that's a wrap

I haven't made a beach bucket themed gift in quite a while. It's been a very long winter! So, when one of my friends had a little baby boy, I knew I wanted to make one for her. I found a navy beach bucket and used vinyl letters that I bought at Staples for the babies monogram. I tucked in an adorable monogramed beach towel some tiny sunglasses, flip flops and a hat. This was a fun gift to put together for a family that loves to spend time on the beach at the Cape.

spring

Today is the first day of Spring! I snapped this picture yesterday of a tulip on my mantle. I recently read that tulips can grow longer, even after they have been cut, because they reach for the sun. This tulip was completely reaching out over the mantle towards the sun. Just beautiful. I just love winter, but I am looking forward to pretty flowers and warmer days. When I was teaching one of the parents always made rice krispie treat nests filled with Cadbury mini eggs on the first day of Spring. I thought it was a sweet tradition and it was one that her kids always looked forward to. Do you have any fun first day of spring celebrations? I would love to hear about them.

st. patrick's day in pictures

Well we started celebrating St. Patrick's Day on Saturday with a cocktail party for some friends and then just kept right on celebrating until the actual day on Monday. I'm just now getting the house back in order! On Saturday we had an Irish cocktail party. I made Irish Stew, Pulled Pork with Guinness, Smoked Salmon on Brown bread and mini shepherds pie. I also made Bailey's rice pudding, Baileys sugar cookies, Guinness Pretzel truffles, Lucky Charm treats, and Car Bomb Cupcakes! If you would like the recipes for any of these please feel free to email me and I will send them along. I found most of them from my St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board. I decorated simply with lots of white flowers and gold candles and for favors we gave each couple an individual serving of Lucky Charms with two green spoons attached. My husband also had an Irish Whiskey tasting in the basement.

 

 

On Sunday my family came over for Irish Stew. I thought it would be fun to make a centerpiece, for my teen-aged nephews, with some "lucky" lottery tickets attached to balloons.

 

On Monday the kids woke up to their new shoes and muddy leprechaun footprints! We had rainbow fruit salad and cereal before they headed off to school.

 

 

Of course we had to send in a little treat for their teachers and classmates.

 

 

I couldn't let the day get away without a picture of my sweet kids in their Irish sweaters.

I hope everyone had a fun St. Patrick's Day (or weekend like us!)

For each petal on the shamrock
This brings a wish your way -
Good health, good luck, and happiness
For today and every day.

st. patrick's day prep

When you marry a man who was born and reared in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day becomes a big deal! I love all holidays and St. Patrick's Day is no exception, and it bothers me that the only decorations I can ever find are ugly, plastic, and frankly rather untasteful. So, over the years I have taken it upon myself to make my own. I thought I would share some things that I have made this year, and some fun things that I have found. I saw a project that involved making gold polka dots on champagne glasses. I loved them and thought they would be perfect for our cocktail party, but when I started making them I didn't  love how they were turning out. So, instead I made my own stencil, using a Martha Stewart shamrock punch and some gold paint specifically made for glass. I picked up the glasses at the dollar store and got started, I love how they turned out. Before our cocktail party I am going to rim each glass with some gold sprinkles.

For the door, I found this idea and was inspired. Again, I found the wreath frame at the dollar store. After I cut off all of the green, shining plastic I was left with a metal Shamrock frame. I glued some cardboard to the frame and then placed moss on top. I love how it turned out.

 

 

Today when I was out shopping I found these fun picture props at Old Navy. I thought they might be fun to use for our cocktail party.

 

Since we don't generally have sugary cereal in the house, for a treat on St. Patrick's Day the children get Lucky Charms. I was so excited when I saw these limited addition Lucky Charms on Amazon. I haven't seen them in the stores, so I am happy I ordered some in time.

 

 

Since we have a tradition that the leprechauns (who are known to be cobblers) bring the children new shoes for St. Patrick's day, I was beyond thrilled when I saw these shoes. I couldn't resist ordering them for our children.

 

 

Photo Courtesy of Chasing Fireflies



 

that's a wrap

As my children grow older, I am becoming much more aware of all of their "stuff." Recently, my daughter was invited to a birthday party for a dear friend, who also happens to be one of four children in her family. When I asked her mom about a gift, she suggested a special day out for the girls. I thought this was brilliant, a gift of making memories. After brainstorming with my daughter she decided she wanted a "girls day out" with her friend, that included getting their nails painted and having lunch at a restaurant. So, on her friends birthday, we gave her a little menu where she was able to make some choices: like whether she wanted her nails OR toes painted, what she would like to have for lunch, her favorite kind of chocolate truffle, etc. I put the menu in a little envelope and taped on a tiny pencil for her to use. I also included a tiny bottle of nail polish and a mini chocolate truffle lip-gloss.  I attached a mini whisk to the outside and wrote "whisking you a very happy birthday!"  We went with a cooking theme since that was the theme for her friends birthday party the following weekend.
Our day out was a lot of fun! After nails the girls got to choose one chocolate truffle at Godiva. Then they rode the escalator and sampled perfumes at Nordstrom's and finally had bagels for lunch. I took lots of photos throughout our special day and put them into an album which we gave her friend at her birthday party. It was a fun gift and now my daughter is thinking that she would like something similar for her own birthday in April.