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Daniel Tiger Birthday Party with Free Printables!

July 2, 2015 by Laura Meckley 46 Comments

As previously mentioned, I thought we would be doing a Peppa Pig birthday party for Miss Elliott. However, she insisted she wanted a Daniel Tiger theme party so that’s what we did! I started with lot of great free resources from PBS and of course I had to add some of my own touches.

You can see the trolley prop, which I talked a bit about before. I originally planned to use it to hold food, but the top piece was not large or sturdy enough for that, so it was simply used for decoration only.

Daniel Tiger Birthday Cake

I bought the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Friends Figures Set from Amazon, and took them into our local Hy-Vee grocery store. I found another cake that was kind of outdoorsy (I think it was a Mickey Mouse cake actually, Mickey was driving around or something) and asked them to use our Daniel Tiger figurines instead. Turned out just fine, I think!

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I printed her t-shirt iron on, and you could do something similar with these kinds of ink jet transfer papers.

Daniel Tiger T Shirt

Guests were greeted with a large poster and a couple signs. I added a few tissue paper poms, which I decided to buy instead of make myself, but it’s pretty easy to do. (Here’s a good tutorial on how to make your own tissue paper poms.) We had several sticker quotes with Daniel and his friends around the house in different rooms…even the bathroom!

Daniel Tiger Party Entryway

Daniel Tiger Decor

Daniel Tiger Stickers

Daniel Tiger Quote

Daniel Tiger Decorated Kitchen

I bought colorful tableware and stuck the circle stickers on paper cups.

Daniel Tiger tableware

Daniel Tiger Sticker Quotes

The menu consisted of:

  • Daniel Tiger’s Gluten Free Veggie Spaghetti (actual vegetable noodles, or zoodles, which I made with my nifty Spiralizer tool!)
  • Miss Elaina’s Gluten Free Meatballs
  • Katerina Kittycat’s Carrots & Peppers
  • O the Owl’s Onion Dip
  • Prince Wednesday’s Pasta Salad
  • Tiger Tails
  • Royal Gluten Free Blueberry Buckle

Daniel Tiger's Gluten Free Veggie Spaghetti

Daniel Tiger food - Miss Elaina's Gluten Free Meatballs

Daniel Tiger food - Katerina Kittycat's Carrots & Peppers

O the Owl's Onion Dip

Daniel Tiger food - Prince Wednesday's Pasta Salad

Daniel Tiger Food - Cheetos Cheese Puffs Tiger Tails

Daniel Tiger food - Royal Gluten Free Blueberry Buckle
I made a giant Daniel Tiger sticker and created “Stick the Nose on Daniel Tiger” which the kids loved! They thought it was HILARIOUS to intentionally put his nose on his ear. Almost two months later and giant Daniel is still on our sliding glass door! (But, that’s nothing…some of our Frozen decor is still up going on almost a year now!)

Giant Daniel Tiger Sticker

Stick the nose on Daniel Tiger game

One of Elliott’s favorite toys was the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood Bungalow Adventure Playset to go along with her other figurines.

Daniel Tiger Toys

When it was all over we sent out some cute “Ugga Mugga” thank you notes with her very own custom address labels.

Daniel Tiger Thank You Notes

It was a fun party! My big girl seemed happy with the results. =) (Don’t ask me why she refused to wear the coordinating red leggings I had for her, but at least I got a decent photo before she got “Tiger Tail” Cheetos dust all over her white shirt!)

