Sprinkles Of Charm

Gray & Yellow "NUTTY" Party Part 2

Ahhhh....dessert! The second batch of pictures comes from the second half of the evening. After some great laughs at the improv - we came home to these yummy treats.  I'm not much of a baker yet, but I'm always trying and attempting new things. Some were hits and some were misses, but overall we ate too much sugar!

I LOVED the huge balloons Amy Atlas used in one of her sweet tables so I bought two darling balloons from here. I thought they added just the right touch. The framed squirrel is another design from my sister enlarged to 16x20 and placed in a Hobby Lobby frame I spray painted glossy white. Find all the party printables at this store.  The darling grey squirrels were ordered here and I simply sewed them together using white thread to create some more detail to the backdrop. Inspiration for this came from Kara, here.

Lastly, just a little touch added to the mantel because I had a bit of tissue paper leftover from the tissue poms and I really wanted to try this. Not super impressive - but a fun touch!

Pumpkin Triffle Recipe from Paula Deen, here.

Nutty Butter Bars from The Cookin' Cowgirl, here.

Gray & Yellow "NUTTY" Party Part 1

I have an amazing group of ladies that I do a dinner group with once a month. For 5 years now we have been getting together one Friday a month and taking turns throwing a party. It's been an incredible experience to put something like this together and make friends I'll cherish forever.

We've done almost everything it seems! Roller skating, movies, plays, spa night/massages, beauty night, 80's night, cake decorating, tons of games and plenty of wonderful evenings spent eating great food and enjoying one anothers company. It was my turn to throw the party this month and I tried to think outside the box...what would be fun and new?  Some friends and Nolan and I have been to some improv clubs and laughed our cheeks off - voila! I based my party around an evening of NUTTY fun...what better to do with friends than laugh?

I chose a color scheme that I love - gray and yellow - and added a squirrel - appropriate for the fall season.  My inspiration came from a professional sweet table done here.  The result was a fun party that I completely had a ball putting together. We met for dinner and laughs, then headed to this improv club and came back for the dessert bar (Part 2 Pictures coming soon)!

My incredible sister is a Graphic Designer and a pro at Photoshop. Find all the party printables at this store.  She helped with all the design and graphics for the paper portion of the party. Here are the darling invitations. I attached them to a can of "pop-up" snake peanuts.

 

I love the pom-pom trimmed sign that greeted guests at the front door. I just sent the design to Costco and ordered a 16x20 print. I mounted it to a blank stretched canvas and glued on the trim.

For the dining room, I started by making tissue poms and punch paper garlands for the ceiling. I ordered my tissue paper from this source.

Honestly - there are few things I enjoy more than setting a fun dining table. I was lucky to find these gorgeous tableclothes and candles at Target. I ordered the squirrel placecard holders that came ugly brown and I spray painted them glossy white. The zig zag bags held jokes for each guest to read aloud at dinner - it was a fun touch. The straws and bags were ordered here. 

 

One of my new favorite tricks is to spray paint white paper doilies ANY color you wish. I thought they added a great pop of color under the dinner plates.

 

The mustaches, glasses and lips made great props for candid pictures of the ladies.

 

All the acorns and nuts were purchased from Hobby Lobby and spray painted in the party colors.

For the dining room wall I made a few dozen paper wheels with scrapbook paper. It's an incredible and inexpensive way to decorate a party wall and make a big impact. I still haven't had the heart to take it down! The party favors were a fun edition to the buffet table.









 My bakers rack housed the drinks...raspberry lemonade and citrus water.







Here are few extra pictures of the room lit at night right before the party.

And a few of the gorgous ladies.

Part 2 post coming soon...the Dessert Table!

Catching Up

FEBRUARY: Had's 6th Birthday, Nol's 39th Birthday

 
 
 
 
MARCH: St. Patrick's Day, Madison Growing Up, Nol and Ali Trip to Mexico

 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 

APRIL: Easter
 
 
 
 MAY: Madison's Orchestra, Bella's Musical, My Best Friend Lee's Visit for my B-day

 
 
 
 
 

Our life has been full of treasured moments, as always. We feel blessed and loved and so happy to have each other. Sometimes you just have to recap memories (see above) because the most important thing is to spend time making them! Looking foward to a great summer with the kids!

