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Sunday’s Snippets: Highlights

November 6, 2011 8 Comments

If you’re new to Oopsey Daisy, welcome! For me, Sundays are all about family! So each Sunday, I take a break from my usual crafting routine to share a few glimpses of our everyday lives. This is nothing glamorous about our days, but I treasure them nonetheless.

 

Hello my friends. I just walked through every room in the house and adjusted all of our clocks. (Of course there is always that one clock I seem to forget!) I am almost giddy at the thought of that extra hour of sleep tomorrow. Thank you, Daylight Savings! Tonight I feel bone-weary. The holiday season must be just around the corner because I feel it! That sense of busy-bee-ness has hit! Surely I am not the only one… Are your days filled with busy goodness too?

This week has been full of random highlights, and I will share just a few:

Can you believe that I convinced Mr. Oopsey Daisy to dress up for Halloween?

I feel like a lucky lady that he would wear these silly costumes with me! He is one hot spud!

 

Little Man soaked up every moment in his Halloween costume.

(I must confess that I finally hid his Buzz Lightyear costume after Halloween!)

 

We have had a couple of big snowstorms already this week.

This is the first time Little Man remembers snow, so we’ve been having lots of fun playing in it!

 

We celebrated Grandma’s birthday. What a sweet lady! I am so blessed to call her my Mother.

My sister Kara came to visit… LOVE her! Uncle John also came to visit, and he kept his nephews very, very busy during his stay!

Mr. Oopsey Daisy has been traveling a lot lately, so I have been playing single parent a bit.

But this sweet Little Man sure does take care of his mommy!

What have you bee up to lately?

Did you enjoy your extra hour of snoozes this morning?

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Sunday’s Snippets: Surprise 80s Birthday Bash

September 25, 2011 9 Comments
Last weekend I turned 30 years old.
Yes, the big 3-0. I had been dreading this milestone for quite some time because even though I feel as young as ever, something about the number just sounds awful. I had hoped that the day would pass quickly and quietly with as little freaking-out as possible.
But instead, I got to party in style!
I pride myself on sensing surprises. But I have to admit–I had NO CLUE that this one was coming. Little did I know that weeks ago, a Party Planning Committee (my husband, sister, and Mom!) had formed. And they had been busy!

Last Friday night I walked into a hot 80’s-themed birthday party!

 
The night before my birthday Mr. Oopsey Daisy announced he was taking me on a birthday date. Nothing about this seemed odd to me. We typically celebrate our birthdays with some kind of date night. This night was nothing too special. We ran some errands. A bit of dinner. Hubby convinced me to eat a vanilla/chocolate twist ice cream cone at Jason’s Deli, so I obliged.
When we got out to the car, my sweet hubby blindfolded me! He drove me around town, but I had a sneaky suspicion that we were getting close to our house. And I was right.
He carried me piggy back right up to my very own doorstep where he took off my blindfold, and I was greeted by an enormous, “SURPRISE!” My house had been turned into an 80’s party zone, and about 40 friends and family were decked out in 80’s clothes. I didn’t even recognize half of them!

I was given 5 minutes to change clothes to fit in with the party. And thanks to my sis, I had an 80’s outfit ready to go.I rocked a butterfly top, pink mini skirt with leggings, animal print sandals, and a side ponytail with one of my old purple hair bows!
My family had decorated with some of my old Care Bears and stuffed animals as centerpieces. Everyone was given slap bracelets (yes, they DO still exist!) and glow sticks. They had also plastered 80’s posters everywhere. Nothing says 80’s like Michael Jackson’s moon walk! My Mom even made not one but TWO Care Bear birthday cakes. I really was obsessed with Care Bears back in the day…
Prizes were given out for the best dressed, and my sister had a few fun games…
* “Guess the Lyrics” to 80’s songs.
* “Guess that 80’s movie” with props to jog our memories!
* You know you were born in the 80’s if…
We even had E.T. projected on the side of the house on a sheet! While we cleaned up the party, the boys were very well entertained.
Yes, I am now the dreaded 30.
But I feel so blessed.
I have incredible family and friends. Life is good.
What were the best parts of your week?
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Seven Seas Party {Mockingbird Cottage}

August 30, 2011 4 Comments

I am thrilled to introduce my very talented guest to you today!

