Wooden Signs - Birthday's or Any Holiday

These wooden signs are so cute and so easy to do for just about any occasion.

Supplies:
Boards of different sizes (my Lowe's has a finished board section - all I had to do was pick out the ones I wanted $1.50-$3.00 a board)
Stakes ($15 for dozen at Lowes or Home Depot)
Spray Paint
Cut out Letters & Shapes ( I use the Cricut for this part)
Modge Podge
Brush
Nail Gun (or good ol'fashion hammer and some smaller tacks)


Easy Steps:
Cut out whatever you want to go on your signs ... use words, pictures, whatever
Spray Paint your boards, let them dry
Spray Paint your Post
Adhere images/letters with Modge Podge - let it dry
Use Nail Gun (or hammer away) the boards to the Post
And Done - I mean it doesn't get much easier.

Red, Aqua & Pink Crab Party

A MONTH (how long since I last blogged) ... this new job thing is killing me smalls :) I miss the days were I did nothing till 4:00pm and then wondered how the hell it was almost dinner and we got nothing done today! HA ... now I just work and still get nothing done ...

I did manage to  co-pull together with  little miss crabby's fantastic mom, a fantastic, first birthday party. It was so cute, and such a fun night filled with great people, great food and a great guest of honor. We  wanted to create this vintage back yard, southern low country shindig ... and I think we did a pretty good job of nailing it. The weather was a million degree's - but we did say south, so go figure!

Even Miss Crabby Herself - was dressed for the party!

Free Printable!

We had ton's of inspiration for this party ... we knew right away we wanted the color scheme: teal, pink & red ... and then Maddie had the fantastic little crab outfit made by a great gal we know in town. Off the quilting store I went, because they have the best fabric. (FYI, I have zero quilting skills) There I snagged up 4-6 fat quarters in great vintage girly patterns. I really wanted the pennants to be hung from twine, but I struggled on an easy way to hang over 17ft (x2) of pennants on twine ... a needle and thread was just not happening! Now, maybe if I had started some time prior to 72 hours before the party, maybe. Nope, not even then, that is a lot of damn pennants to string!

Crepe paper is another supply I love to use, because it comes in great colors and is CHEAP! The two pictures flanking the TV are pleated streamers - double side taped to a piece of paper, framed without the glass. Best part, take it out and use the frames for something else at your next party, holiday, or around the house.  I also use crepe paper on my wreathes. Easy to do and makes them super cute.

Check out my Pinterest Spot (here) to see all the places we found our great ideas! Also a shout out to eighteen25 for creating this FREE darling birthday sign that just happened to match our birthday party perfectly!!! Check out their site for other great stuff.

Mr. B made a fantastic shrimp boil - I mean LOVED IT. He also, according to everyone else, made wonderful grits. I did not grow up the south. If it looks like mashed potatoes - it should taste like mash potatoes, not oatmeal. Sorry Mr. B, no offense.

Crab First Birthday Party

It has been an HOT and busy summer! Just when you think all is going to calm down BAM ... how about a baby number 2 on the way and a new job. AHH. Well in between all the craziness I am helping a girlfriend throw her baby a first crabby birthday party!

The inspiration came from a nickname daddy gave to his little girl and we coupled it with a low country shrimp boil, throw in some vintage feeling colors and patterns and you have one darn cute little girls birthday party.

I created the invitations in Illustrator. Cut it out and glued it onto red card stock. Added a little sparkle on the bow and presto done! I used pink envelopes and stamped the outside with a little aqua crab on the front - so cute and super cheap!

I did buy the little crab artwork from: StockBerry Studio. She has some great stuff go check her out! The digital page below was only $5!   (the image below belongs to Stockberry Studio) check out her Etsy site to purchase the image)

The vintage, low country, crab spectacular is sure to have some wonderful decorations! I will share more as we get them all completed!

Cupcake Birthday Party

What a day we had! Filled with mini bakers in cute tall hats and darling little aprons! The girls & boys decorated cupcakes, played pin the cherry on the cupcake and of course no party is a party with out a bouncy house ... good thing it was only a 103degrees outside!!

This party was actually pretty easy to pull together. We really lucked out because the dollar store of all places had an entire line of cupcake items - notepads, plates, table clothes, you name it!  So for a big Ol'$20 we scored great stuff!

Savannah's Bakery

From the top - the banner was a quick and easy cut out with the cricut! We ordered the aprons off the Internet and used the Silhouette to cut out fabric cupcakes using their heat and press material. Super Easy to use - just follow the directions on the website. The Bakery Sign was all cut out with the cricut and modge podged to a spray painted canvas. While MP was wet I sprinkled rough cut glitter on top of all the cupcakes to look like sprinkles.  The wreath was another super easy make - I will actually post a tutorial on this one. It is crepe paper & ribbon. The Bakers hats, another order of the web, we glued each girls/boy name onto the hat and added a little cupcake cut out.

