A FAN LOVE GIVEAWAY!!

First of all, I know I know. You actually need to have fans for a fan love giveaway, but for the few people (most likely related to or harassed by me) who have read my blog: I LOVE YOU GUYS!! So, the fabulously nice folks at My Memories Suite decided to hook me up with some scrapbooking software AND they let me hook you guys up with some too! I have been playing around with the software and I like how easy it is to change and enhance your items as you go. It's pretty straight forward and you can actually add media. Lovin it! The software comes with preloaded templates OR you can make your own from scratch OR there's a bar on the side to buy new ones AND they are very inexpensive, score! Did you know they have a Dollar Section? What?! As in my favorite words to hear, see, or read at any place of business with crafty goods to sell? Yes ma'am (or sir)! Right now it's my favorite season, Fwinter which is a Florida season that other states don't know about. And i'm loving these Fall templates  So, before my daughter climbs over the couch to destroy the things on my end table, I will give you the details.

Here's how to enter:
Go to:  http://www.mymemories.com/ and look around then come back and leave a comment on which template you liked the best.

For additional entries you can do the following and then come back and leave a comment saying you did:
1. "Like" Creative Hobbies on Facebook
2. "Like" My Memories on Facebook
3. "Follow" them on Twitter
4. Follow the My Memories Blog
5. Become a follower of the Creative Hobbies Blog
The contest will run from Sunday Sept. 25th,1:00PM EST to Sunday Oct. 2nd, 11:00PM EST tell your friends!

Let's Backtrack a Little

So, in January I turned 25. Woohoo! A quarter century, totally awesome. So we had a little soiree at our place. I didn't get to decorate like I really wanted, but we had a blast. I actually wasn't even dressed as the party started; babies make everything take longer. Kiwi (babygirl's nickname) stayed up the entire time, not planned, but it worked out. Anyway, I wanted to share some pics from the joyous occasion. Dez helped out with the cooking and setup and we mounted the tv on the wall which had a graphic I put together. The colors were hot pink, black and white damask. So these are some of the pics.

My Cake - the baker actually almost cut her finger off prior to that day so it wasn't as detailed as we had planned.The cake was Cognac and the cupcakes were champagne flavored. Courtesy of  Bite of Your Life

The spread  and "bar". Yes, I did cover my table with black wrapping paper. Please excuse the not done decorations. We had wings, meatballs, potstickers, dumplings, and a cheese fondue for the veggies. Very tasty.



 
The pink drink is "Xrated Pink Lemonade" very delicious as you can see they were guzzling it down. And we are always up for Jello Shots. Excuse the printer, just pretend it's not there.

 DIY Photobooth couldn't contain us. We basically, hung black curtains, and covered our upholstered coffee table a.k.a. the red thing, in white fabric. I had to say this was a fun group of people. There were guys too just not pictured. I randomly invited the girl who sat next to me in Art class and she turned out to be a blast.










Me and Dez coordinated outfits. I love how open he is to things, most guys would say hell no to a Hot Pink shirt. We went to Jacksonville to get our gear, worked out nicely I do say.

 

 Cake Tower and Edible arrangement.

 I've always wanted one of these and they can cut numbers out of the pineapple, YAY!

 I tried to incorporate black and white as best I could, we had them dip some of the fruit in dark and white chocolate.






So we played "Get Low" Limbo. Lots of fun! When the party was whinding down someone suggested we play charades and we did...til 3am.




Finally, the "royal family". Since, my daughter wouldn't stay asleep we let her stay up and party with us. Everyone pretty much just passed her around the whole night. Everyone made it home safely and as we were saying goodbye, Kiwi was falling asleep in our arms. Happy Birthday to me!

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1st Birthday Progress

Inspiration

So, currently I am working on my sweet little girl's first birthday party. I am keeping the theme a secret for now, but there will definitely be a reveal on that later.


Today was my first day sewing, like ever! So, what does mama do? Well I saw THE cutest pettiskirt dress, BUT it costs $124.00. Umm... no thanks. She pretty much gains 1-2lbs a month so I will most certainly not be paying that much for a dress she may wear once or twice. She's totally worth it, it's just not economically responsible to me. So I decide that i'm going to make it. What makes me think I can? 1. I bought a tutorial for a pettiskirt 2. I've read a lot of pettiskirt tutorials 3. My friend has a sewing machine and offered to teach me. (She said it was easy-peasy) 4. I am totally insane and firmly believe I can figure out how to do anything with directions. So, there you have it, I'm a sewing mama. I also plan to use this dress as a Halloween costume, princess fairy anyone?

I'll have to admit it is easier than I thought, I am really excited! Today I cut all the fabric, made the ruffles and sewed them onto one layer of the bottom tier. Tomorrow Kirin (babygirl) comes back from her first trip away from mom and dad. Yeah, we pretty much missed her  WAAAAY more than she missed us. And she will be all in my fabric because the baby gate only keeps her in the living room and it's so confined I hate to leave her in there. 

My Wreath

Last weekend I halfway finished the wreath for the front door of her party space.  Of course I modified mine: I used the wooden/twig wreath (from Dollar Tree). It took about 16 sheets of tissue paper and I cut my pieces into 4x5" rectangles since they were 20"x20" sheets and rounded the corners, which gave it a soft more petal-ey look. You can use less paper if you make it looser. I say halfway because I will be adding her initial or something to the middle. 



Well, I am super excited about this whole process even though I have about two weeks to pull it all together. Did I mention I'm a full time student? I haven't been able to produce a whole lot of physical elements for the party up until recently, but I have already designed her labels and cupcake wrappers. And of course invites have been mailed and received already. More pics and details to come. Yay, i'm so excited!