You're my cherry on top

Valentines for some special friends. Owen was old enough this year to be excited about helping make valentines. He painted green watercolor on cream colored paper and then we cut leaf shapes out of it. We found these adorable cherry lollipops at TJ Maxx and stapled each cherry leaf to a pair of cherries. "Your my cherry on top!" <3 Owen

I love watching Owen and his friends grow up together. Last year they were just little peanuts. This year they understand a little better what it means to love your friends. I'm excited to see what the next years hold.

A valentine party

We had a beautiful sunny valentine party yesterday! When the kids arrived they put on their smocks and stamped hearts on valentine baggies with stamps made out of potatoes and toilet paper. They made heart shaped english muffin pizzas and sipped juice out of red stripped straws. After lunch their the paint on their bags were dry and ready to be filled. It was adorable to watch them go down the row, peek down inside of each bag and drop their special valentines in.

For Owen's valentines this year we made kitty themed ones, or "meows" as he calls them. I found a vintage cat valentine and made little felt pins for each of his friends, white kitties with long eye lashes for the girls and gray tom cats for the boys. Owen was so excited about them! Every time he saw them he said "MEOW" as loud as he could and wanted to look at each one.

All the kids ran around together in the yard till they were completely warn out. It was a very sweet party! I'm so grateful that Owen has so many good friends to grow up with.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Pom pom garland: DIY

I am a sucker for garlands! I have had so much fun making garlands with pom poms made from yarn. They are fun to decorate with or give as gifts and they are so easy. Several of you asked me how to make them so I thought I would try and show you! 

What you will need
-A fork (medium fork = medium pom poms/small fork = small pom poms)
-Scissors
-Yarn
-Embroidery needle 

Step 1: Wrap your yarn around the fork like spaghetti. The thicker you make it the more full the pom pom will be. You can choose to use one color or many colors or yarn. When using multiple colors make sure and catch the loose ends with the next piece of yarn as you start a new color. I like to try one pom pom and see how it comes out and then go from there. Owen likes to take the dud ones and play with them. 

Step 2: Take the end of your yarn and stick it through the bottom center hole of the fork under your wrapped yarn. Take that same piece of yarn and wrap it around the top to bring it through the middle prong hole of the fork. Once the end of your piece of yard is wrapped completely around pull it tight and tie a knot. The yarn will look like a little bow tie on a fork at this point. 

Step 3: Take your scissors and cut under your yard along the side edge of the fork on both sides. Once you are done it should look like you have a pom pom on a fork. 

Step 4: Pull your pom pom off the top of the fork, fluff it up and trim around it to make it look round.

Step 5: Take whatever string you would prefer (I used twine in this picture but you can use your yarn, fishing line or embroidery thread), thread it through the embroidery needle and pull it through the center of your pom pom. Adjust your pom poms based on the space you would like between each pom pom and VOILA you have an adorable pom pom garland! 

Owen's vintage circus 1st birthday: DIY favor tutorial

Owen's party favors for his friends turned out so sweet. A cotton baggie with a vintage circus playing card print, a few circus animal coloring sheets, colorful crayons and a lollipop. It really was an easy favor to make and turns out to be a fun bag of goodies. The kids were thrilled as they pulled all the treasures out of the baggie. It gives them a bag to keep things in, a coloring activity to do, a fun way to learn about colors, animals and letters and a sweet treat to enjoy. Here is what I did...

Favor bags with image
-Buy cotton drawstring bags. I used these 4x6 muslin bags. 
-Buy soft transfer paper for light color fabric. You can usually find this at your local craft store. 
-Buy your desired image for the outside of the bag (I used a vintage deck of crazy 8 playing cards)
-Scan the cards in your computer and follow the directions on the transfer paper instructions (scan in, reverse image on computer, cut out, place on cotton bag, iron on, let cool, peel off, easy)

Coloring Sheets
-Find 6 themed coloring pictures or drawer your own (I tried drawing my own and it didn't end well, I should take a picture and show you my attempts just for the humor or it)
-Add the name of each animal in an easy to read font
-Print out on card stock and cut to fit in bag

Circus crayons
-Buy mini candy molds. I got these cute circus animals.
-Buy crayons in desired colors
-Peel the label off the crayons
-Chop crayons into small pieces 
-Place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan 
-Put two crayons of the same color (or get creative and mix them up) into each cupcake liner
-Preheat oven at 350 degrees and bake crayons for a few minutes or until the crayon has almost completely melted
-Quickly poor hot crayon liquid into the candy mold (I only melted 6 cupcake liners of crayons at a time because they start hardening up fast)
-Let cool and your cute crayons will pop right out

Thank you tags
-Buy plain craft tags. They should have these at your local craft store. 
-Buy two stamps: a cute thank you stamp and another stamp that goes with your theme. I got this stamp of a giraffe with a birthday hat. (I also used the giraffe stamp on the envelope of the  invitation and on the thank you notes)
-Buy two colors of ink
-Stamp thank you on one side of tag and other image on the reverse side 

Add some candy and you have a perfect little favor!

I made bunting out of the deck of cards and hung it over the favor table for a cute finishing touch. 

Click here to see more pictures from his party!