Juicy Bits

210: backyard movie night

Nope.  I don't do anything small.  Can't help it.

I got in my head to do an outdoor movie night to celebrate the start of summer.  First I thought I'd rent the equipment, but then decided I was going to do it more than once (we've already used it 3 times) so it was best to invest in our own.  

Then I had to go for a specific look for the night.  I blame Pinterest.  Truth be told, that's the part I love and I always do details anyway. But I was inspired to do the whole thing by some pictures I found on Pinterest.

Anyway, the look was supposed to be a sort of chic retro on the farm.  Or vineyard.  Or something like that.  I got a bunch of vintage sheets from thrift stores.

This is one of my favs.

And I tried to use a lot of antique looking wood, like the crates and board we used as little tables for drinks etc.  I also put out some flowers and candles.  There were some twinkle lights up on the deck by the food for dim lighting and more ambiance.

My mom has a bunch of nap mats from her preschool days that I sewed pockets in the sheets for, so it was more comfortable.  And I borrowed chairs because in my mind the adults weren't going to be thrilled to lay on the ground.  And there were many, MANY pillows.  Also, my parents have 2 papasan chairs so basically it was like a living room outside.

As for the actual equipment, I bought a projector on Ebay and a receiver/speakers at a yard sale.  The screen I built out of PVC.  Not too difficult.  To give you an idea of scale, the screen is about 14' wide.  The actual material is blackout material meant to line curtains (because it doesn't let light through).  It has a seam down the middle but you can't tell when the movie is playing.  It's attached to the frame by velcro.  

It's somewhat weather proof. It can stay out in the rain but the wind did knock it down.  I can leave up the frame but take down the material, but I am a bit worried the homeowner's association will have a conniption.  If you want more info on how to built your own movie screen, check out backyardtheater.com.  These people are crazy hardcore and it was an awesome resource to help pull it all together.

And of course I had to do snacks.  3 types of popcorn and some classic sweets.  There were bags for the popcorn (regular brown paper bags I printed "fresh popcorn" on myself) and separate one for the GOODIES (so cute!).

Drinks were soda (in glass bottles), beer, water, and orange juice/lemonade served in mason jars.  And boy did we need ice cold drinks that night.  It was HOT!  It was the first night of summer (also the first night after school got out) and I thought we would all melt.  The kids didn't care one bit and ran around before it started.  

Thankfully, it cooled enough after the sun was down that we were reasonably comfortable.  We had a lot of people (mostly families of the kids' friends) and had a blast. Here's how we looked enjoying the show.  We watched Over the Hedge because I thought it particularly appropriate in suburbia. :)  We've also watched How to Train Your Dragon, and one of my all time favorites, Princess Bride.

I used to love going to the Drive-In as a kid so this was great throw-back.  And even though it's not HD or surround sound or anything, there's something that just feels so "real" about the big screen and being outdoors.  It gives me the warm fuzzies.

So what else should I show?  It mostly has to be family movies but maybe we'll do an adult only r-rated night.  I'm thinking classics like Goonies, ET, and of course, Harry Potter.

JT

 

180: forest chic treats and sweets

We decided to have another party this winter for no reason other than we really like to bake. The "we" I'm referring to is myself and my youngest sister Deirdre who is conveniently in town to help.  This time around, it wasn't a strictly cookies party like last year. We had cookies, and plenty of them, but also cupcakes, pretzels, brownies, etc.

The look I decided on was lush, forest floor, with a traditional, chic twist.  Does that make any sense? It did in my head anyway.  And I think that's how it came out.

It was very nice to be able to share the work of all the baking. My husband invited like a million people but since it was a holiday weekend, enough people were away and couldn't come that it wasn't too overwhelming.

It was a simple, casual, open-house-type party where you could drop by whenever.  Plenty of Aurora's friends came.  We had one little craft for them to do: decorating rocks with paint pens. So simple, but they loved it and it was appropriate for toddlers to teens.

