Daddy's Little Dalmatians

I know I've shared these before, but I think they're awesome so I thought I'd do a little tutorial.

These adorable little Dalmatian costumes were so easy to make, and perfect since Daddy is a Firefighter!

All you need...

• White Shirt (I purchased shirts at Walmart for $3 each)
• White Tights
• White Tulle
• White Ribbin (I chose sheer ribbon)
• Red Ribbon (I went with sheer ribbon, again)
• Black Felt
• White Felt
• Fabric Glue
• Headband

I made these in 2010, so I'm having trouble finding more of the "progress" pictures.

I cut "spots" of black felt, and used fabric glue, to glue them all over the shirts, and tights.  I had to make two costumes, so of course you may only need to glue them onto one shirt and one pair of tights.  :o)

I made "tutus" by wrapping strips of white tulle around a white ribbon I had measured to fit my girls' waists, with a few inches left on each end to tie them with.  I just used a basic "ribbon tutu" tutorial.  I looked them up on YouTube since I need to see things to really "get" them.  It was super easy.

My Mother in Law made the ears and the tails.  She put a strip of white felt around the headband, and then cut ears out of the black felt and glued them on.  I added some of the black felt spots to the finished headbands with my fabric glue.

The tail was simply a strip of white felt, but into a bit of a long triangle shape, and sewn together with a long seam.  Put them right side out to hide the sewn seam, and I tied them on to the ribbon at the end of the tutu.  Of course I added spots to the tail as well.

For the collars, I took the sheer red ribbon, and cut them to make a necklace.  With plenty of room as not to make the girls uncomfortable, they don't need to be "chokers."  I found some plain silver circle jewelry (these came with silver chains,and clear plastic "bubbles" to put over whatever you put on the silver...but all I wanted were the silver circles) at Michael's craft store, and added the first letter of their names with scrapbook stickers!  SO easy!

We added shiny black shoes, and I think they were absolutely adorable!  By far my favorite Halloween costumes for my kiddos!

Coffee & Candles

I saw a pin on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and thought "Why have I never thought of that?!"

I do that a lot.  :o)

This pin said simply to put candles in a dish or vase filled with coffee beans.  When the candles are lit, the beans warm up and release a delicious scent!

So simple, and I love it!

Bonus, it didn't cost me a thing since I already had everything on hand.  :o)

I'm going to get some vanilla or cinnamon scented candles (Oooh, or maybe pumpkin!) for Fall and do this around the house, it makes a great centerpiece for the table or a buffet.

This would make a great gift too, fill a dollar store pillar vase with coffee beans and put a candle in...  $2 plus the cost of the coffee beans.  Inexpensive and beautiful! 

Under the Sea - Little Mermaid Birthday Party

So, I already showed you these adorable Octo-Pops here...but I thought I'd share a few more pictures from my big girls 6th birthday party!  She chose a Little Mermaid theme, and we're big Disney fans here so I was all over that! 

Decor was bought mostly at The Dollar Tree, Walmart, and Party City! 

I did order the lei's (the blue and purple, shown above) from Oriental Trading, when they were having a sale and free shipping a few months ago.  I also got some bubbles for the treat bags from there too.  I still have tons left over for future parties or Halloween!

Pin the tiara on Ariel, and of course we had to have The Little Mermaid on in the living room, turned down super low.

I set out some Little Mermaid books for the kids to look at, and some puzzles to play with as well.

I was so happy with how the cupcakes turned out!  They were SO easy!

I made food labels with paint sample cards, and stickers!

"Clams" were simply vanilla wafers, with strawberry frosting and a pearl sprinkle!

Fish 'n' Chips!

(that empty bowl there, was filled with dip before the party, I just didn't want it sitting out any longer than needed)

Ahhh, the cupcakes.  I actually just used boxed cake mix.  Vanilla and Devil's Food Chocolate.  Yum!

I frosted them with three different colors of frosting, to sort of mimic the ocean. 

I used the new Duncan Hines Frosting Creations, in Caramel, Mint Chocolate, and Cotton Candy.   The colors were PERFECT!  I crushed up graham crackers to put on top of the caramel frosting to be "sand."  On the green and blue frostings, I put green and blue sugar crystal sprinkles to add a little sparkle, and added some pearl sprinkles as well.  My daugher LOVED those, she couldn't believe you could eat them.  To make them extra yummy, I also used a seashell mold I had on hand and poured melted white chocolate into, to make the starfish and sea shells.  I was only going to put them on random cupcakes, but thought that might cause a problem with the kiddies, so I put them on every single one.  I made 48 cupcakes, and they were ALL gone by the next morning.  There were only 2 left and my kids ate them for breakfast, haha!

When we went to Party City to check out their mermaid selection, my daughters wanted to go see the Halloween area.  My husband took them over and they came running back to me with that trident.  They were SO excited that it looked like King Triton's, except that it was black and red.  No problem a little spray paint couldn't fix!  I already had some Rustoleum hammered finish in gold that worked perfectly!

Happy birthday, big girl!

For activities during the party, we had a water table set up outside.  We purchased a few bags of fish/sea creatures from the Dollar Tree, and some 2-packs of mermaid dolls from there as well.

We also filled a small, clam shell shaped pool with play sand.  I put some treasures in the sand and supplied shovels and sifters so the kids could dig for buried treasure.  Pirate coins, jewels, etc. 

Inside, we had some green pipe cleaner "sea weed" and beads to make bracelets!