The lovely Melissa is the mom of one of my darling little first graders from years past! I have kept in touch with their cute family over the years… And now I get to share some of her creativity with you!

*************

Hey there! My name is Melissa.

I’ve known Alison for about four years now, ever since my little girl was in her first grade class. She is still my daughter’s all time favorite teacher! So many fun memories! ? I have been a “Mommy Blogger” for almost four years (mostly recording my favorite funny moments) and finally have started another blog to fuel my creativity and do more to beautify my home. I have many projects to share! My new blog is Mockingbird Cottage. Stop in and say hello sometime!

Today, I am excited to share with all of you my latest labor of love!

My son, Chase, just turned seven years old. He is always looking for an adventure and is absolutely obsessed with animals, sea creatures, and maps. So, I thought that The Seven Seas would be a perfect theme for his adventure-style birthday party.

It was a really fun party!

I made the invitations tri-fold style and tied them with rope. No envelopes needed! I absolutely love this paper from Three Bugs In A Rug! It was so perfect for Chase’s theme. Such cute paper!

Here is a glimpse of all sides of the invitation.
When you open the top flap, there are all the details of the party. In the middle, there is a poem I wrote about a Seven Seas Adventure.
Here are the words to the poem:
Ahoy Mateys!
Seven years to Celebrate,
Since Chase became our young first mate.
Seven Seas are calling him now
His sights are set toward the bow
The days spent at Port six cruised by way too fast
But new adventures await as he raises his sail to the mast
Chase invites you to join the crew as his vessel sets sail
Exploring depths of the ocean where sea creatures dwell
We’ll dive right in to games and cake
Wear a swimsuit and sunscreen so you don’t bake
The day is Monday August 15th from 2-4 o’clock
(Modern day time)
Make sure you do naut get land locked and get left behind!
Having you on board will be sure to please
We’ll see you at the Seven Seas!
Some party decorations to welcome Chase’s friends:
A party store made up these darling balloons of a fish and an octopus. We loved them!
(And there were tears shed by my two youngest when they finally popped a few days later.)

 


I thought it would be fun to use our chalkboard to copy a fish market sale.
I loved making this banner so much! I again used 3 Bugs In a Rug paper and used skewers behind the paper to make sailboats as part of his name display. This was my favorite party project!
My kids and I made newspaper sailboat hats for all the party guests.
Easy-Peasy! (and cheap!)
The crew had to find their sailor hats in Davy Jone’s Locker. Then all of the other decorations for the table mostly came from things I had around the house or we made together as a family for this party.
I wanted to put a banner on the front of the table and then I thought of the idea as making it as Shark teeth. The tablecloth is made of old map tissue paper. We put a couple of fish in some fish bowls and added around any marine life toys we could find. Again, I let my kids help do this!
The party games were fun, and didn’t cost anything!
The joy of playing in the water in the summer-time! ?
Dribble-Dribble Dunk! was a big hit! It is just like duck-duck goose, except the players take a pitcher of water around the circle and dribble a drop down each person’s neck and until they dunk someone! The giggles were so great with this game!
After Chase’s friends went home, we had dinner with our family that evening.
All of the food was named after one of the Seven Seas. We had octopus of the Black Sea, Caspian Sea with traveling Swedish fish, Persian Gulf Shrimp, Pirate Ships of the Indian Ocean, Sea Shells off the Adriatic Sea, Chicken of the Red Sea, and Ocean Water from the Mediterranean.
I tried to make some grilled chicken and pineapple to look like a fish. It was very, very simple; and so yummy too!
My birthday boy loved it, so that’s what makes me happy! ?
Cupcakes were super-simple. Blue frosting with gummy sharks and fish. There wasn’t time for anything fancier. ?
Thanks so much Alison for letting me be a guest on your blog and share a thousand photos!
I’ll be posting more ideas on my new blog soon, so be sure and watch for that! I’d love you all to visit!
 
