Party on a Dime

I am always looking for great ideas that also are inexpensive. Simplicity is becoming a big part of my life lately. So these ideas are simple, inexpensive and super fun. My good friend had a bug themed party for her little girl...because she loves bugs. She printed off these butterfly coloring pages, colored them and hung them from the ceiling fan. They were so cute and reminded me of stained glass.

A Lady Bug cake....

This cute Caterpillar was made with construction paper and a plate for the template. It was darling.

My favorite part of this celebration was the Lady Bug font she found do make a Happy Birthday sign....LOVE it. She found the font online for free. Super cute, super simple and super inexpensive, but altogether it gives you a wonderful party. I LOVE these ideas.

Bone's Season Finale Party

I don't watch a lot of TV mostly because our nights are so crazy, but I am a huge fan of the show Bones. It has the who done it mystery with some forensics and science and a lot of chemistry between characters without being too scary or smutty. Last night was the Season 6 Finale. My sister and I had a little party and watched...waiting to see what happened. I won't give it away but it was a fun show. Our menu...consisted of Hot Blooded Tamales, Wong Foo's Chocolate Bones (pretzels)Take out, Lime in the Coconut Colada's in honor of Vincent, and since in this episode Bone's and Booth go undercover to a bowling alley...we had a Bones and Bowling Alley theme with Nachos. It was so fun.

Our Nachos

Wong Foo's is a restaurant from an earlier season and the Hot Blooded is Bone's and Booth's song.

My favorite were these bowling shirt plates I found at Zurchers. Aren't they awesome.

We were so busy watching we didn't take any pictures of us....oh well. It was a fun night to celebrate one of my favorite TV couples and a great show. If you are a Bones watcher what did you think? We were screaming at the end. Can't wait till September.

A Little Birdie Told Me Baby Shower

On Saturday we had a super fun Baby Shower for my sister in law. She loves birds so we did a Little Birdie Told me....for our theme. Our colors were pink, yellow and gray. My other sister in law B made his darling banner.

B also helped me with this beautiful table scape. She used clear parfait glasses with yellow and pink carnations. I sewed a grey table runner, with pink flowers on the ends. I found this darling ribbon with flowers on it at Walmart. So easy to add onto things. The nests were made by my sis AL and are no-bake cookies with yellow, white and pink Cadberry Mini Eggs in the center... we added the nests and some moss covered rocks I picked up at the Dollar Store.

We had a wonderful Pasta Spinach Salad...veggie tray with a Greek Cucumber dip, Mushroom Sausage tarts, and Zucchini boats with feta, and tomato mixture. It was so delicious.

AM made a super yummy pomegranate/grapefruit drink...it was so tasty. We used the cherry blossom sticks from the Japanese Dinner Party and cut out birds on my Silhouette machine and hot glued them to the sticks.

We filled vases with rocks, and moss and then added the sticks. I found the bird at Michael's for 40% off.

Finally for the shower gift we put all her items into a wreath that we made look like a nest. We found these cute chick bags at the Dollar Store and put the items inside. It was a fun way to giver her a gift.

It was a perfect way to welcome the newest little member of our family.

Cherry Blossom Party

I did a dinner party with a Cherry Blossom Theme. The invite was paper fortune cookies...with the invite information inside as the fortune. So many great tutorials online. Then the paper cookies were served to my guests in takeout boxes with their names written on front in Japanese....I googled a website that converts English Letters to Japanese.

I am not a huge sushi fan...okay I've never dare try it. But I thought these candy Sushi were fun and easy. Just Google Candy Sushi for ideas and recipes. They are just Rice Crispy Treats and various candy. SOooooo Easy.

Chocolate Dipped Fortune cookies. I bought the fortune cookies and just dipped in melted chocolate and sprinkles.

This was our place setting. The cup was made by my fellow party planner and is a Japanese number. The take out boxes had Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion from Bath and Body Works. The place mat is from the dollar store. And we found the chopsticks and fans online.

I had very little money for decorations and so decided to make my own cherry blossom stems. I hot glued flowers on sticks. I picked up the sticks at Michael's 50 for 5.99 with my 40% off coupon. The flowers I had and just pulled off and glued on. The vase I found for $1.50 at DI

The decorations were simple...two Chinese lanterns and I cut out birds and flowers on my Silhouette and hung them on twine. They looked cute and simple.

You could easily do takeout for this meal, but I made Orange Chicken, Rice and bought frozen Vegetable Spring Rolls that I baked in the oven and put in Takeout boxes.

