Archive for May, 2011
Our Little Pre-Party, Post-Patio Project
As several of you noticed in Monday’s party recap, our patio area boasted another feature on Saturday (beyond more balloons and little kids than you can count). Yep, there’s a new 6′ privacy fence going on back there. When did it get installed? In the sliver of days between completing the patio and hosting the party. But time was so tight that I didn’t get to blog about it until after the bean’s shindig (aka: today).
Here’s how it all went down up. Throughout my patio-ing, Sherry regularly reminded that me she wanted to beef up the fence situation between us and the neighbor before Clara’s birthday party. Her goal was to prevent this big blue car that was always parked next door from becoming the backdrop to all of our party photos.
Though I agreed with her motive, my patio-ravaged muscles didn’t appreciate her timing and my mouth decided to say things like “you’re crazy,” “no way!” and “are you kidding me???” (yes, I’m a bit of a grump when sore, tired, and stressed). So for those wondering what the heck we argue over, getting to this whole fence project was one of those things that we didn’t exactly see eye to eye on. Of course Sherry got her way in the end though. When the patio project wrapped up with three days to spare, I begrudgingly rented a Lowe’s truck on Tuesday night and hauled home my supplies which amounted to four 8ft-long-and-6ft-tall fence panels, five 8ft-tall fence posts, and some other miscellaneous items.
The plan was to replace the current fence – a 4ft-ish wire mesh fence held up by a combo of wood posts and a single steel rod – with something taller (6 feet, to be exact) and, of course, less see-through.
First, that old fence had to come down. Luckily my wire cutters were sharp and both the wood and that steel post were pretty rotted, so I was able to strip them out quickly:
Next up was measuring and marking the spots for my posts. Using these ever-helpful Lowe’s videos that I keep finding on youtube, I knew placing my posts accurately would be extremely important (they’ve gotta be exactly 8 feet apart, or else my pre-made panels wouldn’t line up right). So first I roughly marked all of my holes with wood stakes, so that before I dug each of the holes I could triple-check my measurements (and then check them again before placing my post).
Next was the sucky part: digging. I had myself a hole digger and all, but it still made my already-sore body even more miserable. And you better believe I let Sherry know it. I’m that kind of hubby when she gets her way. Anyway, I had heard from a few folks that I should set my post 24 inches deep. But as I approached about 20 inches, the thick clay earth officially had me beat (and had me thinking weird things like “how do all of those sorority girls in horror movies manage to dig graves to hide bodies?”). So I cheated a smidge and just power-sawed my posts a few inches shorter so they’d stick no more than 6 feet out of the ground. Post-hole-depth purists, feel free to wag your fingers at me (thankfully in the end everything is still extremely solid and those last few inches of depth didn’t seem to compromise a thing thanks to our dense clay soil and my next step which involves concrete).
My post holes got an inch or two of gravel on the bottom (supposedly for drainage), followed by my post which was then surrounded by a couple of bags of Quikrete (the no-mix stuff that sets when you just-add-water). Oh and here’s a tip about that stuff. Obviously you don’t want it to get rained on in the bags before you use it (or it’ll set into giant rectangles of useless concrete). So I kept it in the trunk since I worried that our carport was still too moist/clammy for it and I knew it would be rain-free in there. It actually stormed in the 24 hours between getting it home and using it so I was definitely glad that I did the trunk thing.
But back to my fence posts. I rigged up some makeshift supports out of scrap wood to keep the post from shifting, though I think the concrete (both dry and eventually wet) did most of the work.
The true hero of the day was my post level, which is pretty much the only way I could ensure that each post wasn’t leaning too far forward, backward, or slanting to the side. So I highly recommend grabbing one of these babies if you’re ever tackling a fence project.
Second to the level were these couple of strings that I tied up – one to mark the front edge of my fence (to be sure that I’d set my posts in a straight line) and another to represent the top of my posts (to make sure everything was set at the same depth).
