Tigger Tails - not chocolate dipped

I was determined to have "Tigger Tails" at my daughter's birthday.  If you've been to Disneyland you've probably seen them.  They're marshmallows dipped in orange chocolate with a Tigger zig zag.

Well, I've tried the chocolate covered mashmallows and to me they are just way too sweet.  So...I looked up if there was a way just to dye the Marshmallows...and there was!

So I googled and I used this as a reference:

http://www.dashrecipes.com/blogs/dashboard/2012/06/29-how-to-dye-marshmallows.html

I made my dye really dark though.  That was by accident.  It almost looked like it was on the verge of red.  My husband told me to try a batch and it worked, I just didn't have to submerge it as long.

 

 I used the short lollipop/cake pop sticks instead of skewers.  I didn't want kids poking themselves.  I dipped 3 marshmallows.  The stick became orange as well, but I was okay with that and honestly, I just didn't have time to dye the marshmallows before putting them on the stick.

I then used melted chocolate and piped it through a ziploc bag.  I didn't do this for a few hours though.  I let the marshmallows dry in the refrigerator for about 4-5 hours.  I piped the chocolate on and then put them back in the fridge to make sure it hardened faster. 

The final part came when I took the foldable sandwich bags and cut the side that was folded...put them in and tied ribbon around it.  And that was it.  I actually got a lot of compliments on it.  Some people didn't know what it was exactly but just said "this is good."

Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore themed cupcakes

Someone once told me...Keep it simple stupid...

I wasn't planning on fully decorating the cupcakes.  It just happened.  I was just going to put plain white cream cheese frosting with some Winnie the Pooh picks.  You know, a picture of the Winnie the Pooh that's on a stick/toothpick and you shove it in the cupcake?

Well I didn't end up doing that...I ended up doing this...

Eeyore's Tail Cupcake

Tigger's Tail Cupcake

Piglet's Body Cupcake

My husband accidentally dyed the one of the frosting batches orange.  He was trying to make a honey gold for my daughter's smash cake.  I told him I would use whatever he "messed up" on for the cupcakes because I didn't care about the color of the icing.  It just so happen that I had leftover chocolate in a ziploc bag that I "tubed" out for the marshmallow dyed tigger tails...so I got the bright idea to do Tigger on the cupcakes.  Then i couldn't help but do Piglet so I added a little bit of red food coloring to white frosting...and you get the story right?

So there it is...my Winnie the Pooh Friends themed cupcake...

Honey Pot Centerpieces

These were orginally intended to be used as centerpieces for my daughter's first birthday.  It was so hot though that I couldn't leave them outside for fear of the chocolate melting.  Either way, our plan was to raffle off the centerpieces. You could also use this as the prices for games.

I bought a regular planters pot and put in the Styrofoam that is used to hold the fake flower and pants.  I also shredded some construction paper and used it as filler.  I used the really long lollipop sticks to hold up the candy bars.  You tape the stick to back (I used scotch packing tape).  My sister-in-law did the arrangement for me as I had my doctor appointment.  She did a great job.

After, I painted the honey pot.  I used white Acrylic paint as my primer so that the color that I did want to use would show.

Here is the after picture with the honey around the pot and the word "hunny" painted on.  Notice that the N's are backwards as well.  The next day I did stick a mylar Winnie The Pooh shaped balloon in the middle, but didn't get a picture of it.  Maybe someone from the birthday party has a picture of it.  Well anyways, people enjoyed the raffle because of the prize!  

Finished Woozle Pinata

So here is the finished Woozle Pinata finally for my daughters 1st birthday Winnie the Pooh birthday.  Here is a close-up of the face.  I did the eyes out of construction paper as well as the "stitches" on the Woozle.  I decided to not make the pinata "ruffle-y" and just do a smooth look.

This picture the stitching wasn't finished.  If you don't know what I mean by stitching, in the "Blustery Day" portion of "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" movie, the woozle looks like a stuffed animal in Pooh's nightmare, just alike all of them are...stuffed animals.

Here is a close-up of the top half, and yes we did make it "fly."   Not just drag it up and down hanging from a tree.

 And here is a view of the body.

Some people didn't appreciate this detail; but I find that the ones who truly know Winnie the Pooh and the stories (and not just a popular Disney Character) knew what it was and was glad I chose an "enemy" of Pooh Bear to use as a Pinata.  :)

Favors for Babies

Making party favors can be fun for most of us.  But we tend to make it for older kids.  Not babies.  Given that I am doing my daughter's 1st birthday and I have a lot of friends who have babies the same age, I wanted them to have a favor they can enjoy NOW.

I went to Target and bought the baby snacks.  Just go down to the food section where the baby stuff is and I grabbed an assortment of cookies.  I got the animal crackers, banana flavored cookies and the vanilla wheat biscuits.

My brother's girlfriend arranged them in the bag.  The design faced the outside and she made sure the other side looked the same with the same cookies.  The bag I got from Michael's and they were the "fishbowl" shape near the baking section were you can find treat bags.

 We also did another bag with the "puffs."

