October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween.  It's a fun holiday to dress up, go outside the box, and be a kid again.  
We have trunk or treat every year at our church.  Russel and I are more often than not the only adults dressed up but the kids enjoy it and so do we.  
A few years ago Russel convinced me to get him a gorilla costume.  I decided if we were going to get one we would get a "good" one not a cheap fall apart one but with the stipulation that it needed to be worn more than once.  Well - this gorilla has been worn and worn and worn again.  Below are some pictures from Halloween's for us through the years. 
 If there is one thing we do together, it's that we always have fun.  
I love these pictures because each one makes me remember something about each year.  Now would that have happened had we not dressed up and gone "outside our boxes"?
The year we were....
little red riding and the big bad wolf - Russel had just had knee surgery
little bo peep and mustache man - we had spent time at Chris' making way for his new cabin
I was the gorilla with the tutu - my friend Denise was "guiding" me walking around down town during the day and walked us out into the middle of on coming traffic (no one was hurt)
cowboy and milk maid - I saw the biggest grin ever on our friend Morris' face
gorilla and lady from king kong - I ripped the back of my dress out putting it on 

Yes - we may technically be "too old" for Halloween but we're still young at heart.  Are you?

Happy Halloween!


October 7, 2013

Baby Girl Owl Shower

So you've seen the baby boy shower that I attended for my friend Allison. It was beautiful and only got me more excited about  the baby girl shower for my friend Katie.  
Katie's only request was that I use this super cute pink and green invite she found online at Cutie Patootie Creations.(click the link to see the invite - I didn't take a picture!) 
I loved the invite too so I decided to create her shower around the invitation theme.  Who (pun intended) doesn't like some sweet pink and green owls?  And who doesn't go to Pinterest for all sorts of creation imagination!!!!
Here's the lovely mommy to be Katie.  She's such a sweet friend and I was so excited, along with a couple of other college friends, to be able to give her a shower to welcome baby Raylyn to this world. 
 So here' the shower for that little sweetie to be!

The decorations:

Outside to direct everyone to the correct house was our owl baby banner - 
It didn't last long after the shower started as it really started showering after the party started. 
Paper + Rain doesn't blend so well.  

For the hearth - A banner made from my Cricut and tied together with tulle and a laundry line with owls, onesies & bibs that I made for baby Raylyn.
All the ruffles are a result of me learning online how to make a ruffle.  I had no idea all I had to do was turn my thread tension up.  There is a GREAT tutorial at Super Mommy or Not.
 It was so easy.  The monster bib is from  Stubbornly Crafty which I frequent often for her tutorials and free patterns. 
Ladies - that is how I learned to sew - from the free patterns online.  These ladies are my sewing heros!

On to the party table - a green mason jar with pink and green daisies, bingo gifts, wishes for baby cards, bingo cards and an instruction sheet with owls.  

I made the Bingo Cards and Wishes for Baby in Microsoft Word and then converted them to PDF's.  I took them on my flash drive over to Office Depot and had them printed on a card stock.  Three of the wishes for baby were on each sheet and two bingos on each sheet.  I cut them at home with my paper cutter (they charge $.07 a cut - so I did it myself).  This made the bingo cards about $.30 each and the wishes for baby about $.20 each.  I uploaded all these pdf's to an earlier blog entry.  This way you can use them too. 

 

 All the owls were all cut on my Cricut using the Create a Critter cartridge (actually my friend Stacy's cartridge - then I went out and bought my own).  
The mason jars (with handle already attached) came from Old Time Pottery and they had several different colors.  
The daisies came from Joann's.  I used some in jars and the remaining ones we pulled from the stems and used as table decor (you'll see that further down). 

We also had a late night diaper table.
  We used Sharpies to write on the diapers.  I didn't realize how hard diapers were to write on.  I hope that Katie and Chris get a good laugh during those late night diaper changes.  
The metal owl on this table came from Old Time Pottery.  The fabric owl is one that I have made.  I love sewing these little owls.  It was one of my first sewing projects and still remains a favorite. 

The Food and Drinks
We kept it simple - tea, water, pink lemonade, cupcakes, chocolate dipped preztels & oreos, sausage balls, little wienies, & pasta salad - but delicious. 
The yummy cupcakes came from The Sweet Stash and The Cupcake Collection which are both in downtown Nashville and have phenomenal cupcakes.  The Sweet Stash's almond wedding cake are my all time favorite.  Teri and I made the rest of the food and it was tasty even if I say so myself.  

We had water, pink lemonade, and sweet tea out of pint mason jars.  My hubby drilled holes in the lids so that we could thread our drink straws in and not worry about knocking them over.  Bright green tags let us know who's drink was who's.  

The Photo Booth
Out on the back porch we set up a photo booth.  It's pretty easy to do with a few cut out props on bbq skewers, a cheap flat grey sheet from Walmart, my camera on a tripod and a camera remote.

We had too much fun.   

The Take Homes

I wanted everyone to have something to remember their time celebrating baby Raylyn so I thinned my hens and chicks to plant these baby pots of hens and chicks for everyone to take home.  
I hope that they grow well.

Thanks to my sweet friends Teri and Kristie for making this shower one that Katie will remember.  
They made food, took pictures, moved gifts, motivated game plan...and had crazy fun with me in the photo booth.  
Other than the photo booth pictures Kristie took all these wonderful pictures to show what fun we had.  

  
Last plug (but definitely not least)...that adorable chalk board that you keep seeing in all these pictures came from my friend Cari Deer Owl Designs.  I sent her a copy of the invitation and told her I needed a chalk board.  She had this made up in no time flat and it was perfect. 

Hope that you thought Katie's Owl Shower was a Hoot.  We did!


Stacey