A Birthday Party that Cooked!

I love parties, I love to plan them. I probably would be a party/event planner in another life. For Bronwyn's 9th birthday party we decided to have a cooking party. She invited 5 friends and we had so much fun! It was the perfect age to have a party like this. This is what I did:

1. Made matching aprons for all of them. (Thanks Mom for all your help!)
2. For party favors, I bought measuring cups at the $1 store and filled them with lifesavers and sour patch kids.
3. We dipped chocolates and they loved it. We dipped strawberries, carmel pretzels, rice crispy treats and oreos. YUMMY!
4. They each made an individual lasagna in a bread pan. We also made little salad kabobs with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and carrots.
5. For the invitations, I made a recipe card.

The party lasted about 2 hours and they each took home a plate of their dipped chocolates. Six was the perfect number. The party was a great success and I would recommend doing it for a fun birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRONWYN, MOMMY LOVES YOU!

The measuring cup party favor.

The recipe card invitation.

The girls dipping chocolate!

Bronwyn and Milly taste testing the chocolate strawberries.

Skyllar and Sarah dipping up a storm.

Bailey dipping her fingers in the chocolate!

Milly stirring the ricotta cheese.

Bronwyn and Bailey cooking the meat.

Beautiful Button Bracelets

I just got all these awesome vintage buttons recently and could wait no longer to make some bracelets. Recently, I was able to get my hands on some really cool green ones. I recently bought a vintage rhinestone button lot on ebay and it included some beautiful green ones. I found the white buttons with the green rhinestone centers at the Springville Antique Market. They only cost $1. The other bracelet has really awesome buttons, a lot of black glass, Bakelite and cool 50's and 60's modern buttons, and as always vintage rhinestone buttons. A lot of people ask me how to make them and where to find the buttons. I am always looking for vintage buttons, some of the best places I have bought them are:

Ebay (I have been able to get some really good deals!)
Confetti's Antiques (They are in Spanish Fork. She has an antique claw foot tub full of buttons that she sells for 10 cents each. Be prepared to look!)
Treasures Antique Mall (In Springville off of I-15, more sporadic...it depends on stock.)
DI-(Rare to find some there, but I have on occasion.)

You can find plain bracelets on the internet or even Michaels. Just get some jump rings and pliers and CREATE.

She Can't Be 9 Already!!

Tonight we celebrated Bronwyn's 9th birthday. We had Grandma and Grandpa Moss and Great-Grandpa and Grandma Hawkins, and Michelle, LJ and Garrett. I made Bronwyn's favorite meal: lasagna, green salad and corn. It is hard to believe that my little girl is turning 9. Time seems to go by faster as you watch your children grow. Nat and I are so blessed to have such a beautiful sweet spirit in our home. She is growing up to be such a fun and talented girl. We are so happy to be surrounded by our family and to have them celebrate these "milestones" in our life. Bronwyn, we love you.

Bronwyn with Great-Grandma Hawkins, she gave Bronwyn a card with money!
Bronwyn loves Great-Grandpa Hawkins!
Michelle made this cute apron for Bronwyn. She can use it when she cooks!
She opened this present first. Why does she need a helmet???
Because she got this cool electric scooter!
Blowing away 9 years. (Don't you love the 8 and the 1 singe candle? :)

Button, Button, Who has the coolest buttons ever?

I love, love, love vintage buttons. This is my newest stash bought at Confetti's Antiques and Ebay. I thought they were so pretty, I wanted to take some pictures. Aah, the possibilities!

The Little Drama Queen

We are a theatre family. Nat and I do it for a living. Needless to say, the girls have spent many hours in dark theatres as we have worked. I think the theatre bug has bitten them and they like to do a few shows of their own. The Lehi Arts Council has a wonderful musical theatre program for children and our kids love to participate. Recently, Brooklyn was cast as Berloiz in "Aristocats". Now I know what you are thinking....Berloiz is a boy cat. This is true but like most theatre around here, there is always an abundance of women, and not so many men. The wonderful director, Tiffany decided to make Berloiz a girl. It was fun to work with Brooklyn, she actually had a few lines and we borrowed Dad's tape recorder and she and I said the lines into recorder. She then could listen to them over and over again. (Which was great so Mom didn't have to say them over and over again.) As you can see from the pictures, she is adorable and did a great job. These are pictures of her with two of her really good friends, who were also in the musical. Deep down inside I love that my kids love theatre. It's something that we can all do as a family. It inspires confidence, self esteem and brainpower. Now, Brooklyn may never end up on Broadway, but she will always be a star to me!

Easter Treats

I wanted to show some cute ideas I did for Easter. I love little vignette's and using my white pedestal and vintage dishes. I had this cute bunny and threw some candy on it..... and instant centerpiece. I still have it up because I like looking at it. Pretzels, don't they look good? I was actually trying to make chocolate eggs using yellow, green and blue chocolate. I couldn't make the eggs work for me and I didn't want to waste the yummy chocolate so I mixed it all together and came up with the green. I did the old pretzel dipping standby and added some pink and dark chocolate. They looked like Easter and Spring all rolled into one and they taste good too!

The Dish on Spring Break

Of course it has been many months since my last post. I will always aspire to be more diligent in my writing but sometimes I have found you just have to let some things go in your life. For me it is this blog, but alas I have felt the blogging spirit and been inspired and renewed, thus the post....This week has been Spring break for the girls and I decided to take Thursday and Friday off to spend with them. Last year our Spring Break was a trip to Disneyland and to see "Wicked" in Los Angeles. This year our economic situation is very different. We are home...and to add insult to injury it snowed 6 inches last night. It doesn't feel like Spring at all. Well I loaded the girls up and we trekked to Ikea (I had to buy a few items) and the girls and I came across these delightful little dishes. Anything miniature or bite size the girls just seem to eat up. They begged and I gave in and the dishes, silverware, cups and pots and pans were bought. (They were really cheap too!) We came home got out the aprons (Bronwyn has on one of my favorite vintage ones) and pulled out the fruit snacks, cookies and water. It kept them entertained for almost 2 hours and after that they washed all their new dishes. So it may not be Disneyland, but still a lot of fun!