I hired Charlotte from The Paper Cupcake to design the invitations (which featured Leyna’s cake smash pictures that we took on her actual birthday, December 28th) and all the printables for the party. She really helped me set the tone from the beginning.

We had the party at our house, which made for some chaos the morning of and a huge mess to clean up after, but it actually wasn’t that bad having it here.

This front door sign was made with this wooden plaque I ordered from Etsy. I painted it with chalkboard paint and taped ribbon on to the back. Then my sister prettied it up with some chalk markers. Super easy, and now I can just take off the ribbon, wipe off the chalk and repurpose it.

The cupcake stand is one I’ve repurposed since I made it nearly 3 years ago for Kendall’s 1st birthday party. The wreath above the fireplace is our Christmas felt pomp wreath that I added rainbow ribbon to. The picture collage on the fireplace is made from a canvas that’s painted with chalkboard paint. The pictures are stuck on with adhesive photo corners, and we used chalk markers to draw snowflakes on it.

The giant Polaroid photo booth was a huge hit! The kids loved playing with all the funky accessories, and I think even the adults had a good time pretending to bundle up (even though it was nearly 60 outside and I had the AC blasting).

I got my inspiration for this after seeing a pin from this blog, but had no idea how they made the frame. With the help from some reader suggestions, I wound up getting a giant piece of foam insulation from Home Depot for $9, had Scott cut it with a box cutter, and we painted it white. The dimensions were 3.5 feet wide x 4.25 feet long. There is a .2 foot border on each side, a .25 foot border on top, and a .875 foot border on bottom.

Scott hung it from our ceiling with fishing line, a few feet away from the yellow chevron fabric backdrop I got at Hancock Fabrics.

For favors, the kids got Snow Day Survival Kits full of popcorn, hot chocolate, crayons, stickers and notepads. (The babies got packs of Boogie Wipes for those inevitable runny noses.)

We also handed out these beautiful and sooooo delicious rainbow snowflake sugar cookies, courtesy of Cookies By Becky . I don’t know how she got them to look so perfectly frosted and managed to ship them without a single one breaking, but I looked like a regular ol’ Martha Stewart handing them out… until I admitted I had nothing to do with their creation.

The party was 2 hours of total fun, and I’m so happy we had it here… even if it did take a whole day to clean up after it. OH! One more thing. I don’t have a picture of this, but we made the most kick-ass white hot chocolate and let the adults add rum to their cups. Magically delicious, y’all.

1.75 gallons milk
2 bags white chocolate chips
Melt in stock pot on the stove slowly, pour into coffee urn or keep on low on the stove to keep warm.
Optional- top with rum and/or whipped cream.
Serves- a shitton of people

(We have a ton left over, so we froze it in muffin tins and then put the cubes in freezer bags. Now we can pull a few out, pop them in the microwave and enjoy.)

That’s it! Thanks for stopping by to have a look. As much fun as I had doing this party for Leyna, I’m really thinking we might do a birthday outing over a party for Kendall’s 4th in May (OMG MY BABY IS GOING TO BE FOUR).

Becky is going to give a lucky one of you 2 dozen cookies, too! All you have to do is comment telling me your favorite design she has listed in her Etsy shop right now (though you’re not limited to those if you order from her since she does custom designs, too). U.S. shipping addresses only, please. I’ll draw the winner with Random.org in about a week.

It started at Christmas time with dough from a tube, but then one day I really wanted cookies and didn’t want to get dressed and go buy a tube of dough, so I figured it would be less work to actually make them… from scratch.

And you know what? It was totally, crazy easy. And they were SO good.

So then I thought, hm… what if I make my own frosting? And I did. And it was GOOOOOOD, and also less work than getting dressed to buy some at the store.

Listen, I am NOT in love with anything that happens in the kitchen. I don’t really enjoy cooking or baking, and, of course, I despise doing dishes. I take the easy way out whenever I can. So when Kendall asked me if we could use a heart shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies, I told him that would take so, so long, and he wouldn’t get to eat any cookies until the next day.

I mean, just look at my favorite sugar cookie recipe by Alton Brown. Two hours and twenty four minutes? No bueno. But if you just make the dough, roll it up into balls and smash them on the cookie sheet, it only takes 24 minutes, which is much more my speed, not to mention I don’t want to deal with throwing flour all over my  counters and rolling dough out.

