When Annabelle first told me she wanted a “banana party,” I had no idea what that would entail. It ended up being a ton of fun coming up with ideas and the party was hit with all of the kids!
First off are the invites which were, of course, bananas! I used yellow cardstock for the “peel” and used my sewing machine to stitch around the edge so that the “banana” could be inserted and removed easily. And, I couldn’t have a banana without a banana sticker, so I used sticker paper and printed off my own with a 3 on them. The fronts read, “Our little chiquita is turning 3!” and the back had the pertinent party info. They were sent with the flaps up so that the guests could feel like they were actually peeling the banana. I love these
I found this adorable banana fabric from Moda and used it for her skirt and the goody bags. It was destiny! The skirt was made from this twirly skirt pattern and it was quite cute for the short amount of time that she wore it.
About 20-minutes into the party she changed into her bathing suit to play on the “wet banana” (AKA slip-n-slide). Ok. I’m the only one who called it this. I do believe that the slip-n-slide will make an appearance at all of our birthday parties because it’s easy and the kids LOVE IT. I will find a way to work it into whatever theme these little monkeys come up with!
Here are the goody bags. I just made very simple bags that tied with an attached ribbon. Inside the bags were paintchip-notepads, banana crayons (melted then poured into candy molds), noise makers, banana suckers, and little craft papers that I picked up in packs at JoAnn’s. I spent no more than $10 on everything total (not per bag…total!) which thrills me to no end.
Some of the kids were not quite ready to jump right in and join the fun at the slip-n-slide so they played this Banana Toss game:
We had chocolate cuppies with a light banana topping. I’ll post the recipe for the topping tomorrow (I actually have stuff to post so I’m dragging this baby out!). While I’m at this photo I’ll also point out something else that worked out and made me immensely happy. I used the tutorial for attaching plates and candle sticks from Design Sponge to make this cupcake stand and I’m just thrilled that it worked out so well! We had more cupcakes than this. I staged this quickly before the party then promptly put everthing back in the fridge before it melted. I added a banana slice to each cupcake before serving.
And, for the cake, I made this Banana Split Cake from Martha Stewart. It was a big ol’ pile of ooey goodness and it was delicious!
Thanks for stopping by and checking out our fun! Here are just a couple more pics of the girls playing with the banana toss the day after the party:
These girls are getting so big. I wish I had some time to share everything we’ve been up to lately. Hopefully soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d share this picture I got today of the two of them together. Could there possibly be anything sweeter than the love shared between two sisters? See you all very soon!
I’ve been meaning to make these for a while, and since we’re so close to Easter, I decided to throw them into the basket with whatever other goodies I can pull together.
If you’re thinking they look a bit familiar, you’re right. They are the cuffs from the same sweaters that I used to make the heart-felt scarf. There’s so much left of those sweaters and I’m determined to use as much of it as I can!
I had originally intended to make some simple purses for the girls, but the more I thought about it, the more a pocket seemed like the right direction to take. They love pockets! I figure this way they can have a pocket handy no matter what they’re wearing. Plus these were super easy to make. Just lop off the cuffs, turn inside out, sew the ends, add a handy strap, turn the right way and you’re done!
I really think they’re going to go over well and can’t wait to give them to the girls. I’m thinking about adding a little something to them. Perhaps a flower or butterfly applique? Any thoughts?
I had to pull the plug on the baby booties I was trying to knit. The hat apparently gave me a huge confidence boost so when I read “make this pattern when you feel very comfortable using round needles” I figured I was golden. After all, I used them once with no problems so I must be an expert. I have been humbly put back in my place and will attempt said booties at a later time.
Instead of the booties, I turned to JC Handmade’s Best Bib pattern, available on Etsy. Hers are gorgeous. Here are mine (plus a little hat I threw in):
Aside from a sad attempt at free-motion quilting, I was very happy with how they turned out. I’ll definitely use the pattern again. Actually, the girls didn’t want me bringing these bibs to “the baby” so I might go ahead and make some for them.
