Rainbow Pool Party: Part 2

Friday I gave you a fun little sneak peek at the fun rainbow themed pool party we threw for our girly today. The party was a HUGE hit and of course, the girl was in heaven.

GOODY BAGS

 I really despise goody bags at birthday parties.  They are generally filled with a bunch of trinket trash and penny candy (I know, that shows my age as NO candy is a penny anymore).  That being said, of course we had to have a parting gift for our gracious little guests.  I generally like to spend a touch more and give the kids one slightly larger item.  Since we were tasting the rainbow on this party, I bought regular sized bags of Skittles and placed them inside dollar store paper treat bags - 10 for $1.  We decorated the bags with more pinwheels in rainbow colors.  I love the display on the bench (my Dad made for us) in the front entry!

FOOD DISPLAY

I love so many of the really fun party food displays all over blogland with colorful backdrops for the food table with fabric or streamers.  Well, with the rainbow theme, crepe paper was a no-brainer - 6 colors for $6 and we are good to go!  I measured the wall to determine how long to make the streamers so they hang just below the table.  Then I simply folded them over a piece of shoe molding that was left in the garage when we bought the house.  I stapled each piece and hung it up using string and 3 push pins.  Easy peasy lemon squeasy!  I love the effect.

We kept the food simple as we knew we would be outside most of the time.  We ordered a 6' sub from Fry's and I made a rainbow striped fruit tray, a colorful veggie tray, chips, and dip.  My favorite dip was the homemade tomatillo salsa I had canned HERE.  Yummy!

TASTE THE RAINBOW TREATS

I definitely had a lot of fun with the sweet treats.  I made a rainbow layer cake and chocolate cake balls along with a glass filled with skittles.  I look forward to sharing some of the tricks and tips I have for making these tasty treats!

LIFEGUARD SHIRT

My hubby's duty for the party was to be the lifeguard and pool monitor.  While the parents stuck around, we knew it was important that we make sure that all of the kids were safe.  And why is it that when you are looking for something you know you have seen a zillion times, you can't find a single one.  I checked 4 or 5 places for a Lifeguard shirt.  Since I couldn't find one, I headed over to JoAnn Fabrics and picked up a $2.50 red shirt and some iron-on letters for $3 and made one myself.  A little zinc oxide on the nose and whistle (the very same whistle that used as a lifeguard from ages 14-24!) and he was a hit!

FUN TREAT

Who doesn't want an ice cream cart at their summer pool party?  The cart was loaded with dilly bars and other novelty treats from DQ.  So much fun!!! If you are in Tucson - make sure to call the DQ on Tanque Verde to have this cart at your party!

SPLASH!

It was such a fun day and our birthday girl had an awesome time celebrating with her friends.  We truly enjoyed the company of their parents too!  We have incredible friends!

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Rainbow Birthday Party Sneak Peek

Preparations are under way for the girly's big 6th birthday party tomorrow.  The rainbow is slowly starting to explode all over my house and I just had to share a couple of sneak peaks at the decor as I am having so much fun putting this all together.

Since our forever house has an awesome swimming pool and her birthday party is during the hot, hot, hot days of summer in Arizona, it was a natural to do a pool party.  The secondary theme for the party is rainbows! The decorations are colorful and fun. Using a couple of packages of scrapbook paper, some crepe paper, ribbon and balloons, I made a variety of fun summer, birthday and rainbow inspired decorations.

BIRTHDAY WREATH

After seeing the fun balloon wreaths and curly ribbon wreaths HERE, HERE, and HERE, I knew this would be a fun addition. So off to the Dollar Tree to pick up the supplies. They no longer had the styrofoam wreaths so I used a vine wreath and simply pulled one of the ribbons to tie around the wreath and then I tacked each set of ribbons with a dot of hot glue to hold them in place. I added a pennent banner to carry out the summer rainbow theme of the party. I love this wreath as it is so festive and fun. It can be used over and over for any party by simply changing out the banner and pinwheel to fit the party theme.

GARLAND

The garland was made by using a package of colorful die-cuts that were arranged in a rainbow pattern and sewed together again with the sewing machine. (I may not be able to sew clothes that well, but I can sew a mean piece of paper.) I have had these laying around for nearly 5 years so at this point, I consider this garland FREE! Yay! You could use a circle punch and make them out of any scrapbook paper. Very fun and oh so easy!

BIRTHDAY BANNER

What is a party without a birthday banner. Using the same idea as the garland, I cut out some multi-colored triangles and sewed them together using my sewing machine in a rainbow pattern. Since I don't have a fancy die-cutting machine I simply used some scrapbook stickers for the letters. Again, using things I already had on hand, this project was virtually free! I also made a few pinwheels (such a fun summer icon) to hid the tack points for the banner and add a fun festive design.

