Jen Bowles Design

1st Day of School fun

Somewhere out in Blogland, I saw someone used a chalkboard speech bubble as a prop in their back to school pictures.

Hey, I thought, I have one of those.

So, I tried it out this morning.  

Ebby had to wear her WEB leader (middle school mentoring program) t-shirt for the first day of school.  Now, we'll always remember how she felt about that.

Will collaborated on the 5th grade sign with me.   Despite his message, he really likes his teacher and is all aboard the organization train to start the school year.  I suppose he has an image to maintain...

Cuyler did some turbo-posing for me.  Is it bad that I love the one where he's holding the speech bubble over his face??     

Luckily I have someone who is always happy to pose for photos.  He may not have gone to school today, but hey, that's just a technicality ;-).

Mosaic Monday*

Not really a mosaic for today, but one of my favorite beach pictures of the summer. 

This is Cuyler at the water's edge this past Saturday night.

Ah, the fading days of summer.  Enjoy every last one!

Mosaic Monday, Martha's Vineyard Grand Illumination

Last week I took the kids on a day trip to Martha's Vineyard.  I planned on visiting the Methodist Campground in Oak Bluffs to see the colorful gingerbread cottages.  I had no idea we were visiting on the same day as the once a year Grand Illumination!

We couldn't stop taking pictures as we walked around the campground.  More to come, along with some details...

Mosaic Monday

Latest flickr favorites...

1. 1954 Meadow Gold Mary Blair calendar, 2. flea-market-letters, 3. Servietta, 4. Vintage House Illustration & Doll Clothespins, 5. Kitten - 2 and a half Months, 6. Seashells, 7. Yellow Nest Totem, 8. Princesa roja, 9. Bubble, Girl! Tote

Ebby's Party: The Mall Scavenger Hunt

{A few weeks ago we hosted a party for Ebby's 13th birthday.  With my mom as my able bodied co-hostess, we threw one pretty rockin' bash.  This week I thought I'd post about a few of the party details.  Today it's the Photo Booth, you can read about the Sweets Table here and the Photo Booth here}

While I was most excited about the Sweets Table/Dessert Buffet, Ebby was definitely most excited about the mall scavenger hunt component of her party.

A mall scavenger hunt may not be an original idea, but it was certainly fun and a big hit with the girls.  Here's how ours worked...

Preparation:

1. Google 'mall scavenger hunt' to get ideas for items to put on the list
2. Mall recon.  The day before the party I went to the mall by myself and walked all over with a notepad and a pen, taking copious notes and plotting deviously difficult items for the girls to look for ;-)
3. Make up The List.  This was fun.  There were 3 different types of items on our list:  things to find/do and photograph, free things to collect, and mall specific questions to answer.  I assigned a point value to each item and had a bonus section in case anyone had extra time.
4. Print out the list and keep hidden.

Now, for the actual scavenger hunt...

We had 8 girls and 2 chaperones (me and my mom) so we split up and took two cars to the mall which is only about 15 minutes from our house.  Once we got to the mall, we met up inside. First, Bubbe let each girl select a handmade paper award ribbon that she had crafted.  They were beautiful and so festive.  Everyone put on their ribbons and I divided the girls up into two teams of 4.   The ribbons also identified the girls as scavenger hunt participants, but in a subtle way {Bonus:  another take home party favor}. It was hard to get them to settle down to pay attention to me but finally I was able to go over the ground rules:  no running, no shouting, be respectful, don't be disruptive.  Then I handed each team a digital camera.  Good thing we have plenty of them around...The rule with the photographs was that at least one team member had to be in each of the photos and each team member had to appear in at least one photo.  I handed each team a list (folded), a pen and a small paper shopping bag.  We synchronized our time pieces and told them to be back in the starting spot (a comfy area inside the mall with a couch for me and Bubbe) in one hour.  Off they went!

Here's a sample of some of the things that were on each team's Mall Scavenger Hunt list.

Photos:

•  Ronald McDonald
• something with Dora on it
• using the hand dryer in a public restroom
• wearing a hat (bonus:  tiara, double bonus: boa)
• trying on a pair of high heeled shoes
• Taylor Lautner
• a bicycle (a real one)
• with a uniformed security guard or custodian
• with a store employee who is wearing a name tag

Free Things to collect:

• store credit card application
• 2 different business cards
• chopsticks
• catalog from a mall store
• a stranger's autograph
• something with the number 13 (because it was Ebby's 13th birthday) on it
• application for mall Kids Birthday Club

Questions:

• how much is a medium strawberry lime up at Cuppy's Coffee?
• how many flavors of Jelly Belly jellybeans are there at the Candy Zone?
• how many skee ball machines are at the arcade?