As far as the decor goes, I designed and printed the labels myself.  The jars are lined with various green print fabrics stabilized with interfacing.  I glad to say I didn't have to buy a single piece of glassware.  The greenery is a combination of fresh and moss.  The invitations can from the $1 bin at Michaels, if you can believe it.  I paid more for postage. :)

JT 

 

174: unicorns and rainbows party part 2: the day

As I mentioned, the day was darned near perfect.  Here's how it went:

Set-up, and more frantic set-up in the morning.

Then, we had gorgeous face painting as the kids arrived.

The craft project was painting unicorn or dragon t-shirts with freezer paper stencils.  

There were many creative outcomes.

 And, though the pictures don't show it, you should believe me when I tell you the smocks were a rainbow of solid-colored t-shirts (from Goodwill).  Yes, that's how far I take it.

Next up was a treasure hunt for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  HUGE hit.  The kids were running all over the house and yard hunting for the next clue.  

I made them all up, and they even rhymed.

They were hidden in places like the mailbox, a backpack, the climber, and the pot of (chocolate) gold was in the fireplace.  Such a simple activity that was so much fun.  I'm sure we'll do one again at the kids' request.

After that it was time to enjoy treats and cake.  

I have to say I think people were more impressed with my ability to cut semi-intact slices of the overly tall cake, than with my ability to bake it.  :)

Then afterwards the kids enjoyed some running and playing in the yard on such a beautiful day. 

I can hardly believe my little girl is 6 (and really now, she's half way to 7!)

Haven't come up with a definite plan for next year yet...I'll keep you posted.

JT

 

 

 

173: unicorns and rainbows party part 1: the details

 Finally.

I've been holding on to these pictures for a while now.  I just really needed to edit them down a bit.  There were so many good ones that I find it nearly impossible to choose.

Anyway, as the title implies, this year Aurora chose a unicorns and rainbows party.  Actually she chose unicorns and I convinced her to add the rainbows by describing the candy buffet. She had been reading this series of books about a unicorn school and was really into them.  And who can't get behind that idea?  And for the boys, dragons were permitted to attend.

While the party followed a VERY hectic summer and Theo's party, it went off with very limited hiccups.  Much less stressed out that at Theo's.  That's not to say it wasn't a boatload of work.  This stuff doesn't just happen, people.  :)

The day was darned near perfect.  Great weather.  Great Friends.  Great fun.  The kids enjoyed a day full of sugar as well as a craft and even a treasure hunt for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I asked everyone to come dressed all in one color so we could be our own rainbow...

 You'll find the sources and inspiration at the bottom of this post, and I'll be back soon with a summary of the day's events.

 Photography: Evan Foster

Invitations: custom made by me

Dessert Table: inspired by the infamous Amy Atlas

Uncicorn cookies: made by me, inspired by this photo

Yarn balloons: made by Aurora and me, tutorial found here

Paper mobiles: tutorial found here

Cake: made by me, lots of inspiration around the web

Craft: freezer paper stenciling (tutorial found here), used unicorn clip art found here, and a dragon I drew

Face painting: Bella Facia

Favors: a bag filled with a unicorn lollipop, mini unicorn (or dragon) coloring book (available on amazon), set of mini rainbow markers, rainbow and unicorn stickers, wooden unicorn to color and a sewn matchbook notebook (tutorial found here) - plus a whole container full of the candy!

145: i *heart* cookies

Yum, yum, yum!  

The day before Valentine's Day we had a Cookies and Milk party for some friends and family.  As I mentioned before, really it was for no other reason than I love to bake and I love to style parties.  So, fun!

Ever since I saw this post, I've been wanting to have one of my own.  One of my favorite details was the retro paper straws from Kikkerland.  I baked probably more than 700 cookies so there was plenty for everyone to take some home with them. 

The kids decorated their own heart sugar cookies.  

 

And I made a matching hostess apron to wear.  It was loosely based on the Flirty Skirty pattern.

