Firetruck Birthday Party

Wow, I can hardly believe it, but this is my 100th post! Thank you all so much for your support in this new venture. And lucky for me, I didn't have to search endlessly for the perfect topic for this post because my son's 4th birthday party was yesterday, and as promised last week here are the photos of his firetruck themed party. So clearly, I am no Amy Atlas, but I think my dessert table turned out pretty well. I made the same 3D firetruck cake that I made last year (with some decorating modifications), and despite the fact that I was certain my cake decorating skills had improved, it looked almost identical. Oh well. I did find one thing that made it easier though and that is the new Cake Graffiti by Duff from the Food Network show Ace of Cakes which I found at Michaels. Last year I used red food coloring and it was a mess so this was much easier. However, I used buttercream frosting and it was really humid so next time (if there is one) I might have to try fondant.
Something funny happens when you live on an island (even one with 3 bridges to get off of it) which is that you think it's a huge deal to leave the island to get something you need. Last week my son requested that we have a pinata for his party, but there isn't a store on the island that sells them so instead of driving half an hour off island, I decided I would spend hours making one. Luckily, I found some pretty easy directions online to make a firetruck pinata. The only issues I ran into were that it took a long time to dry and even though I tried to make it thin since the kids were young, it would NOT break open so I ended up having to tear it open, but the kids still had a great time with it.
And lastly, the goody bags. I used the personalized firetruck image that I created and showed you last week and just printed them out 10 to a page and cut and pasted them onto the goody bags. Between the cake and the candy, my husband thought we might not have any friends left today with everyone having to get their kids down off the sugar high. Lucky for us, ours crashed at 6:30 last night. And hey, you only turn 4 once, right? Happy Birthday T!

Message Center

I still have some touching up to do, but I wanted to share my new kitchen message center with you all. This is another one of those vast walls like the one where I just did the Family Photo Gallery Wall which I've had a hard time figuring out what to put here. I wanted to do a giant chalkboard, but because it's such a large space I thought it might look like a black hole. I also knew that I wanted to have my wooden whale that my husband had a woodworker friend of ours make for me years ago hang on this wall. So I decided that I would do a series of frames with a variety surfaces in them that we could use to keep our family organized and then hang them like a gallery wall.
I had been looking for inexpensive frames for a while and finally found some that I could use at a tag sale a few weeks ago. I think the 4 frames cost me all of $6 plus the cans of spray primer and paint I bought to paint them. I went to Home Depot to buy chalkboard paint and was pleasantly surprised to find that you can now get Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint tinted to 12 different colors. It seemed wrong to not take advantage of this and so I had mine tinted to chocolate brown which works nicely with the barn red color of my kitchen. I was also going to pick up a can of magnetic primer so that I could make the chalkboard magnetic when I saw that they had Rustoleum Dry Erase Paint! The man told me it was a brand new item and seeing as I had just done a post on IdeaPaint last week, I couldn't help myself and had to try it. And since both the magnetic primer and the dry erase paint were about $20 per can, and I was trying to keep it inexpensive I nixed the magnetic primer. I bought a piece of MDF that my husband cut to fit each frame and painted onto those instead of directly onto the wall. This worked fine for the chalkboard paint and the dry erase paint took fine to it, but I think the next time I would use a piece of plexiglass or something smoother for a better finish for the dry erase paint. The cork came from an old corkboard that my husband cut down to fit the frame, but you can also buy sheets of it at most superstores. I may end up rearranging it a little bit. I feel like it's a little crowded and maybe a little too low, but I also wanted my kids to be able to reach it so for now I'm going to live with it like this for a while. Overall, I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

Sneak Peak: Firetruck Birthday Party

This Sunday is my son's 4th birthday party, and much to my dismay he has requested a repeat of all things fireman, firetruck, firehouse like we did last year. Last year I set the bar a little too high by building a 3D firetruck cake and so it looks like I am going to be tackling the same project again this year. Of course, I actually believe that my cake decorating skills have gotten a lot better (because of the one other cake I baked for my daughter's first birthday party) so I am now expecting this year's firetruck cake to be lightyears better than last year's cake. Oh, and he wants cupcakes too, of course. I've also starting following some blogs of event planners and dessert tables seem to be the big thing right now so since we've just invited everyone for cake and ice cream, I thought I'd give one a try. So far, I've created the little firetruck logo (above) that I'm going to use on the displays and favors. Yup, that's as far as I've gotten and the party is a mere 3 days away....so I thought I'd look for a little more inspiration.