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Mr. One-derful Birthday

May 31, 2011 9 Comments
Yikes!
Is anyone else feeling a bit of a 3-day weekend hangover?
I am feeling a little sluggish getting back to regular everyday life.
But summer is here, my friends!!
(Knock on wood, right??)
We had a lovely weekend with family in town–all celebrating my sweet nephew’s first birthday. My sister threw him a sweet birthday party, and the theme was
Mr. One-derful

Super cute, right??
I made some of these little party hats as centerpieces. We guessed (and we were oh-so-right!) that this sweet little guy wouldn’t actually wear a hat on his head. Instead, we used them as centerpieces. Doesn’t this just scream “BOY”??
I made these in Lil’ Luna style…
*I used circle dot stickers as polk-a-dots
* I added some paper pinwheels with glittered cardstock 1’s.
* My favorite part is the ruffled crepe paper around the edges. Is there anything more lovely than ruffled crepe paper??
Using my Cricut, I cut out the fabric for the birthday boy’s onesie, and ironed it on.
(If you’d like to know more about how to do this, see this tutorial.)

 

The birthday party was SO sweet! So many fun moments.

 

And is there anything more precious than watching a one-year-old try to eat their own birthday cake?? There was cake EVERYWHERE by the time this little guy was done!
Have a happy day!
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Readers’ Request: Create Your Own Subway Art

March 4, 2011 20 Comments
Subway art is hot, right?!
Well even I didn’t realize how hot.
My inbox is FULL of comments and questions concerning this birthday subway art for Little Man’s big Toy Story birthday bash.
Well, you asked for it… you got it!
Here is a little Photoshop tutorial. You can easily create your own subway art with just a basic knowledge of Photoshop. (By the way, I use Photoshop Elements, and love everything about it! I don’t think I will ever upgrade to the full version of Photoshop… Elements does the job for me!)
Start out by creating a new blank file in Photoshop. You can customize the size. I made my file 16×20 because I wanted to print it at this size. I set it at 300 ppi (pixels per inch) so I was sure to have high resolution.
This is how your file will look. I chose not to have a background color, so I left the background as is. You could certainly have a colored background by filling it with the Paint Bucket tool.
Using the text tool, I started typing the lines. I chose some Toy Story slogans as well as some slogans unique to Little Man. I chose to type some lines in a “rainbow” effect with all 3 colors. (You can change the colors as you go up at the top of your screen.) But most lines just use one color–the red, yellow, or blue.
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to sizes of my fonts as I went along. I would type my line, and then use the “Move” tool to drag my words to the proper size. I was just careful to line up the beginning/end of each line so they were flush with each other so it would look like this…
I continued typing in all of my phrases and slogans, a line at a time. I varied my colors in a pattern of blue-yellow-red with a few rainbow lines thrown in here and there. It was a matter of trial and error to see how many total lines I would have room for. I knew I wanted his name to stand out a lot, so naturally this was easy to make larger because it was so short. I tried to vary the longer/shorter lines to get the right flow.
I actually decided to make one more NEW blank file (also 16×20), dragged my completed image inside, and then adjusted the size so it was just barely smaller. It was important for me to have a bit of “wiggle room” around those edges. I wanted the whole image to be centered on the page and I definitely did NOT want the edges to get cut off when printed.
Last step: Just save the file as a JPEG image and save it in a location you can find easily when uploading it to your favorite photo printing shop! I printed my image at Costco, threw it in a frame, and I was done!
Several of you have asked what fonts I used for this project. Here is a font profile from the project:
If you google any of these fonts, you can find them easily available for free download. I am a font-a-holic for sure. Isn’t it wonderful that so many are available for FREE?!

