Eileen

Simple Cookie Decorating Gift for the Holidays

December 14, 2016 by Eileen 72 Comments

With the Christmas season upon us and holiday traditions in full swing, making and decorating cookies definitely holds a special spot in my heart.

This year rather than just exchanging cookies, think about putting together a holiday cookie decorating box for kids and their families to enjoy. This gift provides a festive activity that kids will long remember.

I made one of these boxes for my niece years ago. Each Christmas, we would always bake and decorate cookies together – it was our special thing.

However, one Christmas I had just had my son, so I made my niece this little box, so she would still be able to decorate Christmas cookies that year.

In addition to putting together a holiday cookie decorating box for others, you could also make one for your family.

Save it until Christmas Eve, when you can then decorate cookies to leave for Santa:)

Not only is this box super easy to make, but it doesn’t involve screen time nor is it another toy.

And, if you are even a little bit of a baker or crafter, you probably already have a lot of the materials.

Cookie Decorating Gift Box Materials

About a dozen roll-out cookies – Baking the cookies ahead of time cuts out on the mess, and let the kids go straight to the fun part – the decorating.
Candy Melts – I used chocolate and red
Decorating Materials – sprinkles, candies, etc
Small containers for the sprinkles/candies – You can use condiment containers, small tupperware, or you could buy the the sprinkles/candies in small containers
Decorative Box – Michaels always has great ones
Ziplocs – to put the cookies and candy melts in
Ribbon – to spruce up the ziplocs

Holiday Cookie Decorating Box Instructions

First, you’ll want to bake your cookies and let them cool.

My family eats pretty healthy these days (one day I’ll share that story). So, I always make things as healthy as possible.

Additionally, I made these cookies without dairy, egg, or gluten. I’ve gone through quite my share of recipes, as well as trying to use substitutes on my own recipes.

Hands down, the best one is from The Unconventional Baker. She also shares recipes for chocolate roll-out and vanilla roll-out cookies. Her instructions were great. And, the cookies rolled out very well! Also, they don’t use cane sugar, and they taste just as a roll out cookie should.

After they cooled, I placed about eight of each type of cookie in a stack and put them into a ziploc bag. I folded the bag, so you wouldn’t see the zipper part when placed in the box.

Then, I adorned the top gingerbread man from each pile with a little bow:)

Next, I took the candy melts and poured them into ziploc bags.

Afterward, I also tied ribbon around these to make them look more festive.

Additionally, I found these cute little containers at Dollar Tree (10 for $1) and filled them with sprinkles and candies for decorating.

I also had all of these items in my pantry – so no additional cost for decorating materials 🙂

Next, I arranged everything into this Michael’s box. They have the cutest boxes for all holidays and seasons – and I always seem to shop when they are 70% off, which made this box $3!

The last thing I did was add a few candy canes because they make everything look so festive.

If I had a little more room in the holiday cookie decorating box, I would have added hot cocoa, paper cups, and cute straws, which would have made for a nice touch.

I spent only around $7 on this holiday cookie decorating box, as I already had everything but the box and candy melts.

Spending only $7 on a gift is quite amazing, right?

This year, as you get caught in the whirlwind of the holiday season, remember that decorating cookies is something simple, thrifty, and delicious to give!

And, I’m sure if you start this Christmas Eve tradition of decorating cookies for Santa, your kids will remember and blissfully look forward to it each year.

How to Make a Spectacular DIY Advent Calendar

December 7, 2016 by Eileen 83 Comments

With the holiday season quickly approaching and my toddler reaching an age where he can learn from and enjoy holiday learning activities, I set out to find an Advent calendar that our family would enjoy.

However, I couldn’t find one that was suitable. Some were filled with chocolates (which negates our healthy lifestyle), some where filled with gifts (I don’t want him to get caught up in the gift aspect of the holiday), and some had numbers that were too small or simply didn’t stand out enough for a toddler to easily recognize.

So I did what I do best – I created my own.

And I’m sure you can easily guess that I made the homemade Advent calendar out of felt. This year has definitely been the year of felt for me 🙂

I’m going to cut right to the chase since we are already a few days into December! It was a little time-consuming, but I love the way it turned out. It provides quite a few learning opportunities, and we can use it year after year.

Homemade Advent Calendar Materials

Green Felt – for the tree and bottom layer
White Felt – or other background color
Felt Pieces in various colors – (I bought a new package for more colors but ended up using scraps I already had)
Free Printable for the Tree Outline (keep scrolling for printable and instructions)
Hot Glue Gun – for attaching the felt
Numbers – Make sure you have enough for numbers 1-25.
Ribbon – for attaching the ornaments to the tree
Buttons – to hang the ornaments on
Basic sewing materials – thread, needle, scissors – for attaching the buttons to the felt but you could skip this and use hot glue
Wooden dowel – for hanging
Decorative ribbon, if desired

How to Make the an Advent Calendar out of Felt

I was excited to get work on the homemade Advent calendar. I started with the background and large pieces and worked my way down to the ornaments.

Making the Background and Tree

First, I cut the large felt pieces, and I must say, this was the hardest part. I simply am terrible at cutting in a straight line. Why don’t squiggly scissors worked on felt?!

I cut a piece of white background to be 18 inches by 22 inches. My reason for this was that I already had an interactive alphabet of this size hanging from a wooden dowel. I figured I could borrow the dowel; although I ended up finding another one in the garage.

After that, I drew a Christmas tree onto green felt using a sharpie. It took me a few tries to get all of the branches right and to maximize my use of felt. I really marked up the back of it.

To save you the same work, I am sharing the outline that I drew. It’s on two sheets of paper, and I want to note that the bottom of the Christmas tree was a little too big for standard paper.