Being the not-horrible mom that I am, though, I still wanted to come up with some heart shaped cookies for Kendall, and I remembered this old play-doh trick.

Pull off enough dough to make one cookie, then divide it in half and roll into two balls.

This is me French kissing my 50 1.4 lens for making my dirty kitchen look all blurry and… not dirty. 

Now roll the balls into tear drop shapes, with one end coming to a soft point.

Smoosh one tear drop

Then line the other tear drop up with it, matching the points, and smoosh it.

Be sure you really smoosh the two pieces together and seal the seam, or you’ll end up with a broken heart.

You can have them in the oven MUCH faster than 2 whole hours later this way.

Those odd shaped ones are “mittens” that Kendall made all by himself. 

Oh sure, they aren’t prefect, but who has a perfect heart anyway?

We frosted these with cinnamon cream cheese buttercream (this recipe with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon added).

Voila! Valentine’s cookies for the super lazy! And, of course, I’m sure you could achieve this with dough from a tube for the ultimate in lazy cookie making.

Of course, now that I have a pretty penny invested in all these gorgeous accessories, the girl suddenly has an opinion on the matter and tries to pull them off… especially the big ones.

At least they make for pretty wall decor for now.

If you want to make your own Quilt Hoop Bow Holder, or a version of it, here’s the link to the tutorial I posted when I made it.

Leyna is 1 year old, and so help me, I will find a way to get her to wear that big rainbow bow for her rainbow birthday party.

So, I had this week sort of planned out in my head Sunday night. Today was supposed to be a sort of “off” blogging day so I could do things like clean and grocery shop and tend to my children.

I was just planning on posting this picture of our fireplace mantle, where I hung the Felt Pomp Wreath this year…

I was going to link you back to the wreath tutorial, in case you missed it. We were going to all ooh and ahh at how cute the mantle looks, and how sweet that little collection of framed holiday cards and Santa pics is.

I was also going to ask you guys what to do with our stockings because metal stocking holders with flashy, brightly colored socks hanging from them just scream to small children “PULL ON THE STOCKING SO THIS METAL THING CAN LEAVE A HOLE IN YOUR SKULL!”

But now? Yeah, that is NO way to follow up on yesterday. Frankly, I have no idea how to follow up on that because, while I am immensely sarcastic and could do funny elf pictures for days, that’s not everything I blog about, and man, I don’t want you new folks to be bored to tears by my inane ramblings about crafts and my paranoia about assaults by stocking holders.

So, 2 things.

1. There will be more elf pictures. I’m working on a 2nd part this weekend.
2. I want to see your Inappropriate Elf pictures. (And by “inappropriate” I do not mean an elf raping, beating, being a racist or anything hateful or disgusting like that…. just so we’re clear. I think the elves should strive to be PG-13.)

Okay, and a 3rd… Lets do like an Inappropriate Elf contest? Ideas? Like, should I do a linkup or something? I am so terrible about organizing that kind of coordinated effort blog crap.

Oh, and a 4th… I’m still going to have to blog about things like how my 3.5 year old now sings to the tune of many Christmas songs, but every word is “poop.” And he thinks he’s hilarious. He’s the funniest person he knows. I can not imagine where he got that trait from. <<<See the sarcasm?

In fact, tomorrow it will be back to business around here with a giveaway, maybe a Mommy Truth, too, but I’m going to work on the Inappropriate Elf collab. this weekend and see what I can come up with. Maybe we can get someone to sponsor it and offer a really awesome prize like an iPad or a years supply of prescription medication? I’m open to suggestions.

RESPECT THE TURKEY, folks.

That said, I know that we also have to start preparing… doing a little behind the scenes work, a little shopping, a little crafting.

So if you’re already busy thinking about what to give, what to make, and how to decorate, you will LOVE this FREE Holiday Guide by Emily Henderson (of Style by Emily Henderson on HGTV- don’t you just love her?!).

It’s 238 pages of gift guides, printables, giveaways, design ideas, and tutorials, and…

Those are coffee cozies, upcycled from an old college sweatshirt, no crocheting or knitting required, by yours truly.

Page 219!

AND! You also get a free printable to go with it for a box that you can slip the cozy inside, along with a giftcard for coffee. I gave something similar last year to all my blogging friends for the holidays, and I think they sort of loved them. Just sayin’.

