DIY 5th Birthday Party Invitations - UPDATED WITH MORE PICS

Well it is after Christmas and it has been awhile since I blogged.  I appologize for the absence, but there has been health issues that are currently being looking into.

I have finally found the invitation to my daughter's 5th Birthday party invitations.  She wanted a princess birthday sleepover.  We obliged as we usually do for our only daughter.  So, here is the picture of the princess.

This was a stamp image from StampinUp!  I hand colored the images for approximately 16 invites.  Then I stamped the castle image on the actual invitation and tore the edges of the princess to make a feathery look.  I then glued fiber to the edge of the torn edges of the princess image and glued it onto the invitation.  This is how it came out:

The pertinent information was filled in on the inside.  Now, although we didn't do that many invites, it took me a long time as I hand-colored all of the princesses while I took the train into Downtown L.A. to work.

There were also other items that I did for the party.

*  I purchased plain paperbags with handles and as each guest came in to the party, they had a small table with crayons, markers, and other things to decorate their bags with.  They then put their names on it and it became their goodie bags.  All treats and giveaways were put in their bags.

*I went all out and purchased Disney Princess decorations and decorated the eating area.  The menu included veggies with dip, finger sandwhiches, and tea (punch).

*After we played games such as pin the tiara on Cinderella, after eating, we had a princess movie marathon.  All of the movies had Princess in the title and that was all of the movies they had to watch.

*I couldn't find the pictures of the cake, but it really did look like a castle.  I went all out for this party and was a Martha Stewart clone!  The cake was a 9x9x2 cake pan and I baked 2 cakes.  I place one on top of the other with strawberry flavor frosting in the middle.  I also frosted the outside of the cake with the same frosting.  I then took a regular (flat-bottom) icecream cone and frosted 4 of them and placed them in each corner of the cake.  I then took 4 sugar cone (pointy-bottom) icecream cone and frosted that as well and place them on top of the regular cones.  These became the turrets for the castle.  I then took half of a graham craker to make the door.  I also had a bunch of hersheys kisses and made sure that the paper was sticking up straight and place them around as part of the wall of the castle.  It was a fun cake to make and the girls enjoyed it!  As soon as I find the pictures, I will edit this post and include them.

As I believe I stated before, my daughter has requested another princess sleepover for her 12th birthday and requested that I make the cake again.  It will be fun and I am just glad that she enjoyes and appreciates what I do for her and to make her party special.


**********UPDATE***********

So I found some, not all, pictures from her 5th birthday party.   Were they on my home computer?  No, they were on my computer at work.  Go figure.

So here they are. 

The infamous cake.  One mistake I will note, I thought I used graham crakers for the doors, but it was wafer cookies, pink ones, for the drawbridge.

The dining table and the partygoers enjoying the cake.

The birthday girl enjoying one of the turrets.

The birthday girl AFTER finishing the turret.  The two things I forgot to mention and they were pivital items to making this birthday party a success were:

1) having a helper for the party.  My neice Nicole was a tremendous help at the party.

2)For birthday parties, I follow this rule:  For the number of years the child is turning, that is the number of invitees for the party.  I told my daughter that since she was turning five, she could invite 5 girls.  I also told her that if someone wasn't able to come, we could keep inviting girls, one by one until we get 5 confirmed rsvp's.  It really helped in keeping my insanity.

Its me....Its all me.

I only have a few minutes before I have to leave to pick up my daughter from school.  I am having such mixed feelings right now.  My daughter is 11 years old, approximately 5 feet tall (I believe she will pass me by the time my wedding comes around), and she is attending her first winter ball tomorrow night.  Her daud purchased her dress and purse and I purchased her ticket and shoes.  Now she doesn't have a date yet, she is not allowed to date a boy yet, but she is going with one of her girlfriends. 

I just want her to have fun and enjoy it.  I guess I'm afraid that other school kids will be mean to her as some have been in the past.  I pray that she has a great time and will remember the fun as she grows into the beautiful, special young lady that I know she will be.

Welcome home everyone....welcome home!!

So its Tuesday and I am still sore from moving.  Ok...i'm just a little sore.  Yesterday I took the day off from everything except work.  I didn't go on the computer (ok, its not hooked up yet), didn't blog (still...not hooked up yet), and didn't even unpack (ok...just me being lazy).  Boy...I feel better today than I did yesterday!

Everything has been moved into the house or in the garage but we are officially out of the apartment.  My cats are getting used to the vast space available as well.  This morning as I was watching the news, they were chasing each other back and forth from my daughter's bedroom to the den.  They sounded like a small herd of horses, and there is only two of them!  At least they will get more exercise at the new place.  My daughter loves....LOVES, her new bedroom. 