Therefore, the second page looks like it cuts off. However, it’s not a mistake – the tree was just a too wide. So I let it run off the edges, figuring it would be easy for you to just connect these few lines – easier than drawing your own tree, at least 🙂

Click here for the tree template.

Next, I cut a little brown rectangle out of my felt scraps for the tree stump.

Then I hot glued the tree and the stump to the the white background.

Attaching Buttons to the Advent Calendar

Even though felt sticks to felt, I wanted to use buttons and ribbon for this Advent calendar to provide another learning opportunity to my son – using buttons.

I found 25 buttons from a collection that I had. I love these buttons – especially their varying hues and textures all although within the same color family.

First, I spaced the buttons out, and then I sewed them on. Also, I put four buttons under the tree for the presents I was going to make.

You also could hot glue the buttons; however, I wanted the sewed look 🙂

Making Ornaments for the Advent Calendar

Now came for the daunting part – 25 shapes to make! Yet, an idea dawned on me… cookie cutters! I used my Christmas cookie cutters to trace a bunch of the shapes – the gingerbread man, snowman, and candy cane, to name a few.

If you are trying to cut down on the work, you could use just a few shapes and repeat them.

The rest of the shapes I outlined or I just cut. If I’m not sure how to draw something or I want a shape simplified, I google an outline of it.

Looking at just the outline makes it easy to emulate. I did that with the angel, and she turned out great!

Adding Decorative Ribbon

My shapes were looking a little boring, so I used holiday ribbon to spruce them up. Just a line of ribbon here and there, actually, went a long way in turning my boring felt shapes into cute pieces.

For example, on the snowman (pictured above), I used a line of ribbon instead of buttons.

The line of ribbon on the train spruced up its plainness. And, even the faceless gingerbread man look pretty spiffy. I didn’t want to fill them up too much though because I still had the Advent numbers to add.

Adding Ribbon Hooks

Next, I needed to attach ribbon to the felt, so the ornaments could hang from the buttons on the Christmas tree. I used this green ribbon (from our wedding programs!), and simply looped one end around the other.

To keep the loop, I put a bead of hot glue to hold the overlapping ribbon pieces (right above where my finger is).

Once glued, I added another bead of hot glue to the criss-cross and attached it to the back of the ornament.

Attaching the Calendar Dates

Next, I needed to add the dates. I went to Michael’s specially to pick these up – got caught up in all the sales, and completely forgot about it.

Not wanting to waste another trip out to a craft store (and not wanting to wait for Amazon prime delivery – two day seemed like too much!), I started to cut out my own numbers out of felt using a template. They looked horrible! It was just too many imperfect twos!

The next day, I picked the below numbers up at Michaels.

They are simply adhesive cardboard numbers, so they didn’t stick that well. I had to use hot glue to give them a good stick – and that was a lot of gluing plus a burnt pinky.

In hindsight, I should have gotten felt ones from Amazon. They have a bunch of felt numbers. When you do purchase your numbers, make sure you have enough 1s and 2s.

With these adhesives, at first I wasn’t crazy about the sharp contrast that the glitterly black created, but it’s grown on me.

And, they are very easy to read, which makes them perfect for my toddler.

When you are sticking on the numbers, make sure to lay them out ahead of time. Put the single digit numbers on the smaller ornaments – to make sure that every number has a good shape to fit on.

I barely was able to squeeze the 25 onto the star, since the star is the last thing that goes on the tree 🙂

The ornaments look so cute – and I think it was that ribbon 🙂 Faceless gingerbread man is definitely my favorite, yet, Frosty is a close second.

Finishing Touches

After the ornaments for the homemade Advent calendar were done, I went back to the tree. It looked a little drab with the white background, so I cut yet another piece of green felt and hot glued it behind the white. It provided a border, a little depth, and hid my sewing.

The tree still looked like it needed a little sprucing up (haha get it?!), so I ran a line of ribbon across the bottom.

I also used this same ribbon to create tabs to run the wooden dowel through. I was planning to use felt for this, but the ribbon was perfect – and tied it all together.

Here’s a close up of a the completed DIY Advent calendar.

I love how the homemade Advent calendar turned out, and my son is learning a ton!

He is learning to follow a number sequence, identify holiday shapes, create connections between the items on this tree and the items on our real trees, apply his fine motor skills on the use buttons, and practice responsibility, as it is his job everyday to find and hang up the next number.

He also loves that he has own tree and ornaments and that he doesn’t have to ask mommy in advance if he can touch them 🙂

Here is the entire tree, with some of the ornaments hanging. In the second picture, you can see how the tree is hanging.

The calendar is going to be a little crowded when all of the numbers are on – but they all do fit, and the homemade Advent calendar is the perfect size for small spaces and doors.

Not only do I love a great learning activity, but I love holiday traditions. This homemade Advent calendar will now be one in our home 🙂

Easy DIY Gingerbread Decorating Gift Basket

December 5, 2016 by Eileen 60 Comments

I love buying fun boxes, and I especially can’t resist when they are a good price. I usually buy them on sale and then I figure out what to do with them later. That’s how my ice cream sundae gift box came to be:)

Michaels Crafts always has beautiful gift boxes.

They run a lot of 70% off sales, especially at the end of seasons, making them only a few dollars. I wasn’t planning on making any Christmas gift boxes this year. However, they ran their 70% off sale last weekend, so I picked up quite a few boxes and baskets.

I picked up a gingerbread house decorating kit too – also on sale. My niece and nephew love to do these, but we usually don’t have enough candy to decorate the house with – so we end up buying more to supplement.

