lavender's blue: fun

Showing posts with label fun. Show all posts

DIY Blue Ombre Layer Cake

>> Friday, March 23, 2012 – food, fun

A few pictures from the day when I baked Dean's cake.

P.S. I used cake mix + blue food dye. :)

Green Eggs and Ham

>> Saturday, March 17, 2012 – food, fun

Say!

I like green eggs and ham!

I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!

And I would eat them in a boat!
And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good so good you see!

So I will eat them in a box.

And I will eat them with a fox.

And I will eat them in a house.

And I will eat them with a mouse.

And I will eat them here and there.

Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

Happy St. Patrick's Day! :)

A Grenadian Birthday

>> Thursday, March 1, 2012 – family, fun

It's Dean's birthday today! We didn't get to celebrate too much because midterms are coming up for him and he's been hitting the books pretty hard...but we did manage to sneak in a few treats here and there! I brought him lunch on campus and surprised him with some chocolate peanut butter cupcakes.

There aren't too many choices for eating out in Grenada, so rather than splurge at a "fancy" restaurant, we decided to save the nicer meal for when we're back in the US. Instead, we stopped by the local pizza parlor and got a pizza and some ice cream. Rick's is just a two minute walk away from us and feels kinda like walking into America in the late 90's. They serve some pretty good pizza and milkshakes (the nutmeg flavor is awesome!) and play a lot of American pop music...including Dean's favorite Backstreet Boys. (Whoops, did I just write that?? Good thing he never reads this.)

pepperoni & pineapple - our favorite

"power" flavor - apparently, it's made with Guinesss

And here's a final shot of the birthday boy (badly in need of a haircut, I might add). Don't worry, I don't feed him pizza and KFC all the time. We've only had it once. :P

Valentine Love Quotes - Free Printable (Sources!)

>> Thursday, February 9, 2012 – DIY, freebie, fun, printable

I promised to reveal the sources of my love quotes today, so here they are! How many did you guess correctly?

DIY Superbowl XLVI Party + Printables

>> Wednesday, February 1, 2012 – freebie, fun, party, printable, tutorial

I'm not really a football fan, nor do I know much about the sport at all. But I'll take any opportunity to throw a party. :) So, when my husband suggested having a small Super Bowl party for his study group buddies, I said, "Sure, why not?"

I started researching the teams to find out the colors and what their logos were, and I must say I was very disappointed when I found out that both teams have the same exact team colors. That doesn't make for a very exciting party, now does it? :P

Well, I worked with what I had, and it actually looks more like a coordinated, well-matched party than a SuperBowl rivalry. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Anyway, feel free to download and use for your own parties! Use both teams' printables or just cut out the one team you're rooting for if you're feeling particularly competitive. :)

*Thanks to Brands of the World and the Noun Project for the free vector files!

Type Elephant

>> Monday, September 26, 2011 – design, fun, school

Let me introduce you to Elmer. We met in typography class last week. He loves peanuts and cheddar cheese (though he's been rather reluctant to indulge in the latter recently; he's watching his weight). He also has an affinity for beautiful fonts and smart design.

Elmer was part of an in-class exercise to create an animal using only type. The exercise helped us recognize and appreciate letters as shapes, lines, and beautiful forms.

Gotta Collect 'Em All!

>> Monday, August 22, 2011 – design, fun, kids

Well, there's actually only one more month of summer left, but I wanted to share with you a little project I did for our summer camp this year. To help generate excitement for camp and to help with marketing a bit, we came up with the idea of having buttons/pins that corresponded with each week's theme. Some of the themes we had included Pirate Week Crafty Creations, Camping Week, Gamerz, Entrepreneur Week, and Hollywood Glam, to name a few. The children were encouraged to come each week, receive their collectible button, and redeem them at the very end for exciting prizes!

For the icons, I used a lot of the pre-made ones available in Illustrator and also created a few of my own to add to the mix. I assigned each icon an appropriate color to help further distinguish each week from the next.

