You know me, when somebody says party my brain goes into overdrive!!   When planning a party I always think about a theme first.  Whether that theme is a color palette or a style doesn’t matter….just something that makes bringing everything else together easier.  I immediately thought of a vintage baby boy theme since I have some cool vintage glass plates and cups that I have been DYING to have an excuse to use, so this was perfect!   You can find them pretty easily at most antique stores.

I found this cute little shop online, Pretty Little Studio, that makes the most adorable vintage baby flashcards and all kinds of fun stuff.  I had her custom make some invitations for me and I think they turned out SO cute!!

We served simple breakfast foods that were yummy…a parfait bar with yogurt, fresh berries and granola, bite sized cinnamon rolls and other pastries, and a yummy drink.  To go along with the theme I made a little label for each food item

I just made them in photoshop and printed them out on cute scrapbook paper.  I also made one for the gift table:

Now my favorite part…the favors!!   John thinks I’m crazy because I spend hours making things like this, but this is honestly the most fun part for me.   These are very easy and inexpensive to make, but they are time consuming.  If you have the time and love to be crafty then these are perfect for you!

to make the giant cookies find the recipe here

for the bags you will need:

a roll of parchment paper

thread

a sewing machine

ribbon

a hole punch

pinking shears

any deocrations you want for the bags

Cut parchment paper into 6.5×14″ strips.  fold in half and stitch the sides up using a colorful thread and a zig-zag stitch.   trim off the excess on the sides with the pinking shears.  slip a cookie into the pouch.  fold the top of the bag over and punch two holes at the top about an inch apart.  feed the ribbon through the holes and tie into a bow on the front sideof your bag.  decorate as you like.

like I said, pretty easy, just time consuming but I think the result is WELL worth it!

It’s easy to do this for any shower boy or girl, or even if you don’t know what it is just make a mix of boy and girl vintage tags!   It would also be cute for a little girl’s birthday party if you played some vintage games and added a few more decorations and changed the food a bit!

Hopefully that gets your creative juices flowing for your next party!

Have a great day!
-t

I made this yesterday for a class party at Andy’s school and it was a hit.  SO yummy.  I think it’s even better today than it was warm yesterday!  It’s easy and tastes as good as it looks!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened

Directions

The batter is REALLY thick so don’t be surprised when you can’t pour it into the pan.  You will have to scoop it in and spread it around.

Have a great day!

-t

{Picture Perfect} Class Info and Registration

And, just because I have a hard time posting without a picture, I thought I’d share one of our favorite recipes.  If you don’t have Tyler’s Ultimate Cookbook, I HIGHLY recommend it.  I make more stuff out of that book than probably any other and my kids scarf it down!!  Here’s one of our favorites that I made last night…bon apetite!

Tyler’s Ultimate Rustic Rigatoni, Sausage and Eggplant (we don’t like eggplant so I omit it!)

Ingredients

• Kosher Salt
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 links fennel pork sausage (about 3/4 pound)
• 1 large eggplant (about 1 1/2 pounds), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 large can (28 ounces) peeled whole tomatoes, preferably San Marzano
• Leaves from 1 small bunch basil
• 1 pound rigatoni
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

Yum!!  Have a great day!
-t

Recipe:

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium heat, saute the chicken in the oil for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin and mix well. Then add the broth, corn, onion, chili powder, lemon juice and salsa. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Break up some tortilla chips into individual bowls and pour soup over chips. Top with the Monterey Jack cheese.

I serve mine with quesadillas too.  A little twist on the tomato soup and grilled cheese.   The kids gobble this stuff up! 

You can have this at you house tonight in about 30 minutes…so easy and SO good!!

Enjoy!!
-t

and extra Merry Christmas to:

Winner of Pink Peppermint Design Giveaway: Melissa

Winner of the Red Possum Capelet Giveaway: Sandi

Winner of the Flora Bond Giveaway: Cindy Barriga

and….

the winner of the big kahuna $200 worth of free tuition to {Picture Perfect}……………………………

The Monkey’s Mama!!!!!

Congrats to all!!!  Contact me with your info so I can get these things out to you!

With the illness that hit me hard for the first two weeks of the year, I ended up throwing cards out the window this year.  So, if you didn’t get one from me, don’t feel bad…no one did!  

