DIY: fabric bunting

my sweet sweet niece's birthday party was the other weekend and she asked me to help with decorations.  I'm really loving bunting right now (well, really for the last few years) so I figured I'd do a tutorial on how to make a fabric bunting (so it will last and she can hang it in her room after the party)

I gathered up some fabric scraps, cut a triangle template out of card stock, grabbed a spool of ribbon (not shown) and pulled out the old sewing machine (also not shown)

ignore the glue gun... he's such a ham trying to get in all my crafting pictures.

using the card stock template, I cut out 18 triangles.  If you want it to look really super awesome and nice, iron your fabric.  I hate ironing so I just let it be wrinkled and called it rustic.

See it's easy to call things rustic or organic just by being lazy!!

pulled out a couple of feet of ribbon and then started folding it in half over the top of the triangles and sewing it.  If you're not a sewing kind of person, I suppose you could give the glue gun a little action.  Just be careful!!  Depending on your fabric and your tolerance for pain, the heat may burn you!!!

beauty!

popsicles + purple cake = my birthday!

Today is my birthday.  Mondays are not the best days to have a birthday so I'll share with you my birthday weekend...

my cute mister and me!  he's the best. can't wait to hang with him tonight.

it's always hot around my birthday, but holy crap.  110?  Really?  Thank goodness it's raining today.

Friday evening, my sweet friend Amanda made me some rosemary lavender salt scrub... the best part about this?  the yoga poses shrinky dinks!  Makes me want to time travel to 1986 for a few hours and play shrinky dinks with my 8 year old self.

after we had dinner with our favorite couple, we drove over to this new popsicle joint in town called Steel City Pops.  They have some pretty great flavors.  I got banana, which had cinnamon in it, which was amazing.

We went back on Sunday and I got pineapple jalapeño.  Equally amazing.

let's just skip over to Sunday.

I made my own cake (I always do... I like baking my own birthday cake)

My sister-in-law, her boyfriend and his roommate (formerly my husband's roommate) made dinner for us.  I bet you think we had Mexican... nope.  Pizza.

John and me.  Ready to do the birthday cake thing.

Ellen and me.  Let's blow out these candles.

Purple hombre cake?  yes!

and yes.

it's just boxed cake and food coloring.

no fancy instructions.

yay for happy birthdays!!

and feeling pudgy on Mondays!!

2011 memories.

January - a special party just for my man and me.

these girls are the most incredible hostesses anyone could ask for!

February - lots of wedding prep.  Don't know how I could have gotten it all done without my friend Bethany.  This is not Oscar, by the way.  Her kitty is his doppelgänger.

March - the most amazing day of my life.  I got married to my best friend.

April - I got chosen to be the page turner for Pete the Cat, a book reading and signing that my brother and I took my nieces to.  This is my awkward face.

May - we were kinda boring during May.  However, we did make it to a party.  So here we are with our friend Burgin.

June - at the park picnicking and listening to the symphony.  Ah.  We're so cultured... haha.

July - I got a stress fracture.  Rocked the boot the best I could.

August - hit lots of rocks floating down the river.  

September - the mister's birthday... his cake ended up looking like a glowing orb.

October - cheeky pumpkin month.

November - I took some fun pictures of the mister.  He started a blog.  AND he got a real grown up job!  It was a good month.

December - my family.  I love them.  I especially love cooking with them.  

It's been a spectacular year filled with love, new beginnings and great experiences.  I hope you have a really wonderful New Year filled with light and love.  Happy 2012!

partay!

we had a little Christmas get together this weekend.

we served a few treats...

simmered some wassail (I also made eggnog from scratch, not pictured)...

handy John hung up my handmade snowflakes...

we put out fresh flowers (time for the cats to throw up everywhere!)...

and Oscar enjoyed some new laps.

Happy Holidays!!!

blue cake

we had a party last night.

rainy fourth

we had a party for the fourth.  it was rainy.  then stormy.  my tent broke.  we had to move the party inside.  I took one pic.  

when you DIY your own wedding, you have tiered stands and drink dispensers on hand and ready to use.

paint by numbers.

last week I went to a paint-by-numbers party. I hadn't painted by numbers in years... since I was a kid. However, I never remember them being as intricate as the one I was given. I didn't finish it at the party, but I was determined to complete my numbered masterpiece.

grrrr, baby.

tee party.

this weekend we decided to have a tee party... it was a small group of us and we didn't take any pics because we were working so diligently on our projects but I managed to take a pic of my finished project yesterday... so here it is!

my tee tote!