We ended up getting this button machine and starter kit from Badge-A-Minit because they had the most affordable option for our purposes. It's definitely not as nice as an automatic one, but for the quantities that we needed, it worked just fine! It takes a little practice to get it just right though.

Here's a wall display I created to let all the children and parents know about our weekly themes.

Floating Cream

>> Thursday, May 12, 2011 – design, fun, kids

One of our themes during Spring Camp for the kids was "Entrepreneur Day" where we asked them to brainstorm business ideas, and then to come up with a plan and strategy to execute their business ideas. The group I worked with decided to open up a Rootbeer float shop that they named Floating Cream.

They did all the research as to how much ice cream and Rootbeer cost, estimated how much they would need, how much to price the floats, and even conducted a customer survey with their peers to see which flavors of ice cream and soda they liked best.

After that, they designed their logo and marketing materials, including custom cup wrappers, brochures, flyers, and a poster for the shop table.

The shop was such a smashing success, we've since re-opened it every Friday! I'm so proud of the work they did, from their thoughtful design process to their business-savvy in conducting marketing research and advertising to their excellent customer service!

Happy Birthday, Deanie!

>> Tuesday, March 1, 2011 – family, food, fun

Recently, I've been working with clay a lot with my kids at school. We've been creating cute, miniature animals and pea-sized hamburgers and ice cream cones. I've discovered that anything is cute when it's 1/10th its original size! I've fallen so in love with the medium that when my husband's birthday rolled around, I decided I wanted to bake and decorate him a cake using fondant (okay, clay/fondant, not exactly the same thing, but you get where my inspiration was from).

I tossed around a few different ideas (Phx. Suns? a basketball court? an Xbox?) and finally settled on a Super Mario Brothers-inspired cake! I might have been swayed by the bright, fun colors that the Super Mario Bros. theme offered...

Anyway, after a full weekend (read: 15+ hrs.) of baking/mixing/kneading/drawing/cutting, I want to share with you the final product! It's not perfect, but overall I'm pleased with the result, given this is my first time working with fondant...or making a three-layered cake (German chocolate, lemon, and red velvet!)

Happy Birthday, Deanie! Hope you liked your cake. :)

Thanks, Bri/Steph for the fondant recipe!

DIY Popcorn Boxes or "Chuck" Cheese Ball Boxes + Free Printable

>> Monday, February 7, 2011 – DIY, freebie, fun, printable, tutorial

When my sister had her Chuck party last week, I whipped up these printable boxes for her to hold Chuck's favorite snack - cheese balls! I couldn't resist making matching food flags in the style of the episode names and Orange Orange yogurt labels too. :) I wasn't able to be there for the party, but doesn't it look like a great time?

If you're interested in holding your own Chuck party, I've made the cheese ball box and Chuck labels available for you to download here. Enjoy!

Aside from being great for holding cheese balls, these also make perfect popcorn boxes. Or pretzel boxes. Or my personal favorite - Xtra Cheddar Flavor Blasted Goldfish boxes! For all those non-Chuck-related events, I've made an additional blank popcorn box template for you, along with a tutorial as well! Keep reading for the full tutorial and pics...

***

DIY Popcorn Box Tutorial

Materials: paper, scissors, double-sided tape, bone folder, popcorn box template
Step 1: Print out the DIY popcorn box template onto the wrong side of the paper (my paper was the same color both sides).

Step 2: Cut out the template along the solid lines.

Step 3: Score along the dotted fold lines (I'm using a Martha Stewart bone folding kit that comes with a grooved surface. The grooves help me line up my paper and allow me to make straight creases without a ruler. If you don't have the kit, you can just use a ruler with your bone folder.)

Step 4: Fold along the creased lines and tape together.

Step 5: Fill with your favorite snack and enjoy while watching your favorite TV show!

Note: If you'd like, you can also trim along the top edge of the box with scalloped or decorative scissors like my sister did with her cheese ball boxes!