Dumbo Circus Birthday

This post is late because I've been having domain issues :(
In the meantime, here is my daughter's 3rd birthday party from JULY.  oops.
She said she wanted a dumbo party which sounded WAY fun to me.  When you think of the circus/carnival angle, the possibilities are endless!

This was my first fondant cake.  Actually, my 2nd.  I did the exact one as a practice on 4th of July except instead of Dumbo in the center, I made a blue star.  The cake topper was made by Dan's Cake Creations.  If you send him a picture of the guest of honor (birthday girl/boy, bride/groom, retiree etc), he can make a cake topper in their likeness.  The best part is its made of clay so you can save it forever.  I have a collection of them on display in our entertainment center. 

They're supposed to look like clown noses. ;) I don't think I got a picture of the macaroons.  THey were red and blue cotton candy flavor.  VERY sweet!

And of course a Dumbo Fruit salad from my mom.

We kept the food simple with carnival type food like hotdogs

and popcorn

I wanted to have a photo booth but I couldn't throw a party and play photographer so I made sure to specify that it was an "iphone" photo booth so people could take their own pictures.  Here are some of the captures:

My girl blowing out her candles (wet from the waterslide).  Thanks for stopping by!

Cinderella Birthday party for my 4 year old princess

When I asked my daughter what kind of party she wanted, she said "Cinderella!". So that's what she got.

My friend drew this on a chalkboard.  It was hanging on our front door so guests would feel like they were walking into the story book.

The desert table.  The clock was an afterthought.  I happened upon it at TJ Max for $8.  The backdrop was inspired by this http://pinterest.com/pin/254664553898973918/

I made these cakepops.  THey were actually pumpkin flavor and the best tasting ones I've made to date if I do say so.  I dented the balls with a tooth pick before I dipped them in orange.  The stem is a Mike and Ike.  My husband and the girls had fun eating the other colors since I couldn't buy all green.

I bought the high heel candy mold on amazon and added blue shimmer to the white chocolate.  Then put them on chocolate cupcakes.  Scored on the blue cake plate at homegoods before Easter.  :)

I ordered this cake from the store.  I really wasn't happy with the color so I tried to cover it with flowers.  hah!  My uncle makes custom candy cupcake toppers so he made these adorable carriages.  Contact me if you want some.  Pretty much anything you can imagine!

My Uncle also made this cake topper to look like my daughter.  So unique!  COntact me if you want one of those too.  He can make them to look like you or your guest of honor and you can be doing pretty much anything you want.  He makes a lot of them for weddings.  The best part is that its clay so you can keep it forever.  Don't throw it out with the cake.  :)

These are custom chocolates made at a friend's chocolate company.

Here's some with my daughter's picture on them. <3

Another one of my mom's brilliant fruit sculptures with raddish mice.

My Aunt found this antique Cinderella book with 3D pictures all still in tact.  It's beautiful!

Here's my princess in her dress by my friend at Fancy Fairy Threads

And another awesome chalk drawing by my friend. I just love that so much of it was made people close to us.  Made it all that more special!  My girl had a great day!  Thanks for stopping by :)

Banners Banners Banners!! - Easy, cheap birthday decorations

If you are a crafter like me, you have tons of scrap crap lying around--paper, fabric, ribbon etc.  I love it!  So many times I don't have to buy ANYTHING to make something really great (or at least I think its great and that's what matters right? hah!)  One of the things I love to make is party banners because they can be free and they can also make a big statement.

The first one I did was for my daughter's minnie mouse birthday which worked out great because I had just finished doing her minnie mouse room so I had a lot of fabric and embellishments.

These are foam flowers I bought at Michaels

For the cardboard birthday, we used corrugated cardboard and it added some fun texture!

For Christmas I bought some fabric squares from walmart for under $3 and used some ribbon I already had

(excuse the bad pic)

I even made a cake topper banner out of left over straws from my daughters birthday party and scrapbook paper 

On new years, I couldn't find anything in my fabrics or scrapbooking papers and then , I spotted a gift bag in my closet that was perfect!  It was black and glittery! Even if you had to buy a gift bag, that is a very cheap banner!

Valentine's was easy because, with two little girls, I have a lot of pink fabric lying around. 

Feel free to share your banners in the comments! :)

Disney's small world playroom

My favorites from Disney are the classics and Small World is definitely one of those!!  I wanted to do something fun in the playroom but it couldn't be too obnoxious like elmo (no offense, elmo lovers) because it can be seen from the family room.  I love the retro shapes and simple lines of the small world.  I also decided to keep the colors simple, again so it wouldn't be too much too look at.  Anyway, here it is:

I painted the mural and my mom made the glockenspiel out of a table topper from Home Depot and attached it to the wall to give it dimension.

The real small world doesn't have letters but I thought this was a little more educational.  Plus I hid my girls birthdays and initials in it.

This is a Mary Blair Lithograph my mom got at Disneyland and lucky for us decided it didn't work in her house.  :)

Here is the mosaic my mom made.  I posted about it before.

My mom made these when I was pregnant with my first.  They were in the nursery for both girls when they were babies.  She had this collection of figurines and put them in shadow boxes.  One of them has the lyrics to "It's a Small World"

Here you can see how it looks from the family room/den area.  I eventually want to put some curtains so I can have adult time if I want to.  Anyone know where I can get a good deal on 4 95" gold(ish) curtain panels? :)

Anthropologie Wandering Pleats Curtains

I have had one last window to cover in our new house since we moved here in October.  This is my craft loft (and my cat):

I bought curtains, hung them and returned them.  Nothing seemed to do justice to the table I love that sits in front.  Of course I could find curtains I love on Anthropolgie but they would cost 4 times more than the table.  I bought the antique table for $100 at a consignment shop and I love it!  Anyway, I took these curtains from the Anthropologie website as inspiration:

http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=22688683&catId=HOME-CURTAINS&pushId=HOME-CURTAINS&popId=HOME&navCount=14&color=014&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&isSubcategory=true&subCategoryId=HOME-CURTAINS&templateType=hybrid
When I was digging through my scrap fabric, I found a muslin backdrop that I don't like to use because its impossible to keep the wrinkles out.  Luckily, it's huge so it was plenty of fabric to try out these curtains myself.  It's 10' x 20'
I cut (4) 8 inch wide strips down the long 20' side and pleated them.

I left the edges unfinished like they did.  Then I made 2 regular 84" curtain panels and attached them to the front.  They actually used a heavier fabric for the curtain (linen) than for the ruffles (voile) so if you attempt this and you don't already have something laying around to use, you can try to find the same type of fabrics they used in the same color (or dye it to match) but this was free so it works for me. :)

And Voila:

(2) 84" Anthropologie wandering pleats curtain panels $336.

(2) 84" homemade curtain panels: $0

woop woop!

If anyone wants more detailed instructions, let me know and I'll expand this post.  Thank you to my seamstress auntie for the tips. :)