Happy 14th Night Owl Party!

My oldest turns 14 next week.  After reviewing the calendar last Tuesday, we realized that the only free weekend we had for awhile was this one.  We hurried and made these invitations (The Owl is from the Cricut Paisley cartridge).

My daughter also made this cute banner w/ the Cricut.

Then it was to the most important part of any party-the food.  I got all the ideas off Pinterest. I tried to give credit where I could find the original source (You can check out my board here if you're looking for more owl ideas.)

 Owl sugar cookies (inspired by? :) We used M'M's.  They cracked a little in the oven, but I thought they were still fun.

 Owl cupcakes (inspired by?):  The eyes were just Oreos topped w. M&M's and an M&M beak.

 Owl Deviled Eggs (inspired by Rook 17)

 Owl Pizza (please tell me you think it looks like an owl.  I was going to make the crust look like ears, but I was exhausted by this point).  The nose is a carrot, which the girls all thought tasted pretty good on pizza-HOO knew?

 Owl Pineapple-my mom did this.  We were going to put a b-day hat, but my son insisted we went w/ his natural hair-do.  (Inspired by Beatrice Banks:)

Of course, they also drank strawberry lemonade.

Pink Lemonade Ice cream cake- family favorite (recipe here)

After the party, we sent the girls home w/  treat bags (inspired by Lisa Storms) Made entirely by my daughter and so seriously cute. (no tutorial, but you can pretty much just look at it and copy it) Brown paper lunch sacks have never looked more fabulous.


My job was to get everything ready, keep everyone fed and stay out of the way. 

Judging from the amount of squealing, I think everyone had a good time.  I've pretty much always done theme parties for her, and thought that she'd eventually grow out of them.  Luckily, it's the opposite.  Since all of her friends are also older, they appreciated all the little theme touches so much more than when they were all younger.



To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

This post was featured at:

Update:  if you like owls, check out these "Hoot Chocolate spoons"

Sewing 101 Week 5: Pintucks

Welcome to week # 5 of:

You can find weeks 1-4 HERE.

Today I want to talk about pin tucks -I confess, that I am a little in love with them.  Check out my Pinterest Pin Tuck Board.  Pin tucks are when you make a narrow fold purely for decorative purposes.  They can be a little tedious, but are not difficult and add a little special touch to garments. 

Loft Pintuck Skirt 

I love this skirt from The Loft.  It is $59.50 and sold out super fast-b/c it is adorable.   I thought it would be a great skirt to knock-off for this week's lesson.

Choosing fabric: Pin tucking will add extra weight to your garment, so pick something light, that will form a crisp fold when ironed.  I would avoid large patterns.  I choose a bright blue summer linen blend. My fabric was 58 inches wide, so I only needed 1 1/4 yards.  I had a coupon so it cost me a little over $8.


To figure out how much fabric you need, we have to do math.  (Don't freak out  it's easy math).
1. Decide how long you want the finished skirt to be. Ours was 22 inches.
2. Add 2 inches for the waist band and 2 inches for the hem.
3. Add 1/2 inch for each pintuck.  I did 11 pintucks, so I added 5.5 inches.
 This gives me a total length of 31.5 inches




4. To find the width, measure your waist. My daughter's is 26. If you want it a little fuller than the original add a few inches. (I added 8)


5. Cut 2 pieces of fabric your desired length and width.
Mine were 35 wide and 31.5 inches long.


We are basically going to be making the skirt from week 2. ( I did use 1 inch elastic this time). So go  make that skirt and then come back here and I'll show you how to make pin-tucks.  

 Welcome Back!  Let's continue.

Decide where you want your pintucks. Place pins to mark it all the way around the skirt.

 Now fold the fabric over the pins. Iron in place.

 Then, remove the pins and place on top to hold it into place. (I lost the pic of the next step-sorry).  Line up the edge that you just pinned with the edge of your presser foot on your machine. Sew all the way around the skirt.  This will give you a 1/4 inch pin tuck

Finally, I iron pin tucks toward the bottom of the skirt. Measure, pin, sew, iron repeat until you are done.


