Sunshine Baskets

Sometimes we need a little sunshine!  The Women's Ministry at my church was looking for a project to take on for their upcoming retreat.  I am the leader of Doorways, our local outreach program, and I had an idea... my inspiration came from Shelly, from Dolen Diaries.  She facilitated our mom's meetup group to bring Sunshine Baskets to the families with children in the NICU at a semi-local hospital.  So, my idea?  Let's put together Sunshine Baskets for the women at House of Hope, a safe place for women and their children to go when they find themselves in abusive or unhealthy situations.  These women work so hard to get their feet back underneath them - and sometimes they need a little encouragement & in North Bend, Washington, they literally could use a little sunshine most of the winter and spring.  The gals from the Women's Ministry contributed some fun items and Doorways added to them!  This was an easy project and doesn't have to be expensive!  Anything yellow or orange makes the gift shine!

 Not everything needs to be orange or yellow, but the more you can find, the more fun it will be!

 Special items like good lotion, nail polish and shaving cream don't always make it on the must-have grocery list when money is tight.  We thought it would be special to include a few "treats" that these women may not purchase for themselves on a regular basis.

All of the items were stashed in a re-usable plastic bin.  Although a yellow basket would have been great, practical is often better!  Inexpensive candy helps add color and there are usually loads of colorful items in the toiletry aisle at the grocery store.  We made 9 baskets in all, so I'm not sure on the cost breakdown for each - but it was worth every penny!

A cellophane bag kept it all together and a fun ribbon was the finishing touch!  A small group of us delivered the baskets and were able to see the looks of surprise and joy on the faces of some beautiful women and their children!  Thank you to everyone who contributed.

This project was a lot of small things coming together for something great.  It's in the small things!  Never miss an opportunity to shine some sunshine on the people around you... and be creative!

Birthday Party: Chef & Baking Party

This party has recently been featured on Kara's Party Ideas!

This little man loves to be in the kitchen!  Every time he hears the timer buzz, he runs for the kitchen to check whatever is cookin' in the oven.  So, a chef party was perfect for his 2nd birthday!  We were so lucky to not only help plan this fun party, but celebrate at it, too!

There were two main decorated areas for this party - the food tables and the activity table.  Notice the fun touch of photographs of M in the kitchen.  Mom is a photographer and photos play a huge part in the life of this family, so it was a perfect touch.  The activity table was pre-set up for baking when guests arrived.  This helped not only with stress for the hostess, but also added to the party theme and decor.

The food was part of the decor - but it was a simple, delicious menu.  Juice for the kiddos (wrapped in crepe paper to match the colors), lemonade for the adults (LOVE these paper straws) with muffins and fruit cups.  The party was in the morning, so light food was perfect.  Some simple touches were red cupcake wrappers, colored straws, chalkboard signage throughout, ribbon around the bottom of the cups and red forks.  A great tablescape and party is in the small things!

And check out this cake!  Brianna designed the cake to fit the theme and with a couple extra touches, it was the perfect centerpiece.  The Melissa and Doug fruit cutting set was a perfect touch to the cake (and it came from M's own play kitchen).

 There were two main activities throughout the party.  The first was making the cupcakes.  We divided the ingredients into four cups - flour, sugar, oil and soy milk.  (This party was 100% vegan!)  Mom and Dad combined some of the smaller ingredients into the bigger cups - for example, vinegar and vanilla were pre-mixed with the soy milk.  Yes, we used red solo cups!  Very inexpensive and with the small addition of the chalkboard tag, it fit in perfect!

 The kids mixed the ingredients and while the cupcakes were baking, they played with homemade kool-aid colored play-doh (which smelled delicious but tasted salty).

 Each guest was sent home with their homemade playdoh container, a spatula and an apron (handmade with love by Grandma)!  The Birthday Boy had a special chef's hat.

 Overall, this party was a huge success and so much fun - and that's the point, right?  The Birthday Boy was surrounded by people who love him and everyone had a great time.  The activities were a huge success - even for the littlest party guests (15 months or so).  Remember, a great party is in the small things - and in the good company!  This picture of Mom and M shows just that!

 Be Creative!

Photos provided by Neyssa Lee Photography.

Shower Sunday: Tinker Bell Bridal Shower

The best parties are based off personalized inspiration. For this bridal shower, the bride loved Tinker Bell!  So we went with it!

To help tie in with the overall theme, consider using a themed bag or wrapping your gift to match the decor!  It's an easy, small thing that makes the gift table pop!

Yum!  If you've never tried a candy bar for a party or shower, it's so fun and a simple, delicious favor for guests!  In addition to Tinker Bell, we used the colors of the wedding as our shower decor colors - so we purchased as many different kinds of candy in these colors as possible.  It makes my mouth water just looking at these pictures!

Ribbon is a super easy, inexpensive way to add color and character to party staples like drink containers.  This is an example of a small touch with a big impact.

We planned three simple shower games.  (1) Each guest was given a necklace to wear - if they were caught saying "wedding" or "ring", they had to forfeit their necklace.  The person with the most, received a small gift card.  (2) A spin off a traditional "words of wisdom" game, each guest took a jewel or pearl of wisdom.  We went around the circle and each guest offered their words and dropped the jewel into a container that was given to the bride as a keepsake jar for her wedding day.  She can later add petals from her bouquet, pieces from her invite and any other keepsake such as bird seed or a bubble jar.  (3) Finally, we played Disney scategories (sorry, no picture!) where the guests had to come up with alphabetical answers based on Disney themed questions.  As a small thing, we used Disney themed books as the boards guests wrote on.

Another small thing, that can make a big impact on the bride is to ask guests to fill out an envelop with their address to save the bride the time addressing thank you's herself.  It's simple, small and easy!