Daniel Tiger Birthday Party Printables

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Last but not least, I made sure to create some FREE PRINTABLES in case you would like them for your Daniel Tiger party!! Here are some items you may want to use for your printables:

  • Sticker Paper
  • Scissors and/or paper cutter
  • Cardstock
  • Postcard Sheets
  • Address labels
  • Local copy shop to print the 18″ x 20″ poster

You might also like the following:

Doc McStuffins Party Ideas and Free PrintablesDoc McStuffins Birthday Party Ideas with Free Printables by Sometimes Crafty

 

Moana Party Ideas by SometimesCrafty.comMoana Party Ideas by SometimesCrafty.com

Filed Under: Birthday, Life As I Know It Tagged With: birthday, celebrate, decoration, diy, party, printable

Burtonesque Wrought Iron Bench

October 6, 2014 by admin 1 Comment

Craigslist and local for sale by owner Facebook groups are quickly becoming my new favorite online shopping venues. You just never know what will pop up. I was scrolling through one day and saw this vintage beauty:
Vintage Yellow Wrought Iron Bench

I was immediately drawn to the swirls and whimsical curves on the back. This is a very Tim Burtonesque piece to me, I can totally envision it in the Corpse Bride, or The Nightmare Before Christmas. I wanted it, I HAD TO HAVE IT!!

I showed it to Jack and told him of my plans to refinish it for him to sit on. I’m pretty sure I heard an “Exxxxcellent!” in Mr. Burns style.

Jack & Mr Burns

I’ve revamped LOTS of furniture – chairs, couches, dressers, you name it. Only problem is all THAT work was done in my head. I’ve never successfully redone any ACTUAL furniture in real life.  I tried to reupholster a love seat once, but it sat in pieces in my basement until I moved…then it finally got tossed. So although I had some reservations about my ability, I was determined to finish this bench.

I posted some questions on Facebook about how to go about this project…would I absolutely need to sand it? With what? Can I use spray paint? What kind? Does that require primer, or not?

I settled on an angle grinder, Rust-oleum Rusty Metal Primer and Rust-oleum Hammered Metal Spray Paint in black. I grabbed some protective eye wear, ear plugs, my face mask, and I was ready to get to work.

Rustoleum Spray Paint & Primer

But first, let me take a selfie…

Selfie

I figured I should take a photo of me in all my glory of doing actual, (semi) hard laborious work.

It was hot that day working in the garage, and it actually was, HARD WORK. But much to my surprise I loved it. I grinded for an hour and was amazed with this process. It wasn’t exactly easy, but it was essentially simple. Use this tool and grind away the chipped paint and rusty metal to reveal this beautiful skeleton of a bench underneath.

My hands felt funny from all the vibration of the grinder, but it was really relaxing to just work and shut out the rest of the world and CREATE again. I was in my element for sure. It had been soooo long since I felt that way, so this was an awesome experience for me.

Vintage Iron Bench Revamp

But after a couple hours my laziness took over. (Did you pick up on my foreshadowing of that earlier?!)

My body was hurting from the (gasp) actual physical labor of it all. And I was getting a little nervous using such a powerful tool, especially after I had to pull out a metal splinter that the grinder shot into my leg. (Perhaps I should’ve been wearning jeans, not shorts?) I love power tools, but they honestly scare me because I’m such a klutz. In junior high shop class I ran the side of my finger through the jigsaw and although it just took off a few layers of skin, from that moment on I envision myself slicing off my finger or worse. It could totally happen, and it would be just my luck.

So once I got most of the bench cleaned up I decided that would be good enough. After all, this bench is just a prop. The nooks and crannies would just have to stay how they were. I gave it a quick bath, hosed it down, let it dry, then sprayed it with the primer.

Primed WRought Iron Bench

I should’ve bought two cans of primer because I didn’t get it all covered as well as I would’ve liked. But, again, this is a prop. Not a huge deal. I let it dry then spray painted it black. Again, I only bought one can at first and didn’t get 100% coverage. But, I’m lazy remember. Even though I ran out and bought another can, it got windy by the time I got home so I decided to finish painting it another day, but have since decided it looks fine as it is.  (Plus my hands were actually semi-crippled for a day or two from holding the grinder that I couldn’t spray the can of paint very well if I wanted!) Since I want it mostly as a Halloween prop I figured it shouldn’t be all pristine looking (thank goodness!)

I just absolutely love it! Check out a photo of the finished bench in this post.

