A Productive Weekend!!

Don't ya just L*O*V*E it when you feel like you have accomplished a TON?! That is where I am today!! YAY!! After another incredibly long week of fighting, whining, teething, hitting, time-outs and you name it, I was ready for a nice, productive weekend! And I got it!!

I spent much of yesterday working on stuff for Huntler's birthday party! The 15 train soaps I whipped up are now perfectly wrapped in little clear baggies and adorned with colorful bits of curly ribbon! All of the invitations have either been mailed or delivered; the last few details of the cake have been worked out and it is ordered (I gave in...it will have a face on it just like the Thomas characters!!); the menu is planned, and bits and pieces of the favors should be arriving tomorrow (I like original ideas so I try to do as much as possible on my own!!). What am I forgetting?! The lollies will be started on this week. The silverware will be wrapped, the plates and napkins purchased and tucked away until the big day. The games will be created and the birthday boy will be excited beyond belief! And that is what is truly important! With the kids' birthdays just a couple of months apart I have very little time to "regroup" after Gentry's before diving into Huntler's. I hope I am able to pull off something just as spectacular and memorable in his eyes!!

Here are a few pics of what I have done so far...and please excuse the horrid coloring in the photos! I just am not one to spend time editing pictures of "stuff" and since I don't really like to take pictures of "stuff," the images speak for themselves! But you get the idea anyway!!

Ahhh...the soaps! I learned a little from the cupcake soaps and a soap mold works FAR better for soap making than a lollipop mold! Imagine that!! Anyway, I got brave and made FIVE different colors of these little treasures! Once again, they have glitter! Yes, I realize Huntler is a boy and glitter may seem a little, well, girly, but he is four and glitter is still cool! Also, for anyone out there who wants to give soap making a whirl, it is THE EASIEST thing I have ever done!! Seriously!! I just wanted to let you know that there is some sort of soap that allows the color and glitter to be dispersed evenly throughout the soap instead of gathering at the bottom of the mold. I didn't see this until I ran back to Michael's to pick up another cube of soap because I was out! Anyway, it does disperse everything evenly but it takes away the translucent feel and the soaps are virtually impossible to get out of the mold!! The "regular" ones just popped right out, but I ended up cracking my mold with this fancy stuff!! Just thought you should know in case you ever try!! (The yellow one here was made with the fancy stuff and the others with the regular soap!! You can see a difference if you look closely enough!)

And the invites! WOW! These pictures do not do them justice! They turned out really cute and Huntler absolutely LOVES them! I added his pic to the front with pop up squares and it really stands out!! If you lift it up, all of the party details are on the inside!

So...I also found myself working on a crafty little project I have been meaning to do for months now but just haven't!! My friend Rachel and I were chatting last week about bow boards and then sweet Julie blogged about these fun little gems, so I enlisted the help of my handyman husband and his staple gun and got busy on a bow board of my own...well, for Gentry of course!!

(Once again...I know the pictures are terrible! Just look at the cute board and ignore the "off lighting" and everything else that is wrong with them!!)

This fabric, Carnival Bloom by Michael Miller, happens to be my favorite! I just ADORE it!! So, if anyone feels the need to buy anything in this fabulous print and send it my way, I am totally lusting after this, this, this, this, and this!! 

Back to the bow board! I was originally going to do a wooden sign and die cut Gentry's name with fun papers and then adhere it to the board with Mod Podge and hang ribbon from it to attach the bows to (similar to this), but since I haven't gotten around to that in the last, oh, year, I thought I better just go with what I have and get to it!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the board what we ended up with! And let me just say that it only took about half an hour! HALF AN HOUR PEOPLE!! It takes me 2-3 hours to make one of those over the top bows and this little gem took just a smidge of time!!

Here are a couple of shots of the detail!! So fun!! That button in the center is just a fabric covered button I did really quick and stuck on with some hot glue!! You know me and ribbon...I have hundreds of yards so this was easy to pull off!!

And here it is all ready to go! It is so darn cute I hate hanging it behind her door, but it just doesn't go with the feel of her room!! And plus, the fact that the bows are not flat and perfect would drive me crazy if I had to see it all the time!!

I also worked on some other ribbony fun today (nope...NOT bows!!) but I am waiting to share those pics until another time!! Don't worry...shouldn't be too awfully long!!

And one last note for now! Check this out!!

{MMMM!!!} Fall is HERE!! Although it is still hot in my neck of the woods, there is nothing that screams fall like candy corn! I love this stuff! But, of course I do...it is pure sugar!! Chris isn't much of a fan, but he can take it in small doses when mixed with peanuts!! Ever tried it that way? Just buy plain ol' peanuts and mix it with your candy corn and it totally tastes like a Pay Day candy bar! Delish!! And since that wasn't my recipe, I must say, thanks Mom! 

And on that note I am off! I have a date with my family and camera here in a bit!! Headed out the enjoy the 90 degree weather! Yep...it is cooling off my friends!! Our pool is even too cold to swim in if you can believe that!! It (the pool) was just 78 yesterday so we had to put the cover back and to help it retain some heat!!

Enjoy what is left your weekend!!