A little something for the 4th

Happy Thursday friends!

Hope you're having a great day!

I'm still pluggin right along with my party decor for this weekend.

I made huge strides yesterday with E's Barbie table and it's ready for the food,

however,

I want to share my 4th of July decor with you first.

Also found some great free printables which I'll link to at the bottom of this post-

Here's the foyer-

or foy-yay...

I'm still sticking pretty much to the basics that I always use-

1) free holiday printable in a frame

2) color specific flora in the flower boxes

3) something holiday-specific on the table

aaaaaaaand scene.

The flags in the tiny white pitcher came from the dollah spot at Target and were actually three for a dollah.

hollah!

The pinwheels came from this kit I showed you on Monday-

picked that up at the hob lob last week for 40% off and they were super-dee-duper easy to make.

And quite adorable, I might add...

And you know me,

or maybe you don't,

but I likes to have 'M's pretty much everywhere.

I thought the pinwheels would be a cute, festive addition to the flowers,

not to mention the fact that they pretty much scream,

"This is a fuuuuun house! There's kids everywhere! Come on in and play!"

Don't you hear them?

And thanks to the lovely ladies over at eighteen25, this printable was absolutely FREE.

kinda wish it had the entire pledge on it so that UNDER GOD was included,

but still pretty...

And another full-body shot...

(wink)

Since this is what our guests will see when they enter the front door, I couldn't leave it without a little holiday sumpin-sumpin,

so-

I added a couple of those flags,

some red ribbon,

and made some mini tissue poms,...

and voila!

If you've never made tissue poms, but would like to know how,

there are literally tons of tutorials out there,

BUT,

Holly's is by far the funniest, so I'll link you to THAT ONE

And there ya have it friends-

a little something for the 4th at the Mathews.

I also must share with you the prettiness that the hubs put together for our back-door friends-

Aren't those a pretty, welcoming sight to see?

Much better than the target bags with poo diapers in them that are usually thrown there until one of us walks them to the trash.

Can I get an Amen?

***

I've found a couple of other 4th of July printables that you might enjoy-

(Fourth of July subway art from eighteen25 is HERE)

This My Country Tis of Thee can be found HERE:

from kiki creates

And these cute as a button pinwheels can actually be printed for free HERE.

Instructions are even included in the post!

from the long thread

Happy crafting!



Topiaries on a Tuesday

Helloooooo!

If you stopped by yesterday, you know that I'm in full swing preparing for my girls' party on Saturday. Our babes are 12 months apart, and actually had their birthdays in May, but we'll be celebrating this weekend,

so....

that means I have a to-do list longer than Casey Anthony's nose.

(if she were Pinocchio)

Anyone else out there not believing a word she or her attorneys are sayin?

Ah well,

I digress...

Here's a pic I showed you yesterday of some cute naked topiaries-

Picked these up at the hob lob last Friday and scored one of them for 40% off with my handy dandy coupon. (Not even gonna lie that we considered making our purchases, going to lunch, and then going BACK so that we could use the coupon again. Didn't do it, but we considered...)

The pots were 2.17 and were 50% off last week, so I got BOTH of them for 2.17. (see how fast I did that math?) The moss was 4.99, and the topiaries were 11.99 and 7.19 (with coupon).

And I know what you're thinkin- isn't 20 bucks a bit steep to be spending for a little table decor at a birthday party? And you'd be right.

That's way more than I usually spend on projects, BUT, I figured as long as I made whatever I covered it in removable I could use them over and over again for different parties/seasons and really get my money's worth.

moving on...

For MM's party table (Very Hungry Caterpillar) I knew I wanted the topiaries to be covered in RED. My first plan was to make little rossettes like I showed you in THIS post, but after making a few and attaching them, I decided it just wasn't what I wanted.

The red fleece and the scissors are the only things I ended up using outta this pic... I had planned to use the top to the snack jar as a template, but it was too big.

See the big circle punch? THAT's what I ended up using as a pattern to cut out about 100 circles from my fleece. They're a little over an inch in diameter...

Since I knew I wanted to be able to remove whatever I put on the topiaries (so that I could use them over and over) my first thought was to put velcro on the topiaries and the backs of whatever I decided to put on them.

