Rainbow Brite Baby Shower

Hooray for Baby Season!

I love hosting baby showers and birthday’s and well any party really. I don’t want to toot my own horn (OK, yes I do), but my sister and I throw some amazing parties.

One of my cousins, Bailey was expecting her first baby this month. Our other cousin Darcy wanted to throw Bailey a shower, with the help of my sister and me.

A little background information for you, I have a boat load of cousins. And it can kinda get confusing, as there are two that I am going to talk about, but they are not sisters, they are also cousins.

The three of us started brainstorming about themes, my sister and Darcy throwing down some great 80’s cartoon themes. When Darcy says ‘Oh, I know! Rainbow Brite!’

A little side note: when Bailey found out they were having a girl she said “…she will wear and use anything that she is given but if you have color choices, go easy on the pink please we like the whole rainbow” so a rainbow theme was just perfect for her. Plus there was a whole ton of Rainbow Brite playing going on whilst growing up.

So to work I went on the invitations. I had less than a week to design, cut and send them out, so I went with a simple design. We also kept the theme secret from the Mom-to-be. That was really fun. I of course use my Silhouette Cameo to make the invitations and other decorations.

I cut out different colored circles in various sizes and sewed them together. This was my first time sewing paper, and I am now hooked!

We really wanted some tissue paper pom-poms and decided to make some ourselves. We got some tissue paper packs from the dollar store, instead of separating the tissue paper by color we decided to make them rainbows too.

I think we bought two or three packs, and made about nine small ones and four large ones. More than a dozen pom-poms for $3!

They look great all clustered together.

Of course I also had to make some rosettes, my other favorite party decoration. I used plain colored card-stock and matched each of the Color Kids to the color of the rosette. On the other side of the rosette the circle is the Sprite that matched the Color Kid.

For the banner I cut out onesies and rainbow letters that “Welcome Baby” as the parents had not decided on a name yet. For the banner spacers I used images of a few Rainbow Brite characters on the onesies.

At the last shower we threw (for a different cousin) we gave these Cookie-in-a-Jar gifts, and everyone said they made wonderful cookies. So we decided to do it again. We made 40 of them….

Luckily my mom had tons of rainbow-colored fabric to use on the lids. We decided to use mini M&M‘s, instead of chocolate chips, because they were the most rainbow like candy. The tags I made using my Silhouette and I was able to print on both sides of the tags. The back has the instructions for baking.

My most favorite decoration was the rainbow backdrop on the food table.

I still love looking at pictures of the backdrop.

Remember all those circles I sewed together? This is where they ended up. Looks great huh?

We tried to stick to the rainbow theme with the food as well.

Luckily Mother Nature loves colors as much as we do. The two bowls of marshmallows are the clouds that border the fruit rainbow. And of course there is a bowl of Skittles on the table.

We wanted to make a diaper cake, and just in time, SVG Cuts came out with this Tiny Miracle kit that had a diaper castle. Rainbow Brite’s castle was yellow and had rounded tops, not pointed ones. If I had more time, I might have tried to adjust the tops, but the castle still looked great as it was.

Although I didn’t take pictures of the food tent labels, they also matched the rainbow theme.

My sister made these wonderful rainbow cupcakes. To which I added the cupcake toppers with all the characters.

I also made the mom-to-be a souvenir invitation and framed it for her. My mom had a couple of dolls, that belonged to my nieces, so we added them to the decor.

My sister made some gluten-free chocolate cupcakes and some that were rainbow inside.

Oh, so yummy!

And of course here is my cousin in all her pregnant glow!

The guests played present bingo, when mom-to-be opens a present, you get to mark in on a Bingo card. It is a fun way to get everyone involved in the presents and we play it at all our showers.

My cousin was just thrilled when she came and saw the theme and all the decorations. Her baby girl has since arrived and everyone is doing wonderfully.

Happy Party Planning

June 23, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

Menu Plan Monday June 23rd

I thought it must be a mistake when I typed out the date for this post.

How can June be almost over? It just begun!

Of course this past week completely disappeared for me.

I was able to by pass most major colds this winter, but come summer time I go and get bronchitis (or pneumonia). After coughing non-stop for four days, I went to the doctor. I decided to skip the x-ray to know what I had for sure, but he said it was one or the other. I think I might be getting better, but I still have this horrendous cough, and I am so exhausted.

I mean, my abdominal muscles are sore, like I have been doing a week of crunches, my coughing was so bad.

