I mean, who doesn't want to KEEP CALM and GOBBLE ON??

Craftily Ever After

Ohhhhhh my.  How cute are these.  First I found the picture frame DIY project at Tatertots and Jello, which sent me to WhipperBerry, where I found these FREE printables at Craftily Ever After.

No idea whatsoever how our parents amused themselves during naptimes without the internet.

So many crafts I want to do, so little time!  But these are easy, FREE, and can be easily stored and used year to year.  That's a WIN/WIN/WIN in my book!

New twist on a Thanksgiving tradition

WhipperBerry

I love this idea.  I see so many cool ideas for using old frames.  I love this one, mainly because I could actually make it myself without any help.   You can find step by step instructions at Tatertots and Jello.

I can see using this for lots of other things, too.  Like chore charts for kids.  Monthly menus in the kitchen.  For a birthday party, you could display a picture of the guest of honor at each age...

Yes, I must make one of these...

Get Your Plan On! Make a party inspiration board

I can't believe I am just now stumbling onto party inspiration boards!  I found this one on birthday girl's blog.

I have life inspiration boards, wardrobe boards, why not ones for parties- a.k.a. my obsession?  

I love the idea of creating an inspiration board for upcoming parties for several reasons:

1.  Lots of my ideas come from the internet.  I am constantly linking photos or ideas and would love to have one place to drag and drop my favorites.

2. I currently keep my ideas in a party sketch book, but it's bulky and not practical to carry around with me.  I could easily keep a photo with me at all times for when inspiration strikes...or when I find a killer deal!

3. I am totally a visual person, but my sketching skills leave something to be desired.  This would be a much easier way for me to explain to people (namely, my sis) what I want them to create.  

So now all I have to do is figure out the easiest way to make one of these photo collages.  I've done it tons of times on sites like shutterfly.com, but I'd like to be able to make my own.  Off to stalk my tech gurus for the answer...

What about you?  Could an inspiration board for your next party spark your creativity?

LEGO STAR WARS Party Ideas

Legos and Star Wars.  What else could a first grade boy want for his birthday??

I am totally living vicariously here, since I don't have little boys.  Legos are super cool.  Period.  Legos I get.  But I must admit, I have not understood little boys' fascination with Star Wars until I started looking online for party ideas.  I mean, Star Wars has a lot to offer kids.  Good vs Evil.  Other planets.  Awesome space age technology- complete with ridiculously powerful ships and droids.  I totally want a droid to follow me around.

LIGHT SABERS!!!!!  Enough said.

So, let's stick with light sabers for a sec.  In my opinion, no Star Wars party can be complete without light sabers.  This is a perfect favor idea, and it also doubles as entertainment during the party.  And look at these, made with pool noodles (which are probably on clearance right now!):

I got this pic from Aimee Austin Deisgns.  She has some great ideas one there.  She also sells the invites, so if invitation creations are not your thing, you should check her site out.

Speaking of invitations, I do like to make my own.  If I were going to make these, I would probably head to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and pick up some of this lego scrapbook paper.  I would use that for a mat around the actual invitation.  If you have Star Wars Lego pieces, I think it would be super fun to have your little one design a scene for you to snap a picture of and use for the border or the top of the invite.  I think this would be a great way to give your child ownership.  If that's too time consuming, you could just find an unlicensed photo online by searching "Star Wars Lego" images.  You can easily make this in MS Word.  Just paste the picture at the top.  If you want a starry background, similar to Aimee Austin's, you could print the invite onto black starry paper, but be sure to use white lettering.

**One benefit of giving yourself several weeks to work on the invitations, other than the obvious time management plus, is that you can wait for Hobby Lobby to put their scrapbook paper on half price- which seems to happen every few weeks.

On to the cake....I love serving cupcakes because you don't have to take time to cut the cake, no extra plates and forks are needed, and they are easy to make ahead of time and freeze.  You can also spread them out on a table to maximize their use as decor, similar to the penguin scene we did here:

I would probably ice the cupcakes in primary colors (preferably using natural dyes).  You could use Lego candies to top them and intersperse them on a table with Star Wars Lego figures to create a fun scene.  In the picture below, we used a white tablecloth with small boxes underneath in some spots to provide depth.  For Legos, I would probably use a red tablecloth or black.  If you don't have one, I would send an email to friends before buying one.

For favors, I like the light sabers mentioned above.  But if you also like to hand the kids something as they walk out the door, you could easily fill a baggie with a handful or two of bulk Lego pieces with a printed label that says, "May the Force Be With You.  Thanks for sharing Ryan's 7th birthday with him!"  If you decide to do a pinata, you could fill it with the bulk Lego pieces and some candy.