Thinking of this sparked an idea…

Making a Gingerbread House Gift

I was thinking I could unpackage the pre-made gingerbread kit, compile more decorating items, and arrange everything into a pretty gift box. I also added hot cocoa items.

Now what store-bought gingerbread decorating kit also has hot cocoa?! :)The best part is that I only spent $18 on this gift box! So many times gift boxes are filled with things that really add up. This one is cheap and the items were easy to throw together.

Materials for Making a Gingerbread House Gift

As far as materials, you can really use anything you like – you could even use graham crackers, a container of frosting, and decorating icing, rather than buying a pre-packaged kit.

However, I thought $6.99 (plus my 25% off coupon) that I spent on the gingerbread house was worth it for all of the materials it provided

So, here are the materials that I used:

Gingerbread House Kit – Craft stores have the best prices on these (the one I used is pictured below and was pre-made!)
Additional Decorating Materials – Candy and sprinkles
Containers for Candy – I used a combination of cute little tupperwares I found at the Dollar Store (10 per pack!) and condiment containers that I bought a while back and keep using for various projects 🙂
Holiday Cups and Napkins – Dollar stores are great for this
Hot Cocoa – I used two individual packs
Tissue Paper – to line box or basket
Gift Box or Basket
Icing Spatula – I found a holiday-themed one at Michaels
Ribbon – to add a little flair

Instructions for Making a Gingerbread House Gift

First, I unpackaged everything in the gingerbread kit to see what I had to work with.

Then, I added in more candy that would be fun for decorating – twizzlers, smarties, peppermints, gum balls, starbursts, skittles, and tootsie rolls. I probably bought too much candy, but variety makes for fun decorating.

I also grabbed a few kinds of sprinkles that I already had, and then I simply filled the containers with all of the sweets.

Speaking of sweet, my little toddler helped me, and of course, everything is a lesson with me – so we counted, sequenced, and sorted the candy. 🙂

Then, I put together the non-food items – cups, cocoa, straws, the spatula, and napkins.

I tied a few of the things together with some holiday ribbon, as pictured below.

Next, I put together the icing. The kit came with three icing packets along with disposable icing bags and plastic tops.

All of them were in boring packaging, so I spruced them up using these little holiday cookie bags that I have had for years! It definitely made a difference 🙂

Then, I started arranging everything. I love arranging things, whether it be cookie trays, home decor, or gift boxes. It’s always my favorite part of projects. It takes me forever, but I love the results 🙂

The gingerbread house looked a little plain so I adorned it with ribbon (another 70% off Michaels find). If anyone has an easy bow-tying trick, let me know because I am the worst at it!

Also, I found a cute Merry Christmas tag (from a Dollar Store photo prop kit!! Check out our DIY photo booth post).

The tag was simply the perfect touch 🙂

And, last but not least, my plan was to glue a picture from the original box, along with the instructions (for the icing) to some scrapbook paper, so my recipients had this information. It’s always nice to look at an already-made gingerbread house for inspiration.

I love that this gift cost under $20. The kids will have to much fun making a gingerbread house. It turned out so cute, and I love that I used so many items I already had 🙂

That’s the great part about doing crafts – your craft bank grows and grows, and then you have so much to work with.

4 Simple Steps for Magical Results with Chalk Paint

November 27, 2016 by Eileen 52 Comments

I finally decided to try my hand at using chalk paint. I love using a good wood stain, but I had been hearing so much about chalk paint lately that I decided to give it a try with a “practice piece.”

Using a decades old nightstand with many stains and uneven surfaces, the chalk paint exceeded my expectations, totally transforming the desolate nightstand into a modern piece, without any sanding or priming.

I was sold on chalk paint, and I’m sure you will be too after reading through this chalk paint tutorial.

Before I give you the step-by-step instructions on using chalk paint, here are a few pictures of the piece before the chalk paint. You can see the uneven surfaces and scratches, especially on the lower part of the shelf.

Using chalk paint on furniture - You won't believe the "After!"

And this is a close-up of the top of the nightstand before using chalk paint. It wasn’t in good shape at all – but the chalk paint covered it all perfectly without any sanding.

Choosing a Chalk Paint

The first step in the chalk paint process was deciding what brand chalk paint to use. I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I went back and forth deciding whether to use Annie Sloan or another brand. Since I was split down the middle, I ultimately decided to use Annie Sloan because of the chemical warning I saw written on the wax container of the other brand of chalk paint – in comparison to the natural ingredients used in the Annie Sloan wax (like beeswax).

That, coupled with the fact that it was my first chalk paint project, sold me on the Annie Sloan brand.

For the top of the nightstand, I used primarily French Linen chalk paint from Annie Sloan (keep reading for how I made it look like distressed wood).

For the rest of the piece, I used Pure White chalk paint from Annie Sloan on the rest of the piece. Just as a side note about, the Pure White chalk paint – it is very white.

Chalk Paint Materials

You can go a little overboard on chalk paint materials, so I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

French Linen (Annie Sloan) Chalk Paint – for the top of the nightstand
Pure White (Annie Sloan) Chalk Paint – for the majority of the piece, and a little for blending the top
Annie Sloan Clear Wax – to cover the whole piece as a protective coating
Annie Sloan Dark Wax – to help create the look of distressed wood on the top
Brushes – I liked using a round brush like this one and I used a 1-inch and 2-inch angular one too
White lint-free rags – to rub the wax on
Gloves, mask (if desired), newspaper/brown paper for floor, and baby wipes to wipe down piece prior to painting.

Now, it seems like a lot of materials for chalk painting, but there is a lot of leftover paint, and the paintbrushes can be reused on any painting project.

