Charlotte Rose Party: In Her Words

Indulge me.  This post is ridiculous, I know.  But it's about babies - specifically MY baby - and gorgeous luncheons.  So what's not to love?

Here's the story.  My friend Alisha has a daughter the same age as my Charlotte Rose.  Alisha has a flair for entertaining and just needed an excuse to host a luncheon - a get-together with other moms and our babies.  For her daughter Violet's birthday, Alisha threw a violet-themed luncheon.  My daughter's middle name is Rose, and since roses are blooming and Charlotte just celebrated her first birthday, it was an easy fit for Alisha to throw a (Charlotte) Rose-themed luncheon.

Alisha hosts a blog mixing equal parts domestic beauty, whimsy, and sass.  This is my play-along to her post about the luncheon.  Let the story begin!

Hi, I'm Charlotte Rose.

This is my best friend, Violet. Violet and I have been friends ever since we were born.  In fact, she was the first baby to visit after I came home from the hospital.

Violet's the kind of friend you want to share your Cheerios with, if you know what I mean.

We like doing everything together, like reading magazines.  Some days we even dress alike, totally unplanned!

Violet has exquisite taste.  So when she announced that she was hosting a rose-themed luncheon - and I, Charlotte Rose, was invited - I knew I'd better prepare myself for something special!

I practiced my best table manners with Dolly.  I was confident and happy...

until I faced a girl's most dreaded decision.  What do I wear?!

And shoes!  Which shoes!?

White...definitely white.  But the sandals or the flats?

As if the dress and shoes weren't enough decisions, babies also have to wear bibs.  I tried on bib after bib, hoping to find the perfect look.  It needed to be pink for the rose-themed party, with just the right amount of class for a proper luncheon.

Pearls on a baby?  That's ridiculous.  And bow ties are for boys.

On second thought, I kindof like the pearls.

(The bibs were my contribution to the luncheon and doubled as party favors.  I'll post the DIY info and pattern soon.)

After deciding on my party outfit, I headed to bed early for a full night's beauty sleep.  Eager to look my best in the morning, I made my first attempt with hair curlers.  Who am I kidding?  Violet will just make us wear wigs anyway.

[See more pictures of Violet wearing wigs HERE, HERE, HERE (yes, that's me in purple!), HERE, and HERE.]

When the big day arrived, I donned a petal pink frock with embroidered roses and set off for Violet's house

...where this gorgeous setting was waiting for me!

This is the point in the story where you hop over to Violet's mom's blog to see pictures of her amazing rose-filled tablescape and photos of the adorable, well-dressed babies.

Violet and the other guests made me feel welcome and at ease as I took my place at the table.  Evidently too at ease because I put my feet up on my plate!  Whoops - sorry, Violet.  (Again, if you haven't already, pop over to my friend's blog to see more pics.)

Lest you think the story ends here, be assured I remembered one last thing.

I came straight home and scribbled a heartfelt thank you note.

Thank you for hosting such a lovely party, Violet!

Gratefully,

Charlotte Rose

Made for Charlotte: Monster Longies

Aren't these about the cutest thing you've ever seen on a baby's bum!  My husband's Aunt Cheryl made these longies for Charlotte.  I saw a boy version of the pants on Pinterest and immediately begged Cheryl to make a pair for my girl.  How nice of me to ask for something super time consuming.  Thank you, Cheryl!

Here they are in all their glory.  The knit belt helps them hold on to baby's waist.  Find the pattern HERE from the Wandering Lady.

I laughed out loud when I saw the eyelashes.  Such a clever addition!  Its a GIRLY monster.

Scoot, scoot, scoot.  Cuffs keep the pants off Charlotte's feet, but the pants are long enough to fit Charlotte next year, too.  Babies don't grow much wider, do they?  Mostly just taller.

My girl. 

Cheryl knit a matching hat...

but Charlotte won't keep anything on her head these days.  No bows, no clips, no hats, nothing. *sigh*  I tried, Cheryl, I really did!

There it is again - the cutest bum on the block.

Angry Birds Birthday Party

Lincoln celebrated his birthday with an Angry Birds themed party.  For weeks I asked friends and neighbors to save large boxes so we could build this beauty - a live action version of Angry Birds. 

Behold boxes and pigs.  We modified a water balloon launcher to fit playground balls, a.k.a. the angry birds.

We bought rubber playground balls and painted them to look like angry birds.  More accurately, Ben painted.  I wish I could take credit, but I just bought the balls.  I sprayed two coats of sealant over the painted area, but I don't think the sealant did much good.  After a few days of playing with the balls, the bird paintings are pretty well chipped off.  At least they looked great for the party.

The red bird.

Sorry for the awkward crop.  Almost all of my party photos have other people's children in them, so no go for the blog-o. You'll have to trust me that this super cute kid has gorgeous eyes, because he does.

We used green balloons for the pigs.  Ben filled each balloon with a scoop of sand to weigh it down before inflating it.  Artistic credit again goes to Ben.

I bought the long, thin boxes at the Container Store.

 The kids loved knocking down the pigs and rebuilding with the boxes.

The kids had enough fun playing Angry Birds outside that the indoor portion of the party was pretty minimal.