Oh, and the B on the hat is for Brian, which will be the baby’s name. Can’t wait for the little guy to get here!
Teaser: I will have a tutorial up some time this week. Probably Thursday. This poor blog has been neglected lately, so I’m really excited about having a few things to post about this week. See you soon!
So, I kept you all in suspense, and all it was is this simple little scarf for the girls. Got the idea from Martha, but it came as no surprise to me that the idea was originated by Betz White (whom I’ve mentioned several times before). Just to catch you up, Betz White is the queen of felted sweater crafts…and she’s a genius.
I needed to do something with my felted sweaters and I thought the girls might like wearing this for dress up (because nobody actually wears scarves in Florida). I was going to just post a few pics of the completed scarf today, but I ended up taking some pics of Charlotte with the scarf…so now this is pretty much just a post with pictures of Charlotte playing with her new scarf…which she loves.
It’s actually a very cozy scarf. Charlotte went back and forth between snuggling with it and wearing it. So, if you’re north of the Mason Dixon line, you could probably make this to keep little necks warm during these last few weeks of winter.
She also drug it around quite a bit.
And of course, the pigtails. So cute. She’s eating a pine-needle.
There you have it. My littlest girl and her brand new felted heart scarf! Thanks for looking.
P.S. Can you tell I’m still playing around with PW’s actions? I’ve been meaning to take on a new “no photo editing” policy…but these actions are just so darn addictive!
I know that potato stamping is traditionally a child’s craft, but I’ve also seen some pretty impressive potato stamps out there. With that in mind, I thought that creating a potato stamp for some homemade Christmas cards could be a cheap resourceful and creatively satisfying project.
In case you can’t see it, this is supposed to a star shining over Baby Jesus. After carving it, I envisioned a stack of carefully stamped and thoughtfully composed Christmas cards that would be sent out to our family and closest friends. Upon stamping, however, it became obvious that I had no idea what I was doing. It came out looking terribly gloppy and, well let’s just say Baby Jesus wasn’t exactly looking his best.
What did I do wrong? First, I think I didn’t dry the potato enough before stamping. Second, I didn’t take any precautions to keep the paint on the just the image. I recently saw this video of Martha Stewart making skull potato stamps. In the video, she used a paint applicator which I think would have really helped to keep the print a little cleaner looking. I think my final mistake was not having really clean lines between Jesus and his cradle, so it really just looked like a big blob.
Take 2
My second attempt went much more smoothly. I used a real ink pad instead of paint and carved deep into the potato…probably a good 1/4 inch. I think that made all the difference in the world.
You can see how much cleaner the lines are on my second attempt:
especially when you look at the image.
Potato stamping, and stamping in general, has so many possibilities. I could definitely see myself getting into this more if I had the time to experiment with it in more depth.
If you ever find yourself with a potato in hand and a few moments to spare, go ahead and take a knife to it. It’s more fun than you might think. And, if you’ve read this post (as opposed to just looking at the pictures and moving on) then you should be all set to do it right the first time!
This morning we took the first ornament out of a pocket from our Advent calendar. I’ve been so excited about this thing but it’s taking me forever to complete…so, I’m posting it as a work-in-progress. As long as I can stay a day or two ahead with the ornaments, I figure I’ll be ok!
Here’s what the whole thing looks like (unfinished):
As you can see, it’s a Christmas tree with pockets at the bottom. The tree has little red buttons sewn on, which is where the ornaments will hang. When I’m finished, there will be 24 buttons all over the tree…one for each ornament.
Each day, we’ll take an ornament out and hang it on our little tree.
All of the ornaments have a different component of the story of Christ’s birth. I’m hoping the girls will be excited about seeing what will come next. At the very least, I know they’ll have fun hanging the ornaments. :) They’re are basically just little linen softies with an image stitched on.
