Buggy Birthday

Last weekend we had a family birthday party for the boys who's birthday are exactly a month apart. To make it easier on our families to only have to visit once, we had a small party at our house for both of them. We also invited our closest friends.

After much debate (for myself - the boys could have cared less) about themes, I decided on a bug theme. I used my Cricut to make bugs to top the cupcakes.

Lady bugs and a dragon fly,

A beatle

and a Spider.

I cut out each shape with the blackout design. Then for each bug, I cut out the detail for both sides and ran them through my Xyron. Between one of the designs and the blackout design, I placed a toothpick. When I placed them on the cupcakes, I placed the toothpick side on the back, but because the design was on both sides, you couldn't see the toothpick, just the pump it made in the paper.

But I think these were my favorite! A bug jar.
On these, I cut out two jars out of vellum for each of the toppers. Then I cut out only one design. I ran all of the jars through the Xyron. On one each, I placed the little stick and leaves. Then I placed the second jar on top, sandwiching the toothpick between the two jars. These shapes were all on the Doodlebug Cartridge (a really good one to have!).

The night before the party, I made up this banner quickly. I cut the letters mostly out of scrap paper, each letter in a different color/pattern. I used yellow twine to string the letters together. To do that, I used small brads, opening them and placing the twine between the brad, inserted them in the paper and then secured them on the back. Some of the letters had to be strung all the way across, others like the B, D, R, etc I cut the twine and attached on each side.

To finish it off, I made the same bugs that I used on the cupcakes and using my Xyron attached them to the letters. For finishing it at 1 a.m. the night before the party, I was happy with the way it turned out. And because I used the removable Xyron adhesive, I can just remove them and use the banner again with something else. For the left over bugs and cupcake toppers - I saved those to use on their scrapbook pages! Embellishments already made, yea!
I made the boys matching birthday shirts

I'm putting together another post about all of the t-shirts I've been making, so check back!

Profiterole Puffs

This is a Pampered Chef recipe that looks hard, but is VERY easy! I've made them several times and guest are always shocked that I made them. Often I drizzle them with chocolate, but didn't for this batch.

Here are the ingredients:

Puffs:

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat ove to 375 degrees. For puffs, in saucepan, combine water, butter and salt; bring to boil over high heat. Add flour all at once. Using scraper, stir mixture vigorously about 1 minute or until mixture leaves sides of pan and forms into a ball. Remove from heat; place dough into bowl. Add egg and whisk until smooth andvery thick.

Lightly spray mini-muffin pan with oil. using slightly mounded small scoop, scoop batter into cups of muffin pan. Bake 22-25 minutes or until deep golden brown. Remove from oven and make a small cut into side of each puff using small paring knife to release excess steam. Remove puffs from pan to cooling rack, cool completely.

Filling:

1 container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I usually double mine)

For filling, combine whipped topping, powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix gently until well blended using small scraper. Attach a small tip to the end of your decorator; fill with filling and pipe into center of each puff.

For topping, place frosting in small bowl; microwave on high 5-10 seconds or until melted. Drizzle frosting over puffs and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

For our halloween party tomorrow night, I thought I might use orange food coloring to tent the filling and green icing to drizzle over the puffs - mini pumpkins?

For more great recipes, visit Foodie Friday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays!

Cricut Designed Tubs

During the summer, Walmart had plastic tubs in their summer section. When they went on clearance, I bought a couple. They can be used for ice or to ice down cokes. I keep mine on top of the fridge and have found it to be a good place to keep bags of chips and snacks.

For mine, I just used my Cricut to cut out our name. To me, the white and red reminds me of a Coke.

I also picked up a blue one because my sons school colors are blue and gold/yellow. But as most of you Cricut users know, you can't buy yellow vinyl off the shelf in the store. So I just held on to it for a couple months. Then I ordered a new cartridge (Stand & Salute) just for the torch included on the cartridge. I have found it useful for other things, but I was excited to find the torch as we have at least 16 years of being the Blazers ahead of us.

