A girl and her kitties...

In May our daughter turned 7, the theme of her party was cats. When she came to me with the idea I didn't think it was a great idea at first, but she knew that our two kittens were one in may, she thought we should have a party for them too, so when I did a little research, I found lots of outlets to bring this party to life. The first thing I saw was "kitten adoptions". I tried to find cheap stuffed animal kittens online, although there was a great source for bulk stuffies, they of course did not ship to Canada, boo. So being a crocheter, I decided I would crochet the kittens, all 12 of them. Yeah, well, a daunting task it was, I started on them in February, very slow process, until shopping one day at our local dollar store, I found stuffed kittens for $1.50 each, couldn't beat that price, so scrap the crocheted cats, 12 stuffies bought, phew.

the kittens are ready for adoption

 That was the biggest element for the party, now to start the planning.  We discussed colour themes, went back and forth, found some nice stationary at the dollar store.  Black damask and fuchsia, very girl inspired.

 

black and fuchsia decorations.

 I made adoption certificates, invitations and signage on my computer.

each girl received a certificate with their adopted kitty

Our little adoption centre, tres chic.

The table was the focal point,  we made cat cup cozies, and there was cheese and toy mice.

cup cozies made with black bristol board

mice and cheese

goldfish crackers in a fish bowl

the birthday girl presenting the party table.

For the birthday cake, I wanted to get someone to make it but I was too late getting it ordered, so I had to make it myself, of course cat themed.  On the internet I went, nothing was catching my eye until I found a dual cat cake, with coconut for the fur, mind you, I omitted the coconut as children are not fans of this.

these are the colors of our cats. 

To make this cake I started with a 13x9 cake pan.  Then I made a cat template the size of the pan, with a serrated knife, I cut around the pattern.  With the left over cake, I made a tail.  I colored some icing orange and black.  A big hit with the kids.

Kitty mascots cut out of foam board.

Birthday girl with the mascots.

At Easter time for decorations, I cut out giant sized bunny peeps.

peeps

So that gave me the idea to cut out cat mascots for the party, as I knew our real cats were not going to be very good party goers with 13 little girls running around the house.
Lastly, we made our treat bags and put a couple of pixie stixs in them, along with their newly adopted kitten and adoption certificate and sent them on their way.

a very successful party.

Side note:  The morning of the birthday party, I woke up with strep throat.  A very rough day, but I made it through, crashed on the couch after the girls went home.

Summer is finally here...

I haven't been around much lately..work, end of school and birthday party kind of kept me away.

Us Canucks just celebrated Canada Day and I decorated our mantel, to keep with our calendar mantel this year.

The main focus for this theme is the wooden Canadian flag.  I made this out of old trim, nailed them together. When it came time for painting the maple leaf, which in my opinion is one of the hardest things to do, I just took some thin cardboard and folded it in half, drew half of a maple leaf to assure that it was symmetrical on both sides, traced it on the wood and painted free hand.  I then scuffed it up a bit to have it look rustic.

To attach this fairly heavy flag to the mirror, I used Velcro.  The rest of the elements were purchases from the dollar store, the moose crossing sign,( cheesy I know), but us canucks see a lot of these signs on our roads, and how do you celebrate Canada day without mini flags?  I also found a cute wood frame, very woodsy looking, I just used some bristol board for the back and painted the word EH! as we are known for that catch phrase, eh?

I also made some leaves out of tin pie plates. I was going for that 3D look.  I wasn't totally thrilled how they turned out, but they were kind of cute, so I used them.

                                                                          I punched holes through the leaves. Originally going to hang them as a garland but it did not work out.

I made a triangle bunting for our spring mantel in April...

                     I printed out the letters for spring and glued them to the triangle burlap, so for the Canada day theme, I printed out Canadian flag inspired triangles and replaced the letters with them and hung them from the mirror..I really like this triangle burlap bunting alot, I plan on using for my summer mantel...

Lastly, I found a melamine Canadian themed plate at our local grocery store for 3 dollars, and glass floral to mimic fireworks somewhat...Hope this inspires you to get in the patriotic mood..

Happy Canada Day

                    

Let's go Minecrafting

Back in September 2013, our son Ryan turned 10, so for his birthday party he asked for Minecraft themed.  So mining I went, but it was on pinterest for ideas.  Lots and lots of ideas on there, just how was I going to put it all together.  First thing I looked for was the cake.  I try to make my own, and I haven't ventured in to fondant yet so it had to be in my realm of cake making so I found a how to video on youtube of a three dimensional cake.

My version.

aerial view

This was made over a couple days, on account of the jello and rice krispie treats.  The good thing about this dessert was that the kids had a choice of three things to eat. All of the minecraft animals and Steve was found on www.instructables.com, there are images to download and make into 3D characters. (oh I forgot about creeper).

I went with a treat table,

apple lollipops for apples, pixie stixs for sticks, licorice for tnt, and mini chocolate chip cookies

giant sized creeper head in the window.

The dollar store is my party supplier as I am not near a Michaels or any other party supplier.  The dried plant used for the centerpiece was the "wheat" they use in the game I guess.  I don't play it but I hear a lot of chatter about it.

stone and grass

In the outdoor section of the dollar store are these plastic turf squares, I thought it would look great along the treat table, I purchased some decorative stone and shaped it into a square and placed in between the grass. for the "stone and grass" element of the game.

