Best Day Ever Chic Campout Birthday Party

This picture perfectly describes the mood of this party. It was pretty loud!! I had to laugh to myself that we have such great neighbors because I bet we could be heard for blocks. It was a blast! The girls were so giggly they couldn't contain themselves and we finally sat on the rug to do a classic "bear hunt" game to try and gain some control of such a giggly bunch. It was SO much fun to plan this party and the reaction from the girls didn't disappoint!

My girls were born on the same day six years apart. We did a duo yet separate party this year. I had the friends of my three year old come before dinner and stay through the chic cookout and the friends of my 9 year old come for the cookout and stayed through the evening. It was the perfect way to balance the age groups and to be able to do age appropriate games/crafts while decorating for only 1 party.

The entrance to the "Best Day Ever" Chic Campout!!

This is the invitation for the “Best Day Ever” Chic Campout! It included a felt navy background with a cream sewn tent with gold letter individualized pendant banner and all the party instructions! The party colors of coral, navy and gold were prominent on the hand-made invites! I think that it’s a special thing to share a birthday with a sister and we made it super special this year!!

The girls hula hooped to their hearts content.

Hands were traced on coral fabric then ironed onto a navy blue chevron print fabric and then stretched into embroidery hoops. We added the caption “I am 100% original” in gold fabric pens. So chic!

We even had a special table and size appropriate chairs for the little ladies to eat and do their craft project!

I can’t believe I never snapped a photo of their finished product. It was so cute and the girl’s loved that each one of theirs was perfect and unique to them because they are all “100% original”! Love all these little ladies…..we had fun!

The yummy food table complete with an oversized frame with a picture taken on their birthday (4-days prior). The fruit Kabob’s had coral and navy sticks to match the party’s color scheme of Coral and Navy. The ruffled cakes are on wooden pedestal to set-off the campout theme. The grass is real wheat grass that I sprouted for Easter (which was the following day). Perfect timing! The food was simple campout food of Hot Dogs, chips, potato salad, fruit Kabobs and crisp potato chips in individual berry baskets.

Even the drinks were in the color scheme family of coral and navy. Such simple yet yummy food!

Girls getting their hot dog from the grill master and then filling their plates with yumminess! Love your funny face Abbie!

The fruit was made easy to eat with coral, navy and gold Kabob sticks. Some were polka dot, solid or floral. So cute!

We braided leather headbands with their names punched in a oval piece of leather. Feathers were hung from the side of their leather punched name. I was so impressed that the girls all knew how to braid and they didn't need a ton of help. Perfect age appropriate craft for 9 year olds!

The girls were serious about their braiding! It was probably the only time it wasn’t organized chaos! They were so cute and helped each other finish!

Then it was time to blow out the candles! Brooklyn was so excited about blowing out all her candles! So cute!

Yummy coral ombre, ruffled icing cakes! They were a huge hit! But, after just making s’mores and playing kick-the-can, nobody wanted a big piece! LOL

By the time it was present time, the sun had just set. The girls were so excited about what they had picked out! So thoughtful!

Brooklyn’s favorite gift was a card that had stickers in it. She got to place them in her card and she loved it!

Group shot of the older group. Even their brothers couldn't withstand the fun and came out to enjoy the festivities. Everyone wearing their leather/feather name punched headbands! Such a fun bunch!

Now that I've finally blogged their birthday, I'll show all the behind the scene of how I made everything because when you are on a tight budget.....everything has to be DIY. LOL (I used this picture printed as an engineering print in that oversized frame above the food table. Love this picture of my precious girls!) I even reused the tarp from last year's Art birthday party as part of the large tent. Until then....

Fabric, Fabric and more Fabric

My baby is officially out of the crib (now that she’s three) and the antique child’s bed is being passed down. I wanted to do a little room update for their shared birthday. I decided to make quilts for each girls bed for their birthday. It’s now past their birthday and one quilt is at the quilters and the other quilt needs a little more sewing to complete, then I will drop it off at the quilter’s when I pick the first one up. Not quite done for their birthday but I didn’t give myself enough time. Two months is NOT enough. haha

My friend Pat is a master quilter and she took me under her wing and showed me the four best quilt fabric stores around. My head was swimming with fabric choices. I finally settled on these fabrics and a design off of the cover of Pat’s Quilters magazine for the first quilt for my oldest daughter.

I chose very fun and colorful monochromatic fabrics. I wanted this quilt to go with the colors of their room but be one that has lots of colors. My younger daughter’s quilt’s design is technically a “scrap” plus sign quilt off of pinterest. I bought enough fabric to sew my older daughter’s quilt and have enough fabric to do my younger daughter’s quilt in a different pattern but same fabrics. This way they can be similar yet unique. Perfect for these two who share the same birthday!

A little wood nourishment

I love my cubby cabinet. It is dusted with a Swiffer duster weekly to get around all the little items in each space. I had been noticing it needed some real nourishment. I really want to protect this beautiful antique piece so I decided to try Miss Mustard Seed’s Hemp Oil. She uses it for finishes over paint and stain and it is supposed to nourish from the inside out. Make your piece even better. So I wanted to try it on this piece.

I vacuumed the entire piece and then started at the top and methodically worked my way down the entire piece getting every surface inside each cubby. It was a little tiresome but exciting to see the difference!

You can see the difference! It brings the wood back to it’s original beauty. The cubby on the bottom left hadn’t been done yet and you can really see the difference of the dry wood to the nourished wood. So amazing!

It was such a difference as I worked down the piece. It just came back to life!

I love changing the items seasonally. I now have it changed for Spring and love adding in the spring blues. Yummy!

The piece looks so fresh and vibrant now with it’s nourished wood, I am going to do this to other pieces that need a little wood nourishment.

Valentine’s Chalkboard

 

I love Valentine’s! Not really for the night out on the town….let’s get real…as a couple, we’ve never been big on going out for Valentine’s because we usually celebrate at home with the family. Sometime close to the date, we usually will go out for lunch or dinner…. Something, just the two of us.

It’s a special time of year for our family. Our son, Jacob was born/passed away the day after Valentine’s and we celebrate all the love he has brought into our lives! Some years it’s been a sad reminder of all we’ve lost but, we are celebrating with love and happiness this year!

 

I used the image from graphic’s fairy. Here is the link to the Bee.

This bee is divine. I saw this “Bee Mine” design on a chalkboard on the this blog. At My vintage window , she had free-handed the chalkboard using the graphic’s fairy bee image. I used the idea from my vintage window  and made me my own “Bee Mine” chalkboard. Love great design!

The crown is hand sketched and the MINE lettering is in the font EcuyerDax.

This red frame had an ugly painting inside. Instead of replacing the painting (it’s nicely finished into this frame) with a chalkboard, the ugly painting was painted over with chalkboard paint right on the ugly painting. Quick and easy way to make a painting into a chalkboard. It’s not as solid when you are chalking but, it works great!!

Because one chalkboard just isn’t enough, I had my other chalkboards to change to Valentine’s chalkboard. I saw a fun light bulb/quote on pinterest that I pinned over a year ago. I was willing to try and make it chalkboard art.

I instantly loved this light bulb quote and knew I wanted it to be one of my Valentine chalkboards and then I could decorate with my vintage light bulbs. Love!

I absolutely loved how it turned out!!

The lightbulb was really fun to make look like a glass bulb. I just kept shading until I thought it looked like enough. I just Love the message….Love really does have glowing effects!

Happy Valentine’s Day!