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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Sweet Cupcakes: A First Birthday Party

When I found this super cute paper on sale at Michaels, the cupcake theme for my daughter Zoe's first birthday party was set!  I also picked up some glittery silver paper and glitter paints to coordinate.  :)


I borrowed the Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge from my awesome sister-in-law to put the invitations together and had my older daughter Alyssa help me paint the cupcake and candle with glitter paint. I wrapped some glittery pink ribbon around the cupcake wrapper to give it some dimension and texture. 



We had Alyssa's first birthday party at our house, and from that party we learned that our house and yard are just a little too small to have a gathering of more than just a few friends for now.  But our budget didn't allow us to rent a big space or even do something at an activity center (such as a gym, bowling alley, or roller skating rink).  Since the weather is pretty nice around both girls' birthdays (end of May and early September), we luck out and are able to go to a park for our parties.  I'm such a planner that I just have to have a reservation for a party, rather than scoping out a set of picnic benches at the park the day of the party, especially in early June!  I called around to the recreation departments in the area and was surprised to find the local parks in Paradise now charge a fee between $50 and $150 dollars to rent BBQ/party spaces!  Luckily, the super-fun Caper Acres park in Chico still allows reservations in their "birthday rings" for free.  Whew!!  With play equipment for kids of all ages, the only challenge was keeping them together for the party activities.  :)

I'm not huge on party decorations anyway, so it wasn't very hard to avoid buying balloons and streamers to keep costs at a minimum, but when it comes to tablecloths at a park, those are a must!  A friend gave me an awesome tip that the newspaper here in Paradise, which also prints publications for many surrounding areas sells the "ends" of the large newspaper rolls, which still have TONS of paper left, for super cheap ($1.50 per roll!).  We picked some of these up to use now and for many (many, many) art projects to come, taped them to the tables, and put some crayons out for everyone to draw all over them during the party - it was great! 

And the remaining roll was perfect to give us a clean place to set all of our stuff instead of taking up real estate on a table or sitting on the dirt at the park!


I made chocolate and yellow cake cupcakes and three different kinds of frosting, pink vanilla, chocolate and Nutella frosting from Pinterest (it is as yummy as it sounds!).  Since Zoe has a cousin with a nut allergy, I made a double batch of chocolate frosting following the Nutella frosting recipe, but omitting the Nutella.  Then I split the batch in half and added Nutella to one batch, and kept some plain chocolate.  Both were awesome!  A side note: I added all the ingredients together and mixed with the hand mixer instead of mixing things together in stages (since I failed to read the directions on the recipe ahead of time - whoops!), and the frosting turned out just great.


Since we didn't play any games (not necessary at the park!), I set up a cupcake decorating station for the kids.  I made a set of each kind of cupcake in my mini-muffin pans, and set out the pink vanilla and chocolate frosting and sprinkles and let the kids decorate their own cupcakes.  The "do-it-yourself" cupcakes were a hit with the kids!  One lesson learned: I put out "cookie sticks" from JoAnn to use to pick up and dip the mini-cupcakes, but the cupcakes ended up falling off of them easily and forks worked better... perhaps a thinner stick next time?


The birthday girl even had a super-sweet cupcake dress to wear for the party (thanks, Grandma!).  I'd say the party was a great success!!


I had enough paper leftover from the invitations to make these coordinating thank you cards too!


What are your secrets for planning a cute and fun birthday party on a dime?

This post is linked up to the following parties:

Show Me Extraordinary @ The 36th Avenue
Hookin Up HOH @ House of Hepworths
Delightfully Inspiring Thursday @ Delightful Order
Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Inspiration Friday @ At the Picket Fence 
The Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Nap Time
Sunday Showcase @ Under the Table and Dreaming
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple
Link Party @ Polish the Stars 
One Project at a Time @ A Bowl Full of Lemons
Simply Sensational Tuesday @ Organized Homelife
Overflowing with Creativity @ It's Overflowing
The Creative Spark @ Clean & Scentsible 
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts 
Make it Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House





Friday, June 22, 2012

The Path to Our Dream Home: Master Bedroom

Today we continue the Path to Our Dream Home series with our master bedroom.  To catch up, you can visit these posts: Back to the Beginning, the Main Bath, the Guest Bath, the Utility/Storage Room, the Media Closet, the Nursery, and the Little Girl's Room.  Each post tours the space in photographs, and shows how we work a lot of organization and function into each room of our small house.  There are many project ideas for each room, so none of them is ever "done", but they are all on the path to our dream home!

I absolutely LOVE my master bedroom.  I think a master bedroom should be an oasis from all the chaos of life.  The colors, furniture and layout in our master combine for a look that is very soothing to me.


As I discussed in an earlier post, six inch bed risers give us an amazing amount of storage under our California King bed.  With the furniture in its current arrangement, the large headboard covers up the bottom half of the small second window in the room.  When we arranged the furniture this way, I thought for sure I would hate the bed covering the window, but I don't actually mind it at all.  Does anyone else cover up a window with furniture?


This cane rocking chair that belonged to my husband as a boy is very special to us.  We want the kids to use and enjoy it, but it is delicate and is still a hazard for my one-year-old that is learning to walk.  This spot in our bedroom provides the perfect environment to keep it safe, but still have it out.


The closet has an organizing system that divides the rods on either side with a stack of drawers and shelves to provide storage for clothes and shoes.  Since I only have two long dresses (one of which being my wedding dress), we have double rods on both sides of our closet, providing plenty of hanging space for me and my husband.  Since our bathroom is small and lacks storage and counter space, I use one shelf of the closet to house toiletries.



Between our dressers and closet, as well as some containers under the bed for off-season clothes, we are able to neatly store all of our clothing in our bedroom. As for entertainment in the bedroom, we are able to access the full library of movies and videos and watch internet television via a laptop connected to our network.  For more details on how we organize our media, read this post on our Media Closet.

As in every room in the house, I have projects in mind for this room, so I'm sure we'll revisit this space!

This post is linked up to:

DIY Project Parade @ DIY Showoff
The Sunday Showcase Party @ Under the Table and Dreaming
The Sundae Scoop @ I Heart Nap Time
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple
Overflowing with Creativity @ It's Overflowing
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch 
Simply Sensational Tuesday @ Organizing Homelife
One Project at a Time @ A Bowl Full of Lemons
Home Decor and Organizing Party @ organize & decorate everything
The Creative Spark @ Clean & Scentsible
Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts 
Show Me Extraordinary @ The 36th Avenue
Hookin Up HOH @ House of Hepworths
Delightfully Inspiring Thursday @ Delightful Order
Transformation Thursday @ Shabby Creek Cottage
Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Inspiration Friday @ At the Picket Fence
Fridays Unfolded @ Stuff and Nonsense
Weekend Bloggy Reading @ Serenity Now

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