Entertainment for this party is simple enough.  I would use those bulk Lego pieces and put them on a building table.  You can throw your kid's Legos there, too, as they will all stay with you when the kids leave.  The light sabers above will also keep the kids having fun.

For decor, you could cover the walls of the party room with black bulletin board paper, similar to the graffiti wall I mentioned in a previous post.  If you have a disco ball, or can borrow one, and some strobe lights, you could make the room dark (the black paper with help with that) to lend itself to the inter-galactic world feel.  Glow in the dark stars would make this effect even cooler, and could be bought in bulk and used in favor bags or the pinata also.  A soundtrack would be great as background music for the party.  Again, I would think about borrowing the music from the library or a friend if possible.

Have I left anything out?  If you have any ideas for Star Wars Lego parties, please share them here!

Pirate Favors: Captain's Logs and DIY Pirate Patches

So...last week, I found some awesome pirate hats to use for favors.  They were on sale BOGO free, and on clearance to boot, so I got them for about $2.50 apiece (originally $19.99 apiece).  Not bad!  But..since my goal is $3 per favor, I am going to have to get creative with the other things...

To make matters trickier,  I found these adorable notebooks in the clearance bin at Michael's a couple of weeks ago and couldn't resist. I also found pirate foam stickers and used a 50% off coupon to get them for around $3. Those will double as decor and a way to personalize the notebooks.   I can throw the extra ones in the treasure chest as more loot. The books were a dollar apiece...which means...I am already over budget.

But considering how fun those hats are, and how cute these "Captain's Log" notebooks will be, I am ok with it.  The hat will serve as the container for the favors, and the inside of the notebooks will be a great place to stick my signature, "Thanks for coming to Monkey's 6th birthday party" labels.

And besides, 3 dollars was mighty ambitious anyway.  However, since we do tend to have a houseful of kids, I am going to try to make the rest of the favors with stuff we have.  AND to make it FUN, I plan to get the girls involved.  HINT: Since I am planning way ahead, I have plenty of time to get creative and go back to the drawing board without having to give up one some of my ideas or go way over budget.

So, I still need pirate eye patches.  And the ones Monkey picked out were almost $2 apiece.  What's a girl to do?  Google it, of course.  A quick "Make Your Own Pirate Eye Patches" brought up this awesome how-to. To make Monkey fall in love with these more than the ones see saw online, I plan to bring out the glitter paint and gems- what can girl resist that?

A true planner knows that half the fun is in planning all the details, and making these with my girls will be a great lead up to the party.

The moral of the story:  Plan ahead; plan well ahead.  But don't be afraid to veer from your plans when something serendipitous comes along.  And always leave a little wiggle room in the budget for those awesome finds you just can't pass up!

Make Your Own Invitations: Step One- Gather Your Supplies

On my to do list this week, for Monkey's party,  is gathering invite supplies.  Planning in 15 minutes means breaking projects into short to do items.  So...this week, all I have to do is make sure I have everything I need to make treasure map invitations, modeled after the treasure map Sara made for the girls' recent hunt.

When making invitations, I have two goals.  First, I like to make my own.  I like them to be unique and like no others.  Second, I like to use materials I already have around the house.

For my treasure map invites, I need to gather the following:

• white paper
• tea bags (for antiquing the paper)
• thick and thin black sharpies
• lighter for burning the edges
• sealing wax
• A or K seal

I don't have a seal, but I'm pretty sure someone I know does.  Since I have plenty of time to gather (I give myself 2 weeks to make invites, and the seal is the last step), I have time to send out emails to see if anyone already has one I can borrow.  And I know my mom has sealing wax because she's totally into that stuff.

See the beauty of doing things early, and a little at a time.  If all goes well, and I am certain it will, I'll find a seal and my invites with be made with me having to buy a thing!  What's more earth friendly and economical than that?

Now, who has a K or A seal? ;)

Cake Planning: Get the Kids Involved!

For Monkey's pirate party, she and Sarita sat down and sketched out what she wanted. Sarita and I have been plugging cake balls for Monkey's next birthday party in lieu of cake. The size is the perfect serving for a little one, and they require no plates and forks which makes them green. I do, however, find the name unfortunate, so let's call them cake bites.

Monkey wasn't feeling it, and to get her excited about it, Sarita pulled out a piece of paper and started sketching these fun pirate bites. As Sarita incorporated Monkey's designs (like different eye colors) the guest of honor began to get excited. She even pulled out paper and started sketching her own version of a bear cake for Squeaker's upcoming bear hunt party. I mean, she's 5, so her attention wandered a bit.

Of course, we will also make a sheet cake for the adult guests and so we will have leftovers to eat in the middle of the night-admit it, we all have another piece of cake after the guests leave. And some of us store it in the freezer for months and nibble a little here and there. You know who you are...