RUFFLED CREPE PAPER GARLAND

Adding some color to the bannister, I decided to try sewing some fun ruffled garland using crepe paper.  Dana-Made-It (aka MADE) shared an awesome tutorial on how to do this.  Even for this very novice sewer, this was a really easy project (once I figured out which buttons on my machine adjusted the tension and stitch length.  I made one garland using red, yellow and orange and another with blue, green and purple.  I then layed them together back to back and twisted them so they have a rainbow effect.  To secure them on the ends I made a simple tissue paper poof by accordian folding 8 or so sheets of tissue, rounded the ends, secured in the middle with some wire and then separated the layers.  (I remember making versions of these with my mom as a kid.)

There is SOOOOOOOO much more to do so I better get to work.  The laundry is all over the living room, bathrooms need to be cleaned, I need to run to the store for some last minute supplies and, and, and.  The list is a mile long but I just couldn't wait to share the rainbow!!! See you after the party!

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Kid's Room Monogram Walls

From the moment I saw the aisle with giant cardboard letters at JoAnn's I was in love!  I didn't know how or where, but I was going to have those in my house!  Then along came my baby girl and I knew, the letters had a home. 

I started with an "S" and painted it purple to go with the Finding Nemo/Little Mermaid "under the sea" theme of her room.  It was a fun added touch above her brand new, big girl bed.  The purple looked great against the turquoise walls with the fish decals from Pottery Barn and the Pier 1 stuffed fish hanging from the ceiling.

Bubba Z got a Z when  he was born.  The awesome red "Z" went above the spare bed in his room.  Loved it against the khaki walls.

In the new house, of course the monograms became an integral part of the kids rooms.

In the girly's room, I found some awesome old school Home Interior butterflies at the thrift store.  We brought them home and sprayed both the butterflies and the S with some watermelon spray paint.  They help to carry the butterfly theme in her pink and green room!

In Bubba Z's room, the awesome red Z was paired with a fun name plaque using photography from Leo Reynolds.  I first saw this fun idea of using Leo's unbelievable collection of letter photos in a guest post by My 3 Monsters on Under the Table and Dreaming.  I found the frame at Goodwill with 4 openings which was perfect.  So fun!

Just curious, does anyone else have a love affair with the letter aisle?  After doing the Alphabet Wall I think I need to chill on the use of letters - they may just take over!

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The Perfect Little Desk

Dilema #1: 
There is this awkward space to the left of our fireplace that most likely was designed to house a bookshelf to hold the components to your home theater system.  We have neither currently so it is just an odd looking space.

Dilema #2: 
Our kids are forever wanting to play on the computer.  However our desktop computer sits in the office at the front of the house.  We don't want the kids in there playing without being able to keep an eye on them.  So I have been contemplating how and where we could move the computer into the main room without it becoming a focal point (read: messy catchall area).  I love that we have the office space that can house my craft supplies and our home office "stuff".  Reality right now - the office is a storage room where boxes, papers and "stuff" goes to hide because the room has doors!

YIKES!!!

Solution:
The other day I stopped in to my favorite Goodwill store and found the PERFECT FIT!  There amongst the small furniture and other oversized items was a small, Mission style desk that I was convinced would fit into that awkward alcove to the left of our fireplace.  It Did!!!!  I also found a great, simple white chair to go witht he desk. And the the perfect spot to tuck away the computer for the kids was found.

Of course, a birch wood desk and a white chair do not quite go with the warm wood and earth tones in our home.  So I headed to the store, picked up a few cans of satin finish dark brown spray paint and got to work.  I originally thought I would put a glaze over the paint to give it some character but we actually love how it came out so no glaze was necessary.  I did, however finish the top with 3 layers of polyeurothane to further help protect the surface from the inevitable wear and tear it will receive from 2 young kids.

I want to wait a few more days for the finish to fully cure before we put the computer on the desk but I couldn't wait to share this with you.  The kids are so excited to have the computer out here in the main room and to be able to play their games.  This project has gotten me revved up to finish the two student desks I picked up last fall at this awesome flea market that one of the local churches holds.  These desks need a bit more "love" before they are ready for paint but I hope to finish them up this month.  They will love having their very own work spaces in their rooms.

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Window Treatments for Bubba Z

Decorating the kids rooms has definitely been a work in progress.  Bubba Z's room is coming together and with the installation of some awesome window treatments, I just had to share!  The idea for Bubba Z's room is a little bit patriotic, a little bit old school, a little bit transportation and a touch of rustic, outdoor charm.  I know that sounds a bit all over the place but the room is truly a work in progress.  We are not so much looking for a theme as a feeling and a color scheme.  And I think we have a great start.  The base of the room is three denim blue walls with one deep red accent wall.  The accents are in red, an earthy green, white and deep brown wood.