It was a fun and easy dinner party, with everything being pre-made or assembled and it was affordable too. I did the fortune cookies the night before and kept in fridge and the candy sushi the day of.

Enjoy!!

Emily

Madeline Theme and a Bon Anniversaries Party

So my little Mini Boden is having a birthday. She decided on the Madeline theme for our cake and ice cream family get together. She also told me what she wanted for decorations. I did my best to make it happen. Here is the party table. The tissue pom, pom's were super easy and the tutorial is on here from Martha Stewart We colored a picture of Madeline we found on the computer and put it in a frame. The french flags came from a party store, as well as the french flag picks for the cupcakes.

The yellow hat cake was fun and fairly easy to make. Instructions are located here at Family Fun.

The entire party table.

I made the banner using white binding off a roll that I picked up in the craft section at Walmart. I stapled red satin ribbon to the top and circle fabric cut outs. The letters I made on my computer and just cut them out.

My son Thing 1 made this Eiffel Tower picture as a decoration for his sister. I love it.

Here is my favorite part. Mini B, wanted a shirt that looked like Madeline's cape with a yellow Eiffel tower on it. We picked up a blue shirt 50% off at Hobby Lobby. For $1.50. I used some of the white quilt binding from the banner and cut it into two pieces. I sewed it on to the neck with my sewing machine. Then we tied the ribbon in a bow and stitched it on as well. I found an Eiffel tower coloring page and cut out a template and used it on some yellow fabric. I appliqued it on with a blanket stitch. It was so fun for her to have this fun shirt for her party. Especially since she designed it.

We cut out pieces of foam core we picked up at the dollar store and two easels. Then Mini B. Painted pictures on them. She also colored a picture of Miss Clavel and twelve little girls from the Madeline book. We put this in a picture frame on display.

We had a great party and had so much fun putting this party together. It was fun, unique and we had a great time together.

Gratitude Gathering

A few years ago I heard about how Oprah had given a party honoring the women she admired and respected. I thought it was such a wonderful idea. How often to we

tell the people in our lives or from our past that they make a difference. How much better would the world be for these little girls....if they grew up seeing other women express thanks for one another. So for the last three years I have hosted a Gratitude Gathering. A luncheon for the amazing women in my life. I usually invite my family and a few close friends and then I pick a few women from my lifetime that have made a difference in helping me along my journey. My daughter little Vintage also invites her cousins and a couple friends. Here is the 2010 Gratitude Gathering. Our theme was "Bee" cuz we're Grateful for You.


The place settings...all of our photography is thanks to my sister Breanne. Love this shot. I am not sure how she took it.

We picked the color theme from this wrapping paper, yellow with a blue and brown bee. The favor boxes I picked up 12 for $1 at the Dollar Store. I stapled a square of wrapping paper on the front and back. They had a bookmark, two flavored honey sticks and a small bag of bit of honey in each.

The little girls "Honey Bees" each had a sack lunch.

Their favor boxes were made the same way, but Vintage wanted to make little Tic Tac Toe Games, a ballet slipper necklace, pink bubble gum and a rosette hair piece in them.





We had Spinach Artichoke Humus, Pineapple, Peach Salsa and chips.

A super yummy pumpkin dip with ginger snaps and apples. If you want the recipe go here to my sister's Blog Food for Thought

I used the wrapping paper for the backdrop and for a Be Grateful Banner.

Here is the spread. Yummy chicken Spinach Pasta Salad, Bread sticks, appetizers and lemon cupcakes with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting. Delish.

The white fence my hubby built for my wedding 9 years ago. I painted it white earlier this year for my brother and sister in law's wedding dinner. The rule with my hubby is that I have to use it at least twice year to keep it. So I have now used it twice and it has also been used for two wedding open houses this year. I love it.

Centerpieces for the Queen Bee Tables. I found the place mats at Kohl's on clearance and sewed some brown gross grain rick rack on the. The lemon drops were a fun color addition.

The centerpieces for the little "Honey Bee's" table.

The little girls received sack lunches with Triple Decker Berry Sandwiches wrapped in paper basically we used Peanut Butter, Nutella, and Marshmallow fluff on various layers with sliced strawberries and raspberry jam. A package of carrots, and an apple sauce with a Bee label on top.

We had a lovely day. Visiting, eating and giving thanks for the sisterhood of great women. It was a sweet "bee"utiful day.