The other thing you might be worried about is using wax. I read about a lot of others having trouble with waxing after the chalk paint. However, do not worry – the wax was the simplest part of the chalk paint process!!

Wax is way better to use than polyurethane, and it went by way quicker than the painting.

How to Refinish Furniture with Chalk Paint

With these simple four steps, you will be able to beautifully chalk paint a piece of old furniture.

Here I am ready to give this old nightstand a fresh new look with the following chalk paint steps.

Step 1 – Clean Your Piece

When getting started with the chalk paint process, first clean your piece really good so the chalk paint will stick. I like using baby wipes to clean off furniture.
Then remove any hardware – like drawer knobs – unless you plan to paint these.

Step 2 – Work on the Top

First, tape the edges of the piece. Then you can you can uninhibitedly chalk paint the top.
Then, start brushing on the French Linen chalk paint. Chalk paint goes on just like any other paint, so I gave it a good, thick coat of paint going with the grain. You can go against or in any direction, if you want your whole piece to have an uneven, distressed look. As for brushes, I used the round brush – but any of the brushes would have been fine.
As you are chalk painting, watch for edges and any dripping. The paint is thick, so it doesn’t drip too much; however, because the chalk paint dries fast, you’ll want to catch any potential mistakes quickly.
Let the first coat of chalk paint dry. It took about 30-45 minutes for me. Chalk paint dries super fast!
If you want the top to have a uniform color, then apply another coat.

Technically, the top will now be done, and you can move on to Step 3. Yet, if you want to give it a distressed wood look, follow the below steps for distressed chalk paint:

Distressing the Wood (optional)

Paint a second coat of French Linen, adding a little water in. This coat is different because you are going to add a little water into the gray. Because chalk paint is thick and fast-drying, it’s hard to brush other colors into it. Adding a small amount of water will make the paint a little easier to work with – keeping the paint wet longer, which allows you to brush in the white chalk paint. As for an amount, you can just lightly dip your brush into a cup of water or you could use a plastic cup to put some chalk paint and water into. Again, just a little dip into the water will go a long way with the chalk paint.
After you give the top a second coat of watered down French Linen, while it’s still wet, it’s time to put some white streaks onto the gray chalk paint. Use the Pure White chalk paint and dab your brush in – just a small dab. You can run the brush along a piece of paper to get rid of any excess. The goal is to create streaky white brush strokes on your gray. The round brush is perfect for this. You can make subtle white streaks like I did – or you can make them more frequent and apparent. If you have too much white, then use the gray again – keep layering it until you are happy with how it looks. Remember it’s not supposed to look uniform. The strokes of white are creating character and dimension.

Let the chalk paint dry again – 30 min to 45 should be good.
Last, use the dark wax on your chalk paint. Similarly to how you just used the white, you are going to lightly (very lightly) dip your round brush into the dark wax. Only the very ends of your brush should have wax. Just as you brushed on the white paint, brush on the wax here and there, giving the piece more dimension. If you put on too much of the dark wax, then layer again with the gray chalk paint until you are happy with the results. I used a very small amount of the dark wax because I wanted more of an even look.

As far as creating this look, I found this part of the chalk paint process so much fun, and I am not even an artist.

Rather than just painting brush stroke after brush stroke to cover area, it was something different – and was quite fun and relaxing to create this dimensional look with chalk paint. It was definitely one of my favorite steps of the chalk paint process.

Also, as mentioned before, if you make mistakes or aren’t happy with the way it looks, it is easy to fix by touching up the chalk paint.

Step 3 – Paint, Paint, Paint

Now it is time to chalk paint the rest of your piece, leaving the top that you just painted as is. I used the Pure White chalk paint and used the angular brushes to put it on. Don’t forget to also do your drawers.
The first coat of chalk paint will look streaky (pictured below), but a good, thick coat helps.

After the first coat of chalk paint dries, give the piece a second coat of chalk paint. My piece was still pretty streaky after two coats of paint (pictured below).

I did one more coat of chalk paint, which made for a total of 3. For the chalk paint to go on smoother, you can water it down a little. I did this for my third coat because I felt I didn’t need a full thick coat again.

When working with chalk paint, or any kind of paint, I suggest working in the brightest light possible. If you can, bring more light into your work space so your space is as bright as possible. This will accentuate any dripping or streaking which will help if your piece will be in a room with lots of light.

Step 4 – Waxing In Circles

Waxing is actually a piece of cake. If you are good at cleaning, then you’ll be great at wiping on this wax.

Use two rags – you can split your old t-shirt into pieces, and put one rag in each hand. With one rag you are going to wipe the wax on, and with the other, you are going to polish.
Start with a small amount of wax (half of the size of a dime) – less is more. Start rubbing it on in circles, like the way you rub lotion into your skin. Work your way across the furniture rubbing in circles.
Immediately after, using the second rag, work your way across the piece also rubbing in circles. As you buff, you will start to notice the surface becoming very shiny. This is the look you want! You want to polish in circular motions until it is nice and shiny. Once it’s shiny, move to the next area.

Quick Tip: I would use different rags for the top than the rest of the piece in case there is any bleeding from the paint onto the rags.

Also, you could wax the gray chalk painted top after the top dries in Step 2, instead of waiting until the piece is done. I did this, so I got used to the whole chalk paint process from start to finish, before doing the whole piece.

Chalk Paint Finishing Touches

Last, I replaced the knob on the chalk painted nightstand. Home Depot, Lowes, and Hobby Lobby are all good choices for knobs. This knob I had on my telephone table, but I didn’t love it there – but it looks great on this chalk painted nightstand!

I finished this nightstand within 24 hours I believe – as I kept moving as soon as each coat dried.