I won’t pretend it wasn’t a hard Wednesday afternoon, but eventually I did get all four posts placed (and realized that I didn’t need the fifth, thanks to one leftover from the old fence). And once all of my Quikrete was watered, dried, set, and covered with dirt, I decided to call it a day – just to be sure things were solid before putting any weight on them.
Thursday wasn’t all that complicated by comparison. Sure, the panels were a bit unwieldy but one by one I carried them into place and drove a few wood screws into them to keep them from going anywhere. I had to do a bit of digging and leveling to counteract the slight slope of the land, but – as you can see – I managed to keep a smile on my face. This is the point where Sherry stopped feeling as bad for me and starting saying things like “See how much of a difference it makes?!” and “Aren’t you glad we’re getting this done?!” and I had to admit I agreed with her. I hate when that happens. But some projects just feel pretty darn good in the home stretch and immediately make a dramatic difference – and this was definitely one of them.
The stars must’ve aligned for me that day because, more importantly, my fence panels aligned PERFECTLY – including the one that I had to cut down to fit (the space was 27 feet long, so I needed three full 8-foot panels and about 3-feet of the fourth). Cutting them involved taking a handsaw to the three horizontal rails, which drained the last few ounces of energy I had left in me. This is my tired face:
But here’s what I was left with – a virtually seamless, twenty seven foot stretch of privacy-rich fencing… done just in time for me to focus on Clara’s party on Saturday (which was about 48 hours away at that point).
We’ll stain the fence eventually – along with the existing panel in front of it – so it looks a bit more finished. As you probably guessed, we chose this new fence style to match that existing panel that was behind our recycling bin (but wanted the full 6′ height to gain as much privacy as possible from nextdoor (since their land slants up so we needed all the height we could get). Someday we might upgrade the shorter existing panel in the front to match the height of the side panels, but for now it doesn’t look too noticeable since there are a ton of plantings right in front of that shorter panel that make it really hard to see from the street anyway.
Oh and do you see that tiny sliver of space where the fences meet? A small 1 x 1 x 6″ piece of wood should conceal it perfectly whenever we have a chance to grab it (did I mention time was tight thanks to the impending party?).
I’m notoriously bad at keeping receipts, so this is my best guess at a budget breakdown based on my credit card statement:
- Quikrete concrete mix (8 bags): $30
- Lowe’s truck rental: $19
- Fence panels (4) and posts (4): $171
- Post level: $5
- Hole digger: borrowed from my sister
- Screws, stakes, line level, rope and screws: already owned
- TOTAL: $225 (for a 27-foot long, 6-foot tall fence)*
* Our actual total was really more like $213 because we purchased all of the above at Lowe’s and used our Lowe’s card which gives you 5% off every purchase (just like a Target credit card). Woot.
** This post isn’t an ad for Lowe’s, we just happened to find their youtube video helpful and then bought our stuff there – but we’re not in cahoots with them or anything.
I know we may have been able to tackle this project for less if I built the fence slat by slat, but in light of the tight wife-imposed timeline (and my tired arse) those prebuilt panels were a lifesaver. And they weren’t even that costly, considering all the time and effort they saved ($39 for each 8 ft long by 6 ft tall panel). As for Clara’s party this weekend, the freshly installed fence did its job: no big blue car playing camera hog in the background.
Ah, what a difference a fence can make:
As for me, my body has finally recovered from my two manual-labor-filled weeks. But that doesn’t mean I’m looking to take on any heavy lifting anytime soon. Sherry, I hope you’re reading this.
