Back to School

Back to School....

We are not yet in this season of life,
but many others are.
In Canada the kids don't go back to school until after Labour Day,
hence why we are a little behind on this.
One of the projects the not for profit I work for does
is a back pack program.
Since we are really trying to teach The Boss to love others,
we thought this was a great project for us to get involved with.

We "adopted" our students and went out to fill their bags.
We selected students a few years older than The Boss,
so she would be interested in picking things out for them.

 

The Boss was all too excited to help.
We had to continue to reminder her these items weren't for her,
even if the princess back pack would be her first choice too.
While it was stressful battling the back to school crowd,
it was a great time to show love to others in our community,
and remind ourselves how blessed we are.

Happy Back to School!

Wedding DIY

The word DIY has nearly put wedding planners and wedding decorators out of business.  Why pay for something you can do yourself? I love all the creative ideas that are taking your average wedding to a creative and romantic expression of the bride and groom.  This weekend my cousin married his sweet bride and while I appreciated every single DIY they included there was one person who took this concept to a new level...my Mom!

Like every good Auntie she started shopping for and planning her outfit for their big day the moment she found out they were engaged.  She started with a cute dress but when it came to shoes and accessories she started wishing she just wore something she already had.  (Fashion Faux pas... don't be the Auntie recycling dresses at your nephew's wedding...just kidding!  New accessories can bring new life to any outfit).   Anyway, she finally secured shoes, nail polish and jewelry but she could not find a purse that would work...enter wedding DIY!

My Mom fashioned a new purse from one of her grandmother's old purses and a pillow case she no longer uses on a toss cushion.  She explained her plan to me as I drove home from work one day and my response was "I'll be there in 5".  Not sure which was the greatest draw, my extreme respect and excitement for her creative genius OR my extreme uncertainty of whether she would be able to pull it off.

She started with her old purse and her pillow case.   We planned her attach and she drew cutting lines about an inch from the purse to allow sewing room.

She cut along the lines then sent it home with her favourite daughter (me...) to sew the rounded edge, connecting the front and the back of the purse.

She then hand stitched gathers into the purse tucking her stitches under the gold clasp of the purse.  (Not my project so I don't have pictures of this)

Next thing I knew she is ready to go.  Look at this beauty?  To say I was impressed is an understatement.

 What a wonderful weekend as a family celebrating the extension and the growth of our family.  Speaking of DIY's one of our favourite parts of the wedding we were at was the photo area.  Even Granny (she's 87) got in on the fun!

Another fun "DIY" if you will,  was when my cousin and I showed up rocking matching sock buns.  Not a word of a lie, our hubby's had no idea until we told them, that we had socks in our hair.  For some reason they thought it was gross...we were hot until we told them!

Congrats Robyn and Joel!  Thanks for giving us a reason to get dressed up and spend time as a family!  We had lots of fun being part of your day!

Linking up here:

Sugar and Dots

I'm Here...

The past few months I have been MIA...I do apologize.  It is not for a lack of projects, I think actually the opposite.  I changed jobs and it's the summer!  I feel like we pack, dump and re-pack.  In between all our adventures I try and pack in as many projects on my list as I can.  Don't get me wrong, it's been a fantastic summer but I have definitely been missing posting and following other projects online.  I am back, best I can be anyway.  So stick around to see the final project for The Boss' birthday, our dining room transformation and some office renovations at my new job!

~Weekend wedding with my love~

Second Birthday Party Project #4 - Cake

Wednesday I showed the Minnnie Cupcakes made for The Boss' party.  While most of my family LOVES chocolate cake, the Mr. prefers vanilla cake with chocolate icing.  In an effort to make everyone happy I did both!  In doing both I ended up with 12 chocolate cupcakes, 12 vanilla cupcakes, one vanilla and one chocolate round cake.  I decided to use the cakes to make a Minnie face.

I cut the chocolate cake into ears and added them to the top of the vanilla cake.

Next, I iced them to keep them in place (sorry this picture ended up blurry...you get the idea).

Mr. D helped with the construction of the face and even made me some pink icing!