Tonight I will start unpacking but I first have to put the computer table together and get the computer set up.  The cable guy will be here tomorrow to set up our cable, telephone and internet.  I need to have it ready for him.

So...as soon as I get my printer/scanner hooked up to my computer and the internet working, I plan on posting pics of my daughters 5th birthday party.  This party was the craftiest I have ever been.  I handmade the invitations, made the food, created a craft project and got craft supplies for them and made a castle cake from scratch.  My daughter to this day remembers that party and has recently asked for me to make the castle cake for her next party which will also be a slumber princess party again.  So...how do I outdo what I did for the last princess party???  Things that make you go hmmmm?

Have a great Tuesday everyone!!!

Have hammer will travel!!

We have moved in some stuff on Wednesday and will continue tomorrow, Friday.  Mr. Teddybear and I have both agreed that we like and dislike some of the color that was painted in the new place.  Here is what we like and don't like about the color by room.

Livingroom - There is one accent wall that is painted what looks like a burgandy color which we actually like.  However, the rest of the walls are painted a dark beige which is a neutral color (Mr. Teddybear doesn't like neutral) but it also makes the room darker.  We are looking for a color that is lighter but also compliments the accent wall that we are trying to keep. 

Kitchen - The previous tenant was going for a bistro look by painting the walls a light yellow and painting the trim black.  Yes, black.  Mr. Teddybear and I both don't like the black trim, but we kind of like the yellow.  We kinda like it but it seems a bit too light.  We are just not sure if it is too light because the black overpowers it and mutes the color or not.  So we are looking for a blue or green that would compliment the current yellow.  If the current yellow is still too light, then we would go with a different yellow.

Our Bedroom -  I have known that blues and greens are a serene color and have always wanted my room one of those colors.  Although this room has the same burgandy as the livingroom, we will be painting over it.  We are still picking which blue or green we want.

2nd Bedroom - This room was painted a dark beige as the livingroom.  My daughter has already voiced her opinions and wants to paint her room pink.  She is such a girly-girl!  We are trying to keep her realistic in her color choices and toning it down a bit while still trying to give her control and creative freedom. 

Bathroom - This is the one room that there is not much change going on.  It is currently white with purple accents.  We love the soft purple specks on the tile.  We have decided that one of the walls need some color so we will be painting it a light lavender to go with the very pretty purple speckeled tile.  We are also considering painting the current cabinet a white or very light lavender but we haven't fully decided that.

Den -  Well this is one room that we currently will not be changing.  It is a bit dark and not only has a fireplace, but also has wood paneling.  Now this is not your '70's dated wood paneling, this is the real wood, tonge-in-grove paneling that adds value to a house.  We decided to not paint over the wood paneling because it is just so beautiful but we decided to paint the fireplace at a later date, if the owner allows us to.  I believe that will brighten the room and give the room a focal point.  I think this will be the last room we tackle as it might be the most difficult.

So that is the future DIY projects that we have on our plate.  I brought up laying wood flooring down and re-tiling the kitchen counters but that is still in negotiations with Mr. Teddybear.   ;-)  I'll let you know how that turns out!

I'm half and half...

Well, the packing is about 90% done.  We almost finished packing the kitchen, the bedroom and the office area.  It helps that some of our stuff was already packed as I was getting ready to re-organize my house and possibly send stuff to storage.  So this weekend is the big move weekend.  It should be fairly easy as we are planning to move stuff on Wednesday and Friday before the weekend.  Saturday I am hoping to only move a few things then clean the old place and still take my daughter out trick-or-treating.  I will keep you guys updated.

With all of this change going on, I am a little saddened.  It looks like my daughter's Girl Scout troop will be disbanding.  The last few meetings we haven't had any one attend.  When I called to make sure the girls were alright, the parents tell me that their daughters aren't attending because they are being overwhelmed with homework.  Although I am moving, I was planning on staying on till the end of the year so that the girls could finish their bronze award, however with no one showing up, It is not financially feasible for me to continue with the troop as their leader.  Our Co-leader also does not want to take over as leader either.  So it seems that disbanding is our only option.  Although we can't technically disband for a few months due to fall product sales, I am encouraging the parents to have their daughters switch to Juliette Girl Scouts.  This will allow the girls to still be Girl Scouts, particpate in events and work on their badges and awards but they do it on their own time.  If later on they decide to join another troop, they will be able to.  I'm going to really miss those girls.  Some of them I have known for 3 years.  Yes, I am a little saddened by this.

Its hard.  I feel happy with the move but saddend by the troop disbanding.  But as life goes, with some happiness there is sometimes saddness as well.

Hope you all enjoy your Tuesday and have a great week!!!