Car's themed 3rd Birthday

If you know my children, then you know that my son hunter has a obsession with cars and trucks. He has quite the collection too! Even though he has hundreds of little cars and trucks, when he is asked what he wants for his birthday or Christmas his answer is always one of three things. 1: A car, 2: a truck or 3: lightning McQueen and mater.

When we go shopping he always picks a little hot wheel car, or lately he loves the teeny tiny Disney cars. I guess it's kinda like a woman and her shoes or purses, you just can't have too many!

So when his birthday was quickly approaching I asked him what kind of party he wanted, I shouldn't have even had to ask because of course it had to be a cars themed party! Not just any cars either, it had to be lightning McQueen and mater!

Now this year my budget was cut way back, so I had about $100 to do his whole party. We had a afternoon party at our house, mostly family. I served a few snacks and the cousins played. All and all it was a great party, the kids had fun, and the birthday boy was happy! It turned out pretty cute too!


This is the snack table. The backdrop is a fence panel we leave up in our toy room...i have a plan to attach it to the wall for a neat idea for a wall accent, I am going to hang frames on it. This was not intentional, but we had it up after a craft party I had when I was selling my wreaths and everyone thought I should leave it up. Now I've grown attached, and its nice for other parties as a backdrop. So its staying!

The black fabric I saved from a wedding shower I hosted a couple years ago, I've used it for three wedding showers, a baby shower and now a birthday party. Best $10 I've spent! It sure does beat buying a paper cloth for every party, and its so much prettier!

I made the flag banner with intention to put his name on it. I didn't have time to get it done though because it was a very last minute decision to make it. I have it hanging in his bedroom now and plan on adding his name to it. Yes, of course his bedroom is decorated in a cars theme. So I was happy to do his party in the same theme, that way I can re-use the decor in his bedroom! One thing I have learned over the past few years is to plan party themes with colors in mind that match my house. so then after the party I can re-use the decor in my house. This saves me money(because I can re-use the decor for other parties or year after year) and also gives me a great excuse to decorate my house!

 The signs I found at hobby lobby half off, and I bought them for his bedroom. They cost me about $15 for all three. The checkered fabric I'm using to make two window valances in his bedroom. I used my 40% off coupon and snagged 2 yard for around $6!

Now on to the snacks...
I wanted to serve popcorn, because its cheap, easy to make, and the kids love it! I made these cute popcorn cones out of scrapbook paper and stickers, also found half off at hobby lobby. It cost about $1.50 to make all of them 

I also make chocolate covered pretzel sticks, or rather "dip sticks". I found this cute oil can to go with his bedroom decor a while back, it seemed appropriated to put the dip sticks in the oil can ;)

The red crate is something I had lying around, I spray painted it red and filled it with black crinkled paper, found at hobby lobby for about $1 or 2.

I used some of hunters cars collection to add to the decorations

The rest of the snacks I put in some jars and things I have collected over the year for parties, when I'm not using them for parties they go in my pantry to store pasta and other things in. The big round jars I found at walmart for around $5 each. the glass bowls were $2 from walmart

I made a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip granola, and we had organic Annie's cheddar bunny snack mix, my mom made a delicious batch of caramel popcorn that was amazing! Ill have to share that recipe in another post, it is awesome!

The cupcakes were store bought at the last minute, mostly because I didn't get time to make them home made. Sometimes you just gotta go with easy and fast! They were pretty yummy anyway!

This was a super simple craft project I did a few days before the party, I had these empty containers and I decided to give them a cheap makeover

I put the silverware and bubble sticks in these at the party, and then moved them to hunters bedroom to put his colored pencils and things in up on a shelf. I used twine, ribbon, scrapbook paper and stickers. They only took about 30mins to make and cost me nothing because I just used scrap stuff I had laying around! I am going to make a couple fabric covered ones to hold my daughters headbands, you could also make them into a piggy bank if you save the lids.

So there is a little tidbit of Hunters 3rd birthday, He had a great day! I think his favorite part was the chocolate covered dipsticks...

I'm not sure how many of these things he ate...but I know there weren't any left after the party!