At one point I considered leaving the cake just as Mickey, since he is Minnie's best friend, but decided against it since The Boss loves Minnie so much.  Mr. D jumped in and quickly built me a bow!

Finished product; chocolate ears with chocolate icing, chocolate bow with pink cream cheese icing, vanilla cake face with vanilla icing, and Minnie's hair line is vanilla cake with chocolate icing.  Every combination to meet every cake desire.

Second Birthday Party Project #3- Cupcakes

The cake is a huge part of any birthday party, and I must admit I lack creativity when it comes to this detail.  Last year my sister iced my cake for me because the idea of icing it stressed me out.  This year I saw some cute cupcakes online and decided to try them.  Cute Minnie Mouse Cupcakes, yes please!

This was a super easy project.  Our family loves chocolate cake so I used chocolate cupcakes and iced them with cream cheese icing turned pink with food colouring.  I used white chocolate chips to mimic Minnie's dress.

Next, I made bows to top the cupcakes, and used the tops of oreo's as ears.  I wanted just the tops so I brought in a specialist...my husband!  When watching tv we often share an oreo (or two or three).  I eat the tops and he eats the bottoms with the icing.  So he is a pro at carefully separating the tops from the bottom.

Icing on, chocolate chip dots placed, ears in, and bow topping it off!  Simple yet adorable!

We got away!!!

Before we got married Mr. D and I did pre-marital counseling with my Uncle, who married us.  One thing that he said to us, and we have never forgotten, is that we as a couple need to take time and put time into our marriage.  He told us that he and his wife take weekends away together even if "getting away" is a night away just down the street.  We have taken this advice to heart and tried our best to do so.  There are a million reasons why getting away can sometimes seem difficult; we're too busy, it's too expensive, we can't find a babysitter...all understandable however nothing should ever get in the way of working on your marriage.  Which leads me to our weekend away!  We talked about a number of possibilities but decided on hitting the big city of Toronto together.

  Mr. D works in Toronto everyday, however it's an exciting city and a city we visited often when we were dating.  Friday afternoon I dropped The Boss off at her grandparents and headed for the city.  I felt kinda like the Bachelorette...meeting my handsome date in a big city, and running around care free like two kids in love. I actually felt butterflies in my stomach checking into the hotel and meeting my man in the lobby.  We spent a wonderful weekend shopping, eating out and drinking lots of coffee...while it was still hot.  It was such a wonderful time to reconnect with my Man and focus our attention on each other instead of our wild child!

 If you have the opportunity I really encourage you to take sometime with the one you love.

And the best part about being away is coming home.  The Boss loved every second of individual attention from her grandparents but was even more thrilled to see us when we got home.  The weather was awesome so we finished the weekend the best way we knew how!

*Later this week we will return to The Boss' second birthday party and the tutorials that accompany it.

Second Birthday Party Project #2 - Party Hats

If you remember my party hats from last year, you remember that I added a little flair to them.  All the little girls had Baby Girl bows on them.  This year I again swayed from the traditional party hat.  Don't get me wrong, EVERY party needs a party hat, but it's time to be a little more creative!  I have always loved Minnie ears, we even tried to buy them for The Girl for Christmas but they were sold out, so...I made her one!

I started by collecting my materials.  I already had most of the materials so all I purchased was the headbands from the dollar store.  Each set of ears therefore cost me $1 to make.

I started by cutting the ear shapes out of some foam I had and then covering them with black satin I had.  I sewed the satin leaving one end open to insert the foam.  I removed the sequence flowers then glued the ears to the headband.

Next, I cut two squares from the poke-a-dot material and sewed the wrong sides together.  I left a small whole open and then flipped the material right side out.  I trimmed the edges, ironed and then top stitched it all the way around.  Once the squares were completed, I loosely stitched through the center and cinched it tight to make the bow.

I glued the bow on between the ears.  They aren't perfect but The Boss didn't care.  She LOVED them!

The Boss and her cousin are hams.  At Two years old they know how to strike a pose!

My poor nephew, he is always stuck with the two girls.  For him, I made a Mickey hat.  I cut two ears out of black scrapbook paper and glued them to a red party hat for him.  He seemed please and was more than happy to pose with TWO Minnies!