Open House

I wanted to share some pictures from the open house I participated back in September.  It was at a beautiful farm here in NC.  I was asked to make favors for the event.  I made apple brickle dip with green apples. 

I included all the dry ingredients in the mason jar so that all the guests had to do at home was add the cream cheese & vanilla.  The jar & apple were then wrapped in a cellophane bag, tied with raffia & a handmade tag.

I also set up a candy buffet for the event.  The hosts choose the candy they wanted to share with their guests.  I had several jars that we used.  The banner was made out of burlap tied together with twine.  I simply printed the letters out using microsoft word to make a stencil.  Then I filled the letters in with white craft paint.

I made custom candy jar tags to coordinate with the colors of the event for each of the containers...

 These labels can be found in my etsy shop.

The host also purchased these burlap bags for the candy buffet.  I added some ribbon & the logo of the farm house to the bag to dress them up!

It's so fun creating custom pieces for events! 

New birthday tradition

Emma celebrated her 8th birthday this summer. Wow!!  Time sure does go fast!  

We make signs for each other and hang them all over the house to wish the birthday girl, boy, mom or dad a happy birthday.  It's always fun to wake up & find signs in different places. This has become a great tradition in our family that we all look forward.

I wanted to share another idea I found to celebrate your child's birthday. 

 Found this one on...where else...pinterest!

Just roll up a dollar, stick inside the balloon, inflate and hang.  One balloon & dollar for each year.  

 I believe the picture I saw had the balloons hanging in a row from a door frame.  I decided to bunch them together & hang them over our kitchen island. 

  

 

Eight balloons for Emma this year!

 

I like this idea...maybe it will become a new family tradition around here!  Do you have any special traditions for your children's birthday?

Custom Event Creations

After lots of encouragement from family & friends I've decided to start my own business.  WooHoo!!!!
I've made paper crafts for family weddings & events and received lots of positive comments on my work.  I love crafting with paper, searching for great ideas, and creating a custom product for each individual event.


My first venture was my sisters wedding two years ago.  I made their wedding programs, menus, place cards, favor tags & table number cards.  You can read more about those details here.

A year later I hosted her baby shower and created lots of fun details for the party.  I made buffet/food tent cards, candy jar tags, favor bags, welcome sign, and other items for custom games. You can read my post about her baby shower here.

Then came her son's christening (here) ...

 
...and my daughters 1st communion (here).

A prewedding event was the next opportunity for me get my crafty on...you can see the other details of this event in this post here..

Another wedding...this time for my sister in Cali!  If you want to see more check out this post.

I've had lots of practice creating these custom event creations for my family!  But the decision was finally made when a friend of mine, who is just starting her event planning business, asked me to create a couple favor samples for an upcoming event that she was planning for a client.  I did some research and made this favor.  You can see the original on pinterest.

Green apple w/brickle dip

I also made this sample favor...again the inspiration was found on pinterest.

Trail mix

This client has an exquisite farm complete with Clydesdale horses that caters to weddings & other events.   She is having an open house event at the end of the month & inviting many wedding vendors to showcase their products.  They loved the favor idea I created for them.  I was asked to make 100 apple favors for the open house.

The winner!

We decided to go with Apple Brickle Dip because we could just fill the decorative wide mouth mason jar with the dry ingredients.  This prevents us from having to keep 100 favors cold.  On the top of the lid we will include the recipe with the other ingredients needed to complete the recipe.

They also asked me to create a candy buffet complete with my handmade buffet tags for the open house.  Yay!!! I'm thrilled but also a little bit nervous. ;)

This opportunity really put everything into perspective for me.  So I started working on my business...coming up with a name, creating business cards & setting up an etsy shop.

 I am super excited about the start of my business...Custom Event Creations!!

Please check out my etsy shop out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CustomEventCreations

So although I have not been busy with creating Cents-able Spaces lately, I have been busy being creative!!




 I'm linking up to:
Scissors & Spatulas

Delightful Order

House of Hepworths

San Francisco Wedding

My sister got married in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend.  My daughter was the flower girl.

