day 128: smurfette's house birthday cake

smurfette in the luscious green grass!

day 128 and we interrupt our halloween month for a very special reason ... pollyanna's birthday cake!  for the last several weeks polly has declared she would like a vanilla cake with strawberry icing on it ... SWEET, nothing hard about that!

then yesterday she decided as she was going to the smurf movie with her friends for her birthday she would actually like smurfette's house as her birthday cake ... something along these lines went through my head #$!@#*#&#&*^&* ... what came out of my mouth was "we will see how we go for time shall we".   when you are having a hard time with your children growing up too fast, sometimes it's hard to crush their confidence in your abilities, i mean honestly who wants to let their children know this early on in their lives mum's and dad's don't know everything.

so to pinterest i went today looking at the AMAZING smurf cakes, thinking #$(*@&(#^$)@ well i have no training in decorating cakes but i own a round tin and a bowl that i can at least make the shapes of smurfette's house with .... good start!  in denial i pinned a comic picture of some smurf houses to my party ideas board so at least i knew what to aim for :)  AND because i know this hot milk cake works so well from making it on day 40 i ended up with two beautiful cakes from which to construct the house.

as for the decorating, i went with the limited icing skills i have and frosted up a storm, added smurfette, some m&m's, a couple of chocolate fingers, and some lego flowers and trees; not to mention some very festive looking coconut grass.

the finished cake

outcome: well the cake was a complete success for pollyanna ... not for me because i thought it didn't look anything like a smurf house!  but for me this cake was all about my little girl and she was stoked, her face says it all!

yes, it was definitely a surprise

she was so so happy

make a wish my seven year old :)

maybe it wasn't perfect but for a seven year old it was a dream come true and thanks to pinterest i know i can at least attempt things without fear :)

happy birthday pollyanna
i am honoured to call you my daughter

day 127: pumpkin seed halloween favours

pumpkin seeds anyone?

day 127 and it's a very quick creation and post today as my sweet little baby girl pollyanna turns seven tomorrow and i have cakes to bake and gifts to wrap ... ok less baby more little girl growing too fast!  today's pinterest creation is from christy robbins blog and is pinned to my holiday goodness board :)  i love that she has turned something that my kids love (orange tic tacs) into a halloween party favour (pumpkin seeds) with a little bit of scrapbook paper and some cute tags.  i think the original idea came from can't stop making things, which is  also where yesterday's party favour (chocolate covered witches warts) also came from!

right, today all you need is orange tic tacs, some halloween paper, and some tags with a splash of ribbon.  i used the hot glue gun to adhere everything and also glued the ribbon under the paper wrap so it wouldn't slide about the place :)

the bits and bobs i used :)

the four step process i used to assemble these babies!

the cute finished product!

outcome: very cool party favour or halloween gift for the peeps to give their friends, something fun and easy to do ... gotta love that on a busy day!

my thanks to christy robbins for her use of the idea and to can't stop making things for the original concept, this is a really nice idea for something simple to gift at halloween with a bit of fun attached :)

day 126: chocolate covered witches warts

witch wart treats

day 126 and we are packaging up some chocolate covered witches warts ... don't these sound oh so delicious!  one things for sure i will never look at chocolate covered raisins the same way again :)  this great idea comes from can't stop making things.  this is a great website for all sorts of creative ideas for the home, holidays, and there are plenty of free printables too!

this is one of those wonderfully easy creations which involves assembling as opposed to making!  i did decide to make my own bag tags as i needed six of the same type. apart from some tags you need some cellophane bags, ribbon, and some chocolate covered warts ... i mean raisins. then its a case of filling the bags with the raisins attaching some ribbon to the tag and tying the treat bag closed. sweet!

bags are filled and need a tag!

finished treat bags :)

outcome: these will make the perfect party favours, especially for my little food allergens! i love it when something from everyday life becomes just a little bit more fun and special simply by changing its name!

special thanks to can't stop making things for this great but simple idea that i NEVER would have thought of ... its the little things that make things memorable and special as i keep saying and this is one of those little things :)

day 125: halloween paper bunting

halloween bunting banner ... finished and ready to hang!

day 125 and i am using a free pirntable i found on pinterest to make a halloween paper bunting today.  the bunting is downloadable on catch my party and is provided free by krysten at clickable party.  i pinned krysten's halloween party download to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.


i really love the colours of krysten's halloween pack and plan to use lots of her printables for different parts of the halloween party.  i started off by printing out the banner pages and cutting them.  to make them a little more sturdy i decided to matte them in yellow cardstock as well.

the printed bunting flags

to finish the flags off ready for hanging i punched a hole in each corner (but not too close to avoid ripping) and then threaded them together using ribbon. 

the bunting flags ready for ribbon

outcome: so cute and much nicer than the plastic ones i have seen for sale!  i really love the colours, they are perfect for our springtime halloween! the bunting flags printed out beautifully and i adore all the different faces on each one.  now all i need is to match a bunch of balloon colours to the bunting and find the perfect place to hang it!