 

 

Filed Under: Halloween, Life As I Know It, Misc. Projects Tagged With: diy, revamp

Quick Pillow Recover

October 4, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

This project is a tiny addition to a project I will be sharing soon, so this post will be short and sweet.  I can’t wait to show you the “bigger” project. =)

A year or so ago I bought new pillows for our living room. I don’t recall what I paid for them, but I remember thinking it’s was a little more than I wanted to pay, but they look like nice quality pillows so I suppose it’s okay. (Honestly I’m cheap frugal so it probably wasn’t all THAT much.)

Guess what?

Hole in Pillow

We had them a few months and the seams started coming apart. I’m sure it didn’t help that the girls play rough with them, and the dog just LOVES to find tiny holes and pull out the stuffing. =( So I would toss them aside, sew them up when I had time, and bring them back into the mix.

Then I was in the workshop the other day thinking about the bigger project I am working on, and my eyes wandered around the room for inspiration. Just so happens I had a pillow sitting there waiting to be fixed. And I really wasn’t in the mood to fix it since I just knew it would be fine for a couple weeks, then I’d have to sew it up again.

So I whipped up a simple envelope pillow case and stuffed that bad boy in, rip and all! Voila! Now it’s perfect. =)

black and white striped pillow

I didn’t bother taking step by step photos, but if you’re interested in this simple sewing project Six Sisters’ Stuff has a really great tutorial you can check out HERE.

Filed Under: Halloween, Life As I Know It, Misc. Projects Tagged With: sewing

Update & Frozen 4th Birthday Party

July 27, 2014 by Laura Meckley 1 Comment

Hello?

::taps on screen::

Anyone out there?

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted, and sadly Felt Fun Fridays came to a screeching halt a couple months ago. If you’re a fan of my Facebook page you may have seen some of my brief updates in which I mentioned my husband got a promotion so we moved our entire household and workshop.

We were lucky in that our house was put on the market and sold in a matter of maybe 5 days. But in the midst of all that we also took an amazing cruise to Alaska. We celebrated birthdays, finished preschool, madly worked on Halloween inventory, packed, moved, unpacked, and are now trying to get settled in our new home.

Things are good, things are crazy, but they are getting back to our new “normal”.

Despite all the craziness, I’m very excited we were able to throw Kayden a “Frozen 4th” birthday party in the new house. Like many of you, I spent countless hours scanning Pinterest for all the wonderful ideas and recipes, planning this AMAZING party in my head.

At the last minute when I was near breaking point (and tears) because I wasn’t able to produce what I deemed a “pinterest worthy” party, I decided to just let it go (pun TOTALLY intended!) and be happy with what we were able to accomplish. In my mind I had these fantastic visions of a gorgeous 3-tier cake with flawless icing and amazing detail, delicious gourmet food, and a fully decorated house from room to room…sound familiar?

Frozen 4th Birthday Party

I finally realized, WHO CARES?! (I also realized I need to stay off Pinterest so much!) Kayden was super excited and pleased, so that was enough for me. Look at her smile! =) I did serve theme-related food, and luckily Kayden wanted a very simple cake (whew!) so I did a very basic two layer blue raspberry jello cake with whipped cream frosting. I’ll be honest, I didn’t like it. LOL It looked cute enough, but I MUCH prefer my jello cake to be made with strawberry jello.

Frozen Birthday Party Food

Pssst!! I thought I would share with you the table tents I made. You can get the free printable HERE. I even left some blanks so you can add whatever title(s) you choose. =)

FrozenBirthdayParty3

Decorations were pretty simple. I found some printables online and turned them into “Sticklies” with my restickable material, and made a couple Ana & Elsa window clings. I also made a giant Oalf {Restickable} Stickamajigger so they could build a snowman.

While we were in Alaska I found this awesome “Snow to Go” and the kids loved playing with bowls of that. (I actually saw something similar on Amazon and was thinking about ordering it until I found the little bag in Alaska.)

Frozen Birthday Party - Snow to Go

I already knew from experience to put them outside when playing with the Snow to Go because I tried another Pinterest project not long before that where you mix baking soda and lotion to create a snow-like substance. Lots of fun, but also lots of work to clean up! They played with their little Frozen figurine dolls and had a great time with both recipes.

