Isn't she a doll?!
Happy Healthy Holiday LIVESTRONG Holiday 5x7 folded card
Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.
View the entire collection of cards.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Shutterfly Cards
I just finished creating my free Shutterfly cards and was able to use a link for 5 free cards (expires today). I'll use those for thank you notes.. I'm lovin' Shutterfly. It was really easy (although it took me forever to pick the photos and text). The upload was fast and I was even able to stack a free shipping code. This experience was much better than that other photo service that also starts with an "S". It was extremely frustrating ordering through them and after this, I may not go back!
Isn't she a doll?!
Isn't she a doll?!
Monday, November 15, 2010
Holiday Cards
Not sure if you noticed, and I'm counting on you not to, but each year it's hit or miss as to whether you'll receive a holiday card from our family. I really love personalized cards but just after Halloween I start to feel stressed about getting family photos or finding a shot of Maddie that I haven't already shared.
Shutterfly is making my life much easier this year! They're offering 50 Free Photo Cards to Bloggers just for spreading the word about their 2010 Holiday Collection.
I'm not going to show you our actual design for this year, because what fun would that be? But aren't these adorable? I really like the use of black and white photos with a simple design.. classy!
There are so many designs to choose from. What's your favorite Shutterfly design? Right now there's a 20% discount on all cards. The current offer ends 11/17, but I'm sure there will be specials all they way until New Years.
Last Christmas I found a great deal on a coffee mug for Matt using Maddie's professional cake smash photos.. It's a really substantial mug and one my favorites. I plan on doing the same this year but don't tell... cuz Santa's bringing it.
If you're super crazy and already have your holiday cards done (p.s. I hate you), they also have super cute birthday invites.
Gorgeous, right? (Insert your own cute kid and you're all set!)
Shutterfly makes it easy to have fun with your photos this season.. don't forget that photo gifts are always #1 with the grandparents.
Shutterfly is making my life much easier this year! They're offering 50 Free Photo Cards to Bloggers just for spreading the word about their 2010 Holiday Collection.
I'm not going to show you our actual design for this year, because what fun would that be? But aren't these adorable? I really like the use of black and white photos with a simple design.. classy!
There are so many designs to choose from. What's your favorite Shutterfly design? Right now there's a 20% discount on all cards. The current offer ends 11/17, but I'm sure there will be specials all they way until New Years.
Last Christmas I found a great deal on a coffee mug for Matt using Maddie's professional cake smash photos.. It's a really substantial mug and one my favorites. I plan on doing the same this year but don't tell... cuz Santa's bringing it.
If you're super crazy and already have your holiday cards done (p.s. I hate you), they also have super cute birthday invites.
Gorgeous, right? (Insert your own cute kid and you're all set!)
Shutterfly makes it easy to have fun with your photos this season.. don't forget that photo gifts are always #1 with the grandparents.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sleep overs & It's Fall (Finally)
Maddie had her first sleep over at Auntie Pammy and Auntie Alyx's house (two weekends ago). Mommy and daddy got her bed all set up and Auntie Alyx watched her while we went to a friend's 50th birthday party. They watched Tinker bell together and read books before bed. We did come back later that night to sleep but she was sound asleep when we arrived. The next morning she hung out with her buddy Coebie.
Back at our house: Do these socks make my legs look chunky? Excuse the hair, she's been anti-hair clippies lately.
Last week we played outside in the leaves. We have the only big tree on the block that drops these leaves everywhere... lucky us, I guess! I'm glad we did it on this particular day because the (landscape) gardeners raked them up the very next morning. As we watched him, poor Maddie wanted so badly to jump into the very large pile he made just before putting them into a can. It was chilly enough to wear a jacket that day but just a few days later it was back to 80 degrees! Not exactly the Fall I remember growing up.
Play in the leaves with your little ones.. these days won't last forever! Happy Fall!
Back at our house: Do these socks make my legs look chunky? Excuse the hair, she's been anti-hair clippies lately.
Last week we played outside in the leaves. We have the only big tree on the block that drops these leaves everywhere... lucky us, I guess! I'm glad we did it on this particular day because the (landscape) gardeners raked them up the very next morning. As we watched him, poor Maddie wanted so badly to jump into the very large pile he made just before putting them into a can. It was chilly enough to wear a jacket that day but just a few days later it was back to 80 degrees! Not exactly the Fall I remember growing up.
Play in the leaves with your little ones.. these days won't last forever! Happy Fall!
