Wedding Shower

My brother in law is getting married on Feburary 4, 2012- yikes! So while the happy couple took some vacation/ school break time off my mother-in-law and I decided to throw his fiancé a bridal shower last Friday. 

The theme was "Bed Bath & Bridal Shower" My husband, the great designer of our family did a paradox of the Bed, Bath & Beyond logo.   The idea behind this was that the couple doesn't have a full or queen size mattress set, so if people didn't want to give a traditional gift they could bring money to contribute to a mattress fund. It was a great idea, and it worked out great- one gift came with crumpled up cash ($1 dollar bills) in a puzzle box! The bride was very excited about that 700 piece puzzle!

 The banner I made- it looks great!  The font is MTF Chubb and I found it over at MissTina.com for free!

 I downloaded this free print from eighteen25 and ordered the canvas from The Canvas People. The print looks red on screen, but when it came it looked more orange-red, but that's okay because both the bride and I love orange! This was my gift to them.

 My mother-in-law made a little bed underneath the gift table and the red blanket is a reversible comforter for when they do get their bed. The bears were from the church nursery! 

 Cupcakes

 The punch had to be the right color- Dark red, so I mixed Cranberry Apple with 7up and bingo!

 This was well thought out Ice Cream Sandwich "Mattress" Cake my husband made- man, he's talented! We like watching Cake Boss, so he pulled a 'Buddy'. Ice cream sandwiches followed by Cool whip topping, followed by more ice cream sandwiches and  let that harden over night. Then rolled out the fondant and covered it all, shaped it, and even used a little tool I picked up at Wal-Mart to make it look like there's a quilt on the bed, a little bit of white frosting beading and frosting ruffles at the bottom. He took the time to make pillows out of fondant as well. The headboard is graham crackers covered in fondant and black lettering for the bride and grooms first names. It had to be done in several steps otherwise the cake would have melted, but it turned out great and was a big hit at the party- despite it being December 29th in Iowa! 

 For those who didn't want punch or wanted to warm up after eating their cake there was hot chocolate available.

 

 When my mother-in-law got married a few years ago I created this 'Love' design from 1 Corinthians 13, so we were able to use this for decoration.

The sign-in table with a basket for cards, a photo of the couple, a candle in a mason jar, some roses, a Mr. & Mrs. sign, and something to write advice/ recipes on. 

 The gift table with a few gifts on it, the photos of the couple when they were younger, the "tub" container we used for decoration was also a gift for the couple. I even took an old velvet heart that my hubby gave me once full of chocolates was now used as decoration. 

 I had these old shower curtains in my basement and hung them up so as people came into the fellowship hall they could feel like they were walking into a shower. 

Two unsuspecting guys who were volunteered by the best mans mother to participate in the festivity.... of you guessed it- toilet paper dress making. I'll spare you the photos, because truthfully I might have a very mad hubby on my hands, and a not happy brother-in-law! But the bride voted and actually chose my husband as having the best designed dress. 

The bride got tons of laughs from having the boys dress up! I think she had fun- it was a great way to wrap up 2011. While it wasn't New Year's Eve, it was the best bridal party I'd been to in a while! 

NOEL

 I found this beautiful banner online, for free over at SugarTotDesigns. It turned out pretty good- here's a closeup of both the "N" and the "O". It's a lot of work, but something pretty that I can hang up in my house that will hopefully last longer than just one year if I package it right!

We've been busy filling up Santa's beard with cotton balls each day, you can download it here.  His beard is about 1/2 grown. Each day my son wakes up, he asks- "Is Santa here, yet?" No. Not yet. Soon, though- when his beard is full, he'll be here. 

I struggled this year with celebrating Santa this year at all, because that's not the real reason for the season- we celebrate Jesus' birth, that's why it's called Christmas. My son knows about Jesus and God, (His prayer before each meal is: "Thank you for our food, and thank you for Jesus and God. Amen.") and that's awesome, but it's the fact that Santa gives gifts and expects nothing in return allowed me to celebrate the 'fun' side of Christmas. Santa Claus is named after Saint Nicholas, who was a Saint in 4th Century A.D. I briefly read on Wikipedia about Saint Nicholas, it's quite interesting to see how many countries celebrate him, and how Santa Claus is loosely based on him. 

"Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children..." 

 Our friends the Wigle's celebrate Christmas with a birthday cake for Jesus... how great is that? I know their two kids are going to grow up knowing the true meaning of Christmas!

I'm working on an Advent Calendar for next year- but I'm not sure what to put in the envelopes- they are tiny key-sized envelops. Chocolate? Bible Verse? Little representation of the story of Jesus' birth? What do you put in/on your Advent Calendars?

Merry Christmas from our family to yours,

Holiday Treats

'Tis the Season.... 

for Holiday Treats.

Here's an easy-peasy recipe to do by yourself or involve the kiddos!

1 bag of twisted pretzels, 1 bag of Rolos, 1 bag of pecan halves

Turn oven on at 350, place pretzels on top of parchment paper or aluminum foil on oven sheet, place 1 Rolo on each pretzel. Leave in the oven for 3-5 min., or until chocolate is soft. Take out of oven and place one pecan half on each chocolate. Let cool.

Children can help with unwrapping the Rolos, placing pretzels on pan, or putting Rolo on each pretzel. If they do help with the pecans- the chocolate will be hot, or warm!