Here is the cool part of the story. While I was in a print shop ordering a couple mounted posters for our upcoming craft show, I asked the lady if they ever had left over vinyl that they just threw away they might be interested in selling or giving away. She said they always had little pieces left they can't use and walked over and handed me a 24x24 sheet of the perfect shade of yellow. She said "See how this works for you." I said "Oh that will be great." But inside I was jumping up and down because it was exactly what I need to do the blue tub. Also - I know you can order other shades off the Internet, but I just haven't taken the time to do that yet.

So this is what I ended up with. I did the design on both sides exactly the same and sent it to my son's teacher for their snack basket. She orginally just had a small white basket and this gives her a lot more room, plus it was super cute. She said she loved it and all of the kids were excited about their new Blazer Snacks basket.

Now I'm just hoping that Walmart brings back these tubs next year. I have looked and looked on the Internet and can't find anything like them to order. If anyone knows of a place, please let me know. I would love to be able to sell a few and make a couple more for myself for other things.

My Town

Editorial By Shaila Creekmore, Illustration By Brittney Guest as printed in the Oct. 09 issue of Jonesboro Occasions.

After a visit from an Arkansas State University recruiter at my Little Rock high school 15 years ago, I announced to my parents that I would be going to ASU in Jonesboro. I then very quickly found a map to see where Jonesboro was located.

I grew up in what I now call the central Arkansas bubble - where Arkansas generally goes no further north than Searcy and no further south than Hot Springs. And other than the general direction, I had no idea where Jonesboro was or what type of city it was.

At the end of my junior year in high school, my mom and I visited ASU for the first time. I thought it was a beautiful campus and while Jonesboro was small, I was happy to see it had a mall. I figured with a mall and Wal-Mart, I could make it.

In 1995, I moved into Kays Hall and began my life as a college student on campus. At first, I only ventured off campus to eat, go to Wal-Mart and to church. I knew only the main roads and wouldn’t even dare to venture off of those. Over time, I began learning the back roads and feeling more at home in Jonesboro.

After graduating college and getting married in 1999, neither my husband nor I wanted to return to our home cities and with no idea of where we wanted to go, we just stayed here. We began working in our degree fields and eventually bought a house.

Over time, Jonesboro has truly become our home. Our boys were born in Jonesboro hospitals, Samuel at St. Bernards and Tyler at NEA Baptist. We are active in one of Jonesboro’s great churches and work for family-owned companies in the area.

I now feel very proud of the city I call home, and I am amazed at what a smaller city has to offer. Our parks system is one of the best in the state and provides great places for our children to play and sports programs for them to participate in. Our library likewise has a wonderful space for our children and educational programs throughout the year. Our growing schools are dedicated to educating our children and are providing them a fantastic education.

And the giving spirit of Jonesboro is unbelievable. Through my position withOccasions magazine, I have the opportunity to see the work of numerous non-profits and the many people who give their money and time to ensure success.

Since coming to Jonesboro 14 years ago, I have seen incredible growth and no longer really feel like it’s that little place I first came to visit. We rarely travel to Little Rock or Memphis to shop any longer and I spend too much time – according to my husband – in our mall playing, eating and shopping. Jonesboro now offers many of the advantages of a big city, along with the all the advantages of a small town.

When friends and family ask us how we like Jonesboro, we’re quick to respond – it’s home.

Stop, Shop & Stroll

We had a great weekend at Stop, Shop & Stroll!! It was held at The Mall at Turtle Creek this year and we had around 45 vendors. We had a great turnout as you can imagine in the mall. We are looking at doing a spring show - if I can get over this one. As the organizer, I stayed very busy for 3+ months getting it set, but the weekend went off with no problems at all.

Information on all of the vendors can be viewed here: Stop, Shop & Stroll. More information on my products can be seen here: Dailey Wear.

Here is my booth:

School Spirit Mugs

Monogrammed Christmas Ornaments

Nursing Covers
Paci Clips, Binky Clips and Crinkle Taggies

Handmade necklaces

Monogrammed Tiles Play Capes - Perfect for your princess or super hero.
My booth! You can also see below the adorable clipboards made by my friend Haley. View her stuff at Clipboards by Haley.

Here are a few pics from around the show. The space doesn't look very full, but it was a HUGE space. So it was very spaced out which was good because it gave everyone lots of room to walk and customers plenty of room for all of the strollers.