Peppermint Perfection

Last week we had our annual girls night cocoa party. This year's theme was Peppermint Perfection, and was it ever. The best part about these parties is that I get to do them with the two most amazing girls I know. We had so much fun prepping and getting things together and it was all worth the hard work to see the end result.

The invitation we made to look like a peppermint with a peppermint treat inside.

This is the table scape

We had some really yummy food this year. White chocolate covered pretzels with red and white nonpareils, chips and homemade salsa, cheese ball and crackers, sugar cookies, dipped Milano's, and of course all the toppings for our hot cocoa.

I used a lot of my decorations off my tree at home for this party, it was fun to put them to another use.

For our favors this year, though you can't see exactly what they are, we did milk and white chocolate on a stick that you could stir into hot milk for a yummy treat.

I has so much fun designing the invites and tags for the party. Thanks again Dacia and Lynne for being my partners in crime. Love ya!

*all pictures taken by Dacia (she did a great job) Lynne took some too but I'm waiting to see those so they may be added later.

Tissue trees

I FINALLY finished these trees. My good friend Dacia shared a link on the how to to make them and after seeing her finished trees I really wanted to give them a try. Do not attempt these if you are not fully commited. They take a lot of time to do, BUT they are SO worth it. 

So there you have my one holiday craft, pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Crate & Barrel

Half Baked is doing a great giveaway for a $100 gift certificate to Crate & Barrel and I'm hopin' they pick me. Sadly I have to say I would use this for myself and not to get gifts for others. But on the plus side the things I get will be used to throw parties for others : )

Holiday Planner

Do most of you know what a "list" fanatic I am? Well it's true. I MUST have a list, seriously, or I'll always forget something. I love to see it on paper what it is I need or need to do. So when I saw this next project from the girls at Eighteen25 I was in LOVE!

What could be more perfect than all your holiday planning in one spot. They have a place for everything in this baby, calendar, menu, cards, lists(my favorite), and to do. I added a party tab for the cocoa party we throw each year, perfect.

They featured their planner over on Under the Sycamore and it came with step by step instructions as well as a free download with all the pieces you need. I altered mine a bit to coordinate with my paper I was using but definitely took the inspiration from them and it only cost me $1.24 for the composition notebook,everything else I had in my stash~love it!.

Some of the things I changed: Mine says "holiday" instead of "Christmas" because I couldn't get Christmast to fit on my bracket using those letter stickers.

I did my own coupon label because I wanted it to match my paper but they have the entire set for you to dowload and use if you'd like~fabulous!

I added a few ribbon paperclip for those invites you may want to hold on to or any other random thing that you think you need.

In Love !

They also tell you where to go to print off a weekly calendar for the "calendar" section of the planner, so great.

I think they turned out super cute and I can't wait to make more! Thanks again to the girls at Eighteen25 for yet another amazing idea.

Halloween project #4 ~ Halloween Candelabra

When I saw this next project featured on one of my favorite blogs I knew I had to do it, and soon. But as I started hunting the thrift stores where I live I realized it wasn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped. This project came from Sawdust and Paperscraps which I found at Ucreate.
She used old lamp bases, a chandelier, some PVC pipe, and beads to create this amazing candelabra.

So this one is hers

and this one is mine

Pretty cool huh? You'd never guess the chandelier was a brass color and the lamp base was an odd red, amazing what a little spray paint can do. I didn't want a floor one, just one to put on my table. Thankfully I have an amazing friend who was also on board to do this project and she was out hunting one day and found everything we needed to do them. She is doing a floor one and I can't wait to see how hers turns out. She even did most of the work for me by gutting the lamp and attaching the two things together. All I had to do was spray paint it and hang the beads. (note: spray painting beads is not an easy task) I love it and now just need to find some candles to go in it.


Well I did better than just find some candles, I made them. Yep out of cardstock, hot glue and spray paint. The original instructions were to use a TP tube and I tried that but they were too skinny. So my friend did hers out of cardstock and they turned out great. So that's what I did. All ya do is drip some hot glue down the sides and then spray paint them white. I added some plastic grocery bags to the middles to hold up my battery tea light. Perfect! We also got this idea from Sawdust and Paperscraps.



Wouldn't this look great on the dinner table for a party? ! I can't wait to use it! So thank you to Sawdust and Paperscraps for sharing an amazing project and to my great friend for her generosity and hard work. Oh and you can see her finished project here.

linked up to the CSI challange

Halloween project #3

this project was inspired by a couple others I'd seen on some blogs. The first I found at Tatertots & Jello from Made with Love and Glue. They used a crow, I also love the pumpkin I saw but for the life of me can't remember where. It was the same concept cut the pumpkin in half and mount it in a frame. These cute things cost me all of $2 to do. The skull if from the Dollar Tree and the frames I found at my local thrift store for a buck. I had the paper and ribbon on hand so that was easy. I just cut off the back of the skull and hot glued it to the paper. Cute huh? These two have a home already planned out so I may need to make one for myself.

I joined in the Linky Party at Eighteen25 & Tatertots & Jello


yeah, I found the pumpkin inspiration I was searching for, take a look here

project #2 Halloween "BOO"

I am so lucky to have such fabulous friends! ! ! ! I found this super cute craft at the eighteen25 blog (which I love) and thought how fun it would be to make and then thought how much more fun it would be to make with friends. So a few of us got together and had some fun glittering and gabbing. Here's how mine turned out.

Dacia & Nicole

Katie, Rachel, Camille, Rachelle, & Bernie

Bernie's

Dacia's

Nicole's

Katie's

Camille's

Rachelle's

Lynne's

Thanks to a great bunch of girls for a large amount of laughter and glitter.

the first halloween project

This fall/Halloween is going to be a hard one. First because I shouldn't even still be here and second all my fall and Halloween stuff is packed up somewhere so I won't be getting that out this year. SO, I'm itchin' to do some Halloween projects. My first one was this super easy cake stand I made, not very sophisticated but works great for kids gatherings and I'm in charge of my 1st graders class Halloween party this year so they will work great for that.

I've had these Halloween plates for years and kinda forgot about them until Holland pulled them out one day while playing in a cupboard.

I went to Michael's for some Terra Cotta pots and painted them orange and added some stripes and polka dots. (of course!!)

Hot glued them together and voila! cute little cake stands.

I'm super excited to get started on my second project and I'm trying really hard to wait to do it until our girls gathering. Can't wait, it's going to be fabulous!

more flowers

I'm still on my fabric flower obsession. This time I've added them to some flip flops for my sisters and to a dress to fancy it up a little.

Cowgirl Carnival

I've posted pictures of the party I helped my sister do for my niece on my party blog here if you'd like to see more. It was so fun to do with my sister.

Giveaway

Ok this giveaway is serious business. I would LOVE to win this, oh how much simpler life would be. (ok not really but my party making would be) Have you seen what this machine can do? Amazing!!! Head on over to one of my most favorite party sites "Kara's Party Ideas" and enter to win one and while you're there you might as well check out all the cute parties she's featured(warning: it will take you all day to see all of them).