Coebie's 100th Bruffday Pawty
Saturday we were greeted by paw prints on the front walk and a Happy Bruffday Coebie sign on the door as we arrived at my Sisters-in-law's house.
Maddie has been talking about Coebie's birthday party all week and couldn't wait to sing Happy Birthday to the old man. He turned 14 on October 10th but due to date conflicts (aka Maddie's party) we had to wait until November 13th to shower him with our love.. turns out because we waited the extra few weeks, he was closer to 100 YEARS OLD, in dog years that is.
I'm of course so mad at myself for not capturing ALL the details due partially to blurry photos and my wanting to chit-chat but everyone there had a GREAT time!
I created the food signs, water bottle labels, a banner, and stickers used on the balloons. The ladies did such a great job pulling it all together. It goes to show how easy it is to throw a party by purchasing the basics and then adding personalized details.
Dinner was sooo good and appropriate for the theme. Guests had a choice of a hot dog (Top Dog), Turkey Dog or a hot dog wrapped in bacon along with ALL the fixings you could think of. Pam also made baked brie in a pastry puff with apricot preserves inside. I could have ate that for dinner, yum! I have never attempted this at home, probably for that very reason.
They thought of everything and it was really fun working on this party with them.
The Birthday Boy- Coebie
Coebie's Parents (love the t-shirts they had made!)
Maddie may have thought this was another party for her.. she was so adorable and fun!
The Food
Water Bottles (not a great photo, they also had Coebie's photo on them)
Candies
The Cake
Balloons filled the room. Each was attached with photos of Coebie from throughout the years. The puppy ones were just adorable!
The Thank You Gift (for the humans) was a "Doggy Bag" bone shaped cookie with marshmallow fondant on top.
They made the sweetest slideshow of photos of Coebie from puppy to 100.. a must for every party!
We had a great time and I know everyone else did too! Happy Birthday Coebs! (and many more!)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Maddie's 2nd Birthday- The Details
Somehow my "baby" has turned into a super talkative, emotion-filled toddler full of energy and life and quickly on her way to being a "little kid"... all since her last birthday!
She was born at 10:09 PM on Halloween Night, 2008. Six months later, I started forming ideas and planning her birthday parties for the next 12 years! :) I figure I at least get 2 or 3 before she gets to decide on her own.
Months and months of planning went into little Miss Maddie's 2nd Birthday party. Small details that only I would notice didn't get overlooked, except that is, one very important detail... the NUMBER of CANDLES on her birthday cake!!! My husband pointed out the next day there was only one candle instead of two... oh my! Will somebody please remind me next year we need three candles?
On to the stuff I did get right!
THE THEME
Maddie watches Sesame Street every day (how else would I get to shower). She loves Elmo and Abby Cadabby (the fairy in training). At first I thought of an Abby party, but she has more boy friends than girl friends so I decided to include all the characters. I didn't want it to overwhelmingly be an Elmo party so I used primary colors in dots as an element to tie everything together. You'll find it used throughout the day.
Abby Cadabby Banner - This was one of my first projects. I created the background papers and template and hand cut out these scalloped circles.. everything was tied together with purple and blue ribbon
THE INVITATIONS
These were hand cut but so much fun to make. I think it set the tone for the party and got people excited to attend. Lots of mommies said their kids ooh'd over them as they hung from the fridge.
This Sesame Street Scene Setter has been discontinued but I was lucky enough to find one on Ebay. A super inexpensive way to have a large decoration and potentially could be reused for a child's bedroom or playroom.
Lesson Learned.. do not spend 5+ minutes on each (Martha Stewart) tissue paper ball before hot gluing to cardboard. If I ever make a large M+2 again, I'll just cover them in tissue paper like I did and then scrunch up tissue squares and glue.. that would have been MUCH faster! Plus it was very hard throwing them away after the party after spending so much time on them. boo hoo
Each year we try to have our pumpkin carving match the theme
Centerpieces- canning jars filled with cookie crisp cereal, crayons for Elmo, and bird seed for Big Bird
THE CAKE
I found a very talented lady on Craigslist to make the cake and cupcakes. I sent her photos of ideas and even created a spec sheet for her to follow. It turned out different but wonderful just the same. Everyone thought the Zoe, Elmo, Oscar and Cookie Monster cupcakes were adorable and the tie dye cake was really fun. The cake looked cute and tasted good too... she even delivered it!
Jenny Prado jennyscakes4all@yahoo.com or 805-263-3711 Contact this girl before her prices go way up!
