Neverland Party - Setting Sail

Neverland is a dream party theme because there are so many elements to use - each part of Neverland is literally a childhood happy thought - pirates, mermaids, treasure, Indians, a treehouse, and unlimited freedom to roam and explore. Here's a little mock up of a Neverland map whipped up in 10 minutes on the kitchen floor, made out of crayons and Amazon's packing paper that was literally laying around:

I decided that since pirates were the most accessible genre, they would take over the kitchen and living room. One I took down our Christmas tree, I had a huge open 11' wall to work with that just screamed for a big decor element - enter the photo backdrop!

I used two rolls of background paper (like giant tubes of slightly thicker wrapping paper) from a teacher supply store. I believe they are intended for bulletin boards, and recently I've noticed some JoAnn stores carrying them too, so you could use a 40% off coupon.  One was sky and one was "under the sea." I used blue painters tape to paste them up, and they looked adorable! We got a pop up "Bucky the Pirate Ship" (from the new Disney Jr. cartoon "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," which TC also loves and takes place in Neverland). I thought it would be great to take gag photos of everyone "sailing away" on the pirate ship. Of course on the day of the party I was too busy doing everything else (especially eating cupcakes) to remember. Oops! 

But the area was still enjoyed, and the few photos we did get are adorable :)

Neverland Preview

The Cupcake turns 3 on Saturday and we're celebrating with a Neverland themed party. She loves both Peter Pan and the Disney Jr. Series "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and I love the idea of combining pirates, pixies, mermaids, lost boys, and so much more into one party theme, so we are all excited. Since today and tomorrow are pretty busy, I've already put up most of the decor! It's kind of fun to enjoy it a while.  Here is a tiny happy sneak peek:

I'm already thinking happy thoughts :)  stay tuned to see how it all comes together!

Merry = yes, bright = not so much...

I was pretty proud of myself after I cheaply replaced our defective Christmas tree lights a few posts ago:

 

For a very short time. Then the new lights also bit the dust. There are about a dozen out of the two full strings that are still lit. I give up.

 

I'm not going to even bother trying to figure it out until I undress the tree, so we'll just pretend they're all still flashing away happily for a couple more days. We went pretty light on the holiday decor this year, just the tree and a little garland:

 

It actually turned out pretty festive though! We have this great archaway between our living and dining room. A few 3M hooks, some wood bead garland, a red ribbon, and some large plastic Christmas bulbs started us off.

 

As the holidays drew nearer, I punched a hole in each Christmas card we received, threaded it onto a plastic ornament hook, and added them to the garland.

 

A few glittery candy canes on each end for good measure too :)

 

With a toddler on the loose I knew I didn't want to deal with the fish-hook style ornament hangers, I know I pretty much step in one each year and have to extract it from my heel, I definitely didn't want to be pulling them out of The Cupcake's gullet - so I was pleased to find these plastic (and more toddler-friendly, though I'd still her rather not acquire any) hooks.

May your days be Merry & Bright - even if your lights are b!tchy.

Let there be light, dammit.

I have a loose tradition of putting up Christmas decor the day after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I've done it every year, or for how long, but it makes sense and I usually have some free time over that weekend, so it's convenient. This year the hubs had to work but The Cupcake was being semi-accomodating so I was able to sneak downstairs  and wrestle the medium sized tree up the stairs from storage. It's a partially collapsable 6 footer or so, and usually we just leave it set up in the laundry room during the off season. I take off the decorations but not the lights, since that seems like a waste of time just to put them back on again and it they don't fall off like ornaments do.

Last year I used a new set of lights for the first time, some fancy-schmancy LED ones I scored at Target on clearance the day after the prior Xmas. Red & white. I was happy to see that the tree would fit perfectly on top of a desk we have in front of the window right now, keeping more of it up and away from TC and showing off the lights out the window very nicely. I set up a sparkly tablecloth, plugged in the tree and...nothing. Well, 3 of the 4 strings were nothing. Dead.

