Pink Parisian Poodle Party

An Eiffel Tower greets the guests as they arrive.

I like alliterations, can you tell?  Pink Parisian Poodle Party.  Has a nice ring to it. :)  My now 3 year old, Delaney loves dogs.  She asked to have a dog party for her birthday.  As we went through the pre-made party supplies online, we came across the pink poodles in Paris line.  So, we rolled with it and added our own flair (of course!).

Using a projector and my laptop, I made the
"Pin the Puff on the Poodle" game.  "Genevive",
as Bella named her is about 2 feet tall.

Lanterns - I love me some LANTERNS!

The cupcakes were INCREDIBLY yummy.  Made by Darby's Delights (Angela Rolf). We had raspberry and cookies and cream.  All I had to do was add the toppers which I made from some fun paper punches.  It was nice to give my scrapbooking tools a workout.  If you're from the KC area and want Angela's information, just send me a message, and I'll get you in contact with her (or click on "Darby's Delights" and you'll find her FB page).

Laney got a giant cupcake all to herself! Lucky girl!

Jerry looks tres chic decked out in Parisian style! Notice the sweet applique on his shirt - yep - I'm awfully crafty with an iron!
 We gave out these berets from Oriental Trading as one of the party favors.

Some pics of the food spread.  Please pardon my French.  I used Google translate to help me, and for some reason couldn't find the French word for "fruit".

Bella got to wear a fancy "French" feather bow in
 her hair and I ironed on a fleur de lis and the word "Paris" on her shirt.
And yes, that's me in the background holding the blindfold for the game. 
I ironed a bling-tastic fleur de lis on the back of my black shirt. 
Didn't get a good pic, though.

Luke sporting an adorable Eiffel Tower iron-on.  He walked around most of
the party stealing cookies from people's abandoned plates.

I tacked a poodle applique onto Laney's tutu that I scored from the toy dress-up section at Walmart.  It came with the matching headband.  It's hard to see in this pic, but she got an iron-on, too - a white poodle on her black leotard.

It was a fabulous party.  We played Pin the Puff on the Poodle, and the kids made foam frames to take home.  The favor bags included a beret, poodle bubbles, a poodle tattoo, a paw print stamp, and a personalized swirly sucker that said "Happy Birthday Delaney."  The cupcakes were delicious, the company was wonderful, and the birthday girl was happy.  What more can you ask for?

*Again, I didn't post any pics of our party guests in case they didn't want their children's faces on my blog.  We did take plenty of pics, and SOMEDAY I'll get around to adding them into a scrapbook.  You know - when I find some spare time!

Room 5: The BIG one!

Jerry and I were most excited about this room re-do.  It's the first room you see as you walk in the door, and it was lacking something.

Before, the living room was functional, but lacked style and coziness.  Plus the carpet had seen much better days. We really didn't spend much time in this room. 

The toy chest in the lower left corner usually purged its contents all over the room.  Pay no attention to the lanterns randomly on the piano.  Those were put together and waiting for the next party.

From this angle, you can really see what we wanted to change.  The two black and white drawings on the walls have been up in our home since we were married.  They were drawn by Jerry's sister, so they mean something to us, however LL Cool J and Ozzy Osbourne don't really have a place in our family room now that we have a true family.

Our engagement picture looks great, but it is not really the focus of our family.
 It's being moved up to our bedroom so we can reminisce about the times
 when I was skinny and Jerry had hair. :)

The color we chose was "pumpkin butter" by Behr.

Everything off the walls - Let's go!

A much warmer look - along with some new decorations, but a few things were missing...

Out with the old carpet that was worn from many a playdate, party and indoor picnic.  The padding is made from recycled Nike tennis shoe soles.  Yay for being green!

Ooh - I can feel the warmth already!  The color of the carpet is "truffle".  Yummy!

New religious art reflecting the true center of our home and our family. We picked up all these gems at Hobby Lobby for 50-80% off!  Praise the Lord for that, indeed!

All done!  ...or so we thought at the time... 