There is little doubt that the queen or master or designer extraordinaire of dessert tables is Manhattan based designer Amy Atlas of Amy Atlas Events. I love the bright colors of her candy shop themed table above.

Another event planner who is making waves in the dessert table arena is Kim Stoegbauer of TomKat Studio who also happens to have an Etsy shop where she sells downloadable invitations, cupcake picks, and more. Above is her Fairy Garden Theme table.

And lastly, but certainly not least, is the adorable Pink Tricycle theme party by Stephanie Frazier Grimm of Couture Parties. Stephanie also gives you a head start by selling Get the Party Started Packs in 14 different themes which include plates, cups, silverware, favor bags and cupcake picks in whatever theme you choose.

Since I always insist on making things as difficult as possible for myself, I will be starting from scratch in coming up with a way to make my dessert table presentable. There is a pretty good chance that it won't hold a candle to any of these ones, but my son will still think it's pretty cool. Check back Monday to see how it comes out.

Etsy Pick of the Week: Bubbles and Boo Storage Baskets

Despite the fact that my goal for 2010 is to get my house (well, maybe my life in general) organized and I do get excited with each step of progress, most organizers aren't exactly exciting visually. Luckily I just found the storage baskets of Etsy shop Bubbles and Boo.
I love the modern prints of the lemons (top) and the elephants (below), and completely appreciate the simplicity of the linen basket (above) as well. And in addition to the great feature prints, the designer adds an unexpected pop of color with a contrasting print trim.
These would be so great as the storage baskets in an Ikea White Expedit Bookcase or anything similar instead of some boring solid colored basket. Wouldn't they just put a smile on your face every time you walked into the room? Who knew organizing could be so much fun?

China Seas Outdoor Fabric

Aga

Tis the season to move your living space outdoors, but no need to rough it. I am head over heels for all of the China Seas Suncloth fabrics for outside (they are available as interior fabric as well). With so many choices of pattern and color, it is hard to choose my favorites, but here are just a few.

New Batik

Conga Line

Ziggurat Reverse

Double Cross

Island Ikat

Lysette Reverse

Whether you are looking for a few throw pillows, outdoor curtains or chair cushions, you will certainly find something you love in the collection. And even though these patterns are available in interior weight fabrics, don't forget that outdoor fabrics are great for interiors if you have kids, pets, or just want something really durable. Beautiful long lasting fabrics...doesn't get much better than that.

Family Photo Gallery Wall

I was so ridiculously excited yesterday when we FINALLY hung the photos behind our couch. This has been VERY long process in picking out what to put in this 8' wide by 6' tall space behind our 9' long couch. I have a basement full of photos and artwork, but none of them seemed right and so for the past 3 years I have agonized over what I could put here that would achieve the look I wanted and fit my budget. I have contemplated everything from a giant canvas to a decorative iron grate but kept coming back to wanting a series of square frames. Then last November we had a great set of family photos done by Maaike Bernstrom Photography so I decided I definitely wanted to use those and create a gallery wall. I found the Lee Gallery Frames in an oversized 8 x 10 at Pottery Barn which I loved, but at $129 apiece and since I would need 6 of them, that idea was quickly dropped by this unemployed blogger. Then, to my surprise, I found the Ribba frame at Ikea which at about 20" square was only slightly smaller and way less expensive. I was able to get all 6 frames for less than the cost of one of the Pottery Barn ones. Score!

