Sesame St meets Mickey Mouse!

My niece's 2nd birthday party was this weekend.  I had a great time taking on my 2nd BIG sewing project by sewing a house for Minnie Mouse as her birthday present.  I also got to make her birthday cupcakes with all the faces of the Sesame Street characters!  I think they came out pretty awesome.  Oscar was definitely my personal favorite...

My very first sewing project (after the tutorial my mom gave me on making a pillow with the sewing machine) was a double sided superhero cape for my 4 year old.  I'm pretty proud of that cape considering I had no pattern and was very new to sewing.  I'll have to post that soon.  But I'm even more proud of my 2nd big sewing project, again with no pattern!!

Through pinterest I found myself here.  UKlass is amazing and her instructions definitely helped me through the process.  I loved this little house SO much I had to make one and my nieces birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity!  Of course both boys loved it too so I'll be making a barn for the baby and an auto shop for the 4 year old soon!

Minnie's house turned out pretty well!  Minnie loves her hand made rug and window and of course her mirror (lol).  I love her flower garden and hand embroidered fish pond.  Hopefully my niece loves all of it!  

A Baby Shower

The theme of the shower was 'Blue and Pink' because they are expecting twins - a boy and a girl.  Just perfect.  I was very excited to work on this and try out a lot of things I've learned following the many amazing blogs of other party designers.


Here is the Customized Invitation (and of course the envelopes matched as well!)

Here are some of the handmade decorations I provided.  Despite the 3rd degree burns, cuts and time spent re-doing everything to get it perfect I had a lot of fun making everything by hand!


Custom favor tags matched the invitation design.  I saw the umbrella topper for the pencils somewhere and just had to borrow the idea and make it match our theme.

What would a party be without 'Poufs'?!  They are so easy so versatile and can turn any corner into a bright happy space!

I adore these banners they even looked great from behind!  Using the sewing machine to attach them together really added to the 'quilted' look.

Pinwheels to match the banners.  These really were cute even though I didn't catch the best pictures of them.

Finally the cupcakes (yes I made these too)! Six dozen pink and blue baby bootie cupcakes in three flavors - Chocolate, Vanilla (dyed blue of course) and Strawberry. Custom made wrappers to match the theme and invitations!  

I nearly forgot my ribbon topiaries!  I was so excited to see these on pinterest accompanied by a great tutorial.  I just love the way they came out. They made the perfect accompaniment for the cupcake table.

Thanks so much for looking!  I'm looking forward to finding more free time to post some of my past children's parties as well as a variety of invitations, thank you cards, birth announcements and other custom cards!

Finally...

...feeling good about my new blog design and heading. That took awhile. I hope it at least makes a little sense... The idea came when I was driving myself home from some rare trip without kids in the backseat. It was a peaceful moment and I had time to think about how excited I am to own my very own new sewing machine! AND have a mother who is experienced and patient enough to teach me how to use it. That had always been on my list of things I wanted to do when I grew up... And as I thought that I realized...


"Oh crap shoot! I'm already well past grown up!!"


There are so many things I wanted to know how to do by now... and I needed to get a move on before I had another 'Oh crap shoot' moment and I'm suddenly another 20 years older!!  So I decided to try out my own blog.  I LIVE on so many of the amazing creative and DIY blogs out there. I'm constantly in awe of how these amazing women are able to raise kids, work and make their own head boards for their bed!!  I want to be THEM when I grow up!  So here I am taking a whack at it.  Fingers crossed I do half as well as them!  (I use too many exclamation points - I need to work on that   ! .)


Anyway, I'm thrilled that now I can focus on posting some things that I've been dying to share for awhile. I'm working on a baby shower for twins and made very cute blue and pink invitations (they are expecting a boy and a girl - so perfect). Lots of other invites and fun party decorations to post too!  I've also had some successful sewing projects and taken on the task of repainting the bedroom: walls, trim, FURNITURE and all!  Now if that isn't grown up I don't know what is!

An idea for all of those pictures in your drawer!

I love working with photos to create video scrapbooks. I have samples of works I've done for a baby shower as well dedication to be shown after a funeral (these are on etcards). I'd like to share a complete work of a video made for a friends wedding. It was a lot of fun to work on and the outcome made for a great keepsake. It is 4 minutes in length but worth the watch - it moves quickly enough to entertain a crowd and still let you relive the memories associated with each photo. This work also showcases the variety of options available in this kind of project. Hope you like it!!

Why is June so busy?!

I have 2 new parties to share and still need to post some of my past parties and work. I swear it's all coming very very soon. One more week of crazy busy running around and then I 'should' have nothing but time :)! Please come back to check out my work and consider getting in touch with me if you are AT ALL INTERESTED in having me work on anything for you!!

More to come!

So I'm still working on my blog as well as my website.  But that doesn't mean I'm not ready to take on some business!!  I'll be posting some photos from themed parties I did as well as a bunch of samples of cards I've designed and put together (invites, thank you cards....whatever you need!)  Everything I do would be custom to the client, no repetitive unoriginal ideas here!  Just provide me a theme and idea of what you'd like things to look like and I will create for you the most spectacular custom design I can!!


So please check back soon and I'll have some samples to show...

Where I think it began

So it started right here for me...

...my first baby boy's first birthday cake (made by me).  I LOVED making his cake and was so proud of it! I also loved scrapping together a theme and turning it into a party at the last minute.  I was new to everything so there wasn't much pre-planning 4 years ago.  But I've become a monster when it comes to my boys' birthday parties now.  I'm an unstoppable force of 'theme-ing' and I have so much fun doing it.  Once I realized there was a whole community of bloggers out there that enjoy not only being creative and doing things just like this but SHARING all of their wonderful ideas, tips and experiences I had found a new thrilling hobby.  And now... I can only be described as pleasantly obsessive about birthdays!

I did it!

I finally started a blog.  Fingers crossed I do a good job at keeping up with it.  I'd like this to be a place to record the important moments in my family's life as well as a place to share crafty things!