Frozen Birthday Party

Where to begin with this one...?! This was by far the most extravagant birthday party I have ever had for one of my children. This was my version of a Pinterest-y winter wonderland on a budget, for my daughter's 11th birthday. It's not as nice as some of the elaborate parties I've seen on Pinterest, but hey we can't all be rich ;)

THE most important thing about your child's party, is YOUR CHILD. Having 20 friends over and throwing a block party, like you see in every movie, is not my daughter's personality. Having a couple close bff's over to spend quality time, is more her speed. Once all the grandparents, aunts and uncles arrive you have a house full anyway. 

I compiled all the ideas I had researched and made my game plan. I used blue and white plastic tablecloths to decorate with. My daughter made snowflakes out of coffee filters. I bought any serving dishes I needed at The Dollar Tree or Party City for $1 each. The tumblers were a great clearance find at Target thanks to my friend, Melanie!

Giving all the food Frozen inspired names seems to be a popular Pinterest pin. We incorporated that into our theme as well. Two food items we added were Kristoff's Ice Blocks and Hershey kisses. I did see a bowl of blue jello with an "Olaf floating" on top and I almost did that but instead decided to cut the jello into cubes for ice blocks.

FROZEN Themed Food:
Kristoff's Ice Blocks - Blue jello
Olaf's Snowman Arms - Pretzel sticks
Elsa's Icicles - Rock candy
Sven's Carrots - baby carrots
Elsa's Snow Dip - Ranch dressing
A Kiss to Melt a Frozen Heart - Hershey kisses
Blue Party Punch - courtesy of Comfy in the Kitchen

52 Things I Love About You

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd share this special project I made a couple years ago for my husband for Valentine's Day.

I found the tutorial and idea at Visual Heart. She even offers a template you can download and add your own text. 

To start with you have to come up with 52 reasons you love them! I used some of Visual Heart's ideas, but mostly I added what I felt I needed to say and what was special in our relationship. 

Because I always have 2,873 tabs open in my mind, I have to write it down and organize my thoughts. I'm old school and still put pencil to paper. I used Microsoft Word and created my own template and typed them up. I chose to use rubber cement instead of Mod-Podge and it worked great. I found the binder rings at Michael's.

My husband really loved this gift. It's from the heart. It's made from your hands and not bought in a store with someone else's words.

As I type this..... he leans over and says aww you made one like that for me! Yes dear, this IS yours. Haha....

Canvas Silhouettes

I saw the idea for canvas silhouettes of facial profiles in a brochure from Lowes or Home Depot, can't remember which. I thought what a cool idea this would be to incorporate into the Tween Zebra Room?! My daughter is in love with all animals, esp exotic or wild animals; i.e., lions, tigers, zebras, wolves. 

The brochure had a very brief description of how to make a silhouette using spray paint: spray paint the canvas 1 color, lay down your silhouette and spray over it. Tada! Sounds easy enough right? Not. So, through trial and error I came up with my own way. 

I followed their short, indescriptive directions initially. I had no idea how to make the silhouette stay in place without blowing away with the first spray. So I thought to myself...painters tape. I put a little underneath the silhouette I had cut out and sprayed away. This was my result :(

Plenty of over spray AND you can see were the painters tape had been holding down the ears.

Disappointed, I stopped there and finished up other projects. I told my husband about my dilemma and he suggested weighing the image down AND I figured out how I had so much over spray initially. So here's my step by step instructions on what worked for me.

Zebra Desk Makeover

One more down. One dresser to go. Almost done with the Tween Zebra Room transformation. I will be glad to finally breathe a sigh of relief when it's completed. I plan to have the entire room painted and redecorated by February 13th. Thanks to the help of my husband we will meet that deadline!

This desk makeover turned out fabulous! The look on my daughter's face when she saw the stencil results makes all this hard work, worth it. I can't wait to see her face when the walls are painted and everything is moved back in. Oh I should video that!