The newest addition to the room is the red & white horizontal awning striped drapes with fun grommit details.  I searched online for what we wanted but couldn't find anything so I headed to the discount fabric store and found the perfect outdoor awning fabric in deep red and white stripes. 

I would like to say I sewed them myself (straight lines, I "could" do that, right) however I have an awesome seamstress friend who helped me out.  All I had to do was watch her adorable daughter for a couple of hours! LOVE HER!  (By the way, Heather just started a blog at No Business Like Sew Business - check it out!) 

It wasn't quite as simple as straight lines.  There was a bit of math and calculation involved.  The fabric was a vertical stripe, and I wanted horizontal stripes.  So we had to piece it together.  Fortunately, with the stripe, we were able to do it in a way that you cannot even see it.  She simply sewed right on the line of the stripe.

See, you can't even see it, unless you look very close - look at the top of the red stripe, it is hardly visable.



Last weekend, I installed the grommits.  These are a plastic grommit from JoAnn's (they come in all sorts of colors but we wanted a stainless steel accent in this room.  The grommits come with a nifty template to trace out the circle you must cut out of the fabric and then you "simply" snap the two piece grommit together.  I say simply because with 3 thicknesses of this outdoor awning fabric at the header, snapping these together took alot of muscle and a bit of finness.

They look awesome and really bring some personality to the room.  I love the red and white stripes against the blue wall.

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Baking Adventures! Cake Bites!

I don't know about you, but this past month has been crazy with birthday parties, end of the school year parties, end of the soccer season parties, school performances and promotion ceremonies.  I swear we have had not had a quiet day in over a month.  With all of these parties and potlucks, I took it as an opportunity to try my hand at making a version of cake balls and treats on a stick which seem to be all the rage in blogland these days.

First let me say this, Bakerella is pure genius and I love the inspiration from this incredible site.  I love all of her pops and bites and the many variations that others have done out there.  The decorating of these is so fun and so much can be done.  For our end of the season soccer party I decided I wanted to try my hand at these.  A couple of years ago I tried to make some cake ball pumpkins and failed miserably with the cake simply falling off the sticks while I tried to dip them, I decided to try the bites.

I headed to Michaels with my 40% off coupons in hand and picked up some candy melts and a couple of molds for making your own peanut butter cups. 

Following the directions from Bakerella, I baked my cake, let it cool, mixed it with the frosting (and yes, this is very messy but very fun at the same time).  I formed my balls and stuck them in the freezer for a couple of hours but I will say, they really didn't freeze as hard as I thought they would.

I then melted my chocolate candy melts according to the package directions by placing them in a freezer Ziploc bag.  Once the chocolate was to the desired consistency, I simply snipped a small corner of the bag and carefully filled my molds a little less than half full and placed the balls in by twisting them gently to make sure that the chocolate reached the top of the mold.  It took a bit to get my rhythm down but this part went easier than I thought.  These set up pretty quickly, however I was glad I had picked up 2 of the molds as it would have taken forever to finish the over 60 balls I had made.

The next part was really easy, I simply melted the red candy melts in a small, deep bowl and dipped the balls in so that the red met with the chocolate.  I dusted them with a pinch of sprinkles and then my 4 yr old son placed a mini-M&M on top.  I know he ate as many as he placed but that was okay as he so wanted to help.

One of my daughter's friends has Celiacs Disease (and while I looked at making gluten-free cake, I  just couldn't bring myself to paying $5 for a box cake mix so I decided to try using marshmallows instead.  Using the same "bite" concept, I replaced the cake ball with a marshmallow.  I had to pinch the bottom of the marshmallow to make sure that it fin in the mold.  I think they turned out great and she was so excited to get her very own special treat!

My daughter has a summer birthday but her school designates a day at the end of the school year for each child who has a summer birthday where they get to go on stage during their flag ceremony to be recognized.  They also get the opportunity to bring treats for their class.  My daughter's day was the same day as their Kindergarten promotion ceremony and breakfast potluck so I was concerned about sending cupcakes.  The kids were loaded with donuts, muffins and bagels in the morning.  To keep it simple, fun and something that everyone in class could enjoy (her friend with celiac's is also in her calls and her teacher has a gluten allergy as well) we made marshmallow pops.

I let the kids help make these.  I put the marshmallows on a stick and gave each kid a small bowl of sprinkles.  They dipped the marshmallows so they were covered about halfway up and then dipped them in their bowl of sprinkles.  I used my silicone mini-muffin pan and when they finished covering them, they simply placed them back in the whole to set.  This worked great so that they did not stick together.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  They were cute and were a big hit at school.  The kids loved them and her teacher loved the simplicity of it as well as cupcakes in the classroom can be VERY messy.

