here's the finished look:

I added a large safety pin so they could be worn during the shower.

I also made Lindy a version of her own, sporting a J, in honor of her sweet baby James! (Due in two weeks.)

Here is Amanda showing off my design:

Here is Lindy, the guest and baby of honor showing off their's:

She looks so pretty and glowing. I didn't even plan on matching her's with her dress but somehow it worked! Check out Lindy's blog of Reese Pendley, Lindy's daughter!

I think the Sprinkle was a success and everyone enjoyed the food, the drinks, and of course the company!

Stay tuned for my Sprinkle gift to Lindy: The onesie flower pot.