Diaper Cake- Seuss Style

No baby shower would be complete without a diaper cake!

For the cake decorations, I used red fabric (cut into strips), white fabric (cut into strips), a soft Cat in the Hat baby toy (the topper), poms, ribbon and pins to put it all together. Originally I looked for red ribbon, but the ribbon wasn’t wide enough. I was lucky to score a remnant piece that was discounted and it also happened to be on sale for 50% off!

To make this 4 tiered diaper cake, you should create a sturdy structure. I used 122 rolled up diapers and secured them with rubberbands. Tip: this could be a good party game- guess how many diapers!

Festive Welcome

Let me begin by saying that I really dislike balloons…particularly the latex variety.  I may have been traumatized as child with a busted balloon or something.  Unfortunately for me my kids adore balloons.

I recently discovered the festive and non-threatening nature of deflated balloons.

I purchased a styrofoam wreath form and floral pins from my local Michaels and about 150 balloons from the dollar store.  150 may sound like a lot, but the balloons cost less than $10 (I had to purchase the white ones from Target since the dollar store was sold out).

I gathered four balloons in each pin and shoved it into the wreath form.  Carry on, filling in where needed around the whole wreath.  I used about 46 floral pins total.

I left a gap at the top of my wreath to add some signage.

Now guests at my Seussical Baby Shower will be welcomed with a festive wreath.  Also, since pins are used in lieu of glue, you can really take it all apart and use it again…add different colors for a different occasion perhaps?!

I think I’m starting to like balloons!

Seussical Centerpieces

Yvette’s baby shower is right around the corner! I decided to start early and create some of the decorations. I made these little centerpieces two weeks ago, my very own little Truffula Trees! I love this project because it’s very easy and you could use these same methods to create little centerpieces for many different occasions by simply changing the poms to flowers, shapes, cutouts and more!

I used poms, small pots, floral foam, hot glue, twigs and Easter “grass”.

First, I glued the poms to the twigs.

Second, I cut the foam and fit it to the pot.

Next, I hot glued the twigs and gently pushed them into the foam. For thinner twigs, I used a toothpick to start so the twig wouldn’t bend.

Lastly, I added the Easter “grass”. I didn’t glue it down, but I suppose you could if you wanted to.

That’s it! I think I will be adding colored ribbon to the rims of the pots to finish them off.

One Fish, Two Fish….

One of our 3 is expecting her third! Our very own Yvette is having a baby and I get to help plan the baby shower! Yvette gave us the party theme that she wanted, Dr. Seuss! The inspiration came from some Hallmark invites she found that said “one fish… two Fish… little brand new fish”. While the invites were found, there weren’t enough to purchase and many stores had been sold out. Bummer… the search began for Dr Seuss inspired invitations.

After a pretty extensive google search, we found this invite from PolkaDotDesign via Etsy. I purchased the design I wanted and messaged the seller with the information for the invite. I was emailed the mock-up for changes, but it was perfect! I was sent the final file and off to my local Kinko’s I went. I had Kinko’s print my invites and I found envelopes at my local craft store.

Lastly, I made my own address labels! I downloaded a free font for Microsoft Word that was very Seuss-like. I printed the addresses and cut them out. I rounded the edges and used rubber cement for the adhesive of my DIY labels. Since I had all of these materials for this particular project, I saved $15.00 by not purchasing store-bought labels.

More to come on this Seuss-tacular Baby Shower….

Weekend adventure: Part 2

As if visiting and walking trails at Joshua Tree National Park wasn’t enough, we decided to stop by Pioneertown too! We were in the neighborhood and Pappy & Harriets was calling our name! I have posted about Pappy & Harriets and Pioneertown here, we went New Years weekend this year. Also, check out the LA Times article for Joshua Tree from Sunday’s paper- they also talk about this hidden gem.

Pioneertown

When we arrived, we walked around Pioneertown with the kids. The kids enjoyed exploring the little, sleepy town.

Afterwards, we stopped to eat an early dinner at Pappy & Harriets. They have the craziest and most random decor.

I also spotted one of Summer’s favorite bands had played there before, The Entrance Band! The restaurant also doubles as a bar at night where shows are played. I will have to check that out for sure!

I had the chili and it is spectacular! Of course, I didn’t finish the bowl! Could you imagine? The leftovers tasted good the next day too!

