Birthday Tutorials Part 1

Wings, Teepee, and Chocolate Sprinkly Rods!

2 Wire Hangers

+

1 Pair of White Panty Hose

=

Fairy Wings

For Eliza's Birthday I made her a Teepee. I got the tutorial from Rachel at Smile and Wave.

I did mine a bit different. I got about 3 1/2 yards of two different fabrics.

 The measurements I used (which are by no means perfect, use at your own risk):

Panels (5 total): 4" x 64" x 64" x 30"

Small Front Panel (1): 5" x 15" x 13" x 13"

Door Panels (2): 8" x 19" x 52" x 54"

You can see in the picture below that I cut a length of fabric 1.5" wide by 52" long to use as binding for the front door panels.

I bought 6 1" x 2" x 6' from Lowes, about $1.50 each (estimate).

I also used 15" of 1/4" elastic and then two rolls of ribbon (you definitely use all of it).

Oh and I bought rope from Lowes (only a couple dollars), it happened to be pink and white to match the teepee too!

Eliza loves it, she's at the age where she's really getting into hide and seek so it works out perfectly!

And before I take off, one last thing. These are one of my favorite treats and they turned out to be a lot easier than I expected!

So first off I used 2 packages Snyder Pretzel Rods and 2 packages Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips (the better the quality, the easier to melt).

Then I bought this tub of sprinkles from Wal-Mart (I used pretty much all of it)

And a package of butterfingers

Next I set up my make shift double boiler- Pyrex boil + Pan + 1 inch of boiling water.

When you start melting the chocolate, you want to be careful not to get steam in it and make sure you keep stirring. White chocolate can be difficult sometimes so proceed with caution. Once melted I scooped it all up into this measuring cup to make it easier to cover the pretzels.

There's kind of a trick to evenly coating the pretzel. If you get too much, it'll start to drip so what I did was kind of spin the pretzel rod as I slowly pulled it out of the chocolate. I had a pile of sprinkles on a paper towel which turned out really convenient. When the sprinkles had spread out too much I just had to pick up the corners of the paper towel and I had a perfect little pile again!

Then you just roll the pretzel stick in the sprinkles and there you have it!

I also used Butterfingers to dip them in, you can get quite creative with these and use mini chocolate chips, crushed Oreos, or whatever you like really!

When they are evenly coated with sprinkles you have a couple of options to store them. Lay them out on wax paper, a paper towel or paper plate. Or if you're lucky like me and you happen to have a ice cube tray specially designed for water bottles than you can just stick them right side up in there!

This was the first time anyone had ever used this but hey, it sure did come in handy! When you are finished, pop those suckers in the fridge for about 15 minutes so they can harden and you're done. These were a big hit, they're the perfect combo of sweet and salty.

More tutorials coming soon! Eco-Friendly Goody Bags, Ruffle Streamers and Bottle Name Sign!

Eliza's First Birthday!

We set up:

It's suppose to be a pirate flag, get it?

This is the ridiculous Tinkerbell cake that my mom made.

5 cakes + 6 things of icing = best 1st birthday cake ever

Then everbody arrived and we opened presents (before Eliza got too tired)

And by we I mean Brandon and I

Then we blew out the candle on her gigantic cake.

And Eliza had her first birthday cake.

The rest of the night was spent visiting and I set up a photobooth. I was very pleased with the results;

 Sorry for the uber long post, alot happened I mean it was a pretty big event. It was so hard to filter through all the awesome pictures. It all turned out great though. Well hope ya'll had a good weekend!

Tutorials coming soon!

Romper, Jumpsuit, Pansuit

Whatever you'd like to call them! They're really in right now and here are a few that I'm totally diggin'.

Source

Source

Source.

Source.

Source
 

Source

Source

Sneak Peak

of Eliza's Birthday! I've been working non-stop to get stuff together for Saturday and let me tell you, after Saturday I'm going to have tons of tutorials on all the cool stuff I've been making. Here's a little preview- theme is Tinkerbell/Neverland:

I can't for the life of me choose and stick to one layout! I just feel like they're not right for my blog? If that makes sense... but I really like this one. Not too much but cute. It may be around for a while, we'll see.

50's Picnic and Thrift Store Finds

Brandon and I had our first weekend without Eliza to relax in our house soo we planned ourselves a little picnic 50's style! So we got on our little outfits, packed up our basket, bought some sandwiches from Quiznos, and headed to the nearest park.

(this is my bf, isn't he cute!)

(pardon the cleavage)

So we pick this little spot under a gazebo with a table inside and I started setting up. I put the picnic basket on the table and leaned over to grab the table cloth when I feel a sting on my leg! I leaned back and it was this little bugger!

It's called an Asp or Puss Caterpillar, and happens to be the most toxic caterpillar in the U.S. Dandy, right? Luckily I had Benedryl in the car so I avoided an allergic reaction. 

(30 min. after)

(2 days after, you can see the outline of the caterpillar!)

 It hurt for a couple hours but I was fine for the most part. It did however ruin our picnic. We were forced to commence on our living room floor, it was nice though. AC, no mosquitos, and a comfortable floor.

And our quiznoes was dang good.

While I was gone, I also picked up two awesome treasures from this junky Thrift Store.

The second one I have been looking for and they're like $20, I found this one for $3. The first I didn't need but I have the most perfect spot for it.

Oh and one more thing!

Eliza got her first cold, here's a pic for smiles! Even cute with snot running down her nose!