Bonus items:

• where is the tallest gumball machine in the mall?
• get a discarded receipt from a mall store
• take a picture with Smokey the Bear

Both lists were identical and I didn't tell them anything about going in order or not, just that each team had to stay together.  During my recon visit I made sure to include things that were spread out all over the mall.  I had a dual purpose for that:  make the hunt take the full hour and make sure they got plenty of exercise so they'd be tired for the sleepover part of the party :-).

Ebby's team showed up at the designated 'checkpoint' first, about 5 minutes early,  with every item on the list complete including the bonus items.  The other team checked in right at the one hour mark, missing just one item but with an interesting story.  There were prizes involved (granted, not terribly exciting ones) so there was definitely the air of competition.  I looked everything over  and declared Ebby's team the winners--which only meant they got to pick out the prize bag first.  The other team also got prizes though did have to replace two of the prizes when we realized two of the girls couldn't chew gum because of their braces.  Oops. 

The Scavenger Hunt was a total blast, I would definitely do it again.  In fact, I think Ebby would be amenable to having one every year.  A total bonus:  while the girls roamed (in a controlled and respectful manner) around the mall, Bubbe and I got to relax on a comfy mall sofa. Now that's what I call a good party activity.  In fact, I think I can safely say that the mall scavenger hunt was so good that it can best be described as wicked pissah.  

So that's a wrap on Ebby's 13th Birthday party. Thanks for checking things out and I hope you got some fun ideas for your next celebration!

Ebby's Party: The Photo Booth

{A few weeks ago we hosted a party for Ebby's 13th birthday.  With my mom as my able bodied co-hostess, we threw one pretty rockin' bash.  This week I thought I'd post about a few of the party details.  Today it's the Photo Booth, you can read about the Sweets Table here.}

Another party trend I've been noticing around blogland (or is it Blogland?), is the use of makeshift photo booths.  My favorite one was at Eunice & Daniel's wedding featured this past Spring in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine.  So many inspiring ideas! 

While we weren't having a wedding, I still wanted to do a photo booth.  My plan was to drape a backdrop (fabric, a sheet, etc.) over the zip line in our backyard, set up a camera on a tripod and have at it.  Once again, the rain forced a change of plans.  Our new location:  my office/mudroom. I couldn't find the fabric I was going to use, so I ended up hanging a crocheted white table cloth over our pantry doors.  It wasn't quite as long as I'd have liked, but it was fine.  The girls certainly didn't mind. I was only disappointed because I felt  the photos would've turned out better outside, in the natural light of our green backyard.  Oh well...next time!

A few days before the party I invited my mom over to do some prep work for the photo booth.  She made mustaches on a stick and I made a chalkboard talk bubble. 

For the mustaches, I first downloaded a template with several great mustache shapes.  The one I used was created by photographer & designer Lisa Welge, found on her blog.  Instead of using felt, we opted for brown fun foam.  My mom traced the shapes with a marker and cut them out.  {One note:  the side of the fun foam she traced onto had some marker still on it so I used that as the back side, however, on a few of the mustaches marker sort of rubbed off onto the girls' upper lips.  A pen probably would've worked a bit better.}  I had previously used spray paint to paint some wooden dowels in the party colors so my mom just added stripes to the dowels with acrylic craft paint.  When everything was dry I used Fast Dry Tacky glue to attach the foam mustaches to the sticks.  I love how they turned out, so fun for photos and a take home party favor!  

The chalkboard talk bubble is another idea I've seen on several blogs including Elsie of  Red Velvet Art.  I whipped ours up in no time with materials I had on hand.  Here's what I did:

1. Went to the garage.
2. Found a leftover piece of thin wood, it was like pegboard without the holes...
3. Looked for the jigsaw.  Couldn't find it.
4. Spotted the sabre saw, decided to use it
5. Grabbed a piece of chalk and quickly drew the talk bubble shape on the wood
6. Propped the wood on my pair of $1 metal yard sale saw horses and cut around the outline like a crazy woman.
7. Used my Mouse sander to smooth out the rough edges.
8. Painted with 2 coats of chalkboard paint using a cheap foam brush. Might've even been 3 coats.
9. Let the paint cure for a day then primed it for use by rubbing the whole thing with chalk and then erasing it.
10. Use & enjoy

Of course we needed a few more props. On party day I gave Ebby a plastic tub and sent her to pick out items from our collection of dress up clothes.  Yep, one more reason I still have dress up clothes in our basement, even after the remodel.  She got things like necklaces, hats, sunglasses, wands, crowns, and of course a hot pink fluffy boa.  I'm not exactly sure where that came from...