I decided to make this Advent calendar without treats or toys after seeing the beginning of the holiday season showing up in stores. When we went to the mall…there was Santa. At the hardware store…there were huge inflatable scenes with Frosty and Santa and all other aspects of Christmas that are devoid religious connotations. So, I thought that an Advent calendar such as this would be a daily reminder about what Christmas is all about. Hopefully, by Christmas morning, there will be no confusion about what we are celebrating when we open gifts and visit family and friends. We’ll still have fun with the other stuff, but I want my girls to understand the difference between the fluff and the meat of Christmas.
After reading our Thanksgiving book a few times and talking about the Pilgrims, I thought it might be fun for the girls to play dress up and pretend to be Pilgrims. So, I did some searches (link, link, link), made some adjustments, and came up with these little hats made from craft felt.
Some things are better in theory.
They humored me by letting me take these pictures of them with their hats.
See this one?
I stalled the hat-pulling by offering a distracting leaf to Charlotte.
And this one?
She was too preoccupied by her intention of grabbing fistfuls of hay and throwing them to bother with the hat. As soon as I got a pic or two, I stopped the hay throwing and the hat came off.
Actually, Annabelle has played with her hat sporadically over the past couple days, which gives me hope that, in time, they’ll enjoy this type of dress up game.
I’ll be storing these in our Thanksgiving box in the hope that one day they’ll look forward to wearing their Pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving. I have this idyllic picture in my head of my two little squirts anxiously awaiting the opening of the holiday boxes so that they can don their hats and play Pilgrim again.
I know that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks and all…
but…
but…
turkeys are fun!
Especially when they talk!
We have been having so much fun with our latest project. I saw this turkey noisemaker on the Craftsanity blog and knew right away that we had to make it.
The instructions call for a soldering iron to puncture holes in the plastic cup, but I don’t recall seeing one of those around here so I used a lighter to heat up a nail and worked just fine!
This was one of those projects that both of my girls could get into, which makes it an instant success in my book. They both helped me tear the brown paper and glue it onto the cup.
Then we sponged some paint onto our feathers…just for fun!
I added the face once the paper had dried and then demonstrated to the girls what this little bird was capable of! The screeching ranges from gawd-aweful to chicken-like and tends to send house pets into a frenzy trying to figure out what’s going on.
For your viewing pleasure:
Everybody took turns making the turkey talk, but it takes a little practice to really get him going.
It’s a simple description of the Thanksgiving holiday that includes everything from the Pilgrims to hand-traced turkeys to cooking up a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Both of my girls have enjoyed reading it and Annabelle actually asked to read it twice last night. We have a couple of Tomie dePaola’s books and they always seem to go over well with our kiddos. So, if you’ve got some little ones and you’re looking for an “Intro to Thanksgiving” type of book, be sure to check this one out!
We’ve been doing so much running around lately there hasn’t been much time for anything at home. I’ve had a few chances to peak over at The Crafty Crow and, my goodness, all of those Thanksgiving crafts are just making my head spin! Turkeys everywhere! So, with turkeys on the brain and straw painting on my never-ending list of things to do, we set forth to paint some turkeys!
I dropped the first small dollop of brown paint on the paper and demonstrated to Annabelle the proper straw-blowing technique. The hardest part for her in the beginning was not getting close enough with the straw.
I’ve had to hold off on doing this activity with her until I knew should could blow out through the straw and not suck in. As it turned out, she proved to me just how big of a girl she is getting to be. Not satisfied with simply picking out her own colors, she insisted on opening and pouring them herself. It blows my mind every time I see just how independent she can be.
I forgot to thin out our tempura paint, which made it a little harder to distribute the paint around, but I like the results. Although, it would be interesting to see how the turkey would come out with a runnier consistency. Let me know if you try it!
Added: I should have known better than to post something when I still had some lingering curiosity about it’s potential. So, I added some water to our paints and tried it again. Here are the results. I actually think I like this one better. I’m going to try it again with Annabelle and see how she does with it, but I wanted to go ahead and get this image up to show you the difference and let you decide which way you prefer.
Just to recap, all you do is drip some paint onto the paper, then point your straw at the paint and blow!