We had a golden egg hunt.  Think Easter egg hunt.  I bought a pack of gift bags at Target and added tags with pictures of Angry Birds.  The children used these bags to hold their eggs during the hunt.

If you look to the right of the gift bags, you'll also see a pile of small rubber balls.  I bought balls for each child at the dollar store.  We started the party by building small versions of the Angry Birds game indoors.  We had stations of things the children could use to build towers - wooden building blocks, Jenga, Lincoln Logs, Solo cups, you name it.  Then we had a variety of small balls - Nerf balls, small rubber bouncy balls, etc. that the kids could roll - ROLL - at their towers.  No, I did not allow 12 kids to throw balls in my house.  Though of course a few had to try it anyway.

I bought a pack of Angry Birds mylar balloons on Amazon and had them filled at my local grocery store.

Lincoln wanted cupcakes instead of a traditional cake.  Gotta love easy.  Find the printables from Sherry K Designs HERE.

I printed each Angry Bird large enough to fill an 8.5x11 piece of paper, then cut out the birds and strung them together to make a banner.

Angry Birds t-shirt tutorial

And of course the birthday boy wore his new Angry Birds t-shirt.  Find my DIY tutorial HERE.

TUTORIAL: Angry Birds T-shirt

Preparations are in full swing for this handsome little man's Angry Birds-themed birthday party.  I surprised him with this t-shirt to wear on the big day.  Here's the DIY tutorial.

Supplies

• Image of Angry Bird - see below to print your own
• Red t-shirt
• Small pieces of black, white, and yellow knit fabric
• Paper-backed fusible web, such as Wonder Under or Heat 'n Bond Lite (I used Heat 'n Bond but either product will work.)
• Optional: transfer paper (tracing paper) and stylus or pencil
• sewing machine, thread, scissors
• iron and ironing board

1. Print image of Angry Bird onto computer paper.

Right-click on the image above to save it.

Crop and size the face to fit your t-shirt.

Print your image.  I printed the face large enough to fill an entire 8.5 x 11 piece of computer paper.

2. Fuse fabric to Heat 'n Bond Lite.

Use your Angry Bird picture as a guide to know how large to cut each piece of fabric.  TIP: It's easiest to use one square of black large enough to cut everything black, one square of yellow large enough to cut everything yellow, and one square of white large enough to cut everything white rather than use a seperate piece of fabric for each piece of the applique.

Cut your Heat 'n Bond slightly smaller than your fabric.  This prevents the adhesive on the Heat 'n Bond from sticking to your ironing board.  Follow the directions that came with your Heat 'n Bond to fuse it to the wrong side of your fabric.

3. Trace and cut shapes for your Angry Bird applique.

If you have transfer paper (tracing paper), lay it face down on the right side of your black fabric.  TIP: If you're worried about the tracing paper leaving marks on the finished product, flip over the black fabric and trace the image on the wrong side (onto the paper part of the Heat 'n Bond).  Your image will be reversed, but you're guaranteed to not see any marks from the tracing paper.

Use a stylus or the plastic tip of a mechanical pencil to trace the outline of the black face background.  Press hard enough for the transfer paper to leave an image on the black fabric.

NOTE: If you do NOT have transfer paper, simply cut the image with scissors and trace around eaach piece.  Cut around the black backround first, then trace.  Then cut out each piece of the face and trace each one individually.

Here's what the outline looks like.  Cut out the face, then use the rest of the black fabric to make the pupils for the eyes.

Repeat the process for each piece of the face.  You should have:

• Black background
• Two black pupils for the eyes
• Two pieces of white fabric for the eyes
• White fabric for the teeth/mouth
• Two yellow pieces for the beak

4. Fuse each piece of the bird's face to your shirt.

Peel the paper backing off each piece of fabric.

Follow the directions that came with your Heat 'n Bond to fuse the face to your shirt.  Fuse the pieces IN THIS ORDER (you're working from the bottom up). 

• Fuse the black background onto the t-shirt.
• Fuse all the white and yellow pieces onto the black.  You can do all five pieces at the same time.
• Fuse the black pupils onto the white eyes.

If you try to adhere all the pieces at once, the bottom pieces won't get hot enough to stick to the shirt unless you overheat the top pieces.  TIP: If you got eager and put everything on the t-shirt and started ironing, don't worry.  Check the edges of your applique to see how well everything adhered to your shirt.  If you have small patches of the bottom pieces that are loose, go ahead and sew down the applique (see below), then turn the shirt inside out and try setting the Heat 'n Bond from the inside of the shirt.

5. Sew around each piece of the applique.

Use a zig sag stitch to sew around the edges of each pieces of the applique.  I used thread that matched each piece - yellow thread on the beak, white on the eyes and mouth/teeth, and black for the pupils and background.

If my presser foot looks funny, it's because I used a clear applique foot so I could see my work more easily.  A regular foot will work just fine.

Here were my settings.  Stitch width = 2.7.  Sitch length = 2.0.  I used short, overlapping stitches to secure the ends.  TIP: It's important to use a zig zag stitch, not a straight stitch, since knits need to stretch.

Iron the shirt one last time to set the stitches.  Then voila! - you're done!

Please leave a comment if you make a shirt (or tote bag, or towel, or whatever else you want to applique) using this tutorial.  I'd love to see your good work!