Pumpkin Carving: 2011 edition

Happy Monday Friends,
and Happy Halloween!

Today I wanted to share with you just ONE of the many projects we checked off of our list over the weekend.

Carvin' up some pumpkins.

Check.

The hubs and I are pretty competitive when it comes to, well...

anything,

so punkin' carvin' is no exception. I'm planning to do a "Pumpkin Carving 101" post in a few days but for now, here's what we ended up with this year as well as a few pics from previous years.

The hubs 2011 pumpkin:

Ironman

Hubs did most of his carving last Thursday, outside, but since it's starting to actually feel like Fall around here, I opted to do my carving inside. The girls got in on the 'take out the pumpkin guts' action but Oliver wasn't interested.

Just ignore the laundry on the rack and the dishes on the counter and the ponytail holder around the cabinet door handles, mmmkay?

My 2011 pumpkin:

Barbie

complete with eyelashes.

do you see them?

I worked hard.

pssst- if you think Instagram is a cool photography app, try camerabag.

Also totally cool.

And now, for some pumpkin archives-

Here's the hubs 2010 Death Star Pumpkin-

and my 2010 Storm Trooper Helmet-

I think we skipped over 2009.

Probably due to lack of sleep from a little girl.

Her name rhymes with Schmeliza.

2008-

hubs is Darth Vader, mine is Thespians.

obviously

2007-

hubs Transformers symbol thingy

and my sweet lil' Nemo

2006-

hubs Star Wars

and my Charlie Brown and Snoopy

I also carved this Blues Clues punkin' that year for my preschool classroom-

And, I just so happened to have dug up a pic of my musical pumpkin from 2005.

So that's a walk through our pumpkin carving history.

Can you believe how many Star Wars pumpkins were in there?

Can you believe how many times I said the word pumpkin in this post?

Pumpkin.

There's another.

Sorry.

What about you?

Do you carve pumpkins?

Are you super competitive?

Do you and your spouse place bets on whose pumpkin will get the most 'likes'?

Yeah, us neither...

Hey! Pssssst!

I totally made it to 200 followers, so look for a giveaway post later this week.

Someone will win their choice of goodies from my shop, and I worked on a few new items over the weekend!

Thanks so much for being awesome readers!

I mean it-

you all totally rock!

I hope your Monday does too!

How to have a girly vintage Barbie party

Happy Tuesday friends!

I hope all of you had a wonderful and safe 4th of July!

The Mathews slept late, had lunch with family, did a lil' swimmin, ate some rockin homemade ice cream, came home and grilled out again with more friends and family.

Despite the fact that E got stung by a wasp while we were swimming, we all had a seriously awesome day celebrating our country's birthday!

I wanted to share some of the details from each of the girls' party themes with you starting with Eliza's Barbie/shoe party. Eliza LOVES her Barbie's and I love love LOVE that she loves her Barbies. I can already tell at the ripe old age of TWO that she's going to be a Barbie girl. She also loves shoes- ALL shoes. She wears her daddy's shoes, her brother's shoes, my shoes and anyone who steps foot in our house with shoes on doesn't keep those shoes on for long.

"I wear those shoes", she says.

And the wearer will, naturally, take their shoes off and watch her strut away,

wearing their shoes.

Here's what Eliza's table looked like-

You know I'm all about using what I already have on hand-

so that's exactly what I did.

Here's the deets-

1. The tall black vase (that used to live on the mantel) and the pink roses (which were purchased for E's party last year) are both from hob lob

2. The pink cupcake stands were actually in the Easter section of Target and I purchased them for 75% off after Easter this year.

**(They were literally pennies a piece- and this is a GREAT TIP for ya-

shop those post-holiday sales for items that don't necessarily scream that specific holiday. You never know what you can find that will work for a non-holiday specific party.

In this case- those hot pink cardboard cupcake holders that were intended to be used during Easter, worked out great for a Barbie party.)

3. The black frame was one I had on hand and the 'Barbie' diecut (as well as the Barbie silhouette's used on the table) are from THIS etsy seller.

4. Fabulous little-girl-who-loves-to-wear-her-mama's-heels book found HERE,

on a metal stand from hob lob

5. Black shoe box under the book is actually the box my wedding shoes came in

6. small white vases from Willow House, pretty pink peonies from Michael's

7. Large white memo board from hob lob- purchased at 66% off because it has a small crack which was fine.by.me.

8. Black vintage Barbie silhouette from THIS etsy seller

9. Small white ceramic pitcher usually lives in my dining room hutch. I purchased it about a year ago for $5 at TJMaxx

10. Gray/white and pink/white striped straws are from THIS etsy shop

11. black/white checked tablecloth is actually just a 5-yard long piece of fabric I've had for several years. I've used it multiple times as a table covering for different events and will probably never cut it for this reason.

