For those of you who may be new to my blog, I am excited to share with you about our seasonal parties! My husband and I host a party every season to celebrate the food, music & ambiance we love about that time of the year. You can see more here (including links to most of the seasonal parties over the past 5 years).

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Winter is always one of my favorites because we have a soup potluck. Our friends are pretty good cooks, so we always have a delicious array of soups to try, along with winter-inspired appetizers, salads, bread and dessert (which was all chocolate this year- apparently that is the most fitting winter dessert!)

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For decor this year, I wanted to spend as little money as possible, while still making the setting beautiful. My 5 year old and I had cut some paper snowflakes around Christmas time and they were still hanging on our sliding glass doors while I was gathering inspiration for the party. I decided to add in some doilies that I had in my crafting stash and, in 5 minutes, I had a pretty backdrop of delicate snowy-ness. I filled tables with tons of candles and other elements I grabbed from around my house and from my dwindled down wedding planner supply shelves in the garage. My husband grabbed some flowers at Trader Joe’s and that was that :) It looked dreamy while still being simple.

I threw some doilies on the wall and make a quick garland to hang on the fireplace. I made some quick tags so that everyone could label their soup- after the first year I learned that was necessary, as well as reminding everyone to bring their own ladle :)

I was having so much fun with my friends that I completely forgot to take any picture with my good camera. This happened at our fall party too. Oops. So all I have to share are the photos I posted to instagram, which is better than nothing, right?

Later this week, I’ll share my husband’s winter playlist. We like to send our guests home with a mix of songs that remind us of the season.

There are still two hours left of Friday, so I am sneaking in an InstaFriday post just in time :)  Linking up with the lovely Jeannett at Life Rearranged to record some of my favorite moments from the past week (errr… two weeks… because I missed last Friday…)

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So, after the washing machine breaking, the shower shattering and my whole family having strep throat, I was ready for a break. Thanks to my parents and my wonderful neices, the hubs and I got to sneak away for two nights to Big Bear with one of  my husband’s best friends and his wife. It was my big gift to my husband for Christmas and was SUCH a needed break- we had so much fun! Snowboarding together also counted as date #2 out of 50 in 2013 (for more info on that, check out my last instafriday post).

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After a great day snowboarding, resting & reading, we had a tasty dinner to celebrate Sean’s 30th birthday

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Back home, our house decided to kick us down again. Plumbing issues. Like water coming from the ceilings in the bathroom and no toilets flushing issues. When my husband was out of town. And I was supposed to leave for the weekend in an hour. 9 hours later… the plumbers were gone, everything was fixed, and I was scrubbing crap off the walls with a toothbrush. Literally. So I definitely deserved these before falling into bed:

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These two sweet faces were so good that day- which helped me retain the ounce of sanity I had left.

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My husband is the sweetest and left me this note the other day:

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And after finishing reading Gone Girl today, I am extra thankful for my amazing husband. And that I’m not crazy. All good things.

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This kid got his first loose tooth last week. I got tears.

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We had our winter party last weekend. I’ll post more photos and details on Monday, but here is a sneak peak for now:

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Father-son carrom game. Melts me. And, yes, that is Isaiah’s favorite new shirt. (thanks grandma!)

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I got to recreate the suite from Hudson’s first birthday party for two customers. Such a fun set of banners, mini banners & cupcake toppers. One of the birthday boys even had the same name as my hudson! So random.

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Date #3/50 in 2013: a mellow, at home dinner after the kids were asleep (mainly due to the fact that my husband now had major bronchitis. a week after having strep throat. fun times). My hubby is an incredible cook- he can throw together a pasta like no one else I know. This was a bolognese sauce he made from scratch, including bacon, caramelized onions and aged balsamic. It was so good! After we had dinner, we sat around talking for the rest of the evening. Such a sweet quiet night together!

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I made the largest happy birthday banner I’ve ever made: over 18 feet long! It was a special order for the OC  mart mix’s anniversary celebration.

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Hey dude- no drinking & driving.

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Any time it rains, Isaiah requests hot chocolate. Even if it’s 80 degrees and just barely sprinkling. At his request, my husband made the best hot chocolate and whipped cream from scratch last night. Seriously the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. Apparently, I should have just titled this post “let me tell you how rad my husband is”.

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And- with that- I’m off to bed. Trying to fight off the bronchitis mr amazing husband passed on to me :)

Happy weekend!

I have always been a paper lover- from the time I was 7 and would love stopping at the paper outlet on our way to the desert, I have always found joy in scouring shelves of beautifully designed paper.