Oh, but not so fast (I bought them last November). Now I had two new issues, the first being that the opening of the picture mat was 12" x 12". This is only a problem because it is nearly impossible to get a photo to fit this size. Your options are 11" x 14" or 16" x 20" so you will be just a tad too short or quite a bit too large even if you zoom out and trim down. I decided that since I liked the square thing I had going on that I would have 8" x 10" photos printed and then trim them down to 8" x 8". Great, right?

Problem number two, I now needed to find an additional mat to make up for the gap between the 12" x 12" mat and the 8" x 8" picture. I didn't want to use anything white because the mat was already white and I needed something that would match my wall color which is Ocean Air by Benjamin Moore. I looked at everything from different colored papers, fabrics, wallpaper and more, but nothing seemed right. I thought about having pieces of mirror custom cut to fit the frames which I actually think would have been very cool, but the thought of bringing two toddlers into the glass shop with me was daunting, and now I think it probably would have looked a little more formal than the rest of our house is these days. And then it hit me, I had nautical charts sitting in a closet waiting to be wallpapered onto my downstairs bathroom wall, but that project wasn't ready to be done. The blues in the charts would pick up the wall color perfectly and the charts would add more interest to the frames while still being subtle enough not to compete with the photos. Plus, the charts are of Rhode Island and include a lot of the beaches and bays that are near and dear to our hearts. I am completely thrilled with the result! Now I am on a roll and am doing another gallery wall message center in my kitchen which I hope to share with you by the end of the week.

Jonathan Adler Junior

Back at the beginning of 2010 I just about jumped out of my own skin with excitement when I heard about the new Jonathan Adler Junior Collection. Well at last it is starting to become available. I mean a junior version of the Lampert Sofa? Yes please! I might actually start to look forward to seeing my kids' stuff scattered about the house if it looked like this.

This Junior Letter Pillow would be just perfect for my little Carolina's room. And here are a few of my other favorites too. Lion Rug

Sun Wallpaper



Giraffe Wall Sconce

Some of the items have actually been in his collection for a while, but they are perfect for kids and that's what makes his stuff so wonderful. You can buy it now and they can still use it for years and years to come. A perfect balance of modern and traditional. I say these are my favorites, but really I'd like one of everything. Actually, better make it two!

Etsy Pick of the Week: Sleeping with the Fishes

These ocean critter pillowcases by Royal Kane on Etsy are a perfect way to add a little splash of the ocean to a room without overdoing it and they add a great pop of color too. I think they are perfect against all white or would be great with a solid colored bedspread to match. Each one is silk screened with an original piece of artwork and there are dozens of images to choose from.

They come in standard pillowcase size and are a mere $11.99. Talk about bang for your buck!


My faves are the lobster and crab, but of course I couldn't resist throwing in the whale too. It seems a little more appropriate for a kid's room while the others are a bit more sophisticated looking, but whichever one you fancy, you'll enjoy sleeping with these sea creatures.

IdeaPaint

We've all seen the many wonderful uses of chalkboard paint, but now you can do similar things with dry erase board paint by IdeaPaint. I think this is a fabulous product because, while I love chalkboard paint, sometimes we don't want a big black mass on one of our walls, especially if our space is already dimly lit. The IdeaPaint is white so you can create a nice bright space and if you don't have anything written on it, your walls still look nice and fresh and bright. And you can do cool things like the the tree featured above and it looks hip and modern. Don't give up completely on chalkboard paint. It still has it's purpose (and I'm actually working on a project with it at the moment), but now you have even more options when developing a creative space whether it be at work, home or school.

Image: IdeaPaint

Brimfield Buy

At last, I am finally posting what I bought at the Brimfield Antique Show last month! So here they are, 4 vintage Pop Shop crates that I am using as planters on the back steps of my breezeway because we very rarely use these steps, and I am always looking for ways to extend my gardens. I won't be able to plant anything that needs deep roots in here so I think I'm going to do my mesculun mix from seed which will grow just about anywhere and some cutting flowers. I love that they have two sections so that I can easily divide what I'm planting and I love the way the blue writing picks up the color of the door. While there were much more exciting things at the show, I decided that I really needed to go with what I knew I could put to the best use and I've always loved the look of vintage crates so I'm quite happy with my purchase!