I am working like crazy to finish the last of my daughters birthday party stuff! I have only had the last 2 weeks to really work on anything! SO I decided to show a little sneak peak!! You ready?!



Yes I noticed that the frame got bumped...but you get the idea! Her entire 1st birthday party is Shabby Chic themed!! I am so excited! And so is this one:


Have a wonderful day! I won't be blogging till after the party! I have too much left to do!

OMG! Have you all heard of Sharing Spree? Today's deal is AMAZING! It's $11 for a $12 Fandango Movie ticket and a $5 Subway gift card!! How rockin' is this? PLUS it's a limit of 4 per household so I am thinking cheap movie nights!! Haven't heard of Sharing Spree? Well...they are a philanthropy driven business that brings deals to you locally! BUT some of the deals are even National!

So go on...check them out today! While you are at it if you are on Facebook and go to Sharing Spree Portland and vote for this picture:


I entered Noah in for the Halloween picture contest! I hope I picked the winner...get it? Ho hum I am horrible at puns! lol! The picture with the most "likes" by November 1st wins $100 in Spree dollars!!

Have a great day!

Since today is my baby loves 1st Birthday I am kinda taking it easy! We have been home bound all day (enjoying it very much!) and gonna go purchase the new Pooh movie! Anyhow I wanted to at least share a favorite Halloween book! In fact we read it last night...my kids LOVE the silly voices I make for each character!


(you can click the link to view it HERE!)

The pictures are amazing, the story is hilarious. Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson & Alex Sheffler. Go out...check it out from the library or purchase it for your own home library! It's a must read!

Have a fantabulous day!

Have you ever heard of people writing a letter to their children each year on their birthday and then giving ALL of the letters to them their first year of college? Well I have always thought, what a neat idea. But haven't done it! Instead I decided since my little love bug will be 1 tomorrow I will instead make what I am calling a "Blessings Book". I found a great spiral black book at Michael's that I thought would be perfect! I am going to have guests at her 1st birthday party take a card and write her a blessing or note. This way each year on her birthday we can read a new one! Then I can give her the book as she moves onto college/life or whatever else she decides to do!

OH MY-LANTA! I completely had a week! You know the kind where you kind of veg out from your brain and forget everything you were supposed to do?! Anyone else been there, done that?! lol! Well only a week late to get the recipes to y'all from the Farm themed party! Ooops! Sorry!



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease or line two 12 cup muffin tins with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl beat the eggs. Beat in the sugar, oil and applesauce. Add the cocoa, vanilla, zucchini and stir well.
3. Stir in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom. Mix until just moist.
4. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins filling 2/3 of the way full. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack. Store loosely covered

They are delicious! Let me just say! I cannot take credit for this recipe however...as that would be just plain rude! My dear friend Elizabeth is the "giver" of this recipe! I had zucchinis coming out my ears last Summer and searched for yummy new recipes. This was one she gave me! The other was for zucchini enchiladas...I do have to say I have not been brave enough to try it! Although she says they are delicious!

The next recipe is a HUGE hit with my friends! In fact my friend Shannon one year asked me to make it for her birthday!



Oven Caramel Corn

• 15 cups plain popped popcorn (I have a good ol' Orville Redinbocker style one!)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter or stick of margarine (if you have unsalted butter, add a pinch more of salt!)
• 1/4 cup of light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

1. Heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Place popcorn in a LARGE bowl (the one I use is 18 cup size!) set out 2 ungreased 13x9 rectangular pans.
3. Heat brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and salt in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until bubbly around the edges. Once bubble around edges, cook continuously for 5 minutes without stirring then remove from heat. Stir in the baking soda until foamy.
4. Pour your mixture over the popcorn and toss until evenly coated. I like to pour about a 1/4 of it in at a time. Pour popcorn into your two baking dishes.
5. Bake 1 hour stirring every 20 minutes. Spread onto aluminum foil and cool completely for about 30 minutes so it can harden!

I LOVE to make my own Moose Munch by adding almonds that I covered in chocolate (you heat choc chips and a little bit of Crisco in a metal bowl that is sitting in a pot of boiling hot water!) SO yummy!



