Seasonal Decor Blocks

I continually eye these decorative blocks when out shopping. I have no need for restraint now. I made my own. Thanks to Whimsi Kel and the great lists of letters and words, this project really was quite simple.

 I decided to use house paint as my block colors so that they would match my house during all seasons. I started with a base color of Sherwin Williams: Aqua Sphere. I painted five sides and when they were dry I painted the sixth sides. I then watered down some Weathered Shingle (tan color) from Sherwin Williams and brushed it on and wiped it off after a few seconds to get the antiqued look. Once this coat was dry, I cut letters out with my Cricut and used Modge Podge matte finish to secure them to the blocks. I had two extra blocks that I had painted and decided I'd cut out shapes to stick on them. Overall, I am thrilled with the turn out! I can't wait to use them all year round! Thanks Whimsi Kel for this great idea!

Quick Quilted Pillows

I decided to try my hand at recovering a few pillows. The original pillows had a zipper so I just stitched the quilted pillow so that the zipper could continue to be used. It worked and so I went with it! I love fleur de lis prints and had bought so much of it. I am just so happy that I found another great use for it!

Wild Wild West Party

My son wanted a western themed birthday party so of course I did my best to pull that theme together. In the picture, is my kids with grandma Dee testing out the saddle.

I visited a few websites first. Family Fun and Radmacher blog had some cute ideas.
 
HP had a ton of free printable ideas with the western theme in mind:
Western printable kit  (includes customizable boot invites, signs, games, and more)
Western scrapabook kit (borders, backgrounds, journal blocks, and tags)

Wild West Party set 1 (mustache stickers, wanted posters, stage coach invites, and more)
Wild West Party set 2 (iron on, badges, invites, and more)

HP has other themed party, decorations, tags, etc. Here is the link I found to be filled with amazing printables!
HP Creative Studio   Enjoy!

Now back to the party I put together.I found sheriff badges, gold coins, and mini decks of cards to put in the gift bags. Thanks to my mom for putting all these together and having the idea for the napkin rings. Most of my decor items came from her too. Thanks mom!

The napkins were bandannas with small western hats glued to hair ties for napkin rings.

Centerpieces were straw cowboy hats, red bandannas, candles with ripped bandannas tied around them, along with horseshoes. Here's my birthday cowboy next to one of them.

Under my welcome sign, I hung the buckaroos sign, which I made with my cricut. In doorways, we hung strings with boots, badges, cactus', etc. These we found at the local Party America store.

Outside, we set up a cowboy fire pit, saddle, and roping station. To our luck it snowed during the party so we came in and out a lot, but I did have extra gloves handy and hats too. The steer head on the hay bale was a fun game while kids sat on the saddle.

You can see in the background some rope with strips of bandannas strung across the front of the house. This was an easy way to make garland. I had extra strips so I hung a few on the wreath that was still on my front door and added a few horse shoes too.

Here's the homemade stand with the saddle. Thanks to my father-in-law for doing so much of the outdoor work. He brought the hay bales too.I couldn't have thrown the party together without all the help.

The menu:
Cowboy cocoa, root beer, hot dogs, buns, chili, cheese, calico beans, ribs, chips, and veggies.
For dessert, we made smores over the fire pit outside instead of cake! It was a huge hit because the kids could make them.

It was a successful 6th birthday party and a ton of fun for me to put together. Good thing my daughter's next party isn't until September.  This will give me some planning time.

Fall Napkin Rings

Since Thanksgiving dinner was going to be held at my house this year, I decided to look for place card or napkin rings that I could make to add a little fall to the decor. I was tempted to put all the fall decorations away and get out Christmas stuff, but to my luck I came across a website that had felt leaf napkin rings. This was a ton of fun to make and didn't take very much time at all. The website with tutorial is http://www.merrimentdesign.com/.

The supplies I used were: green, yellow, and orange felt, scissors, thread in various fall colors, and ranom buttons.

Here is how it turned out:

I made enough for every place setting. The kids helped pick out buttons. Wrapped each one around four different styles of cloth napkins.

The other decoration that was used as centerpieces were glass vases filled with nuts, silk flowers and tied with a fall ribbon. So easy and so many compliments. Thanks mom for this one!

Here is what the table looked like all set for company.

Did I mention we had two yummy turkeys, sweet potatoes, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce and lots of left overs to enjoy in the days since. Yummy!