Christmas Hayrides 2010

Every year we do Christmas hayrides for the neighborhood and our friends. This year Madison had her 12th Birthday party the same weekend so we ended up doing 4 nights of hayrides. It's been a wonderful tradition that we cherish during the holidays.

 
 
 
 

Madison is 12 years old! She had 12 little friends over for an ornament exchange and hayride. She planned the party and did a great job. They made fleece scarves and ate and laughed all night. It's so fun to see her grow up and I loved seeing her personality with her friends.

 
 
 
 
 

 

A Sweet Pea Baby Shower

A sweet lady I know just had her first baby a few days ago. She doesn't have family here and so I thought to give her a baby shower a few weeks ago. I chose a "Sweet Pea" theme because I LOVE the graphics and colors. My amazing sister, Molly, designed the Sweet Pea labels and banner. I decorated with things I had off my walls... an antique mirror, a vintage ceiling tile and made a quick tablecloth with some darling Amy Butler fabric I had in the right color. The food was simple but delicious. The cupcakes were lemon and spice. The favors were "Sweet Pea" candles:) I LOVE baby showers, especially when I get to design the party!

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
 

A word on Friendship...and...Anthropologie Inspired Un-Birthday Party! Part 1

First, let me say how much I heart my friends.  Once a month a group of us get together to celebrate friendship.  This dinner group started four years ago and hasn't stopped since.  It all started with a desire to strengthen and expand my friendships. I saw a need in my own life to make more time for my girlfriends and to get to know ladies that I loved, but didn't feel I really "knew".  I really wished I could involve every amazing lady I knew, but one can only seat so many around the table:)  A few friends and I asked around to our friends to see who might be interested.  Some had room in their life, some didn't.  Some ladies I had known for years, and some for only months.  One sweet friend had just lost her dear husband, another had just moved here and really needed to build some connections.  What blossomed from this simple idea was close-knit girlfriends that I will treasure forever! We are old friends now...and I know we all continue to make new friends and build those relationships.  My advice to anyone looking for strength in friendship...start a dinner group! Take turns planning a party and making dinner for your sweet friends. If you can round up 12 ladies - you each take a month and you're only throwing the party one time a year.  It's the best!!

So, my turn came last month...April!  My theme was inspired from the best store ever...ANTHROPOLOGIE!!  I just wanted the evening to feel vintage, homemade and relaxing. I started with a cute homemade invitation with help from my creative sis. She digitally put all the cute designs together and then I sewed buttons and ribbon onto the hard copy. I sewed envelopes out of the Anthropologie catalog pages (easy and cheap).

I began making homemade decorations out of trash...ya know - that store has the most amazing way with trash.  These flower garlands are made out of coffee filters, tissue paper, old patters, old music sheets and cupcake liners.

This chandelier and bicycle wheel wreath were made from empty plastic water/soda/juice bottles. You just cut off the tops, cut petal shapes and spray paint.  This is BEFORE...

And AFTER...

The table decoration is always my favorite. I got all mis-matched plates and dishes at Good Will for 50 cents each. I used old music sheets as place mats. The glasses are mason jars and the place cards are knobs turned into flowers.  I just sewed different color pom-pom trim onto simple white napkins to add some fun color.

 


The centerpiece was a collection of old bottles I usually have in my kitchen. I put fresh dahlias and other greenery in them. I had a friendly old owl (courtesy Good Will) and some cute bird candles close by.

 
 
I had the food on the blue side table (no food yet when I took the pics). I served chicken/berry green salad, homemade rolls, berry cups, stuffed mushrooms, chicken fig pinwheels, and fresh squeezed lemonade.

Next post will be filled with details about the favors, activities and dessert table!

Now go out and plan a party for your girlfriends!!

