skip to main |
skip to sidebar
So sorry to be MIA lately. We've been doing a lot of party planning around here for a lot of different events and have therefore been very busy. Last week my Little A turned five. I seriously can't even believe it! I can vividly remember seeing him lying in the hospital basinet on the day he was born and looking over at his little squinty eyes and chubby cheeks and thinking how this day was like Christmas morning, only better - and I'd get to take home the best present ever. I had to keep pinching myself to make sure it was all real!
Fast forward to five years later and my little baby is having a birthday. It's true what they say about time going by too fast and kids growing up, etc. All I have to say is that the next five years better go a whole lot slower. Seriously.
My little A has the best personality. He has a multitude of imaginary friends whom he impersonates on several occasions. He loves learning and begs me to sit down with him to do his reading lesson everyday and he's getting very good at it. He's memorized the track numbers to all of his favorite Gabba songs in the car and requests them by number each time we go for a drive. He's still a puzzle fanatic, a little comedian, rather particular about almost everything and an all around wonderful big brother. Oh, and he recently told us his favorite food is cereal.
It was this such revelation that inspired the theme for his 5th birthday party. He had originally requested a Captain Underpants party. As he's getting older and coming into his own, I really wanted this to be about HIM, so I wanted to find a way to work in the Captain Underpants theme, but was struggling with how to really run with this. We had previously thought about taking him to a local cereal bar, Mix and Munch, for his birthday breakfast, as I knew he would love the idea of mixing cereals and adding toppings, etc. Then, after seeing Brooke's early morning PJ party, I thought, hey, we could do the cereal bar thing for his party, and hold it in the morning! And that is just what we did. We started off with simple invitations with a yellow fruit loop adhered to the front of the card, inviting the guests to come in their PJ's and enjoy gobs of cereal and Saturday morning cartoons. We'd throw in a Captain Underpants reading for good measure and just all around have a good time. I tried the whole, you're turning 5 so you can invite 5 guest of your choosing thing, and it went over pretty well. With siblings, etc. there were more than 5 guests, but the effort still helped things not get too hectic with party planning and favors. It also helped him feel like he had some say in all of this, which was really fun for him (I know, it's about time right? The curse of having an artistic, meddling mom I guess...).
Little A was ecstatic about his "Captain Underpants Cereal Party" and had a blast picking out the cereal flavors ahead of time. He choose several brightly colored and fun flavored cereals because of their exciting packaging but ended up loving the tried and true Cherrios the best (and I, and his Dentist, couldn't be happier).  We set up two tables: one for the cereal and toppings, and one for the milk, orange juice, spoons, napkins, etc.  Then we let the kids go at it. It was so fun to see how excited they were. Seriously the next best thing to a kid in a candy store (and slightly healthier?). A lot of them even opted for no milk on their first trip, which made spills that much easier to clean up.  For toppings we had marshmellows, mini chocolate chips, pop rocks, chocolate covered sunflowers seeds (my fav!), strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, almonds and chocolate, carmel and marshmellow flavored syrup.  I made sure it was adult friendly with non sugar cereals such as granola with fruit toppings (which I had two generous helpings of!) and a few muffins in case there were any non-cereal lovers attending.  The kids then sat around our coffee table, which was covered in butcher paper and adorned with Captain Underpants drawings (that I quickly drew the night before) that they could then color in whilst watching "Saturday morning cartoons". We actually don't have our TV hooked up to cable but we used our instant streaming from our netflix account and watched a few of Little A's favorite cartoons (which he loved showing off by giving narration to as well as dancing in front of all of his friends and singing the theme songs. Yeah, he was pretty happy and very comfortable with being the center of attention).  After a couple of cartoon episodes the kids then all sat around to listen to a Captain Underpants reading headed up by Jon (and assisted by Little A).
We kept things pretty chill and after some unscripted play, we gathered everyone around for some cake. A giant Rice Krispie treat cake in fact.  Songs, candles, wishes...  ...and the cake was cut and distributed.   For party favors, I made little boxes for the kids to take home their very own custom cereal concoction (which, by using 12x12 inch scrapbook paper, just happened to be the perfect size for a bowl size serving of cereal).  I also made custom cereal spoons for all of the kids based on some I had seen on the web. Mine are not nearly as cool as I managed to get the wrong wire to wrap them all together and couldn't run out and get any more at midnight when were were putting them all together the night before.  ....or to enjoy at the party. Yeah, they were a hit.  When the party was over, Little A and Little O had fun picking at the rest of the cake and lounging around in their PJ's (which were custom made for the event).  In fact, Little A requested to wear his PJ's for the rest of the day and being as it was his big day, I happily obliged.  Now here's hoping the next birthday takes a very, very long time to roll around again.
Happy birthday my Little A.
