"Papa, Please Get The Moon For Me"

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SELENE!

My sweet girl turned ONE last week and we just had her birthday party this weekend.

I just wanted to share some photos to help others possibly get some ideas for a less common themed party.

All photos taken by Jessi J Photography

I didn't get a good photo of her outfit I made for her, so I'll post one when I retake some photos this week.

 Tiny dancer had an outfit to match the birthday girl, naturally!

Fast 4th of July Shirt

     Forgot to grab your little one a shirt to celebrate the 4th? Have a white shirt/onsie and red and blue paint? Then you have the makings of a fast shirt!

Picture steps on the shirt I made for Selene's first 4th of July.

Father's day plans get jacked up and then saved by....

A 5lb Banana Cream Pie!

To celebrate  my husband's first Father's day I had grand plans of breakfast, matching custom shirts, frolicking where ever he wanted to go, banners and door wreaths, dinner and dessert.

Then I'm told less than a week before he had to play in the worship band on Sunday.

And then we were flat broke because I had an emergency dental visit on my birthday.

CRAP.

So there went breakfast, matching custom shirts, banners and wreaths. If you know me, you know that I love decorating, I love baking, I love CELEBRATING. I was already in a grumpy mood when nothing happened on my birthday because MY plans of Ihop breakfast and my birthday Starbucks didn't happen because and old filling weakened my tooth enough to cause a piece of it to break off and fly out of my mouth while of all things I was FLOSSING!  On top of that, my husband had made no plans of his own for my birthday, no artwork or crafts, no cards or flowers, no planning ahead.I also knew that he was not planning something for the weekend (my birthday was on Wednesday) as we had an all day wedding to be in on Saturday, which included the rehearsal Friday night, and Sunday was his day. I know he is like this, I've always known but for some reason I had it in my head this year would be different because it was my first birthday with a child I'm parenting. I've longed for these days since I placed my first daughter for adoption, to make up for time lost. This is the way I think, not so for my husband. SO I was grumpy and upset. Which make planning for his first father's day hard. Luckily I already had the plan, so I was just grumpy getting it together.

But as the week drew to an end, I got over being grumpy and on Sunday, I was happy to make my man happy!

What I did go with was a modified plan of matching shirts as he now had to wear a nice shirt instead of the screen printed shirts I was about to have done for him and Selene. I had a button up shirt that matched one of his button up shirts and I remembered a pin on Pinterest of turning a father's shirt into a dress for a little girl.

Well, the one I made didn't quite turn out as cute as this one. I'm no seamstress. The arm holes got me! So I will not being doing a show of how to do it. It did turn out okay and was cute enough to get the job done!  I even made myself a matching headband to match "the twins".  I kept is a surprise, and just put a note to "wear me" on his shirt that matched the night before.

 

Twinsies!

Seriously, I call her "Little Papa with a bow"

She is his spitting image!

A Little Love Goes a Long Way!

Father's Day

I started the celebrations a few days early for the father's in my Together Group. I love making and giving things to people I care about, and even to strangers, to help put a smile on their faces. You never know if it could be the only smile they had all day, all week, or all year. Even if they always smile, it could be a mask like I always wore my whole life. Plus making things for others also gives me joy, so a small part may be selfish reasons for giving, but I don't think that is a bad thing in and of itself. 

What I made for these fathers was simple. A soda and a small bag of popcorn. That's it. We are always told "the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach", right?! My budget enjoyed it too as I had to pay for an emergency partial crown this past week (nothing like spending you birthday at the dentist), as each gift cost around $1! 

The key is presentation. I use Pinterest quite often, though if I'm baking food I tend to avoid things that are highly pinned among those I follow, even if I had the idea before I started looking through the pins. I had a basic idea of using soda to make a play on words with "Pop", so I looked through Father's Day pins and saw the "A&W rootbeer A&Wesome" pins. I'm not a fan of any rootbeer without caffeine, so that didn't get my interest. nothing really did as it was mainly geared towards the father of your kids, or your own father, and not a group of friends that are father's that you would like to honor. So what do I do next? why go walk to Target, naturally! (its dangerous living a 10 minute walk away from a Target. That is prime magnetic field zone!)

I came across Crush orange soda (I do, I do, I doo-ooo) in glass bottles and a cheesy line flickered on in the fog of a screaming, wiggly baby. I love chessy things. It cracks me up to no end. So I ran with it! Then I saw Angie's brand popcorn that had the word "Pop" on it. PERFECT! $12 bucks later I have the major componets of a gift. Now to spruce it up!

I don't have any graphic design skills. I can barely make things print properly. I also don't have one of those nice fancy cutter machines that I so desperately want (hint-hint, wink-wink).  Thank goodness for Avery.com and all of their labels and clipart, makes it go fast and easy to create your own labels.

Here is how I did it in no time:

•  I typed my cheesy line and then printed it out onto plain paper (you don't need to buy the actual sticker labels unless you want it to stick nicely). 
• I then cut out the circles and glued/tapes them onto small squares of scrap cardstock that I have. 
• Next I tied a piece of hemp string (from a previous project) around the bottle necks.
• Then I clipped the bag of popcorn and the note/label to the string with a mini clothes pin.

BAM! DONE!

Easy peasy! 

"You Crush it at being one cool POP!"

Get it?! Crush it?! Cool Pop?! 

(the soda was chilled in he fridge)

Oh How I crack myself up!

I know the guys loved it and the wives thought it was cute and sweet! so its a win win in my book!

 

 

anywho.....  

Next post will be up with my husband's first Father's Day gifts and recipe for a 5lb pie!!!!

5 minute DIY "LOVE" craft

Have a infant?

Don't have much time?

Still wanting to make something?

Well then, this craft if for you!

Selene's first Valentine's Day

It is as fast and easy as your infant will let it be! For their part all they have to do is get 1 foot painted at a time and pressed down. The other squares are simple and fast!