 
 I cannot tell you how many I ate that day and the week following.  But, I could totally eat more.  Like a lot more.

The favorite of all the guests was Martha's Carrot Cake Sandwiches from the Cookies book.

But the infamous NY Times Chocolate Chip ones were also very popular (and really a meal in and of themselves).

JT

 

144: baking at my house

We've been doing quite a bit of it lately.  See, we hosted a Cookies and Milk party for a bunch of our friends the day before Valentine's day.  Was it just an excuse so I could bake an absolute TON of cookies?  Who can say?

Of course there will be a post on the whole party forthcoming soon, but here's a little behind-the-scenes look at the baking.  First, yes we made plenty of delicious cookies like these:

Those are Double Butterscotch.  Yum.

 

And every time I tried to bake all week, the kiddos happily offered to "help".  Theo's repeated phrase was: "It's all about I want to taste it".  But one evening to give me a little break from all the tasting, I had the brilliant idea to let them go all out playing in the flour.  

 

Messy, but cars racing through flour were a perfect distraction.  :)

 

And here's a little peek at the pretty pictures from the party.  Those Chocolate Chip cookies make my mouth water just looking at the pic.  Sigh.  Why can't someone discover that eating an almost entirely cookie diet is good for your health and weight?  I can attest: it is not.

JT

127: construction party part 2: the events

Today is the basic events of the big day.  If you missed the first post with all the design details, find it here.

It was a simple theme that lent itself to some obvious, but entertaining activities, and one awesome treat.

Of course the day started with set-up.  Most of the prep was done well ahead of time, but we weren’t sure of the weather, so didn’t know if we could manage outdoors or not.

 

We lucked out.  The rain held off for long enough, and it wasn’t excruciatingly hot as it had been the week before.

There were various activities for the kids to enjoy all day.  No real planned games or anything since he was only turning 2.

There were construction pictures to color.

 

A sand table with lots of trucks etc.

 

We brought the “roller coaster” outside and that was a big hit.

 

Then we got the main event.  A visit from “Bob” himself!  What a treat.  We were able to hire a local landscaper (friend of a friend)  to come with his backhoe loader for a few hours.

 

He was even down with giving the kids rides up and down the driveway and letting them drive.

 

Can you tell Theo was just a little bit excited?

 

It was his equivalent of heaven.  I was totally a rockstar mom that day.

 Seriously after the party, as I put him down for his nap and asked him what he did at the party.  He gets this ridiculous grin on his face and closes his eyes and sighs, “I drove bob the builder”.  2 year-old’s life = complete.

Everybody got a turn to ride if they wanted.  

And, of course, some photo ops with the family.

 

Then we had lunch.  On the menu was: bagel pizzas, veggies and dip, pretzels and chips and fruit salad.

 

There were construction cupcakes.

    

Everyone found them yummy.

 

And even tool-shaped cookies (yes I made them, with much cursing involved late at night) that Theo enjoyed playing with while eating.

 

Then everyone pretty much just hung around for a while and we called it an afternoon.

What a fabulous day and a lucky boy!

JT

126: construction party part 1: the details

Can we fix it?  Yes, we can!

Can we build it?  Yes, we can!

Theo is crazy about Bob the Builder.  It isn’t even really the character, so much as all things construction.  Whenever he sees any kind of construction vehicle, he says “Bob, the builder, BOB THE BUILDER!!”

So I knew that was the way to go for his birthday this summer.  And, despite the stress of having to leave town and get back the night before the party, everything worked out perfectly.

Since I have so many gorgeous pictures (courtesy of my good friend, and amazing photographer, Christianne Ebel again), I’m going to split this up again like I did for Aurora’s monster party.

Get ready for a ton of photos.

So as you can see right away, the colors I used were brown, orange and yellow.  Or more descriptively, chocolate, pumpkin, and mustard.  Remember we started off with these invitations.