And finally my famous crock pot meatballs! The worlds EASIEST recipe...love it! 3 ingredients...1 bottle of Welches brand grape jelly (seriously use their brand!), a bottle of Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. Mix together in your crock pot (don't forget the crock pot bag!) and dump in as many Costco pre-made meatballs that you can (they are frozen and in the frozen meat area). Easy peasy! You must try it!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! We have crazy days ahead of us and...wait for it...little Miss Ava Faith is turning 1 next week! I am hoping her party turns out the way it is in my head! Can't wait to share!

The moment I have dying to share with you is FINALLY here! Noah's 3rd birthday was a "tractor" themed party! So there was mainly farm themed stuff BUT I tried to incorporate tractors as well! I am very picky when it comes to parties! I don't want them to be too commercialized or look like I stepped outta Party Depot! I also love the WOW factor of my kids, family and friends and to be honest I have SO much fun seeing how much I can do for as little cost possible!

Are you ready?! Here we go!



You read the post about the whole cake debacle right? The one where the cake crumbled? Well...the cake on the plate (top right of the collage) is the top part of the original cake! We slid it off and placed on a platter we have and figured heck...we can still use that at least! My cake decorators are FAN-freaking-tastic! Oh yes...I love Ryan and Gus! They take my vision and make it real! They pay close attention to detail and always incorporate just a little bit more into my vision! ...now PLEASE ignore the fact the cake on the log is missing a "Y"!! This was the cake Ryan made for me in an hour...yes I said it...an HOUR! (Read Big Birthday Oops!) I borrowed the red Melissa & Doug barn from a friend! The straw bale I purchased (with a coupon!) at Michael's for $6. The log is from my dear friend Brittanie at Cupcakes Kisses n Crumbs as well as the moss roll (see her Lumberjack party! Oh my ADORABLE!). The cupcake stand I purchased at Target years ago...but they still have the same one! Cupcakes were made at Beaverton Bakery in Lake Oswego and Brittanie helped me make the cupcake sticks! One of my favorite decorations I did was the pickle jars I filled with dirt, planted wheat germ inside and then grew my own "grass"! It has been fun for the kids to watch it grow (you can see the roots through the glass!) and when you water it overnight and wake up in the morning there is actually dew drops on the tips of the grass! I kid you not, it is so much fun!




I used my counter top in the kitchen for all the goodies! First we laid down a plastic red tablecloth and then used astro turf (again borrowed from a friend!) to put under the big drink jug that was filled with apple juice! The random jars I called pig pens (see the pigs around the jars!) and inside was chocolate pudding, crushed up thin mints (thank you Girl Scouts!) and a gummy worm! The little cups with celery and carrots have ranch dressing at the bottom this way you can walk and eat! The glass pumpkin dish I got at Target last year and I filled it with the little candy corn type pumpkins! All the farm animals that were placed in between were borrowed from my friend Michelle of Casual Camera. The little scarecrow I found at Target in the Dollar Spot up front as well as the brown metal bins that held the paper plates and the "chicken feed" (which was circus animal cookies, mini marshmallows, pretzels & teddy grahams!) The little fruit basket with the green insert was also found at Target and I made Chocolate Zucchini muffins! (Recipes will be on tomorrows post!) The crock pot had my famous meatballs (super easy and oh so good! We have dairy and soy allergies so most of my recipes do not contain these items...like the pudding was actually made with Lactaid a lactose free milk!) And finally the cow cookies I had made at Beaverton Bakery!


The wood boxes I just had made for my Bliss Baby displays (for upcoming bazaars!) Inside I made homemade caramel corn (yummy!) 3 batches! That we handed out as people left. Tied them off with wiry rope I found at Craft warehouse. The little chalk board sign was made with products at Joannes. We covered the coffee table with burlap (1 yard) purchased at Joannes Fabrics as well! And the cowboy hats are from the $1 store (bandanna's from our dress up bins!)

The best part...instead of a pinata. We took a bale of hay (cost us $6 at a pumpkin farm) spread out a layer...tossed in bubbles, balls & candy. Then took another layer of hay and repeated until all items used. The kids used paper bags that I decorated with the Tractor I designed to collect their loot!