Surprise!  Jerry had been shopping for good deals on baby grand pianos for a while, and the right one finally popped up!  It's a Young Chang, and sounds beautiful.  He certainly has been playing more than he ever has before.  It's music to my ears! Literally.

Everything has it's place, including the keys to the piano.

Ahh - so warm and inviting!

Now Jerry and I have our cozy, more adult-friendly living room.  The majority of the toys are in the playroom in the basement. 

 We are already spending a lot more time in this room individually and as a family, and since the toys are elsewhere, the kids are more apt to pick up a book!  The toys that do make their way here can be quickly hidden away in the brown bins in the bookshelf.  So refreshing!  Please, Lord, let us always remember keep it looking so nice.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've had a few questions about the homemade laundry detergent I pictured in my laundry room re-do.  It's really simple, super cheap, and now that I've tested it out for more than a month, I can tell you it does a bang-up job of cleaning our mountains of clothes and towels.  We've put it through some tests, too!

Here's the recipe:
 1c. Arm and Hammer washing soda
 1c. 20 Mule Team Borax
 1 bar (shaved) Fels-Naptha

Use 1 tablespoon per load (2 if very large or heavily soiled) - I use 2 on socks and underwear.

I have read that you can use Ivory soap in place of the Fels-Naptha, but Ivory is murder on my son's eczema.  I have had no issues with his skin from using these products.

I also read a few recipes online that made liquid detergent.  I think it's mostly personal preference, but I didn't feel comfortable keeping a 5 gallon bucket full of liquid around in my house of 3 small children.  Didn't seem safe to me.  I much prefer my little glass jar of dry detergent.

Here's the breakdown (everything was purchased at Walmart):

Super cheap ingredients. Borax $2.98, Washing Soda $2.77, Fels-Naptha $0.97

Just a few things you will need on hand: a grater (for the bar soap), a 1c. measuring cup or scoop, mixing bowl, spoon, and container to keep detergent in.

It can take a while to grate the soap, but it passes quickly if
you're watching your kids play or catching up on your "soaps".

This is what the Fels-Naptha looks like shaved - and it smells FANTASTIC!

All mixed up!

This is 2 batches worth.  Not bad!

I made two batches of this back on June 15th, and I have yet to run out.  I still have enough to last me through at least a couple of weeks, and remember - I'm doing laundry for FIVE people!  This is an AMAZING savings for us.  I haven't quite figured out the cost per load, but considering I've hardly made a dent in my boxes of Borax and washing soda (which together cost me less than $6), and I've used less than $2 worth of Fels-Naptha, I am positive it's much cheaper than the brand name I was buying (and I bought a cheap brand). So... I going to go out on an estimating limb and figure it costs me about a buck and a quarter a month. That's CRAZY cheap!

** For those of you wondering, NO you cannot use this on cloth diapers.  Borax and washing soda are both laundry boosters, which means they have brighteners in them that cannot be used on cloth diapers.  But for everything else - it's super!

Room 4: The deck plus "Blossom"

This makeover was Jerry's baby.  The deck was sad and under-appreciated.  We hadn't really done anything to it in the 8 1/2 years since it was built.  It's way of fighting back was giving our children splinters.  Point taken.  Time for some TLC.

It was really this much fun... REALLY!

Rolled on THICK.  Looked like BBQ sauce.

Almost done.  Jerry's taking a break to talk to our neighbor David while he works hard staining his fence.

Look, Ma! No splinters!

 Meanwhile (and I do mean "meanwhile" because my hubby was going back and forth between projects), Jerry got a great deal on a cherry blossom tree from Home Depot. Only $15!  It's not the right season for planting, but if we take really good care of her, she'll do just fine. We've been wanting to plant a tree in this spot for a few years since the tree that used to be there met an untimely death.

Laney was a great helper.

She helped Daddy dig the hole.

Laney concentrated so hard on her job.  She felt very big and helpful.

So strong!

I love this picture, because it looks like Jerry's holding up a much bigger tree because of
our neighbor's tree in the background.

 Bella appropriately named our new addition "Blossom".

It feels good to get these two projects out of the way!