It was definitely my best turnaround time on refinishing furniture. When you take away the sanding, priming, and all that dry time, it really speeds up a project.

I loved working with chalk paint, and the results are just amazing. It simply doesn’t look like the same piece. And, the chalk paint process is really easy.

Even my dad’s jaw dropped when I showed him the before and after! He usually only gets impressed with Ash’s projects 🙂

Also, I have a ton of leftover paint. I went through about 1/8 of the quart of white and barely touched the gray chalk paint.

Our old piano is going to be my next chalk paint project – I can’t wait to see how it will look.

Stayed tuned (ha ha pun intended!).

How to Throw a Seinfeld Theme Party (Even in a Restaurant)

November 21, 2016 by Eileen 6 Comments

Themes make parties so much more fun. They break the ice, give everyone a few laughs, and they are filled with creative, little details which I just adore.

With Pinterest and Google’s image search, throwing a theme party is easier than ever because there are huge archives of what has already been done.

It’s like having a silent yet awesome brainstorm session with just you and the Internet.

With my sister Bridget turning 30, my family and I wanted to throw her a surprise party.

However, she is extremely hard to trick, lives in a different state, and is constantly travelling at the blink of an eye.

We were worried that we wouldn’t get her to nail down a date, let alone make sure she was actually home for it. Yet, with a little decoy plan, it all worked out.

She thought we were going to see Aladdin on Broadway. Once you purchase Broadway tickets, you are glued to that date, so it was a great cover.

The next challenge was throwing the party in a restaurant.

Planning the Seinfeld Party

Being the DIYers that we are, we love party planning and are used to hosting parties at our home –cooking themed food, decorating every corner of the house, and planning fun activities, like photo booths.

However, since we lived out of town, we wanted to go to her, making a restaurant our primary option. To keep costs down, we didn’t rent a private room but rather had the party in a nice pizza place.

At first, I thought we wouldn’t be able to have a theme party because you can’t decorate a few tables in a restaurant.

Yet, I found a few creative ways to work in the theme. We made Seinfeld desserts, organized Seinfeld-inspired regifts, and made a photo book of Seinfeld quotes paired with pictures of my sister.

My sister loves Seinfeld – I mean, everything is a Seinfeld reference.

She commonly makes jokes about New York’s awful postal service, brings us chocolate babka when she visits, and is always complaining about close talkers.

Not to mention, when I was graduating college, in the love notes section of my yearbook (where you are supposed to say how proud you are of the graduate), she submitted a note filled with Seinfeld-isms.

Check out this yearbook “love note” from my Seinfeld-loving sister:

Funny, right?! There are so many amazing lines from Seinfeld that you can do so much with.

Therefore, it was the perfect theme for this restaurant party.

Here’s how I worked the Seinfeld theme into the restaurant setting:

Seinfeld Party Food

Themed food is my favorite part of parties, and unfortunately, we weren’t able to be as creative with this due to throwing the party at a restaurant.

We had NY pizza and big salads. I also made cupcakes for dessert (easy for the restaurant to serve) with Seinfeld cupcake toppers.

To make the cupcake toppers, I used some short Seinfeld-isms on a yellow oval.

I printed them on white card stock, cut them out, and then taped them to 4-inch lollipop sticks.

Also, I made gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free cupcakes (which turned out great!!).

As far as the food goes, Seinfeld has so many amazing food references. If we were throwing the party at our house we would have had all of this to work with:

Appetizers: soup nazi soup, pretzels (these pretzels are making me thirsty), crab bisque, chips and dip (double dip), big salad
Main: marble rye sandwiches, cornish hens, calzones, atomic subs, Arby’s, bagels, pastrami, sausages, Chinese food, deli meat, beef-a-reno, poppy seeds, lobster, risotto, shrimp
Desserts: black and white cookies, muffin tops, babka, chocolate eclairs, Entenmann’s, Bosco, non-fat frozen yogurt, pie (with unwashed hands), Drake’s cakes, non-fat yogurt, Pez, Junior Mints, Twix, Tic-Tacs, and Snickers.

That would have been some spread!

Seinfeld Party Goody Bags

For another fun detail, I decided to make goody bags, which included some of the many food references from above.

Being that it was just after Halloween, I got some great deals on candy.

The goody bags included Drake’s cakes, Junior Mints, Pez, and Snickers.

I put the candy in clear bags from AC Moore that were only a couple of bucks.

The goody bags also doubled as decorations as I put these in the middle of the table for guests to take. Everyone loved the Seinfeld goody bags. 🙂

Seinfeld Party Gifts

Last, if you are anything like me, I feel like you never know whether to bring gifts or not to birthday parties for adults, and you also don’t want people to go out and spend money unnecessarily.

Soo – what did we do about gifts? Well, Seinfeld presented the perfect opportunity: the regift.

Rather than gifts from the store, we encouraged guests to bring regifts. This encouraged guests to do some Seinfeld-inspired home shopping or regifting.

It was hilarious, and Bridget got some really thoughtful gifts too. I highly recommend home shopping/regifting for every occasion now :))

Personal Photo Book with Seinfeld-isms

Additionally, the other hit of the party was a gift that my sister, parents, and I made. We took over 70 Seinfeld quotations and paired them with pictures of Bridget from the past 30 years.

As far as the number of quotations/pictures, the plan was 30 because Bridget was turning 30, but with all the great Seinfeld quotes and hilarious pictures through the years, 30 was a drop in the bucket.

Titled “A Book about Nothing,” it turned out hilarious! The pictures and quotes made for a truly humorous pairing. We also put each Seinfeld-ism in a different font.