When people first arrived they had a little hint at what was to come.  I made the barricades by painting over some wooden sawhorses we had.

I used lots of fabrics (big surprise...) for decorations.  The Be an Man collection and some Tot Town from Michael Miller (as well as a few other construction-related ones I had) added to theme.  

The food table had a giant runner-style cloth that was super easy to make and had quite an impact.

Some other details to the food display included: nuts and bolts, a dump truck full of pretzels, color coordinated m&ms, and my cute little "dig in" signs.

 

And lets not forget the sweets.  The cupcakes had little toppers with graphics I designed.  

And then the oh-so-frustrating-to-make-at-the-last-minute-but-undeniably-delicious tool cookies.

The kids' tables were set outside on the deck.  

Again I used graphics I designed to decorate the cups and the napkins/silverware.  I put a nut and bolt in each bowl to prevent any wind issues (turned out there were none).

Each child had their own personalized hard hat.  

There was a sand table for lots of digging fun.

The deck was decorated with big balloons and traffic cones.

And I made (with lots of help from my mom) a fabric caution tape garland because I couldn't bear the thought of a plastic one.  

You'll read more about it in the next post, but we had a visitor.  

And there was coloring.

We put out all the tools and trucks etc. we could come up with.

Each child when home with a bucket full of goodies.  

 

It included A construction site sticker book, matchbox vehicle, and a small wooden construction puzzle (which Theo is currently obsessed with). 

And a thank you dump truck cookie.

Stop by in a day or two and see just exactly how the day played out.

81: let me eat cake

I love cake.  LOVE it.  I mean, love, love, LOVE it.  A lot.  Oh wait have I told you this before?

Anyway, I have been pretty good about my eating habits lately.  (Well, we'll ignore the movie theater snacks last night.)  I've officially shed all of my baby weight.  Yay me!  Of course, I've since gained a couple back, but still...

But I'm really just itching to let go.  Basically even though I plan it out so I have "bad" days where I go a bit crazy, I can never just let go and eat everything I really desire (read: lots of cake).  I know all too well how easily 10lbs can pile back on.

I'm not particularly looking for diet tips here.  I've learned what works for me, and while I wish my metabolism was fast enough to allow for more junk food, most of the time I can handle it.  

But tonight I was just looking a these cake stands I got at a yard sale, and thinking, man, I could totally eat a whole cake myself right now.  :)

JT

59: i can't help myself

My daughter's school holiday party is today.  When sign-up time came around for food I volunteered to make the cookies, because really I wanted another excuse to do holiday baking.

As Aurora loves anything with icing on it, I just planned to make a basic sugar cookie with icing and sprinkles.  But once the dough was made and it was time to bake them, I couldn't not make them shaped.  Seriously.  I tried.

And then I iced them by drawing a snowflake pattern.  All the while I was chanting to myself "they're only 4-year-olds..."  But, nope, I couldn't stop myself.

I added blue sprinkles, although I think I might have liked them better without.  But, I figured the kids wouldn't mind a bit more sugar.

I won't share the recipe because honestly I wasn't overwhelmed with how they tasted.  A bit too eggy.  I've made them before but with more icing, so maybe that masked the flavor.  Now the dilemma is do I use the rest of the dough and make some for sending to friends or trash it and try again?

JT

56: mmm...bread...

Have I told of my love for bread?  No?  That's not possible.  I'm quite passionate about it.  Like if I was stuck on desert island with only one food, that's what I'd choose.  But then I'd miss butter.  And cake, of course. 

I often choose restaurants based purely on their bread offerings.  Make it warm and mushy and I'm there.  And I'm offended by people who leave it there in the basket untouched.  How dare they? 

Of course, this little love is not very good for my waistline.  I could never give up carbs.  I tried the Atkins diet once and it made me very very sick.  I do still have a few lingering baby pounds that I've really been trying to shed lately.  So the fact that I got this book, that everyone's already talked about on their blogs, has not helped.