Now, I have way too much of it. Boxes and boxes of scrapbook paper. Good thing I use it as part of my job :)

Today, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite online resources for buying scrapbook paper. As much as I love spending an hour browsing the aisles in a specialty paper store, the reality of that happening in this stage of life with two little boys is very slim.

Paper Source is one of my favorite stores in the world. However, they have a larger supply of scrapbook paper in their stores than they do online. However, they are my go to source for solid color card stock for my products. I love their color options and it makes it easy that I know what will be in stock and what to expect.

In searching for great patterned paper over the years, I have happened upon Two Peas in a Bucket and A Cherry on Top. Both have a great selection of crafty goodness. Lots of patterns to choose from and both ship very quickly.

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Locally in San Diego, Paper Tales in Point Loma is awesome and Cool Scrapbook Stuff in Poway has a pretty good selection.

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Do you have any other favorite online paper shops?

Hey Cricut users! Did you know that you can use the Cricut Cake cartridges with any Cricut machine?

What makes this so awesome?

Martha.

I could pretty much guarantee that I would love just about anything with the Martha Stewart logo on it. Not that I am obsessed with the woman herself, but the style that goes along with her brand is just so me. No matter what the product, the style is always great: simple, elegant and crafty.

That is why I was so excited to figure out that I could use the Martha Stewart Cricut Cake cartridges with my normal cricut! The cartridges are awesome- they all have great shapes, borders and fonts included and I think that they are cuter than most of the normal cricut cartridges (not so scrapbook-y). I’ve used them a bunch for everything from a lacy border used as a napkin wrap for an event, mini pennants for a banner, to balloons used for a million things for Hudson’s birthday and holiday shapes used for Christmas cards and halloween banners.

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And because the cake cartridges are less popular than the normal ones, they are cheaper- hooray! In fact, I just saw that on cricut.com the seasonal cartridge (which I love) is only $14.99 right now!

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**This post is not sponsored by Martha Stewart or Cricut- just me talking about something I love. Although, if Martha ever wants to send anything my way, I’m in :)

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For my son Hudson’s first birthday party, I wanted to keep it simple, but fun. He is a fan of balloons, so we had a balloon party in colors of cherry red, tangerine, pool blue & a minty green.

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The invitations, which I handmade, had balloons on strings popping off of the card. I loved how they turned out!

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For lunch, we served balloon shaped sandwiches, balloon kabobs (grapes on a skewer), cherry tomato balloons (stuck onto pretzel sticks) and cheese balloons (circles of cheese stuck onto skewers), along with salad and fruit.

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For the dessert table, I made a mini cake for Hudson and had mini vanilla cupcakes, balloon shaped rice krispy treats and cookies, popcorn balls and white chocolate dipped jumbo marshmellows. I painted boxes that I found in the target dollar section and filled them with cotton balls to resemble clouds. I put styrofoam in the bottom of each box so that I could stand the treats in them. I also modge-podged a few jars to use as containers.

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A really special detail to  me is the high chair he ate his cake it. It was actually my childhood high chair- I did not even know that my parents still had it! My mom dug it out of the garage and had it painted to match the party. So sweet!

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 At first, he wasn’t so sure about the cake, but he eventually dug in and loved it :)

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I always like to have a couple activities for the kids, so I cut a bunch of balloons out of paper and the kiddos decorated them with glitter, stickers and markers and then chose a fun ribbon to tie on.

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We had the party next to a park, so we also had some balls/lawn games available to play. For the little guys, I put a bunch of balloons and bean bags inside of a play pen and let them go to town. Hudson loved it!

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My major DIY project was making balloon centerpieces out of fabric, paper-mache style.

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One big lesson I learned is that you can never have too much helium for a balloon party. We thought we had enough and ran out really early on when setting up for the party. My sweet husband had to run out just before the party started to get more. Another lesson learned: when you string a garland of balloons on an outside pergola and it’s a bit windy, chances are they will all pop at some point or another. :)

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Also, a heads up, mini balloons will not float for long- even when filled with helium. We learned this the hard way- ha! The mini balloons were so cute flying above the tables while tied down to little bean bags I made, however, within 10 minutes they were all down on the table.

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Ha!

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As favors, I painted clothespins and had the kids pick a balloon or two to take home with them. I love repurposing decor as favors!

I wanted to do something special along the lines of a guest book. I had guests guess what they think Hudson will be when he grows up. They wrote their answers on little balloon cutouts and I am going to keep them in his baby book :)

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We are so blessed by this sweet boy and I am such a proud mama. I love you Hudson!