 Then I bought these cute boxes at Michael's as well.  I created a thank you tag and hole punched it.  We tied it to the handle and placed the two bags in the box.

 And there you have party favors for infants and toddlers to enjoy.

Winnie the Pooh Water bottles

I admit, it takes some photoshop skills for this.  But just wanted to share the Winnie the Pooh water bottles I did for my daughter's birthday.  I wanted to do my own dimensions for the water bottle.  I wanted to use the Kirkland water bottles because they were sturdier.  So I took the time to adjust the label and add more to it.

 

 I did some "nutritional facts" but used it to describe my daughter.

I also added the text for her first birthday.  I also used photopaper.  The gloss came out nice and the paper is a lot thicker.  Just a tip, I get my photopaper usually free or close to nothing from Staples.  I usually stock up whenever there is a rebate of some sort or coupon.  Staples is nice to do rebates because they put all the codes on the receipt and you can submit it online.  No need for postage or copies of the receipts.  They send you the coupon to deposit and you get your money back.

A Woozle Pinata

Sorry if I took a long break already.  I've been busy making my daughter's pinata for her first birthday.  I'm making a "Woozle" from Winnie The Pooh.  As you guessed, her first birthday theme is Winnie The Pooh. Her birthday theme was planned before she was born...well...8 hours before she was born.  My water broke after I bought a bunch of 1st birthday Winnie The Pooh supplies on clearance.  I also thought it was a bit morbid to beat Winnie The Pooh in Pinata form.  I might get accused of animation discrimination.

I just looked up different tutorials on how to make a Pinata.  It's not really labor intensive just time consuming to wait for the layers to dry with the paper macheStep 1: Frame the objectI used posterboard to make a frame and kept in mind it doesn't have to be perfect because I am going to put layers of newspaper on top of it.  I decided to place a hook for the rope in two spots for better support and to make it look like the Woozle was flying.  I am also adding the tail last.My husband used some wire he had laying around.  I also used packing tape and staples for the posterboard.I didn't photograph it but in the inside i did reinforce certain areas with cut outs of harder cardboard.  I did this as I layered the paper mache on so I could feel the parts of weakness.

Step 2: Cut out strips of newspaper

I have a stack of newspapers I saved from couponing so this was easy.  

Step 3: Mixing the paste

The mixture that worked best for me was 1 cup of water, 1 cup of flour, and 1/2 tablespoon of salt.  I do it in this quantity because of what I actually use and then had to wait for the layer to dry.  If I let the paste sit too long, sometimes it wouldn't be as effective as a paste, so I did smaller batches than I had researched online.

Step 4: Layer on the newspaper strips

You may have to cut some strips smaller.  Make sure you don't only go in one direction.  You're securing the paper mache so think of reinforcing the strips to hold together.  Make sure you also let the layers dry.

Now I haven't finished just yet but I will post the finish product hopefully by the end of this week.  People had suggested paying someone to custom make it starting at $30 depending on size, but I didn't want to spend $30 for something kids will tear to pieces.

What about my time?  Honestly, it took me probably 15 minutes to frame it (if I weren't distracted), and the first layer took 20 minutes and the next 3-4 layers took 15 minutes each.  It's not difficult and I personally love a little arts and crafts time and the challenge of it.

So until next post...

If anyone is reading this and has additional questions, please let me know.

The Start

When I became a mom and owned my own place, I started become a huge Do-It-Yourself Mom.  I admit, I was somewhat of a DIY person before that since I love arts and crafts and figuring how to make stuff.  I enjoyed making stuff from personal invitations all the way to my own target frames and targets for the shooting range.

Something happened in me though when I became a mom and owning my own house shortly after.  If we were to be dead honest, the control freak in me came out.  But perhaps the extreme-ness started when I was pumping breastmilk and trying to breastfeed.  I'll be honest it was a pain in the butt pumping and breastfeeding. The clock and my daughter owned me.  On top of that, my daughter was premature and I had to bring a supply to the NICU about twice a day.  Sarah latched, but her sucking power wasn't effective.

Then she started to eat babyfood.  My husband was DETERMINED to make all her food.  It was actually a lot easier than I thought and fun.  So what else could I make?  And then it begun...

A lot of these things you can find somewhere on the internet but I wanted to document experience.  It may help just 1 person on their own journey and realize how easy it is.

There are no excuses.  We live in a world where we don't know what things are made of anymore.  GMOs even found in formulas, arsenic in baby cereal, and lysol not being a safe around infants...what do you do?

Please don't give me the excuse that you don't have time.  At the time all this happened, my husband and I purchased and renovated a house doing most of the work ourselves (More extreme DIYing), I was working a contract job during maternity leave and went back to work 32 hours out of the week.  I also work contract/side jobs so I am a full-time working mom with an infant who I spend time with (I don't believe in not being active with your kids), couponing, taking care of chores, errands, cooking meals - oh and ladies I iron my work clothes AND my husbands (for some reason people are shocked with that when they find out)...and by the way...I have a dog as well - A HUSKY THAT'S A PUPPY STILL!