Package Pals (What I Sent and Got)

In October, I participated in my first "crafty swap" with Jamie over at C.R.A.F.T. It was so much fun. I got paired up with a package pal and we sent each other some cool stuff after we got to know each other a little bit. Here's my recap of what I sent and what I got from my new pal Laura.

What I sent...

Laura likes to make jewelry, friendship bracelets with her daughter, the colors green and blue and sunflowers. This fall, I was at a pumpkin patch with my kiddos and took a picture of the sunflowers. That was the inspiration for the artwork. I found a cute quote about sunflowers and added that to the piece. I found some sunflower recipe cards, beads, thread and a stamp for her continued craftiness.

What I got...

I got some fabulous stuff from my new pal! I opened my package and just kept 

opening little things. It was great!

Halloween stuff that I can decorate with my kids.

A fabulous reversible bag for the Fall season. It is perfect for me!

A friendship bracelet (with my favorite colors).

I love to bake so she sent me some cupcake liners and colored sugar.

Maybe the best part....chocolate! :-)

I'm looking forward to the next swap in February already! Thanks for checking in!

Watering "Can" for Little Ones

A few weeks ago, my mom and dad brought me one of the greatest/simplest/useful recycled projects I've seen in a while. I have a four year old that LOVES to help out around the house. This also includes watering our outside flowers. Sometimes it is just easier to do it all myself at the risk of him coming inside soaked and wet because he spilled the watering can all over himself and maybe got some on the flowers in the process. 

Here's what they did....it's super simple!

Buy a juice in a large container that has a wide mouth lid. This one is a 1.75L container.

Poke about four holes in the lid.

Fill the container with water and there you go!

So easy, even a four year old can do it (without getting very wet)!

Project: Butterfly Birthday Party

A very special thank you to my grandmother who LOVES butterflies. You cannot go anywhere in her home and not be surrounded by the beautiful creatures. What better theme for her 85th birthday celebration than butterflies. You already saw what I consider the main attraction. Here are just a few other decorations that we put together for the big day.

We found a perfect box at Michaels that is meant to look like a book. The "book" has pictures of
butterflies all over it. Guests placed birthday cards in the box. It was a perfect accompaniment to the guestbook.

I made a guestbook for everyone to sign. Instead of the boring, "just sign on this line to say
you were here," I used some butterfly pictures my friend Brent let me use as the background to
each page and used scanned pictures of grandma as a child, young adult and now as a grandma to
1 granddaughter, 4 grandsons and 2 great-grandsons. It was a perfect addition to the party
and a nice way for her to look back on the day. 

My mom made this lovely butterfly bouquet. I guess I probably get some of my craftiness from her!

Each table had either a hurricane lamp or wine glasses in the middle of the table flanked by two vases
with white and yellow daisies (some of grandma's favorite flowers). We added little butterflies
to the table as a quick splash of color throughout each table.

The florist did the arrangement in the hurricane lamp sitting on the guestbook table.
She did a beautiful job with the yellow roses and daisies.

Under the wine glasses, we placed some greenery and daisies.
We placed votive candles on the stem of the glass. They were very pretty.

Our simple food table.