Back Yard BBQ |

With outdoor entertaining season coming up I thought I would post a few photos from a 'green theme' birthday party BBQ I had last year for my husband's birthday.

I hope there are a few photos that spark some inspiration for your outdoor event this summer.

  Green Theme! Green lanterns, table cloths, place mats, pillows, napkins, cutlery, plates, food, drink etc.

Lanterns left over from my wedding and a table runner I made with outdoor fabric.

Green and white food covers for all our munchies!

I made green straw flags with everyone's name on them (so they could easily identify their drink) - you can order custom straw flags for your event from me HERE and I got green stripe paper straws from Hey Yo Yo!

Green Punch and Pop choices.

  

 

My husband is a healthy eater and doesn't like sweets so I made him a cake made of fruit (not to be mistaken for a 'fruit cake' hehe) I also made another 'garden theme' cake for a friend whose birthday was close to our BBQ.

I also made these fun BBQ theme cupcakes. I used orange sprinkles to look like fire, black icing gel for the grill lines and cup up jube jube, hot tamales and caramels for the meat and skewers.

I forgot to take a photo of my veggie and fruit trays - but I did ALL GREEN veggies and fruit on each tray.

Veg: Green pepper, celery, broccoli, cucumbers, snow peas.

Fruit: Green apple slices, kiwi, green grapes, honeydew mellon

I made green outdoor pillows for our Muskoka chairs to make them even more comfy!

I gave my husband a Birch Tree for our back yard as his gift!

We played Ladder Ball and Bocce Ball & had a bonfire & fireworks!

Sophie is all tired our from too much partying!

Happy BBQ and outdoor entertaining season!

I was featured on...

Craft Corners! 

I won a 'Best of Web' editors choice award for 'Blog excellence' from craft corners!

Check out their post HERE that includes a bunch of other great crafters/bloggers too!

Thanks Craft Corners!

Emma's First Year |

Click here to view this photo book larger

Build your own high-quality photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Mother's Day Sunday School Craft |

I was searching online for a good Mother's Day craft for our Kids Church program and I ended up merging together a few of the ideas that I came across, so I thought I would share the craft idea in case someone else out there is looking for a cute, meaningful and simple craft idea.

We needed something that was good for a wide age range of children (Toddler to age 8). We also wanted something that the kids could present to their moms when they come in at the end of the service on Mother's Day.

I came across this image about 'Good Roots' and that is what started the idea:

It is basically a foam flower (you can get them in a 20 pack at Michales Craft Store) that the kids can decorate with markers, stickers etc. Then you simply tape a wooden skewer to the back of the flower and then wrap a green pipe cleaner around it to make the stem. Then I created a tag that is to be tied to the stem with green ribbon (making the leaves).

The tag includes a scripture verse with a play on words: "Train up a child in the way they should "GROW", and they will not depart from it." Prov 22:6.
As well as the "Thanks for the good ROOTS Mom!" concept.

Here is the tag - feel free to copy it and print it for use if you wish to make this craft:

And here is how the final product will look:

Here are the kids making the flowers and telling us why they love their mom! This video was played in the morning service on Mother's Day right before the kids came in with their flowers:


Have FUN!

Reminiscing...Our Jack and Jill |

Came across this video clip of the 'Ricker Vs. O'Hara' Tug of War on Facebook today and it made me start reminiscing about our Jack and Jill and I thought I would create a slide show of the event.

Thanks again SO MUCH to everyone involved in pulling the day together! It was a lot of fun!

Ricker Vs. O'Hara Tug Of War |



Slide Show |

Decoupage Easter Eggs |

This year I thought I would try to make some pretty decor eggs that I could reuse every year as my table centrepiece.

I decided to Decoupage plastic eggs with fancy printed napkins.

HOW TO |

You will need a package of plastic eggs, colourful printed napkins (you can also use scrapbook paper or tissue paper) decoupage - OR I just used white glue mixed with a little water, and a brush.

After applying the ripped up pieces of napkin with glue/brush to the eggs I laid them to dry for about an hour.

I then placed them in my hurricane vase on top of some 'Easter Basket Straw'.

The nice thing about using the plastic eggs is that they won't start to smell or break, so I can bring them out every year as decor!

Here we are on Palm Sunday with a sign that I made for a photo booth at our church (slide show of church photo booth below).
Happy Easter Everyone!

Easter Feature |

I was featured on Printabelle!

Thanks for featuring my Easter Bark recipe! And Thanks for all of the other great Easter craft and recipe ideas you complied! What a fun and beautiful holiday it is!

A Few other inspiring and pretty Easter ideas:

Beautiful pastel rainbow ruffle cake from Bubble and Sweet.

Click here to get her complete instructions.

The Browy Blog's very own Rice Crispy Nest Treats.

The Full of Bliss blog  has some beautiful table scape ideas for Easter.

The Browy Blog's very own | Easter Tree

I want to try this craft | Mod Podge Easter Eggs that I found on the 'Our Family Journey' blog
*Great idea to use fake plastic eggs so that you can reuse them for decor every season and they wont break!


Another Mod Podge Easter Egg Craft using Spring Napkins | Found this project on the 'Brown Paper Packages' blog |


Neat DIY door decor from A Pretty life in the Suburbs |

Another beautiful project from A Pretty Life in the Suburbs | Easter Garland

The Browy Blog's very own | Umbrella Wreaths


LOVE this adorable craft idea from Disney Family Fun, and it is all about recycling! - I made them once as a kid but these ones even have cute little bodies made out of yogurt containers and cups | Grass Head Guys

The Browy Blog's very Own | Easter Cookies with Candy Corn


Mason Jar Planters from the CSI Project |

A super cute Easter Dip Presentation from Better Recipes |

Happy Easter! I hope you found some inspiring projects above to make your Easter extra bright this year!

Check out THIS blog post from last year to see what Easter means to me!