I wanted to share what I had designed here…sort of an e-card for all of you, my online family.     I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Thank you for your love and support.  Your comments and emails truly bring a smile to my face.  Thank you for spending a little piece of your day with me each day.    I’m signing off for a little bit to spend some time with my family, but I’ll pop in every now and then just cause I’ll miss you all!   I’ll be back soon with lots of great things in store for the new year. 

until then….

Merry Christmas

-t

I LOVE the tee pees.  How cute would that be at each place setting on the kids table??  Ice Cream cones turned upside down and frosted with royal icing and other decor –SO cute!!

A simple styrofoam ball cut in half, painted brown and stuck with colorful pens turns into a super cute and crafty turkey.

Let your kids imaginations run wild with a new spin on a “turkey sandwich”.  Adding more veggies is NEVER a bad idea, right?

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Indian Corn napkin rings.  Cut a piece of felt to wrap around a napkin, line popsicle sticks up and stick them to the felt and line them with the buttons. 

Take Rice Crispy treats to the next level.  Make them with a mix of cereals and dried fruits instead.  Shape them around a popsicle stick and cut pieces of fruit roll ups to stick around the outside like the wrapping for an ear of corn. 

Fudge Stripe cookies and chocolate covered marshmellows are transformed into pilgrim hat cookies in a matter of minutes.

Hope these cute and easy ideas inspire you to have a little fun this month!!!

And now a drumroll please…Mr. Random Number Gererator has picked comment #18 Karen Kirshon as the winner of the Bobbity Boo skirt.  Email me and let me know which skirt you would like and I’ll let Bobbi know!   Congrats!!

Stay tuned for another great giveaway on Friday!

Have a great day!

-t

I thought I’d share it now since it was finally a little cool and overcast today…a good soup making day!   It also makes a fun halloween dinner.  Simply add some fresh mozarella balls (and if you want to get REALLY creative, hollow out the mozarella balls and add a slice of green olive with pimento) then call it eyeball soup.  Serve it with a side of grilled cheese SAND WITCHES and you’re all set!   A big loaf of crusty italian bread cut in thick slices makes for the best sandwiches!!

I’ve had several requests for the recipe so without any further ado…

 4 TBS Olive Oil

3 Lbs Mini Carrots

2 Large Onions, chopped

2 28oz Cans of Whole Peeled Tomatoes

32oz of Chicken Stock

2 TBS dried Basil

1 Cup Heavy Cream

In a large stockpot sautee the olive oil, carrots and onions at medium heat.

Add the basil, salt, pepper and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.

Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for 45 minutes.

Puree the soup with a hand blender while adding the cream.

Easy enough, eh?

Enjoy!   Have a great day!

-t

How cute is that armchair simply covered with a sheet with some felt eyes and a mouth attached??  I LOVE no sew projects that use things you alreadyhave around the house ina creative way!!  And the best part is there is nothing extra to store once it’s over!  Just put the sheet back in the linen closet and throw the felt peices away…**Idea**…how cute would it be to actually MAKE some sheets like this though and put them on your kids bed!!  So easy to make a mouth and some eyes and stitch them on.  The kids would LOVE it!

I love these treat cones for any holiday…here is a cute halloween version from Country Living Mag.

YOU WILL NEED
-11″ x 14″ card stock
-1 yard each cream and black bookbinding or construction paper
-1 yard each assorted ribbons
-spray glue
-1/4″ hole punch
-stapler
-scissors and pinking shears

Cut 10″ squares of card stock and black and cream Japanese bookbinding paper (source: talasonline.com) or construction paper. Adhere the black paper to the card stock with spray glue. Wind black square into a cone and staple closed. Cut across top to even out the opening.

I LOVE these little frankenstiens and the mummy cupcakes.  The best part is you DON’T have to be a cake decorating genius to do it!  That is NOT one of my talents!!  

