Spa Party

It's a spa party!!!!! 

It has been a while since I posted and I wish I could find time to do it more consistent. Between a new job, husband being gone, a consignment sale (which I gave up on), and just life in general I find it hard. I did want to get this done because this party was amazing. My personal feel was it beat last year's pop star party hands down. Now for the real reason you are looking at this site:

It all starts with the invitation.Not sure if it was my good luck or bad luck that Archivers was closing at the same time I was looking for materials. Probably both. I took Abby with me so she could pick out the paper. Not a bad choice. I found the template at http://darlingdarleen.blogspot.com/2011/10/spa-party-invitations.html

 Next I put together an outline of what we wanted at the party. I knew we wanted a Mani station, a Pedi station, facial station, and finally a craft station. I took each station one at a time.

For the Mani. I needed a place for them to sit, bowls for soaking, files, and nail polish. This was easily put together with $1 white table clothes (Dollar Tree) draped over the chairs and tied with blue tulle, clear plastic bowls (set of 3 for $1 Dollar Tree), The place mats were from Hobby Lobby $4 a piece, but they were 30% off at the time. I got 6 total. The white doilies were in a package of 10 from Hobby Lobby, I had the basket, but I filled it with nail files (5 below), bath crystals (target $1 bins), hand cream ($1 Target bins). The wash clothes come from Dollar Tree I rolled them and tied them with a ribbon. The table turned out nice.

Next the Pedi Station: I filled a plastic dish pan (Dollar Tree) with a towel, bath fizzies that turn the water different colors (Target), bath salts (Target $1 bins), foot cream ( Target 1$ bins), between the toe guards (5 below), and foam pedi slippers. Here is a wholesale web site http://www.aliexpress.com/cheap/cheap-spa-slippers.html or even amazon. They were big on the girls, but worked for the short time they needed to wear them.

Where they actually had their Pedi's. I put a blue towel down and placed the dish pans (Dollar Tree). Lots of comfy pillows to lay back and relax.

Next was the facial station:

The white tableclothes tied with tulle, placemats,  and bowls.

I ordered the mirrors from Amazon. they worked perfectly and really were a statement piece.

Finally the craft station. I had the girls make their own sugar scrub to take home.

 The jars came from Hobby Lobby. Abby picked three different scents for the station. Peppermint, Sweet Pea, and Green Apple. Basicaly mix in the bowl 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp oil, and then the scent of choice. Spoon into your jar and place in your gift bag. Girls got really creative with the scents mixing them up. Ever heard of Peppermint Sweet Pea? Yeah me neither. Anyway a great lead off to the gift bags.

Tada. Just a basic white craft bag and I found this great aquamarine blue rosette ribbon at Hobby Lobby. I measured and hot glued to the top of the bag. Stuff it with tissue paper and it is now a great looking spa gift bag.

What did you put in those bags? Well since you asked. The girls had their sugar scrub, but I placed a glitter fingernail file, fancy soap (see pic), nail polish, and decorated white spa slippers ( see below), not to mention candy from the food table. They also got to keep the glitter head bands at the facial station.

This is fancy smell good soap I bought at the Home Goods store. I wrapped it in blue tissue paper I then placed an A monogram label to keep it closed (not pictured).

The decorated spa slippers. This was a lot of fun. I bought the slippers cheap from a wholesale site. http://www.cottonage.com/Kids-Terry-Open-Toe-Slippers-White.html

$1.95 a  pair since I bought 14. I then bought a box of flowers and went to town with my hot glue gun. 

Not a bad party favor. All the shoes were different, so I just put them in bags and handed them out to whoever.

This party was a lot of work, but so worth it. There is still a lot more to cover so stay with me. We have just gotten through set up. :-)

It is now day of the party and I still have lots to do. Yikes!!!
The entry table. I placed spa water. Which is the invitation paper cut to fit over the mini bottles of water. I found this mini wood plaque at Archivers and spray painted with chalk board paint. I then placed all the different nail polish for the mani and pedi station. Pick Color.

Now for the food. We have turkey or ham with cheese and tomato skewers with ranch dip on the side. Plus a basket of Veggie straws. I went fancy with the drink and bought the sparkling grape juice with wine glasses. I always get wine at the spa. Don't you? Next my cake pops, a jar filled with candy cane sticks, and a bowl with blue and white suckers.

The other side of the table includes fruit skewers made with strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and red grapes. There is a honey vanilla yogurt dip on the side.  More of my cake pops, mini muffins, asst wafer cookies, jar of giant gum balls, and another jar filled with cotton candy. I tore it into pieces to resemble cotton balls.

I also made blueberry smoothies and here are the straws for this yummy, healthy spa drink.

Just a close up of the sweets. You can find the tutorial on how to make the jars on my blog. They worked out great for this party.

Okay, I know what about that cake. Well here it is. Notice the mask matches the invitation. The inside of the cake was blue. Quite a surprise for everyone. My sister n law is the trained pastry chef and is responsible for the cake.

Now some shots of everyone having fun, working, or just showing off.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Feel free to contact me with questions and leave comments.