Frozen Figurines in Fake Snow

I originally bought those figurines to put on Kayden’s cake, but I asked her if she wanted them on the cake or just the plain version. Much to my surprise she wanted the plain cake! (So WHY was I so worked up over this party??)

We actually had a separate celebration with my family a week prior to her Frozen Party, so I made a Coconut Cream poke cake with the figurines on top. I thought THIS cake was super delicious! (Another Pinterest recipe find!)

Frozen Coconut Cream Poke Cake

So although it wasn’t as spectacular as the party I planned in my mind, it was still perfect. Everyone had fun, and most importantly my little Snow Queen was pleased with it, and that’s all that matters. =)

 

Filed Under: Birthday, Life As I Know It Tagged With: freebie, printable

We Love Lucy

March 6, 2014 by admin 1 Comment

Meet Lucy. Our lovable Boston Terrier that likes to chew on lots of things she shouldn’t. Things such as: plastic toys, baby wipes, wooden blocks, plastic containers, shoes, pencils, Barbie feet (this was before I figured out how to upcycle disfigured Barbies!), as well as the usual rawhides, dog bones, and chew toys that she SHOULD be chewing on.

Lucy, our Boston Terrier

 Try as we might, it is HARD to keep a house picked up 100% all the time with two little kids constantly leaving things around.  Plus, it doesn’t help that Lucy must’ve been a cat in a former life and she likes to jump on tables and counters and other places you wouldn’t expect a little dog to be.

So anyway, we found ourselves in a bit of an emergency situation last weekend because of her bad habit. That Sunday morning I was trying to sleep in, which equates to the late hour of about 8AM. Andy was already up, taking care of the girls so it was nice to have the chance to just stay snuggled in. Then I felt Lucy jump into bed with me. No big deal, sometimes she will lay there a bit or walk around, jump down and run off. She wasn’t there for very long when I heard a strange noise. My ninja-mom reflexes kicked in and I jumped up looking for a towel or blanket or something to catch what I knew was coming next.

Too late.

I was super annoyed, got up and washed the bedding. At the time it didn’t seem like anything to worry about, maybe she drank too much water too fast, swallowed too much food without chewing it, etc. But as the day went on she continued to leave us little surprises around the house. =(

Finally Sunday night after we put her in her kennel for the night I decided that maybe we needed to take her to the doggie ER instead, and not wait to see our usual vet the next day. All I could think about was walking out in the morning to find her in worse shape, or even worse than that…I couldn’t risk it. She needed to be looked at. So Andy packed her up and off he went at 9PM Sunday night.

She passed the routine exam so the next step was more testing and x-rays; very costly procedures that may or may not explain her behavior. Did we want to agreed to a substantial deposit and continue? Yes, we must; something was definitely wrong with her, we needed to know, so more testing followed.

This is what they found on the x-ray:

Lucy, Boston Terrier X-Ray

See that white spot? Yeah. They thought it was the spring from a clothespin (we later discovered it was the spring from a plastic hair clip), and they would have to do surgery. Did we want to agree to the expensive estimate they provided and proceed? Of course, we have no choice, her little life depended on it. So off she went into surgery.

The good news is that surgery went well. The bad news is once they got in there they found this:

(Gross, I know, sorry!):

IMG_1454[1]

A whole string of stuff, plastic from toys, probably pieces from a wet wipe, stuffing from a stuffed animal…crap she had chewed up and swallowed days, if not weeks ago. Normally she might be able to pass the pieces, but instead it all  got entangled in her intestines. I guess the silver lining to her swallowing a metal object is that it showed up on the x-ray, otherwise they would not have found anything and we probably would not have agreed to exploratory surgery at that point otherwise. The additional bad news is they had to make THREE incisions to get it all out, which makes the recovery that much more difficult for a little dog.

We were allowed to visit her the next day and I didn’t realize how hard it would hit me when I saw her little body all stapled up and hooked to a morphine drip. I cried a little.

