V-Day Hair or Anyday Hair

For Valentine's Day we had to do some cute dos for the little girls around my house...those that had hair long enough that is.Honestly, it would be cute on any day.
If you have need of a unique hairstyle simply check out The Story of a Princess and Her Hair.
She has fixed her daughter's hair every way imaginable!

Valentines

I've literally been waiting A WHOLE YEAR to make these Valentine cards for my girls.

I saw them over on Ucreate last year and knew they would be my little Kindergartener's first class Valentine.Of course I had to do one for my 3 year old too.

It would actually be a good last minute idea also.
I took the pictures and added text in Photoshop. I sent it in online to Sam's and they had my order ready in an hour. I'm sure you can do that other places too.
Cut slits, add the sucker and you're done.

Although one of my favorite details of these are on the back. The sweet handwriting of a 5 & 3 year old.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

A Vintage Baby Shower

My sweet friend is having her 1st baby anytime now.

So another friend and I threw her a Baby Shower.
This girl loves vintage...loves like it's her personality, her baby's room, her everything it seems. So appropriately we did a vintage inspired Baby Shower.
In an apartment with limited space, I think we pulled it off quite well, if I do say so.Her gluten/dairy free baby bootie cake and cupcakes. For the rest of us, pudding filled chocolate cupcakes...mmmm.

We went with yellows, browns and white. All of the different yellows together actually looked good, I was doubtful at first.I made some banners with my sweet Cricut. Even cut out little hand and footprints. They were precious.They even made it to the water bottles.Here are a couple of things that I got to make her also. A bib and wipie case.
I absolutely love this fabric!
So boy, but so pretty too.
Can't wait to meet this little one!

Baked French Toast

Breakfast for dinner tonight! Can't wait!

I really don't know who to give credit to for this recipe, but it is simply wonderful. I got it from my friend who got it from a friend who's grandma used to make this. So, a big thanks to that grandma...they do always have the best recipes.

Baked French Toast

8 X 8
1 baguette
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 cup light cream or half and half
4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Walnuts optional

or for 9 X 13
1 1/2 baguettes
9 large eggs
2 1/4 cups of milk
1 1/2 cups light cream or half and half
6 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Topping:
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cut bread into 1/2 inch cubes. Butter your pan. Arrange bread in pan and fill completely. In a bowl combine eggs, both milks, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix well. Pour over bread cubes. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

(this is before it's cooked)

Next day:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl mix softenend butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts if desired. Spread evenly over bread mixture. Bake about 1 hour or until puffed and golden brown. Serve with buttermilk syrup.

Buttermilk Syrup
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
2 TBS corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla

In a medium sized pot, mix sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda. Bring to a boil. Cook for 7 minutes. DO NOT BURN. (Mixture will foam up to 2-3 times in volume. Make sure your pot is large enough.)
Remove from heat.
Stir in vanilla.

It takes a little doing, but well worth it. Enjoy!

Cupcake/Cake Stand

I LOVE all the cute cupcake stands out there, but couldn't bring my thrifty self to spend the money on one. That's like a whole new outfit for me!

So I saw homemade stands out there in blogland that inspired me to make my own.

There are so many variations, but this is what I put together.
I bought 2 pieces of foam board from the Dollar Tree. I cut my platforms the sizes that I wanted (9 1/2", 13 1/2", & 17 1/2" squares) and then made the columns in between out of pieces of the leftover foam board.

To cut the columns like mine, the top one is 4 pieces of 4" x 3", the middle one is 4" x 5 1/2", and the bottom platform holding it all up is 2" x 14".
This was my first to do, so I learned some things in the process. Here are some other ideas to use also.

For the platforms:
*Mod Podge them to match your decor and they would be super cute!
*Add ribbon around the edges...I think this is a must.
*Use 2 thicknesses of cardboard glued together instead of foam board.
*Make them circles or whatever crazy shape you think would be fun.

For the columns:
*Use stirofoam cylinders wrapped in pretty paper.
*Use the containers salt comes in...now I'll never throw away another paper salt container again (my hubby is going to love that).
*If painting, use acrylic instead of spray.
*Paint the pieces before gluing them on if you're worried about what it looks like underneath.
*Make them all the same size, or do different sizes like I did.

This is underneath each one...tried spray paint on the first one.
Next time I'm sure I'll be a little neater about things, but nobody sees underneath anyways.
Wrapping the columns in paper would hide where you glued them together also.I didn't connect all 3 tiers to each other because I wanted to be able to not have to use all 3 tiers. If you want it really sturdy though just hot glue them together.

This is a disposable type of thing, but I'll make mine last until it doesn't look presentable anymore.
Now go fill one up with those beautiful Valentine's Day cupcakes!
Happy Partying! (Even if that's not a word!)

Linking up to Sisters' Stuff & Tea Rose Home!

Triple Picture Hanging

I wanted to make something for the in-laws for Christmas and I knew I couldn't go wrong with pictures of their granddaughters.

There are a million ways people are mod podging pictures on things lately, but my friend started using the Dollar Tree wooden plaques and they work great.

So I bought 3 and came up with this wall hanging.I once again forgot to take a picture before I gave it to her and therefore have a cruddy phone picture to show you...blah...but better than nothing.