New craft project, part 1

This weekend was a busy one. We had A Tball game, I needed to do major grocery shopping and make a new menu, my husband was getting ready to head out of town for the week, and I needed to make baby food and had a few freezer cooking projects to complete. I did find a little time to work on my new skirt I am making. I have never sewn a skirt (besides baby ones), in fact, I've never made myself any article of clothing. So this was a true experiment. I found directions on pinterest for a skirt similar to what I wanted, got the cute fabric and I was ready to go. The first half of my project went a little something like this....


First I measured my waist line and length I wanted my skirt. The directions I followed stated I needed to add about 4 inches to it, so that the bottom of the skirt would be full and not too tight. So that's what I did(Big mistake number 1)  I cut my panel out by folding my fabric in half(I used about 2 1/2yards of fabric to start with) and then cutting my waist plus the length. I used a pretty sheer fabric so I had a jersey knit lining to go inside of it. I cut a panel out of both fabrics that were the same size.

Now, the jersey knit will not fray, so I did not need to hem it or Anything, its ready to go! But the sheer fabric frays like crazy, so I folded my seam over about half a inch, gently pressed it with a iron, and stuck lots of pins in it, then sewed it with a longer stitch (this fabric really bunches up, so I used the longer stitch to help with that,I also gently pulled it tight to keep it from gathering as I sewed). I went all the way around the panel.

Now I laid my lining piece on top of my pretty sheer fabric, right sides together. Get it nice and smooth. Going across the top(which will be the waist) I folded my fabric over about half a inch or so, this is going to attach the lining to the pretty fabric and also keep the frayed end tucked under. This is what it looked like

Then I gently pressed and pinned it together, and sewed a tight stitch across(make sure to pull gently so it doesn't gather, and also keep your fabric nice and smooth underneath and don't rush otherwise it will bunch up and you will have to take it out and start over.....yes I learned that the hard way, mistake number 3!

Now, measure your elastic band. Make a fold a little bigger than the width of the band. Keep it nice and smooth and pin it, then sew a long stitch straight across, leaving a opening at both ends that your
elastic can fit through. This is where the elastic goes and is the waist line of your skirt.

Now, after you sew your waistline opening, put a safety pin of the end of your elastic and slide it through the opening, it will gather as you slide it through. Just make sure you pin the other end so you don't lose it in the waist line, because then you will spend more time fishing it out (mistake number 4).

Now that its all through, stitch the elastic together and adjust the gather.

Then, making sure the skirt is inside out, stitch the last sides together. This is your hem that will be down the back of the skirt. Make sure you get it all nice and even, don't let the fabric bunch up or it will look funny.

 Now you should have a skirt! This is what mine looked like,

 my biggest mistake was adding the 4inches, it was way too big and really bulky at the top...not flattering at all for my back end! I also messed up when I hemmed my pretty fabric around the edges, I did one side, then when I did the
other I did it on the wrong side. So in the end I had a seam sticking out the back, OOPS!

 That is why you don't rush these things, I'm so impatient! Luckily, its a easy, but time consuming fix. I will now undo my last seam down the back, cut out about 4 inches of fabric and elastic, fix my other seam, then sew it all back up and hope it still looks pretty! Then I will be making a cute belt to go over the waistline to dress it up! Stay tuned for the finished product...

My new craft project

This week I have been working on a sewing project I had been wanting to do for a long time. I made my daughter, Madilynn, a long maxi skirt with ruffles around the bottom. I have it almost finished and its going to be super cute!(pics to come)
Madi's  skirt was my "practice" skirt before I make myself one. Im making these skirts for us to wear to a mothers day tea party at her school next friday.
Unfortunately, my one week project is turning into a two week project. I ran out of thread right when I was on my last ruffle, then I went on a search for more fabric for my skirt. I got everything I needed today and plan on working on my skirt and finishing Madis skirt this weekend.  I'll post pics of the finished product as soon as I get it finished, I'm so excited! I can picture what my skirt will look like, and if I succeed, and it turns out great, then I will definitely be making more! I always get a idea of what I want to wear, but then when I go shopping I can never find what I have pictured in my head. How much easier and awesome will it be to just go out and make exactly what I have pictured in my mind! Here is a picture of the fabric I got for my skirt, I love the red! It's jersey knit and a sheer fabric. The sparkly buttons are for the belt I'm making to go with it. Eek, I can't wait to finish it!!! Stay tuned....