I love giving these because it’s a great way of making a small gift card for coffee seem like a more thoughtful and substantial gift.

The printable was designed by the lovely and talented Lindsay of Linz Loves You designs, who also put the whole dang thang (the magazine) together, and pretty much rocked it.

So, please do check it out. There are so many great ideas! I feel honored to be included along with the other amazing contributors and to work with the fabulous Emily Henderson in this way.

My little pirate and parrot sure did.

Leyna rocked her No-Sew Parrot costume and Kendall’s pirate costume was thrown together with the help of his closet, the consignment store, and just a couple party store additions.

Since I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of finding him pirate boots or the annoyance of boot toppers, we embraced a more casual, beach-y pirate look.

The striped undershirt came from his closet (H&M). The jeans were last year’s, and now too short. I cut them jagged and a little shorter. The white dress shirt is a few sizes too big, purchased at the kid’s consignment store. The belt and sandals were part of his Easter outfit. We purchased the pirate hat on clearance at Walmart, and the eye patch and bag of gold doubloons (a must-have, thanks to Jake And The Neverland Pirates) were the only pieces purchased at the party store.

This was the first year I’ve done homemade costumes. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it every year, but I loved how they came out this time around.

Update on the Switch Witch/Candy Fairy:

I had a talk with Kendall yesterday, and he still wasn’t keen on the “Fahwy” coming to take his candy. So I took Gina’s advice and took the imaginary character out of the equation. I said, “Okay, we’ll tell the fairy not to come. Instead, do you think you’d like to take your candy to the sports store and use that to buy a new baseball bat? You’ll even get to pick it out.”

He eagerly agreed, so I think we’ll try to do that today or tomorrow. (He needs a new baseball bat anyway since daddy was playing with his and put a big dent in it.)

So, how was your Halloween? Did the Switch Witch or Candy Fairy come to visit your house?

Kendall is 3.5 and Leyna is 10 months old, and there is nothing like Halloween as the parent of young children.

It was super easy.

The inside of the hood is lined, too. I thought that would be the hardest part, but it was those darn ruffles that killed me. I need a better machine so I can get a ruffler foot. I can not be the mother to a little girl without a ruffler foot, I’m convinced. So, I just went with some freehand pleats down the front.

I followed the tutorial here (found originally on Pinterest).

“I wanna be Jake the Nevuhland Piwate!” he declared, and so we went with that.

Honestly, I have no clue what I’m going to do for his costume yet, but I thought all summer how I would put Leyna’s parrot costume together. I decided I would finish it today so I could forget that it’s ONE HUNDRED AND SIX DEGREES (stab, stab, stab TX summers)and pretend fall is here.

Believe it or not, this is the first Halloween costume I’ve ever made. ZOMG. I die from the cute.

What you’ll need:

Not a sewing machine!! Or a thread or needle of any sort. Don’t you just love me right now?!

A onesie you’ll use for the body-Leyna’s is a boys red turtleneck onesie from Carters. Bought it yesterday for $8. It is important to note that at Carters (and maybe elsewhere) the snaps for the girls turtlenecks are down the back and the boys are on the side. Do not get one with snaps down the back.

3 colors of felt- I used about 1/4 yard of each color for Leyna’s wings, but I’d suggest getting at least a 1/2 a yard so you have extra to work with, unless your wing span is going to be really tiny (more if your wings are much bigger).

2 feather boas- These are of the craft variety, with very fine feathers. I got them at Hancock Fabrics yesterday for about $5 each.

Scissors, hot glue gun + glue sticks, measuring tape, pen

Put the onesie on your baby and use a pen to mark where the top of the feathers on their butt should go and where they should end. I started Leyna’s just above the top of her diaper.

Measure the wingspan, from the seam of one wrist cuff to the next. Since the sleeves will naturally point down a bit, place your measuring tape across the back at the neck and measure a little above each sleeve if you need to.

Then measure from the top of the shirt (below the neck if it’s a turtleneck) down the middle of the back to determine how long you want the wings to be. I made Leyna’s stop 2 inches above where I wanted to start the feathers on her butt.

I determined Leyna’s wings would be 29″ by 9″ on her 24 month onesie. (Yes, she will only be 10 months at Halloween.)

