I never fancied myself a wreath person, but once I created my first autumn wreath, I’ve been on a roll since then. I made a spring wreath and now, my newest wreath in the mix is for Valentine’s Day. I was so used to having something on the door that once I took off our big, red Christmas bow, the door felt naked. So, I went off to Michael’s and put this wreath together. It was super easy and you only need a few supplies…

Supplies:
Heart-shaped Wreath (or any shape you like)
Silk Red Roses (about 20 but it will depend on the size of the wreath you purchase)
Twine
Hot Glue Gun

Assembly:
1. Wrap the twine around the top center part of the heart (the part that dips down) and create a loop to hang the wreath from.

2. Cut the roses off the bunch leaving a few inches of stem. Insert the stems through the open spaces of the wreath. Repeat until the wreath is covered with roses.

3. Heat up your glue gun and go around the wreath and glue each flower to the wreath. Press down for a few moments as the glue dries. Repeat until you’ve glued all the roses.

4. Look around the wreath at the place where the flower meets the wreath and add more glue to secure the flowers in place.

5. Hang on your door and enjoy the view!

Cuteness Overload! Clockwise from top left: Daisy Ballerina, The Savannah, Fleur, Jackie O, Victoria

Babies don’t really need to wear shoes but they need to keep their little tootsies warm. It’s only natural that if you’re getting cute clothing for the bambina that you’ll want to get some equally cute footwear. A few days ago I showed you some really cute summer sandals for infant and toddler girls – today let’s take a look at the cuteness overload going on at Etsy.com. There are so many cute Esty shops that carry lovely handmade baby and toddler booties. You can get casual or dressy booties – they are all so adorable. For you ladies that are crafty, you can also buy patterns so you can select your own fabrics and coordinate your tiny dancer’s outfits. Check out the cuteness on Esty…

Soft and Sweet! Clockwise from top left: Couture Ballet Slipper, Organic Hemp Ballerina, The Leanne Harlow, Vintage Taffeta Mary Jane

So Fun!  Rocker Chic and Sushi Booties! Clockwise from top left: Kizzie, Fortune Cookie Booties, The Red Bottom, Sushi Booties

DIY Crafty Ladies! Get these patterns on Etsy! Clockwise from top left: Open Toe Knotted, Poppy, French Chic Baby Sandal, Ballet Baby Bootie

♥♥Pirouette Blog shows us the cutest maternity tee we’ve ever seen. It will help answer the endless string of “Do you know what it is? Is it a boy or a girl?” questions.

♥♥Babyology shows us gorgeous color blocked furniture from Italian furniture company Dear Kids.

♥♥Ohdeedoh shows us the coolest bed ever made to look like a (soon-to-be extinct) book.

♥♥Li’l Magoolie shows us how to make a DIY Light Up Felt City – this would be really cute for Christmas!

Saturday was the Tiny Dancer’s first birthday and I decided to go with a Minnie Mouse theme. All of the Minnie Mouse birthday stuff in stores is in pink – I don’t know why since Minnie wears a red dress. Sooo, I had to take a DIY approach to the partay – which is fine because I really love the way it turned out.

I started out by making a mood board and doing some research on what my options were – it was my first kid’s birthday party   We kept it pretty simple – not too many guests.  Since Asiya is only one she doesn’t have many friends so we just had family over to celebrate her first birthday.  We had dinner at a restaurant and then came home for cake and birthday gifts.  It was a lovely time and wonderful to reflect on the past year and see how far she’s come.

Here’s a breakdown on the decor and party supplies…

Invitations

I made the invitations based on some that I had found online.  I made a template that includes the Disney font that you can download for free if you want to give it a shot.

Here’s what you need: white paper, black card stock, oak tag or poster board, hot glue gun & glue, red/white polka dot ribbon.

Steps for making the invitation: (1) Customize the text (either in Illustrator or Word – I included two different templates depending on the program you’re using); (2) Print the invitation on the white paper.  Cut out the solid line (the Minnie ears)  and use that as a template for the black portion of the invitation); (3) Trace the invite on the black paper and cut out; (4) Cut the white on the dotted line (the circle with all the info); (4) Use a hot glue gun to glue the white paper on to the black paper (centered where the face would be); (5) Tie a bow and use the hot glue gun to affix the bow to the invite.  Repeat…

Cake

I ordered the birthday cake.  I’m not very adept when it comes to frosting and I knew I wanted fondant details like the polka dots, ears and bow so I went to a local bakery with some pictures of what I had in mind and they did a great job whipping it up.  I also added some Amaretto Cookies, Fresh Strawberries and NY Cheesecake to the dessert mix.

Table Runner

I found red cotton fabric with white polka dots at Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts.  I bought enough for the length of my dining room table and measured the width that I wanted (I used a runner that I have as a template).  I finish off the edges on a sewing machine for a clean edge.  If you don’t know how to sew, I would just cut the ends with some pinking shears – the fabric won’t fray (as much) and you’ll have a cute border on the runner.

Table Setting

Since Minnie Mouse is often seen with daisies I opted for white and yellow daises – fresh flowers always make a table setting look beautiful.  I also purchased a small cluster of balloons from Party City for the table.  I brought the balloons to the restaurant and then brought them home for dessert.  Since the Tiny Dancer’s birthday is close to Memorial Day, there were lots of party supplies in red/white and I was able to find red with white polka dot napkins and plates that matched perfectly with the theme.