Since I scrapped the rossette idea and decided to go with lots and lots of little red circles, the velcro idea also got scrapped since I'd need too much of it.

Here's what I went with-

yep.

A good 'ole folded up square of scotch tape.

Worked like a charm.

I started from the bottom of the topiary, overlapping my circles a bit-

like this...

and just kept working my way around...

until it was completely covered-

Then I covered the top part the same way-

Now for the bottom...

I grabbed that bag of reindeer moss,

which looks like this when out of the bag-

 I should probably warn you that this is messy...

Anywho, just heat up that glue gun and start gluing down that moss. No special technique...just glue it down until all of the green foam is covered.

Pretty, huh?

Still working on finishing the second one, but my plan is to have these at each of the ends of the dessert table with little buntings connecting them to the cupcake stand in the middle.

Can't you just see it?

*****

Here's a few party pics I added after publishing this post-

****

So...I'm off to get cracking on the 328 other projects I've got going at the moment. I'll be back soon with some 4th of July decor ideas + printables.

I leave you today with 2 pics-

1 is cute as pie...

other than the 'sun is in my face' smiles-

and 1 is weird as all get-out...

the hubs did a lil' kayak-turning practice in the kids pool last night.

There's no telling what the neighbors think of us...

I've linked this to:
Weekend Wrap-up at Tatertots and Jello

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.



Instagram Friday

Happy Friday friends!

I am oh.so.thrilled. to be heading to Birmingham today so that I can visit the

Hob Lob.

If you're new here, there was a hob lob 3 minutes from my house, but a little something happened to it. This will be my 2nd time to drive almost an hour (with my friend Kara) just to walk around in and purchase some crafty goodness from one of my favorite places.

Totally worth the drive.

** And if anyone out there affiliated with the hob lob happens to find themselves reading this little blog-

please rebuild in the same spot.

And quickly.

We need our hob lob back.

Please and thank you.

Sincerely,

Mary Kathryn

Moving on...
It's instafriday over at

  

so here's a little taste of what the Mathews have been up to over the past week via instagram-

Super super super good mail day on Monday...

The Barbie Collector magazine for Summer 2011

Pretty new necklace from the etsy shop Sparkle Tree, thanks to a tip from April about a new site with daily deals from etsy sellers called Heartsy.

Anyone else buy Groupons? Or GroopDealz? Or subscribe to any other 'daily deal' type sites like Peachy Cheap?

Heartsy is like that, only the daily deals are from etsy shops.

Love it.

And...last but certainly not least, look at the Gussy goodies! If you don't know Gussy, a.k.a. Maggie, you are missing out- she's a great gal who makes pretty awesome things. You can check out her blog HERE, and browse her shop HERE. She also gives out discount codes pretty often on her blog and twitter. (I snagged my goodies at 20% off!) Isn't that houndstooth fabulous? Would make the perfect gift for someone who lives in my town....

Tuesday-

caught E looking through my new Barbie catalog. For those of you that don't know, I'm a HUGE fan of all things Barbie, and the mere thought that one of my offspring could possibly have a thing for her too makes my heart go pitter-patter.

No joke.

If she ever utters the words, "Mommy, I'd like a new Barbie", I'll have to resist the urge to buy her every single doll that Target sells.

No joke.

And speaking of jokes...

this is actually not one either.

No joke here- just the hubs modeling some new hockey gear that came in the mail.

He likes to pose.

Took a little trip to Target on Wednesday-

found this cute onesie that I'm sure my seester will be purchasing any minute since she loves to clothe my kiddos in anything that says the word, "Aunt" or in this case, "Auntie".

These were $3.24.

Good grief, how I love Target.

Also picked up new swimsuits for the kiddos.

My girls love them some tutus.

Raise your hands if you love Target!

This magazine came in the mail yesterday and the hubs is already planning his next tattoo....

and-

because it's Friday,

I'd like to leave you with a laugh...

My hubs is playing the role of a carnie at a friend's birthday party tonight and this is his costume (minus the fanny-pack that he'll also be sportin')

I'm so proud.

Happy Friday!