Hill Country Homebody

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Super Hero Party to the Rescue!

I have said it before and I will say it again. I have been in a blogging rut. This whole "putting the house on the market" thing and moving and all the troubles that have come along with that(that's for another post when I am emotionally ready to let it loose) have just made me grateful to have a stinky saging roof over my head. HA! So I haven't been in a creative mood. But...enter my approaching baby boy's 5th birthday! Those big blues, huge imagination, and his sensitive soul can even pull a mom out of her creative rut. I had every intention to just have a party at a bounce house and pick up a cake and be done. We did do the whole bounce house thing but little man was dying for a Super Hero Party and I was itching to play around with some ideas that I had seen in blogland of course. I am amazed at the stuff you guys come up with and honestly I had to stop looking at blogs at one point because it made me want to try to many things that I didn't have time for;)
So when I came across Erin's blog Life Abundant I was motivated even more to quickly add a few special touches to party day. Little man has a love for all super heros as do many 5 year old boys I know. He wanted it to focus around several different super heros so I felt a little stuck when it came to decor and a cake. Every cake I saw in the grocery stores had one super hero on them and knowing my boy I knew he would ask where the other ones were. In order to not exclude any super heros I went about it the round about way.

First I found these plates at wall mart. They were "super heroish" enough for me. I almost bought these Super Hero Fun Square 3D Dessert Plates at one point and they would have worked to.

Then the little man had spotted some iron man masks similar to these at our local HEB when he was out to spend his allowance money and bought them just to run around the house in. Since it is rare that I haul the 3 kids to the grocery store I just found this multipack online. (we ended up running to the store anyway at the last minute because I didn't think about the fact that I may need more than 8). Why? Cuz I 'm a spaz.

Then I used Erin's great idea of a city Backdrop

It consists of a display board that was on sale for 3.99

I just drew out my idea of a city on the back and then cut it out with one of my hub's pocket knives(classy)

Then used a bright yellow craft paint for the windows and voila! A back drop for the cake or cupcakes.

I ended up going the cupcake route after being inspired by these little toppers also whipped up by Erin at Life Abundant.

Now don't go comparing...Mine are a bit messier and haphazard but they were super easy and cute.

You start by using wiltons decorator icing and piping the shape on wax paper and then filling in the center and decorating.

Warning: they were very fragile but just think of the possibilities!

I let them dry overnight and then carefully used a spatula to pry them up and place on the cupcakes right before the party.

Here is the haphazard thrown together at the last minute table.

As you can see I didn't make one for each cupcake.but you got the feel without all the extra work;)

You see that little decoration there on the right? It says Bang!

See

Again inspired and totally copied from Erin..I cut out a wacky shape, then laid it on the polka dot paper and cut that just a little bigger.

Then played with how I wanted it to look(cuz it really matters;)

Incorporated a reading/spelling lesson while decorating them...

I got carried away and did this 5 but didn't use it.

These pails were 50% off at Hobby Lobby and they didn't have 3 of the same size so I went this route with the sizes.

I wanted them on the tables but figured they would easily get knocked over by crazy super heros and needed a way to stick the little signs in so I filled them with beans. Actually I ended up putting the tissue paper in first and then the beans(I didn't get a pic of that..which by the way I am sure my kids think it is strange that I take pics of every little step of something). Or maybe they are use to it.

Then I plopped the signs in, added some tinsel star thingies

and voila!

The tables came with tablecloths so we just went with what they had and displayed all the masks as decorations. Each kiddo took a mask home as party of their party pack.

Speaking of party packs...

Also inspired by guess who? Go check out her blog for sure!

She was sweet enough to send me the design for the lables

trying to do my own would have probably driven me insane..Thank you Erin!

I cut them out and backed them with sturdier black paper and tied them to the candied popcorn.

This was the most time consuming thin I did. I was trying to be thrifty and avoid a specialty popcorn shop but it may have been worth my time. Mostly because we don't have a microwave right now and I had to perfect my old fashioned popcorn popping skills. After stinking up the casa a few times I got it. I followed a recipe online to the tee the first time and then after that just eyeballed everything because what? I'm a spaz...I was tired and didn't want to read or think but it worked.

