fairy tea party favors, food, & a confession

which first…okay confession :)  So many of you ask me how i have time for all this.  Well here’s the sad truth – i don’t anymore!  And I’m afraid all the crafting for birthday parties is coming to a slow end.  One of the reasons I used to do it was for the craft activities for the kids…they loved helping with all of it!  And i used to actually have patience when a whole cupcake mix was dumped on the floor – no problem!  we have nothing else to do let’s start over.  But as homework, dance, laundry, dinner, baths  (yes to all of those that know me all too well, i am actually into bathing them now..sometimes daily), S&J, and just life pile up now there is no time for error so i find myself waiting until kids go to bed or maybe one child is up to get started on the birthday food, decorations, etc.

The second reason i put so much effort into these birthday parties is to be able to throw the party they (okay I) want without breaking the bank.  that reason is still in place so the crafting and baking continues…

The third reason is for the kids (shouldn’t this be the first?! – i am confessing though)… there is nothing like seeing their faces when they see the party for the first time (because while in a perfect world they would help me get it all ready but instead i ship them to their grandmother’s for the day – that may sound like a convenience but it’s a confession – i wish it was easy and fun to let them help me) allowing the party to be completely ready, decorations, food, etc. before they see it.

Having said all that and truly believing that it has to slow down a bit, I know that I’m not capable of sending out quick and easy invitations or spending top dollar for thumbprint cookies…so we will see.  I won’t kill myself over it but there eventually has to be a happy medium.   So onto the (waytoomuchtimespentonthese) favors & food…

thumbprint cookies: perfectly imperfect as usual (i quadrupled the recipe)

• 1/4 c packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c shortening
• 1/4 c butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 c all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven 350.  Beat brown sugar, shortening, butter, vanilla, egg yolk with electric mixer on medium speed.  Stir in flour and salt.  Shape dough into 1 inch balls.  Pres thumb into center of each cookie to make indentation (don’t press all the way to the pan).  Bake 10 min. or until light brown.  Let cool and fill the indention with icing (recipe below)

icing:

• 1 c confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk (i just pour milk in a little bit at a time until i get the consistency i want and it seems to be more than 2 teaspoons)
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla (or almond) extract
• food coloring

Stir together confectioners’ sugar & milk until smooth.  Beat in corn syrup and extract until smooth and glossy.  Add food coloring. 

I froze the thumbprint cookies too (after adding icing and letting it harden a bit – it worked well for me last tea party.)

mini cupcakes (notice the reuse of cupcake liners) I buy the cupcake mix in a box (duncan hines this time) and put these in freezer bags and freeze until the day of the party.  And I will ice them with store bought icing … go me!

favors – fairy wings & wands (just pictures for now)

 

 

 

and I had a fun idea for fairy dust but in my new attempt to not spend ridiculous amounts of time on things I am scrapping it (i think, maybe)

happy week!

fairy tea party invitations

There really is not much of a “how to” on these sweet invites….the pictures really do the talking.

Info changed to protect us against all you 4 year old party crashers out there :) 

But I will let you know a couple of supplies i used:

• purple feathery looking string was found at Michael’s and it’s actually yarn :)
• cupcake hole punch is from that same michael’s…and is Martha Stewart’s
• the rest is just paper, a printer, and tape (for paper behind cupcake punchouts) and hot glue gun (for the yarn)

   

 

 

happy week!

paper spirals

another birthday party is under way!  Molly is turning 4 and having a fairy tea party with her bestie – Presley

These two girls are as different as night and day but they both love a girly tea party :)

In this post: paper spirals (not sure what else to call them!)  As I said before – Arre gave me the idea by attaching a much smaller version to my birthday present (she is an expert at creative gift wrapping)…so here are my directions!  They are easy and make a big statement!

I started with a 12x12 piece of paper

fold it into a triangle

and then again into a smaller trainge

start cutting on the side that is folded (not the open side that you can see above) but do stop about an inch away from the bottom

i made my cuts 1” wide…but I needed them to be “sturdy” since (hopefully) they will be hanging in trees..they are fun and more delicate looking at 1/2” wide

keep cutting

 

open it up

take the inside corners curl them in to reach each other and tape (or hot glue like i did)

flip the paper over and do it again with the next layer

keep flipping over and gluing (or taping) alternating sides until you finish

 

voila!

 

 

stay tuned for invitations!

brrrrrrrr

it is cold outside to say the least

An ice storm hit last night so we are staying inside (schools cancelled!) and arre is stuck in another city! Hopefully she is safely travelling home by now while we try to keep warm.  

An ice day is a perfect day to get some things tackled!  We will be working on these….(for molly’s birthday)

So fun aren’t they?  Thank you to Arre for the idea – she attached a much smaller version to my birthday present (wish I had a pic!)  Hopefully they will be hanging in trees (weather permitting) for her fairy tea party (more on this later!) 

Stay warm!

papier mache project

how lovely are these little trays?



i can't wait to try one (or seven).

h a p p y  ♥  w e e k e n d

thanks for the tip, Jenny

rainbow invitations – Mary James {5th birthday}

Party countdown: 15 days

Step 1: decorations

Step 2: invitations (here)

Step 3: cake (to come)

We are now back into the full swing of mj’s birthday party!  we have a couple weeks to go and have been busy putting the final touches on invitations… inspiration found here. 