I painted the wood on the back and around the edges, mod podged scrap paper to the front and then the picture.
You can always add other embellishments to make it even cuter. I kept it pretty simple.
I hot glued the ribbon in one long piece to hold them together.

Looks like it's holding up so far.
Hopefully the next picture I get isn't of it in the floor.

Linking up to Tea Rose Home

Hand-Held Chalkboards

I have been wanting to use chalkboard paint for a long time, but I never knew it came in spray paint!

I had some little wooden things that I couldn't ever think of anything to use them for and the 2 came together for this.Hand-held chalkboards for my nieces.

I used about three coats of chalkboard paint to make sure they were coated well. Painted the edges of the wood black, painted the entire back a pretty matching color and mode podged scrapbook paper on the ends.
To finish it off I hot glued ribbon over the seam where the paint met the paper. They also needed chalk so I tied a ribbon around it with a piece of chalk.

I forgot to take a picture before I sent these so I got my sis-in-law to take a picture for me...thanks Heather!

I did this for my other nieces too but they were just ovals and didn't have any flare to them on the front. Hopefully they're still fun to play with anyways.

Now my girls want one...

Linking up at Tea Rose Home

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

My little girl turned 3 in August and wanted nothing more than a Strawberry Shortcake Party.

I decided to try a Topsy Turvy Cake for the first time.
This made WAY too much cake for just 9 mouths. It ended up being part of their take home goodie bag.

I had totally planned to take pictures throughout the process, but didn't do too good of a job. One day I will actually do a tutorial of something on this blog. Hopefully that day is soon...

If you really want to know how to make a Topsy Turvy cake just google it and you'll find a few different versions of how to do one.

However, I do have a couple of tips that will make cake making easier.

First tip...to make your cakes not stick to the pan trace your pan onto 2 layers of paper towels. Cut it out, stick that in the bottom of your pan and pour your batter directly onto the paper towel. You don't have to grease the sides or anything and it will come out great! Just be sure to run a knife around the outside edge before taking it out.Simply peel the paper towel off the bottom and you've done it.
(Thanks to my friend Nicci who taught me that trick.)
Another tip I have learned is to freeze or refrigerate your cakes after wrapping them in seran wrap.This makes them not so crumbly and it's easier to cut and shape, especially for a cake like this one.

The last tip to remember when making a Topsy Turvy Cake...
don't eat all of the parts that you have to cut off, because you won't want cake for a month.

Mod Podged Lunch Box

My daughter has started Kindergarten!!!
Unbelievable how time flies!
She has to take a snack every day so I was on the hunt for a snack box. We had a couple of these from our days at Busch Gardens, but they were a little too "Busch Gardensy."Decided Mod Podge usually fixes anything.I removed the sticker (which came off surprisingly easy), traced it on my pretty paper and Mod Podged away. I cut out her name on my Cricut and Mod Podged some more.We don't have to worry about someone else walking away with her snack box at least.

Luau Birthday Party

My daughter turned 5 and wanted a Luau Party.
So here's the cake!
This was the first time for me to work with gumpaste. If you're wanting a homemade recipe, THIS is a great one.
I also learned a great secret...how to make buttercream frosting smooth (I don't like the taste of fondant very much).
Frost your cake, let it set until it kind of has that crusty feel. Then lay a paper towel on your cake and rub it gently in circles with your fingers or something flat.
It will eventually be smooth!
Love it!

Sidenote: I didn't really want to invest in gumpaste "tools" so I used a real leaf to vein my hibiscus leaves. I think it worked just fine.

I didn't take pictures of any other decorations...because there weren't really any.

I did put some grass skirt stuff around the tables, but we were at the beach so we used that as our decor.
Here are some other things we did that made it fun:

*The kids drank out of coconut cups with flamingo straws.
*We all got leis.
*For Dinner - shrimp, meatball, chicken & veggie skewers, fruit skewers, and other picnic foods.
*For Party favors - the coconut cups and a little bag of chocolate seashells I made.
*And then playing on the playground and beach.

A luau theme is always fun to do.

Curtains & Handprints

I am getting so close to finishing my girl's hot pink & zebra room!

I finally made their curtains. This really makes the room look complete, and actually isn't very encouraging to make their bedspreads like I thought it would be.
I guess it makes the room look so complete I don't think you would even notice their beds. How often are they really made anyways?! Maybe that will be my motivation. They will learn to make their beds every morning if I make these bedspreads...

And I also finished a project we started a year ago. Using leftover plaster from another project we did these handprints. Little did I know how I would treasure these.
I put the date that we made them on the bottom because this was the day I got the call that my dad had passed away. So it's a nice little thing to have hanging in their room.

I used a pie plate to hold the plaster while they pressed their hands and it dried.
A year later, I spray painted them black and then painted in the rest with a brush (not necessary to wait the year to paint).
I had to do something with them other than the plain ol' handprints.

Now about those bedspreads...

Maybe I'll Call It "Deal of the Month"

Ok, so I didn't stick with doing a "Deal of the Week."
Oops. Guess I didn't find anything that stood out since June.

But I did just get back from Walgreens and got 9 cent folders (with brads). Surely that counts.

There are too many good deals to mention if you coupon like a crazy person. So I'll just mention good deals when I get one. :)