Kitchen Adventures - Canning Edition

Back in the day, when I was in school, every student was required to take Home Economics and Shop.  In shop we learned to use power tools, built a few projects using wood, metal and even resin and learned a few things about cars as well.  Note, this was at a time when it was easy for anyone to do their own basic car repairs and oil changes.  Today's vehicles are not so simple.  Home Economics taught us how to sew, cook, bake and "run a household".  If I recall, we even learned how to care for a child (i.e. change a diaper).  These were all life skills that everyone should know and understand at least on the basic level. 

It appears that this Spring I am in the midst of my own little Home Ec class.  I am experimenting with my sewing machine as witnessed with my daughter's dress in my last POST.  I look forward to sharing some new projects in the weeks to come as I gain confidence with my new friend the sewing machine.  I have also been trying some new things in the kitchen.  So here is the story of my first canning party!

CANNING

My first "new" kitchen adventure was in the world of canning.  As I kid, I remember helping my Mom in the kitchen as she canned many of the vegetables from our family garden.  Oh how I wish I could have a lush garden like my Mothers, however Arizona soil and heat make gardening a challenge that is bigger than me at this time - maybe someday!  Alas, we have an awesome sources for fresh produce including a great cooperative called Bountiful Baskets (if you are on the West coast, check them out).

A couple of weeks ago they had an awesome deal on Organic Tomatoes so I ordered them, called some friends and we had a "first-timers" canning party.  None of had really canned before so we were learning as we went and had fun morning chatting and canning.  I also ordered the Mexican Pack which included some delicious treats like peppers, tomatillos, cilantro, key limes, avocado, garlic, tomatoes and more.  The day before the ladies arrived, I whipped up a large batch of tomatillo salsa and canned them to make sure I knew what we were supposed to do.  It worked and they all sealed!

I researched a few different recipes for Tomatillo Salsa online and ended up improvising with my own version which was essentially just a few steps.

Step 1 - Roast the Veggies - I removed the husks from the tomatillos, sliced them in half, cut up a couple of onions, broke open a head of garlic and through a few green chili and jalapeno peppers on a sheet pan and placed them under the broiler.  I let them roast and char under the broiler, occasionally turning them so that they got a nice char on all sides. 

Step 2 - Blend - Once the veggies were roasted and had a nice char, I placed them all in the blender along with the large bunch of cilantro that came in my pack.  I blended them until everything was smooth.  If necessary, you can add a touch of water but mine was plenty juicy without.  I didn't bother to remove the seeds from my chilis as we like it a bit hot and I was using rather mild green chilis and only a couple of spicier ones.  TIP:  Make sure you hold the lid down with a towel when blending hot liquids.  The heat adds a fair amount of pressure to the lid and you don't want to spray hot liquid everywhere.

Step 3 - Season & Can - At this point you need to taste your salsa and add your desired seasonings.  I added a palm full of cumin, a heaping tablespoon of cayenne pepper, black pepper and some garlic salt until it tasted the way I wanted.  At this point I placed them in my pint jars (which I warmed up by dipping them in a pot of boiling water - you never want to put hot liquid into a cold glass jar as it can make the jar crack).  I left about a 1/2" headroom, cleaned my seal and placed on my lids.  I lowered the jars into a deep pot of boiling water and boiled them for approximately 25 minutes (adjusted slightly since we are a higher altitude).  When done, I removed the jars and waited to see if they sealed, and yeah, they did.  Success!

The next day, my friends came over and we made our way through approximately 50 lbs of tomatoes.

    

Thanks Evita, Keri, Cathy & Heather!



After briefly blanching the tomatoes in water, we peeled the skins off and placed them in the pot.  We began to simmer the tomatoes and used an immersion blender to chop them up to make a smooth sauce.  Our tomatoes were pretty juicy so we allowed them to simmer a while in order to reduce the amount of liquid.

With so many tomatoes, we decided to do one small batch with some roasted green chili peppers in it. Overall it was a great day - all of our tomatoes sealed and we were all able to take home 3 quarts of tomatoes and 3 pints of tomatoes with chili.

Since a party isn't a party without swag - I picked up the ingredients to mix up a simple Sugar Scrub using olive oil, sugar, lemon zest and essential oil.  There have been so many blogs out there offering variations of this scrub but essentially it is 1 part oil to 2 parts sugar plus scent as desired.  Next time I would love to try a brown sugar scrub and I will try a less fragrant oil.  One note with scrubs - they make your skin really soft and the bottom of your shower very slick so be careful.

I look forward to getting together with the ladies again in the future and try our hand at some fruit and jams.  I am partial to freezer jams as I think they maintain the best flavor of the fruit.  My Mom makes an incredible strawberry freezer jam - granted, I think her secret weapon is that she can go out to her patch in the backyard in the morning, fill a big bowl with fresh-picked strawberries and make a batch.