Pin & Spin: Drama

It's time for a fun new, shall we call it, Series, here on Momma Did It!  I can tell you are so excited, so let me tell you more about it!
I am TOTALLY addicted to the fun new site, Pinterest.  Best. Idea. EVER!  However, I have been a little bit of a hoarder of great ideas lately, and needed to put some of those ideas to work.  So I decided to share all of my new found fun with you lovely readers.

I'm calling it Pin & Spin.  I will pick a project from one of my MANY Pinterest Boards, put my spin on it, and share it with all of you.  Of course I will be sharing the link to the original idea, too.  I wouldn't come up with half of my ideas without a little encouragement from all you other amazing crafters out there.  Gotta give credit where credit is due!

So, for my first Pin & Spin, I give you this adorable shirt.  First the original:

And now, my Spin on it:

My version  is a little more girly.

It was a gift for my adorable niece that just turned 3.

She is so full of energy and making her momma run ragged to keep up with her.

I thought it was pretty fitting.

What do you think?

Oh, why don't you come join in on the fun?

You can follow my boards by going here.

Holiday Centerpieces

Last year, on my birthday to be exact, our Relief Society had its annual Holiday Dinner, with a twist.  Our R.S. President didn't want to have it too close to Christmas, so she wanted us to combine Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's into one big party.  Lucky me, I got to come up with the centerpieces.  Initially, I was so excited!  What's more fun than decorating for a bunch of ladies?  But as the days wore on, I was coming up short.  Six tables, two for each holiday. The theme was "Holiday Traditions."  It took me a while, but I finally pulled it off.

For Thanksgiving, I used a leaf wreath with a cake plate in the center.  On the cake plate was a cornucopia filled with fall flowers, and on each side was a cute little turkey candle holder.

The second Thanksgiving table was all about baking for the holidays.  Rolling pin, mini cookie cutters, potato masher, and a ceramic pie were sprinkled with cinnamon sticks and cloves.  It smelled so good!  I added some height with a cookie tin under the cloth.

My family always decorates for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, so of course, I had to use some of my favorite decorations for a Christmas table.  This one got a lot of "oohs and ahhhs."  There is just something so classic and festive about red and gold.

The other Christmas table holds a small portion of my mom's Nutcracker collection.  Every year for as long as I can remember, my mom has received at least one nutcracker for Christmas.  She finally had to tell us NO MORE!  because she ran out of room to store them all!

New Year's was the hardest one to come up with.  There is the traditional champagne, I mean sparking cider (this is an LDS get together.  We aren't big drinkers ;) ), but what to do for the second table?

I thought, what do we do each year to kill the time before midnight?

Of course!  Play games.

So I rounded up some classics and topped it with a fun timer that I received as a gift when I was in the second grade....a long, Long, LONG time ago.

To jazz it up a little more, I spelt out festive words with the Scrabble tiles.

On a side note, is it weird that I have no idea how to play Scrabble?  This game sat around our house for 20+ years and I have never seen it opened until this event!

So what about you?  Do you have fun Holiday traditions?  How will you adorn you tables in the coming Holiday Season?  I'd love to hear what you have up your sleeve! 

Got a Minute? Felt Flower

What do you do when you daughter reminds you that she has a birthday party in 2 hours, your bank account is flashing a big fat $0.00, and you have absolutely nothing on hand?  First you go into panic mode.  Then your sweet, unassuming 5 year old tells you, "It's okay, Mommy.  We can just whip her up a pretty dress real quick." After you laugh hysterically at her sweet innocence (let's just say I'm not the quickest sewer in the world), you decide that you could whip up a quick hair pretty!

 For those of you reading this that know my kids.  Yes, I am aware that this isn't the 5 year old.  Charly felt more like chasing imaginary bugs around the yard directing the photo shoot than actually being in front of the camera.

I just eye balled it and cut out 3 sizes of petals from felt.  I hot glued them to a felt circle with a clip. And glued a flower rhinestone to the middle.

 We added some glitter to give it a little more character.

 Speaking of character, look at that pose!

I love how it turned out so much that I have plans to make a whole rainbow of felt flowers for the girls!  Can't wait!

Tangled Party

All right folks.  This is it.  The piece-de-resistance.  The grand finale.  The whole Shebang!

 If you missed the post about the banner and flower balloons, go here.

 And if you're dying to know about the birthday girl's outfit, go here.