New Moon Party

I had some girlfriends over to celebrate the Twilight saga - "New Moon" release.  I've been wanting to do a Twilight party since the last movie came out so I had a good year to think about it.  I invited everyone to wear black onyx and blood red to the Cullen's home for dinner and dessert.  My favorite was working on the decorations and it came together to be a super fun party!

The front door. The red cellophane claw marks were a subtle reminder that Jacob was near :)

The table. I lucked out with the black chair covers. I bought cheap black pillowcases and sewed them a bit smaller and they worked perfectly on my chairs. I sewed the chair sashes and figured they can be used again and again with almost any holiday. I found the idea to use "forks" as place-cards on line - loved it! I tried to have some symbolism from each book on the table - chess pieces, red/white tulip, red ribbon and apples.

Drink Bar. I found the cute drink labels on the Hostess with the Mostess blog. The rest was just plenty of candles, flower petals and framed quotes from the books.

 

Other decorations. I already had all those fun feathers from another event so I HAD to use them :)

Dinner. I made Italiano. Fresh mushroom ravioli to start (from the local Whole Foods) drizzled with butter, basil, pine nuts and fresh Parmesan. The main dish was currant salad and Chicken Picatta.  I thought it was pretty tasty and very filling.

 
 
The Dessert Bar. This was the most fun to do.  I made most the desserts the day before the party. Chocolate covered Oreos, carmel and chocolate dipped pretzel rods, mini-chocolate cups with fresh raspberries, red velvet cupcakes and some other fun store bought goodies. This is a fun way to make dessert last all night long.

 
  The girls. My sweet friends who have ALL read the Twilight books.   We had so much fun eating, giggling and getting excited about the movie. My brother in law made these darling charm necklaces for me to give the girls. They all had Twilight themed pictures with their first initials. So cute. I love these women!

 

Twilight Jeopardy Game and The Forest. The game was a hoot. It lasted at least an hour and it was hilarious to see how well some girls knew their Twilight books!  There were prizes and plenty of laughs.  The party wouldn't' have been complete without the feel of the Forks Forest. I borrowed lots of trees, plants and had some fog going here and there.  It was pretty fun.

 

  

 
 

The Witching Hour

Oh yes.  It was an amazing party.  My dear friend threw a witch's party last night.  Her invitations came a few weeks ago as a very plain black witch's hat with the inviation to decorate it!  Never ask a McMeen girl to decorate something unless you really mean it.  I decided on lots of glitter and glam - I think the sparkly skeleton head added just the right amount of Halloween.  The cape started as one piece of black fabric and turned into layers and layers and layers with trim - I just couldn't stop.  The broom was fun and I just used leftovers from the hat supplies.  I may have turned into a bit of a circus witch, but color is fun, right? For once I'll actually dress up for Halloween this year - the kids are excited! (side note - I've never in my life posted this many pictures of myself but I know mom and sisters NEED the details:)

 


The party was completely hysterical.  Everyone did such different things with their hats and outfits. There were four winners - Best Witch, Most Creative, Scariest and Prettiest.  We all voted on our favs and I was HONORED to take home a darling prize for most creative.

The decorations were charming with witch's brooms, a million candles, spider webs and a witch's cauldron on the drink table.  We dipped carmel apples and talked into the wee hours of the night (or morning I should say). She had miniature cauldrons at each of our places with Bath and Body's Twilight lotion. She served delicious homemade soups, salad, and fresh rolls.  Warm apple crisp and ice cream for dessert.  Thanks for a wonderful evening sweet friend!

 
 
 
 
 

A post, a post, it's really a post!!

