{aria artwork}

Step 1: Gather up all those old frames around the house

Step 2: Get any paint you like. I actually used some craft paint and some tempura paint that I already had around the house.

Step 3: Remove all glass and pictures from frames

Step 4: Paint frames. (Could be much faster if using spray paint, but hey, I'm cheap and I like that they're all in the same color family but not the same color. )

Step 5: Gather ribbon from saved ribbon boxes... I know you all have them. Now you should use them. I used gold and blue ribbon to go with my frames.  Tie them in any which way or I nailed them to the back of my frame., or you could staple them. Whatever works, really. I also kind of like the idea of using wire, or chicken wire.

Step 6: Paint or glitter some basic clothespins from the craftstore and voila.

Step 7: Hang frames on wall in any configuration you choose. Inspiration for this project came from here.

Step 8: Hang artwork using clothespins attached to ribbon.

Step 9: Child now feels famous. and fridge is now declutterfied. And yes, that's a word.
 These were all made at the MFAH. It is an unbelievable summer program. We LOVED it. But it can slowly be changed out during the school year as she creates more. Way to feel important right?

{pixar's up}

PIN THE HOUSE ON PARADISE FALLS
I have to admit that my husbands an artist and hand drew it to be the correct size. Then he used his shading and coloring techniques to get this beautiful chart.

I printed 4 of these per sheet in black and white on yellow paper and I think they turned out perfectly.

 

I guess you could say that my husband and I were bored the night before because we thought it'd be fun to paint this on the table cloth. It turned out super cute though. My hand needed to be a little bit smaller. Again, my hubby's pretty good with the art.

The table.

I got these and the house from this website. They have a whole bunch of printables that you can print if you want. I thought these were so adorable. LOVED them. Aria liked playing with them too.  That's why Russell's missing an arm. :)

ELLIE BADGE
Bought some old fashioned root beer. My hubby likes it so that's what we bought. Save the caps. Paint them white. Print out these babies in color and glue them onto the top. Bend the safety pin with pliers so that they reach into the bottle caps. Fill the bottle caps with hot glue. stick in safety pin. Allow to dry. This will take several minutes. Voila. These beauties. Aria wants to wear hers every day.

BADGES
These were the badges. I made the black and white ones so that they could earn them for all the games they played. Much beloved part of the party.

Here they are on an actual person. I used the yellow fabric from my scrap pile. The kids loved them.

other things we played include
MUSICAL BALLOONS - just like musical chairs, but instead of sitting down on a chair you pick up a balloon. Nearly impossible for 4 year olds by the way. The temptation is too strong to resist.
PAINTING PARADISE FALLS
PARTY BALLOON FAVORS - helium filled ballons attached to a chocolate bar with a big thanks from Kevin and the birthday girl. They also got to take home all their badges... including the ellie badge. Before we gave them out, I kept them in this play house we had and then they got to take them home when they left. Perfect kind of party decor. Cleans up itself. :)

We had a lot of fun!
Got this idea from a website for the cupcakes. They turned out way cute. Again. the printable is at the website listed above.

p.s. used this frosting It was delicious.

Ingredients

• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cake flour
• 1/4 cup low-fat milk
• 2 drops any color food coloring (optional)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, shortening, egg whites, salt, vanilla, flour and milk. Beat with an electric mixer, gradually increasing to high speed, until light, fluffy and smooth, about 5 minutes. Stir in desired amount of food coloring.

and this cake recipe...
from our best bites

Colorburst Cupcakes
1 white cake mix
2 eggs
1 C yogurt (any smooth textured fruit flavor is fine!) or sour cream
1/2 C milk
1/3 C vegetable oil
Combine all ingredients until incorporated (about 30 seconds). Scrape sides of bowl and then beat on med-high speed for 2 minutes.
Divide batter according to how many colors you are using. I used 5 colors and it worked out to a little over 1 cup for each color, but each cake brand will be slightly different.
Use food coloring to color batter to desired intensity.
To get a layered stripe like I used, you’ll want to put a spoonful of each color in the cupcake one at a time. The batter is thick, so it won’t spread on it’s own. A great tip is to set out a little bowl of water where you’re working. Dip your finger in the water and then gently spread the batter out. The water will make it so the batter doesn’t stick to your fingers.
Another tip is to use a measuring spoon and some water to measure out how many teaspoons/tablespoons are going to fit in your cupcake. Then divide that by how many colors you have so you know how much of each color to use for each cupcake. For my 5 colors, it worked out perfectly with 2 t of each color in each cupcake. So I put in 2 t of blue in the bottom of each cupcake and spread it out with my finger. Then I put in 2 t of green on top of that, then yellow, etc.
Bake them according to the package directions, until a toothpick comes out dry.

I did not add food coloring for these ones, although I have before.

{casper}

She was pretty friendly just like casper but also like to scare people... as you can see from the pictures.

Made this... all for $1. Yep! Love it. Turned out way better than I thought. I hoped to post it on a linky list over at my fabulous SIL's blog.

