{sweet} baby cakes

I love it when good things happen to good people, to much of life is unfair. After 12 years of waiting, one of my dear friends was finally able to start a family through adoption.  It was a miracle and happened suddenly, so some friends and I whipped up a shower over the weekend.

Of course I had to dress up the mantle for the affair.

First, I made this painted burlap banner.  It's a project I've wanted to try for a while and I love how it turned out. 

Once I was done with the banner, I had all this leftover paint and just wanted to use it on something. That is when I remembered some wood blocks I had from a past project. I used my western stamp set for the letters. It wasn't necessary but turned out to be a nice gift for baby.  

Does my sign look familiar? I used it HERE. It used to say FAITH but I altered the lettering a little. If you look close you can see what was erased and what I kept.

I got a new chalk marker since my old one ran out. I don't think I can tell you enough how much I love chalk art and these chalk markers. AMAZING.  

The drink station. We served a mint lime punch and pretty flavored water. 

I'm loving multi layered bunting right now. I found a package of oblong paper doilies that were perfect and altered my SPRING banner to spell out the new baby's name.  I think I put about 30minutes total into all four banners. 

Since it was a late-afternoon open house, we stuck with simple finger foods and a few desserts, including my favorite mint brownies. 

The invite. I was able to make these up in minutes using my FREE Silhouette Studio software. If you are like me and don't own photoshop it's a great way to design and print your own invitations. I've told you about it in the past, but wanted to give it another shout-out.

It was nice to celebrate something so wonderful and exciting.

HERE is a list of parties I link to.

Banana's For You Valentines

We're going bananas over our valentines this year and hope you will too.

While searching Amazon we came across these cute monkey figures and knew we had to use them. 

Then we got a little crazy and added some Banana Heads to the mix,

And came up with this

And this.

We did our own twist but were inspired by another version HERE.

I had a hard time finding the right bag to put them in, but eventually found these at Michael's.
They're called archival bags and I found them in the wrapping section not with the other cellophane bags.

Overall I spent about $40 on supplies for 4 classrooms. That's $10 a classroom. Not cheap but just a little more than what you would pay for cards and a bag of candy. 

If you are interested, I downloaded the tags so you can print them yourself HERE.

You can find our valentines from previous years HERE and HERE.

Valentines Making Party

The last three years my sister and I have hosted a valentines making party. It's a perfect fit for us, we both love valentines and need an excuse to share our hoarded crafting supplies. 

 My sister came up with the cutest display for all the card making supplies. 

Doesn't this picture make you want to create something. 

 I have to say, the washi tape was the hit of the party. I got mine from Pick Your Plum. 

What is valentines without sugar cookies? 

Mini strawberry tarts, I think I'll share this recipe, so easy and so amazing.

 

It was so fun to see and steal everyones ideas. 

I decided to let my older girls come along this year, since they wouldn't stop begging. I was impressed with how serious Lydia was about it. She had a list of people she wanted to make a card for and didn't stop till everyone was done.  

Kate made a few cards but mostly enjoyed her time getting a sugar high and running around with one of her best friends. 

How pathetic is it that I was looking forward to a couple cans of this, since I stopped drinking it on a regular basis? 

Me and my sister Shelly (who is actually shorter than me but loves high heals). 

It was such a fun day, I can't wait to do it again.

I just got all our supplies for our classroom valentines in the mail. Hopefully I can share them later this week. 

custom invitations

We're getting ready for my daughters 8th birthday in a couple weeks and thought I'd share the custom invitation I made for her. I was inspired by THIS invitation and loved how ours turned out. 

As cute as the inspiration was I decided to go the DIY route not only to save money but now I can do matching menus, place cards, etc. 

I made the invitations in Silhouette Studio. Yes, it is the software I use with my Silhouette machine, but anyone can download it for free HERE.  I love this program. It's so easy to use, I basically taught myself by pushing all the buttons until I understood what I was doing. All the fonts on you computer will automatically be transferred to the program and any additional images you want can be downloaded for 99¢ a piece. I downloaded the background, flowers, and tea cups for this project, spending a total of $4. 