Because it was my kids first week back to school & my oldest started high school this year we weren't all able to make the trip out there.  We decided that only Emma & I would fly out to California.  It was the first time either of us have been there so we were excited!  We were only there for a long weekend but we managed to squeeze in some sight seeing.

Golden Gate Bridge

 The wedding was held on the Mayor's Balcony of City Hall.  It is an absolutely beautiful building!!

The beautiful bride & her flower girl

My princess

We didn't plan ahead for something for Emma's hair.  It was a peacock wedding theme...one of the bridesmaids had made this embellishment for a gift for the bride

 

 ...and reused it as a hair piece for the flower girl...PERFECT!!!

As part of my wedding gift I made the wedding programs, menus, cupcake picks & table number cards for the bride & groom.

wedding program

menus

table number cards

cupcake picks

The reception was at an incredible restaurant over looking the Golden Gate Bridge.  We had an amazing whirlwind trip.  We were so happy to be there to celebrate the beginning of their forever with them!

me & my girl

I'll be sharing my etsy shop here on my blog tomorrow or maybe even later today.  Stay tuned!  And if you enjoy reading my blog please consider becoming a follower through google.  Thanks so much!!

A Prewedding Party

My step sister lives in San Francisco but most of our family is in New Jersey.  She got married over Labor Day weekend in California.  Since there were many friends and family that weren't be able to make the trip she had a party at our parents house in NJ in July.

I had told them that we weren't able to make the 9 hour trip up there for the weekend between religion, dance & soccer camps that were happening the week before & the week after her party. But we decided a few weeks before to surprise them and "crash" the party.  There were all so surprised & thrilled we were there...and we were too!

I'm the old one on the left...ha ha ha! My step sisters (twins in the middle) and my sister on the right are all 28.

They set up tables around the pool area.  Because the party was in July a tent was necessary but they added some sheer fabric to soften the look & block the fence behind.

Budget conscious antique mason jars were filled with wild flowers and tied with raffia.

More flowers were added to the buffet table...

My step mom did all the cooking for the party.  I had offered to help by making the buffet table tent cards, cupcake picks, and favor tags.

 I made simple blank favor tags that coordinated with the other paper products.  My step mom just added the names in a colored sharpie pen.

It was a great party!  And we are so happy that we were able to be there to help them celebrate!!

I'll be posting about my etsy shop soon...stay tuned!

Mason's Christening

Several months ago my sister had her baby boy christened.  My husband & I were honored to be chosen as his godparents.  We traveled to NJ for the christening for the weekend.

 I was also excited to make some custom paper products for the christening...

 

My sister made the cupcakes & I created toppers for them.   I found some simple brown & blue striped paper at Micheal's.

I used the same paper to make the favor tags.  We made chocolate covered pretzels as a small gift for her guests to take home with them.

I printed the menu cards and attached them to brown card stock.  I added a cute stitched blue & brown ribbon to the top of each menu.

 

Back to School

Hey there...look at me writing again...two nights in a row! Woohoo!!  Don't get too excited I just uploaded a bunch of pictures for my blog last night...so I thought I'd go back & share some things that we've done over the summer.  

I'll start with a recent one...back to school for my three kiddos!  We are already in our 2nd week of school.  We started here last Monday.  This year was a big one for my oldest...he started high school.  How can that be???  Wasn't it only yesterday he was walking to the bus stop for kindergarten?

Jake - kindergarten (2003)

   

And now....my first baby is in high school...I'm the parent of a high school student...wow!!!

Jake - 9th grade (HS Freshman Class of 2016)

My little ones...lol...are now in 5th & 3rd grades.  They are still both in elementary school...together!!  Next year I'll have 3 kids in 3 different school.  So for now I need to remind myself how fast the year will fly by and to enjoy every moment!

Gavin -5th grade

Emma - 3rd grade

 While they were in school navigating their new classes...I spent the morning missing them.  So I  baked them homemade chocolate chip cookies!  Yum! 

Whether you've started school in your area already or you will be starting soon...I wish everyone moms, dads & kids a very successful school year!