The pictures below are a few of the Seinfeld quotations paired with pictures of my sister:

Even though our restaurant Seinfeld-themed party wasn’t as grandiose as our usual parties, it was just perfect with these special details:)

We completely surprised my sister, and of course, she loved the theme! The guests enjoyed themselves too!

A few Seinfeld party guests broke into their goody bags during the party, but sadly, I didn’t see anyone eating their snickers with a fork and knife…

Guess they didn’t read their note about nothing yet 🙂

Now that I’ve pulled off two awesome surprise 30th birthday parties, I told my family I was retiring from surprise parties. They are a little stressful!

Yet, Ash is still talking about how much he loved his, so maybe there will be more to come.

Adorable Thanksgiving Place Cards Kids Can Make

November 11, 2016 by Eileen 82 Comments

Looking for a Thanksgiving craft to do with your kids this week? Whether or not you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner, making place cards for the holiday meal is a great activity for kids of all ages.

Not only do children love painting and decorating, but they get to design a special setting for the special people in their lives. It’s a great way for kids to participate in the holiday preparation.

The best thing about the template is that it’s completely customizable.

Using this free printable, you can have your toddler making fingerprint turkeys or your older children painting more elaborate turkeys.

Thanksgiving Place Cards that Kids Can Make

With this thanksgiving place card template, you can be as creative as you like: you could have your kids use finger prints for the turkey feathers or they could glue on skittles or feathers in the shape of a turkey. You could even skip the turkey design altogether and have your child practice writing their letters.

The possibilities are truly endless, as the place card template has lots of open space for creativity.

There are even dotted lines for you or your child to cut out the place settings 🙂

Thanksgiving Place Cards Materials

Free Thanksgiving place card printable – see above
Card stock
Kids paints
Scissors
Sharpie
Any other decorating materials (stickers, crayons, markers for decorating the back or inside)

Instructions for Thanksgiving Place Cards

First, I printed the template on card stock. There are four per page, and remember that it’s always good to have a few extra. My toddler smeared paint across quite a few of them before we even started 🙂

Next, I had my toddler paint the turkeys on. You can have your child make finger prints or use q-tips. I love using q-tips (rather than paintbrushes) for toddler painting. It’s more controlled, easy for kids to use, and quick to clean up!

After they dried, I drew on the eyes, beak, and feet with a sharpie. Then you (or your child) can cut them out. The dotted lines make it easy 🙂

After folding, the thanksgiving place cards that the kids made are ready!

If you have a little one and are doing fingerprints rather than painting or q-tips, your place cards might look more like this (see picture below)… a little sloppier but still adorable 🙂

For extension ideas, you can also have your child decorate the inside or back of the place card – through coloring, through choosing stickers for each person, or through writing a note.

Pumpkin Carving with Cookie Cutters & Drills

November 3, 2016 by Eileen 25 Comments

Ash and I decided to be a little more creative with our pumpkin carving this year. We brought a few new accessories to the carving table: his drill AND my cookie cutters. Pumpkin carving with cookie cutters and power tools certainly made for some cute pumpkins. 🙂

Our son loves playing with my cookie cutters – digging through the boxes, guessing the shapes, imagining his own shapes, and stealing a few for use in his play-doh. He has difficulties with eating, so I’m always looking for new distractions to get us through each meal. And, my never-ending cookie cutter collection has been working like a charm lately.

All of this time spent digging through cookie cutters sparked an idea. We could probably use cookie cutters to punch out shapes in our pumpkins. I googled it – and realized it was a thing. So, we picked out a few cookie cutters to get us started.

As for the drill, Ash is rarely apart from his tools, and he figured that drilling holes into the pumpkins would be fun to make some cool designs.

Preparing for Pumpkin Carving

The first thing I did was cover our table with a plastic, disposable tablecloth. I usually pick these up at the dollar store – this one happened to be Easter themed:)

We probably should have worked outside, but it was much easier to push my son’s high chair up to the table inside.

Here were our materials, plus the drill (not pictured below). We also found that a mallet worked better than a hammer, so we swapped that out after doing the first pumpkin.

After cutting open the top and scooping all the goop out, we were ready to start the fun part – hammering in the cookie cutters.

Using Cookie Cutters for Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving with cookie cutters was really fun, and we made lots of cool shapes.

We took the mallet and tapped the cookie cutter into the pumpkin until it made a clean break.

The larger the cookie cutter (like the ghost pictured above) the harder it was. This was because the cookie cutter didn’t lay flat on the pumpkin.

The heart worked perfectly. It was a good size, easy to tap in, and made a perfect heart on the pumpkin.

Using the Drill for Pumpkin Carving

After we used cookie cutters for pumpkin carving, we used the drill to make some designs too.

We did a bunch of circles in the shape of a flower, spelled out the word Boo, and just drilled a bunch of evenly spaced circles.

I had a blast drilling through the pumpkin. After cutting off the pumpkin tops and scooping out all that seedy goop, running a drill was undoubtedly the fun part.

Now, it did make a huge mess, so you might want to drill outside. Yet, I just used the drill on a lower speed, and the flying pumpkin goop was minimal.

Here are a few shots of the pumpkins sitting out on our front bench.

And, here they are all lit up 🙂

They turned out pretty nice 🙂

Overall, the pumpkin carving with cookie cutters and power tools were a fun combination to work with. If you are looking to mix up your pumpkin carving, definitely give it a try 🙂

Making a Firetruck Costume from a Diaper Box

October 31, 2016 by Eileen 28 Comments

What do you get when you have a crafty mama and handy, tech-crazed daddy? A decked out diaper box that makes all your friends jealous.

Our sweet little guy rocked an awesome costume this evening – a firetruck made from a diaper box complete with blinking lights and sound effects.

