Party Preview!

Lydia's "3 Under the Sea"party was a huge fun success. I am really worn out....and getting of to South Dakota to work on an indian reservation for a week. This will be the longest that I have been away from Lydia and I don't know if I can stand it. We may not have good internet or phone connections so communication may be spotty. I can't wait to share all the info about the party and I am certain I will have a lot to share from my trip. For now, here is a teaser part picture. Happy Birthday Baby Girl! 3 years ago today you changed our lives for the better forever.

Party Planning in the Dark!

The week before Lydia's party is always crunch time for me. Usually, I have just barely finished school for the summer when we leave for the beach, putting me home with just one week to get everything together. This year I had strep throat the last week of school, so NOTHING was accomplished before the beach. I jumped into birthday mode  after we returned (to  a very rainy Knoxville) on Sunday. The rain continued, the wis picked up and Tuesday more than half of the city (65%) lost power.  I spent Wednesday and Thursday producing my to do list by what did not need power and thinking it would come on at any moment.  I painted picture frames (in the dark), I made Lydia's yearly scrap book (in the dark) and I crafted some hair accessories (pictured above....in the dark). I also scratched a LOT off of my to do list because it just want possible.  It is now Friday and my neighborhood is still in the dark. Thankfully, Lydia's daycare did not loose power. My mom got in mid week and she has power. We think our venue for her party has power (so glad we didn't plan this one for our house!) So we have been able to manage, but the lack of per has been a major bummer. Everything takes extra thought and time because I am either working in the not so bright rainy day light on my studio, our trying to take EVERY tool and supply for a project across town to my moms place. Inevitably I forget some key ingredient and everything gets more challenging. Adding more fun, I an leaving on a week long mission trip TOMORROW! I need to pack but that is proving difficult in the dark! Think kind thoughts for all the KUB folks trying to fix our power. Fingers crossed that we aren't heading into a long dark weekend.

Multi Colored Chocolate Creations (on the cheap)!

I have come to real enjoy working with different colored chocolate to create fun themed foods for my parties, examples on the cupcakes here, on the retirement cake here, and on a cheesecake here. I almost always have some of the white and dark chocolate candy coating in my pantry. I have also used the multi-color chocolate melt chips and really like them, but I tend to work like an art person and want tons of colors. That gets expensive and takes up a lot of storage space buying the pre-colored melts in all the colors I want...plus they don't really MAKE all the colors I want so even when I buy them, i end up trying to mix new colors! I have experimented with tinting white chocolate coating using Wilton cake decorating colors (just what I had on hand). But adding any water based liquid to the chocolate makes it get chunky and had to work after mixing for a VERY short time.

So a friend who gave me some really great sea themed chocolate molds for Christmas. (How wonderful was she to know I chose an Under the Sea theme for Lydia's birthday bash AND to anticipate ....and understand my interest in chocolate candy!) I had resigned myself to making only white chocolate sea creatures, but then I did a little experiment...and it WORKED! I stumbled on a way to make small batch candy shapes in any number of tints and shades.... Using just white chocolate coating and food coloring (stuff I already owned)!!!

Here is the process.

1. Start with white candy coating. Spoon melted coating into a plastic baggie. Cut the corner off the bag, so it functions like a pastry bag. Squeeze chocolate into the mold to fill about half of one mold ....don't fill it all the way

2. Use a tooth pick to place some food coloring into the melted chocolate inside the mold (I used the Wilton brand thick gel kind that is usually for tinting frosting).

3. Quickly mix with your tooth pick to change the chocolate color. The chocolate will get thick really quickly as the water reacts the chocolate coating. You want to stop mixing before it starts getting chunky. I tried to spread it where I wanted it in my mold.  Because I had clear molds, I could look at them from the back to test if I liked the mixed result while I was working with it. Once you are happy, or when it starts gettomg thick, fill the rest of the mold with chocolate coating from your piping bag. Don't mix this in, just let it fill up the mold and sit on the surface.

Using this technique, I made orange gold fish and pink and yellow shells. I used the same, "fill hafway and mix with a tooth pick" technique to make some white with dark chocolate swirl shells. Mixing two chocolates did not produce the thick chunky issue, so I had more working tome.  I even did a few where I filled halfway, swirled in sprinkles, spread that mixture in the mold, and then filled with plain chocolate to create speckled start fish. You can also see one plain boring all whit sea horse.. or maybe you can't... he is a LOT harder to notice without any colors swirled in!  I am SO glad I did NOT make them all plain!

Using this method, I liked that I could work them one at a time, so I could stop at any time, instead of having to finish all that needed that color. The weird  thick drying also was less of an issue because of working one at a time. Finally, the artist in me got to shade each sea shell, adjusting the color to the look I wanted instead of being limited to what came in the candy coating package.... all using materials (white candy coating and food coloring) that I keep on hand in my pantry!

Fabulous Frames from Thrift Store Finds!

At Lydia's Birthday parties, I like to set out lots of pictures.  Each year I have done a birthday themed photoshoot prior to her birthday and then put those pictures on display at the party.  (You can see previous photoshoot pictures from the butterfly party here, from the Alice in Wonderland Tea party here, and some of the pictures for the Under the Sea party here.) I end up wanting several frames that also coordinate with the theme.  Buying new frames is getting expensive, so I set out to up-cycle some thrifted frames.