GAMES
Pin the Nose on Elmo- Kids liked putting the stickers on elmo and it had double use as decor
Rubber Ducky You're the One- First to Pick the ducky that had a number "2" on the bottom won a prize.. I held the winning ducky in my pocket until each kid had one turn. As soon as the game was over, the water was moved.
Oscar's Trash Toss- This turned into more of an activity than a game. Kids liked tossing the bean bags into the bucket
Count The Candy- Guess how many candies in the jar
FOOD
Because the party was from 2:30-5:00, I didn't feel as though a full meal was needed. We served some munchies and sweets. The spinach pastry puffs were a big success and I got so busy I didn't even put out the ABC tater tots we bought.
(Blue) French Onion Dip with chips and individually packaged Fish Crackers
Popcorn and Kettle corn - in these cute snack boxes
I didn't get any photos of it out on display, but they were filled and lined up in a dotted box
Water with Custom Water-proof Labels & Juice Boxes with Big Bird and Elmo for the little ones
Chocolate Covered Brownie Bites (Pillsbury Sweet Moments)
Various Candies (gummy worms, large lollipops, etc)
Wrapped Utensils
These weren't really used. I displayed them in Elmo buckets from the dollar section at Target, but because most of the food was finger food and I handed out forks with cake, we have most of these left over. Simple way to use solid colored items but to personalized for your theme.
This Party was brought to you by the letters "M" & "2" so I made, decorated, and packaged these cookies
ATTIRE
Birthday Crown- $1 foam crown and pink feather material from Michael's, Cut out pink sparkly paper and Abby image.. She kept it on longer than I thought she would
Maddie's Shirt- I created an iron-on with Abby Cadabby and the number 2. This photo looks like a mug shot of Maddie and her BFF + Birthday Twin Isabella. We haven't figured out how to get them to BOTH smile at the same time. :)
Mommy's shirt. I ironed on a design to a shirt I knew I'd be comfortable in. I didn't get a great photo of it from that day but it turned out super cute and super easy to do.
I asked my hubby to wear this shirt and I was so glad when he did! Me LOVE Elmo + Me LOVE Matt
PHOTO BACKDROP- didn't turn out exactly as visioned but after cutting 120+ circles and gluing to a foam roll, I was ready for it to be done. Next time a cool patterned fabric or sheet would be much better.
The great part about it was we got a photo of everyone that was there before they left
I think the most fun I had was with the gift bags. I found these really cute Elmo backpacks at the 99 cents store. The dollar section at Target had cute Sesame Street storybooks to add. I also made homemade play dough (so easy- it's basically flour water and salt) with Cinnamon added for a sensory twist
Contents
Audio CD with popular Sesame Street Songs. Used my Lightscribe drive to make the design right on the disc
Each bag had a tag to identify it's owner. girls vs boys had slightly different things
Homemade Play dough in green and blue
Despite all my careful planning, we did have a few hiccups... we had some missing chocolate lollipops that didn't make it on time and a photographer who cancelled that morning but we survived and managed to all have a really great time!
Working on party decor has become a really fun hobby for me.. I would love to earn a living at it some day! If you have a party coming up and need fun ideas or templates made, I'd love to work with you!... this weekend is my Sister-in-Laws' Doggie Birthday Party for their 100 year old "puppy" Coebie. I made a few things and will post photos to show how they turned out.
She was born at 10:09 PM on Halloween Night, 2008. Six months later, I started forming ideas and planning her birthday parties for the next 12 years! :) I figure I at least get 2 or 3 before she gets to decide on her own.
Months and months of planning went into little Miss Maddie's 2nd Birthday party. Small details that only I would notice didn't get overlooked, except that is, one very important detail... the NUMBER of CANDLES on her birthday cake!!! My husband pointed out the next day there was only one candle instead of two... oh my! Will somebody please remind me next year we need three candles?
On to the stuff I did get right!
THE THEME
Maddie watches Sesame Street every day (how else would I get to shower). She loves Elmo and Abby Cadabby (the fairy in training). At first I thought of an Abby party, but she has more boy friends than girl friends so I decided to include all the characters. I didn't want it to overwhelmingly be an Elmo party so I used primary colors in dots as an element to tie everything together. You'll find it used throughout the day.
Abby Cadabby Banner - This was one of my first projects. I created the background papers and template and hand cut out these scalloped circles.. everything was tied together with purple and blue ribbon
THE INVITATIONS
These were hand cut but so much fun to make. I think it set the tone for the party and got people excited to attend. Lots of mommies said their kids ooh'd over them as they hung from the fridge.
