A shabby chic princess tea party...

Hello everyone.

I sit here on a lazy Sunday afternoon, watching the brightness of the sun slowly give way to the darkness of the night.  In comfy sweats, with a warm cup of tea to my left and my babies to my right, watching an old movie on TV.  Sunday in all its glory...

I mentioned in previous posts that I have been helping my sister with my niece's birthday party and today I wanted to show you a few of the details.  This was definitely a group effort as the women in our family came together with our different talents to create, in my humble opinion, a most beautiful magical party for a sweet little 6 year old...

Starting with the matriarch of the family, my sweet Mami - who has been baking cakes for us for as long as I can remember - and now continues to do so for her grandchildren... 

Her cakes are not only beautiful to look at 

but also taste delicious (gracias, Mami) 

My sister and I have similar taste and we compliment 

each other very well.  She has great attention to detail.

We wanted everything to feel feminine and soft and of course be budget friendly.  Buying this much fabric for such large table cloth would have cost a lot of money, so instead, I asked my mom to sew a seam on several plastic table cloths, which we then threaded rope through and gathered around the table.  This gave the plastic table cloth the illusion of gathered fabric.

She also sewed some ruffled 

crepe streamers together...

My dad found these cute little bottles at Walmart.  They contained pear nectar, which thankfully tasted  good since we had to drink about 36 of them.  My sister created and printed the sweet little labels which she attached on top of a doily.  So sweet...

My youngest sister - with the help of our dad and mom - made a gorgeous castle pinata, which was too beautiful to break.


Some water bottles covered with some of the beautiful Crafty Secret Paper.


My sister made some Popcorn cones embellished with a doily and pretty cupcake wrapper paper (shown here).


Even Cinderella made an appearance to the party....

A beautiful rose kissing ball to accompany the 

many, many tissue pompoms my sisters made...

Delicious merengues...

And more sweetness in 
the form of cupcakes...

We made a sweet canopy using a hula hoop some white plastic table cloths, tulle and ribbon.  We decorated it with butterflies and a sweet white dove.  We used the canopy as a photo booth, not only was the light perfect for pictures, but it also provided a perfect background...

We used a lot of items we already had at home and most of our supplies and decorations came from the Dollar Store, including the little bottles of bubbles you see in the white, carved wooden box...

The colours were inspired by this beautiful scrap paper printed from the Crafty Secrets CD.  The CD has over 92 coloured and black and white designs to choose from, but these fit perfectly with our theme. 

I can't wait to share some more of this very creative new product...say perhaps a giveway?  

It was so much fun putting this together, not only because (I hope) it turned out just like my sister imagined, but because it gave us the chance to bond.  


Thank you so much for your company today.


Wishing you a wonderful week!


much love,
Lucy 




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A God given talent...a child's art pillow

Hello everyone!  I hope you are keeping well.

I'm sorry for being absent this week.  I have been busy doing little projects as we are redecorating Isabella's room and I've also been helping my sister with my niece's upcoming birthday party.  I can't wait to share with you pictures of both.

In the mean time, here is a little project Isabella and I worked on together.  My excitement for this little pillow stems from it being Isabella's own art work.  Isabella drew the picture from an image we chose together and I painted.

I know I am bias to say this, but this little girl of ours has such amazing drawing abilities that only appear to get better and better with each passing day.  Seeing how much she enjoys art reminds me so much of me when I was her age.

I remember so clearly the day we found out we were having a little girl.  The joy I felt was incredible and yet at the same time, I remember the fear of not knowing how to raise a girl (we had had two boys at this point).

Yes, I knew I could love her with all of me, care for her and be the mother God had chosen for Bella.  But how could I raise a girl who would be confident and secure in herself?  Full of self-esteem and be a "go getter"?  A girl that does not obsess over her not perfect body?

For those are all things I am not.  I continue to try and learn and by the grace of the Lord, I get better at it every day.  But some days I fall into the enemy's trap. 


For you formed my inwards part; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 
Psalm 139;13-14


As I read that verse, I realize how blessed I truly am to be wealthy in health and shamelessly bow my head and ask for forgiveness.  And so I continue to hold onto God's hand as He guides me through motherhood and I raise a little girl who is not only tenacious and strong but also loving and caring. 

The more I look at this pillow, the more I fall in love with the thought that this is not only a pillow to decorate a room, but a reminder of how blessed I am to have been given the privilege to care for my daughter's precious soul.  I know this pillow will become a beautiful keepsake for years to come.

1. Have child draw an image on a piece of paper that is large enough to cover a good part of the pillow's surface. You could always enlarge an existing image to desired size.

2. Using graphite or transfer paper, transfer image onto the pillow.  We used a round pillow by Canvas Corp. 

3. Paint using acrylic or fabric paints. 

As always, it means so much to me that you take the time to visit...thank you.


