The North Cold

The *boss* has her first take-home project due this week. The kids had to choose from four different habitats and use a wire hanger provided by the teacher to make a mobile about their habitat. She chose the arctic {which she calls the North Cold}.

It was a lot of fun to work on this with her and after a lot of cutting, gluing and tons of glitter {mostly on the floor and my lap} I am very proud of the final result....

 

{I just love how this looks against my newly painted white kitchen cabinets}

I just love the snowy owl with all the sugary glitter. The boss' favorite animal is the orca and the little-love's favorite bits are the sprinkle snowflakes.

Back to Wonderland

It's party time again around here. Our little love is turning the 3 soon and she asked for an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party. Lucky me, because when she was just 4 months old big sis had an Alice party for her 4th {here}. Lucky me, again, because we kept everything. I'm hoping this party is a breeze to put together. We are doing some things different though. Which I will post after the party {are you hooked?}
What I wanted to share are these *Welcome Signs* that I have been making for my girls' last few birthday parties. What I like best about them is that I put them in their scrapbooks afterward.
Here are some I've made in the past:

 This is from the Carnival Party {here & here}

 This one is from our little love's first birthday {here & here}

After finding those signs again I was inspired to get all my supplies out and make another one or two or three.

 {Aren't those little clipboards just adorable?}

 All the necessary embellishments {and more}

These are perfect! I had forgotten I even had anything with tea cups.

 This is the final product for the front screen door.

{Most of the products used come from my favorite brands from Creative Imaginations}

Classic Dinsey Art

 I just reconnected with one of my favorite books from my childhood. It's  missing a cover and a few pages, been drawn in and of course is torn throughout. Even after all the abuse I still find the book mesmerizing to look through. Not only does it bring back warm and fuzzy childhood memories, the artwork is enchanting.

 My little-love's favorite princess {of the day, anyway} is Snow White. And, since I am still able to style her bedroom without objection I took advantage of the situation. {I'm also going to do something with this super cute Easter Bunny for Easter}.

I cut out some full page images with text, bought some cheap white frames, added some paper lace trim to make up for the size difference, and voila!

I also cut out these images of Mother Goose and a poem of Jack and Jill (featuring Mickey and Minnie) to put over our book rack in the hallway between the girls' bedroom. I need more wall space to display all the pages from this book. These Disney storybook artists are so stinkin' talented!

An Un-Birthday Gift

 I found these two beauties at our favorite local flea market. I was going hold onto them until my mom's birthday, but then I decided it is perfectly OK to give a gift outside of the realm of birthday, Christmas or Mother's Day. And it felt good. So, the lesson of the day is to give a gift for no good reason. It will make you and someone else smile!

Art Show Party

Between holiday gatherings and birthday parties it sometimes feels like you are throwing some kind of shindig every other month. Why not throw another one? It may seem a bit sadistic but is well worth it. This Art Show Party was born from wanting to have a gathering that did not revolve around presents.

Each invitation went out with some *art cards* where the artists could put their names, the title of their masterpiece and their age.

Each artist wore a pin identifying them as an artist, in case there was any confusion. {I was a little concerned about party crashers}

These flowers were fun and easy to make. They were used for the *artist* pins and garlands. After the Art Show was over I hung them in the girls' rooms where they look positively fabulous.

{the flower garlands}

 

The Art was displayed on black presentation boards with black hand-painted wooden clothespins. {hand-painted by my amazing mother}. There was also this fantastic ocean piece created by two sisters ages 6 and 8. I just love the curling ocean wave at the top!

 These doodles were put out with markers as an activity for the kiddos.

Of course, I couldn't resist making cute little food sticks. Now, you must know the garden/bird/flower inspiration for the invitation and decor came from a Mother's Day gift I received from my girls...

This beautiful bird bath from the Smith + Hawken collection at Target. It will never fulfill its destiny as a bird bath. It will only ever be used to serve hors d'oevres in this house. In fact, one of the moms at the Art Show went and got one for her and her mom right after the Art Show {they don't have any intention of using theirs as bird baths either}.

Even though I love, love, love my birth bath, I think my favorite piece of decor at the Art Show were these hand picked flowers from our garden my little kiddos.

Chocolate Mustache

Okay. I have to do a really quick post about these chocolate mustache pops posted on Prudent Baby.
How fun are these?

These caught my attention also. Great for classroom treats!

Woodland Baby Shower

It's always a good thing to re-use stuff, right? Even if you're not saving the planet, but saving time. I was feeling rather proud of myself to recycle and add onto a collection that was used for a Woodland Gnome  Birthday Party {here & here} and I must say it turned out better than I imagined it wood {pun intended}. This Woodland Baby Shower was hosted by my aunt and cousin who are quite the party throwing duo. Check out some of the photos from the party:

It's A Boy Banner.

Candy Bar and Drink Wrappers.

My aunt and cousin made these center pieces and added some of the 2" punches. That mushroom is actually an eraser on top and pencil sharpener on the bottom.

I believe that they made all the treats on this table except for the lemon thingys in the back right corner.

My aunt found this easy owl cupcake recipe at One Charming Party.

The invitation {seems oddly familiar...}. The artwork below was intended to be used as dessert/food labels or place cards.