This Sesame Street Scene Setter has been discontinued but I was lucky enough to find one on Ebay. A super inexpensive way to have a large decoration and potentially could be reused for a child's bedroom or playroom.
Lesson Learned.. do not spend 5+ minutes on each (Martha Stewart) tissue paper ball before hot gluing to cardboard. If I ever make a large M+2 again, I'll just cover them in tissue paper like I did and then scrunch up tissue squares and glue.. that would have been MUCH faster! Plus it was very hard throwing them away after the party after spending so much time on them. boo hoo
Each year we try to have our pumpkin carving match the theme
Centerpieces- canning jars filled with cookie crisp cereal, crayons for Elmo, and bird seed for Big Bird
THE CAKE
I found a very talented lady on Craigslist to make the cake and cupcakes. I sent her photos of ideas and even created a spec sheet for her to follow. It turned out different but wonderful just the same. Everyone thought the Zoe, Elmo, Oscar and Cookie Monster cupcakes were adorable and the tie dye cake was really fun. The cake looked cute and tasted good too... she even delivered it!
Jenny Prado jennyscakes4all@yahoo.com or 805-263-3711 Contact this girl before her prices go way up!
GAMES
Pin the Nose on Elmo- Kids liked putting the stickers on elmo and it had double use as decor
Rubber Ducky You're the One- First to Pick the ducky that had a number "2" on the bottom won a prize.. I held the winning ducky in my pocket until each kid had one turn. As soon as the game was over, the water was moved.
Oscar's Trash Toss- This turned into more of an activity than a game. Kids liked tossing the bean bags into the bucket
Count The Candy- Guess how many candies in the jar
FOOD
Because the party was from 2:30-5:00, I didn't feel as though a full meal was needed. We served some munchies and sweets. The spinach pastry puffs were a big success and I got so busy I didn't even put out the ABC tater tots we bought.
(Blue) French Onion Dip with chips and individually packaged Fish Crackers
Popcorn and Kettle corn - in these cute snack boxes
I didn't get any photos of it out on display, but they were filled and lined up in a dotted box
Water with Custom Water-proof Labels & Juice Boxes with Big Bird and Elmo for the little ones
Chocolate Covered Brownie Bites (Pillsbury Sweet Moments)
Various Candies (gummy worms, large lollipops, etc)
Wrapped Utensils
These weren't really used. I displayed them in Elmo buckets from the dollar section at Target, but because most of the food was finger food and I handed out forks with cake, we have most of these left over. Simple way to use solid colored items but to personalized for your theme.
This Party was brought to you by the letters "M" & "2" so I made, decorated, and packaged these cookies
ATTIRE
Birthday Crown- $1 foam crown and pink feather material from Michael's, Cut out pink sparkly paper and Abby image.. She kept it on longer than I thought she would
Maddie's Shirt- I created an iron-on with Abby Cadabby and the number 2. This photo looks like a mug shot of Maddie and her BFF + Birthday Twin Isabella. We haven't figured out how to get them to BOTH smile at the same time. :)
Mommy's shirt. I ironed on a design to a shirt I knew I'd be comfortable in. I didn't get a great photo of it from that day but it turned out super cute and super easy to do.
I asked my hubby to wear this shirt and I was so glad when he did! Me LOVE Elmo + Me LOVE Matt
PHOTO BACKDROP- didn't turn out exactly as visioned but after cutting 120+ circles and gluing to a foam roll, I was ready for it to be done. Next time a cool patterned fabric or sheet would be much better.
The great part about it was we got a photo of everyone that was there before they left
I think the most fun I had was with the gift bags. I found these really cute Elmo backpacks at the 99 cents store. The dollar section at Target had cute Sesame Street storybooks to add. I also made homemade play dough (so easy- it's basically flour water and salt) with Cinnamon added for a sensory twist
Contents
Audio CD with popular Sesame Street Songs. Used my Lightscribe drive to make the design right on the disc
Each bag had a tag to identify it's owner. girls vs boys had slightly different things
Homemade Play dough in green and blue
Despite all my careful planning, we did have a few hiccups... we had some missing chocolate lollipops that didn't make it on time and a photographer who cancelled that morning but we survived and managed to all have a really great time!
Working on party decor has become a really fun hobby for me.. I would love to earn a living at it some day! If you have a party coming up and need fun ideas or templates made, I'd love to work with you!... this weekend is my Sister-in-Laws' Doggie Birthday Party for their 100 year old "puppy" Coebie. I made a few things and will post photos to show how they turned out.
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