I once again have to say a BIG thanks for your lovely generosity and kind hearts in reaching out to little Davy and her lovely family. Together we have raised over $2000 for this incredible little girl and I couldn't be happier. The BOGO offer is officially over but, as I mentioned, the print proceeds will continue to go to the Schultz family.
Every time I look up at our framed Lovely, Love artwork a smile comes to my face. It already held such a special place in my heart for my own family, but now there is even more love associated with it. And that is thanks to all of you.
Thank you for being so lovely.
xo Mer
I can't even begin to tell all of you lovely readers what a wonderful opportunity it's been to be in the middle of such an outpouring of love for darling Davy Jean and her family. You guys are the BEST! We've raised over $1000 and that's just in the first three days! I've heard from Ruth and she mentioned that they are now able pay an ambulance bill that they have since May of last year. Way to go you guys!
You have the rest of today and tomorrow for the bogo offer but these print proceeds will continue to go towards this special family, so the Lovely, Love never stops! And as you can see from this incredible stack of Lovely Love orders (which are x'2 as per the sale), that I'll be busy working away on getting all of you fantastic people your lovely prints. It's just me chugging away at these orders, so I appreciate your patience. I promise to get them out in as timely a manner as possible. And thanks again for letting me see your lovely hearts. Your generosity, warmth, kind comments and excitement about helping this inspiring family has really made my week. Thank you all for your Lovely Loveliness.
xo Mer
*image of Davy courtesy of the mom.
I wanted to start Valentines Day off with a lovely, love story and a new print in my shop to go along with it.
About a week ago I got an email from Ruth Schultz, wife of Scott Schultz - the creator of a little known kids show you might have heard of.... Yo Gabba Gabba. Ruth had seen my Lovely, Love My Family paper heart cut out I had made for Jon for Christmas and wanted to purchase a print of it for her husband's office. Needless to say I was completely flattered and more than happy to accommodate. In fact, her request inspired me to take it further and offer several Lovely, Love prints in various colors in my etsy shop.
After hearing from Ruth I later came across this beautiful story about her, her family and more specifically her lovely daughter, Davy. Darling Davy was born with a cleft lip and palate, congenital heart defects and several other conditions. From there I went on to read more about this amazing mother/daughter team on Ruth's own blog, the mom. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with little Davy and her talented, humorous, gorgeous, and incredibly strong mother, Ruth. Her blog tells the story of Davy's growth, trials and triumphs and is filled with hope amidst weariness, and happiness amidst adversity...all while being shared in Ruth's transparent, down to earth, day-in-the-life-of writing style. Ruth is also a mother to three happy, healthy, hyper and hilarious boys, Max, Oliver and Harper. Just about every post concerning these little guys makes me smile with familiarity (and I think I've even spotted one or two or all three of them on our favorite little show ;)). Needless to say, Ruth's a busy woman.
 After catching up on Ruth and Davy, I knew right away that these Lovely, Love prints had to be for them. It just felt right. So I have decided that the proceeds from all of the Lovely, Love prints in my shop will go to Davy and her family for things such as hospital, medical, and doctor bills, medications, supplies, etc. (something I've since learned that they are always in need of, despite the success of the show). And to kick it off, I've decided to start spreading the love around by offering ONE FREE PRINT with every LOVELY, LOVE print purchase...all week long!! Just indicate which print you want for free in the comment section at check out and I'll be sure to mail them both off to you.    A very Happy Valentines day to all of you!! And get on over to the shop, and start your week off right by sharing a little love.
xo
Mer
(all Ruth and Davy photos courtesy of the mom)
*** And there are more prints now back in the shop! So sorry, I wasn't up to speed on things when Odeedoh posted about this, but now there should be plenty...so keep on spreading the love!
Can I just say that any holiday that uses an overwhelming amount of saturated reds and pinks in it's celebration is OK by me?
As I was going through my Valentine inspiration files this year I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the powerful, strong colors popping off the pages. I was inspired...and the artist in me just want to dip my brush in and explore the variation and intensity of the wonderful hues.
So for this years Valentines cards, that is just what Little A and I did. We jumped right into a little "Color Theory 101", and ran with it.
I started us out by going through my acrylic craft paints, choosing a variation of beautiful reds (wine, cranberry, tomato, blood, etc.) and then threw in orange to warm things up and white to push us a little into the pink zone.