Oh, and P.S., I like the outfit a lot better with the leggings!

And now onto the fun and food!

 To entertain the kids while we finished with the food (thanks Mom!  You're the best!),

I made a giant Rapunzel braid from yarn (remember the leftovers in the banner?) for the kids to play tug-o-war with.

This thing was a labor of love, I tell ya!

 Note to self (and anyone else braving this project) #1:  DO NOT enlist the help of your 4 year old, 2 year old, and two cats to make a mile long (slightly exaggerated for the dramatic) braid.  Talk about TANGLED!  Geez!

 Next up was a pretty funny activity, if I do say so myself.

Another great quote from the movie was my inspiration.

They are about to fling Flynn over a wall.

 My sister-in-law (same one from the balloon flowers) built this catapult for a school project last year.

She let me use it to "Fling Flynn"

 The kids each got an egg with their name on it

 And shot it at the target where Maximus was waiting.

(If you haven't seen the movie...you don't get this.  Max is waiting on the wall for Flynn.  Got it?)

 The winner got a candy bar for being such a sure shot.

 Note to self #2:  DO NOT make red punch for birthdays!  What was I thinking???

Which leads me to the part you have all been waiting for...

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Drum Roll, Please!.......

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 Let's EAT!

 Spaghetti (again with the red...)

 In case you are wondering, no these are not homemade.  I went with Rhode's rolls.  Always a sure bet!

 The cursed red punch!

 And my personal favorite...

 Caramel Apple suckers served in a frying pan!

Of course, the caramel apple suckers are in honor Maximus and his love of apples.

Our last activity was to make lanterns.

We just used white paper bags and decorated them up real pretty.

Here's all the kids with their lanterns, giving me their best "smolder".

I forgot to mention earlier that the starting activity was to "Add a few new pictures to my gallery."

That' why there is sidewalk chalk on the wall behind them.

The Birthday Girl's Lantern

In the movie, the lanterns fly, so of course we had to see if ours could!

 If you made it this far (sorry about the long post) you have made it to the crowning glory of any Birthday party...with a little spin.

 I got the idea for the donut tower in lieu of a cake here.

 The birthday girl was awestruck by it. 

 And her little sister was caught trying to snatch a donut hole!

 Chey blew out all four candles (with a little help)

 devoured a whole donut...or maybe two or three

 opened some presents

 and had a moment of pure joy over her new stuffed puppy. 

 Then we said goodbye to all our friends and loved ones with a battery operated tea light for their lanterns (because what's a lantern without some light), and a peanut butter caramel apple with a little note

Sorry there are no pictures of the apples.  I wasn't feeling up to it by that point in the party.

Maybe I'll show you how to make them when I am feeling a little better.

Chey was tickled pink with this party...or maybe that's just the red punch mustache!

Tangled Party Banner

Have you ever seen "Tangled"?

Around here, we watch it a lot!

My kids can pretty well quote you the whole movie.

Which made basing the decor off of great quotes from the movie pretty easy.

One of my favorite quotes is when Rapunzel tells Gothel, 

"That's the funny thing about birthdays.  They're kind of an annual thing."

I thought that would be so fun above a collage from Chey's Birthdays.

I just made the banner in Microsoft Word Publisher, banners.
I just Googled Tangled fonts for the font.  I think the name was Juana B Tangled v.2
I added a couple of photos from each of her birthdays with some leftover yarn from one of the activities, which I will share tomorrow.

The balloon flowers I found on Pinterest here...or not!  I could have sworn I pinned it, but I can't find it anywhere!

Okay, Plan B.  If this was your amazing idea, let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

So the original directions were to cut circles out of cardboard in 2 different sizes, one for the center of the flowers, and a larger one for the petals.
I was feeling pretty lazy, so I grabbed a pitcher that was the size I wanted the centers and a pot for the petals.
Then I put my sister-in-law to work (free labor.  Yay!)
She blew the centers into the pitcher until it touched the sides and I tied them off.
Then she blew 5 petals in the pot until each one touched the side.

Tie 3 of the petal balloons together and the other 2 petals together.
Then tie all of the petals together with the center balloon.
It won't really look like a flower, but when you put it up against the wall (hubby used duct tape), you can squish it down flat and you have a beautiful, perfect flower!
Does any of that make sense?
If you want more info on the flowers, let me know and I can put together a tutorial, mmkay?