DIY: Map Book Favors

Here's a little how-to for the map book favors i made for ben's birthday party. Super easy, but pictures are fun anyway.

ben's "World's Most Adorable 1yr old" birthday party

Here are some pics from Ben's party. You can see the invites here. The theme was loose but worked great with things i already and the style of my house. 

The road atlases i used to make the invites came in super handy for some easy bunting. I loved how it turned out and was kinda sad to take it down. 

And then i just shopped my house: globes, old books, alphabet cards, a vintage suitcase, scrabble tiles, fun fabric, and best of all, a cute baby boy who wore the same overalls that Will wore at his first birthday party. :) awww

The bow-ties were fun to pass out to the guests. i used lindsey's quick no-sew tutorial for these.

Here's Ben's very own smash cake. He wasn't too interested in eating it...poor guy, i hardly put any sugar at all in the cake or frosting so it was probably a bit of a let down! ha.

I love these pictures of Will. He was soooo excited for Ben's big day. side story: in the morning while i was drawing the world picture on the chalkboard, Will was busy writing a sign for the front door with Ben's name on it. As he walked by to tape it to the door, he paused by the chalkboard, and said, "oh wow, that looks great Mom, its so cute!" There's seriously nothing like the affirmation of a 6yr old. :)

We told him that he could help Ben blow out his candle... i thought for sure he would just go for it and get it over with quickly, but instead he gently blew so Ben could take it all in. So sweet.

Happy 1st Birthday Ben. You sure are loved!

Oh, and here are the little favors for all the sweet cousins and siblings...

And....just for my own fun, here are 2 pictures of Will on his 1st bday wearing the the little overalls. :)

Linking to  lollipops

fallishness randomness

If you are in need a some new blog fun and lots of great laughs you should (if you haven't already!) go meet Jami at  hello from the natos.

 She is seriously one of the funniest people ever. 

 But she's also real and honest and her family has a really awesome redemption story.

 jami nato also happens to be quite crafty and that is where i got my inspiration to make these burlap covered pumpkins. Aren't they cute?! I've had several of these fake pumpkins i got for next to nothing a couple of years ago and have never known what to do with them...Now i love them.

here's another little bit of fallishness. 

Have you seen what our fireplace area looked like before we painted it?? Here's a picture just for you.

Blech... I hope this inspires anyone who is on the fence about painting indoor brick. i think it is just about always a very good idea. yes indeed.

Oh and did you notice that super lovely globe in the picture above baby ben's head?? 

My wonderful mom bought it for me at a little vintage craft fair hosted by our favorite family pumpkin farm. It has a little sticker on the front that says 1954!!! and it was only $8. I am in love. I am also in love with the fabulous dust stenciling all over the shelf. It took many weeks of not dusting to achieve that effect.

Well, i guess that's probably all the globe pictures you'd want to see... 

Hope you're having a great weekend...wow, i just said weekend. and its only wednesday. I think i might be looking forward to this weekend a little too much. Five of my best girlfriends from junior high are getting together for a sleepover. This will be the first sleep-over we've had together since we were all 14. Pretty excited about this. :)

linking to lollipops

Book-Inspired Finger Puppets

One of Ben's little buddies had his first birthday just 7 days after his own. For this special guy i bought a book by one of our very favorite children's authors, Sandra Boynton and then made these simple little finger puppets to make it extra fun.

I finished them while watching a movie with handy andy, and besides the teeny scraps of felt all over the couch and the long hot glue strings "EVERYWHERE" (quote by handy andy), it was super easy and lots of fun and i can't wait to make characters from another book.

Speaking of picking out another book, what are your children's book favorites?? I'm kind of wanting to expand our board book library.. i think the majority of what we used to have has been eaten or destroyed by the older 3. Suggestions please :)


linking to  sugar and dots and sewmuchado and let birdz fly

DIY gift for kids to make

I think my oldest, Will, might turn out to my crafty buddy. Last year he saw a version of these "monsters" in a craft book for kids and became super passionate about making them. He wrote out a list of at least 15 people he wanted to give them to as Christmas presents. I think we ended up finishing about 5, but i loved his enthusiasm and i loved that he could be involved in the whole process. 

Here's one he made for his dad for father's day

For Ben's birthday, Will set out to make one for his little buddy. Here's how your little kiddo can make one too!

1) Dig through old knit shirts and felt scraps until your kiddo finds the perfect material for his or her "buddy".

2) Help him draw an outline.

3) Draw and cut out shapes for eyes, mouth, patches etc.

4) Sew OR hot glue. We decided to sew this time because Will was interested in using my machine. He loved pressing the foot and helping me lead the fabric through.
**However, hot glueing (inside out) works GREAT too and is faster/easier in some ways.

**The first year we were a little more detail oriented and Will got to practice using a needle and embroidery floss to stitch around the eyes, mouth and pirate patch. This takes a LONG time, so we gradually ditched this step, even though it is cute.

5) Stuff it- one of his favorite parts! (In the ones we made last year we added dried beans after we stuffed
6) Then glue or sew the bottom shut.

7) Give it to the birthday boy

8) If the recipient doesn't act interested, shove it in their face while making obnoxious monster noises! :)

 linking to: jaqsstudio

ben's party invites

I don't usually send out real invites to little family parties, but this idea came to me fast and besides, it's Ben's first birthday, and he's adorable...so he deserves a little more effort. ;)

Handy Andy completely refused my request to cut up one of our hardbound world atlases (good thing someone is keeping me in check)...so i had to get creative. Happily i found 2 big US road atlases at goodwill that worked great. And each for only .99.

The rest was super easy: little triangles, pretty card stock and simple white envelopes with a piece of map glued into the flap.

Hopefully these will get me going on the rest of the party planning, which is now 3 days from now. If nothing else, everyone can bring their invitations and stick them to the wall for decoration ;)

love that handy andy...

I love that handy andy can read my mind.
He didn't get home from his most trip until 11:30pm but he knew that stopping by Safeway and picking up some ice cream would still  be a very good idea.
AND he knew that even though he was kinda leaning toward the raspberry/chocolate,  he had better go with chocolate chip cookie dough instead (my favorite).
And because we are total party animals and he knew that i reallllly wanted to watch parks and recreation (our new favorite show!) he even suggested watching an episode while we ate our ice cream.
Such a great guy.

baby ben's birthday balloons

 Ben loves balloons.

In fact, i think the other 3 kiddos were a little taken aback when they realized how fiercely he could scream when ever they tried to touch, let alone take any of his balloons.

He was perfectly happy crawling all over with them safely intertwined in his sweaty, chubby little fingers.  

And whenever he did get a little sad (like he started to be in the pic above) all he had to do was look up at his balloons and everything was right with the world again.

Even days later when most of them had fallen and were disposed of quickly and quietly, he still hung onto the remaining few and lived up the last bit of balloon-induced happiness.

Now you can look forward to next year, buddy! :)