Movie Party

It was really fun.
And I am officially certifiable.

Here is how the party went down:

The kids all received a "movie ticket" in their invitation package.
My cute niece, Jordan, stood at the "ticket booth" in the front yard, and as the guests arrived, she took their tickets, gave them VIP glow in the dark bracelets and some fake money to buy candy, popcorn, and a soda at the concessions stand, and sent them to the back yard!

It was fun to see how excited they got.

One REALLY lame thing about starting a party at 8:00 p.m.?
It's too dark to take good pictures!
So I am very sad that I didn't get any shots of the concessions stand or popcorn buffet, BUT I am glad that I took a few pics for the blog earlier in the day.

Here are the cupcakes we made. {48 of them - yikes!}

And these are the salt shaker jars we made for the popcorn buffet.

Kids had the choices of :
1. Salt
2. Cheddar Cheese Powder
3. Lime Salt
4. Ranch Seasoning Salt
5. S'mores mix {Golden Grahams, Marshamallows, & Chocolate Chips}

It was a fun, loud, MESSY good time!

Kort got so many thoughtful, fun gifts. Our "Feature Film" was "Despicable Me" and one of our little party guests has a mom that has a REALLY cute business called CherubChic, and she made Kort a "Minion" hat for the party. It is so fun! He refused to take it off all weekend. I am so calling her this Halloween for Tennyson. She has RIDICULOUS headbands for little girls too. I wish I had her talent with yarn!

All in all, it was such a great birthday. I am pooped! {And consequently triggered shingles because I over-did it so bad, so... mayhaps I am not such a good example of "moderation" sometimes.} But hey, he will always remember his amazing movie party. And it's a good thing - cause it's ain't happenin' EVAH again!

So today, I am still recovering from one WICKED berfday party... what are YOU doing today? Will you please link up and share? And will you go even one step further and tell some other people about our great little project over at communal global?  {On facebook, twitter, or your blog...and what not?}We would sure love it.

The Birthday {Cup}Cake

When thinking {okay, and googling}about what sort of cake would go well with an "outdoor movie" themed birthday, I stumbled upon this lil' bad boy here.

I LOVED the idea of little marshmallow popcorns decorating individual "buckets" of popcorn, and decided that I wanted to do my own take on it. I also saw some cupcakes here that had cute movie-themed "toppers" sticking out of each cupcake.



I wanted all of the cupcake toppers for Kort's party to look the same, and I really wanted to stick to the old-style, "vintage feel" of a charming, country-ish outdoor movie. In other words, I wanted to Martha my popcorn cupcakes.

So these are the toppers my niece and I made:

We just used individual letter stamps to stamp out the words pop and corn, and then glue-sticked them onto red cardstock. I am really happy with the old-timey feel of them!

And I picked a blue and cream polka dotted paper {below} that we'll be using to wrap around the individual cupcake wrappers. I LOVE the blue and red together. You could always order REALLY great cupcake wrappers online, but, shock of all shockers, I waited too long and there isn't time for them to come in the mail. Oh well, this way I got to do it EXACTLY my way. Can't be mad at that.

The other project I've been working on is making more pennant banners for the party. I've decided to go with white table cloths lined with pennant banners. {And worry not, I am not - by ANY means - delusional enough to think that any of this will have a lasting effect on a bunch of rowdy third graders, but hey, love is in the details. And I sort of love that 3rd grader...like, a lot.}

invite

Happy Birthday Mr. Kortland!

Kort is officially 8 years old today...and so begins party week. I have been hard at work getting all of the random details pulled together for this Friday's party, and I will be sharing them as we go along.

Today we are delivering invitations.

I made his invite using Adobe InDesign.

I took an "Advanced Editing and Desktop Publishing course at UVU to help distract and pass the time whilst in the midst of our infertility nightmare, and it was one of the best things I could have ever done. Love me some Photoshop and InDesign.

Anyway, I'm working on a bunch of projects today, more to come tomorrow!

party time.

It's party season in the Dugovic household!

We have August 13, 19, 22, and September 3rd birthdays, which means that ALL of our birthdays are within 3 and a half weeks of one another. {Say it with me now: YIKES!}

Tennyson's birthday went great.
We had a low key celebration with immediate family.

The hub's Birthday was yesterday, and all he wanted was a Cafe Rio Pork Burrito.
{Gotta love an easy-going man.}
Done and Done.
We will also be having a gigantic "old school" Taco Sunday celebration on the 28th because we stinking miss seeing our old college and mission friends! He is really looking forward to it.



