Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Dinner Napkin Pillows

First, I'd just like to thank everyone who has been checking up on us and praying for us.  K is feeling much better and we're getting back to normal around here.  Since K took a solid nap today, I figured I'd share what I did with naptime (I'll just shower later, haha!).


I've been wanting to bring in more color to my living room recently.  Over and over, you hear that pillows are the best way to update a space on a budget.  Even so, I don't think that $100+ for new pillows is very budget friendly.  So, when I saw these dinner napkins on clearance at Target, I was thrilled!


So, for less than $6, I was able to make four pillow cases!  I love this color green and I'm a huge fan of the lattice/scroll prints I've been seeing a lot of lately.  There's plenty of tutorials out there, I'm sure, to use dinner napkins to make pillow cases.  Here's how I did it:

First, my least favorite step, was to iron each napkin.  Then, with wrong sides together, I sewed around three sides and about two or three inches in on the fourth side.

Next, I sewed some Velcro into the opening on the fourth side.  Having little ones around, I want to be able to remove these covers and wash them if necessary.

Finally, I stuffed my couch pillows in, closed the Velcro and that was it!  In less than an hour, I have a newly updated living room!

Here are some before and after pictures:




 Looks so much more fun and cheery right? 


These new pillows pull together the green curtains and the green from the Pack 'N Play.  haha!


Even Druha likes the new pillows. :)

BTW, I gave in a while back and signed up for Twitter.  I'm completely hooked now!  Follow me: @melissawhayes

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Horton Party

For a final wrap up of T's birthday party, I thought I'd share how I fit the theme together.  From my last two posts, you probably realize that we created T's party theme around her favorite movie, Horton Hears a Who.  If you haven't seen this animated film of the Dr. Seuss classic brought to life, you need to.  If you watch it about 50-60 times, you might start catching up with us!  Every time we watch it though, I pick up on something new and I crack up laughing.  Vlad gets me every time (the vulture, not the bunny who makes cookies), "Hear come the water slides!".  Hmm, maybe its because his accent reminds me of my mentor...  Anyways, I wanted to plan T's party around this movie without actually making it too cutesy, a touch of sophistication you might say.  OK, maybe not.  Anyways, here are the decor, craft, and food details to show how I brought this movie into our house.

Maybe I'm a romantic, but I still love a paper invite.  They set the tone for any event.  I think traditional mail is a thoughtful way to go.  Really, who doesn't like a nice little envelope amidst the bills and junk mail, all vying for your hard earned cash?!  Anyways, I designed this invitation and hand delivered them to T's friends that were invited.  For efficiency, we FB invited our adult friends at the suggestion of my B.

If you haven't yet, check out this post about the cake we had made for the party!  In addition, I tried my hand at making clover-like cake pops.  If you squint and turn your head sideways, you can see them in the picture above.  I dipped the sticks in green dye left over from our Easter egg dyeing extravaganza, made double chocolate cake pops, dipped in pink melting chocolate and sprinkled pink sugar crystals to give them some texture.  My well thought out plan was harder to execute than I expected, but cake pops are very forgiving in that they always taste delicious!  So, while they may not be as pretty as I had hoped, they tasted great!





For the decor, I embraced the clover idea and made pink and orange poms following this tutorial.  I should say that int he past, I haven't had much luck trying to make these.  The paper rips, it doesn't fluff, etc.  This time, the how-to instructions finally clicked.  In the past, I had been twisting the middle of the folded tissue which made it impossible to separate and fluff.  Duh!  So, after this epiphany, I spent many evening hours (when I wasn't nursing!) folding and fluffing poms of all different sizes.  The larger ones I hung in the windows or from the ceiling fan over the dining room table.  I twisted green pipe cleaners onto the smaller ones and placed them in vases.

For the craft/favor, I had the kids decorate flower pots and plant clover seeds. I purchased these pots from Oriental Trading, along with foam flowers and pipe cleaners.  From Amazon, I got red clover seeds.  I thought this was a great activity for the kids, especially with Earth Day just around the corner!



So, that's it!  Food, decor, and crafts to bring the Horton movie into our home for T's birthday.  I know she had a blast since she burst out crying when her friends left!  So, to round out our afternoon, we watched... you guessed it... Horton!


Monday, April 23, 2012

Miss T's Birthday Party

Miss T's birthday party was a huge success!  We had a good crowd gathered, yummy food, and an amazing cake (more on that in another post!). T had such a great time that she literally cried when her friends left!  Presented below is a photo essay of her birthday.  Check back for posts about decorations, crafts, and that amazing cake!