Really all you need is popped pocorn, 1 tb light corn syrup, 1/4 cup sugar and I think 4 oz of instant jello. My jello was in a bigger box and I just eyeballed it.

Heat the butter and corn syrup, add the sugar and melt then add the jello and coat the popcorn. It is suggested that you pour the mix over the popcorn and then spread it out on parchment paper. I just threw in my popcorn and once it had hardened a bit I broke it up and put it in bags.

Doesn't this look healthy?

My intention was to layer different colors but I didn't make enough and ended up buying bags of buttered and cheesy popcorn at HEB for additional yellow and orange colors and just mixed it all up. It was actually perfectly sweet and salty.

Now to the good part! The people, the party, and most of all the celebrated little man.

Wolverine

Our sweet E playing with our sweet sitter

Baby Girl enjoying the goods

Our sitter Miss A is always willing to put herself out there and dress the part. She came as Cat Woman. Unfortunately little man doesn't know cat woman yet so we have some educating to do.

Even hubs had fun bouncing an climbing around! Actually he looks a bit unsure here;)

Happy Bday My Sweet, Crazy Super Hero Dude!

Linked to:
Tater Tots and Jello
Whipperberry
Remodelaholic
Stuff and Nonsense
At the Picket Fence
Fingerprints on the Fridge
Chic on a Shoestring
the Shabby Creek Cottage
Somewhat simple
Just a Girl
Fireflies and Jellybeans
Homemaker on a Dime
The Trendy Treehouse
Hope Studios
Tip Junkie
Todays Creative Blog
DIY by Design
Type A Decorating
Blue Cricket Design
Savvy Southern Style
Dittle Dattle
Between Naps on the Porch
Sumos Sweet Stuff
Skip to My Lou
The Girl Creative
Polly Want a Crafter

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Join in

I am totally out of the blogging loop these days! In some ways I miss it but it others it has been liberating not to feel like I have another part time job when I should be rolling around on the floor with my babies! That being said my friend Dana over at Make Them Wonder has recently posted about the Roomspiration Blog Hop and it got me motivated to join in. It is always fun to see all of the great and usually thrifty ideas that all you creative ladies come up with! So I had to join in. Go take a look. Peruse through all the before and afters grab some great ideas with us!

I joined in over at View Along the Way to link up our little family room revamp.

and then over to Homemaker on a Dime to share a few of our bathroom transformations.

Hope you'll join in and don't forget to go show Dana at Make Them Wonder some new blogger love!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Baby "Stage"

Oh baby! Ya see this picture that totally doesn't do this room or bedding justice? When we had E 3 1/2 years ago I wanted to forgo the pink route and use some bold colors and lots of pattern. Well I don't know that we ended up with "lots" of patterns but we did end up with some gorgeous fabric in some bold colors. I was lucky enough to have my mom offer to sew some bedding so we spent a couple of hours at JoAnns one day playing with fabric. That sounds like fun doesn't it? I miss doing that..maybe soon I will have a project that forces me to go rummage around a fabric store.

Now this pic is even worse..I can't believe I didn't get better pics of this room when it was tidy and cute. You see that tree there...Well before there were(or before I knew there were) vinyl wall decor options all over the place I decided we needed a tree on the wall like the one in a pottery barn catalog. So the hubs graciously spent a few hours spread out over a few weeknights to whip this baby up. It turned out great! Don't laugh when I say the poor hubs learned the hard way that you should not attempt to draw on a wall with a sharpie if you EVER plan on painting over it with white paint. Lesson learned and many coats of kilz later it still looks good. The sharpie is still showing its ugly face in a few areas but we decided not to care a long time ago;)

Now enter good photography! The lovely Miss Tanya of Cozy Impressions Photography has done a series of photographs to capture our last two babies 1st years of life and she does it well!

Look at my sweet E! Our first girl! She really was an angel baby..We had such a hard time with our first born that she probably would have seemed "easy" no matter what she did. Sorry bud..you will probably always get a bad baby wrap but you know you are loved;)!