For the sheet cake, we will most likely use a Wilton cake pan. These are so easy to do. If you can use a star tip, you can make awesome cakes using any of their pans.

To make our tiny little cake bites stand out and command attention, we plan to stick them into a pirate ship. No decision yet as to whether they will go in the sheet cake pirate ship or possibly one made out of cardboard. Cakes are such an easy way to add festivity and to double as decor.

Not only are cake bites the perfect size, they are really easy to make. Check out this blog for an detailed how to.

This is what I mean by planning your parties in 15 minutes. Planning the cake was on my to do list for the week, so we sketched for 15 minutes and had fun with it. That's all it takes. Those little bursts of time and inspiration add up.

Try this at home! Sit down with the guest of honor for your next party and sketch something- decor, food, invites. It makes planning all the more fun!

Pinot and Picasso Parties

These parties are so much fun, and so easy to put together! This was a follow up to our art camp for charity and we all had a blast.

First, you need to find someone to instruct. The instructor can easily find step by step instructions for whatever you choose to paint online. Anyone that will paint for Pinot will do! In this case, we roped Sarita into doing it. We each thanked her by bringing her a bottle of wine to take home.

The set up: Don't have several easels floating around your house? No problem! We made ours out of coolers with hand weights inside:

Throw over some drop cloths, prop up your canvas (we bought them in a 5 pack and used a 50% off coupon at Michaels), add a paper plate for mixing paints, a water cup for cleaning brushes, and a glass of wine. You are ready to paint your masterpiece!

Before the party, Sara painted a sample of what we would be creating, but this isn't necessary. You could just print a copy of your muse off the internet or buy a print.

Everyone took home their masterpiece. I'm sure they will all sell for mucho dinero someday!

More Favor Ideas: Penguin Party

Squeaker was obsessed with penguins (still is) and chose to have a penguin party for her 3^rdbirthday. It was lots of fun, but the favors were my favorite part!

Inside these cute little black bags, decorated with foam stickers by Bridget (thanks Bridget!), were detailed instructions on how to bathe like a penguin:

Included with the instructions were homemade bath salts, penguin shaped soap, organic fish shaped fruit snacks (all consumable/non-clutter, earth friendly/non-toxic, and fun), and these penguin washcloths found at Target (useful- all kids bathe!, earth friendly, and fun). All 3 of my goals were met! The only thing I would do differently next time is to wrap everything inside the washcloths, so I wouldn't have to use paper bags.

This was lots of fun to make and cost only a few dollars per favor. The guests seemed to like it- some of the kids went home and jumped straight into the bath, and every time the kids use their washcloths, they can remember Squeaker's fun party.

Why Party Planning?

I have always loved writing and have dreamed about writing a book for some time. I have tons of ideas floating around in my head but none of them seem to stick and really take flight.

One day a friend suggested I write a book about party planning. I have always loved planning parties (more on that later), and people had forever suggested that I start my own party planning business. That never felt right and I would always reply with something like, “I wouldn’t want to plan for a client because I don’t like to be told “no.” It’s especially annoying to me when someone tells me that making something magical happen is just too hard or time consuming. There’s a billboard in Texas that says if you want something to happen, tell a Texan it can’t be done. That pretty much sums up my feelings about life. Anything can happen. Anything. I’m dead serious.

Anyhoo, back to the why. I started thinking about writing a book about planning your own parties, and actually started writing it. While in the thick of it, another friend suggested that I write a blog. Way back when people started writing blogs, I must admit that I thought the whole thing was a bit narcissistic. But, as a true fan of the time suck, also known as facebook , I have fallen in love with following long lost friends and their daily activities. In such a fast paced world, I love being able to keep up with what's going on with my people- and I especially love being able to do it in my pajamas. So, that's why I decided to start a blog.

But why party planning? The KISS answer is, "because it ROCKS!" The longer version is wound around my mom and my childhood. I had a somewhat disconnected one (didn't we all), and my family life was rocky to say the least. My happiest memories are of special occasions, not the occasions themselves, but the actual planning of them- the delicious anticipation of the culminating event. My single mom was uber busy, but when we were party planning I had her full attention. We would sit and plan and the world was right.

When I started my own family, I of course wanted to make every holiday and every birthday perfect. Which always led to lots of tension in our house- the storm before the calm- and one day my husband pointed out how stressed I got before we had parties. Well, I wasn't going to give up my parties. And since I am a timeline and to do list follower, I made my own party planning timeline, which was based upon flylady's mantra: "You can do anything for 15 minutes." So true, so true. So now I blissfully plan my way to a party extravaganza...15 minutes at a time. And you can too!