Party at the O.K. Corral!!

My oldest daughter is about to turn 6. I'm in the midst of planning her party. I stumbled across an older camera I had packed away (while cleaning my art studio this weekend), & it had some pictures on it of when she turned 4! (YIKES! That totally gives you a hint about how well my photos are organized.)

She had a cowgirl/horse party & it was one of the most fun parties I've ever planned for my girls! Being in September, I have the option of having her party outdoors. So, we invited guests to a park by the river & it was perfect! The wee western guests were greeted with their very own stick horses (the party girl got one that made horsey noises!), cowgirl hats (purchased at dollar stores & thrift stores), & bandannas (made from fabric I purchased at Walmart).

The table was set up with different colored checkered tablecloths. I purchased some red cowgirl boots at the thrift store & filled them with red & white carnations. Put the flowers in a heavy glass or vase first, & then place the glass/vase inside the boots. There was also a thermos full of hot chocolate, a crock pot full of little hotdogs & other yummy foods & drinks!

We had extra cowboy hats for guests to wear & bales of hay set around (blankets laid on top) for guests to rest their bums. Even great-grandma got into the action!! (That's my youngest with her cockeyed cowgirl hat!)

For games, we had a horse pinata. (I bought it. This party took a lot of planning so I did buy a lot of stuff instead of making them. I even bought the invitations, which makes me cringe. HAHA!)

My favorite part of the party were the next two games. First, I took a bale of hay & spread it around. (The hay was sitting on top of a tarp for easy cleanup after the party.) Inside the hay I hid all sorts of tiny little prizes & treats with a horse theme. On cue, the kids scurried to scoop up the goodies inside their hats.

Then, everyone was given some "silly string" for a Silly String Shoot-out! It was a fun mess & all the adults got involved too! Silly string was purchased at the dollar store, so I was able to get quite a few bottles.

I made the horse cake, following some instructions given at the Family Fun website. I used a chocolate chip frosting for some fun texture. Of course there were horse plates & horse cups. Also, not pictured, were all the plastic utensils wrapped in their own napkins & tied with a piece of natural twine.

The kids went home with all their collected goodies from the hay hunt game, their hats, their stick horses, bandannas AND a real pony horse shoe with their name engraved on it. The engraving was simply done with metal letters that were hammered onto each horseshoe. (Unfortunately I don't have pics of the personalized shoes.)

Because there were just a few children invited, I was able to do a lot more for the kids. My favorite part of any party are the favors & prizes, so I go "all out" there.


The birthday cowgirl had a blast! She even got to ride off into the sunset on her very first bike!

Check out this fun website with western slang.

Whimsical Children's Rooms Blog Party

Today is the party hosted by Laura Bray at katydiddys! As I was madly taking photos of my two wee one's rooms, I realized that they weren't up to showroom quality. I mean, who wants to see Tinkerbell undies strewn across the floor, or Barbie shoes sprinkled on the carpet? I decided that since the unmade beds & dollhouse debris wouldn't make for impressive snapshots, I would take pictures of special things in my girls room instead: close up shots that make you THINK the atmosphere is tidy.

We moved into our house 5 months ago & you'd think that would be enough time to get settled in. But, it's not. I'm not sure what the problem is, but my girls' rooms don't have that warmth & "homey" feel to them. They've shared a room for the past 2 years, so this is the first time they've had their own rooms. Maybe I just need to give them (& their rooms) some time to find their own decor identity. Anyway, I hope to get some ideas from other participants in this blog party on how to make their rooms more cozy & girly & less cold & uninspired.

The picture at the top is how I store my oldest daughter's dress-up attire. The large puffy dresses get hung right on the wall above her bed! It's artwork, it's a dress, it's artwork, it's a dress.

I painted the hangers to make it "extra special". And look! It's a cupcake! This was one of my very first cupcake paintings, about 5 years ago--long before I realized that I loved them so! I think I copied it right from a catalogue.

My daughter's pink bed is one of my favorite pieces. My mom picked it up at a garage sale for 3 bucks. I wish I had a "before" shot. It came with a headboard & footboard--but it belonged to a bunk bed. It was nasty looking. I sanded it, painted it, distressed it, waxed it, added finials to the posts & adorable white wood embellishments to each end. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. It was a surprise for her 2nd birthday---a big girl bed!

And I LOVE using mismatched linens--both old vintage & new vintage-looking. My oldest has pinks & blues & my youngest has yellows & greens.
I found this drawer to an old desk in someones trash! I added vintage kitty wrapping paper & hotglued buttons to the outside & now it hangs above my daughter's desk & holds her precious keepsakes. Free stuff rocks.

Hanging under the drawer is a banner I made. I found some vintage "ABC" clipart online & copied them, punched holes in them, strung some ribbon through, & swagged it above her desk. It's not only decorative--but useful: she refers to it often when stumped on her alphabet.

A trip to a nearby pottery painting studio resulted in this adorable hanging sign.

Artwork is very important to me & my kid's get to put theirs just about anywhere. Zoey decorates her door with loads of paintings & drawings.

I love the wooden letters you see at craft stores. And the wacky odd sized letters are right up my alley. I painted them out in different colors & hung them with that tacky putty stuff.

I also gave each of my girls a painting when they were born. Pazely has this above her desk.
Another cool find was this piece. I was told it is for holding patterns?? I use it to hold my girls magazines & coloring books. It sits in our living/dining room right next to a baker's rack which is FILLED with their art & creative supplies.