The kids loved the atmosphere and they love to make silly faces too! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Our weekend adventure

Skull Rock

We took a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park this weekend. Purely by coincidence, the Los Angeles Times had this article in the Travel section and we looked for insight into our day trip.

A secret passage way

We stopped at the visitor center and picked up a map. We set out with a plan to walk a trial first, have lunch, then walk a second trail. The first walk we took was at Skull Rock, a 1.7 miles trail.

We climbed a few rocks and took in the view. The kids had a great time exploring.

We completed the first half of the trail and then the little one got tired and hungry. We cut the trail short and headed back to the car.

The next stop: Key View. This .25 mile trail has great panoramic views of the Coachella Valley. We had some lunch first, then walked the trail to see the sights.

We had a great time, despite the fact that it was extremely windy and a bit cold. We will be going back for sure… we have a pass now! Have you ever been? What are your favorite trails?

March Madness

A few great things about March: The time change, it’s officially Spring, St Patrick’s Day, my wedding anniversary and March Madness! For those of you not familiar, you must not watch ESPN! The “madness” is about college basketball, specifically the road to the Final Four and ultimately the National Championship. I filled in my bracket this year and was super excited to start off with so many wins! My bracket is somewhat busted, but some of my picks are still going strong. This year’s Final Four takes place in New Orleans and to get in the spirit, I decided to make some beignets.

.

Beignets are delicious little bites of deep-fried goodness, similar to a doughnut. This was my first attempt at making these and they were delicious. I’m ashamed to say, I ate like half of that pile!

I mixed the dough, you can find a great recipe from Paula Deen here, and rolled it out to 1/8″ thickness. The dough is really sticky so use lots of flour during the roll process. I used a pizza cutter and made little 2 1/4″ squares.

The next step is the frying. I heated up my oil to 370 and dropped in a few squares at a time. The first round came out great and my last batch I had the mistake of adding one to many to the oil and the oil temp dropped. That batch didn’t come out as puffy as I would have liked.

I removed them from the oil when they became a nice golden color. Next, I liberally sprinkled them powdered sugar as they were still hot.

These little treats are great with coffee! I am going to be making these again for Mother’s Day Brunch!

St. Paddy’s Success!

The Fundraiser was a success and so were all the centerpieces!  Here’s a few shots of them on the tables at the party.

I even wore my little green dressed up dollar store hat to the party.

A big Thank You to my dear friend Carrie who drove through rain and hail to help put together the centerpieces and then party the night away for a good cause!  Love you!

St. Paddy’s Hats

St. Patrick’s Day is upon us!  We will be spending the evening with more than 300 of our closest friends at a Fundraiser.

I’m not certain what I’m wearing yet, but I can say for certain that I am wearing green!

I purchased a set of 5 St. Paddy’s Day hats from the dollar store, as also seen here.   So I took a few of them and decided to dress them up.

I bought one feather bundle and a spool of glittery ribbon from Michaels and went to town with my glue gun.  The first hat sorta melted…

Whoopsie!  Forgot these puppies are plastic!  So for the next two I made sure that the glue was minimal and I tried to glue the feathers on top of each other rather than just piling glue and laying the feathers in it.

These are tiny little hats (and I’m known for having an oversized cranium) so I’ll wear mine more akin to a fascinator.

A big Thank You to my other  adorable neighbor for being my model this week as well!  Have a fun and safe St. Patrick’s Day!

Beauty-ful Tips

I know that WhoopieCookie is not typically a beauty blog, but we do love beautiful things.  I came across this image via Pinterest last week and decided to try my hand at it.  In keeping with this week’s green theme and in preparation for St. Patrick’s Day this weekend, I went with green glitter polish.

For the base color I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Peachy Keen (140).  The green glitter polish is Spoiled by Wet n Wild in Show Me the Money (S041).

After applying a couple coats of the Peachy Keen and letting it dry, I applied a thin coat of the Show Me the Money only going about 3/4 of the way down the nail.  The next coat of the green I started about 1/2 way down the nail.  I did one last coat of green just on the tips.  The thicker application at the tips creates the ombréed look.  I love ombré.  Of course you want to top it all off with your favorite top coat.  My favorite is called Out the Door.  Its a fast drying top coat for those of us who are always running “out the door” after painting our nails.  I literally painted my nails and then drove to work with the air conditioner on full blast pointed at my steering wheel!  A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!