If you are creating your own Toy Story themed subway art (like me), here is the color profile I used for this project. You can use the color codes to get the same exact shades I used. (I matched mine to a digital Toy Story scrapbooking kit.)
Let me know if you still have any more questions. I hope this helps you to venture out and create your very own subway art! You can do it!
Have a great weekend, my friends!
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Toy Story Birthday Party

February 22, 2011 87 Comments
Invitations
Outdoor Decorations
I created this Etch-a-Sketch image in Photoshop and mod-podged it onto wood. (I photoshopped Little Man’s name off of everything. It really does have his name on it!)
This sign was hanging on our front door as guests arrived. It was meant to look like the sign that hangs from Andy’s bedroom in the movie. (Can you tell that I have watched Toy Story about a million times?!)
Indoor Decorations

Cardboard birthday banner. (You can see the tutorial here.)
Toy Story character pennant banner using felt and fabric transfers. (You can see the tutorial here.)
The army men were parachuting and repelling from upstairs to downstairs.
Toy Story themed birthday subway art. (You can see more about this here.)
I downloaded these Toy Story replica drawings from Pixar Planet forum here. They look just like the originals!
Dinner Table
We started out the party with dinner for family. I didn’t want to use the commercialized Toy Story paper products, and I wanted to keep things simple. Instead, I made this bandana tablecloth and used blue paper products.
Each guest had a personalized “Happy Birthday” candy bar by their place setting.
Instead of having name cards, each guest (who was dressed up as a Toy Story character) had to find their own famous character quote. This was Little Man’s place setting because he was Buzz Lightyear for the evening.
Food
For dinner, we served:
Buzz Lightyear’s UFO Burgers, Slinky’s Wiener dogs, Bo Peep’s berries, Bullseye’s baked beans, Mr. Potato Head’s french fries, alien juice (lemon lime juice), and Barbie & Ken’s crisper (veggies & dip).
Costumes
Our guests were asked to dress up as a Toy Story character. Of course Little Man dressed up as his favorite character–Buzz Lightyear.
Our family was kind enough to dress up as other Toy Story characters. I made Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head costumes for my husband and me.
Games
Army man estimation.
As guests arrived, we asked them to estimate how many army men were in the jar. Each guest wrote down their guess.
Toss the snake in the boot.
I cut out the cowboy boot from a cardboard box. Each guest had 5 chances to throw the plastic snake in the boot.
Toy Story Bingo.
Instead of marking a free space, each guest marked the spot for their own character.

Pin the star on Woody.
Just like “Pin the tail on the Donkey”, we blindfolded everyone and they tried to pin their metal star badge (from Hobby Lobby) onto Woody. I made this poster in Photoshop and just had it printed at Costco.
Pass the space rock.
Played just the same as “Hot Potato”, we passed a tinfoil ball while listening to the Toy Story soundtrack.
Buzz’s Laser Gun Show.
My hubby got the best Nerf gun he could find, and we took turns shooting darts at the Toy Story villains–Sid, Lotso, Al, Zurg, and Prospector.
Mr. Potato Head relay.
We divided the guests into 2 teams: Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Each member had to run to their potato head, create the potato head according to the picture with all of the correct accessories, have it checked off, and then take it apart for the next team member. The first team done, won!
Party hats
I made each party guest an alien hat. The aliens have the Pizza Planet logo on them.
Cupcakes
Instead of making a cake, we made s’mores cupcakes. If you remember, in Toy Story 3, Lotso rides around in a dump truck. I found dump trucks in the dollar section at Target, and we used these to serve cupcakes. Of course they were well guarded by army men.
Fun!
Enjoying our cupcakes and ice cream!
Opening up LOTS of Toy Story toys!
The winner of each game won a prize–a Toy Story character Pez machine!
Favors
I washed the dump trucks after we ate the cupcakes, and they made perfect favors!
Credits
* I used this digital kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs for most of my designing. It was perfect!
* I found TONS of amazing Toy Story birthday ideas (including the cupcakes in dump trucks) from Rook No. 17. Jenn shares tons of printables and ideas here. Thanks, Jenn!
Wow, I’m glad birthdays only come once a year.
That was a lot of fun!
The End.
Linking up to Visit thecsiproject.com
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