sheep birthday party!

It's time! Our son turned two this week and I've been totally excited about planning his sheep party. As you already saw, I posted about his sheep pillow (which he LOVED!) and sweet felted lamb. Here are the rest of the decorations and party goodness.

Cupcakes! The sheep on the cupcakes are made from gum paste. Mr. Woolie is perched on top.

He wore his sheepie Halloween costume at the start of the party and then changed into his "2 sheep shirt" (see below)

Here is his costume. I made it basically following Martha's directions. However, I had to make it a little more personal. I bought wool and felted it myself. I loved learning a new process. I used a onesie with the arms cut off (I could only find long sleeved turtleneck onesie, so I cut off the neck too) instead of an expensive leotard. I bought girl's black leggings and a black long sleeved shirt (which of course was a 4-5T and I had to make it smaller). My mom made him the fleece and felt hat. We used pink knit for the inside of the ears. This is my favorite because he can wear it all winter.

 Cute little lamb checking out the cute little bunny.

These were taken at our Halloween Festival at church. You can even see a little hay stuck to his bum! How's that for authentic?

Opening the sheep pillow gift. Total joy!

At the last minute I made myself a sheep shirt too. This is the best photo I have of it. It's made the same way I made the invitations. I just basted the felt sheep onto the shirt with invisible thread.

The guests were greeted at the front door with a sign to come on in. The sheep were cut out from an article in Country Living about Fiber Farm --check out their informative and fun blog.

As guests stepped in the door they were met with two  "2 sheep trees" with cut outs of sheepies and  twos.

For favors there were magnets with our son's photos from his 2 year photo shoot. We gave these out last year too. My friend Sandy takes his photos each year and also took his newborn photos. She's fantastic! To make these, all you do is buy see-through scrapbooking tiles and button magnets. In a photo editing program make your photos the same size as the tiles (in this case 1"x1") and place the tile over the photo and press hard. Then glue gun the magnet on the back. To display them I cut out a large sheep and pasted him onto large pieces of paper. The magnets hold the paper to the back or a cookie sheet (test your cookie sheet first-not all are magnetic.)

Here is where some of those felted sheep ended up. I cut paper hills and sky glued them to cardboard. Then I pinned the sheep with straight pins and added flowers from an old lei, again with pins and stuck it all in a black spray painted frame. The sheep were prizes for the game we played (toss the sheep in the jar).

Here is one of the winners in action!

I ran over to Michael's when I got a 50% coupon of a Martha item and bought a sheep hole punch for under $5.00 and made the cut outs into banners strewn around the house.  I got a lot of mileage out of this punch.

I also used the punch for sheep around the cupcake stand (which is really just a platter set on top of a wide mouth vase. I used that stuff you use to stick posters on walls with to temporarily affix them together).

I used the cut-out part of the paper for bookmark favors with some twine on top. How easy is that? Plus, everyone needs book marks, right?  I am always searching for one and tearing off pieces of paper to mark my spot.

I also used the sheep punch to label the toppings for the baked potato bar.

And while I did not get a chance to photograph the baked potato bar, I did recreate two little cheeses with, once again, Martha's sheep punch, stuck on top of a toothpick. Here is a terrible nighttime photo. The lamb plate was one of the prizes in the sheep toss game.

At the last minute I picked up some sparkling pear and apple cider, but did not plan for cups since I had planned to only have beverages already in individual containers. I happened to have some of these cups and drew some sheep on them.

I made this reusable birthday banner and we used it for a backdrop for photos of the guests with the birthday boy. This is my favorite photo of the night with Uncle and Gigi. (Great Grandma).

 The sheep is just stuck on with a safety pin so next year's theme can be incorporated.

It's also the photo where his "two sheep shirt" is the most visible. The birthday boy had several wardrobe changes, as his sheep costume is not really eating-ready.

2 year old + chocolate cupcake and chocolate icing = 1 dirty sheep.

This was the most fun party to plan for. I love having a theme that is personal to our son. He really loves sheep. "Bop" (aka sheep + baaaa!) was one of his first words and he still loves them (except they are "sheepies" now!)

Wheeew! I think that's it!

Happy Birthday my sweetest pea!

tree table

I need a new bedside table since we finally got a new matress and headboard. I totally think I want this as my bedside table from because we can.  Just wish it had drawers.

I have a lot of crap in/on my bedstand. Hmmmm I'll have to think about it.

it's raining at last

bathroom re-do ~ finally!

This post has been a long time coming. I painted the bathroom many months ago in the sweltering heat in a bathroom with no windows (and I did not want to keep the door open since I was using a regular type paint (not no-VOC like i usually do). I chose Behr bright white paint with primer in it since the original color from the old owners was icky cranberry red and I did not want to paint a bunch of coats.

I am not a rich color person. I prefer brighter, cooler colors. I decided on white because of the tiny size of the bathroom and I just like the feeling of fresh and clean in the bathroom.

Here are some before (and during) photos:

 Talk about dark, huh? ugh!

So I made some changes. First as I mentioned, paint-white paint. As you can see below, I am a messy painter. And guess what? Some (most) of this paint was scraped up from the floor of our garage. Yup, I dropped the whole gallon of paint on the garage floor. The floor and my car still have white paint on them to prove it! I am not one to waste, so I scraped up as much as I could and put it back in the can. The upside? I did not have to stir it.

Next I made these awesome map towel holders. This was the impetus for the whole change. I saw Martha make these on her TV show (before she went to the Hallmark channel which we don't have! bummer!). They are maps decoupaged onto painted wooden plaques from Michael's.