When I was making my 3D characters, I came across a printable the minecraft torches.

added orange tissue paper for flame

I threw in some creeper balloons also, some cheesy sticks for carrots.

drew creeper face with permanent marker

"carrots"

This was a fun party to put together, pinterest has tons of ideas for minecraft parties. If you are looking for some thing in particular you're bound to find it there.  The next party we're planning in the Savoy family is for our soon to be 7 year old and it has to do with cats, if you've read my "about me" blurb we have two of the cutest cats and they are turning one, so our daughter thought we would celebrate them also. Stay tuned, I will try to post as I progress...

Feeling Lucky...

I'm back for another calender mantel. I can not believe it's March..Spring is just around the corner, I am getting tired of winter I must say.  So if you visited last month you would have seen my February mantel.

My Faux Chocolate bar.

Onto March,  St. Patty's day is not my favorite time to decorate but since Easter is not till April this year, I had to try and get in the spirit so here it is,

March Mantel 2014

The focal point to this Month's mantel is the pouch full of "gold", I made it will burlap, greenery from the dollar store that resembled some what like clover, and pirate loot.  I originally saw this idea hanging on a door, but it is still quite cold here and I don't normally decorate outside for St. Patrick's day so I brought it indoors. 
The inside of the pouch/sack was made with a large ziplock bag and crumpled up newspaper to give it the shape, I then covered it with burlap, inserted the greenery, tied it up at the top, added green ribbon. The gold coins were hot glued in such away, to show them falling out of the pouch, I stuck some to the mirror to continue the cascading affect.

I added a printable that I've had for a few years now.  Accented with more greenery and browns.  I also added some real chocolate coins, loonies as us Canucks call them and trying to keep the kids away from them is a challenge.  Found some mini leprechaun hats and a Lucky sign decoration at the dollar store, couldn't resist. I hope I've given you some ideas for your St. Patty's day mantel, now we need to catch a leprechaun.  See you next month.

Love is in the air....

I decided to do a "calendar" mantel for 2014.  I started with January

Now onto February, of course it being the month for lovers and chocolate, here is our February mantel.

I really "Love" our mantel.  The first thing I see when I look at it, is the "big" chocolate bar.  I saw this on pinterest a Faux chocolate bar, the instructions are there, I improvised my version, I used what I had around the house, I think my turned out great, and I can also use it for Easter.

The next thing I added was the cone trees. I made a couple of them with foam hearts and the big one, (see in the above picture), I wrapped twine around, added valentine garland to it.

My "LOVE" sign was a find at our local dollar store a couple of years ago.  It's a great focal point in the middle.  I added some paper straws to pull in the candy theme and placed behind the faux chocolate bar, just a little finishing touch. Although, you can't see in the picture, there are lights behind, wrapped with a black boa scarf, found in my halloween stash, dual use, gotta love it. This mantel has been fun decorating, stay tuned for March.

It's a Spring Fling

The theme for my daughter's 6th Birthday, was a spring fling with outdoor activities planned. So the invitations went out to a few of her friends.

A free printable found at greetingisland.com

I just added of few of my own touches to make this invitation more personal.

We were hoping for warm and sunny weather, instead it had to have been the wettest weekend of spring, I then had to move to plan B, and bring the spring indoors with,

 flower balloons, tissue poms poms

 and butterflies

We couldn't bring all our outdoor activities in, the girls ended doing a lot of dancing and more dancing, high pitched voices from excitement, and a few moments of quiet, just a few.

My inspiration for dessert of course came from pinterest, I made flowering cupcakes.

Although Mother Nature decided to rain on my girl's special day, she couldn't dampen the mood of Lily's 6th birthday Party.

I'm not a "Party Momma"....but almost there.

When my 9 year old's birthday was coming up, he really wanted to have a real birthday party.  Now years preceding this occasion it was hard as his birthday usually falls near or on the first day of School, Sept 3rd, so it was hard finding kids when we've been out of school all summer, but now that he was turning 9, his friends roster was easier to obtain. So I said yes, now the planning, short term notice at that began.  We decided on a movie party.....
First you need a big screen..that's where our very own Smart board came into play (thanks to my smart board educator husband)

I'm not sure what movie is playing..

Second, I wanted to feel like they were going to a theater, so I made a sign out of red bristol board with gold glitter glue, to make it look like a marquee of sorts leading down to the movie room.

When the kids arrived they were given a movie admission ticket..made with red construction paper and printed with the Broadway font, the numbers on the side represented his birthdate.

So comes the food, what do we all enjoy most about going to the movies?...of course the concession stand.

 popcorn, soda, cotton candy

 I used packing popcorn to decorate the table.

pixie sticks were a huge hit. They didn't last long.

We also made hotdogs with our vintage looking hotdog cooker...they didn't turn out that great but it went with the nostalgia of the movie party.

For dessert, they had cupcakes, thanks to pinterest I found the idea for my popcorn cupcakes.

 These were very fun to make.

So this was my son's first "real" birthday party, and it was a big hit with the friends.. I think I scored big with the boy.  I even had his name in lights.

Excuse the painters tape, I guess i forgot a piece.

This particular image has gotten a few hits on pinterest since I uploaded it a year and a half ago.

 over a hundred...Thanks for pinning.

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