Guess these weren't the kind that stay lit when one goes out. Sigh.

Next step: unwrap all the stupid lights, and try to keep them untangled.

Worst step: pretend that in jiggling and removing all the bulbs and putting them back in that I will somehow know what is wrong and make them work again. Ha. Ha Ha. Repeat for all 3 strings. Ha.

Actual worst step that I hadn't even anticipated: flinging TC into quarantine in the hallway when she whips one of the dead strings off the table and smashes one of the (apparently glass) bulbs on the floor, sending glass shards everywhere. 20 minutes sweeping and vacuuming ensue. Possible obscenities muttered. All lights end up in the trash anways. Lose 1 day + a few dollars. Spin again.

And the story concludes with a trip to Target for new lights, a pondering of the LED ("greener" but expensive) vs. traditional lights, hubby requesting they blink, and an eventual decision to get the cheap Earth-killing lights (in multi-colored "twinkle" variety) because the rest of the string will stay lit when one goes out, and thus in theory shouldn't need to be replaced for a few years. The LED ones could last longer, but if one goes I'd have to figure out which one or end up in the same place as this year. Also, after winding them on, I found I only needed 2 sets instead of the 4 I used last year, so the whole tree is done for less than the cost of replacing one of the broken LED strings. Works for me. I even found the adaptor so I can use a remote to turn them on and off instead of digging behind the furniture. Super productivity points.

Yet to come: deciding which ornaments to risk with the cupcake...

Goodbye mermaid wall decal

I am very slowly working on some household projects, one of which involves trading rooms with The Cupcake sometime before winter. The rooms are about the same size but will work better switched for a few (not extremely interesting) reasons, plus it will be a fun change, so I'm making a tiny bit of progress while I wait to win the lottery afford the necessary accoutrements. A few free things I was able to start with included taking down the mermaid wall decal that was over TC's crib: 

 

 

It was really cute for TC, but not really what we had in mind for our bedroom, so I took a deep breath and started peeling. It came up pretty easily, though there was no way to "save" it unless you were willing to spend hours - it stuck to itself and tore easily coming off. It also apparently took off some paint, as you can see all the tiny dots of teal on the final product below:

 

 

The particles of missing paint weren't even noticeable on the wall, except for one small area (under 2" square) that came off pretty significantly:

So it definitely wasn't at all reusable, but it was mostly removable. We're planning to repaint anyways, so no big deal. All in all, it went up and came down better than I thought it would. I would definitely do a decal again in the future.

State Fair Bridal Shower - SkyRide Garland

Does this look like a party? WHOOO HOOO!


For decorations at our State Fair Bridal Shower we chose do do a few fun items that would have a lot of impact for our theme and fill the space with the fun fairtime atmosphere - and what evokes the State Fair better than the SkyRide:



We translated the iconic ride into a bright fun garland that zig zagged the party space:



Framed the windows:


And hung from the chandelier:


Sadly, there is no Cricut cartridge that cuts SkyRides :) So instead, I created my own template by blowing up a picture of the skyride, tracing the major lines of the silhouette, and cutting the shape with an Xacto knife:



I used that template to cut SkyRide gondolas out of red, yellow, green, and blue cardstock:





My mom used wire Christmas ornament hangers to suspend the gondolas along an old telephone cord so they still had some movement but hung securely over our heads. Midway style tickets purchased from the local party store made up the rest of our hanging decor:





The stage was set! Next up, check back to see the FOOD!
Click on the "StateFair" label to see other pics and projects from this State Fair themed Bridal Shower,

State Fair Bridal Shower - Name Tags

I think when you have a big bridal shower with several different "branches" of your family tree, it's always nice to have name tags. This shower involved the Bride's family from both her mother and father's sides, as well as friends from college and childhood, and there were so many guests it would have taken an hour to introduce everyone, so name tags were perfect. In keeping with the State Fair theme, I echoed the invitations with smaller rosette ribbons:

But THIS TIME instead of piecing them together, I cut them all out using my Cricut! I got one from my mother in law over a year ago, but haven't had much of a chance to use it until now, so I am having fun exploring the options. I have a hard time judging what each cartridge will do just from the pictures on the back of the boxes, but I just discovered if you go to the Cricut site you can click on each cartridge and many view the handbook in a PDF document, so you can see ALL the capabilities! Whoo hoo!