 I chose places we have been this year. I got the maps free at AAA! The hooks are from the Home Depot for about $4.00 each. The plaques were about a dollar and the paint I already had.

I finally got around to making this towel holder for the one near the sink. I had another map one there on a rectangle plaque, but I wasn't feeling it, so I decoupaged on fabric (remember this post?). I first decoupaged it on some card stock and then onto the painted plaque.

Love it!

The center piece of the room is this large USA map on a bulletin board. I covered it with fabric (an old bed sheet) and pinned a Dollar Store US map on it (I cut off the white boarder first).

 I bought map pins from the office supply store, but they did not have the colors I wanted, so I spray painted the red ones. I wanted at least two colors. The green ones are places we have been with our son and the white ones are places my husband and I have been together. Our son choose the color spray paint he wanted for the places he has been- lime green- a great choice!

This is the old mobile from our son's room when we replaced his with an owl mobile. It works great in here!

And lastly, I made this TP holder today. It has been in my mind for moooonths! For real! I'll post a tutorial later this week. We have absolutely NO storage in this tiny bathroom, so no place to store TP. Problem solved.

I love how it all turned out!

p.s. I painted the dog painting probably 10 years ago when I really wanted a dog, but could not have one in my apartment. I love white!

leaf garland

Sorry for the poor photo quality--photos taken at nighttime. I even opened the front door.

I wanted a little fall over our console so I collected some leaves around the neighborhood and even picked a grape leaf up from our farm and barn tour a few weeks ago. I pressed them in between the pages of the phone book and then used packaging tape to stick them to some twine. Does not get easier than that!

p.s. that gorgeous piece of art work is our son's first ever painting, done a few months ago. We used the cardboard from a desk calendar so it would not curl up when wet or move around when he was painting. It even gives it presence too, don't you think?

candy / boo bag

We have been boo'd! Have you? Our neighbor "boo's" a few neighbors each year and then we carry on the boo'ing. I saw these simple to make felt bags over at I Am Momma-Hear Me Roar.

I knew instantly I was going to whip up a few of these. I love her blog! Check it out!

Bag drop off #1

Bag drop off #2

waving "bye bye basket!"

As we delivered the boo baskets, our son said over and over ""delivering presents." Then during dinner he repeated "bye bye basket!" It was a-dor-able!

 

I used felt to make the moon on the brown one and for both I simply sewed on plastic creepy things with invisible thread.

What a fun and easy project that can be adapted for May Day baskets, Easter baskets, toy car or block storage...whatever! Thanks Sherri!

pizza man

before:

after:

Pita bread pizza man, with pureed sauteed spinach topped with pureed crushed tomatoes. yummy!

Baked in the toaster oven to save the house from heating up--yes it was in the 90's again today! ick!

super simple tp pumpkin

Today some friends and our kids went to a farm and barn tour and one of the stops had a kids' craft station. There were several cute crafts, but I thought this one takes the cake for simplicity and cuteness.

A pumpkin toilet paper cover!

 See the TP hiding in there?

 All it takes is approx 20" x 20" piece of Halloween or orange fabric, a brown (or green) pipe cleaner and a roll of TP.  Center the TP on the fabric and start tucking the ends in the cardboard core of the TP. They used a piece of brown paper bag for the stem, but I just pulled up a corner of the fabric and used the brown pipe cleaner to top it off.

 Now, I can't say I've ever been a fan of cutesy TP covers before, but I am making exception this Halloween. :)

wool lamb

I bought some wool at the etsy shop LicoriceTree for the sheep/lamb costume I am making our son for his 2nd birthday and Halloween. Tobiah Mundi of LicoriceTree was so kind as to send me my very first felting needle.

I have been needle felting my little heart out in order to felt the sheep costume, but got kind of tired of it after the 3rd night. I read online that to felt such a large amount of wool I should have a special multi-needled tool. Oh well!).

This is 8 oz of wool, so it's taking quite a while. Not sure when I am supposed to stop, either!  I pulled out the foam from a little couch my mom made our son for Christmas last year to use as the felting foam. I have no idea if this is frowned upon in the felting community, but you use what you have, right?

 I decided that I could take a break from felting a seemingly endless stretch of wool and create little lamb friend instead.I have never done any type of felting before-wet or dry- but have been wanting to try it out. There are several good video demonstrations of felting out there. I just decided to wing it for this little lamb.

 I used toothpicks that I colored with a permanent black pen for the legs and regular recycled felt (which was all I had, but worked fantastic!) for the eyes and nose.

 It was really fun to make this little gal! Here she is rock climbing in our garden. I think I will use her as part of sheep party decor! If I were more ambitious I would make one for all the guests...maybe if I find some help that will become a reality.

In the meantime, I am loving my little lamb.

gearing up for 2!

It's been a bit busy around our house getting ready for our baby's 2nd birthday!! The theme this year is SHEEP! Our son used to call all sheep "bops." This is a combo of "sheep" and "baaaaa!" He can say sheep now, but he still is really attracted to them. Long before we decided  to have a child I had cut out a photo of a sheep costume from Martha Stewart's 2004 Living magazine. I thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Since our son's birthday is in October, we can combine his Halloween costume with his birthday theme! Hip Hip Hooray!

Here's a sneak peek of what's been going on...

The pillows...

 The invitations:

The wool....

smelling the wool...

More to come soon. Please stay tuned!