i am so grateful to krysten at clickable party for providing this halloween pack for nada, it makes living on a fixed single income budget that much easier, especially at festive times of the year when money goes out the door faster than it comes in!

day 124: halloween treat bags

the finished treat bag for halloween

day 121 and its a REALLY busy creating day today.  i have a stack of kids coming to our halloween party and they are all going to need a treat bag for their goodies! given the number i need to make i wanted a simple, quick bag that i could personalise for each child.

found the simple, quick bag on pinterest from the purl bee ... love this website it has the best tutorials and they come with brilliant pictures that demonstrate every step as well :)  the bag is also pinned to my party ideas board.  i couldn't find any cute unisex halloween material so i have opted for calico and some home-made decorating!

so my bags look as good inside as outside, i am using french seams ... honestly where was my life without these beautiful seams!  and to make things even easier i am using one piece of fabric as i don't need to worry about the pattern orientation.  for the decorations i used my other favourite thing, fabric printing, and printed out a whole lot of free halloween printables i found on my biggest favourite ... pinterest!  all the free printables i used come from the twinery, southern accent, over the big moon, and catch my party.  how nice is it that so many people offer up their incredible talents for free, totally awesome i'd say and i am incredibly grateful :)

i also stamped each persons name onto some calico so each person would know their treat bag.  the names and fabric printables will be attached using heat'n'bond ... yip another favourite of mine!  i thought about sewing all these bits on but with so many to make the heat'n'bond was too enticing!

cut, stamped, printed, and ready to sew!

the finished bag without embellishments

the fully decked out bag!

outcome:  awesome, love my little creations, love that they are personalised for each little peep, and love that the bags themselves took no time to make but look so very cool!  the tutorial from purl bee was (as usual) brilliant, clear, and so easy to follow ... and the best part was these little beauties didn't even take the 20 minutes suggested once i got into the swing of things!  love the fabric printables, they add a really nice touch of colour on what would otherwise be a fairly plain treat bag :)

my sincerest thanks as always to the purl bee, its fast becoming one of those websites i visit daily!  and for all the wonderful people who provide freely downloadable graphics THANK YOU from my heart to yours.

day 123: ghost pillowcase dress

boo!

day 123 and it's time to say hello to my sewing machine so i can make a ghost pillowcase dress for pollyanna.  i adore the pillowcase dresses by sugar bee crafts.  mandy has some amazing design ideas and i really enjoy reading her blog for inspiring ideas and tutorials.  i pinned the ghost dress to my holiday goodness board and hope pollyanna will enjoy wearing it during october.

i didn't have a thick white pillowcase so i used some white drill material to whip one up and added some black and white polka dots to the bottom of it.  i loved the contrast at the bottom of mandy's ghost dress and wanted to add this same element into pollyanna's.

the pillowcase i made with the contrast bottom

cut out the armholes

i used bias binding on this one around the armholes instead
of ribbon.

i tried out a couple of different ghost faces before ...

eek ... this one looked sleepy!

then settled on this design and cut out the really ghost
eyes and mouth out of black fabric and ironed in place
with heat'n'bond :)

outcome: really cute, unfortunately it is quite late here and pollyanna is in bed otherwise i would have got her to model it ... will post a couple of pic's tomorrow of her in the dress.  really, really happy with how this turned out and hopefully she will be too when she sees it in the morning :)

my thanks to mandy at sugar bee crafts for this wonderful tutorial, i will definitely be making more of these dresses for different holiday seasons, especially with the contrast bottom of the dress.

day 122: spiders legs, rats eyeballs, and ghost poop treat bags

halloween treat bags :)

day 122 and it's time to start organising the treats for the party.  i am making a start on this by recreating the wonderful rats eyeballs, spiders legs, and ghost poop treat bags put together by glory on her glorious treats blog.  i absolutely LOVED this idea when i saw it and thought all the kids would enjoy the contents even more given their hilarious names :)  the idea is also pinned to my holiday goodness board on pinterest.

the wonderful thing about this creation is glory has also posted a free topper for the goodie bags, which you can link to here .... yeehaa!  once you have printed out her cool treat toppers all you need is rats eyeballs (i used jaffa's), spider legs (mini stick pretzels), and ghost poop (mini marshmallows).  i couldn't find just white mini marshmallows so i have gone with a colourful poop combo!

the bits and pieces required 

start with a treat bag and add ghost poop ...

... then spider legs ...

... and then finally rat eyeballs :)

add glory's treat topper and you are finished!

outcome: the actual treat bags look fantastic and while the outcome is pending with regards to what the kids think, i am REALLY happy with them ... visually they look awesome and are so cute :)

my sincere thanks to glory for sharing this wonderful idea on her blog glorious treats, i think it will be a real winner with the peeps at our halloween party, maybe they will even think twice about what they are actually eating!