12. small frame in the back is one I've had for years and actually used to be gold. Nothing a little spray paint couldn't handle

13. black frame in front is another that I bought years ago from hob lob. The silhouette of the little girl is one I cut myself using my cricut and the Child's Year cartridge

(which I purchased off of ebay for less than half of retail price)

I picked some pink scrapbook paper from my stash and that was all she wrote.

14. I had intended to use this frame (from hob lob) with shoe silhouette's (from THIS etsy shop) on the table, but swapped it for the cute book instead.

 Again- all I did was pick 2 shoes from the several that came in a package, cut some scrapbook paper to fit, and popped it all into a frame.

Done.

(and aren't those shoes great? I had planned to attach some of them to toothpicks to act as cupcake toppers but never got around to it. I have no doubt I'll find other uses for them though.)

15. This Hallmark ornament also lives in my dining room hutch and was the perfect addition to the table.

16. hot pink/houndstooth plates and napkins were purchased at the hob lob, along with these...

"True love comes in pairs"

Perfect.

And there ya have it-

Pink strawberry cupcakes (courtesy of my Aunt Cindy) and some cream puffs finished off Eliza's Barbie table

And,

just in case you missed THIS POST,

I made a dress for E to wear

I found the pattern in THIS cute book full of great ideas for what to do with designer fat quarters.

I actually purchased both of the fabrics I used in the dress at our local Hancock and am currently looking for something else to make with that crazy-cute Barbie fabric since I bought 2 yards of it.

(a top for myself, perhaps...?)

I must say, E looked absolutely smashing in her party dress.

I'll be back tomorrow with details on MM's Very Hungry Caterpillar party.

We're off to swimming lessons and then will *hopefully* begin ripping out the current flooring in our kitchen.

If any of you out there would like some busted-up ceramic tile, OR any of the multiple layers of linoleum underneath, just let me know.

We're about to have quite a load of it up for grabs...

linked to:

Tutorials and Tips at Home Stories A 2 Z

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Craftomaniac Monday at Craftomaniac

Creative Me Monday at The Southern Institute

Anything Related at All Thingz Related,

Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts,

Weekend Wrap-up at Tatertots and Jello,

Friday Flair at Whipperberry,

Saturday Spotlight at Green Door Designs,

It's party time and a weekend recap

Happy Monday everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend!

We had absolutely beautiful weather, once again!

 Went to a birthday party, did a lil' shopping, and spent some time in my aunt and uncle's pool yesterday.

I.Love.Summer.

And speaking of summer, it's a season of the year when we're usually NOT celebrating birthdays at our house. In our family of 5, we have one birthday in February, one in March, and three in May. However, some unexpected circumstances arose and parties got postponed, and then postponed again, and so...this Saturday we will be celebrating the birthdays of 2 little girls at our house.

finally.

We've decided to have a very low-key party with our family and friends-

I didn't even send out invitations.

Can you believe it?

Nevermind that our only computer with a word processor is broken and I refuse to pay money for invites when I can make them myself. Just not with a broken computer...

You may recall I posted about the themes of their parties many moons ago, but here's a quick recap- 

Eliza is all about shoes and Barbie right now, so her party theme will be some of this:

with a little of this on the side-

by the way- this is THE most precious book about a little girl that loves to wear her mommas high-heels. You can find it on Amazon HERE if you know of a little girl who needs this.

Sweet story, gorgeous illustrations, perfect for my E.

Mary Martin's party theme is this:

We'll have a dessert table for each of them so that I can use all of this party stuff I bought back in March and April. And since Saturday happens to be the 2nd of July, you know I'll have to throw in some red, white, and blue decor as well. I'll be posting my projects all week long, with the grand finale being the party itself. Oh how I just LOVE crafting for a party. Here's a peak at what I'll be tackling first-

found these topiary things at the hob lob on friday and have a grand plan for them on MM's birthday table. Just need to do a little spray painting, and cover with some moss and felt.

found these on clearance at the hob lob.

also plan to spray paint and use on MM's table.

you won't even recognize them when I'm done.

promise.

here's some of that patriotic flair I talked about adding-

scored these at 40% off at hob lob, and since I own a small fortune of srapbook paper, I plan to make LOTS of these suckers. LOVE me some pinwheels.

this pennant banner is actually what I was working on the other night when my machine died. Still haven't heard the outcome. (it's still in the shop)

Here's hoping it's fixed and home soon so I can finish that baby and hang it up!

***

and for the grandmas-

O man picked out this lego for hubs for Father's Day and they spent all of Thursday afternoon putting it together.

of course, it made this little girl jealous that O was getting to play with Daddy and she was not...

speaking of that little girl, she now likes to help with the laundry.

She also likes to tell you what each piece of clothing is before she throws it in the dryer.

Laundry time is lasting a bit longer these days...

Today at the pool.

Oh how I love how well our kiddos sleep after they've been swimming all day...

and this little one?

well she's just cute.