Witch-on-a-stick how to:

1. Cut off the tops of pretzel rods and set aside.
2. Melt one cup of white chocolate chips, 1 Tbs shortening and a few drops of green gel food coloring and stir until smooth.
3. Dip the cut end of the pretzels into the chocolate, covering the top 2 inches. Place the sticks on wax paper and sprinkles the sides of each with coconut  flakes to form hair.
4. Top each with a Hershey’s Kiss and refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened. Draw on eyes, nose and mouth with black decorating icing (available in tubes) and fisih by covering the Kiss too with black or purple. Yum!

Frankentreats:

1. Start wtih a packaged (or homemade) Rice Krispies Treat, and push each one into a wooken skewer; set aside.
2. Melt one cup of white-chocolate chips and one Tbs shortening; stir in green or neon-green gel food coloring (colored melting chocolate is available at most craft stores).
3. Spoon melted chocolate over all sides of the treats or brush them with a silicone brush then place them on wax paper, upright, to dry.
4. Embellish them with M&M eyes and ears, gummy worm mouths, Jujubes neck bolts and then refrigerate them until the chocolate hardens.
5. Top them off by drawing on hair with black icing and doting the eyes.
6. Finally remove the skewers and serve!

Mummy Cupcakes:

      1. Bake regular old cupcakes out of a box…homemade if you wish, but I’m trying to make it easy folks!!

      2. Dot icing on backs of 2 skittles for eyes and place on cupcake.

      3. use a decorating tip that will give you straight flat lines (available at michaels for about $1, make sure you get a coupler too, also about $1) make straightlines of icing all over the cupcake, overlapping them and just letting the skittles peek out of the “wrapping.”  Eat and enjoy!

And finally one of my favorites…

 Sorry for the fuzzy pictures…I found this on the internet and the picture quality is TERRIBLE!!   I LOVE white pumpkins!!  Unfortunately they are usually the most expensive…so why not paint a few??   A cheap bottle of white acrylic paint and you’ve got yourself a great set of white pumpkins!!  Take them a step further and once the white paint dries, have a little fun with some black paint.  I LOVE the spiderweb and zebra stripe idea!!   And you know I’m loving the polka dots…I LOVE anything with polka dots!!

Hope those ideas help to bring a little extra fun to your holiday!

Have a great day!
-t

But, I can still share some fun ideas that I find for parties here, right???   Ok, warning, this is a little gross looking but I thougt it was an AWESOME idea for a little snack at your next party.  I found it months agoand have been waiting for the perfect moment to share, i thought it was that funny…

Doesn’t that just look wrong??!!   LOVE IT!!  Simply take mini marshmellows on the end of white sucker sticks and dip thm in caramel or peanut butter.  Yum.

I thought this was a fun idea over at Country Living Magazine (my FAVORITE mag!!)  This is a total DIY project. 

To make:

1. Print a black and white copy of a portrait on printer paper and cut out.  (If you don’t want to use your own portraits I like to find old pictures on flickr, just search for antique or old portraits)

2. TO “age” the picture, brush it lightly with a sponge dipped in a solution of a few drops of black acrylic craft paint and water.  Let the paper dry.

3. Cut a piece of cardstock the same size of the photo and glue to the back of the photo to make it a little more sturdy.

4.With an X-Acto knife cut out the eyes of the picture’s subjects piercing through the cardstock and creating holes about 1/4 inch in diameter.

5. Remove the glass from your frames and stick the pictures in there.

6.Insert mini red LED chistmas lights through the back of the eyeholes.  It works best to group these frames like in the picture, since you’re dealing with a strand of 25feet of lights!  Then you can use more of the lights.  Replace the frame’s backing securing with tape if necessary to help hold the lights in place.  Drape with cobwebs and you’re done!   You can add paper fangs to a few of the pictures if you want to for a little extra fun!

Hope this gets you in the halloween spirit!!  There are many more fun ideas to share, but I have to pace myself!!   I LOVE halloween!!!!

Have a great day!

-t

pretty simple.  some apples sliced into discs, a little peanut butter, dried cranberries or raisins for a topping and coconut for cheese (i used the pre-shredded this time because I was too lazy to shred my own fresh coconut…so not quite as healthy!)

she gobbled up a whole apple in no time. 

and she had fun doing it!!

another idea I thought was cute that I found in case you are hunting for back to school snacks…

yogurt sundaes (plain yogurt flavored with honey topped with chopped fruit and granola)

have a great day!

-t