Here is a better pic of the tree too. Didn't hubby do a nice job. I am pretty lucky to have a guy that doesn't mind helping me achieve a girly goal when I need him too. I am just to much of a spaz to draw a tree.

O.k. so the point of this post is really to document a few things we did to "stage" the house to put it on the market.

Obviously that second picture probably wouldn't have wooed buyers to come take a peek. The truth is I felt like I was staging the house most of the time we lived there. I say that because we were constantly de-cluttering, putting things on craigslist, donating and just organizing so it didn't feel like we were being taken over. Yet we still always felt like it was so easy to start drowning in stuff every time a birthday or Christmas would roll around. For that matter also any time family would come to visit..wink wink momo and ya ya.

One thing we did was try to make the shallow closet in the girls room work better for us.

Enter: A quick trip to target for a closet shelving system. It was fairly inexpensive(don't remember how much) but I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't! This gave us a place for some cubby "baskets" and shelving for all of those little shoes that you accumulate when you have two little girls.

We also added a lower rod and raised the original one so we could have one for each of the girls. Bitty baby's stuff on top and E's down low where she can reach and help momma by picking our her own outfits. Which she is actually pretty good at! Score!

One thing I have a attempted to do in the kid's closets is always have a labeled box in the floor so if in the "heat of the moment" which is the battle of getting dressed each day we could toss anything that didn't fit just right anymore into the box. It isn't a fool proof system but it helped it not to just get tossed here and there(like in the laundry to be washed 162 times even though it was never worn).

I still use a bankers box in little mans closet but purchased these pink doosies for the girls closet because I think it looks cleaner and of course keeps the bugs out!

O.k. now as usual I am going to back track because you might think I have totally forgotten what room I am posting about if I don't. In May of 2009 we found out we were getting a new little surprise in our family! We were not expecting or planning this so after the shock rocked us for a bit and we found out we would have another chica in the house I started thinking pink! After all I didn't want to regret never playing with a pink room because I am typically not drawn to it so I took the opportunity to soak it up anyway. (that is where you either do identify with my illness or not;)

I was perusing around baby's r us one day and came across this bedding set for I think $70 ! That is pretty good for a crib set as far as I 'm concerned. It was pink and simple and I could totally see it working with the green tree wall that bitty baby would be inheriting from her big sis.

Then I came across these party poofs at michaels and got to use my 40% off coupon so I literally spent a few dollars for a nice contrast to our outrageously pink wall! I wanted to tie the walls in with the bedding a bit and this is what we did. I probably wouldn't do it again but we definitely were not going to repaint it.

Bitty baby needed a window treatment so again to Target we went and ended up mixing a couple of different styles of curtains in order to cover up the whole length of the window. If I did it again and wasn't in a hurry I would have done something a little different and definitely hung them higher.

Ok back to staging...We previously had this little changing table # for E's room. Turns out this was way less handy than using a dresser as we had for little man's room. I just found it hard to organize and then there was all that wasted space around it that could be filled up with storage!

So knowing that we needed more room for the girls clothes(all we had were those 3 little drawers in that red dresser in the second picture in this post) I started a very long craigslist search for a decent and cheap white dresser. Does anyone else think craigo has gotten competitive? You really have to be on the ball around here to get anything good. This wasn't as cheap as I wanted(150.00) but it was the best thing I could find at the time. So hubby went to a sketchy area with a defense plan and got our baby girls clothes some new digs.

To balance it out a bit I brought some green from the tree wall to this side of the room with this little guy. Again from Target..I swear I don't buy everything there. As a matter of fact I try to avoid the place because it is too easy to spend $$ on un-needed yummy stuff.

Now enter more good photography(not mine but a local real estate photographer we hired in preparation to hit the MLS).

It is clean, uncluttered, simple and staged. I sure wish we had gotten around to replacing that boob light but oh well it won't be our random boob for much longer. I know most realtors would probably suggest we repaint to so we don't turn off potential buyers but we just don't have time so here's hoping someone will love it or be willing to do their own thing!

Linking to the parties at:

Thrifty Decor Chic

Be Different Act Normal

Fireflies and Jellybeans

Somewhat Simple

Savvy Southern Style

The Thrifty Home