Cut the first color of felt, the color you want at the bottom of the wings, the width of the wingspan you’ve determined. Then fold that in half and mark the length on the fold.

Starting at that point on the fold, cut up to the top corner, rounding it as you go.

Notch the edges to create “feathers.”

Do the same thing for the other 2 colors, but subtract 10″ from the width for the 2nd color and 20″ from the width for the 3rd color. Also, subtract 2″ from the length for the 2nd color and 4″ from the length for the 3rd color. For example:

Leyna’s final wing measurements
Blue- 29″ by 9″
Green- 19″ by 7″
Red- 9″ by 5″

If you’re making wings that are much bigger or much smaller, you might need to tweak these measurements. Do what you think will look best. This is why I suggest having extra felt. 

Laid out on top of each other, they should look like this:

Hot glue the top edges together by flipping each one up and running a bead of hot glue between the 2 layers.

I made sure they were really secure by applying another row of hot glue just below the first, but I didn’t glue the entirety of each layer of felt to the next so that it would look more like feathers and move better with her.

Place the wings, top (layered side… the one you want showing from the back) down, then place your onesie, belly side up, on top of it. Take a look at what the wings will look like from the front. I wanted there to be a little color peeking through from that view, too, so I cut a layer for each side that was about 10″ by 8″.

Again, I just hot glued under the straight edges and let the “feathers” be free. It looks like this from the front. (Keep in mind, at this point, you still haven’t glued the wings onto the shirt.)

To glue the wings onto the onesie, you may want to start by putting a piece of cardboard inside. I didn’t have any issues with the hot glue seeping through, but I’d hate for that to happen to anyone. This will be pretty important to do if you’re using fabric glue instead of hot glue.

Flip everything back over, make sure the back of your onesie is facing up, then line up the center of the wings and run a bead of hot glue from right below the neck to about an inch above where your wings will stop.

To attach the top of the wings, start at the middle and work out toward each end, a few inches at a time, one side at a time. Stretch the arms to meet the top of the wings until you get toward the end.

It will start to get difficult to get everything to line up around this point, so just go ahead and glue the sleeve down to the wings and trim the excess off the top.

Now you’re ready for the feathers on the butt. You may need to trim a string off the end of your feather boa. If you do this, put a dot of hot glue on the raw edge to keep it from… molting.

Start at the mark you made at the top of the butt. Glue your first color boa across the top of the butt, then back the other way. Again, when you cut it off, add another big dot of hot glue to the raw edge.

 Do the same thing for the second color feather boa right below that. You’ll end up with something that looks like this from the back:

And if you put it on a chubby baby, you’ll end up with something that looks like this:

Now, I can’t take credit for this next part, but the cherry on top of this whole getup is this FABULOUS feather headband made custom by Bella’s Bowtique. 

This photo shoot wouldn’t have happened without Aunt Kelly’s watch. I tried like hell to get a picture of her without that freaking watch in her mouth. This was the result.

She literally screamed, “DADA!”  as I shot this, as if she was telling on me and Aunt Kelly for torturing her and not even letting her chew on a little ol’ watch while we did so.

So she won. The watch was promptly returned to her chubby hands.

It was silly easy to make, and I used some items we already had, like scrap wood leftover from our sub-floor install and a half-full can of chalkboard paint.

The full list of what you’ll need is:

Wood (Dimensions are up to you. Try to re-use or upcycle some!)
Chalkboard paint & painting supplies (cheap foam brush and an old sheet should work)
Binder clips (I got ours at Office Depot where they have quite a few bright, fun colors. Get enough to put one clip every 6 inches on the length of the board(s) you’re cutting.)
Gorilla Glue Fast Cure (Got ours at Lowes)
Yardstick
Black Sharpie 
Chalk 

1. Paint your piece of wood with the chalkboard paint. It will probably take 2 -3 thin coats, depending on if you primed or not.

2. Let the board dry, then lay out your supplies and grab a wet (but not soaking) rag. Per the Gorilla Glue instructions, you’ll have to use this to dampen the board and the back of the binder clip before applying the glue and adhering.

3. Using the yardstick as your guide, place your binder clips every 6 inches (meaning you line the left side of each clip up on the inch marker that is 6 inches from the left side of the last clip).

