The Swags Out of the Bag {The Crafty Social: Fall 2013}

This past weekend we gathered, we took photo booth photos, we created, and we made friends.

The Crafty Social was such an amazing experience from start to finish for Sara and myself.

It's safe to say that we were taken aback by all the vendors who said yes to donating to our swag bags.

Being our first event and so close to the holidays were didn't know how it would go, but wow people were so very generous.  

This post is photo and link heavy but is worth it in the end, just think of it as a holiday shopping guide.

Kori at Paper and Pigtails, yes you have seen her name umpteen times on this blog, what can I say I kinda REALLY heart her something fierce, sent us 5x7 copies of her amazing watercolor prints. 

Need a great gift for your girlfriends or teachers maybe, Piper Polish would be perfect!

These glittery polishes add the perfect amount of sparkle to your hands.

 Its safe to say I LOVE everything Ashley Brooke Designs comes out with.  Her items are the prefect mix of sass and girlie.  So when we were told that she was donating her mugs, and said mugs came with our favorite sayin, um we were SUPER STOKED.

Chrissie Grace Art sent us a beautiful 8x10 piece of art work.  I love Chrissie's use of different textiles in her art and vibrant colors.  A great place for unique gifts for sure.

 I loved the tiny charms Houndstooth and Nail sent for each of the attendees.  The shop is filled with beautiful pieces. I want to add a few things to my Christmas List.

I loved that we got such a mix of products.  And the hair was not left out with Shimoshi Hair Fragrance, the perfect way to give your day three no wash hair a little spritz of freshness, come on we have all been there.  And some hair bling by the uber talented Sunshine and Carousels, I mean serious talk people check out her beautiful creations, from everyday to wedding day Erin has you covered.

I keep seeing Kidecals popping up in my social media circle, and I have been smitten.  It was so amazing of them to join in on our swag and send us keyboard decals.  They are SO cute, I know a few people that will be getting some VERY soon.

Not going to lie, it pays to have amazingly talented friends to call on.  Lindsay from Pen and Paint is one of them.  She came through like I knew she would, sending 10 mini notecard packs, 5 of each of the design shown.  The perfect little topper for a gift.  And add the Twine from The Twinery and your packages will be pop!

The ladies over at Bleue Boutique were so sweet and donated these beautiful studs.  Check out Bleue, its the best way to shop, flash sales every thursday night.

And last but not least we needed something to house all these goodies and Culture Flock Clothing sent over the perfectly perfect crafty themed totes. 

Not pictured unfortunately, adorable mini holiday bunting from  Everyday Party Mag.

And Jamberry nail decals. 

Like I said at the tip top of this post, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of these vendors. 

So please visit them, shop and spread the love.

XOXO

Amy

A week of lunches with Applegate {Day1 Ham & Cheese Hitchhikers}

The day of reckoning is upon us,

the first day of school, bring on the flood of kids wearing backpacks in front of doors on FB.

Its been a CRAZY fast summer.

Blinked, gone.

But looking back we did squeeze a lot in.

So in the scheme of summers, I would call it a success.

But with the first day of school comes the grind of busting out lunches.

Which honestly can become an overwhelming process to make sure I am providing a variety of healthy options that aren't too time consuming.  

So I am UBER excited to team up with Applegate this week to share some lunch ideas.

If you are not familiar with Applegate and their products, its pretty simple for me, they provide a product that I can read the ingredients and know what I am about to feed my family.  But get this, it taste good too!

For Hitchhikers I took some organic black forrest ham and organic white american and rolled them up, usually just two rolls.  Then stick three pretzels in the roll and cut it make little ham and cheese bites.

I paired them with apple slices with almond butter and a hard boiled egg.
And how exciting are these Adam & Eve waters?
Water based with real juice and coconut water.

I purchased those cute little silicone dividers from Bento A Day.  They are a great little way to pick foods from mixing.

And you cannot pack up lunches the first week without a little note of love.

I reached out to Kori from Paper & Pigtails to hook us up with some super fun free notes

 {click here for download of boy and/or girl versions}.

After a quick mention to her about how fun it would be to have little convo starters at the bottom, she came through. Perfect little card to add a note, and let you kids ask their new and old friends some questions to find out more about them.