Making A Pull String Piñata
We had a bunch of requests for a tutorial on Clara’s pull sting piñata, so here ya go. And if you have no interest in this project but want to blow off some steam after work you could easily turn this post into a drinking game and take a sip every time I say the word piñata. But beware, you won’t be ok to drive afterwards. Anyway, I had never heard of a pull string piñata until I got some unsolicited baby party catalog with one and I instantly realized that it was a genius idea for wee ones. Clara’s not exactly strong enough (or coordinated enough) to whack a regular piñata with a bat, but she can definitely tug a string like the best of them. And the entire concept behind a pull string piñata is exactly what it sounds like: each kid holds a string and tugs on it so the piñata bursts open and treats fly out. Here it is in action for ya (you can also see the video here) and although Clara just ended up watching from the sidelines, she really seemed to enjoy the show:
Who knew my weird homemade piñata would actually work? Anyone who saw Friday’s post saw that the first few steps left it looking a little questionable (I’ll recap those steps quickly so this post is a one stop shop for anyone who wants to whip up one of their own). And I’m sure there were some doubts that it would work out (mine included) but I guess this piñata was destined to beat the piñata odds. First we made paper maché (mixing approximately two parts water to one part flour)…
… and blew up one of these punch balloons from Target that wasn’t in our color scheme (the orange one)…
… and cut a bunch of newspaper strips…
… which I paper machéd to the big balloon…
… which I then let dry a bit overnight and then hung outside in the morning to hopefully speed up the drying process (since it was still soggy and looking a bit like a goiter).
That didn’t help much because it was a humid day, so I brought it inside and thanks to some reader recommendations I actually opted to break out the hairdryer on that sucker. It worked really well (drying it out completely in about ten minutes for a nice hard shell).
How about that orangey paneling in the background? Are you feeling inspired yet?
Anyway, then I popped the balloon which slipped out really easily, leaving me with a large hollow piñata-ish thing (which still wasn’t breaking any hearts in the looks department):
I turned it over (with the bottom of it facing up) and used an exacto knife to cut a little “exit flap” for all of the treats to fly out of:
Here it is opened so you can see what I mean:
Then I added our kid-friendly treats. We didn’t want anything too small and choking-hazard-ish going on, so we went with crowd pleasing packs of Goldfish and Teddy Grahams.
Once they were inside I used a hole puncher to make nine holes that I’d use to attach nine pieces of ribbon (since there would be nine kids coming who I figured might want to get in on the fun):
I cut nine 30″ lengths of curling ribbon and treaded them each through the holes so they could be duct taped down on the back of the flap.
Then I realized that in order for my flap to stay closed with all the weight of the treats inside (since this was the bottom of the piñata and gravity wasn’t on my side) I would need smaller flaps of cardboard to hold it closed. So I used more duct tape to secure those smaller flaps to the opening…
… so that my large flap could be slid in behind them and held closed by those handy smaller tabs. It worked but I’ll admit it- at this point it was looking pretty grim. Have you ever seen an uglier piñata? I said a little prayer that tissue paper could cover a multitude of sins.
Since the balloon was no longer inside, I had nothing that the piñata was hanging from anymore, so I folded four 4″ pieces of duct tape around the top hole (to reinforce the paper maché shell) and then used my trusty hole puncher to create four holes through the duct-tape enforced areas. Then I used two long pieces of ribbon (which Burger was mildly interested in) and looped each one through two of the holes (the ones that were opposite each other) and tied them off at the top to create two long loops that were the same length. I figured that was stronger than trying to knot four of them inside of the piñata or something, and it really did turn out to be nice and secure.
With my heavy duty string-it-up system going on, I looped my two long strings over those weird eyeball cabinets in the kitchen (so they could watch- more on those here). This enabled me to have two free hands to start adding little pink fish scales in the hopes of saving The World’s Ugliest Piñata.
It only took one 99 cent pack of pink tissue paper from Target, which I folded and then cut little scales out of (by folding it I was able to cut out a bunch at a time, and soon I was left with a big pile of them). Oh and on the subject of budget, that was all I purchased for this project since I had the ribbon already and the newspaper and paper maché paste (flour + water) were free since I had those in the cabinet and the recycling bin. Oh and the multi-packs of Goldfish and Teddy Grahams were $7 all together, so this whole project came in at under $8.
But on to the fun stuff – the fish scaling step. As I mentioned yesterday, the design was inspired by this one that I pinned on Pinterest a while back. So I figured that taping the scales from the bottom up would hopefully yield the same sweet (and semi-finished looking) results as my inspiration piñata (and yes, I just snickered at the use of “inspiration piñata” – what an insane sentence).