To make this costume basically cut a bunch of 3in. by 36 in. strips of tulle.  The less perfectly straight the better. Gives it kind of a creepy feeling.

 Tie it onto a ribbon or another piece of tulle like you would if you were making a tutu. Than randomly tie other strips of tulle onto the rest of the body ... drape some over the head... kinda hard to explain but try to recreate.... this.

 Love this phrase from "How to Train your Dragon"! :) If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. :) Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween! Loves

{candy pumpkins}

This was an excellent activity for Toddlers. Similar to gingerbread houses at Christmas time. But with a fun new twist on it. We used this recipe for cement frosting:

2 egg whites
1/2 t. cream of tartar
2 c. powdered sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff, then add powdered sugar and mix. If not using immediately, cover.

 happy?

 This one is mine...

 

guilty? I think so.

Worked like a charm.

{my sleeping beauty}

I made this dress for my sleeping beauty for her birthday.

She loves it!

{turkey cupcakes}

I also realize that it's after Thanksgiving, but Aria had a ton of fun making these cupcakes with Grandma! What a perfect treat to spend time with Grandma doing. Aria loved it! Instructions can be found here.

{halloween craft}

We had so much fun making these. Toddlers are able to participate significantly. Instructions can be found here. Can also be done for other holidays... :)

{butterfly costume}

Used this Martha Stewart Tutorial... kind of.

I used sewed together pieces of tulle. Trimmed it with ribbon and then used lace that I had around the house to make the spots on the wings.

For the headband, I bought a dollar store headband that originally had little pumpkin heads on the ends. I took those off. Hooked Tulle poof balls... using this tutorial on the ends. Wrapped the wire in embroidery thread and wrapped the headband in ribbon. Love it. So does Aria. See this post for pictures of her.

Happy Halloween... little butterfly

Had a little photoshoot with my favorite subject.

She was observing that flower had smaller individual flowers in this picture.

Just an example that you SHOULD NEVER say cheese. She stood up there her self and volunteered the 'Cheese' herself and this is what I got...

After just laughing with her... I get a whole bunch like this. Notice the difference in the 'realness'? Don't say cheese... just be a tease...

There are few more images here.

a mommy moment

Today, about 2:00 I say
'Aria, are you about ready for your nap?'

She responds with her usual... '..no!...'
I usually have to warm her up to the idea of taking a nap, so I ask her the same question several times before I actually carry it out.

Not today... a few minutes later, I hear her yelling something from her bedroom.
I go in to check on her and she's closed the door to her bedroom, climbed into her crib, has her binky in her mouth and looks at me and says 'take a nap!'
This surprised me on two levels. She's never climbed into her crib before. and two, she doesn't willingly go down for a nap very often.
I love my baby!

Also a few weeks ago when we were getting ready for church, this is what she did with her dollies. I was determined that she not have an attached bear/doll or blanket.... So she compensated by being attached to all bears/dolls and blankets. She just loves to play and sleep with them.Isn't her dress beautiful? I love the colors, it reminds me of my Grandma Swallow. She got this dress from her Indian Friend Dhaya for her birthday. She loves it.

{my little doll}

Seriously - it's so hard to photograph your own child without someone else there helping you. Aria and I had so much fun though. Check out my other blog for what made this outing exciting on a whole other level.




Hat is an AWESOME birthday gift from Aunt Tabi. Her Aunt Tabi knows her too well. Great job girl! She loves it!


I would love any criticism or praise for these photos. I'm trying to improve as a photographer, so let me know if there are any errors you see.

{felt fruit}

I wanted to make Aria some play food... I'm still working on some more... but this is what I could get done in time for her birthday. I made four fruits.. The first one was a watermelon The hardest thing was doing it without a pattern... They're not perfect, but I like them.
I used whole sheets of felt to give it a little more stability... you can just cut strips and zig zag those together or use one of the other stitches I've talked about before. I just used a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine.
I sewed little black buttons on for the seeds.
Most websites that had any tutorials on this said to stuff it with filling from craft store. I just stuffed it with my felt scraps. You stuff it much the same way you would finish a pillow or a quilt binding.
I consulted this tutorial when making my banana, but used my own pattern. I actually got out a real banana to make sure it would work. This is Aria's favorite. It's the most interactive. She peels it and tries to eat it, almost every time she sees it.
I also made a grapefruit and a carrot... sorry I forgot to take pictures but you get the idea. It was so funny, aria is so used to baby carrots that when she saw the green on the end of the carrot she had no idea what it was.

{disneyland photo op.}

I'm pretty proud of these edits. I think they turned out awesome.

I recently discovered a new way of casting a haze on a photo that already looks hazy. This way it looks warmer and more intentional. You do a color fill layer, change the layer mode to 'color', then adjust the opacity to your liking.The optimum would be to not have to crop out part of the picture. Someday I'll get a nice camera and be able to focus on composition, but for now... I lose some quality because I crop down the images. Note: If you can: work on this now.
I love my little girl!