Owl Birthday Party

Look who is turning two....Cali that's who!  My niece Annie and sweet toddler niece Cali came to CA for a visit and while they were here we got to celebrate Cali's second birthday a couple of weeks early!  

It's Owl-ways fun to sit on a tiny toadstool at a party.  I wish I was tiny enough to sit on them too!
So glad I could reuse these little stools I made for Jaina's fairy party!

I was a hoot making this banner out of felt and cutting out fabric owl appliques.

These little hats were fun to make.  I bought some cheapo paper party hats on clearance and unfurled them for a pattern.  Then I cut pieces of felt the same size and sewed it onto the cardboard hat. I added some ribbon bling and more owl appliques!

Lots and lots of ribbon pieces tied onto a wire form wreath ...easy but time consuming;  good thing  I already had the owl! 

All of the littles got a cute little owl I made from felt and fabric.  It's a parliament...did you know that is what a group of owls is called?  Well now you do!

As you can see the party hat was a huge hit with the birthday girl....haha!

But my nephew Gavin and niece Jaina got into the spirit of things.

And eventually Cali came around to the idea!

How about a little owl sticky darts anyone?  Jaina had a good time running around and giving everybody a chance to throw the sticky darts!  Also a little Tic Tac T-Whoo.  Gavin discovered that you could twirl the little shapes on the board that were stuck on with velcro.  The little flowers twirled just like a steering wheel so he spent a lot of time "driving" the flowers....Vroom! Bloom!

Lots of fun coloring owls!

And who doesn't love a big colorful tube to crawl around in!

Plus all you really need at a birthday party is a couple of little cousin friends to pal around with!  "Try to remember that next time Auntie Molly".  OK Gavin I will!

Owl you need is love!

I wanted to make some things for Annie to take home and have a little owl party for Cali and her friends in Pennsylvania, so I had that in mind when I made the felt banner and made 10 more of the little owls.   The next day I made  this little picture with paint and fabric pieces for her to use as a centerpiece....small enough to fit in the luggage.  I thought it turned out pretty cute too.

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet Cali!  Thanks for coming to visit us!

It's Curtain Time!

My darling daughter Becky is a senior in college and is enjoying living in a cute little apartment in downtown Fullerton.  Becky calls it the burrow..a reference to the Weasly's home in Harry Potter.  I call it the tree house.  It's a teenie tiny little place up a few flights of stairs with a little bitty kitchen and living room and a tiny little bedroom on top of that.  Every level has an outside balcony and above the bedroom balcony is a ladder up to a private roof area where she has made a little make shift garden hang out place.

Anyway the inside is adorable with the exception of three windows over the doors that were covered by simple panel curtains made out of old bed sheets apparently....or just really ugly fabric.  With Becky's pleading juxtaposed with my desire to be more creative and crafty, I agreed to sew up a few simple curtains that turned out really cute and brightened up the place.

First we trekked over to Joann's fabric to find some fabric she loved.

A little cutting.....

 A little ironing......

 A little sewing......

And voila!  Cute little curtains where ugly ones used to be!  Happy daughter and proud of myself Mom!

Oh The Irony!

My lovely and very creative niece Autumn made me this beautiful quilt as a Christmas present this year.  She really surprised me with it.  I couldn't believe the time and effort that went in to making it and  I love it.!   I keep it in my Family room and snuggle under it while watching TV.  When I am not using it I often find my husband wrapped up in it.  She did such a great job and I love everything about it!

Christmas is always really busy around here.   I often have much loftier ideas than I actually get around to pulling off and this year was no exception.  I am the queen of  Christmas stockings and like to give them out to friends and family filled with fun little gifts.  This year I had seen a really cute and simple sewing idea online that involved making cute dishcloths by buying white dishtowels and sewing little strips of fabric onto them.  I really am not much of a seamstress.  I made a few Halloween costumes for Becky when she was a kid but I always found the experience very frustrating, and there was usually a lot of swear words flying.  So in the interest of raising a sweet little girl most of my sewing ambitions were put on hold.  But Becky is all grown up now and turned out pretty good so I have recently purchased a new sewing machine and I hope to be a little creative with it.

Alas, as so many Christmas inspirations go, although I purchased the dishtowels and the fabric, I never got around to finishing the project.  The stockings got filled, but just with other things that did not require my making them!  So today I was organizing some of my craft supplies and I found the bag with the fabric I had purchased to make the dishtowels.

Look familiar?  I had Autumn in mind when I was buying the fabric.  She and Becky have very similar taste in things anyway and I thought this would be cute fabric that they and all of my nieces would enjoy.  When putting it away this morning, after I looked at it a minute I realized that although Autumn lives in Spokane WA and brought my finished quilt down with her  from there, and I live in southern CA, we had purchased the exact same fabric!  The  quilt she gave me is sewn so beautifully with this lovely leaf like fabric though out.  And even the teal fabric that I purchased, though not the same exactly is very similar in color and pattern to what she put in my quilt!

And my first thought was THANK GOD I didn't get around to making those dish towels after all!  I mean, really,  she would have given me the beautiful quilt that took hours and hours to make...and I would have so proudly given her my little dish towels with the no doubt crooked square of fabric sewn on in a matter of minutes!  Made from the exact same fabric!  Ah the humiliation!  Score one for procrastination!

Fairy Party

Happy 5th birthday to my sweet little niece, Jaina.  I had so much fun throwing her a little fairy party!

