Little Girls Cupcake Party...

edited to add... to see more photos of the party you can click here

I have boy/girl twins. Since they are a boy/girl we have never done big "parties" for them. We usually do family dinners or invite a bunch of friends to dinner with kids the same age. Last year we did "branch" out and have a party at a local party place. So this year they were turning 8 and I figured my days of having fun little parties for them were quickly slipping away. We decided to do a crazy thing and have 2 parties at the same time. (figured it was better to really mess up my house once, than clean it up and mess it up again)

The girls had a cupcake/baking party upstairs and the boys were down stairs having a safari party. This also made it so people didn't feel like they needed to bring 2 gifts... (oh the complications of twins :-)) The table... some people asked for some "details"..
-the Cake is a cake mold I got from Williams Sonoma, but I noticed that Wilton also makes one. Make sure you bake the cake on the package, a cake mix would not be strong enough for the cake to stand up.... Decorating the cake was a mess..... oh vey! In the end we covered the top with white fondant (keep it thick when you roll it... 1st one was too thin)... then we dipped the bottom in chocolate melts... (fondant was a MESS!)... Turned out in the end.

I love balloons... they make it look festive without too much effort. I also made Bakeralla's cupcake pops... (no close up they don't look that great)... I put them in little flower pots with Styrofoam balls so they could stand up... then covered the top with marshmallows to hide the Styrofoam.I was soooo excited when I found paper place mats at Hobby Lobby!! Plates are from there too... couldn't find any cute cupcake theme ones so just went for cute ones in the party colors. Pink plastic table cloth on the table.Filled jars- never got around to going to the specialty candy store, ran out of time, so put marshmallows in them instead... cheap doilies on the table under all the cake stands.
(sorry for the pink faces, don't know if it's ok to post the girls pics)....

When the girls arrived I gave them an apron. Oriental Trading Co. had a package of 12 for a really good price. Then found a cupcake digital scrapbook element on twopeasinabucket.com and printed it on ironon paper. Cut it out and ironed it on. Easy!

Also from Oriental Trading (OTC), I got bakers hats... they are the paper ones... so I let them decorate their hats with markers and some cupcake foamies (also from OTC). Just a note, the hats were HUGE... so we used a stapler to get them to fit better.
.....I found a 20% off coupon and free shipping from OTC, so that's where most of the party stuff if from......

After that, we decorated cupcakes.. my Mom had the genius idea to put the sprinkles in cupcake tins... much easier for the girls to use.

After that the girls dipped cupcake balls in chocolate & covered them in sprinkles. I did it just like Bakerealla (www.bakerella.blogspot.com)... My biggest tip for that is make sure they are FROZEN before the girls dip them, also make sure the sticks are in them before you freeze them... use a little chocolate to get them to stick..... less messy. Also- we didn't shape them, just kept them round. They all turned out sooo cute, I didn't take any pictures.. (too busy helping them dip in choc.)

Syd got her own apron, I made it earlier...



Then dinner... kept it simple... We had smiley face fries, mini corn dogs, chicken nuggets, strawberries, apples/caramel, and pb&j cut out with a heart shaped cookie cutter. I did break down and buy grape and orange fanta... the cans matched so well I couldn't resist (happy to report no spills!)

Party bags... also from OTC... put in them the "chefs" rubber duckies, stickers, and bubbles (all from OTC)...the girls also took home 1 cupcake they made (found cupcake boxes at Michaels) and their cake pops.

The girls were very good and it all turned out great... took about 2 hrs... they best part... don't have to do a big party next year!

Whew... we survived!

Had an INSANELY busy weekend... 2 birthday parties, family visiting, 2 baptisms and a family dinner all in 2 days!
Been "creating" tons.. and have lots to share... one of my fav's from the weekend was my daughter's cupcake party... thought I'd share a couple of pics... more details later..
Also- I will get the details of the Easter dresses up ASAP... just been super busy and a little under the weather...

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!! Ours was great but a bit crazy after just getting home from vacation. Snapped a few photos but not nearly enough- it looks warm outside but it was very windy and that made it cold, which made for uncooperative models...

Here's a few- I made the girls dresses.... I'll post better photos soon with pattern info if anyone is interested.

Dress Pattern..

I have received a few questions about this dress the last few days....

It is Kristen's Sundress by Bonnie Blue designs.  Any heirloom sewing store would sell it or I'm sure if you google it it will show up online. The fabric is Heather Baileys..... The only thing I added was a 2" band of contrast fabric to the bottom... other than that it's pretty much the same pattern!