I just worked my way around in rows, gently twisting the piñata as I taped around it on all sides (using regular old scotch tape), and moving up from the bottom slowly – row by row. I was left with a pretty cute result. Definitely something at least 5,000 times easier on the eyes than the mess of newspaper and duct tape underneath it all. As for the top, I just folded the top scales into the hole and taped them to the inside for as polished of a look as I could manage (I knew it would be hung pretty high so no one would likely see the top, but I’m weird so I still tried to make it look ok anyway).
Isn’t she kinda cute?
It was definitely lots o’ fun. So that’s how I started out making a record-breakingly ugly piñata and then tried to course correct with some sheer determination and a pack of tissue paper. Hope anyone at home who decides to follow suit ends up with something at least this sweet (and most likely a lot sweeter).
Good times. Have you guys made piñatas or other homemade party games (cornhole? pin the tail on the donkey?). Share and share alike.
Psst- We’re over on BabyCenter sharing the play by play for making cheap and easy balloon garlands here. When it comes to festive party bang for your buck, it doesn’t get much simpler than those.
Giving Them The Slip
Remember back when we got our conference room slash hotel-ish parsons chairs on Craiglist for $25 a pop?
We always envisioned cheerful apple green ones (and even tried a crazy chair-painting project with limited zero success) so in the end we admitted that slipcovers or reupholstering would be the way to go.
And after a long a$$ time spent going back and forth between the merits of slipcovers and reupholstering we decided that slipcovers would ultimately be the best choice for us (since we love the idea of tossing them into the wash). But we didn’t want anything fussy and long for fear of taking the dining room from hotel conference room to hotel banquet hall. So first we did some serious slipcover seeking and found a silhouette that we both liked. We landed on this no longer sold Pottery Barn option because we both appreciated the clean-lined mostly-fitted look and the short skirt for that show-me-some-leg effect:
But alas, they weren’t the green tone that we wanted and they weren’t the right measurements to fit our chairs. Oh yeah and they weren’t even sold anymore (and when they were they weren’t in our budget anyway). After a bit more digging we came across some off-white ones from World Market with the same basic silhouette and they were a lot closer to our chair’s measurements. Although they didn’t come in a happy apple green color (and instead were off-white) I’m no stranger to dyeing things (like my wedding dress), so I thought it might be fun to give green dye a shot.
But of course being the cheap-o that I am, I hemmed and hawed and didn’t even show them to John at their original $60 for two price tag. I know, I know- $30 per slipcover isn’t a bad price but for some reason I was just too scared to pull the trigger. So that tab remained open on my computer for a while without me taking any action- not even just the show-your-husband-and-see-what-he-thinks kind. Then I got an email from World Market saying that a lot of their dining stuff was on sale. Dining stuff? Does that include slipcovers? Off to that always-open slipcover tab I flew, and hit refresh. Bam, $20 off!
Instead of $60 for two they were marked down to $40 for two (just $20 a pop). Heck, I doubt I could have bought fabric and thread to DIY my own slipcovers for that price (especially if you factor in a laaaaarge margin of error and hours spent screaming into a pillow). And my nightmare was ending up with eight slipcovers that were wonky and abnormal (since repeating the same steps eight times would surely yield some being looser or longer or weirder than others).
Yup, $23 slipcovers definitely sounded like the perfect complement to my $25 chairs. So I did that little tap-your-man-on-the-shoulder-and-tell-him-you-found-something thing and then waited to gauge John’s interest. And he proved that I know him well, but not that well. His response? “We should get ten instead of eight. That way if we have any dyeing issues we have extras on hand and if we don’t need them we can return the extras to the store to avoid shipping fees (World Market is nice like that).”
I’m used to him saying “we don’t need that.” So I can’t argue with a man who wants to buy more of something. Especially such a practical man with such good points about dyeing and returning the extras if we didn’t need ‘em. Alrighty then. Ten it was. The total for all 10 slipcovers including shipping and sales tax came out to $232, which made each slipcover just $23 a pop (with a possibility of recouping $40 if we didn’t have any dyeing issues and returned the extra two to the store – for a total of $192 spent).