The cupcake fabric banner was actually one big piece of fabric that our handy dandy helper Stacey cut apart and backed with white fabric and then attached under the seam. She did it in no time flat ... she is a much better sewer than I am. She also sewed straight lines, using my machine, which is a problem, because I just assumed it was my machine that screwed up the straight lines ... super. The cupcake liner garland was beyond cute! It does take a million cupcake liners but you just thread a needle and put the on one by one ... so cute! Sewing Queen Stacey also was the master maker of the darling CupCake - Cake :)

We did have a few boy bakers - so we made them special blue aprons! And Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake Game was a huge hit! Overall the kids had a blast, the house looked darling, the cupcakes were yummy!

Cupcake Birthday Inspiration

Next month one of Doodlebugs BFF in Kentucky will turn the big 5! To celebrate I am helping her darling Momma host a cupcake birthday extravaganza! I can not wait! I have piles of stuff waiting to get done. Husband is so excited that the bar has once again been taken over by craft crap!

For those of you who do no Pinterest ... you have to - it is so addicting and so much fun! It allows you to grab and catalog all the images on the web. You can check out my page - it was one of the ways I started gathering all my ideas for the Cupcake Extravaganza!

Stay tuned as the next couple weeks will be filled with sprinkle and cupcake lines. I can not wait.

Check out these listing to gather more info on the cool pictures above!
http://shopsweetlulu.bigcartel.com/product/spring-mix-cupcake-liner-set
http://vintagefern.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html
http://everyday-is-a-holiday.blogspot.com/2011/06/itty-bitty-shoezies-roses-cupcakes-and.html
http://www.bakerella.com/chocolate-cupcake-pops/
http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/get-creative-with-cupcake-liners/
http://www.hostessblog.com/2007/11/adorable-upcakes/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hello_naomi/collections/72157602788113356/

Pink and Yellow Birthday Party

Megan over at Luster Designs on Paper and I have a very good mutual friend and it appears a lot of mutual interest. She runs a great business in Naples Florida helping deliver just about any party need you may have!

Since I am a little obsessed with parties - I just had to share her daughters 2nd Birthday Party. She did an amazing job. I love seeing people's vision come to life in the events the plan, the items they create, the designs they design!

Take a little trip over to Megan's blog and see all the great things she is doing!

Lemon Thyme Biscuits

Today may be the official first day of Summer, but it felt a little like fall here today. Ok not totally true - it was like 90 degrees, but it did rain and look very cold and blistery outside. So instead of first day of summer items such as burgers, corn on the cob, hot dogs & potato salad - we had pot roast, noodles and homemade biscuits! HA.

I planted a small potted garden this summer - three types of tomato's, basil, spicy globe basil, lemon-thyme, cilantro and jalapenos. The jalapenos, did not make it. The tops of the tomato's were snacked on by deer - but they have since left them alone. Cilantro was doing great, has taken a turn for the worst ... we shall see how they come out!

I did use my fresh home grown lemon-thyme in my homeade biscuits, making it summer A-OK!

From the Herb Garden: Lemon Thyme - for more recipes

I found the recipe in the July/August Food Network Magazine - click  here for the real recipe. I have a serious problem following a recipe - which will actually lead to the sort of demise of my biscuits ... follow along!  I was all excited when I saw this .. because for those of you who have not grown Lemon Thyme - is spreads, not just a little! So I have been looking for just about anybody who wants some and any recipe that calls for it! I saw this and was like YEAH ... so I read the recipe, which I am also not so good at doing ... yeah, doesn't call for Lemon Thyme at all. Well I fixed that!

So in the ingredients I made the following changes:
added 1 cup grated parm cheese
added a bunch of lemon thyme herbs
couple shakes regular thyme & rosemary
couple shakes of garlic powder
It calls for wheat germ - not gonna lie, that scares the hell out of me, did not use it
It calls for buttermilk, would have done this if I had it .. used regular
Calls for grated lemon zest - skipped it since I grew my lemon into my Thyme :)

So far so good right ... I think this is what unbaked biscuits are suppose to look like. Now for the somewhat fatal mistake ... oven temp 425, not 475 - arghh. I hate myself sometime! No worries I pulled them out a little early, they are a little flat - but they tasted great!

The entire fam loved them! And since they were a little dense, great for soaking up the juices from the pot roast!