But the reason I am saying all of this to you is because this week, I am gearing up for Kortland's Birthday Party. He is turning 8. Can you believe that? It feels like he should be turning three...or four at the very most! For awhile there, I couldn't decide if I wanted to curl up in a ball and sob for a week or celebrate and throw him a big  old party...but in the end, I settled on a party. {You're shocked, I know.}

We decided to do an "OUTDOOR MOVIE" theme this year. I have a few home-makeover projects that I want to share, but they are getting tabled for a week while I construct and share the various different elements of Kort's movie party.

Here are the plans:

Popcorn Cupcakes
Concessions Stand
Ticket Booth
Pennant Banners
Stringing White Lights
Popcorn Buffet
Big screen projector movie.
Showing: Despicable Me
{Is it just me, or is that just the best kid's movie ever?}

I want it to kind of have a vintage - old style - theme rather than the black and red and gold "movie theatre" style that is used for most movie-themed parties. We'll see how that goes...

Anyway, to get us into party mode, I thought I'd share some photos from a baby shower I hosted last week with my friend Katherine. She is an AMAZING baker/chef/cake decorator, so I did the decorating and left all of the gorgeous food stuff to her. We were NOT disappointed.



Come check in on Monday and enjoy a week of party mania!

mod-podgery and such

It all started with a Sunday painting project.
Kort and I decided to paint our very own tag-team mural.
{Woot woot!}
It was wonderful.

We sat, and painted, and talked, sweating it out in our Sunday best in the 95 degree shade of the back porch's old tin roof. Then, I realized it wasn't a super-great idea to have a 7 year old paint a mural in his Sunday best, so I made Kort strip down to his undershirt...

And then I decided it would be even better for him to take that off and go change into some old shorts. Now I didn't have to worry about how crazy he got with the paint. Ahhh, very nice.

We painted a tree. 

I loved the look of it. 

Then, I decided that I really wanted it to have texture, so I had the hubs fish a financial planning book printed in the late 80's out of our 3,000 volume collection in the garage. {Our garage is currently a hoarder's dream come true...I'll tell you what...I'm not ambitious enough to think about tackling that one just yet.}

I ripped the book to shreds and started mod podging a black and white newspaper sky onto our masterpiece.

And that really got the wheels turning...

We worked on it for about three hours. 

Then we had to stop because I needed more supplies to continue. So, Monday afternoon, I went to the craft store and bought a bunch of patterned paper and another bottle of Mod Podge cause I was a-burnin' right through it! {Our mural is huge.}

I mod podged a funky black and white tree trunk, and then started cutting out all different sizes of leaves in all of the different patterned papers. Then I glued them in layers on top of one another.

I did a lot of them.
It sort of took hours.

And this is what it looks like.

We hung it in the dining room and I love seeing it during breakfast, lunch and dinner. It makes me smile. Trees are symbolic and lovely for so many different reasons. Tree of life. Family Trees. Growing deep and lasting roots. Reaching for the heavens. Bending to life's breezes. Rebirth each spring. Beauty. Tranquility. Shelter... just all sorts of good things that I want my home to represent.

{BELOW: This is a shot of the dining room. It's all decorated for Tennyson's Birthday party and in this particular shot, the table is all laid out for a double baby shower I hosted for two sweet neighbors and dear friends of mine - that has a post of it's own though.}

This Project:

Huge chunk of wood: free {from a garbage pile}
Mod Podge: $6 {used 50% coupon}
Book Paper: free {cause I'm a hoarder of sorts...}
Scrapbook Paper: $12
Brackets for hanging: $6

*If you liked this project, please re-tweet it, fb it, blog about it...you know, spread the gospel of mod-podgery and joy around a bit!

Nothing's gonna change my world...

As promised, here is "day 2" of my FULL WEEK of home improvement projects:

As you may have seen a little while ago, I posted about my new turquoise desk. I bought it on KSL.com for $40 and then painted it aqua blue. I love it, and practically live in that little corner of my living room now. Here is what that corner has looked like lately:

Cute desk, but kinda empty otherwise.
SO,
When the hubs brought home a pile of construction wood that got dumped on his paintball field {Thank you "illegal disposers of construction waste"... whoever you are.} I decided it was time for a home-made wall art project!

So I:

1. Painted the board gray.

2. Printed letters in "Bulletin Typewriter" font and then laid the printed letters over old book papers and cut out letters. This was a "cricut-less" endeavor, so I saved about $200 bucks cutting it by hand, and it only took about 30 minutes. Plus, I watched Pawn Stars while cutting them out, so technically, it wasn't like "work" at all!