So we ordered them and waited what felt like forever for them to show up (in reality it was probably around 2 weeks) and then I excitedly unwrapped one to slip it onto our chairs to judge how good the fit actually was…
Talk about a wop-wop moment.
I realized I could probably attempt to tailor them myself to get a better fit, but that’s still waaaaay outside of my beyond-beginner skill set (I know someone will tell me it’s easy and I can do it but I’m all about working up to stuff like that and messing around with idiot proof projects like pillows and runners while I build up my confidence). So instead I decided to take the easy way out and wash one in hot water to see how much it would shrink up. Just as an experiment. Into the wash it went and I waited for the beep to signify that it was time to toss it into the dryer about a half hour later.
As I went to put it into the dryer I decided to check the tag to make sure it was ok to put it on high heat (for maximum shrinkage). That’s when I saw that the tag said “dry clean only.” Whaaaaaat?????? Who the heck sells slipcovers that have to be dry cleaned? Isn’t the whole point of slipcovers to be easy to just toss into the laundry pile?
Perhaps in an act of defiance (or sheer lunacy) I decided to high heat dry it. I had already washed it in hot water so I just went for it. I was hoping it would come out fitting really well and then I’d know that I could continue to machine wash them at home (because dry cleaning slipcovers isn’t an option for someone like me – I mean I can machine wash my sectional’s slipcovers, so why would my dining chairs be allowed to be high maintenance?).
When it came out of the dryer it was all warm and delicious and it didn’t look like the cover for a dollhouse chair or anything so I was semi-enthused. I ran over to one of my chairs and slipped it on. Holy bananas, it was almost a perfect fit. Still a tiny bit loose on the sides, but perfectly fitted nearly everywhere else and the slight imperfection of the semi-loose sides didn’t bother me (we’re down with the casual lived-in look, and actually worried that the dining room would feel too formal, so it was a pretty great place to end up).
This story will probably perpetuate the we’re-perfect-and-nothing-ever-goes-wrong-here-in-YHL-world stereotype (we’re so not – more on that here) but it was one of those “ahhhhhhh” sound effect moments where angels sang and the clouds parted and a beam of heavenly light shined down on the amazing little slipcovered chair. I have no idea why it worked, but I guess it was just one of those crazy risks that paid off. Whatever, I’ll take it. And just because I love a little side by side comparison, here’s a slipcover before I washed it (in hot water and high heat dried it) next to a newly washed and dried version of the same one:
And the great news is that the covers are super thick- so none of that crazy pattern beneath them shows through – even on the chairs in front of the window with the light shining down on them. Whew.
So although I definitely still have plans to dye them apple green down the road, it’s immediately nicer not to have all that crazy hotel pattern going on in there. Although with the white walls it’s all a little… white.
We’re actually thinking that we want to paint the walls before we dye the chairs, just to be 100% sure that once the walls get a soft gray coat of color that we won’t want to keep the off-white covers for some reason. We don’t expect that we will (since they look dingy in comparison to the crisp white trim and built-ins thanks to their off-white coloring), but you know, just in case. If there’s anything that this post demonstrates, it’s that I can take my time when it comes to pulling the trigger (and then I can snap and defy the washing instructions of said item with a devil-may-care attitude while furiously biting my nails the whole time). Lookout world, I’m a wild child.
Pssst- Oh em gee. Who watched Jersey Housewives last night? What do we think about the new girl (Melissa I think) vs. Teresa? Either way, Momma Manzo is always my favorite (I love to watch her & her boys hang out in that kitchen, throwing cold cuts and talking jibberish).
Fab Freebie: Give Me Liberty
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!***
According to random.org, our lucky winner who is getting their wish for Liberty is: Cindy A (who joins the crowd who loves oil-rubbed bronze). Congrats!