The poor thing was a monkey more than once (hey, when the costume fits…), so this year we owed him.

Now that he’s carrying on conversations, I had been asking him for weeks what he wanted to be for Halloween, and 80% of the time he said a firetruck.

I tried to clarify, “You mean a fireman?”

I got a very definitive response, “No, mommy. A fire truck.”

Thank goodness for Google images – there were lots of great pictures of kids dressed in firetruck costumes, and it seemed it could be easily made from a box.

I always save diaper boxes (I usually make storage boxes from them), so I had a ton on hand. I grabbed one and got started on the fire engine costume. How hard could making a DIY fire truck Halloween costume be?

How to Make a Fire Engine Costume from Cardboard

In making my toddler a DIY fire truck costume, the first thing I did was cut off all of the flaps – but in hindsight, I should have left just one short flap attached, for the front of the truck costume (I added this back with tape later).

Next, in making the fire truck Halloween costume, I covered the whole box with red construction paper.

I meant to run to Dollar Tree beforehand for red wrapping paper – that would have been a lot easier than using sheets and sheets of red construction paper; however, I was set on making the costume that day and didn’t want to lose time running out.

So, I used what I had and hot glued red construction paper to the entire box for the DIY fire truck costume.

Next, I hot glued on white construction paper to the front and sides (as seen below) and the top too (the part with the flap).

I then added black windows, and a little design made from shapes and stripes on the front. It was shaping up to be a pretty cool fire truck costume.

After the front was completed, I worked on the sides of the costume. I made similar designs on both sides – so I cut out two of everything. I also added wheels to the cardboard costume.

Just when I thought I was done with this part of the costume, I realized I had forgotten about the back, so I did a quick little design there too (see pics further down).

Below is the cardboard box fire truck costume, made using just construction paper and glue 🙂

How to Attach the DIY Fire Truck Costume

At this point, my little guy was running around the house holding the firetruck diaper box costume up with his hands, so I knew I needed to attach something so he could wear it hands-free.

I found some black ribbon and cut two long pieces.

I then hole punched a hole in the front of the box and back, pushing the ribbon through the holes and tying it.

It worked just like suspenders, holding up a pair of loose pants.

How to Add Lights to the Fire Truck Costume

Just when I thought it was done again, Ash said that it wouldn’t be a firetruck without lights and sound. So, there he went altering the fire truck costume.

To make fire truck lights, he grabbed a couple of clip-on lights that he goes running with at night. The lights clip onto your clothes and have a bunch of different settings, including a slow blink which would be perfect lights for a diaper box firetruck costume.

Ash stuck them onto the fire engine costume with plastic cups, cutting out a little piece of the bottom of the cup (which became the top of the light), to clip them on.

How to Add Sound Effects to the Fire Truck

The sound effects were the most impressive part of making a fire truck Halloween costume.

Ash actually attached his iPhone to the back of the diaper box fire engine. Then he used my phone as a remote, playing fire engine sounds on demand using some custom software he took a few minutes to write.

To securely attach the phone to the fire engine costume, he used a small box we had lying around. So impressive, right?! I have to admit the lights and sound effects of the fire engine were my favorite part 🙂

How to Make a Fireman’s Coat for a Halloween Costume

The last part of making a fire engine Halloween costume was figuring out the fireman’s hat and coat. Thinking ahead, I picked up a plastic fire hat from a giveaway table at a community event not too long ago.

As for the fireman’s coat, I had been procrastinating.

I was thinking about getting yellow tape to run across one of his coats or shirts, but I hadn’t made it to a craft store or Home Depot or any store other than the grocery store.

Then, I remembered my love of felt and found a couple of sheets that I cut up into strips.

I duct taped them on, and ran another half width piece of duct tape in the middle of the yellow strip.

The coat I used was a $2 red raincoat that I found at a thrift store months ago – what a unknowingly, perfect find for the fire truck costume.

The coat was the perfect touch to a cute fire truck costume. In pictures, the fireman’s coat totally looks store-bought. I love when my DIYs look like a store purchase 🙂

Time & Cost of Making a Fire Engine Costume

The total cost of making a fire truck Halloween costume was nothing! We made it all from things around our house. I love a project with a free cost! It took a couple of hours to put together.

More importantly, our little sweetheart had a wonderful Halloween, in the fire engine costume he specifically requested.

We were a little afraid that he wouldn’t wear the diaper box for too long. Yet, he got right into the Halloween spirit when he saw the smiles and sweets he was receiving.

Next year, it’s going to be hard to top this year’s diaper box fire engine costume. What are your most creative Halloween costumes? I’m going to need some ideas :))

Fun Fall Turkey Craft for Toddlers

September 29, 2016 by Eileen 92 Comments

I just love everything about fall – the decorations, the food, the crafts, and the fact that it means Christmas is coming. 🙂

My son is at such a fun age right now because we can start doing seasonal activities together.

Of course, the teacher in me always has to tie learning in, too. Today, we worked on color sorting and color matching with this paper bag turkey craft.

Paper Bag Turkey Puppet Materials

The materials for the fall turkey craft are so simple that you probably already have all of them around your house.