Sending you much love,
Lucy

ps - as you may know, there has been a lot of talk about Google Friend Connect being discontinued as of March 1.  I have decided to add the follow linky tool and it would mean a lot to  me if you would stay in touch or if you prefer we can always keep in touch through FB..:)  thank you...xo

The ugly side of creativity...and an Anthro knockoff

Good Day everyone!  I hope you had a great week.

I promised myself minimal blogging this weekend as we celebrate the Family Day long weekend here in Ontario.  Even though I truly believe that family should be celebrated and enjoyed every single day, this weekend is for the kiddies so it's a quick post today...

  

(a peek into my sketch book)

Art is my passion and in it I find release and happiness. 

But I also find calmness and peace in a clean and organized 

space which clashes with my creative mind because...

(The ugly side of creativity)

But in my defense (honey), I don't have a crafting space to call my own. I usually craft on the kitchen island and paint on our dinette table.  So when a craft does not get completed right away, these little 'art bunnies' can be seen around the house.


I try to make neat little piles so not everything is scattered, but I do have to admit that these 'art bunnies' do steal my joy because I am a bit of a clean freak.

A few weeks ago, I shared some inspiration pictures on my FB page of  linen closets converted into craft areas and I hope to accomplish that in the weeks to come.  But for now, I'm trying to make my artistic mess a little more  appealing. 

Enter my Antrho knockoff....

 That's suppose to say 'yarn', but you get the idea...

You will need:

Yarn white and other colour of choice

Hot glue gun

Tin cans or pot

Cotton rope

- Cut several pieces of yarn to the length you would like your blocks to be (these were approx 16")

- Wrap white yard around rope and secure with hot glue

- Wrap colored yarn and secure with hot glue; continue wrapping yarn alternating between the white and the coloured yarn until you reach the length that will completely cover  your pot when you coil  around it 

- Hot glue coil around pot or tin cans

 Here they are side by side. 

Anthropologie's on the left and mine on the right.  Notice that their coil varies in thickness.  A thick and a thin one as well as the size of the color blocks are different. Not having seen them in person, I can only assume that the rows of rope were glued on individually, allowing them to vary the size as well as allowing them to achieve the checkered effect which mine do not have.


I was ok with the random pattern of my pots so I decided to do one long piece of rope (I guess I took the easier way out).

Hopefully these will one day be displayed in my own crafting space.....


Well my friends, at the beginning of this post I was hoping for a quick post but an hour later, I'm still here typing away.  I should have known there is no such thing as a 'quick post' .  I'm off to enjoy my family...




much love,
Lucy 


By the way, I have been replying to your messages via the reply thread on the blog itself.  Does anyone know if these replies come right to your mail box or do you have to come back to the blog to see them?  I would love to know because I want to make sure you get my messages...:)

DIY chalk paint and a giant linky party....

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all having a good week.

I've been blogging for a little over a year and a half and consider myself fortunate to have 'met' so many beautiful and talented ladies.  

As my blog matures, I'm looking for ways to give back.  Not only through giveaways (although I have a couple of those coming up), but in other ways.  

So when Jaime from Crafty,Scrappy, Happy told me she was hosting a giant linky party to celebrate her 1 year blogging anniversary, I knew this would provide an opportunity to not only support my sweet friend, but give some of you who may be starting out the chance to gain exposure, meet new people and perhaps grow your blog.

Please see the bottom of the post for more details on the linky party, but in the interim...

In honour of Jaime's 1st year, I picked 

up an old beat up chair and decided to

to redo it with some chalk paint...

But of course, I had to try the homemade 

version first introduced by Martha.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of paint and 2 table 

spoons of unsanded tile grout.  There are also 

other recipes around the web (here and here).

I mixed various paints we had at home, but was still not satisfied with the colour so I added some of my DecoArt acrylic paint and crossed my fingers hoping it would work.  And guess what....it did!  Yay!  Not sure if these paints are made for this purpose, but I was thrilled with the results.

The paint goes on nicely and although it's gritty looking at the beginning, it dries perfectly smooth.  I am in love!!!

We are in the process of re-doing Isabella's room and this chair, along with some other pieces, will coordinate well with her quilt.

We received some beautiful flowers from friends and family last week.  Daisies are so fresh and pretty looking, don't you think?

Not having ever tried 'real' chalk paint before, I don't have a point of comparison, but I really liked the results of the homemade version and would recommend you trying to make your own.

Thanks so much for stopping by and please don't forget to read below.


much love,

Lucy

And as for the linky party...

Feel free to link up anything and everything Crafty, Scrappy and/or Happy!  (no giveaways or etsy shops please)Check out other links, be inspired and make some new friends!Grab a button if you would!And check Crafty Scrappy Happy for features all next week!!!!
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Valentine Roundup...

I hope your weekend was wonderful.

With Valentine's Day this Tuesday, I thought I would put this year's Valentine ideas together in one post.  In case you missed any of them, just click on the photo to take you to the original post...

Sending  much love your way.

Lucy






I will be linking to one of my favourite blog's first linky party...


Dear Lillie