If clothes make the man, you might say that hardware makes the kitchen. So it’s pretty sweet that Liberty Hardware is hooking one of you up with the chance to give your whole kitchen (or bathroom, for that matter) a major facelift thanks to $400 (yep, four-zero-zero) worth of knobs, pulls, switch plates, hooks, or anything else from their stylin’ catalog. So this could be your shot to make your kitchen more modern with sleek stainless steel pulls or to turn up the traditional vibe with some classic oil-rubbed bronze knobs (or something else entirely- they have lots to choose from).
- PRIZE: A $400 gift card to Liberty Hardware
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “GIVE ME LIBERTY! and…
- BONUS QUESTION: … tell us what hardware finish floats your boat. Are you brushed nickel all the way? A hardcore polished chrome fan? Or do you sway more towards the hammered golds or bronzes?
- GIVEAWAY CLOSES: Wednesday, May 18th at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: One
- PRIZE SHIPS: United States or Canada
- USUAL STUFF: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday as an update to this post. That’s right, come right back here on Thursday morning for the announcement of our winners. Good luck…
Note: We weren’t paid or perk’d for hosting this giveaway, we just like rewarding our lovely readers! See our Giveaway FAQs page for more info. Pics from Liberty Hardware
House Party
Oh man did we party like it was 1999. Clara’s big birthday bash was so much fun, and even the weather miraculously cleared up for us (which I fully contribute to all the anti rain dances you guys did – so thanks). Of course you’re all virtually invited, so let’s get this show on the road. Here’s what the living room looked like decorated with some giant balloons and the fabric flag banner that I begrudgingly made for the bean just minutes before the first guests arrived.
On the other side of the room I hung a paper pendant that I made a while back above the hallway sliders and John taped up all of Clara’s 52 weekly photos (see the whole collection here) on the fireplace. It turned out to be a great place for people to stand and study them all (everyone had a different favorite) and it was so amazing to see how much she has grown and changed.
It had rained all morning but I refused to let the dream die (you know, the dream of actually using the patio that John worked so haaaaaard to build before the party) so I strung up some balloons that I got from Target for a few bucks to create a festive come-hither-and-enjoy-the-new-patio look. The forecast said it might stop raining by noon (which was the beginning of the party) but I snapped this picture around ten minutes before and it was still misting and overcast. Boo.
Pssst- Notice a privacy fence going on? Let’s just say John’s been busy. Details as soon as he catches his breath…
Thankfully, all that mattered to us was keeping Clara smiley, which didn’t hinge on the weather at all. We actually had to wake her up from her nap to attend her own party after a few guests showed up right on time. But she didn’t mind. Look at that happy girl. And isn’t her dress cute? It’s from Target.
Burger was possibly the best sport of the day to wear these ridiculous curly pink ribbons that I tied around his collar. I figured he’d immediately attack them until he got them off, but he didn’t seem to mind them at all. So he ended up wearing them the entire time. What a good big brother.
As for the food and drink set-up, we decided the kitchen was just waaaay too ugly to work as the main party backdrop (oy, that paneling) so we moved the kitchen table into the sunroom to create a little food and drink buffet. We even improvised and used a cute toy bucket of Clara’s for ice. Oh and here you can see the fabric runner that I made for the table using some of Clara’s weekly photo backdrop fabrics (I’ll have to share the steps for making that guy soon – it was really simple). And in the top right corner of the photo you can also see Clara’s special fabric that we designed on Spoonflower which we intended to use as a photo backdrop for everyone at the party.
Intended was the key word. We did manage to grab photos of a few guests in front of it (holding blank pieces of paper that we planned to later photoshop with their names so we could make an album for Clara to learn to recognize everyone). But the day was just such a blur that we didn’t get a chance to capture everyone. Maybe we’ll just have to make her an album with photos that we already have of everyone without that cute backdrop (which I plan to make into a beanbag someday).