 

Remember – I don’t sew…so I had to make some adjustments to how this was actually going to happen.  I used this little tool:

that conveniently rolls on these little rectangular pieces of double sided tape

 

I cut my strips of tissue paper (with slits in them) weeks ago. Add layer after layer of every rainbow color, starting with purple at the bottom.

 

keep adding …

 

until you are done!

hang it on the fridge

And then realize you forgot to add regrets and the child’s name (i am handing these out, not mailing…so I needed to attach their name somehow).  Of course I could have written it all on there but that would’ve been too easy :)

Invitations: check :)

project princess tea party continues

So when I asked Mary James a few weeks ago what she would like to do for her 4th birthday party... this was what she rattled off over the course of the next couple of days...

spend the night party
bouncy castle
swim party
princess
lots of hearts and ribbons party (?!)
ballerina
and that's all I can remember....

It reminds me of when I was with child (mills) and she wanted to name her Rainbow Princess Darling Cupcake and when she told people this (which she did a lot) they would say, "that's a long name, what will you call her for short" and MJ would look at them like they had lost their mind and say "ballerina" because what else would you call a newborn baby girl? When I told her it was going to be Mills - she laughed like i was being silly and said "that's a boy's name". Once she understood that it really was going to be her name, she said how about "chocolate cupcake icing mills" .. as if that was a compromise from the first suggestion. So, for the first few weeks she called her cupcake Mills...and now it's just Mills (thank goodness).

It's almost like rainbows go off in her head instead of lightbulbs when she has all these "great" ideas. Anyway, back to my point... A friend helped me narrow it down and I decided on a princess tea party. And our decorations are involving ribbons and hearts and I think that's the best I can do to incorporate her ideas.


It will have to be a surprise as to what we are going to actually do with these decorations, mostly because i have no idea yet.

I'm sure something will pop into MJ's head soon though. And, I know that this party is still weeks away... but I like to plan and we need something to do INSIDE in this 100+ degree heat we have been having. So, we decided to practice making the petit fours. I'm really not even sure why I'm going to show you this picture it is such a pitiful attempt, but maybe it can be the "before" picture of my beautifully perfect "after" picture.

There were a couple of things working against me on this... for one - MJ wanted chocolate. I think it's a whole lot harder to make the chocolate ones pretty. Shanna had the good idea to make the icing hot pink to "help" with the prettiness (not her words, mine). And it really did look better than if the icing had been white (i think). Jim said they were really really good, so at least I got the taste down. Another thing was time constraint. I was NOT taking my time - Mills was due to be up any minute and I really should have been starting supper at this point, so I was hurrying. Which, obviously, is not something you can do with these things. And I stopped to fix a glass of wine halfway through because really.... you kind of need a drink once you see the finished product. The recipe and directions come from Darby..(who if reads this - is thinking - don't put my name on that! but go look at hers..they are perfect). one point she made (that i chose to ignore) was how they need to be square or at least levelled.

I also did not have a real cooling rack so I just made do. Another thing I was surprised by was you need TONS of icing...Darby did warn that about 1/2 drips off, but you need a lot to begin with.

If you are wanting to make these (because i know my pictures of them just make you so excited about diving in) here's the recipe I used for icing. (2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup whole milk, 1 teaspoon clear vanilla- and this only halfway covered 12 cakes). We're going to try some white cake today and see if it looks any better. Wish us luck and please send any party ideas our way!!

the best cookies e.v.e.r.

and I mean that. They really are the best cookies ever (well, to me at least). I have had some requests for the recipe and I never really get around to typing it out so here it is for the world to see.....

Carol's Chocolate Chip Cookies (carol is a family friend and the rest is self explanatory)
2 C all purpose flour
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 t vanilla
1/2 C butter, melted
1/2 C Wesson oil
2 eggs
2 C oatmeal
1 large package chocolate chips

I made this particular batch for a friend who just had a baby boy (Jett) who I can NOT wait to meet this afternoon!! I'll give you a few tips.... (first i must say, i am no baker/cook or anything of the sort...so these tips are for those of you that are on my (low) level of cooking)


First, gather all your children to help because this is an easy one for kids. Today, Mills wasn't napping (so i strapped her on to be hands free) and Mary James was awake too.

Second, gather all your ingredients (eggs are missing from this picture)
Next, mix all the dry ingredients together, then liquid...

Then, combine the two. Use an ice cream scoop (preferably with a handle thingy that lets you slide the cookie dough off). I pack the cookie dough in pretty good before putting it on the pan. A smaller ice cream scoop is better (makes normal size cookies), but all I have is this large one and it works too (just takes cookies longer to cook).

Please ignore the old pan.. i know, i desperately need new ones.

Here they are! Mine really were so big, I ended up pressing them a little flatter with a spatula, halfway through cooking.

While cookies were cooking (at 350 for these, it took 17 minutes, but when i used to make them with my mom, they only took 10 minutes...i'm guessing it's the size of the scoop that makes the difference) Mills finally got sleepy, so I put her down for a nap and took the opportunity to get started on MJ's birthday invitations.

While, I don't claim to be a great cook, neither do I claime to be crafty. I do think these are a cute idea...but still, they need help so any suggestions are welcome!


So what do you think it needs... glitter, hearts (mary james says so), pink trim? Please tell me what you think!

About the time i finished... cookies were done, mills & molly woke up and all hell broke loose. But it was fun to get some things done for a change! Here are the finished cookies.... YUM


post by kristen