It was in searching like this that I came across the "Plantin Schoolbook" cartridge, and it's many award ribbon patterns. PERFECT!!!! Of course, this cartridge is not available for purchase and was only distributed as part of a bundle with the machine (and I wasn't buying another machine!). Ashttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif luck would have it, someone on my local Craigslist had one for sale, and I picked it up immediately!



I used a rainbow of papers from my existing stash and the Roly Poly setting, and cut 6 from each 12" x 12" sheet of paper. I used the same paper punch to cut the centers from white cardstock as I did for the invitations, and a glue stick to attach.



We laid them on a table in the entry way with markers and pins, and guests could choose their own color. We left one as an example so people would know to write their name AND relation to the bride, which really helps people to mingle and socialize. We even marked the back of two name tags with a star, and those guests won a door prize (pie!).



The Cupcake had so much fun she knocked herself out:



Click on the "StateFair" label to see more pics & posts about this party, and stay tuned for additional pics & projects!

Romp in the Swamp Louisiana Halloween Party - VooDoo Shop

Yeah, yeah, it's been 4 months, but there are a few last details from Halloween I wanted to write up before I'm on to next year, one being the nursery decor. You see, it went through quite a metamorphosis this past year. It started as a seldom used guest bedroom with ugly tulip print wallpaper. When we bought the house, it was staged as a little girl's room, but not exactly my style:



When we found out about the cupcake, I knew that wallpaper had to go. I was really worried about scraping it all off, but one day I started picking at it and the whole thing just peeled off in huge sheets:



Underneath it was baby pink, but that wasn't appealing either, so with the help of my BFF we covered it in "tantalizing teal:"



And then we took a big 'ol detour from traditional nursery decor in the month leading up to Halloween, turning the nursery into a N'awlins VooDoo Shop!



This was where the psychic readings took place, I wanted to create an eerie backdrop packed with details so that everywhere you looked, you noticed something new, sort of how Disney has made even the ride queues and long lines part of the attraction by setting the mood. And I wanted to do it on a budget, so I focused on repurposing free stuff, using what I had, and finding great bargains for the rest.

To start with, I arranged the bed as a couch so people could sit and listen to other fortunes being told (and, it turns out, wait in "line" because it was so popular!). I covered it with a $6 black duvet from Goodwill and all the throw pillows from the living room. I used shelves and hutches I already had around the house as the "store shelves". Since the walls were so bright, I draped long panels of fabric around to dull the happy tone and create a more intimate setting. I used fabrics I already had and a few picked up dirt cheap at goodwill (I got real good at shopping on $1.49 days!). I used 3M strips and hooks to hang everything - no way was I re-painting again :)



I gathered all the skulls, crows, and skeletons I had in my Halloween stash, and re-used the bloody rose garland from last year's Queen of Hearts scene. I also pulled a bunch of creepy religious relics I had acquired over the years, a lot of angel Xmas ornaments I had inherited, and some spooky nun dolls I found at the goodwill a few years ago and could NOT pass up.



I filled some bigger spaces with cheap art from Goodwill - remember the distressed painting in the broken down frame and the puzzle in the ornate gold I found back here? Rustic candlesticks and old wine decanters fit in well too. Old photos in antique gold frames also fit the mood, and I picked up a couple sets of battery powered candles at Costco that I mixed in everywhere:



I kept the lights really low, it was dark other than all the battery powered candles and a single lamp (shrouded in white gauzy fabric) on the psychic's table, so that helped to blend the scene together and draw your eye to the details (and away from the empty spaces). More items "from the vault" stocked the shelves - an original Ouija board, a fake heart, plastic bugs and snakes. I saved all the unsold glassware from the summer's garage sale (candle holders, dishes, vases) and filled them with foam eyeballs or water and "grow animals" from the $1 store (make sure you do this a few days ahead, they take a while to reach their full size!).