3. I used Moge Podge to glue the letters onto the board and also to do a glossy, sealed coat over the top of everything.

4. Using different patterns of scrapbook paper, I cut out strips to make the word "change." {And no, my poster is NOT a shout out to the Obama campaign...in fact, the meaning of this art work is just the opposite.}

5. We hung it up. It is quite massive, and therefore quite HEAVY! We used a bracket kit that we bought for a couple of dollars at Home Depot.

And, voila!  That's it!

  A few years ago, I saw a very simple painting with this saying on it, and put it in my memory bank as something I'd like to have in my own home someday.

"Across the Universe" has always been a favorite song of mine, and I LOVE the personal meaning this particular phrase holds for me. 

I'm sure everyone can interpret it differently, but for me, it is a wonderful reminder that

No matter how tumultuous the outside world becomes, I have the power to create a heaven within the sacred walls of my own home. 

It's a task that I don't take lightly, and, as a mother, I understand that I must diligently guard against any unwanted negativity at every turn. But it's a job I'm willing to do. Especially if it means that my family can have a healthy, loving, happy environment where we can learn and grow together.

I love the way that this is summed up by such a simple phrase set to such a simple melody. I now find myself humming it every day as I go about my work.
"Nothing's gonna change my world...
Nothing's gonna change my world..."

{So neener, neener, neener, cruel world. You can just get lost.}

Summary:
Board: Free
Paint: Already Had it.
Modge Podge: Already had it, and I still have a ton left over for other projects. 
I used about $1 worth for this particular project..
Book Paper: Free
Scrapbook Paper: $4
Hanging Kit: $3

Now I have a piece of 47x45 inch wall art for $8 out of pocket. Woo-hoo!

*Note: I know that it's all sorts of crooked and skeewompus and such, but that's how the painting was, and I loved it that way. Perfection is over-rated.

Hello, gorgeous.

Confession time:
I love office supplies.
Like, to a point that cannot possibly be disguised as normal.
So I'm not gonna even try, kay?
I'm a nerd.
A weird, weird, nerdy little nerd.
And I'm okay with it.

I love the smell of new file folders.

I love knowing exactly where
a piece of paper,
or a recipe,
or birth certificate,
or take out menu {yeah, you heard me}
is at a moment's notice.

So, you can imagine my excitement when I met this little darling at a parking lot yard sale in St. George, Utah earlier this summer:

Oh baby.
A HANGING file cabinet.

I had to put my game face on and try not to make out with it right there in front of the seller. I didn't want her to know that I'd gladly pay $20 smackers for it, being the office-supply lovin' nerdy nerd nerd that I am. {You know, no need for her to be takin' advantage of a poor lil office supply addict such as myself.}

She only wanted three bucks for it, so I gladly paid her and hauled it's heavy ace over to the trunk of my mother-in-law's car.

I love it so much, but do you know what I decided I would love even more?

If it was Ballet Slipper Pink.
Yup.
Is it just me, or is it like, SUCH a beautiful thing that you can buy a can of color called "ballet slipper" at your local Ace Hardware store?

I think I love Ballet Slipper Pink almost as much as I love office supplies.
{Don't worry, office supplies, I said almost.}
So here she is:

Oh how I love her.
Should we give her a name?
She prolly deserves one.
I hung her in the kitchen because the kitchen is the nerve center of our home both in placement and purpose.

If a full-time housewife managed to find a reasonable opportunity to use the phrase "Step into my office." the office to which she might be referring would most likely have dirty dishes and more Capri-sun packets than one could ever aspire to drink. So it's only fitting that my "office" should have a file cabinet. {A pretty one, preferably in the shade of ballet slipper pink.}

And file folders. Of course.
What's a ballet slipper pink file cabinet without a few file folders?

So, I prayed to the Gods of Target for a set of funky, mod file folders, and BOY did the Gods of Target deliver! Love, love these.

Here they are in their new home.

And my paper towel holder practically BEGGED me to make her ballet slipper pink too.
And who am I to ignore the humble wishes of a lowly paper towel holder?

Eek, I am ready to say goodbye to those countertops!
But, for now, I will just keep myself happily distracted labeling and filing everything under the sun.

{Note to self, put the light plates back on already! You painted the kitchen 3 weeks ago.}

There is SO MUCH more to do, but the house is coming along, and it's so fun to finally be making changes that I've been wanting to make for a long time! Hope you'll check in throughout the week. More projects to come!