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This month we celebrated two birthdays!

Lily, just turned ONE!  I can’t even believe it’s been a whole year since she was in my belly. Just blows my mind how fast time goes by these days. Last year Lily’s due date was Maddox’s 2nd birthday. So of course this year we had two birthdays to celebrate back to back. They each had their own day with special activities and gifts, then we had one big party on the weekend in between their special days. Maddox is now a 3 year old! Wow.

Rainbow cakes and rainbow parties have been kind of big in the world of the internet this past year.  So of course we had to up the ante and make not one 6 layer rainbow cake, but rather two 12 layer rainbow cakes! This of course was the feat of the year for this dear old mom. Baking 24 different colored layers, while planning a party, tending to out-of-country house guests, and caring for 2 children took a bit of work. But I did it!  Of course I couldn’t have done it without the help of some very special people (you know who you are!), thank you!

So to the best part… Cake photos!

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For a year now, I’ve had a ‘Stash of Stashes’ in our side table drawer. They were from The Pretty Little Things Club. The other day Maddox pulled them out and decided it was time to for the family to wear moustaches. We were instantly on board – who doesn’t love an impromptu moustache party??

Next time Lily will have to get in on the moustache action! Because she was only a 2 weeks old, we decided to let it slide this time.

Treat season is upon us!

These have fewer calories than the original, and are twice as sweet!

I know its not even Halloween yet, but I’m starting to keep my eye out for thoughtful Christmas gifts. This caught my eye as a nice gift for a knitter (with a baby).

It is a kit for making a striped baby blanket. The hardest part about ordering yarn or fabric online is matching colors.  Purl Soho took the guess work out of it and even selected multiple palettes to choose from. Deets here.

The theme for Maddox’s 2nd Birthday Party was generally monkey, banana, yellow. As with many parties, the crafting before hand is the most fun part. I love the idea of little party goers having some prize or special gift to take home with them to remember the day. For two year olds, crayons and coloring seemed the best idea.

I made monkey shaped crayons and each kid was given 2 different colors wrapped in a little celo bag with yellow Japanese paper tape. For the crayons I melted down Crayola brand crayons (I heard other brands are no good for this sort of thing), and used a Monkey shaped plastic chocolate mold. I knew I wanted to make shaped crayons for about a year now so I’ve been scouring Craigslist and hounding parents for their used crayons.  This search method was a big fail. Back to school time at Target was the real key. I found Crayola 24 count boxed crayons for 25¢ each.  What a deal.  So to keep things easy I bought 24 boxes.  Then I sorted them all by color into each of the 24 boxes.

Maddox helped me to peel the paper off the crayons and break them into small pieces (his favorite part). Strangely, he hasn’t taken it upon himself to break up all of his crayons since this project. We did lose a few in the early days, but he knows the difference now between craft project and coloring.

I melted the crayon pieces in baby food jars partially submerged in a pot of boiling water, then poured the melted wax into the molds and popped them in the freezer. The only cracking problems I had were when I used pieces from the “found” Crayola crayons. So my advice is to stick with brand new crayons and don’t mix.

The coloring books I made using a lightweight yellow card stock. Using our printer, I added the image of the Monkey from a quick internet search for Monkey Coloring Pages or something like that. The inside paper I cut to size, then sewed together with the cover using my sewing machine. (I didn’t want the little kids to have access to staples, and the sewing worked really well.) I then rounded the corners of all the pages and the covers and smacked on a strip of brown book binding tape. Voila! Toss in some monkey stickers and cup shaped like a monkey head and you’ve got yourself a little monkey party loot!

I’m so excited that I actually finished the baby’s quilt before she arrived!  I think it turned out pretty well too.  The back fabric is a tad billowy, so next time I might pre-wash the quilt front before sewing on the back. All in all, not bad for my first real go at a quilt!

For the back I used a super soft light brown Minky. It is nice to the touch and the bumps keep it interesting.

I saw this post the other day about micro sculptures that Dalton Ghetti creates from a pencil. I am totally blown away by the genius!

Unfortunately for me, he never sells his work, only gives them away to family and friends.

How cute is this alphabet!?

This past weekend I hosted a baby shower for my dear friends Sara & Mike.  The theme was birds/nests.  I wanted to make it beautiful and dainty. Think tea party meets baby girl baby shower.

Here are some photos.  (sorry about the lighting)

Cigars for the guys…

This is a little wish tree.  Guests write wishes for the baby or mom and dad on the cards and hang it from the pink ribbon.

I decorated the railing with a garland of twig type material and attached small artificial birds.  The morning of the event I tucked in a whole bunch of tiny pink roses. It really made the entry way feel very festive.  The front door had a wreath made of dried grapevine which also had fresh roses and artificial birds, along with faux flowers made from vintage gauze and a nest  I made by hand.

This is a photo of the right half of the favor table. In each box are two tasty and very fresh macaroons from Paulette Macaroons in Hayes Valley.  There were 4 flavors represented – Rose, Sweet Wedding Almond, Madagascar Vanilla, and Violet Cassis.

I’ll be working on making these in the coming week for a bird themed baby shower.
Tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Recently I threw a May Day themed baby shower. Which basically means flowers and tons of them. Because the shower was in February and because I’m crafty, I decided to make a variety of paper flowers. The pom pom “flowers” were hung from the ceiling at both ends of the house. I think I made about 20 in a range of sizes.

The shower was for my dear friend Minna who is expecting her first little nugget on May 1st (thus the theme).

Here are a couple shots of the food and drink spread.

The cupcakes in the previous post are shown here with frosting and decor. All in all I think we made 250 mini cupcakes. Needless to say we had a ton left over. Once I get into production mode, I just keep going!