When collecting my materials, I couldn’t find any orange tissue paper, so I just used orange construction paper in its place. Tissue worked better, but the construction paper also turned out fine 🙂

Construction paper – 5 or so colors
Tissue paper – colors that match the construction paper
Brown paper bag
A pair of googly eyes (you could also just use white paper and draw the pupils on)
Scissors
Glue
Pen, if needed to draw feather outline

Paper Bag Turkey Craft Instructions

First, I made sure I had 5 colors of construction paper and 5 matching tissue paper colors. Then, I cut strips of the tissue paper into little squares that could be easily crumbled. I put all of the squares in a big messy pile, and let my little one sort the colors into piles (first learning task:)
Next, I put the five sheets of construction paper in a neat pile and cut out a turkey feather. With the sheets of construction paper in a pile, I only had to cut out one feather 🙂
After that, we glued the eyes on the paper bag, and I made a few little construction paper shapes for the turkey’s mouth – two triangles and a teardrop shape.
Then, I had my little helper crumple the pieces of tissue and match them to the coordinating feather. He had a great time matching the colors to the feathers (second learning task:)). After he matched them, we glued all of the pieces down, feather-by-feather.
Once all of the tissue was glued to each feather, we glued the feathers to the back of the brown bag with a strip of glue.

Here’s my little helper adding a few more pieces on at the end.

The finished paper bag turkey craft! It took very little time to prepare and was a great learning activity to do together.

And, my little guy loves that it’s a puppet! We might be making more puppet friends for Mr. Turkey tomorrow 🙂

Looking for more thanksgiving craft ideas? There are some awesome fall projects on All Free Holiday Crafts that inspired me with this paper bag color-sorting turkey puppet.

Six DIY Weekend Projects That You Will Love

September 19, 2016 by Eileen Leave a Comment

With the cooler weather coming in, it’s the perfect time for weekend DIY projects. There’s something about the crisp, clean air that motivates me to accomplish more.

If you are anything like us, you are probably looking to get a few fall projects under your belt too.

The best projects are weekend ones, as I also love a project that only spans two days!

Plus, you can start and finish something amazing before the Monday morning blues set in.

From garage storage to backyard updates to kitchen upgrades, we are sharing quite a few home projects that only span a couple of days.

My personal favorite is the outdoor picnic table – it turned out so beautiful and we saved hundreds!

So, without further ado, here are six projects that you can complete over the course of the weekend.

1. Outdoor Picnic Table

Ash built this picnic table in just one day!

Imagine my surprise and delight:)

It was simple to make, and the results were beautiful. We especially love the composite decking on the tabletop and the seats, as it involved no staining or sealing – and provides a nice safe material to have meals on.

As for cost, this was a steal ($160!) compared to the cost of this type of outdoor furniture at the landscaping and home improvement stores, and it looks just as wonderful. It was definitely one of our favorite weekend DIY projects.

For a step-by-step tutorial, read Building a Picnic Table in One Day.

2. French Door Pantry

In our old house, we had an eyesore of a pantry.

It was nothing more than a nook of shelves with drawn curtains. It was nothing short of awful.

In sprucing up our house for our move, I was looking for ways to make our kitchen look less dated, without updating the counters and cabinets.

The idea of putting French doors then hit me. Ash agreed – he loves my design decisions…:)

We found a reasonable pair, installed them, and painted them white.

I couldn’t have been happier to see those awful curtains go – it was definitely a rags to riches moment!

It took a mere weekend of work, and I’m sure the nice folks who bought our house are enjoying them.

Check out the before and after along, with all the nitty gritty details in From Rags to Riches: Updating the Pantry.

3. Folding Workbench

Building a Folding Workbench for a Weekend DIY Project

This project was one of Ash’s favorite weekend DIY projects because he checked an item off his bucket list, as he finally built his own functional workbench.

It’s definitely a fan favorite, as it’s been featured on quite a few sites, including Life Hacker and Make.

In his post Constructing a Folding Workbench with Storage, Ash shares his plans (it’s an Ash original!) and explains not only this thought process, but all the necessary steps for you to build your own.

It only took two days, and Ash has been reaping its benefits ever since!

4. Sliding Garage Shelves

Ash and I are a little storage-obsessed. I’ll admit that I have a little Christmas stuff addiction, although I won’t even admit how many trees I have.

And, Ash, well he never throws anything away.

In his defense, he creates some really cool things from his hoard collection – including a built-in pantry shelf made from a CD shelf.

Thus, we could never have too much storage.

In our garage, we had a 20-foot corner of space between the wall and the fridge, and Ash turned this into 70 feet of space with stacked, slide-out storage shelves.

These shelves are awesome, storing some of our holiday decorations.

The slide-out feature provides easy access to boxes in the back, along with easy steps up to the top.

Not to mention, Ash created bonus shelving with the leftover wood.

If you love storage space as much as we do, check out Creating More Garage Storage.

In just a weekend, you could have yourself your very sliding storage shelves, just in time for the holidays.

5. Wooden Mower Wagon

Build a Utility Cart in Just One Weekend

Inspired by a trip to the strawberry fields, Ash had his mind set on building a trailer for his riding mower.

He figured he could haul yard waste to the curb more easily and even take the family on a few tractor rides.

His vision became a reality with this custom-built wagon.

When he finished the wagon, no one but Zeus was around – so he got the first ride. 🙂

Ash gives all the details, from basic construction to assembling the axles to hooking up the hitch connection in his post How to Build a Wagon for a Riding Mower.

After using it all summer, Ash found it more helpful than he originally thought, and he’ll continue to use it this fall bagging up all of the leaves.

6. Boardwalk Pathway for the Backyard

Thinking about tackling a wooden pathway project? It’s easier than you think. With just a few hours of work, Ash created a perfect path from our patio into the backyard.

Prior to this boardwalk, there was a narrow pathway with a few uneven rocks, so this was quite an upgrade. It took a little digging, but it was completed in a just a weekend – making it a perfect weekend DIY project.

After a year, it gets used each and every day and is holding up great. Looking for a boardwalk solution, read A Wooden Pathway for the Backyard.

All of these weekend DIY projects were tackled in just one weekend.

Make your Monday a little happier next week, knowing you created something awesome during your two day break.