The Twin's My Little Pony Themed Second Birthday Party

And birthday month comes to a close!  This month has been insane!  My husband's birthday, along with the twins and my grandfather's... not to mention Easter.  Nuts!  But it's over now, and we're prepping for Mother's Day in two weeks!

I thought I'd share a few pictures of the twin's birthday party.  As you know, it was My Little Pony themed.  They had a really good time!  I'm sad I didn't get more pictures, but I was so busy.  

This was our table spread, nothing too amazing!  I had tulle in rainbow colors coming down from the ceiling against the windows as a backdrop, with white paper lanterns to simulate clouds at the top.  I loved it.  When the light went though it, it was gorgeous!  Decorating was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.  I just got all the girl's Ponies and placed them everywhere - even on the cake!  I believe in reusing things as much as possible.  The other small detail that was one of my favorites, and I'm sad I didn't get a closer picture of, was the silverware and container.  The kids had a BUNCH of jelly beans from Easter, and I needed something to fill a vase so I could put the silverware in it.  So, I filled up the vase with jelly beans by sorting them by color, and then placing them in the vase in rainbow order.  You can see it in the photo above, really tiny! 

Needless to say, the twins got a lot of gifts.  Our kids are very lucky, and very loved.  We went all out this year, instead of making everything by hand, we saved ourselves some time and bought themed items such as tablecloths.  In the picture above you can see the girl's presents from us.  We took them to Build-a-Bear in Austin and they chose a Pony to make for themselves.  They loved it, and hey! They turned into more decoration!  You can also see their themed outfits.  The girls got a My Little Pony shirt each, which by the way is very difficult to find in 18 month size!  Our girls are small for their age, even though they were full term. Our solution?  eBay. 

For the cake, I kept it pretty simple.  By the time I took this picture, the frosting was beginning to melt from the heat of so many people in our house.  But - still cute!  I made an ombre cake and put the small $4 Ponies on the top, with some small bunting made from felt scraps I had lying around, ribbon and wooden skewers.  Then each girl got one candle to blow out!

Did I say I was getting an office?  Yep!  And my husband is getting one, too!  We have an impossibly large living room in our house.  I'm talking over 20x20 feet. So, we moved our dining table to the breakfast nook (which fits an eight seater table comfortably), and the dining room (which will be my husband's office once we get walls up) is temporarily a play room while we do construction on the living room to make a part of that my office.  Confusing, yes.  I live in a state of flux here, when it comes to construction.  Any way, this is the kid's playroom.  We got a fold out table for extra seating, and you can see our Pinkie Pie pinata being used as temporary decoration before the kids were set loose upon it.  Up on the ceiling is a balloon dragon I made up for my husband's birthday, and he didn't want me to pop him just yet.  He was on-theme, so I kept him out for the party.  There ARE dragons around Ponyville, you know! More on him later in my next post!

 And finally, the pinata.  What kid doesn't like to beat something and get candy for it?  My kids sure do.  However, their daddy had to deal the ending blow!

That was it!  Our My Little Pony twin's second birthday party.  It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and the kids had a great time so of course it was all worth it.  My son is saying he wants a Sonic or Angry Bird's birthday in September.  We shall see.

DIY Dry Erase Weekly Calendar Frames

Hi guys!  This week has been super hectic for me, with numerous trips to the doctor with sick kids (my oldest one has spots, even... viruses. Sigh..)  So I have a quick and easy project! I'm a little obsessed with calendars, and keeping track of dates.  It makes life so much easier when I can just look at my notebook and see what's going on that week.  The rest of my family, however, isn't so schedule-oriented.  So, to help, I decided to make this neat little dry erase set of frames!  This took me a little over an hour to do, and cost me less than $10 total.  

For this project, you'll need:

7 frames 

Scrapbooking paper (for each frame)

Alphabet stickers

Scissors

Pen

And that's it!  I went to my local dollar store for the frames.  Can't beat a dollar a piece.  They aren't the highest quality, but they surely do the job!  The stickers and paper I had in my scrapbook box.  I absolutely always check out the clearance section when I go to my hobby stores.  Their sticker packs I find there may be missing a few letters here and there, but the price reduction is well worth a missing sticker. 