To tie the color in and add a vertical touch to the decorations, we hung ribbon and beads from the light fixtures and ceiling.  Small, inexpensive and classy!  And of course, we added Tinker Bell wherever we could.  We found a set of 6 Tinker Bell cupcake toppers and hand painted them ourselves to match the colors of the wedding as well as the bride (a brunette).  So fun!

We had a great time planning this shower and watching it come together!  The company was fabulous and the bride enjoyed herself and felt the love - which is what it's all about! 

When you're planning your next party, think about the small things that you can add to make a big impact with a tight budget.  And be creative!

Birthday Party: Zoo Party

Looking at these pictures, I still can't believe my little girl is three.  

She really is growing up fast.

Guests were greeted by a party animal sign and fun balloons (which doubled as part of the favor for kids to take home).  We had the balloons displayed throughout including the gift table.

 

We also purchased inexpensive animal print paper strips (Oriental Trading) to be used with the banner as well as  on the drinks for a fun, small touch. We used a kiddie pool for the watering hole and placed peanuts on the tables as a simple, edible centerpiece.

We had a few main party activities including a safari hunt and face painting.

We made a teardrop shaped pinata using the same green crepe paper used throughout the party decor.

I loved what we decided to do for the cake and cupcakes.  Elle had her own personal mini cake and the rest of the guests enjoyed cupcakes topped with zoo animals of all kinds.  Another small thing was the candles - tiger print and perfect!

 This was the perfect gift!

 We sent the guests home with gift bags filled with zoo animal goodies and a balloon!

 There were lots of small things that made this party click - animal prints everywhere!  We served basic burgers with fruit salad and chips.  Super simple and inexpensive for feeding large groups and easy to prep everything before hand so the grill master can party, too!

When you plan your next party, remember it doesn't have to be an expensive blow out!  A great party is in the good company and small touches throughout.  Be creative!

Birthday Party: Zoo Party Invitation

My daughter loves animals - so that was our inspiration for her 3rd birthday party last fall.  I designed a few different invites for the party, but ended up going with the second here.  I love the giraffe print with the green.  So fun!

Holiday Party: Snowflakes

For the past several years, our good friends have a holiday party to celebrate the season with good food and friends.  This year, I helped with the decor and had a blast!  We provided a few desserts (like some delicious peppermint patty balls) and asked the guests to bring a dish to share.  The colors were blue and white with pops of red.  We hung puffs from the ceiling and placed small snowflakes throughout the house.  A fun find was a felt snowflake table runner we used on the coffee table.  This small touch of snow was on sale and perfect for tying the rooms together!

 The main activity for the party was a cookie bar.  We made simple sugar cookies and frosting and had guests decorate their own.  Because the party guests were all ages, this was a big hit!  The kids loved it and the parents appreciated having something festive for their kids to do.

 We sent each family home with a bag (or two) of homemade puppy chow.... the snack, not the real thing.  It was a delicious and inexpensive small thing to say thank you for coming.  We used blue cello bags with red ribbon tied around them.  I found a bag of little wooden white snowflakes in the craft section at Michael's and hot glued them on to tie into the snowflake theme.

We had a great time planning this gathering and a great time attending!  Guests enjoyed the casual atmosphere, good food and friends!  It was a perfect way to kick off the holiday season.

What are your holiday party plans?

Shower Sunday: Blackberry Pie & Cocoa

I love baby showers!  They are so fun and the themes are endless.  My sister-in-law is expecting a baby girl and we were so excited to plan her shower.  The inspiration for this shower came in the strangest form - dessert!  Kaysee loves blackberry pie and the colors were perfect for a baby girl shower.

All of the decorations came together perfectly!  We kept the decor simple with lots of small things making a beautiful tablescape.  The home decor of the hostess just so happened to fit perfectly.  Purple napkins, raspberry pink and purple M&Ms, red and purple mugs, fun pink & purple tissue paper puffs and a soft, purple blanket draped over a white tablecloth for a pop of color and texture to the table.

For drinks, we again kept it simple.  For an evening shower (7:00-9:00pm) in November, hot cocoa was the perfect warm beverage.  We had four flavors of cocoa (regular, dark, mint and salted caramel), three flavors of marshmallows, whip cream, sprinkles and crushed candy canes for toppings. Delicious!

Our inspiration was blackberry pie - so obviously, that's what we served for dessert.  Delicious at any temperature, we made the pies earlier in the day to avoid a time crunch.  They were delicious!  Serving only one dessert choice made the menu simple and delicious.

We kept our activities simple, too.  I don't know many moms-to-be who really enjoy the typical shower games.  They can often be awkward for guests, too.  We had three activities - the first two were as close to "shower games" as we got.

This final activity was harder than I anticipated!  We each wrote down wishes for Addison and Kaysee collected them for her memory box.  This activity would only work for moms that want to remember by keeping mementos.  I printed out extras for people who were not at the shower to fill out.

 Finally, we included a "station" for addressing your thank you card.  Even if you say you don't, most guests do like to receive thank you cards from the mom-to-be.  This makes it a little easier for mom.

Overall, it was a great shower!  It was small, but beautiful - fun, but simple.  

We're so excited for Baby Addison to arrive!

It's in the small things!

Card Creations - Beautiful Fall Colors

A creative design piece of Circle River Creations is handmade cards.  Once a scrapbooker, always a paper crafter - I love making cards.  I love only having a small canvas to work with and finding fun, unique and creative ways to use paper and other embellishments.

Below are some card creations I recently designed.  I love fall and with it fall colors!  These are a different twist on fall colors with pink added in, but I love them!

Even with cards, it's all about being creative and small things making something great!  Three simple ribbons, folded and stapled to a card adds depth and a splash of texture.  Making a collage out of stickers that may not look right standing alone - a small thing, into something great!

Be creative today!