Teacups and Teapots Made of Paper

As seen in my Dream Tea Party, 

and White Elephant Gift Basket Exchange

we handcrafted teacups as one of our activities after lunch.

Cuz what's a party if you don't craft something??

I also included a handcrafted teacup and teapot as part of my gift basket.

Each of my 9 party guests and I chose a separate theme to create a beautiful basket full of goodies that we'd exchange in a white-elephant-rules type of game.  

I chose Tea Party, cuz hey, I was already totally in that mode.

I filled this basket with so many delightful goodies,

the teapot and teacup,

as well as several other paper handcrafted tea-themed items.

(I made an extra set for myself to keep cuz I loved them so much!)

Tea Party White Elephant Gift Basket Exchange

This is all about the delightfully fun and beautiful

 gift baskets that my guests and I created

for my dream Tea Party.

I think this is what first got us all so excited 

and so into the spirit of it.

Way ahead of time, each of us chose a separate theme to 

create a beautiful basket full of goodies that we'd exchange 

in a white-elephant-rules type of game.  

I chose Tea Party, cuz hey, I was already totally in that mode.

I filled my basket with lots of  'British' goodies!

The first rule was to keep it around $30, so I didn't want to spend much on a container.

I found this perfect hat box at Goodwill for only a few dollars!

Cake Plates Made From a Chandelier and a Lamp

Chandy Multi-level Cake Plate

Lamp Cake Plate

My Tea Party Dreams Have Come True!

I've planned a lot of parties,

but they are always for my kids, or on assignment for large groups.

This time it was just for my close friends and me!

I've been planning this party in my head for about 20 years,

so it goes without saying that I had a lot of fun with it!

GUESTS

Good friends who are also crafty and creative.

These gals wore Easter bonnets, which ROCKS!

Here's our whole group in our tiny felt Easter Parade hats

 that we made as one of our two crafts.

Girl's Red and Turquoise Cake Decorating Birthday Party

I love planning parties, but THIS one is my favorite so far!

My daughter Madison just turned 12

and since she's sort of obsessed with baking ANYWAY

what better way to incorporate her love of baking than to include her friends in a 

CAKE DECORATING THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTY?

In my head it started out as a cute idea on a small scale,

but in my true Cindy fashion, it escalated into so much more.

Even my husband thought it was cool, 

and he doesn't think very many things are cool.

Besides baking, we tied in a few other fun things too, 

like hipster mustaches, big lips, and bow ties,

polka dots (WHO DOESN'T LOVE POLKA DOTS?),

ruffled aprons,

and cupcake liners as decor!

Dollar Tree and Party City are so great for finding affordable place settings and decor.  

Everything you see is from either of those places, 

except the cupcake liners, which are from Michaels.

I made the gift bag name tags out of several layers of cupcake liners.  

Scrunch each layer a little smaller so that all the colors show, 

then staple them in the center to hold it all together.  

Hot glue a name sticker to the top to hide your staples.  

These are SUPER fun and easy to make!

More fun with cupcake liners!  

I made a big long banner of different sizes, 

plus I added coffee filters and small paper lace doilies.  

A lot of decor bang for your buck, super cute, super easy, and adorable!  

Great way to add some color to the party!

Here's a full view of the cupcake banner which is draped across the mirror.

The big surprises we had in store were personalized ruffled aprons and 

a freshly baked double layer cake boxed up for each girl.  

The cakes were plain and unfrosted, 

but the party is all about cake decorating, right?!

I almost can't even stand how cute these aprons are!

Annual Holiday Open House

It's only the very beginnings of October and
 I've ALREADY HAD MY HOLIDAY PARTY!
Now I can just enjoy the rest of the holidays and be totally relaxed, right?

Yeah, right.  ;)



Meet my beautiful vendors!
Carol from Thirty-One Bags
Jen makes her own jewelry
Meaghan from Tastefully Simple
Andrea from Scentsy, Grace Adele AND Velata
Bethany and Brittany from Jamberry

The party was great!
I had wonderful vendors who worked hard,
the food was delicious,
(much of which was from Tastefully Simple),
and the turnout of friends was even better than last year!
My house was buzzing with ladies having fun shopping, eating and visiting with one another.
I love when I see my friends make new friends with my other friends!!!


The table looks similar to last year, but believe me, the recipes were different.
Next year I may need a new tablecloth just to mix things up!  lol
You can find a few of the recipes from last year's blog post
and yeah, pretty much the rest was provided by Tastefully Simple!

Sooooo here's what happened........

Halloween / Autumn: My favorite time to decorate!

Last year it was all about Black and White Halloween.

This year, it's all about the COLORS OF AUTUMN!

Funny how we're so fickle, huh?!

I am loving the Autumnlicious color of my mantel!

Get an eyefull of these owls!  

I recently made these in Margie Romney-Aslett's class 

(which I'll tell you about later.....it was a bucket list experience for me!)

I recently made the SPOOKY banner at Crop-A-Roo!  I love the fun it adds!

You can order the elements for it from Stampin Up!

And if you like the bunting below it, my neighbor makes these and you can get yours HERE.

She's an amazing sewer and makes all kinds of adorable stuff!

Burlap, White, Silver and Gold Christmas Crafts!

My first Christmas post....

in mid-January.

I know.....

I. Am. Never. On. Time!

I've been shifting towards the naturals/neutrals/metallics and loving it!

{the sparkly fabric and the string of bells are from Dollar Tree!}

Cotton Pickin Wreath with a Burlap Bow

I've been wanting to make a cotton wreath for a while now.....

Inspired by....

the cotton from our farm!

{we have an abundance of it at the end of the year}

Yup, that's right, my big boys and I hand-picked our own cotton! 

Holy Sweet Mother of Salvage!

I am slowly discovering that Phoenix has a treasure trove of vintage and antique shops.

Seriously.......it has changed my life!

My life has become about 'The Hunt'.

Hunting for that perfect piece of junk.

{Remember my hunt for the perfect wooden box?}

There's a place in town called Sweet Salvage that is only open 4 days a month.

I just couldn't understand that.

Four days?

Why would a store only be open for four days???

I've been getting their newsletters for the past few months, but never got around to going

{family in town, holidays, illness, etc}

but this month I gathered a few of my awesome junking friends and we went to check it out.

We brought a truck.....you know.....just in case.

DUUUUUDE!

The Rustic Wooden Box Autumn Centerpiece

So here's the rustic tool box I got at Junk In The Trunk last weekend, 

that I know you've been dying to see.

Favorite Autumn Mantels!

Autumn is my favorite season!  

The weather gets cooler.

{this is exciting news in Arizona!)

I can drink hot chocolate and wear my beloved sweaters.

THANKFUL Subway Art

This was my first attempt at Subway art, and I've gotta say, 

I was surprised that it was so easy peasy!

I had ordered the vinyl {inexpensively} online....it came with lots of words, leaves, pumpkins, etc.

You can also easily cut out your own if you have a Silhouette machine.

Be sure to use a variety of colors and fonts.

Halloween Mantle - The Black and White Of It

Last year I was inspired by the black and white decor of

Less Cake More Frosting {LOVE LOVE LOVE HER!}.

I'd never seen JUST black and white Halloween decor before and I totally fell in love with it!

Wishing at this moment that my red wall was ORANGE!

I've had the window frame for many years, 

but this is it's first debut out of the garage since I moved to Arizona five years ago.  

Wondering now why it took me so long!

(it has a twin sister still in the garage!)