To begin, take apart your frames.  You can keep the glass in the front of the frame, you don't need to remove that.  Simply take the back of your frame, and trace it on to your scrapbook paper.  Then cut it out!  It should fit perfectly into your frame.  Double check before adding stickers!

Once you're sure the paper fits, spell out a day of the week on your paper with the stickers.  Remember when you do this, there is a lip on the frame that will cover part of your paper, so don't put the stickers directly in the corners or they will be covered up a bit!

Put the paper into your frame, close it up and voila!  You're done!  Now just to repeat it six more times with the other days of the week!  

The twins had a blast with this one.  They didn't get to help much, but they thought they were (which was adorable and made them happy!)

Once you finish all of your frames, hang them up!  You can use any old dry erase marker on the glass, it will wipe right off.  You can also use ribbon, decorative stickers, or anything else that will fit under the frame to decorate these and make them super cute!  

I'm working on a few stuffy patterns, so those will be up soon! Happy crafting!

Baby Name Embroidery Hoop Art

The twin's birthday party is coming up, and one of the people we have invited has just had a baby girl.  I felt like I couldn't leave her out, but she is much too small for a goody bag like her brother would be getting... so I went to Etsy to see what was trending for baby!  I saw a ton of these embroidery hoops with baby names, but they were charging an arm and a leg for them.  So, to the scrap closet I went!  You can make your own hoop, too... If you know basic sewing like a back stitch, and can use a pair of scissors, this is completely easy (and cheap!)

For this project you will need:

Scissors

An embroidery hoop (I used a 6" wooden hoop)

Fabric to fit your hoop

The name you want to use, printed

A writing utensil

Felt, soft and stiff

Thread (optional: Embroidery thread)

Needle

Ribbon (optional, for hanging)

You'll of course want to start with the prep work!  Go on to your computer and choose a font you like (one that you think will be easy to cut out).  I used Pump Demi Bold in Photoshop for my text.  Choose a size text good for your sized hoop.  The longer the name, the larger the hoop you will need. Print!   You will then cut out the letters of the name, and trace them on to the felt you chose for the name.  Be sure you flip the letters backwards when you trace.  This way, if any marker/pencil/what have you is left on the letters after you cut them out, it will be on the back side of the felt!  For the bunting, you will need to cut out triangles of different colored felt.  Mine were a bit over an inch a piece.

I used cotton quilting fabric for the background of this hoop.  Wash, press and stretch your fabric inside of the hoop you want to use.  Before you lay down your felt pieces to sew, be sure your screw is at the very top, so it will hang straight later. I used three strands of embroidery thread and a running stitch to sew the bunting on, using three stitches per each triangle.  For the name, I used a back stitch and three strands of embroidery thread.  I simply stitching through the middle of each letter.

Backing your embroidery hoop is an optional step.  Some people like to leave their hoops open, but I prefer to close mine to give them a more finished look.  I use stiff felt for backing.  Simply take the inner circle of your embroidery hoop (preferably before you start making your project) and trace around it onto the stiff felt.  Then cut the circle out.

Next, you'll need to fold the fabric into the back of the hoop, like the photo above.  Use a running stitch to tightly hold the fabric into place.  Then place the felt circle you cut out earlier over the back of your hoop.

Start by bringing your thread through from the back side of the felt, then use a whip stitch around the entire felt circle securing it to the cotton fabric underneath!

Usually I use a matching thread, so the stitches are less visible, but I used a nice pink so you could see what it looks like completed!  I had the twins "helping" me ... they seem very amazed by sewing, so please excuse the wonky stitches.

Since you can't hang your closed embroidery hoop by the back anymore, you will need some other way to hang it up.  I make a ribbon hanger.  It's really simple!  Just take about one foot of ribbon, and double it over.  You will want to tie a slip knot about half way down the length of your ribbon.  After this is done, place the knot behind the screw at the top, and tie a bow around the screw, underneath it.  

It should look like this when you're done!  Just trim  up the ribbon and you have a hanger!

Ta-da!  Super cute, right?  I think I'm getting a bit obsessed with hoops, now I want to make an entire wall of them for my house...