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A huge thanks to Jackie Wonders for the gorgeous photos and Classic Party Rentals for the tables, linens & kids table & chairs. And a big thank you to our friends Geoff & Holly for letting us use their community clubhouse.

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All banners and similar custom party hats can be ordered through my shop. Just contact me :)

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This party was featured on On To Baby

Over the next couple of months, I am going to share a few of my favorite crafting tools for What I Love Wednesdays. First up, the fanciest hole puncher you’ve ever seen:

Whenever anyone sees me bust this guy out, they give me a confused look usually followed by a “what the heck is that thing?”.

It is a crop-a-dile.

What does this contraption do, you ask? It is a handy multi-use tool. It has two different sizes of hole punches and multiple settings to use for brads and eyelets. It is my go-to hole puncher. I don’t use it very often for eyelets because I just don’t use them very often, but it works great when I do.

The hole punches cut through super thick materials- I’ve used it on thin wood sheets, fabric mounted onto card stock, plastic and for over 10 sheets of card stock at once. It is easy to use and really well made- that thing is solid. I’ve had mine for over 6 years (big shout out to my sis Heather who gave it to me as a birthday present), use it multiple times a week and it is still in perfect condition.

 
I highly recommend it if you punch a lot of holes :)   You can buy it on Amazon or at craft or scrapbooking stores.

This is definitely a first.

I am in an infomercial.

Yep.

The good people at ProvoCraft asked if I would be willing to do a short demo and wedding table set up for an infomercial for the new cricut mini. After saying, “Are you serious?”, I jumped on board right away.

It was such a fun and interesting experience. The film crew was amazing- I can definitely get used to being called “the talent” and having a hair & makeup stylist and a wardrobe stylist making sure I look up to par.

Keep an eye out for the infomercial- I don’t have exact times and channels that it will air, but it is all over the place. If you are flipping channels and see the cricut on TV, chances are that is it :) My segment is about 6 1/2  minutes in.

You can also see the whole 28 minute spot on YouTube here.

Here is a look at the DIY project I (very quickly) demonstrated.

That lace backdrop is made out of 7 1/2″ paper squares, cut on the cricut mini and joined together with wire loops. It would look super cute as a photo booth backdrop or behind a cake or dessert display. As I say in the infomercial, “there really are endless possibilities”. Ha! :)

I also designed details for two different wedding reception tables using the cricut. Table numbers, chairbacks, escort cards, menus, vase wraps, etc.

I also made some fun details for a trio of cakes: wraps for the tiers of the main cake (yes- they are paper!), a monogram topper, mini bunting for another cake and I cut a stencil and then stenciled on the monogram in edible glitter on the third cake.

Add in some labels, a flag and banner and you have a wedding infomercial set! Disclaimer for my designer/planner friends: I cannot take credit for the napkins in glasses, overlays or chair sashes :)

My husband laughed for a good 5 minutes at, what he called, my “infomercial voice”. It is pretty funny.

Thanks to ProvoCraft and Raymond Entertainment for having me be a part of it. It was an honor!

For our winter party, I wanted to make a heart wreath. I had a foam heart base left over from a baby shower I helped throw and my initial thought was to yarn wrap it. But- as I learned from that baby shower- yarn wrapping a heart takes WAY longer than it should. Like 2-3 hours long. I needed something I could start and finish during my boys afternoon nap.

I found a package of red heart doilies at the grocery store for $1.50 and thought that they would look cute wrapped around the wreath. It turned out great and- seriously- was SO easy and fast! I had the entire project done in about 20 minutes.

photo by Nikki Crockett

All you need is a foam heart wreath, a package of doily hearts and a glue gun. Under $10 total. Quick and cheap? My kind of project.

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You don’t need to do anything to the foam wreath- I wanted the white to show through the holes in the doilies. Starting at the bottom point of the heart, take a heart doily and wrap it around one side of the point. The doilies will not wrap all the way around the foam- you want to try to center them so they cover all of the visible area when you are looking at it straight on. Once you have it placed where you want it, lift up half of it and put a dot of hot glue on to anchor it. Then, I just dotted a bit of hot glue around the edges and gently pressed the doily down.

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Work your way up one side, slightly overlapping each doily. Sorry I don’t have any photos from the beginning- I totally forgot I was going to do a tutorial until about half way through :)

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On the straight bottom edges, the doilies lay flat very well. Once the heart starts to curve, it gets a bit trickier. I would place it where I wanted it, glue it down in the center and then play around with it a bit to get it to lay flat. You will have to fold or tear some of them on the back side to get them smooth.

