Outdoor Movie Night

Hey there!

I wanted to share something fun we did recently before

the weather got too cold for you to do it, too!

We hosted an outdoor movie party and it was a blast!

Even if we did get rained out...boo.

It's so fun and easier than you think!
We used a cheap shower curtain for our screen and clamped it to the back fence.
I only wish I'd gotten one a bit bigger or maybe two.

We asked guests to bring camp chairs and/or blankets...
but we had some available also.



I researched inexpensive projectors with USB
connections and chose this one I found on Amazon.
I won't be the next destination for the Sundance film festival,
 but for $58 it works pretty great!

It does have its own speakers but we hooked up
some computer speakers we had along with a spare woofer,
 and it sounded awesome!

We just connected it to our laptop to play the DVD.

Once you've taken care of all the tech stuff...it's time for food!
Always make sure you have plenty of tasty treats,
but keeping it simple means no stress eats!

In trying to keep with the movie night theme we had corn dogs,

single size candy, and of course, POPCORN!

I think Sara and I made popcorn for almost 2 hours straight in the air popper. Oooof.

I found the NOW SHOWING chalkboard on Amazon,

along with the character concession cutouts and the popcorn bags.

You can find a lot of those things at Hobby Lobby, too.

To add to the fun and let guests participate in the movie choice,

we included a URL to a SurveyMonkey questionnaire.

Invitees were able to vote for their favorite of 3 movies and

let us know what their favorite movie night snack is.

It made it easy to pick a movie everyone would enjoy,
and make sure we had good treats.



Let me say...The Princess Bride in the backyard is so awesome.
As I said, we did get rained out about half way through.
It hadn't rained in our area for WEEKS!!!

Families with young kids went on home...
everyone else helped get the equipment out of the rain
and we finished the movie inside.

Even with the rain...it was totally worth it and so much fun!

I apologize for the dark pictures.
It's not easy to snap pics in the dark ;)
I hope you decide to make a movie night...
even if you have to do it next year.
I think we're starting a new family tradition!

Till next time...

Rolling out the red carpet here:

Crafts a la Mode
AKA Design

Highlights for 2012

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas

and are anxiously awaiting the fresh start of a

brand spankin' new year!

I don't have any New Year's Projects for you,

however, I'll let you see how we celebrated last year...

but first,

I mustache you a question...

Do you like to party?

We had a lot of fun last new year's eve with some

mustache and word bubble props.

Of course, Sara picked the

"this is what AWESOME looks like"

bubble.

My friend, Kristian with her Fu Manchu...

We played Apples to Apples...

I ended up with this card and thought it was kind of fitting:

Looks like a group mug shot...

My sister:

Sara and my mom...my mom still has her mustache.

She keeps it in the kitchen...I think she wears it when no one is around. :)

Kristian's husband, Waylon...

we used to tease him that he needed to be medicated just to hang out with us.

I'm not sure it was a joke. :)

Taylor looks good with a stache!

Even the kitties got involved...willing or not...

Goofy-ness...

There are tons of mustache templates online.

I used some to cut stiff felt and hot glued them

to some mini dowels I painted.

They were nice and sturdy and will last a while.

The word bubbles I just made in Word using this method.

They were printed on cardstock then cut out and glued to the dowels.

I got a whole pack of them at Hobby Lobby cheap.

 You could use skewers, but they're pokey and I'm clumsy. :)

Have a supercalifragalisticexpialidocious New Year!!!

Now, on to the highlights...

I wasn't sure if I was gonna do a recap post...but decided...what the heck.

Here goes...

the most popular posts for 2012:

Number 1...the Folding Chair Facelift!

This post has gotten over 50 thousand views...and

continues to be the highest viewed post daily.

It is featured as color inspiration in a scrapbooking magazine.

I was contacted about using it for a project for troubled teens.

I can't believe painting my chairs would have garnered so much interest.

2. The French Script Shade Copy

Even got a virtual high-five from the blogger I copied. :)

3. Snowball Fight in a Bucket make your own fun!

4. My Witch hat tutorial for fashion forward witches!

5. The DIY Wonder Woman costume

It surprises me that this one made the top 5 :)

6. My Master Bath Mini Makeover

7. My cute little French clock story

8. Three great drink mixes for giving

9. My KitchenAid Makeover

10. My Laundry Room Redo

How are you celebrating?

We stay in and play games and act silly...

there may or may not be brandy slush involved.

Looking forward to an awesome 2013!

sharing here:

the 36th Avenue



A Princess Party ~ and CAKE!

My two princesses.

Sara and Ruby.

When Ruby turned 3, her mom had a princess party.

What princess party is complete without Cinderella?