As for the spread, we landed on a few simple crowd pleasing foods that work for babies and adults alike… and also had special meaning to us. We even made little cards to explain why we chose certain eats (just printed out on card stock on our own computer). For example, the pizza card said “Many of John & Sherry’s casual dates in New York City were enjoyed over a slice of New York pizza.” It was really nice to order five pies and call it a day (instead of slaving away making the food like we did for our backyard wedding – we must have been crazy back then).
We also had some of the most delicious chips and salsa in Richmond on hand – which also happened to have special meaning for us when it comes to our favorite girl. The card explained it all: “John was eating these Cafe Olé chips on his last day of work when Sherry called to announce that she was in labor.”
We also figured the other kids and parents would appreciate an easy little snack (one of Clara’s favorites). In fact when we held up a few things (Cheerios, Goldfish, these) she picked these (by pointing at them and saying “dis” – which isn’t a dis, but actually means “this”). And so the card read: “Clara loves munching on these veggie sticks and specifically requested them at her party.”
And although we would serve cupcakes along with Clara’s smash cake later in the party, we set out some cinnamon cookies with the food just to fill up the table with one more crowd pleasing treat (they’re also known as “labor cookies” because it’s an old wives tale that the spices somehow can start labor when you’re ready to pop – but it didn’t work when John whipped up a batch for me). So the card on these guys read: “John baked these ‘Labor Cookies’ when the doc said Clara was ready. They didn’t work – but they were good!”
Everyone ate their little hearts out and had a merry old time. Our party guest total ended up being 25 of our closest friends and family members, which was just about perfect. Here’s Clara taking time off from pizza eating to flirt with the camera man (our brother-in-law Todd very graciously snapped a lot of photos while we “hosted” and soaked up the day since he’s a pro photographer – and we’re oh so grateful).
And by this time it started to get nice and sunny out, so while most people were venturing outside onto the new patio (miracle of all miracles!), some people ate inside as well.
And Clara’s cousin John checked out our hallway frame wall with his new balloon friend. Btw, the giant colorful balloons were a huuuge hit with the kids. And two of them did pop, but they did so nice and loudly – which was helpful because one of the eighteen adults could quickly grab all the pieces (since deflated balloons can be choking hazards- safety first!).
We also mentioned that we wanted to create a birthday time capsule for people to contribute to at the party (we talked about it back in this post, which also has sources for a lot of our party supplies). What we ended up doing was grabbing a basket for people to drop notes and “artifacts” from 2011 into, which we would then transfer into a tin box for Clara to open on her 18th birthday. Oh and the note to direct people to contribute said: “Add something to Clara’s Time Capsule! We’re making a time capsule for Clara to be opened on her 18th birthday. So please write a note to be slipped in. (Something about her, about 2011, or even about yourself. Whatever!)” She ended up with lots of well wishes, a newspaper from that day, a party hat, and some stat cards full of gas prices and top recording artists and TV shows today. It should all be really fun to look back on when she’s eighteen.
See those little striped pens? Those were from the sentiment cards that people filled out for our wedding. I was so glad to spot them in the drawer when I went digging around for some fun little pens. And as for the note cards, they were just pieces of 8 x 10 card stock that I cut into quarters and drew a little heart at the top with pink, blue, and green markers. So the whole time capsule project was f-r-e-e.
And speaking of cheap thrills, these bubble containers shaped like ice cream cones were less than fifty cents a pop at Target (they sell them four per pack in the party aisle) and I used a silver sharpie to write each child’s name on them to create cute little favors. Once again, we printed out a little card stock sign to explain the whole shebang: Thank you for coming to my party! If you’re a young bubble enthusiast like myself, please take the party favor with your name on it. (This means you Laney, Elsa, John, Emanuel, Hayes, and Edison!) xoxo, Clara
Happily, they were a hit. Especially since everyone was gravitating outside to the patio (with rain clouds nowhere to be seen).
The balloon garlands were also pretty fun for the kiddos to look at, poke, smile at, and talk to (kids are kind of weird, but very cute). Look at my sweet momma and my sweet baby girl, living it up underneath them.
People even started spilling out into the carport, which is where some crowd rallying dancing took place. Here’s Clara’s cousin John getting the party started with some Macarena-ish moves.