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When you get to the top of the heart, make sure to line up the edge of the heart doily with the center point of the heart.

When you get to the top on the other side, slightly layer the last doily over the other center doily so that the point of the heart is covered.

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Glue down any pieces that are sticking up and you’re done!

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I finished mine off with some red and white striped grosgrain ribbon to hang it.

Every season, my husband and I throw a party, celebrating what we love about that time of year. You can see past parties here and here.

We had our winter party last weekend and it was SO much fun! Winter is always one of my favorites because we have a soup potluck- every guest brings a different type of soup and we get to sample them all. Yum!!

Since Valentine’s day is just around the corner, I dreamt up a white and red party with lots of hearts. It took a lot of convincing to get my husband on board with that vision, but after assuring him it wouldn’t be pink and cheesy, he gave in :)

This year, I have started having a guestbook-of sorts, where I have our friends write down their favorite things of the season. For this party, I had a large heart on the wall and had guests write their favorite things about winter on small hearts that we taped on. Being in San Diego, most comments revolved around it being 75 degrees. So much for fires, hot chocolate and sweaters!

Found a $1.50 package of red heart doilies at the grocery store and turn them into a wreath and garland.

We set up tables on the porch, which I covered with white sheets (much cheaper than renting linens for a small party at home!). On the long tables, I hung a simple white paper & bakers twine garland from a wooden stand that a friend made me.

I cut placemats using my cricut and found these heart napkins at Target- aren’t they perfect? Each place setting had a paper soup bowl and mason jars for sangria with heart paper straws. I purchased the plain white bowls on etsy and then stamped them and added a bit of bakers twine.

We also had one round table, on which I had one of the mini banner stands that we sell- making sure everyone knew that “we heart winter”.

I covered our dining table with striped wrapping paper (that I found for $0.50 after Christmas!) and put on another stand with a mini banner, saying “we heart soup”.

Even though it was in the 70′s that day, we had a great time celebrating winter with soup, sangria, good music and games.

You can recreate all of this decor easily for Valentine’s Day too!

A big thank you to my friend Nikki for coming early to take these photos. I am so appreciative!

Sources:

Photos: Nikki Crockett Photography

Straws & Bowls: etsy shop InTheClear

I linked up this blog with Mique’s Pity Party

For my son’s third birthday (yes… that was over a year ago. I know, I know), I wanted to keep his birthday party on the simple side while still making it cute and creative. Much to my dismay, he requested a “SuperWhy” party- he loved the PBS show and was always pretending that he was Wyatt. I try to stay as far away from character parties as I can, so I had to think of a way to make it work without cartoon faces all over the place.

I took the colors of SuperWhy’s logo & Wyatt’s super reader outfit- blue, lime green and yellow- and created a sweet and simple superhero party. Since he was only three, I didn’t want to it to be too superhero-y. Just cute :) Other than the colors, all my son requested was that he get to wear a cape :)

The part was supposed to be in our backyard but the weather did not agree with my planning and it started to rain that morning. We smooshed everything into our tiny cottage-style house and our covered back porch which made for a crowded- I mean cozy- party. Here is a look with photos by the wonderful Megan Ann Photography.

My mom and I made capes for all of the kids. Definitely took way longer than we expected, but worth it to see how cute all of the kiddos looked.

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For the tables, I brought in the reading element of SuperWhy by attaching large balloons to books. Some of the books I wrapped in fabric to match the boys’ capes and others I kept the vintage books exposed. I also made little wooden stands to display I’s for Isaiah and 3s. I managed to sneak a little glitter into the party with some fun glitter ribbon on the stands.

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I had a kids size table set up for Isaiah & his friends to decorate superhero masks. The masks were cute out of felt and we sewed on elastic.

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For the “super duper sweets” table, I made some simple cupcakes and then rolled the edges in blue shimmery sprinkles. I wanted to make Isaiah’s cupcake extra special, so I made a super sized cupcake topper. I threw in a couple of candies in the color scheme to give the table a little more pop.

No pictures of the food because- I just got pizza. Simplifying my planner self :)

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We also set up a simple little backdrop to take some photos of the kids in all of their super gear.

That baby bump there? He’s going to be 1 next month. What????

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Next week, I’ll share some more photos of the game we played.

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A big thank you to Megan for the beautiful photos & to Classic Party Rentals for the tables, chairs and linens.