Rather than hire some stranger who was going to charge mileage

to come up from Denver...my princess, Sara, played the role of Cinderelly. :)

My mom and I made the dress.  It's basically the pattern

from Simplicity with a couple small changes.

We altered the neckline slightly per Sara's request.

And we took some extra fabric from around the waist

and pleated rather than gathered it because there was

just sooooo much fabric it was kinda bunchy.

I don't have a great full length picture...but here it is:

The headband was made with extra fabric hot

glued to a plastic headband.

The choker was black velvet ribbon with

snaps sewn on the ends.

I ordered the gloves and glass slippers online.

Some of the party goers chose to have their pictures

taken with Cinderella...some did not.

I only showed you the girls whose moms I know. :)

Cinderella twirled her dress and showed the girls her glass

slippers...which some of them wanted to try on!

She also handed out sparkly tiaras to the

princesses who came to the party without.

:)

She was loved by all...of course.

Then it was time for sweets!

There were frilly pink cupcakes...

I got the FREE princess cupcake toppers here.

I just printed and punched them out with the 2" punch

then taped them to new sucker sticks.

Then I made the little fondant crowns.

Not my best work...but everyone seemed to love it anyway.

Sara asked me why I didn't braid Rapunzel's hair...

{you know you were wondering what that was!}

I said I just didn't think about it...grrrrr.

So, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella.

We also coated some pretzel sticks with pink candy coating

then added sugar pearls before the chocolate cooled.

So, there you have it...a party fit for royalty.

Here is some more inspiration for princess party cakes.

These are older and I don't have party pictures to go along with them.

I either wasn't at the party or something.

:)

The Pink Ballet Princess.

This one was even pink inside.

The frilly Baby Princess.

And some simple chic cupcakes.

Have you pampered your inner princess lately?

You should totally read this book:

Wear More Cashmere

It's hilariously funny!

You'll want to get your own tiara...along with some fuzzy kitten heels.

Have a great weekend!

©Kelly

sharing here:

I Should Be Mopping the Floor - Birthday edition
The Dedicated House

Indoors S'mores Party

Game called on account of rain.

Sheesh.

We hadn't really intended this to be an indoor party.

  

We had EVERY intention of having this

fire-breathing gooey-ness outside.

But, alas, the weather had other ideas.

As soon as we got all the stuff outside...it started to pour.

Luckily, I hadn't planned to use the patio fire bowl to roast our mallows.

See the pots at the top of this photo?

Gel pots from my chafing dish.

We surrounded the pots with river rock to withstand the heat.

Hey...those are the straws from this post. :)

Worked like a charm.

Don't worry. It's safe.  I checked.

And...we tested some first to make sure there was no funky taste.

Did someone say {fire}?

:)

I'm not sure McKenzie would appreciate this picture.

Here's a happy face.

I used the flash here so you can't see the flames.

It's not like teenagers need treat bags.

So I just made them up some portable

S'mores snack bags to go.

No roasting necessary.

Honey Maid has mini graham cracker snacks.

They are sooooo cute!

They're about an inch square and perfect for this mix.

I kinda eye-balled it, but I'd say it was

just about equal parts the mini graham crackers,

milk chocolate morsels and mini marshmallows.

Yummy.

If  you can't find the mini grahams,

Golden Grahams cereal would work just as great.

Or Teddy Grahams would be adorable!

And if you would like the bag toppers...here you go.

I know...I'm a little morbid. :)

I used the print wizard thingy on my computer.

I think I put it in the 3.5 X 5 size (4 copies per page).

Make sure you un-click the "make picture fit to frame" box.

So...once they were all running on sugar...

they decided to play twister in the living room.

You saw the pretty party chairs in this wildy popular post.

It's so crazy I can't believe it!

17 - 21 year olds playing twister.

Pretty funny.

But I guess it wasn't challenging enough.

They invented EXTREME Twister.

See the numbers on the circles?

{P.S. Do NOT try this move at home}

They marked the circles with numbers...then they

would roll a die then spin for the color.

Hilarious.

Sometimes it's all about perspective.

Yep.

Wanna do S'mores indoors?

Here's what we had:

Wooden BBQ skewers. {Who'da thunk it?}

Marshmallows

Honey Grahams broken into squares

Milk Chocolate Bars

Fire :) ~ make sure you don't use anything

flammable to put your fire in and be sure to insulate with rocks.

Reese Cups make a yummy gooey alternative to plain chocolate.

I've seen this done with gourmet mallows...in flavors.

Any good melty chocolate candy would work.

Double chocolate: use chocolate grahams if you can find 'em.

Cute displays and serving containers are a MUST!

Ready for indoor s'mores?

Summer's not over yet!

Go on...get gooey!

Send me pics!

Have a fabulous day!

©Kelly



Sharing here:

DebbieDoo's