 FYI: I began my next row 3/4 of an inch underneath the first. You will need to adjust your measurements depending on the length of the skirt, but here they are for a 22 inch long finished skirt.

FYI #2, it takes me about 10 minutes for each pin tuck, so you may just want to start w/ a few (after 11 rows, I decided The Loft skirt was a real bargain.  You can also make wider or narrower pin tucks, by adjusting your seam allowance. 

To finish,  cut a strip of fabric for the bow. Fold in half, sew and turn inside out. Sew on skirt.


Please let me know if anything was unclear, but hopefully you just made a really cute skirt.


My daughter declared this her favorite thing I've ever made and she is going to wear this on Easter Sunday. I'll post a pic of her later. 
Update: Easter morning pics:

To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.



I feel super cool that this project was featured at:










thanks for the shout-out!

My all time favorite treat

Have you heard the quote, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels".  That person never ate these.  

I make these all the time, but they don't photograph well and so I never blog about them. I got the recipe from my friend Melanie-(my sister makes them too and calls them O'Henry Bars). They are the perfect treat. Sweet from the chocolate, salty from the peanut butter and crunch from the cereal-yummy.  (and they are super-easy).

Ingredients:
1 cup Corn Syrup
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Peanut Butter
6 cups rice cereal
1/2 bag of chocolate chips (my daughter uses the entire bag, but I think it throws off the perfect chocolate-PB ratio.)

In a large pan, heat first 3 ingredients just until warm and blended (it only takes 2-3 minutes). Add cereal. Put in the bottom of a 13X9 pan. Lick the spoon-that's your reward for making a treat.

Heat chocolate chips in the microwave at 30 second intervals until melted.  Stir between intervals. Spread on top of cereal.  Let cool (I stick them in the freezer for a few minutes, b/c I'm impatient).

What's your all time favorite treat?  Please, link it up to this week's party so I can try it out.

To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.

Will Craft for...Fairy Tale Stitches

This week's Sponsor is :


Fairytale Stitches is a great  new etsy shop filled w/ fun custom creations for babies, boys, cooks, b-day girls etc. Here are some of my favorites from her shop:

 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Fairytalestitchesbou 

Such cuteness!

She is generously giving away $30 gift certificate to her store!


For the entries (enter as many or few as you'd like):
1. Link up a project (1 entry/ project)
2.  Like the Fairytale Stitches page on FB
3. Follow Tales of a Trophy Wife by :    

The Most Veiwed link last week was: 

How To Hang a Curtain Without A Rod by Life Unexpected

(I am smitten)

Good Luck! Remember you only need to add your e-mail if you'd like to be included in my weekly reminder e-mails-otherwise skip that step).

Winners and Features

Another week, another amazing group of projects.  Here are some of my favs:



These lamps made over by A Mother and a Daughter. Such a big improvement on how they started.

This wreath by Chicken Scratch-love the colors.

 Cabin Fevered Gem linked up this mini-brag book (I'm thinking Mother's Day Gift)

I pinned this burlap basket by Salt Tree (don't know if I'll actually get around to making one-but I will at least day dream about it).



How cute are these letters by Threading My Way?







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Drumroll please...The winner of last week's give-a-way to Nickycole is...#46 -Moose Mouse Creations that linked up a great pillow tutorial.
A great big thanks to everyone that participated lasts week and a great big, big thanks to Nickycole for sponsoring the party!
See you back here at 5:00PM CST.  

PB Knock-Off- More Giant Notions $3.50

I have a strange fascination w/ giant notions for the craft room. The above is an old pic from Pottery Barn. Cute, But no longer available.

 

I decided to make my own and I found the large wooded disk at Hobby Lobby for $1.47 and the 2 small ones at JoAnn's for .$97/ a piece.  Then I just drilled holes in them and painted them red. 

 Easy Peasy and they look cute on the wall of my craft room.

The craft room still is ready for the big reveal, but check out some more from the room HERE.


To see where I link up or to add your party, please click here.