We took the carport fun as a sign that it was time for my homemade piñata. That’s right the ugly goiter-esque creation that I shared on Friday actually worked out! I used a blow dryer to eliminate the moisture issue, popped the balloon, and then covered it with tissue paper “scales” for a fun girly effect inspired by this one I pinned on Pinterest a while back. I’ll be back with a detailed tutorial to share all the steps (I tweaked it to create a “pull string” piñata so the wee ones didn’t need a bat to get to the goodies inside, they each just yanked a bunch of strings to pop open the bottom and get to their treates – which were individually wrapped packets of Teddy Grahams and Goldfish). Long story short: it was lots o’ fun.
And because some of the party-goers stuck around in the carport for more bubble adventures (while others made their way back to the patio or the sunroom for more snacks/drinks/time capsule fun), we decided that it was time for some smash cake for the bean…
For those unfamiliar with a smash cake (my own Italian momma had never heard of it) it’s a tradition where you bake a tiny kid-sized cake for your one year old…
… and encourage them to dig in and make a big ol’ mess while snapping lots of photos and giggling uncontrollably. Clara was not shy.
It might have been the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
And she even generously shared some with us, so I ended up with a little icing in the hair situation and John got a cake goatee. Best time ever.
Here’s the cake carnage. Not a bad job for a dainty little girl, eh?
Then we pulled out three dozen cupcakes from our favorite bakery (Ukrops) and announced that everyone else should dig in too, since Clara set a great example. And did they ever. Oh and since all the other food got a label, of course the cupcakes earned one too: “These are the same cupcakes that John & Sherry enjoyed at their wedding, which Clara was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.”
And in some miracle of bulk cupcake ordering magic, three dozen of these pink, green, and blue babies came out to under $14. Yes, that’s less than 38 cents a cupcake. And I didn’t have to make them. I’m actually not sure I could have made and iced three dozen cupcakes for under $14, so it was definitely money well spent. And it freed me up to make Clara’s smash cake, which was lots of fun.
Here’s where everyone was outside and we realized that we hadn’t taken a wide shot of the sunroom with the kitchen table all set up with food (well, cupcakes and cookies at this point) so we snapped one (that table in the corner is where the bubble favors and time capsule stuff was set out for everyone).
And here’s a shot of everyone hanging out on the rain-free patio (there was even some ball playing in the backyard). We felt so lucky to end up with a nice day to celebrate the bean.
And we capped off the event with a little year-in-review video that John made for Clara on the computer using iMovie (and then burned to a DVD so we could share it with everyone on the TV in the living room). Look how many people we can fit on good ol’ Karl the Sectional.
It’s fun to scroll back up to the first pic in this post after staring at the one above for a second. I love that it’s the same angle, but the first photo is the calm before the storm (and the later one is full of our amazing family and friends). And yes, of course I cried while watching the video. We’re the luckiest parents in the world. You can check it out below or watch it here (it’s amazing how much has happened in one short year!):
Oh and as for the bean’s presents, you guys know I made her this quilt (which she very cutely pawed and smiled at when I gave it to her) and we also got her this fun little stacking game where you make sandwiches from one of our favorite eco companies. She loves it! And John will be building her a sandbox any day now to complete the gift trifecta. She also got lots of books and some great “activity presents” like a membership to the Children’s Museum and a series of toddler nature classes from the family. And her boyfriend Will Bower got her a super fun bathtime bubble blower and an über stimulating book called First 100 Words and this gorgeous dress that she’ll wear to woo him the next time she sees him.
So there you have it. Our precious baby girl’s first birthday party full of food, family, friends, fun, bubbles, balloons, cupcakes, chaos, and laughing til we cried. And the cycle of babies continues! John’s sister Katie recently announced that she’s expecting again (you can see her cute baby bump in the photo above our Clara video). Congrats to Katie and Martin! I’m sure we’ll blink our eyes and find ourselves at that baby’s first birthday party before we know it.
