Katie-Did

Our little sweet Ruby had her 2nd annual costume  birthday party , and it was so much fun!! She has been reading a lot of books about dinosaurs, like Curious George, and has learned to ROOOOAAAAARRRR like a dinosaur, has a toy dinosaur, and a picture of one in her room, so what else was she to dress as but a dinosaur this year?? And keeping with our "classic movies of the 80's and 90's" theme from last year, what better "iconosauric" movie (sorry not sorry!) than "Jurassic Park"!! Wow, you guys look GREAT!!! Decorations!! I decided to take it a little easier this year than last, so my baking was VERY pared down and my decorations were a little less... but that's not to say we didn't do a great job!! 1) "Rurassic Park" invitation art - done by talented hubby one month in advance!! 2) Dinosaur "fossil" (thanks, Plaster of Paris!) molds - made a few weeks in advance with the help of a wonderful 7 year old!...

My little lady goes to the best in-home daycare ever, and one of her best friends is getting a new little sister!! Patti (our amazing nanny and dear friend) and I decided to throw a sprinkle (little shower!) for this fellow mama-to-be, and Patti came up with the super cute idea to make it Alice in Wonderland themed! To the Pinterest-machine we went!!! We did our best to make it cute, personalized, low-key, and tasty, and I think we succeeded on all fronts!! Keep in mind, with day jobs, kiddos, and general life getting in the way, we were extra careful to PLAN ahead! Most of the DIY projects were done the week prior to the shower, so that way, all we had to really do is show up! One week out.... I went to Joann Fabrics and found some super cute craft paper on sale for 40% off, woohoo! I used that pack for exterior signs (cute little sayings like "Wonderland", "Tea Party", "Right Way", "Wrong Way", "This Way", "That Way",...

Last Father's Day , I celebrated my favorite dad-to-be with faaaancy mancakes in bed!! This year, despite my prediction of cereal at 6am, I went ahead and made a few things to say, "HOORAY you are an amazing father and I could never do this without you!!!!" He did get pancakes again (although not made with beer or candied bacon), and we had coffee, mimosas, and some bacon on the side - all in all, quite tasty! BUT!!! What I made instead really takes the cake... or cookies... because I made his all time favorite Girl Scout cookies (some know them as Samoas, others as Caramel deLites) in the shape of ...drum roll please... T-Rex dinosaurs. Heck yes. I used a couple of awesome recipes and won't walk through the whole thing since  this website  does a fantastic job of that! The only difference was that the caramel recipe I used was a bit smaller than the original author recommended. It still worked out, we had plenty, and only a handful of plain cookies left over. I...

Our wonderful, dear friends who also happen to be close neighbors are having a baby girl in less than 2 months (yay!) so we happily offered to throw them a couples baby shower! When Ted and I sat down to discuss what theme it should be, we started with what food we should have. He suggested ceviche, and from there our Embarazada Extravaganza was conceived!! I quite possibly went a little nuts, but got SO EXCITED about hosting a theme party that I kept finding more and more cute ideas!! For starters, I found party favors - little rubber duckies at  Oriental Trading Company  - they have so many different kinds! We used the mariachi band duckies and fiesta donkeys  plus some small candies in little sacks to make individual pinatas! I set them out in a cute old suitcase in little packets next to an R for the baby's name that served as the guestbook. Everyone wrote cute messages to Baby R which she'll get to read in her room one day! I had a great time on Pinteres...

A friend of mine asked for some help making a silhouette for her honey for Valentine's Day! I've made quite a few in my day, from one of my Nesse cat:  to a few of me and Ted at our first trip as a couple to San Francisco (also Valentine's Day!) and of us at the Eiffel Tower where we got engaged: and of course, not to be forgotten, there were our  wedding invitations , so I thought why not! This will be a fun project!! So what is needed for making silhouettes, you might ask? I follow several steps. First of all, I take a picture and "create a shape" (I originally started making these in Photoshop when I was taking graphic design courses - I made  this cute party invite for my mom ! - and now with no access to Photoshop, I've figured out a way to create them in PowerPoint!) that outlines the figures and calls out any interesting focal points. For Keaton and Matt, we emphasized his bow tie, the shape of her face and his nose (otherwise ...