Ugh!  Time flies when the kiddos are finishing school, summer hits and they're home all day with you.  The end of the school year was wonderful and I've officially got a 5th grader, a second grader, a preschooler and a almost 6 month old baby.  We started summer with a great hike in the mountains on Memorial day.  At least we thought it was great until 5 days later we found that a tick had attached itself to Hadley's head!  I have NEVER felt more grossed out than to think my sweet little daughter had been someone's dinner for several days.  He must have started out really tiny because we didn't see him until the 3rd or 4th bath.  Long story short, we're pretty sure she got Lyme's Disease from it and she'll be on antiobiotics for a few weeks.  We're just sure these meds will take care of it she'll be just fine.  Here are the pictures from the hike.  By the way, we got completely rained on.  I look at these pictures and couldn't help but wonder when the little culprit made it's way onto her head!

 

My dad's sister, Marilyn McMeen Brown, and her husband, Bill, came through town and stopped by our home for a little while.  It was wonderful to reconnect with family we haven't seen since my dad passed away.  My aunt is an author and has published several books.  This is Madison's dream so they hit it off sharing stories and practicing the piano together.

 

Our first trip this summer was up to Fairplay, Colorado with our great family friends, the Woelhaffs.  We rented a cabin there for about four days and had a wonderful time.  We mostly rested, ate, played games, hiked a bit, and best of all drove to a foothill, found snow and sledded down a mountain (in June)!!  We love that our girls get along so well with their two boys.  They built an awesome stick fort, threw tomahaks at targets and roasted smores.  The weekend wouldn't have been complete without a fun movie night, Seven Brides for Seven for Seven Brothers, one of my favorites.  This is our second year "camping" with these guys and we plan to make it a tradition.  Ashley and I prefer this method of "camping" over the previous year.

 

Also, our hubbies got up early Saturday and climbed Democrat Mountain (a fourteener).  You'll have to check Wayne's blog for pictures (see blog list to the right).

Finally, some cute pictures of bathtime!

 

Getting Ready for Baby!

This little guy should be here any day now...we can't wait to meet him!  I promise to put a picture of me pregnant before he comes - somehow I just keep avoiding the camera.  So it looks like the official due date right now is the 27th according to the last ultrasound - give or take a few days.  My doctor would induce me on Tuesday if I want (the 23rd) but I'm hoping he'll either come before that or wait until after Christmas.  We'll see what happens.  I've been busy "nesting" as they call it - getting the nursery ready, sewing a bit and buying last minute essentials for a little boy.

But first I wanted to post about the adorable baby shower my awesome friend AJ threw me.  It was so charming and perfect.  She had blue and chocolate brown everywhere - dozens of balloons, candy, a diaper cake, cupcakes - everything was perfect.  I was overwhelmed with the amount of work she put into this.  I have always said LOVE IS IN THE DETAILS and this shower was a perfect example of that.  I could tell how much time she spent thinking of little details like blue baby feet suckers and handmade blue candy canes as favors.  We had a lovely brunch of homemade soups, salads and rolls.  There were about 15 ladies there that I love and adore.  We had a great time playing games, visiting and opening gifts.  I got some wonderful gifts like baby boy clothes, diapers, blankets, books, a baby sling and a Bumbo.  I felt SO loved that day and will always remember it.  I think I'm lucky to get a baby shower on my 4th and last baby - it was wonderful!

       

Here are some pictures of the simple, Western themed nursery.  I let Nolan pick the theme - the things you see hanging on the walls are special pieces we already had that have stories behind them.  The wooden plank is a brand from an old family farm, the Western Star is a piece made by my Uncle Rick Merrill who is a western artist.  There's a picture of an old truck up on the shelf which is a photo of Nolan's Grandpa's old farm truck.  I wanted to keep the room simple but still have that touch of Rustic Cowboy to it.  The baby's name will be hung in chocolate brown letters under the picture frames between the stripes.  Of course, we don't know his name yet so I had to wait on that.  If you have any fun ideas what to hang from the shelf - let me know.  I was thinking horseshoes or a cowboy hat.

   

Burp Clothes anyone?  You may wonder why I spent time sewing these burp clothes that will only be used for spit-up!  Well, they are SUPER easy and so cute I just couldn't stop.  I found some adorable ribbon at Hobby Lobby and just sewed it to premade, white burp-clothes.  Cute homemade gift for anyone you know having a baby!