My favorite was the snakes - I had saved them from the bathroom decor in 2009. I had asked people to save clear jars and containers a few months leading up to Halloween, and my mom came up with this great pretzel jar - don't they look fantastic?



I did a few quick and cheap crafts for this room too. My husband was on a Pelligrino kick so we managed to save a ton of bottles. Rather than going to the trouble of soaking off the labels, I just printed new ones using shipping labels and creepy fonts (yay for 1001 Free Fonts!) and slapped them over the existing labels. I used a black permanent marker to color in some of the words, used fabric paint to simulate contents "dripping" out of the bottles, and voila - creepy "ingredients" for sale at the voodoo shop:



I used the same process for other shapes and sizes of containers too - tea tins held "werewolf fur." A clear jar full of tiny pieces of string became "mummy stitches."



This was actually a pretty cheap & green craft. The bottles were all free & bound for the recycling bin - I just kept them a while longer and decorated them a bit before kicking them to the curb. I didn't even bother cleaning most of them out first - a pickle jar easily becomes slug slime or swamp water with little effort. The paint and labels I had on hand, and these really made up a big part of my "display."



The only other craft project I did was some crudely painted signs advertising various voodoo shop sales and policies - "We Have Wart Remover!" and "Deadly Nightshade - $9.99!"



This room took weeks to actually put together, mainly because I arranged and rearranged everything so often. Turning on and off all of the candles took another chunk of time (and a few fingernails) but it really worked out well. Of course, the main decorative element was the table in the center of the room where the psychic held court:



Luckily The Cupcake didn't try any funny business like showing up a couple months early, or she would have had a voodoo themed nursery that I'm guessing might have garnered some sideways glances (and possible calls to child services). But she cooperated, so I was able to get everything taken down and turned over to a more child friendly look.

This room took time, but saved money. In fact, I think I might have actually come in UNDER budget on this room (don't worry, I blew it + much more on the food). I wish I would have gotten a better pic of how the lighting levels looked, but I'm still a rookie with my camera, so you'll have to take my word for it - the darkness helped, and the final effect was spooky and excellent!

Carin's Casa of Creative Crafting: Gingerbread House Party!

Carin is the crafty kind of person you love to have around for inspiration, but also secretly hate to try and live up to :) She is AMAZING! She's always crocheting (or knitting? I don't even know the difference), offering around GORGEOUS/NUMMY frosted sugar cookies, and building the most fantastical costumes. It's enough to make a moderate hobby crafter feel mopey and inadequate, but then she goes and wins you back over again by hosting a GINGERBREAD HOUSE DECORATING PARTY! Yeah, she's pretty cool. She made snacks:



And she actually BAKED A GINGERBREAD HOUSE for everyone who came! (Are you kidding me? I'd totally have bought kits :) But these smelled sooooo much better!) So I arrived and got this:



Which I then set about assembling:



And decorating:



I took a few cookie breaks - pretty sure I ate all the Xmas trees. The hedgehogs were too darned cute to destroy:



More decorating:



The snow is much prettier with sprinkles, don't you think? I wouldn't mind shovelling half as much if it were really this cute all winter:



IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! I haven't done a gingerbread house since Daisy Girl Scouts, and I've always meant to, so I can't thank Carin enough for having this event (not to mention doing all the baking, mixing, and CLEANING! I'm pretty sure there was candy EVERYWHERE by the end, so sorry!). Everyone had a good time, and I think our whole "village" was pretty fun:



Having creative friends rocks:









Thanks Carin & everyone, what a great way to get in the holiday spirit!