Bellis 6th Birthday - Wild Zoofari

My beautiful girl is 6!!!

I couldn't decide which animal print to use, so I used them all!

animal print shoes and M2M hair clip

oct 7 she came home from school to a couple of balloons and her birthday banner!

oct 9 here she is at her birthday party, wearing her zebra animal print hat, glasses and bracelet and this shirt dress and matching shoes her aunt gave her. Perfect for fall weather!

the invitations

I made her a birthday banner with the same fabric as her birthday dress

centerpieces, zebra print buckets and animal candy pops

sugar iced cookies for the grown ups

at the end we decided on a cake instead of cupcakes -I was short on time and it was quicker to do the fondant animal print spots and stripes than the fondant animal faces- finished it off with animal print candles.

playing with food

This weekend was one of the rare ones when we have no birthdays, no projects, no work for Gus, in other words is a lazy weekend, so I got to play :) I got my cookie cutters, baking supplies, fondant, food coloring and this is what I came up with:

these are going to be cupcake toppers...need about 3 more sets!

as per Gus: the giraffe is too round & the elephants trunk is too thick, so they'll be going in the OR for reconstructive surgery & hopefully will come out better than they went in...or they might just not make it :(

These Hello Kitty cookies are a trial run for a birthday coming up in December with this theme. I think the iced ones taste better but the fondant ones look the best.

w/out whiskers

with whiskers


I used a shortbread cookie, not too sweet, otherwise it will be sugar overload!

with whiskers...

w/out whiskers...my favorite

I tried different designs and consistencies, my favorite one is the bat and the my worst one is "Barbie" icing was not thin enough & the design shows it :(

these are the perfect bite size!...for someone who takes small bites ; )

pink and brown cowgirl outfit

This weekend Belli attended a western birthday for 3 of her cousins, and although she has about 4 "cowgirl" outfits, none are pink. And because I decided on making this outfit on Thursday night, I took the easy way out: to applique a store bought tshirt, and a simple denim polkas skirt. I spent 2 hrs. and$8.50 ($5.00 for the t'shirt, and $3.50 for the denim fabric) I had all the other notions but it would have been about $5.00 for ribbon, rhinestones, felt, and fabric.

The front of the shirt had a felt horseshoe applique embellished with iron on pink metal studs

I added a coordinating ribbon band and flower to the hat (which originally had a lace trim with a blue flower for the Gymboree Malibu cowgirl line)

the back of the t'shirt had an applique with iron on rhinestones and 3d fabric paint

I, and most importantly Belli (because if she doesn't like it she won't wear it!) loved the outfit, I wish I could make one just like it for me!

Belli's birthday theme

Ever since Belli was about 18 months she has been obsessed with horses, and still is. For her 2nd birthday we had a petting zoo and pony rides and after her 4th and 5th birthday not being at home or as big as we are used to I wanted her 6th to be at home because I have more freedom at doing things exactly how I like them, my way. She had mention she wanted a rock star birthday, or a party at the zoo, or with animals so the first thing that came to mind was a "cowgirl" birthday with horses. Well, after I had convinced her to go with the western theme and accumulated supplies for the past 4 months I had to rethink this idea and just go with whatever she really wants, it's her birthday after all.
When I had scheduled the pony rides, mechanical bull and was about to get to work on her decorations...

we received this invitation...for a family member's birthday just 2 weeks before Belli's birthday. So we went back to either rock star or zoo theme, what a dilemma!

so she finally decided on a zoo party, and what better decor for this theme than animal print!

another outfit for Sam

I trimmed the hem and used the excess fabric to make the straps and ruffle for the top -added 16in elastic and 1/4yd white fabric- and in 10 minutes you have a coordinating top!...Oh and of course a simple button clippie.

summer pillowcase dress

With too much time in my hands I am rambling trough my fabric stash and in an effort to clean it up I have set up a goal of at least 1 outfit a week. This first one goes to Samantha, and it is a simple pillowcase dress.

Belli wears the top version of the pillowcase dress, really cute with jeans or leggings

dress is perfect for summer & with a tee under for early fall

of course a matching clippie bow (not enough hair yet!)

3 different fabric patterns in ivory, green & pink

football outfits

Just finished up 2 sets of mother/daughter football outfits for Misty and her friend. To make these little girls outfits "girly" I added ruffles to the pants, who would've thought, football & feminine

Misty's top

McKenna's matching outfit: top has team's initial in their coordinating color

and of course, she needed a bow (& clippie)to go with it...

my little chef

Belli is at an age where she loves to help around the house, either cleaning the windows, sweeping the floors, washing the dishes or her favorite: cooking. Unfortunately, it is always twice as much work -for me- when I do let her help. To thank her I decided to make her an apron set, I added her initial and a chef's hat and she just loved it...perhaps if I make Gabby one she'll be tempted to volunteer in the kitchen too!

she couldn't wait to wear it, and so I decided to let her help with the spaghetti -or pasgetti as Gabby used to call it-

If you're interested in a personalized child's size set $15.00

Samantha's lavander polka dot outfit

I had lots of fun making this outfit, it makes me wish my girls were small again...and since it was so tiny it didn't take but a day to complete. I can't wait to see Samantha wearing it!
at the end I just had to add the flower, it makes all the difference and makes the outfit more "girly"

without a flower

...and of course a coordinating hair clip

17 years ago...

we got married, and I still remember it like it was yesterday! on Monday we got our marriage license and we had to wait 72 hrs. on Thursday at 9a.m we showed up at the courthouse and 17 years later here we are... still aiming for a lifetime term.

graduation picture

May 1994 - we had been married for about 1 yr.

Ilaiza's 3rd birthday - Dora the Explorer

She eats, breathes and dreams Dora, so obviously her birthday theme this year is Dora.

Invitations with her picture, she looks so mischievous here!

without picture

complete centerpiece set, 3 items per table

$10.00

These are the small candy jars, similar to the ones (large) I used for Michael & Gabby's BDay back in May.

I got lucky and found these buckets at Target

These pixie stix come in 4 different colors but since I only needed orange and purple, my kids got lucky and got to eat the rest -about 20!-

party favors

$1.75 ea