See you back tomorrow...

Organic Black Forrest Ham and Organic American Cheese Provided By Applegate

Belated 7th Fiesta Birthday Post

I am realizing some of you might have thought I forgot to blog a certain little girls  7th birthday. 

If you are new to these parts you may not have noticed, but for those who have been following my ramblings for some time might have.  See I LOVE planning my kids parties, crazy LOVE.  So back in April, geez that was so long ago, Buggie had a 7th Fiesta! It was all her idea and I loved every second of it.  We had gone to Mexico in February and she fell hard for the country.  Kori, did a full post on her party here, but these are just some of my favorite photos of the day...

It was a colorful magical day.

Nolan's Big Bad Monster Truck Bash

I am still trying to come to terms with the fact that my little man turned three last week.  I honestly have NO idea how it happened so fast.  One day my water was breaking and the next I am planning his 3rd birthday.  But lets keep it real, the kid is still in diapers and sleeps in a crib {we did order a big boy bed this weekend} the diaper thing we are working on, so I guess he is still a baby in some ways...

He is a boys boy, in that he is WAY into trucks, car, trains, and pretty much anything that moves.  When we asked him what kind of party he wanted his first and only response was "monster trucks".

And if you know me from parties past, I am always teaming up with my girlfriend Kori. Paper and Pigtails to make party magic. After choosing colors and a concept, Kori went to work and I starting gathering, buying, and spray painting , the things I do best.

For his backdrop I wanted something that made me think of a winners circle at a Monster Truck Rally. I took him to a local car parts store that always has a "monster truck" outside, and after getting permission to take a few photos, I took the winning image to Staples and had them print an engineer print.  They were able to scale it just almost fit perfectly on a piece of foam board I had purchased, total cost for the board and print was $10.  

Then I took spray adhesive and worked from the top down in sections.  Once it was on, I took tissue paper and hole punch it to make confetti and then glue sticked it down.  

Right after we chose Monster Trucks, I was at Target and they had these trophies in the dollar bin {they were really $2} for Halloween costumes.  The water bottle labels Kori made fit perfectly on the base.

Then I took pans I got at the Dollar Tree and spray pained them, finally I Gorilla Glued them together to create a CHEAP but fun cupcake stand!

I love the idea of bite size cookies as cupcake toppers, like I did here, and Renee from Bee's Knees Creative made that happen yet again with these little tires.  She also made an amazing "BIG" cookie for Nolan.

Other treats included "Mud Buddies" in my oh so favorite snack cups from Kori.

Chocolate Doughnut Spare Tires

LARGE Marshmallow Bolts {Take marshmallows on paper straws, quickly dunk in water, then roll in sugar sprinkles.}

Oreo Pop Rocks, because I can NEVER have a party without them, people will not come. 

Brownie Dirt Ramps aka boxed brownie mix made from the directions but added crushed peanut butter Oreos on top before baking.

And for good measure we bagged up some popcorn to add a little bit of salt after so much sweet.

And just to finish things off I got paper fans and streamers from Party City for the backdrop.

And of course add some Monster Trucks and their tracks to the table.  I scored the tire track tape here.

And lastly was the favor table. Being the week after Halloween I was not about to give candy. So I found these monster truck tire cups, mini trophies, and monster truck tattoos, on Birthday Express.

I also purchased some checker duck tape from Micheals, I wanted to buy fabric but the tape was SOOO much cheaper after my 40% off coupon.  I added it to my mirror then hung photos of Nolan on it.  It was easy to just add throughout the tables.

The cups came with a monster truck sticker on the front and back, but I decided to cover it.  I took the party circles Kori made, printed them on sticky paper and punched them out. I also used them on the blue and yellow traffic cones I scored at the Dollar Tree.

For the "Winners Circle" sign I used this DIY from Smile and Wave. 

I hope you are all still with me after such a long post.

And if you are then you will her me say, it was a success.

From my friend Kori's partnership in creating fun paper goods, to the DIY's, to the weather, to the food, to my sweet little three year old boy!

Please free to ask any questions!

PS:

I made his shirt, using a freezer paper stencil and some black fabric paint.