Pinterest Birthday Party, Part One

 

I was at my friend Heather's house sharing ideas and asking her opinion of some of my etsy creations. Honestly, she fell in love with them. She wanted some for her grandkids and also for herself. She had been wanting to do a Pinterest party for some time. (Where she would gather friends together to share Pinterest inspired food and then make a few craft items found on Pinterest).
Her birthday was approaching and her son wanted to do something special for her. Long story she wanted a Pinterest inspired party. I had asked what she thought of going ahead and making it a Pinterest themed party. Between her ideas and mine. This is her Pinterest Birthday Party...



She talks in her post about how we arrived at the color scheme. It was bright, fun and Pinteresty perfect! Because it was a Pin inspired party I wanted to use not just mine and her ideas but also what we found on Pinterest as well.
If you have never been on Pinterest it is a lot of fun! It is an online bulletin board where you can save all the great ideas you find. We had tons of ideas of course so I will share with you what we "pinned" it down too! To quote Heather "It was as if a Pin had stepped right off of Pinterest and into my living room!!!"

To start with I made invites for her, I pinned the ideas and images from Pinterest of course. You can find most of these pins on my Heather's Pinterest Party board.

Then I made for her what inspired this whole thing in the first place, her birthday banners.

so sorry for the glare of the flash

 Heather wanted to add these.

She spray painted wine bottles and I used my Cricut machine (on deep and slow cut setting) to cut the red vinyl letters for her. She then wanted to use what she had for flowers. The daffodils and tulips had already come and gone, the iris and peonies were not ready yet. But what is in full bloom... dandelions. They actually were so pretty in contrast to the red and teal.

She also wanted a small banner so I came up with this for her...

We then made all kinds of flowers. I will do another post on how these were made.

This last one is one that I have only seen on Pinterest which links to this site.
Other items we used...

pumpkins she painted

my spring wreath

all the little added touches

"Pin" This!

Her cake stands and cake pops

She's just adorable!

In the next few posts I will share the food and cake, "how to" on some of the ideas, and the make and takes we did. Heather is also sharing her thoughts on the party as well on her blog Dumpster Diving Darling

Thank you for stopping by! We hope this inspires you to get friends and family together and celebrate life and creativity!

linking up at:

Mother's Day gift made with everyday items around the house

I am taking a break from New Meal Monday's to share with you a fun easy craft your kiddos will love to give to moms, grandma's, even their cousins and friends. At our last 4H meeting one of our leaders shared with us how to make these cute necklaces out of simple items. Sunshine and I thought it would be fun to make some more and share with all of you!

At the meeting she brought clothes pins, chain, various beads and wire cutters. I am all for using what we already have on hand so we have colored cord to use instead of the chain.

First the most fun part of this whole project...

...pulling the clothes pins apart! Instructed them to gently pull apart though. Otherwise you will need to use your wire cutters to get them back into shape.

Once you have your clothes pins separated, bag the wooden parts and save for another project we will do for Father's Day (future post).
Ok, lets stop for a moment and just enjoy what is before us. Who comes to the table to craft looking like they are ready for tea? Why Sunshine of course! (Sorry, had to share, she's too cute!)

Ok, so once you have your beads picked out, you will most likely need to trim down each side of the opening. (opposite end from the spring)

Then once you put the bead in, both sides of the bead will fit evenly through.. If your bead has a big enough opening you will not need to trim.

Then use what you have on hand (chain, cord, or ribbon) and thread it through the spiral spring part.

There you have it!
Happy Mother's Day!

Pour on the chocolate, cake

I bought the angel food cake from the Walmart discount bakery shelf for only $1.66. I had the intentions of using up our strawberries on it. When I went to make the strawberry shortcake dessert I discovered that the strawberries started to mold. Bummer! But all is not lost. Pull out the bottle of chocolate someone had given you for free.

Warm the chocolate in the microwave according to the directions on the bottle.

Pour just about the whole bottle on the cake with back and forth motions over the cake....yea, that looks about perfect!

Let is set only as long as you can stand it! Enjoy!

Alternative: use canned frosting that is melted slowly in the microwave. Just do a few seconds at a time (stirring in between) so you won't over melt it.

What I buy at Costco (small family style)

Thanks for stopping by for week 4 of Thrifting Thursday. A few years ago I learned how to coupon shop which meant I really had no need for Costco. Now, I find I do not have the time commitment needed to keep up with the coupons year round. I will however try to coupon shop a few months of the year in order to restock our health and beauty supply cupboard. Otherwise I am checking sales and shopping our discount grocery store for most of our food. I have found that shopping Costco lately has been beneficial to our family. Here is what I buy at Costco for our small family of 3.

I will say up front that Costco is at least 45 minutes from where I live. So I only make it there about every other month and when I do go I want to make it count. I will also usually go with someone else and split the gas or go when I have other errands in that area too. Also this is a partial list, I will do an updated post when I get other items next time.