So I am not really sure what happened last week, it is just kind of a blur for me. (and I am a little delirious right now, so I am not sure how this post will turn out)

Sid trying to drink his spaghetti

Menu Plan 6/23-6/29

Mon: Cheeseburger Wraps with tater-chips

Tue: BBQ at my mom’s house

Wed: Chicken Enchiladas

Thr: 4 Cheese Stuffed Porkchops with garlic pasta

Fri: Camping

Sat: Still Camping

Sun: Coming home from camping, so no cooking for me

Happy Cooking

Need something to help plan your meals? I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner. Try it free for 30 days

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie

June 17, 2014
by Dawn Marie Leave a comment

Menu Plan Monday June 16th

Want to know what I had to make for dinner on Father’s day?

I asked him what he wanted and he told me to ask Ian. I said that Ian would pick spirals (Kraft Mac & Cheese, the spiral noodle version). Which he somehow confused with spaghetti-o’s, and decided that was what he wanted. Some spaghetti-o’s. Yep, that’s right. I had to go buy some spaghetti-o’s for him.

I made some Annie’s organic star soup for the boys, and grilled cheese for all plus broccoli & carrots. Except me, I had some cheesy shells.

But after spending the day organizing and rearranging things, that simple meal was perfect for me.

Ian’s first snow cone of the season

I have been on a one course meal lately. This week is no exception.

I don’t just want casseroles, but I don’t want to think about making two things for dinner plus a vegetable. I don’t want a meat and a side, just everything together.

Menu Plan 6/16-6/22

Mon: Chicken & Orzo

Tue: Taco Pasta

Wed: Pork Chops & Rice

Thr: Spaghetti Pie

Fri: Leftovers

Sat: Kitchen is Closed!

Sun: Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole

Happy Cooking

Need something to help plan your meals? I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner. Try it free for 30 days

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie

June 16, 2014
by Dawn Marie 7 Comments

Surprise at the bottom Etched Drinking Glasses

Way back in the late 90’s my sister got married and I helped her make the bridal party gifts. She wanted to order etched beer mugs for the groomsmen and I told her we could just do it ourselves. So we went to the craft store and bought this:

Armour Etch Starter Kit

You see the rose wine glass? We made those for the bridesmaids. And the kit hasn’t changed in the almost 20 years since we bought it.

It was a pain! You tape the stencil to the glass and the etching cream bleeds through and smears and it isn’t pretty.

But guess what….I now have a Silhouette Cameo that cuts vinyl. And vinyl makes the perfect stencil for glass etching. They also make stencil material that has a sticky back, or you could use contact paper.

So while searching Pinterest one day I saw some glasses that state “you have just been poisoned” at the bottom of them. I just knew I wanted to make some, and I knew the perfect machine to make a really good stencil.

After getting my Silhouette Cameo for Christmas I joined a Facebook group that has allowed me to learn how to use my machine, share my projects, help others learn how to use their machine and push me to try new things.

One of the events they hosted this year was a hand-made gift exchange. Whomever in the group wanted to participate just signed up and the coordinator matched you with another group member. You then made each other a hand-made gift. Sounds like fun, huh?

After chatting with my gift receiver I thought she might just be the person to appreciate this fun gift. To the Silhouette I go!

I measured the bottom of the glasses. It is important when looking for drinking glasses that the bottom of the glass be completely flat. Typically when etching on the outside of glass you don’t need to flip the image, but with this design it will be read through the bottom of the glass, so it needs to be flipped on the horizontal.

Cut your stencil out of vinyl, others have had success with contact paper, but I have yet to try it as a stencil. I used the default vinyl settings and it cut perfectly.

Clean the glassware and wipe with rubbing alcohol. When completely clean and dry apply stencil.

Follow the instructions on the glass etching cream you have purchased. The etching process is pretty quick to apply it next you a running water source. That way if you happen to get any on your skin you can quickly rinse it off.

Please remember this is a caustic substance and can eat away at your skin. Be safe and use precaution and proper safety gear. Gloves are highly recommended, as is a well ventilated work area next to running water. If you do happen to get some on your skin rinse under high flowing cold water for at least 15 minutes.

As per instructions I used a wooden stick to pile on a helping glob of cream and let it sit for about a minute. I then ran it under cold water until it was all rinsed off. If you are concerned about the cream etching your pipes, don’t be, but you can run cold water down your sink for 2-3 minutes if you want to ensure you have full diluted the cream.

I think they turned out pretty awesome, don’t you?

Now while these are awesome drinking glasses, I also wanted to make something a little more personal for her. My gift exchange partner is going to school to become a forensic investigator! What an awesome degree huh? So I decided to make her a some artwork that encompass that goal.