I spent the week before the party decorating fairy wings, and making peter pan like costumes for the boys.  I  made paper mache toadstools, sewed fabric banners, and made 9 little toadstool stools for the kids to sit on at the tea party.  You can just see a little bit of all of this peeking through the pictures with the kids.  As usual my grand plans of taking pictures of everything once it was set up was thwarted by the inevitable mad dog rush that happens right before party time.  Thank goodness that in addition to the fairies showing up our good friends Jeff and his daughter Emily who couldn't stay for the party came early to help Dale and I set up.   We had an absoulutely beautiful day in  Irvine Park that made the perfect fairy setting!

My nephew Gavin wore his little fairy wings and costume the whole time.  He was so adorable toddling around in it!

Jaina and her little friends having "tea".

The tea party table with toadstool stools!

The fairy table with toadstool seats, before it was set for tea.

Giant bubbles for the fairies to ride on!

Give a boy a sword and there is no end to the fun running around that they will have!  Plus it balanced things out nicely with the wands for the girls.

The kids hunted for little trinkets and treasures and added them to their fairy jars!  The boys recieved small knights for their jars.

There were lots of laughs and giggles when Dale suited up for the Gnome on the roam game! (the kids had a good time too!) It was basically tag but if the kids touched him with their wand or sword he had to freeze and throw out candy!  The kids  loved this!  The adults cracked up!  

 I made a miniature version of the party for the fairies and set it up behind a tree for the kids to find.  With all the running around I thought for sure they would find it and left it as a surprise.  I realized once the party was over...it was never discovered!  We led Jaina and Gavin to the area and they "found" it. I really  love this sweet little picture.  It's one of my all time favorites.

4th of July In America

The 4th of July in Modjeska Canyon California.  My Dad, Rusty Richards, leads the parade every year on his horse, Traveler.  I don't live in the canyon anymore but we go every year serving the important role of parade viewers cheering them on since it seems most of the canyon residents are in the parade.  Modjeska canyon is a dead end so you get to see most of the parade twice;  once as they come officially down the canyon and then again as they make their way back up to the park for a hot dog roast.

If you've got a dog or a horse or you can deck yourself out or anything that rolls in red, white and blue, your'e in!

Happy 4th of July!

Up Up and Away!

How lame am I?  I have spent the last hour checking the live flight status map for Lufthuansa airlines, watching Becky's plane fly over Germany and Italy.   She's off to start her one month adventure in Italy, studying abroad with her school.  I know she is a 22 year old woman, but I am still me, her mom, and I felt weird walking away from my baby girl at the airport as she headed off on her own to a foreign country for the first time.  She is traveling alone and will arrive the day before the rest of her group.  Travel to Italy by yourself?  No problem for my girl.  I on the other hand have that other personality; infused with the worrying nature bestowed upon me by my mother and enhanced with a decade of work in the safety field.  It is hard to undue such carefully crafted training, but it has been a work in progress since the day she was born. 

This girl likes to fly!  And I am not just talking about airplanes.  She loves to try new things, to feel that fear and to overcome it.  I have seen her do it hundreds of times now, often while I am comfortably settled in my cushy chair in the audience.  And I have developed certain coping skills.  Well one coping skill; I drink!  I pound a glass of Chardonnay just before show time and I am good to go.  

So once again she is off on some new and exciting adventure.  And I hope I encouraged her to do it and enjoy it and to make the most of the opportunities that she has.  I think I did.  And the traveling by yourself to a foreign country thing?   I think I was mostly cool about that.  I peppered her with little bits of safety advice all day yesterday while she was packing, and the whole way to the airport, but I was definitely cool.  The last communication I  had with her yesterday was the text message that she sent to her dad telling him to go buy me a drink, so I am fairly confident that I pulled off that cool thing.  

Arrivederci Rebecca!  Avere un grande tempo!  Which I hope means farewell and have a great time!  I am super proud of you.  I love your sense of adventure, your confidence and your independence!  Also I see on the flight status report that you have landed and isn't it about time that you email me????

Car Party! Vroom!

Hooray for Gavin!  My beautiful baby nephew turned ONE!  Isn't he just the cutest?




He is a really happy little guy who is so much fun to be around.  He likes everybody and gives big sloppy hugs and kisses.  He has a special fondness for anything that he can roll, so in honor of this very special occasion I was delighted to host a car themed birthday party for him!


There are lots of fun things to do when it's a car party!

I made some fabric flag banners:  Blue, green, red, yellow, teal, and black and white checkered.

(I always forget to get pictures when I am rushing around but here is the treats and toys buffet after it had been hit up.)  I thought the pool floatie tire on the wall was a nice touch!  The big race car checks look so cute with all of the other bright colors.

I knocked myself out on these oreo wheels (haha).  

But I also made some on sticks dipped in chocolate that were a hit.

 

I Painted a few simple car pictures for decorations.

These little wooden shaped cars were unpainted at the dollar tree, a little paint and vroom!  I Loved these gas pumps I found so much...I couldn't resist!

We had a few fun games for the toddler crowd.  The babies liked playing with the magnetic board and peeling the tic tac tow vehicles on and off the velcro.  A sticky dart game and a tire bean bag toss turned out to be cute decorations.

I missed getting any pictures of the towering stack of cupcakes I had baked, but Gavins mommy (my niece) Melody made him the most adorable nascar teddy bear cake!

Didn't it turn out cute?

Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Baby Boy!