I then drew out a grid for us to place the various, scrumptious hues.  Little A got right to work. He was very interested in blending colors so we got to the pinks right away. From there I had him mostly work with one color at a time, blending here and there with other colors if he chose to. I was sure to point out the amazing, subtle variations that one hue, RED, could have. I also worked right alongside him, helping him fill in random squares throughout the grid. He got really into it...taking things pretty seriously (as you can see here). In no time at all, the entire grid was filled with delicious, eye popping colors. It really was a little mini work of art. In fact, I almost hated the idea of cutting this up into little Valentines...I almost wanted to frame it and hang it on the wall!  Well cut away we did (but not until I scanned it in), creating little mini custom works of art for each of his classmates and teachers.  We then addressed the cards and fit them into business card size vellum envelopes (that I've had hanging around, and dying to use, for forever).  Of course no Valentine would be complete without a little candy, so we placed a decadent dove chocolate cherry swirl heart in each one (and can I just say yummy!).  I then added little conversation heart sayings to the front of each envelope using some of my favorite pens ( these seriously come in SO handy. I'm addicted...and you will be too).  Little A and I had a wonderful afternoon creating these. In fact he's asked me a couple times since if we could make more valentines...  and hey...I'm all for spreading the love around...
...so much so that we have created a downloadable pdf version here for you to use if you don't have time to make one of your own. Just click here to get started.
** All downloads are for personal use only. Please do not use for resale, or commercial production.
When Jon and I were dating he made me a bouquet of paper tiger lily's for Valentine's that I absolutely fell in love with (a great way to score some serious points with a budding art student, don't you think?!). And it so happens that I fell in love with him as well...and things only continued to bloom from there. It's now sort of become our thing - in the past nine years (whew! I know, can you believe it!) he's given me various lovely botanical creations in paper, copper, you name it.
In spite of all of this, nothing could have prepared me for the absolutely incredible paper flower creation, inspired by paper artist Jen Stark, Jon gave me this past Christmas for our $0 gift exchange. When I opened the package I was completely speechless. I had no idea he'd gone to such lengths to create such a stunning and beautiful piece of art. I'm so enamored with it.
We're now trying to figure out how to hang/display it. I'm not sure if we want to keep all the extra paper that fans out into a spiral or if we want to somehow cut it off (Jon wasn't sure so he left it for me to decide). I like it...but then I also like the idea of the focus just being on the flower. What do you guys think? Trim it, or leave it? And how to hang it? (All the petals are cut out from the paper beneath. No paper is, at this moment, adhered to another).
Jon and I decided we would loosely follow last year's $0 gift giving theme for Christmas 2010. Meaning: we would try create the gift with little or no $ but spending a little on supplies, etc. was allowed, if needed. I decided on a simple paper cut heart with a little saying that was meaningful to our family.
Our little family has a tradition of cranking up the music and joining together in an impromptu dance party. We do this whenever anyone initiates it. Someone cranks up a song and all are expected to stop whatever we are doing and go over to where the music is (typically on Jon's computer) and dance, dance, dance! One of our all time favorite dance party songs is the Yo Gabba Gabba's "Lovely, Love my Family" perfromed by the Roots.
So it only seemed fitting to use this song title for my gift. Jon loved it and we added it to our ever expanding wall of art (which is incredibly difficult to photograph well due to our "napping house" quality of light we've got going on here as well as the iridescent paint that the previous tenant put on the walls - which is very reflective...and I'm too lazy to repaint it...). I also gave Jon a book of our 2010 Christmas photo shoot. There were so many great photos, thanks to Jordan, that needed to be recorded and enjoyed for years to come. I hadn't completed the heart cut out when I ordered the book so I simply added the title using type (although I wish it had the custom cut out letters).  The book did not fit into the $0 gift theme but I have to say I'm pretty proud of how much I did pay for it. I managed to purchase a $50 blurb voucher via Jasmere for $22 (score!) back in October. I was able to get a 12x12 inch book with the voucher and I couldn't be happier. I did end up paying a little more for matte pages, but with the discount, it was all still very affordable.
What a great way to record the happiness of this past year!
Happy 2011! I hope all of you are rested and rejuvenated after spending time with friends and family and ready to take a on a new year. I love this time of year...it's a great time for change, for renewal and for reflection. And don't you just love to look back and reflect on the last year? When putting together my 2010 Christmas cards I just couldn't believe how much time has flown. My boys are getting so big and life is speeding by. This year I really want to do all I can to slow down and simplify - so that I don't miss the most important things in life - such as taking more moments to really spend quiet time with my littles, enjoying their individual personalities and cultivating their unique talents. Having said that, I've found myself entering the new year with a very full plate. I've got a number of exciting projects already in the works that will keep me pretty busy this month, but I'll do my best to stay up to speed here on mermag, and check in when I can.
Thank you all for a wonderful 2010 year! Here's to another one ahead!
Here are a few other origami box ideas along with a simple tree ornament I gave out as a gift this year.
Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas Eve while you are putting in It's a Wonderful Life and sipping peppermint hot chocolate as you wrap up all your last minute gifts for your loved ones. Hope your season continues to truly be merry and bright!
(Oh, and while you're gobbling up your Trader Joe treasures, be sure to check out Marigold's and A Creative Mint's bag wrapping ideas inspired by this post. So great!)
|
Posts