DIY Desktop Storage Organizer

I started my spring cleaning early. I am organizing and trimming down everything. This is my youngest craft table. It always looks like this (always). I try to stack the books nice and neat. Gave her little pails to keep crayons in and a metal lunch box to hide things away. Well I was tired of it looking like this. I had bought me a couple of the file organizer for the kitchen (keeping all the recipes organized), but they are about $10 a piece at Target and don't really have any kid prints. http://www.target.com/p/nate-berkus-desktop-storage-unit/-/A-14455816#prodSlot=medium_1_51

Well why can't I make one from one of the cereal boxes I am throwing away. I had just got the black ones from a garage sale (2 for $3), so I used it has my guide. Then I went through my scrap book paper till I found something cute. Perfect paint splatter!!!! It took 2 sheets. I basically laid the first sheet on one side and glued it down. Then I cut it to match the shape. Repeated on the flip side.

TADAAA!!! So much better. Hailey keeps her books in it and the table has stayed nice and clean.

Hope this gives you some ideas and have fun.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Abigail's first grade class did a little party for Dr. Seuss' birthday last year. My inspiration: The Lorax, Green Eggs and Ham, and Horton Hears a Who. The truffla trees are made of the foam insulation tubing you can get at Lowe's. I am sure Home Depot has it too, but Lowe's is closer. I cut the tubes to different sizes. The orange is duct tape. I cut the tissue pom-poms with points versus the round edges I usually do. Fluffed them out and hot glued the pom-pom to the top of the foam tube. Cute.

The green eggs and ham. Simple really. Two pretzel sticks with a white candy melt in the center. Then a green M&M. The hardest part was getting them to stay together on the cookie sheet while I was moving them to the oven. The pretzels like to roll. I baked them for about 5 - 10 minutes. Just enough to mold it together.

Horton Hears a Who. It's a clover with a spec. This was by far the simplest cake pop I have made. My basic cake pop recipe. I used bright pink candy melts and dipped the cake pop. Then I added a candy pearl to represent the spec. 

The truffla tress hung in the classroom. Welcome to Whoville. The kids really enjoyed the decorations and the snacks. This was such a hit that the first grade teachers asked me to do it again this year. FUN!!!!

Minnie Mouse Party - Updated

Here is Hailey's 3rd Birthday Party. 6 Months later she is still talking about this party. This child loves Minnie Mouse and talked about doing a Minnie Mouse Party for months and invited everyone she ran into.

I ordered custom invitations from ekwebdesigns. This was truly the easiest way to do it. Then the birthday girl informs you No, not red I want purple. Okay fine how about both? You will see I added little splashes of purple here and there.

For outside I made these cute little Minnie/Mickey signs. I bought three skinny dowel rods from Lowes. Hobby Lobby had these wooden circle ornaments on sale. The small ones were 3 for $1 and the big ones were 2 for $1. I also got the wooden number 3. I spray painted the dowel rolds red and the circles black. I then hot glued the small circles to the big circle to make it look like ears. Then I hot glued the big circle to the dowel rod. The bow is an extra one I made after making the Minnie Mouse ears. I then spray painted the number 3 and put birthday hat sticker on the top. The day of the party I put a flower pot stuffed with tissue paper and balloons in the front yard. No picture, but it was cute. The one problem I had is that here in Texas July gets very hot and towards the end of the afternoon the heat had melted the hot glue and the pieces started falling off. It did last most of the day.

I found this great tutorial for DIY Minnie Ears. http://www.ahappymum.com/2011/11/kids-favourite-how-to-make-mickeyminnie.html

I actually used hot glue. I made two different kinds of bows. Purple and a red and white polka dot bow. The ears were really cute. 

For the party favor bags I couldn't find inexpensive polka dot ones, so I made them myself. A red paper bag from Hobby Lobby. I all ready had white paint. I took a wine cork and dipped it in the white paint and then went polka dot crazy on the bags. I filled the bags with bubbles, stickers, and lollipops.

I enlisted my husbands help with one of the games. He made a bean bag toss board. I made the ring toss with a big block of Styrofoam wrapped in red and white polka dot paper. For the rings I used plastic bracelets.

The birthday girl using the beanbag toss.

I filled a big tub with water and added sponge balls, water guns, and other squirt toys for the kids. It is July in Texas so it is hot just a little fun to cool off with.

Now time for the FOOD. I had a lot of fun with this party. Except for the bow cookies.UGH

I used a butterfly cookie cutter to cut the cookies out.  These suckers were harder than they looked. Just some shots of the not so successful. My drawing was easy enough, so didn't think it would be that difficult, but me and the piping bag didn't get a long.

Somewhat Success

The drink is Sobe Pina colda on the bottom and Ocean spray cranberry in the middle and the top is Gatorade red. I purchased the plastic milk containers from Kara's Party supply. I filled a bowl with red suckers, large red bubble gum balls, and small white bubble gum balls.

I should have gotten a close up of the Mickey and Minnie cake pops. I made my normal cake pops. For the ears I bought some of the mini oreo's and took them apart. I placed a wafer on each side to resemble ears. Then I dipped them in chocolate. For the Minnie cake pops I found these mini red hearts when you put the points together it looks like a bow, so I attached it to one of the ears. For the Mickey I left it blank. I also have bow-tie pasta and cheese puffs. I also made a fruit salad not shown, it was gone in a flash. I chopped up strawberries and added miniature marshmallows to it. I then added a little bit of sprite and stirred it up. It looked like polka dots in a bowl.

Now for the cake. My sister-n-law is a trained pastry chef, so she helped me out with the cake. Looks like an ordinary cake, but the flavor was cotton-candy. How cool is that? Everyone was surprised when they took a bite.

Not to over the top, and everyone had a great time. Just a relaxing day eating goodies and hanging with friends.


Hope this gives you some ideas and have fun...