 I looked for ones with a wide decorative boarder, good glass and a back support so they can stand up on a table if needed.

 The dark frame in the back is a pricey one that I fell in love with.  But after finding the teal thrifted frame, I think that with a little paint and elbow grease, I can return the other one and keep my money.

 I used a simple paint and wipe technique that is one of my favorites for adding instant depth and dimension.  First I slapped on a quick coat of brown acrylic paint.  Work fast, you don't want the paint to dry!  When I say slap the paint on, I mean it.  Quick and thick is beast.

 Next, you either wash off the paint or rub off the paint.  I stuck it under the sink first and let the water do the work.  The other option is to use a barely damp sponge and wipe the paint off the surface.  The running water will take off more paint.  The almost dry sponge will only take it off the surface. 

 I did a variation of this technique on three frames.  A silver frame with purple paint, a gold frame with teal paint, and the teal frame with brown paint.  Generally I like to use paint in a color that is darker than the background of the object, so that it looks like it is darker in the crevices.

 That white frame in the top corner ended up being the the easiest of all the frames  reworked today and it is by far my favorite of them all.  I wanted a beachy feeling and had some sandpaper on hand for an activity at Lydia's "Under the Sea" birthday party.  Well, what is more beachy than sand and if it is in paper form, so much better!

 I cut a sheet of sandpaper to fit my frame.  This frame happened to have a decorative border around the glass, so I just trimmed right to that.  I just glued the sandpaper to the frame and it was time to decorate!

I already had a bunch of beachy feeling doodads lying out for decorations at the "Under the Sea Party".  I used some wired net gold ribbon that was on close out after Christmas one year.  I twisted in some teal and some thinner gold ribbon salvaged from a Christmas present.  I decided I liked the ribbons on the corner better than in the center top of the frame, but felt like I needed something to balance it out.  So I glued down 3 small starfish that I bought at Oriental Trading.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this frame.. almost as much as I love the little girl in the picture!

Mermaid Doll in the Making

I am finally finished with Lydia's mermaid doll, with only days to spare before her birthday.

Above is the finished doll and below is what she looked like when I found her at the thrift store for $5. 

She was dressed like a clown, but I thought she would make a much better mermaid!

When I removed her costume I discovered really weird shoulders, curved pointy boots, and long green tubes that made up the clown pants.

One pant leg became the tube of the mermaid tail.  The other pant leg was cut up to make the top, cover the shoes, and make puffy sleeves to disguise the shoulders.

 Since then I have been hand sewing embellishments worthy of a mermaid princess.

The tail has taken the most time, sewing ribbon in ruffled layers to add dimension and hide some stitching.

I have probably spent more time on this one doll costume, than I did on all three mermaid costumes worn by myself, Lydia, and Aunt Jen for Halloween 2008.

 One more picture of Lydia as a mermaid in 2008.

 Now two of Lydia in mermaid garb circa 2011.  This time I used photoshop instead of a needle and thread to make the transformation.  I a still working out the kinks in these images.  These started out as the fairy pictures from our trip to the local nature center.  I altered the color on Lydia's clothing and then placed in images that I got off of Graphics Fairy. 

We will not be wearing these, or any, costumes at Lydia's party but I always like to have framed pictures that fit the theme scattered around. I have a few beachy ocean pictures and then these mermaid pictures.

Happy Father's Day!

 These go out to all the dads, grandpas, pop pops, and grampys who have touched our lives.

 As the sand says, "Happy Father's Day!"

Photoshoots at the Beach!

 Last year was our first year going to this particular beach.  We found this great local seafood place, Nicks, that is so far off the beaten path it is referred to as "Nick's in the Sticks."  It is the kind of place where the staff call the regulars by name, they serve amazing local seafood, there is a view of the water, and there was NO WAIT!  They also had this old boat down by the water, perfect for a beachy photo shoot.  All of this was a complete and blessed surprise last year.  This year was equally wonderful and I think our picture turned out great.

Above is the picture of all the girls this year.

 I couldn't resist comparing it with last year's picture.  Apparently, they added a white boat this year.  I didn't remember two last time, but I could have been mistaken.

Here are Kelly's girls this year and a picture below from last year.

 Back to this year, here is a good one of Sophie and Lydia hugging.  It is so nice that these kids get along and look out for each other.  This was the first year that Lydia was kind of one of the kids, running upstairs to play on their own and generally just having fun.

 A few more of Lydia by herself with the boat. 

 Not much photo-shopping needed on these pictures.  I bumped up the brightness and the contrast just a little.  I have also been playing with the lens flare (filters, render, then lens flair).  It just seemed to fit these sunny beachy pictures and I really like the round solar flare details that popped up in random places.

So, tonight we are packing and driving home tomorrow.  It has been a wonderful trip, SUCH a WONDERFUL trip! I am so happy to have these pictures (and many more that I will share soon) to look back on when school starts and the weather turns cold.