Happy Holiday Baking!

Thankful

I'm so thankful for my little batman. He's such a joy to us, even on days when I want to put him back where he came from. Hey, what can I say, he's 3 1/2 years old, he's not perfect!

I love that he has such an enthusiasm for life, even when mommy struggles with what God wants me to do- stay home and home-school the little man! Our little boy makes us laugh, yell, cry, and love more. He's starting to ask questions about family- who's related to who. "My grandma is your mom?" Yes. He's finally getting it, but I think I'm going to put together a family tree with photos of people, because some of them he remembers (Keegan and Aidan) and some of them he forgets (Uncle Mike and Aunt Vicky); then there's the ones he's never met that live far away.
Over his left shoulder you can see a Give Thanks Free Printable I found here. I had some frames I picked up from Wal-Mart a while ago that weren't being used, so I grabbed a frame and framed it. I haven't had time to make this cute little banner that I wanted to make before Thanksgiving.

 I found the banner here. So maybe I'll make it for next year.

I'm thankful for my warm house and food that we have to eat, so many people even in this country are going this holiday season without a warm place to sleep, food to eat in their kitchen or even a good paying job. The gap closes between the rich and the poor some days I really feel like I'm on the poor end, but thankful because I'm not really- I can still afford to pay my bills on time, feed and clothe my child. Plus we have a lot of luxuries I take for granted like XBOX Live, Netflix, Internet, computers, and two vehicles that still work even though they are both over 10 years old.

My latest project is taking all of my old t-shirts and making them into a blanket or a quilt, I haven't decided yet because just the word quilt scares me- I've never done a quilt before, so I don't really know what the difference is between an actual quilt and just a blanket.

In other news, the one family member that we thought would be single forever, my husbands brother, Jim, has found a girl named Suzi and they are getting married in February! It's so exciting to be part of wedding planning I forgot how much fun I had planning my own wedding (10 years ago in May)- it's awesome to see their wedding coming together so quickly and God opening doors for them during this whole process. We are already blessed by having Suzi a part of our lives and we welcome her into our family.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Transformation

Our church has been having these 'themes' that we go through each quarter. Last quarter was Hope, this quarter it's Transformation.

Boy, make it really hard for the decorating team to decorate the nursery! What can you decorate with that up to 4 years old that has to do with Transformation?

Romans 12:2 says this: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I'm not sure if that's our theme verse, but I thought it fit, so I made this for the nursery- it's a start. I made it blue because the carpet in there is blue. Feel free to download it, if you can use it!


Transformation

Butterflies? Plenty of places online tell me how to make Nylon butterflies. But I'm sure I don't have extra money for that. Or patience. Time, I do have.

Bugs-n-Blooms has some adorable butterflies in all different sizes, and colors. If I was thinking about having another child- which I'm not- and IF it was going to be a girl- I think I'd make a butterfly room. Absolutely love!


I am thinking about making some sort of paper craft  like this one from Project Nursery, it's a do-it-yourself project. Although I might need some help from Lisa, the craft lady who goes to our church and owns a local scrapbooking store as well!

Grab My Button

<a href=”http://www.stayathomemommydesigner.blogspot.com” target=”_blank”><img src=”a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN-2mn7nZWguDgmQqIfo8NxBkBm8isEAB76kIJV_yNWa1I3POJ9OEvDssClmqZouVav6AY4vFg-M628LaaOQyREJQHtb67nKsm-X-mvCfDweC_r8fZ4VcHLtD-_-HXg5iiN8cgj8SdgZnk/s1600/stayathome.gif”></a>

I've been wanting to do this for sometime, now. So here it is! My very own grab button. Grab it and put it on your blog!

First Freebie

If you subscribe to my blog I will give you the link to this printable I made the other day.

I'm starting pre-school with my 3 1/2 year old this year, so I'm making file folders like mad. So much so I thought about investing in a laminate machine. Then I realized I can have anything I want laminated from my local AEA (Area Education Association) for just $.50/foot! File folders work really well on their big machines, and I'm not running to the store all the time to buy lamination supplies (which would probably make us broke!).

I went last Friday and dropped off a whole folder of stuff for the gal to laminate, and by the time I got back from running my errands it was done! All I had to do was cut, cut, cut! I've made 4 file folders- 2 regular and 2 tot lap books. My son loves using the dry erase marker on them and then erasing it! I've made Robots, Word World, Thomas and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom folders.

I found my great lap books and file folder downloads over at http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/
The other blog I'm using is: http://totallytots.blogspot.com/ . Starting with these two blogs has given me a lot of content and free downloads as well. Now I'm trying to keep them organized on my computer until I need to print them out. Hubby is going to be upset if I tell him we'll need to order ink cartridges for the printer every month- at $200 a round (we buy 2 sets of everything). It's just not something we can afford to do once a month, or even every other month!

This weeks' letter has been R... Robots, Rainbows, we even made this Rainstick from Enchated Learning. My son couldn't stop adding beans in ours, so it's a little too full!

Next week the letter is S... so I'm printing out file folders to make.... like Shapes, Seasons, Stars, and maybe even making a file folder based off the book of Stone Soup!

Which is why, if you email me at: sarah979c(at)gmail(dot)com and tell me you subscribe to my blog, I will send you the link to this download.

p.s. I have another free download for tomorrow- I made it last week- it's a simple Summer Banner!