Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Pillows - Oh! the pillows!

My pillows are in need of a sprucing!  Here are a few tutorials I may try.  Hopefully, I can recreate their cuteness! 
Three Sisterz rock the rosettes here.

Shelley @ House of Smith's shares the tute for this adorable sash pillow here.

The Pleated Poppy made these cuties!  I LOVE the biggest in the back!

Go here to the DIYdish for these beauts!

LOVE this for the playroom!  Not sure where it came from...anyone know?  It may be something I saw on Etsy that I thought I could recreate???

 This one is also cute for the playroom!  Check out Linda's post here.

I have some serious sewing to do!  Hopefully, my house will look completely redecorated by the time I am finished with my throw pillows...

French Bee Lamp

How seriously cute is this lamp?  I {LOVE} it!  Becca at From Gardners to Bergers has some serious talent!  I think it looks straight out of a Ballard Design catalog.  Kudos, Becca!

Look Whooo's Two! Owl Party

I posted before about the owl themed party I had planned for my daughter's (aka Chicken) 2nd birthday party.  In case you missed the pics of the invitations I made, here are a few:
   The variations before the "innards" were added


 
We held her party at our house.  I don't know about you, but I am just not fond of the idea of those generic bouncy house or Chuck-E-Cheese parties.  I know our time will come and I will be forced to conform, but for now, I can do the parties the way I want!  
{Cause after all...it is all about me, right?  Hehe!  Kidding!}
 The owl cake was made by a friend & coworker of my husband.  He is VERY talented, does it all on the side and never charges us!  {LOVE} him!
 Tried to gather most of the kids around the table while we sang...some were still too shy to be away from Mom
 My baby girl can blow her candles out all by herself now!  She's such a big girl!
We had some fun water activities out back for the kids.  A water table, silly sprinkler & 3 "bird baths"
It's June in Texas - nuff said!



 The birthday Chicken!
Threw this picture in so you could see Chicken's dress better.  I love, love, love it!  Ordered it on Etsy from a seller who has sadly closed her shop  :(


Pin-the-Beak-On-the-Owl game
Super easy craft made with felt & spray adhesive

The favor table

Here's the skinny: I used a couple of pieces of fabric as table cloths and then added other festive elements, including a tin turquoise pitcher (Garden Ridge) with sticks from my trees.  I made the little hanging owls from instructions found here.  The polka dot balloons, turquoise & orange ribbon around the containers & orange striped paper straws (not pictured) are all from The Sugar Diva.  She has super cute stuff & super fast shipping!  We had an ever-so-popular candy buffet with a variety of turquoise & orange candies.  Guests got a small orange bag (from Oriental Trading) with a tiny tag that said Thanks for coming to my party!  It was a HOOT!
Here is what the guests had to choose from:
Peach-O's bought in bulk at Walmart
Giant Swirly Pops - $1 ea at Family Dollar
Sixlets - $5.99/bag for the decorator bags at Party City
Gummi Bears - $1/bag (used about 5) from Family Dollar
Gumballs - $7.99/jar (used 2) at Home Goods.  These were an after-thought & I probably could have found them cheaper if I had looked...

The kids also got 2 owl finger puppets from Oriental Trading ($7 for 24 puppets) and a pinwheel ($1 ea from Target). 
We had owl masks ($.50 at Michael's) lying around so that people could take pictures...here is the Chicken with one

Oddly, I didn't get a picture of the food table...it was nothing special, just the usual suspects, but with an orange theme.  Think Cheetos (the Chicken's fav), Buffalo Chicken Dip, Queso...ok, so that's sort of yellow, but it's close...fruit (including oranges) & a Chick-fil-a nugget tray (easy for Mom & another of the Chicken's favorites).
 
We had such a good time with wonderful family & friends!  On to planning the next party for the Boogies' 4th birthday - a dinosaur theme - he's obsessed!  If you have any tips for that, hollar!  :)

Thursday, June 2, 2011

WHOO'S Up for an Owl Party?

Long time no post, eh?  Geesh, I know.  I'll get better now that school is OUT!  Holla! 

So my daughter's turning 2 in two weeks and the theme this year will be owls.  Owls are very "in" right now, but there aren't that many cute party invites or decorations out there.  There are loads of plain old plug & play PS or Illustrator invites out there and many are cute, but they just aren't what I was looking for.  So I made my own!   
 Here they are without any "guts."

 Here's a close up of the belly with the party info

And a few with wings closed.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself!  And they were SO much fun to make!  I have quite a few other things on my list of things to make for the party:
* Felt Pin-the-Beak-On-the-Owl game
* Happy Birthday banner
* These felt owls to hang around the cake table
* More of the above owls for various things like food labels on the food table, etc

Goodness, I gotta get busy!   

Friday, January 7, 2011

Halloween stuff? Uh, it's January!

While perusing Linda @ Craftaholics Anonymous' recent blog tutorial on a Valentine's pom pom wreath (uber cute, btw!), I came across this:

How cute is that? Here is the tutorial she was so gracious to make!

She also did this one that I found long ago and just never posted on:

Cute! I should get started now since I never finish things in time.....

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Know Your Camera

Here are some tutorials I have found for learning how to operate a DSLR camera:

Kevin & Amanda - she is a gold mine of info!

Ken Rockwell - this link is for MY camera, but he has user guide & general photography info for all types of cameras

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Photography Tutorials - Editing

I am posting about these so I don't lose the tutorials and can try them later. I will add to them as I find more....right now I am waiting on my download USB cord to arrive so I can't yet post any of my pics.

All found on Morgan Kervin Photography:
Clipping Masks & Applying Texture
Editing Eyes
EyeLove
Eye Sparkle

All are for photo editing. Happy tinkering!