Happy Mail!!!

So I'm getting ready to go out of town and it's crazy as always and I'm stressed and grumpy... I get a package on my front porch.. I'm not expecting anything but it's addressed to me. I open it and it MADE MY DAY!! I have been taking classes at big picture scrapbooking for a while now. I have LOVED every one. I guess they send out "random" happy mail and it was my turn! I never get anything when it's "random". I was so excited. Stacy Julian wrote me a thank you note and even enclosed my favorite candy. (plus CD's of the most recent classes I have taken!!)
I just wanted to give them a big SHOUT OUT! Thanks for being so considerate...

Tutorial: Madras Plaid Skirt from Charm pack..

So yesterday we get an invisible fence installed and the CUT MY CABLE line... no internet until now... So FINALLY here is the tutorial..
I hope this makes sense... If you have a question feel free to email me!


*edited to add.... hi... I feel terrible that I have to add this... but this skirt tutorial is provided for your own FOR FUN at home use ONLY, please do NOT take this and make or sell a pattern of it. I just saw today that someone took my patchwork skirt tutorial and is selling a pattern of it... not cool.. I want to keep putting this stuff up for free and to share, but only if everyone can play nice!****


For the skirt you will need: 1-2 Charm Packs depending on size. (I used 28 squares)
1 yrd fabric for underskirt.
1/4" yard for skirt waistband and bottom band (you can use a fat quarter for the waistband if you want another fabric for contrast)
1/4" wide elastic

I used the April Cornell A little romance charm pack.

To begin:
Figure the size first... I would not recommend this for a small toddler unless you want it long... I think less than 2 rows of squares would not look right...
Measure the waist of the child you want to make the skirt for...
My daughters waist is 20"
Times that by 1.75 ( I want this skirt to be less full than the last one)
That give me 35"... Now here is the "tricky" part... the squares come 5"... so pick the number of squares that give you the closest size to that measurement... I was lucky... 35 is 7 charm squares. Just round up to the nearest 5" and use that many squares.
So I had 2 rows of 7 squares for the front
AND
2 rows of 7 squares for the back...

Cut:
Waistband: (if you want it wider just make it bigger... I thought 3" looked good)
3"x24" (just add 4-5 inches to waist measurement, my waist measurement was 20 so I cut it 24")

Skirt band:
WAIT to cut this until the skirt front is sewn together (as you sew the squares together it changes the width of the skirt)... Measure the width of the sewn skirt front = {skirt front}
cut 2 pieces.
2" x {width of skirt} remember you need 2 pieces!

Underskirt:
2 pieces that are
{width of skirt} x 13" (if your skirt has 3 rows of squares ... add 5" so 18" instead of 13")


Sewing:
NOTE: It is VERY important to keep all your seams the same... otherwise your squares will not line up...

The rest of the skirt sews together the same as my previous tutorial... so the fabric is different but follow the same steps.


Run 2 rows of gathering stitches along the top of the 2 skirt pieces. Set aside.
On waistband piece, sew side seams and fold under one side 1/4" and press. Fold under again 1/2" and press. Then sew along bottom edge, leaving open 1/2" to make elastic casing.

Gather skirt and attach to waistband. When I gather skirts, I think it is easier to gather in sections rather than the whole skirt, that way if the thread breaks you don't lose the whole piece.
Sew skirt to the UNFOLDED edge of waistband.
Measure a piece of 1/4" elastic to size and thread into waistband. Sew casing closed.
Press!

Have you discovered?

I might be the last person on earth to discover this but I found it today and am totally excited!   So I thought I'd share incase you haven't seen it yet..

Have you seen delicious.com?  It's so cool, you keep all of your "bookmarks" on it... This is great for keeping track of projects/ideas you find online. It's especially great if you share a computer with your family or have more than one... since they are "your" bookmarks.  

I spent a while today putting all of my "projects to do" on there... Gotta love saving the space on my harddrive from all of the photos of stuff "to do"...

Just and FYI...

I have the charm pack skirt tutorial to post tomorrow... Just need some good lighting to get a good photo of the skirt.

Back from vacation and it feels so good!  We had a stupendous time but there is nothing like good ol' home!

Taking a break

Be back soon... we are off doing this..... lots of ideas swirling in my head this week... hit an awesome scrapbook clearance sale today (who hoo!) and picked up some fun new fabric at a cute little shop...
see you soon!
Back on Sunday.