For Emily's pajama-themed party, I wanted to make some unique invitations. I searched all over for cute ideas, but came up with nothing. Finally, I ran across Melissa's slumber party invitations, and I was inspired! I did mine a little differently (because I am NOT the seamstress Melissa is!). I wanted to incorporate bunnies, because Emily sleeps with a bunny every night (Bunny is really a part of our family - you will see more of Bunny in a future post!), so here's what I came up with:
Party details are inside:
Here they are all packaged up, and ready to be delivered!
Our invitations got rave reviews! I thought they were really sweet, and most importantly, Emily LOVED them! I'm working on getting a full party post ready - there are so many pictures to go through, but I can't wait to share!!!
I've been wanting to make a canvas picture for Emily's room for a long time, but I'm definitely NOT an artist when it comes to painting. I ran across a tutorial on Martha's website for making collages, and I figured I could tweak it for Emily's room. It just so happened that Emily's upcoming birthday party was going to be a pajama party theme, and I thought this little "night owl" canvas could do double duty as a part of the birthday decor.
This was such an easy project. I started by painting my canvas pink. It took a bunch of coats because I was painting over an old painting that was on there. Next, I gathered my scrapbook papers, and started cutting out my owl and tree shapes. I used a large scallop punch to make the leaves for the tree, and a small scallop punch for the owls' eyes. I hand drew their eyelashes (as if you couldn't tell! Ha!) and used some pink ink to distress the edges. Once I had laid everything out, I started gluing my paper onto the canvas using Mod Podge. I used my mom's Cricut to do the letters. The last thing I added were some cute yo-yos to dress up the owls' ears. Finally, I wrapped some cute ricrac around the edges. Voila - cute, cheap wall art!!!
This ended up being the perfect decoration for Emily's party! Party pictures coming very soon!
Editing: I am updating this post to enter it into the Pillow Challenge at CSI =)
What do you get when you combine some yummy new fabric, a few fun fabric flowers, and a doting grandma who is willing to help a {cough} less than stellar seamstress? This sweet pillow, perfect for Emily's pajama party themed 7th birthday party! All we did was take two fat quarters of coordinating fabric, sew them together (inside out), turn the pillow right side out, iron the seams so they were straight, and then stuff the pillow. The large fabric flowers are simply fabric strips sewn with a gathering stitch (one is frayed on the edges, the other is more finished looking) and topped with covered buttons. The rolled fabric rosettes were just glued and rolled (there are tons of tutorials out there, so unless anyone needs to know, I won't share how I did those here). After we were done, we had the cutest little pillow, if I do say so myself! Bebe sewed more than half of it, but I probably sewed two sides of the pillow - I'm so proud - haha!!!
Here's a preview of the pillow on our party table, which was all decked out to look like a bed. Full party details coming soon. It was so much fun!
My brother Brice is amazingly creative. He is a graphic designer, an incredible artist, a wonderful photographer, and lately he has been doing some unbelievable videography for weddings. You always see him videoing (is that a word?) things, but he always does it so inobtrusively that you hardly notice he's around when he's doing it. I knew he was taking some video a few weeks ago when my family went to my parents' lake house to celebrate the 4th of July. It was just an ordinary day - fun, but filled with the usual busy-ness of life. Refilling sippy cups, breaking up fights, changing diapers, putting band-aids on scrapes and soothing feelings hurt by siblings. The day was fun for me, but nothing extraordinary.
Until.
Tonight, I saw this video that my brother created, and within minutes I felt tears stinging my eyes. He has the gift of observing the little things that so many of us miss - and capturing them in a way that takes your breath away. Watching my girls' faces, seeing little Carter drink out of his sippy cup and fall down, seeing Emily helping Bapop pick tomatoes and blackberries - all of these things are so easy to miss as I rush through each day, trying to meet the needs of all of our kids. This three minute video is a gift that makes time stand still for just a moment for me - and it's something that I can't find words to thank Brice for. If you watch it, I hope you will get a little glimpse of what it's like to be at my parents' lake house. Turn up your volume, because the music is absolutely beautiful, and adds such depth to the video. We have so many wonderful memories at my parents' lake house, and now they have been captured by the amazing eye of my sweet brother. Thank you Brice - I am amazed by your talent and creativity. I love you. And thank you God for the gift of an ordinary day.