Lucy, Boston Terrier After Surgery

She was so sad, and scared, probably very confused and in pain. I held her for awhile and when she seemed uncomfortable they suggested we let her go back and rest. The girls had been doing good thus far, we tried to explain the situation as best you can to a 3 and 1 year old, but when she realized we couldn’t bring Lucy home with us poor Kayden exploded into tears, which got me going again. It was a rough ride home.

The next day at home was weird too. The girls go to preschool or daycare, so it’s typically I’m home alone working with Lucy. Normally she annoys me all day long wanting to go in and out, needs a drink, needs a snack…just like our kids! (Maybe I need to look into doggie daycare?!) But there was nothing all day, just silence. And as much as I WANT that most days, that day it was just sad.

I received call and financial update from the doggie hospital. Lucy was doing better, but still needed to eat. They thought she might be in better spirits and eat something if we came for another visit. They gave me the figure of our growing medical bill, as well as an estimate if we left her there another day. I cringed, but what can you do? We know she’s in good hands, she needs this, we will make it work.

Our second visit went SO MUCH BETTER than the first…she was so happy to see me, she nearly jumped off the table and into my arms! Her tail was wagging and she gave me lots of kisses! This was a huge relief.

Lucy & Laura

See?? Doesn’t she just LOOK better than the first photos?! She was happy to snuggle and have her ears rubbed.

Boston Terrier Puppy

The doctors said she was doing much better, and managing her pain well so they would take her off the morphine drip and switch to oral pain meds. We all agreed that as much as we wanted her home, it would be best for her to stick around there for at least another night. Do we agree to the next estimated bill? :::sigh::: Yes, of course. At this point what’s another couple hundred dollars, right? :-/

We received an update on Wednesday that she continued to improve, but still needed to eat something. They asked if we would come in for a visit and bring her normal food. If we could get her to eat then we could take her home. When Andy arrived they told him that she had just eaten food they offered her, so that was good news; we could take her home later that night.

Now Lucy is home, recovering as best she can with two little girls who want to help and love on her and “take care of her”.  LOL We are all happy to have her back, and we REALLY hope this will be a lesson to her to stick to her own chew toys, but really, does she have any idea what happened? Very doubtful. It has certainly been a VERY expensive lesson to us to make even more of an effort to keep the toys and things out of her reach.

And we are looking into pet insurance, because there’s only so much we can do to control this situation. We would hate to think it will happen again, but honestly, how do you know for sure?! She’s technically still a puppy, so my hope is that she will grow out of this bad habit in the VERY near future, but if she doesn’t and we find ourselves in another emergency situation it would be very nice to have some insurance.

Since we don’t currently have pet insurance everything is out of pocket. Last time I checked it was $2,300. That’s a lot of money. It saved her life, and I’d pay it twice over if I had to save her again, but…That’s a LOT of money. Money that could’ve gone towards lots of things…new summer clothes for everyone and then some. Heck, a family vacation could cost less! But it is what it is. We’d like to think we are responsible pet owners and we know this can be part of the cost of owing a pet, unfortunately.

While we are not ones to ask for donations, I am however, extra motivated to work extra hard to pay off that debt. So, I’ve made a few “I Love Lucy” fundraiser items, and if you’d like to help out please check out the I Love Lucy Fundraiser photo album on my Facebook page. I will be posting various items and all the proceeds will go towards Lucy’s vet bill and continued care. If we raise more than we need I plan to donate some funds, but haven’t decided where they will go yet, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. =)

Of course any sales made by Candyland Studio on Etsy or Amazon or even commission from my Perfectly Posh business will also make its way to that vet bill until it’s paid, so if you find something you like and you’re inclined to help out, please shop away!

Otherwise, if we appreciate all thoughts and prayers for Lucy’s speedy recovery.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Life As I Know It Tagged With: dog, family, fundraiser

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  • How to Make a Creepy Haunted Candle
  • Daniel Tiger Birthday Party with Free Printables!
  • Daniel Tiger Theme Party in the Works
  • My Glowing Pumpkin Totem Prop for Under $20
  • Burtonesque Wrought Iron Bench

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