First up is toilet paper. When I coupon shopped I rarely got a 12 pack for under $4. I still to this day can't figure out how someone would have gotten it for free, lol! I personally think that Costco brand toilet paper is great. It is a 30 roll pack, 425 sheets a roll, 2 ply. For a family of 3 it is a lot of tp- we will never run out, but more importantly, when mom stops buy I can offer her some which helps her budget stretch even more. I will also buy the paper towels when needed and this time I bought the kleenex. We go through a lot of tissues (allergies). Usually I will pay around a $1 a box for 86-120 count store brand somewhere. When I was at Costco this time they had them on sale for $14.99 for 10- 230 count 2 ply. It makes it only $1.50 for a more than double size box of what I usually buy. It's a great deal for us! Also this time I am trying Costco's brand of dishwashing tablets, it was $10 for 120 count. We will see if I like them?? Something else that I bought is a 500 count box of ziploc sandwhich bags ($9.49 for 500 count). We don't need 500 however my sister bought the big box of gallon size bags and we are swapping some out for the other size. This is a huge benefit of buying in bulk- split the bag or box with someone!

A couple of items I always buy here are the 60 count string cheese for $12.99 (22 cents each) and the 24 count yogurt for $9.99 (42 cents each). These are two foods my small family has no problem eating within the sale by date. Another item that I don't really think is a savings- price wise, except it saves from "going to waste". It is the individual size packs of hummus. Two of us love it! I have have not had success yet with making my own (need to keep trying), so I buy it. When I buy a regular size container of it, it ends up in the back of the fridge and eventually going to waste. Buying this pack of 16 for $6 makes them only 38 cents each and all of it always gets used. I feel the "no wasting" is a huge savings!

Fruits and veggies when bought here usually are split with someone. But this time I bought the big bag of organic baby greens ($4.29) to freeze for my smoothies and my made from scratch spinach dip.
Since I have started my own party business I have been making more cakes and frostings; I was needing some cream cheese and powdered sugar, so to save time bought what they had.

Sunshine loves to go with me to Costco because of all the samples. So I will usually allow one splurge purchase. This time we bought the Baked Fry's for $5.29. They are yummy for sure!

My total purchase was $101.32 (inc tax). That is a big chunk of our budget so I always go with a limit of only spending $80-100 each time. And most always try to pay in cash so I won't go over board.

There are other items I will purchase here, and will share in another post next time I go. Do you shop Costco? What items do you purchase there? 

Made from Scratch Spinach Dip

I enjoy a good spinach dip every now and again. I finally learned how to make it at my sisters house one day. While I was shopping at my favorite discount grocery store, I was in the seasoning section looking for any spinach dip packets that I might be able to get for a great price. They didn't have any however, they did have some dehydrated vegetable flakes and it gave me the idea to try to make the seasoning myself, so I purchased some.

Spinach Dip from scratch:
1/2 bag fresh spinach that has been frozen
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayo
1-2 TBS ranch seasoning mix
1 can water chestnuts drained and chopped
1/2 cup dehydrated veggies
bread or veggies to dip with

I use fresh spinach that I have frozen. *If I remember-as soon as I take it out of the freezer, I crunch it up in the bag. It breaks up nicely, which means I can skip the chopping step later. Once I have crunched up my spinach I place it in a steamer basket and cover it for about 7 minutes.

Once it is finished steaming, I drain, allow to cool, then using a paper towel- squeeze the excess water out of the spinach. Then I mix it in with all of the other ingredients. If I can stand it, I will leave the spinach dip in the fridge for a few hours so the dehydrated veggies can soften.

I had my mom try it, she and I both agreed it tastes pretty close to the prepackaged seasoning mix. Yummo!

print recipe

More Thrifting Thursday Ideas!

So real life happened again! I had every intention in a week 4 Thrifting Thursday titled "What I buy at Costco- small family style". We left early Tuesday morning for a 45 minute drive to get these one day old fluffy cuties!

Our next stop was going to be Costco (another 10 min drive) while Dear Hubby would do another errand. We pull up at 8:30 and the parking lot is bare. At first I commented how we get to shop in a quite Costco this morning... ah man....I had no idea Costco does not open until 10 am! What's with that! LOL!
For the record I only get over to Costco about every other month or so (50 min drive) and never this early. We couldn't stay and wait because Dear Hubby had to get back (to be at work at 11) and we still needed to set up a place for our new fluffy cuties! So next week I hope to have a post for you on shopping Costco when there is only 3 of you. Until then here is where I link up my posts each week. If you go to each site there will be tons more posts of bloggers linking up their thrifty ideas, recipes, mothering tips, DIY and all kinds of fun stuff!
Living Well Spending Less Thrifty Thursday
Thrive at Home Thursday
And guess what!!!! I am so excited! On Living Well Spending Less' Thrifty Thursday look who is listed as #7 for most viewed the previous week! It was this post on saving at a discount grocery store. As I was scrolling down to link up my posts I see my pic and do a double take. Yay!!!
So head on over and check out all the wonderful ideas being shared. Enjoy!

A cheerful addition to kitchen decor, DIY

I loved this project! So simple, so fun, so cheerful! I got this fella from my friend Heather who had him in a box to sell. She said I could have him, cause she is so sweet like that! After sharing with her what I wanted to do, I took him home and got to work.

He is a copper jello mold pan.

I wanted him red though! Using cardboard and a can of red paint I already had on hand, I sprayed 2 coats of paint on him (letting him dry for a few hours in between coats).

 I hung him in the kitchen only to get a picture of him complete.

He now lives up above a cupboard in my kitchen with mason jars, a vintage toaster, and Mrs. Butterworth.

Such a simple and frugal way to add some cheer to an area in the kitchen! What do you think? Do you have something, that with a coat of paint would add some new cheer to your home?

Speaking of adding cheer to the home, look at our new additions! More on them at another time.