When it was time to take the photos at the party the scene was controlled chaos to say the least.  The girls had a great time dressing up, writing messages and setting up scenes.  I had a great time watching their creativity and craziness in action!           

Speaking of creativity and craziness, take a look at a few of the group shots.

Take 1:  It's a mustache!

Take 2:  It's a uni-brow!

Ah, goofiness on camera.  The whole reason we had a photo booth ;-) !

The next & final party post:  The Mall Scavenger Hunt

Ebby's Party: The Sweets Table

{A few weeks ago we hosted a party for Ebby's 13th birthday.  With my mom as my able bodied co-hostess, we threw one pretty rockin' bash.  This week I thought I'd post about a few of the party details, starting today with the Dessert Table.}

Sweets tables seem to be all over the internet these days (thank you Amy Atlas).  I see them on blogs, on flickr, everywhere. 

How could I not be inspired?

How could I not do a sweets table for Ebby's 13th birthday party?

Obviously, I had no choice in the matter ;-).

I started collecting inspiration, decorations  and yard sale serving pieces this past spring.  Although the party colors started off as Black & Pink in the very early going, we soon decided on Turquoise and Lime, or as Ebby prefers, Blue & Green. When Bobby Law (aka Mr. Bowles) was at Pearl River Mart in April I may or may not have been in constant phone communication as I sent him all over the store to buy paper lanterns and rice paper daisy decorations... I jotted down menu ideas, presentation ideas and even bought a robin's egg blue flat sheet at a thrift store during vacation on Hilton Head because I knew it would make a great tablecloth.

For the actual sweets, I wanted to do the baking myself.  I figured I'd better not overwhelm myself with too many goodies, so I mixed in several store bought sweets as well.  Pretty much if it was blue or green, I bought it and put it in the Party Box.  In my quest for blue & green goodies I even went a little crazy on a few items, paying $5.99 a pound for 'chocolate gems' (m&m's) in the bulk section of Fresh Market because they were the perfect shades of blue and green.  I lucked out with a couple of items as well.  For example, I found Cookies & Cream Hershey kisses that had a great blue & silver wrapper.  The items I did bake were fairly simple and many could be made a day or two ahead.

On party day there were plenty of clouds around.  I was hoping the weather would hold out for us.  Unfortunately it started raining about a half hour before the guests arrived, forcing us indoors.  Luckily our dining room is painted green so things looked just fine in there.  My mom brought two beautiful bouquets of hydrangeas from her yard, which helped give that 'bringing the outdoors in' feel to the buffet. 

My mom and I set up the sweets table while the girls enjoyed pizza and pink lemonade in another room.  When we finally called them in, they were beyond excited.  We had Ebby blow out the candles on her cake and then we let the feasting begin.  There definitely seemed to be something for everyone.  The best part:  they were able to eat the leftovers the next morning at breakfast.  Really, is there  that much difference between the sugar content of a muffin and a cupcake???

The Menu

• Blue Velvet Whoopie Pies: really red velvet, but we changed the name to fit in with the party theme
• Dipped Oreos: I melted blue and green candy wafers and then coated half of each Oreo, garnished with colored sugar or white candy balls
• Chocolate chip cookie bars: very popular, even though they were neither blue nor green
• Cupcakes: I used yellow cake mix but added pudding mix, vanilla and extra egg & oil per the Cake Mix Doctor.  Topped with homemade buttercream, these were delicious.  Best cupcakes I've had all summer, if I do say so
• Cookies & Cream kisses: 1 word: addictive
• mini York Peppermint Patties
• Tootsie Pops:  I bought a box of 100 for $7.99 at Costco and picked out all the blue & green ones to serve at the party.  Yes, I did.
• Green apple licorice:  another Fresh Market splurge, didn't go over so well but at least they looked good
• Blue & Green M&M's: I bought the dispenser at a yard sale for $2, so fun and built in portion control (hahahaha)

Decorations

• All of the rice paper hanging decorations came from Pearl River Mart in NYC
• I made the Happy Birthday banner last year and plan to put it up every year for Ebby's birthday.  Luckily it looked good with our spread.
• Letter E's were all from Ebby's room.  I repainted two of them to match our blue & green theme--which was fine because we're also re-doing Ebby's room.  Guess the color scheme...
• Polka dot table runner is just a folded piece of fabric from Jo-Ann that I really need to sew.  Love its punchiness though.
• 13 cake topper is two  99 cent wooden letters from the craft store.  Actually the 1 is a sawed off K.  I waited until a few days before the party and couldn't find a 1 anywhere.  I covered them with Martha Stewart turquoise glitter--and didn't serve the girls from that part of the cake, just in case
• Birthday candles are from Target.  I'm pretty sure.