The kids had a fantastic time and so did us moms! Picture at bottom right is Michelle of Casual Camera, Brittanie of Cupcakes, Kisses n Crumbs, myself and my friend Kara of Bananafana Baby.

I hope you enjoyed the party as much as we did!

After the last few weeks I have not been doing anything that I am supposed to! Instead we have been enjoying lazy days and relaxing! Something that is usually hard to come by for me! I have to say having my Scentsy burning with the Baked Apple Pie scent is really helping get into my hunker down mode! Oh how I love Fall!

I wanted to share with you 2 of my children's favorite books! On days like these it's nice to snuggle up in a large blanket and read! My kids have these two book practically memorized and its so much fun!

The first is:

Well...I am currently working on some of the photos of Noah's 3rd birthday party! It was fantastic! That is really all I wanna share with you now is that it turned out exactly how I was hoping! Anyhow...I did wanna show you the OOPS that happened literally an hour and a 1/2 before the party started. I have told you all before that I actually design the cakes with my decorators! I ALWAYS use Gus and Ryan at Lambs Thriftway in Wilsonville, Oregon! I kid you not, they are HANDS down the best! They are so used to me that they were actually worried when I was a few weeks late coming into order this years fabulous creation!

I have never had to say I need a cake stabilizer or whatever they are called. They are always just put in them...well. This year. My poor hubby (I say poor, cause he had a mess of a wife on his hands when he came home!) picked up the cake and it started crumbling as he drove home. He isn't a Nascar driver and he knows to take it easy...well. The cake was not placed on a platform...so it completely crumbled.



I was in tears. I lost my mind when I saw this cake. COMPLETELY! It looked exactly how I had wanted it, the corn fields, fence, tractor you name it. Gorgeous. But. It was a loss. After 10+ minutes of freak out time (which my hubby got to experience a whole new side of me!) I finally called the bakery. The girl tells me to just bring the cake in and they can fix it. I told her..."you don't understand. It is NOT fixable!" she said "Oh no, we can fix it. Wait. Hold on just a sec." she comes back to the phone and says "Is this Aleisha?" I said "Yes." so she says "Ryan says he is making you a new one right now. To have someone come pick it up."! I LOVE my cake decorators. Have I said that yet?! Now you will notice the new cake there was one thing missing...the Y on Birthday! BUT in an hour...that is NOT bad! You will have to wait to see the outcome!!

I cannot wait till this weekend to show you all what I have been working on this past month! My son's 3rd birthday party is ALMOST here!! As most of you know I was given the My Memories Digital Software and then I also did a giveaway for one as well!

Do not fret if you did not partake in the giveaway as you can easily still purchase this program! My friends over at My Memories have also gave as a special to my readers this coupon code: STMMMS23061 (copy and paste this code to avoid typos when using it!) at this link: http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software and you will get $10 off of the purchase of My Memories Suite PLUS a $10 code for My Memories Store! This code does NOT expire! So if you have a birthday coming up or would like a hint to your hubby! Here you go! The cost of the program is $39.97 before the discount.

Anyhow...I have had SO much fun with this program and in fact decided to play around further for Noah's Tractor themed party this Saturday! This is what I made to attach to business cards for his "party bag" which will be homemade caramel corn!! Tell me whatcha think!! I am SO excited!!

Halloween decorations! YAY! I am sorry I have been MIA...I am the unfortunate carrier of a DUM DUM DUM...cold. Yep. This one is knocking me on my bum too! Between the cold, my etsy site (getting ready for Holiday season!) and 2 upcoming birthdays (which I can hardly contain my excitement with all the fun stuff I have been working on!) I have neglected you! But I am here...if only for a brief moment to show you some of my Halloween decorations I did get set up! I am saving some for after my son's birthday party this next weekend!







This is a super easy centerpiece made entirely from items you can find at the Dollar Store! The plate stand is made from a candle stick holder and a glass plate. I attached the items by using this:



A glue that every crafter should have on hand! It attaches nearly everything you can possibly imagine! Attach various flowers, feathers, leaves etc to make an arrangement around the outer edge of the plate. Glue them down! Let dry. Then take a fake pumpkin and use regular glue to make circles and dust with glitter! Its really that simple!

It's been so nice catching up with you guys!! See you soon!