But how could I not try it?  And let me tell you, it does not disappoint.  The only really negative I can say is they tell you to wait til the bread cools to eat it.  What?!?!?  There's nothing better than hot, fresh bread.  I guess it cuts better when cooled, but I just rip it apart in big chunks, so who cares?

My mom has an amazing bread recipe that she makes on holidays.  We all look forward to it.  It's your typical yeast bread with all the kneading and rising, so it's bit labor intensive, but the results are beyond scrumptious.  

But believe me, you don't want to know how much butter goes into those babies.  It's best if you never know.  And I'm not posting a recipe, not because it's top secret, but because I'm lazy and I don't want to go get it.  Really, how many of you would try it anyway?

JT

54: turkey day decor

Thankgiving is over and it was mostly perfect.  Lots of lovely baking smells and plenty of messy helping hands.  Dinner was a wonderful collaboration of several "chefs", myself included.  And it was enjoyed by lots of loving family members (we had 17 for dinner).

Most of my photos are of the table all set for dinner.  I did the flower arrangements with cranberries in the vases.  I can't remember where I saw that before, but it was somewhere.  And the placecards are from Paper and Cake.  Check out that new blog.  I think it's a cool idea to do downloadable tablescapes, hopefully they'll keep it coming.

I didn't take photos of all the delicious food consumed, but I can tell you I'm still full.

The kids each made their own little gingerbread house, which was a fun (and they'll say tasty) craft.

Hope you had a great one if you celebrated...

JT

37: fairy wings and marshmallow wands

I brought these sweet treats to an enchanted fairy birthday party last weekend.  

Marshmallow fairy wands!  They come from the Fairies Cookbook.

I love marshmallows so I thought they were delicious... and so did many of the little pixies...

Who would have thought to freeze marshmallows?

The party was for Aurora's best friend and we had a lovely time.  

So much so that I didn't really take many pictures.

But I did make her one of my felt crowns.

Perhaps she'll be the Fairy Queen now.

JT

34: the monster bash part one: the look

Get yourself ready for some seriously photo-intensive posts.  I can't help myself.  There are just too many good shots.  Just about all of them are from my good friend Christianne Ebel.  The few that aren't watermarked are mine.

So, since I have so much to show you, I decided to split it up into two posts.  One on "the look" of the day...mostly stuff I made/designed, not many people shots.  And one on the events of the day which is more a play-by-play of the day.

These first shots are the favor table I set up.  The "banner" on the wall is made from my wall dots, but I fused a letter on each one.

Next are some general decor shots of around the house.

We had some games for play at any time which included, stomping on monster "stilts", monster bowling, and this bean bag toss.

Of course there were prizes.  

Among the cutest were these little monster finger puppets and adorable buttons from Nifty Stuff Made by Voz on etsy.  Look at those cute sayings on the buttons: “I’m odd”, “I love books”, “I make art” and my favorite and the one I kept, “I eat cake”.

You can see all the prizes here.

Some of these were also in the pinata so it wasn't entirely candy filled.

There was a make a monster craft table for gluing together silly creations.

And coloring these cute monsters I found online.

We tried to put as many monsters as we could find all around the house.  Here is Aurora queen of all her monster subjects.

This watermelon monster is a complete knock off from mypapercrane.

And the sweet day was topped off with what my daughter calls "monster mish mash sundaes" (a favorite at Friendly's) instead of cake.

Can I just say how totally amazing it was having a professional photographer shoot the day?  A part of me misses having pictures that are my own, because I definitely have my own perspective, etc.  But it totally freed me up to enjoy the day and participate more.  Plus the results are gorgeous and I love that I'm actually in some of them (you'll see later) so I it accurately reflects the day.  I'm lucky to have such a friend like Christianne because she not only did it last minute, but for way less money than she charges and deserves.  

My husband agreed to spend the dough on this party with the agreement that we won't do it for every birthday, but I'm going to have a hard time going without it next year...

JT