Note: I started 2 inches in and my last clip is 2 inches from the edge. The 6 inch distance between them allows you to hang one piece of paper vertically with just one or horizontally with 2. Play around and get them exactly how you want them.

4. Follow the directions on the Gorilla Glue to adhere the binder clips where you placed them. Keep using the yardstick as your guide so you can keep them all level.

5. You’ll see the directions of the Gorilla Glue tell you to clamp them down, but I couldn’t really figure out how to do this. Instead, I just took my time and held down each one for about 3-4 minutes before moving on to the next.

6. Be sure you don’t apply too much glue. It really only takes a little applied to the back (especially the raised surfaces) of the binder clip. The glue expands like a foam and dries white. If after it dries you find that the glue around the edges is noticeable, go back and color over it with a black Sharpie. Much easier and less messy than painting over it, and nobody’s going to be able to tell from a distance. I also used the Sharpie to color over the screw heads that we used to drill it into the wall.

7. Hang it up and then get creative with what you want to write on it. For now, both of these boards are for “Kendall’s Creations,” but as Leyna gets older and starts coloring, I’ll probably designate one board for each kid. The best part is all I have to do is wipe off the chalk and re-name it! I’m even thinking of changing it up and writing this quote on them:

Children will not remember you for the material things you provided, but for the feeling that you cherished them. – Richard L. Evans

Round 2 of fun with swaddling blankets will turn 4 of these…

into these…

It’s a momma bunny and 2 baby bunnies, complete with fluffy tails. (I swear, these things are much cuter in person. I took a million pictures of them in different poses, but nothing conveys the cuteness like actually seeing them in real life. Sorry.)

What you will need- 4 swaddling blankets (I use Aden & Anais muslin blankets. They come in a 4 pack and you can even get them at most Super Targets.)
A spool of tulle, or tulle cut into about 9 2 inch by 18 inch strips
Felt
Siccors

Let’s start by making the momma.

Take 2 of your 4 blankets and lay one on top of the other. If they have tags on them, align it so the tags on both blankets match up. This just makes it easier to hide them so they’re not hanging out of the bunny ears. Starting with the corner closest to the tag, roll the blanket into a long tube.

Then take that  tube and fold it in half.

About 4-5 inches from the fold, wrap a piece of tulle around and tie it in a knot on the other side (this will be the underside).

Flip it back over, then cross the ends over and back like this.

Place a stip of tulle (about 18ish inches long, I guess) over the top of the bunny’s head, over where the body is secured with tulle. Wrap it around and tie it in a knot under the body (this will be on top of the tulle that’s holding the body together). Don’t clip the excess, though. You’re not done tying it.

Flip the bunny back over, then tie the ends behind the ears. To make the ears stand up a bit more, you could wrap the ends around the base of the ears first, and then tie it behind the ears.

Now you can trim off the ends of the tulle.  (Click through to see the rest, including a super easy tulle pom pom tutorial inside a tutorial!)

Next, cut off another strip of tulle. Maybe about 18 inches long. We’re going to make the poofy tail, and it’s super easy.

Wrap most of the strip around 3 of your fingers like this.

Take the last 6 inches or so of your strip and push it through the center of the wrapped tulle.

Knot it through itself.

Then pull it tight.

Carefully cut the tulle off of your fingers like this.

Ahhhh… tulle over my ring. I don’t even think we captured that on my wedding day.

Anyway.

Fluff. But do NOT cut off the long piece you just used to tie it together.

Now use the long piece to help you tie it onto the bunny butt.

For the eyes, I just cut a circle from felt, then cut the circle in half. The felt will stick on and stay as long as it doesn’t get shaken around or blown by the wind.

For the babies, everything comes together the same, except you only need one blanket, and you start with it folded in quarters.

If you want a smaller tail for the babies, you can just wrap the tulle around 2 fingers.

And there you have a momma and 2 baby bunnies from 4 swaddling blankets!

I think this would be an awesome shower gift, especially when paired with a book like The Runaway Bunny or Guess How Much I Love You. And with winter baby showers approaching, it would be adorable to do a snow bunny shower and make a bunch of these out of white flat cloth diapers. Even if the mom-to-be isn’t planning to cloth diaper, those things are awesome multitaskers, and one of my Top 10 Newborn Essentials.

Let me know if you have any questions or if any of this is confusing to you. Happy bunny making!