Birthday Banner

I ordered the banner from The Birthday House on Etsy.  All I had to do was run the ribbon through and hang it up.  I had some extra ribbon so I added some bows on the ends and as spacers in between each word.  I suppose if you wanted you could DIY the banner based on the invitation template above but the banner was only $20 and it would take you a very long time to cut all that stuff out – the way I see it – my time is more valuable than $20/hour so it was cheaper for me to buy it.

Minnie Mouse Ears

Since it was a Minnie Mouse theme, instead of getting the Tiny Dancer a party hat, I got her official Disney Minnie Ears.  They were adorable for the party, and she’ll get to use them whenever we go to Disneyland.

The party was a lot of fun and the Tiny Dancer enjoyed herself.  It was a nice creative outlet to plan the party and I can’t wait to plan more parties for the Tiny Dancer!

♥♥Little Scandinavian shows us some gorgeous hair accessories fit for little princesses.

♥♥Ohdeedoh and BuyModernBaby give us the scoop on the new Marimekko shop at Crate & Barrel which features items for kids.

♥♥Coochicoos shows us some really fun DIY crayon art.

♥♥Hanging Mobile Gallery has some really nice mobiles – some of them are “museum-worthy”

♥♥Rainbow Birthday Cake – need I say more??

♥♥Balloons + Wall = Bubble Wall.   So cute!

♥♥Lil’ Magoolie shows us how to make a DIY colorful raincloud mobile.

Last fall, I made an Autumn wreath for my front door to add some color and festivity. The day after Thanksgiving, the fall wreath came down and a big red bow took its place. Now that we are in full-fledged spring mode, (and because I decided last minute to host Easter dinner) I had to get a spring wreath up on the door.  As with the Autumn wreath, I kept things really simple and just added some silk cherry blossom flowers – my favorite springtime flower.  You can use any flowers you want, and all the instructions are the same as my Autumn wreath so you can find them in the Autumn wreath DIY post.  Here’s how my turned out – I’m happy with it and I think its perfect for spring.  Let me know how your wreaths turn out!

Ahhhh! I just decided to host Easter dinner – I’ve been running last minute lately.  Since I can’t blog and grocery shop and craft at the same time (I can multitask but c’mon!) I’m giving you a glimpse of what I have to do today and tomorrow.  I’m sure you’re all busy with your holiday prep.  I didn’t get my act together to do how-to’s before the holiday but I’ll post up my finished products and promise to have my act together for next Easter.  To be honest, I didn’t go all out because the Tiny Dancer is too young to do some Easter-related stuff like coloring eggs, etc.  Ok, I gotta go but here’s a sneak peak of my next few days…

easter preparation

The Tiny Dancer will be one-year old in a month and I’ve started planning for her birthday party.  I was having a hard time deciding on a Hello Kitty theme or a Minnie Mouse theme.  I went to the stores to check out the party stuff for both characters and everything was pink   I knew that no matter what character I chose, I wanted to use their likeness as they were created – in red!  I soon realized that the party would have to be more DIY than I had planned because I wanted to stay with a red theme. Minnie Mouse seemed like a much more doable DIY theme so I went with Minnie Mouse for the Tiny Dancers 1st birthday party. Also, the stores are full with fun Hello Kitty stuff for goodie bags and I thought it would be fun to save the HK theme for a party where there are more kids in attendance.

I’m so excited for this party!  I love planning parties!  How can you not love red with white polka dots? So cute!  I’m having a cake made like the one pictured above and going to order a Minnie Mouse birthday banner on Etsy.  The invitations I’m going to make myself, as well as the party hat for the Tiny Dancer’s cousin who will be the only other child in attendance.  Instead of a cone birthday hat that the Tiny Dancer can only wear once, I ordered a set of Minnie Mouse ears from the Disney Store – which are the same ones they sell at the theme park so she’ll be ready for her first Disney trip.  Today, I bought red fabric with white polka dots to make a table runner and napkin ties.  That’s as far as I’ve gotten but I’m really excited about how things are coming along so far.  I’ll keep you posted with my progress and show pictures of the finished product.

Have you planned a birthday party for your kids?  What theme did you go with?  Any tips on planning a birthday party?

It’s our first Autumn in our home and since we’ve made the big move from the city to the burbs, it’s the first time that we live some place where kids may actually come trick-or-treating.  I wanted to create a festive environment but wasn’t going for a haunted house look.   Flipping through the pages of a Williams-Sonoma catalog, I fell in love with their autumn wreaths.  The wreaths were gorgeous but cost a pretty penny ($59.95 and up).  I’m not living that large yet, so I decided I would make my own wreath.  For less than $20, I created our first family autumn wreath.  Read on for instructions on how you can make one too.

Supplies & Tools:
-Base Wreath
-Flowers, Leaves, Pumpkins – anything you want to decorate the wreath with
-Hot glue gun & glue sticks
-Pliers/Wire Cutter

Cut each flower and leave about 4 inches of stem.

Push the flower stem through the wreath and come up with a design that you like. Do no use the glue yet so you can try different placements.

When you found a design you like, take one flower out at a time and add hot glue to the base of the flower.

Place the flower back in the wreath and push down on the top for about one minute until the glue dries the flower in place.

Once all the flowers are glued in place and the glue has dried, flip the wreath over and trim the extra length of the flower stems.

Voila! Your autumn wreath is done and ready for hanging.