This is weird, but everywhere we have ever lived I have always had an obsession with making the girls bathroom cute. I love bathrooms! They are tiny & make-over pretty quickly.

The shower curtain rings were purchased from the Target $2.50 bin. I added the vintage buttons.

Above the girls towel rod is this vintage hand mirror that used to belong to my grandmother. I hung it on the wall at kidlet height so the girls can see themselves---you know, for that final check before heading out to play.

I love being "hands-on" in my girls' rooms. Most of their things have been thrifted or handmade. A lot of inspiration comes from books or magazines. Better Homes & Gardens puts out really cool Special Publications about "quick & easy decorating" or "kids' rooms". I snatch these up when I see them because they give SO many great ideas.

Now that you got a peek at MY children's rooms, go check out Laura's blog post (dated July 11 2008) to see links in the comment section & find other great children's rooms!! Party on!

Meow if you love to PAR-TAY!!!!

The kitty cat invitations were sent. A vintage image was copied & 'glitterized', & some cat-like wording was added inside to lure potential feline partiers to a meowing good time!

(Cat graphic was found HERE.)

And I found an excuse to use my old-school label maker!

Finally, the day of my 4 year old's cat party had arrived!!! We decorated the sidewalks & steps with our usual festive chalk art & birthday greetings...

& I stamped some appropriately themed images onto brown kraft paper that I measured & wrapped around the little tables that the party guests were going to be sitting at.

When the wee guests arrived they did a craft. I wanted them to make "cat collars" so I purchased metal circular tags from an office supply store. I wasn't sure about what to tie them on---string? ribbon?----UNTIL I spotted these candy necklaces at the grocery store. SCORE!!! They were purrrrrfect! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

For a game I decorated Easter eggs to look like mice. Why is it that plastic eggs seem to multiply in my basement? Am I the only one? For the mice ears I used this really cool felt I got at the dollar store--the back side is sticky! Whiskers, eyes, a nose & mouth were drawn on with a permanent black marker.

The hind ends were embellished with leather string tails--just hot glue 'em on.

And the mice tummies were filled with coins--dimes, nickels & pennies to be exact!

I hid the mice in the front yard before the party cats even arrived. I told each child to look for the same amount of mice so it would be even & we wouldn't have any "cat fights". (Geez, I can't help it!)

One of my favorite parts of the party were the hats I made! I could've gone the "cat-ears-on-a-headband" route, but my daughter's previous birthday was a puppy party & we did the whole "ears thing" then. I glued pom-poms on the top of paper cone hats & added tiny little pointy ears to resemble a cat. Just a subtle touch, but I loved how they turned out. I couldn't find any cat paper to make the hats from, so I went with something fun & celebratory instead.

I always make sugar cookies for my girls' birthday parties--for the adult party favors. This party featured goldfish cookies.

I loved how they looked in the cellophane bags. They reminded me of the bags of fish you win at carnivals. I was lucky enough to find this adorable ribbon on clearance at Walmart.

OK, the cake is always a bit stressful. The decorating part I LOOOOVE. It's just the initial frosting layer that is the un-fun part for me. And I admit that my cat cake looks kinda like a bunny. For starters the ears are too close together. And secondly, my daughter wanted a red cat cake. I couldn't do it because I just pictured red frosting stains everywhere. So, she then requested "light red" which is really pink, right? So, it could very well translate to a spring bunny cake.

The really long striped candles came from Target. I love them! The kids ate their cake & ice cream out of real cat bowls bought at the dollar store. They thought that was super silly! They also got to take the bowls home. I even created my second pinata EVERS! The first pinata I made was 2 years ago at Pazely's "Bug Party". It was a bee & it ended up being HUUUUGE. This cat pinata was rather simple. I'm giving a tutorial tomorrow on my blog, so stay tuned!

Sadly, I barely got any pictures of the pinata bashing because I went inside to grab bags for the kids to collect their candy in, but when I came out, eager Mr. WhiMSy love had already led the troops to battle. This poor cat was destined with only one life.

The kids were so adorable in their party hats. I actually bribed them to take this photo for me. Some didn't want to wear their hats & some were falling off & some were comlaining that the string was too tight. I took about 10 photos of them & they actually held the word "Cheeeeeeeeeese!" for that long! HAHA!

The goodie bags are always my favorite part of any party. I should've taken pictures of the items BEFORE they went into the bags, but oh well. I purchased some sweet little stuffed mice from spidercamp, I made some kitty buttons with my 1" button machine using images from vintage children's books, some goldfish cheese crackers, glow-in-the-dark cats from the dollar store (like the stars you stick on your ceiling), chocolate Kit-Kat bars, tons of stickers, real-looking mouse candy & the tags are from time2cre8 (they look just like my little toothless birthday girl!). Oh! And the ribbon, with cat paw prints, is from the Dollar Store.

I attached yarn to each birthday guests goodie bag & we draped & looped the yarn over sofas, behind lamps, down the stairs, etc & hid them in all different spots when the kids weren't looking.

The kids had to wind their yarn around the cardboard tubes to find their goodies!

YAY for birthday parties! MEOW!

Oh & next year she tells me she wants a mouse party. Um, I'm gonna have to break the cycle somehow. Pretty soon we'll have the whole animal kingdom covered. Where does it end? Amoeba?