Serving Pieces

• White ruffled cake stands, set of 2 from Costco, $9.99.  Love them & wish I'd bought more!
• Glass bead cake stand:  a gift several years ago from my mom
  
• Everything else is a yard sale find.  I spray painted the tray for the Oreos (used a paper doily for serving).  It's just a melamine tray that originally had watermelon slices on it.  I also spray painted a ceramic candlestick to use as the base for the white lace plate stand.  I was going to glue it, but I never got around to it...
• Paper goods came from Target 
  

So there you have it.  Ebby's Blue & Green 13th Birthday Dessert Buffet.  I really enjoyed putting all of the elements together and am pleased with how it turned out.  Next year though:  outdoors!

Up next:  The Photo Booth

Mosaic Monday

Happy, colorful Monday to you!

1. letterpress love, 2. bradley's box, 3. mini pompom trim, 4. cash drawer, 5. Vintage Hydrangea, 6. letter from the beach, 7. MS Cupcake Display, 8. hello!, 9. Untitled

Vintage Vacation Swap

I was lucky enough to participate in a super fun swap this summer hosted by none other than Holiday Jenny!

In the swap we were to include a handcrafted item, thrifted/vintage goodies, something edible, and some vintage vacation inspired crafty supplies.  My partner was the lovely & talented Lonnie of Farmgirls.

This was such a great swap theme.  Vintage vacation could be interpreted many ways, but for me there was never any question it was going to be a vintage Beach vacation.  Lonnie lives in coastal Oregon and it turns out we were on the same page with that!

I built my swap package around the theme of "Beach Day".  Here's a peek at what I sent to Lonnie...

My handcrafted  item was a patchwork beach blanket. I used thrifted/vintage sheets and curtains to create the blanket.  When I say I, I mean I had the idea and I picked out and purchased the materials.  I asked my mom for a hand with the layout and she ended up doing most of the sewing for me.  I love how we used the sweet little details of the daisies and the rick rack trim.  And, it's reversible.  For when one side gets a bit sandy :-).

Continuing on with my beach day theme, I included a fun souvenir plate from Cape Cod, a vintage deck of seaside playing cards, a thrifted beach towel (or perhaps beach pillow), and some fun vintage paper ephemera including a beach girl and a nautical chart of Martha's Vineyard.  If you're going to spend the day at the beach, you certainly need something to read.  I was so excited to find an older copy of The Shell Seekers  {perfect} to include in the package.

For my food item I did my best to get creative as Jenny suggested.  My item?  Snack size bags of Cape Cod Potato Chips.  Perfect for a beach snack.

Finally I wanted to send a little piece of the Massachusetts coast out to Lonnie in Oregon.  I used a smooth beach stone I found during one of our many beach trips and cut letters out of thrifted books to spell out Beach Day.  Even when it's not a beach day, hopefully the beach stone will remind Lonnie of beach day memories already made and beach days yet to come.

Now, for the really awesome stuff: what Lonnie sent me :-)!

Lonnie's theme was Beach Picnic.  Sounds wonderful to me.

My swap goodies came packaged in this great vintage train case.  I love it!  I have other pieces of vintage luggage, but this is my first train case.  I don't however, think it will be my last. They are so adorable!

I was pretty happy with the train case, but look at all the fabulous goodies that were inside...

I was overwhelmed by Lonnie's generosity and craftsmanship.     All of my handcrafted items are beautiful, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be the seashell winged angel.  She is just so cool.  And I love her vintage anagram J necklace--total swoon!

As I reached the bottom of my treasure case, I came to these beautiful glass plates.  Such a lovely shape and perfect for a picnic. What would a picnic be without a picnic blanket?    Lonnie sent me an adorable summer themed vintage tablecloth.  Eeek! 

I decided not to wait for our next trip to the beach, instead I set up a picnic in the backyard.  With a fluted clam shell full of salt water taffy, delicate crocheted doilies (all from Lonnie), a beautiful setting and the sparkling sunshine, how could I go wrong?

Thanks ever so much to Lonnie for my totally wonderful goodies and thanks to Jenny for hostessing a great swap (as always)!

Mosaic Monday

1. 137, 2. Sweet Summer Collection at Grandiflora, 3. Daphne Padden - Vintage travel., 4. i heart sf, 5. Untitled, 6. bunny, 7. Bonbon, 8. Dallas Window Display Materials, 9. Black White Aqua, II