Another great tip if you want to print at home, is to print in the photo paper setting. It will give you a crisper and brighter image. 

I've had so much fun searching with my daughter for the perfect tea cups and accessories. Hopefully it will all come out as planned. 

Vintage Valentines

I read a post last year about vintage valentines, and I knew I had to have some.  I bought these on ebay in November. I paid $12 and got a grouping of 26 valentines.  I can't tell you how much I love these.  The pictures and the silly sayings just warm my heart. Notice the cowboy above, it says "WHOOP IT UP VALENTINE!...I CRAVE ACTION." I LOVE IT. 

I made some little holders out of old blocks and scrapbook paper.  I glued the paper onto the blocks, sanded the edges, applied some gel stain and drilled a small hole in the top.  Then using left over wire from the fairy wings and my old jewelry pliers, I made some little wire stands. I'm kinda loving these too.  They were an easy, cheap and fun project.  

I've scattered the valentines through the house. 

My son loves looking at the tank. 

"The Mower I think of you the more I like you, Valentine" What?

It's been fun to have people look through them laugh at the ones that don't make sense and choose a favorite. 

The rest of our Valentines Day Decor is pretty much the same as last year. I hope it's looks tasteful, I worry after reading this post and this post, at Just a Girl. I shouldn't care cause I like it. 

chocolates, a tree, and Santa

Chocolate week came and went, and I spent another week playing catch-up and clean-up. I finally got them boxed and out of the house a couple days ago. I store them in the garage till I hand them out.  That way they can stay cold and safe from little hands. 

We spent the first two days making all our centers.

22-ten pound bars of chocolate were chopped and melted during the week. We use Peters ultra light. It's a little bit more expensive, but well worth it.  

We use giant roasters to melt the chocolate and keep it at the right temperature. We have one for light and one for dark. 

My mom is a master dipper. Her chocolates are beautiful. We used to think it was because of her 25+ years of experience, but this week we decided it was because her hands are so small. We dip each persons chocolates one at a time, so they don't get mixed up. We have two dippers at a time one doing light and one doing dark. My mom is always one of the dippers and we take turns as the other dipper. The rule is that you have to dip your own chocolates, so you can learn. 

I love spending time chatting and hanging out with my sisters. We love to sing and dance to Christmas music as we go. It isn't always pretty and there is usually some arguing. I'm known as the bossy one and overly concerned with quality. It's a good thing we already know and have accepted each others faults. We get over things pretty quickly. Chocolate fights are rare, but there was a small one this year. You can't see it but my sisters have gobs of chocolate in their hair. 

 With the snowy weather we had to wait till after chocolates were done to get our tree. We lucked out again this year and found a beautiful tree on my in-laws property in the canyon. Cutting our tree as a family is one of my favorite traditions. It's a breathtaking experience to be alone in the snow cover wilderness.  

My husband is such a good sport to not get frustrated when I say no, to tree after tree. 

It's not a perfect tree from a farm, but that is why I love it. It had the most beautiful almost orangey smell for days. 

Are you still reading this ridiculously long post? Sorry, I have one more thing to share. 

Yesterday was a great day. We were surrounded by some of our oldest and dearest friends at our annual Santa Party. I've been throwing the party since my oldest was a baby. 

In effort to simplify my life I didn't make my own invitations, for the first time ever. I found this fabulous invitation on etsy from the Paper Heart Company. They were great to work with and I thought the price was very reasonable. I printed them at Costco as a 5x7 photo with a luster finish. 

It's kinda crazy having almost 40 kids in our home, but for some of these friends this is the only time we see them all year. 

Sorry for the long post, I wanted to get caught up around here. I hope you are all having a fabulous Holiday Season.