FREEBIE: Pink Party Invitation

It's time to plan our little one's first birthday!  Time seems to go by much quicker with the second babe!  Initially, I planned to do a Pinkalicious party, but the theme has morphed simply to a "pink party."  Below is the invitation I designed...

If you would like to use this invitation, a freebie is available by clicking on the image below.  I have provided both a .PSD and .PNG.  

 

 

 

The fonts used are as follow:  

Pea Faye (http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/pea-faye/)

Pea Kari (http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/pea-kari/)

Karabine (http://www.dafont.com/karabine.font)

Homework Smart (http://www.dafont.com/homework.font)

 

Send me an email or post a comment if you use this template - I'd love to see your creations!  

Enjoy! 

I Heart Faces - From a Distance

This picture of my daughter and husband was taken in St. Augustine.  I always love father/daughter pictures...so sweet.  

My Shadow

Much like most two year olds, my daughter mimics everything that she sees other people doing...even her 10 month old sister!  Since I am always snapping pictures, I figured I would whip out my old school Minolta to let her play with it.  All the while, my daughter was saying, "My turn, my turn!  Time for me to take a picture!"  Of course, I couldn't pass up the photo ops.  Meanwhile, my husband kept saying, "Just put the camera down.  How many pictures can you take of her playing with a camera?  What's the big deal?"  

Anyway, below are two pics that I snapped that I really fell in love with.  I'm so glad I didn't get rid of my old school SLR!

Quick and Easy: Roast Red Pepper Tortellini

As a working mother, I am always looking for quick and easy dinner recipes.  I came up with this one tonight to give a new twist to tortellini - Roasted Red Pepper Tortellini

Ingredients:
-Frozen or refrigerated tortellini 

-1 jar roasted red peppers

-1/3 cup of milk (I used low fat)

-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

-1 fresh red pepper

-1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

Instructions:

Prepare tortellini as instructed on the package.  Meanwhile, place the jar of roasted red peppers, milk, and shredded cheese and crushed red pepper in a blender or food processor and blend.  Once blending is complete, put the mixture into a bowl and microwave for 1-2 minutes (until warm).  When tortellini is done cooking, dish into bowls and top with roasted red pepper sauce.  Top with additional cheese and crushed red pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Baby Jar Gifts

When I transitioned my second child to jarred baby food, it killed me to just throw away the beautiful glass jars that it came in!  After seeing how much glass jars cost, I figured I could certainly find another use for them (after putting them through the dishwasher first, of course).  

It was around the time of Valentine's Day and I decided put together little treat jars for my daughters' teachers, as well as my coworkers.  

I had my husband drill a hole in the top of each jar top.  I then spray painted the tops red and filled each jar with M&Ms.  I created a label for the jars (below) and adhered them to each jar.   

Finally, I made the lollipop flowers, using the tutorial provided by Skip To My Lou.  I didn't use the floral tape for the leaves, but rather just cut strips of green paper, glued the ends, and wrote the name of the recipient.  When I finished them all, I popped a lollipop in the whole of each jar top and...tada....a cute little gift! 

Playroom / Nursery Wall Art

I have recently become obsessed with pinterest.com.  I believe it is still an 'invitation only' site, so message me with your email address if you'd like me to send you an invite (simpleecrafted@gmail.com).  Anyway, I have found SO MANY cute ideas on the site and this is one of them...

I LOVE free printables and sure enough, each of these cute alphabet cards is a free printable!   This would be perfect for a child's nursery or playroom.  This could also be put together to create an alphabet book!

Thank you http://www.thehandmadehome.net for an adorable printable!

Teacher Appreciation Part 1

My daughters' school is having five days of teacher appreciation next week, with a different theme each day.  

While I am working on making the theme gift for "flower day" (which I will post soon), the first theme is "Munchie Monday."  As such, I am going to make homemade chocolate chip cookies for each of the teachers, accompanied with this adorable subway art in a frame.  To download, click here.

I Heart Faces - Slice of Life

Most of the pictures I take are "lifestyle" photos, as I try to capture my childrens' lives without posing them.  I love to capture their expressions, as I feel those are the most touching.  I found this picture that I never even realized I had taken over the summer and fell in love with it.  It's amazing how you can look at a picture months after you've taken it and suddenly realize the beauty.  I captured this momentof my husband and daughter watching fireworks on July 4th.  My daughter was SO tired, yet scared  of and intrigued with the fireworks.  I love it.  

 

Don't Cry Over Spilled Juice

Juice boxes are great...convenient, portable, and fun for kids.  However, my two year old always insists on squeezing the box to watch the laws of gravity squirt the juice out the top of the straw and then all over everything in a two foot radius.  A dear friend taught me this little trick...there are tabs on either side of the juice box.  Flip them up, tell your tot to hold those rather than the box, and you will should be mess free!  My daughter was the perfect model this weekend as she sipped on a juice box while we boated!

I Heart Faces - Best Face of February

This photo I'm entering into the Best Face of February is one I took of my husband and daughter one day when we were on a walk.  We happened to catch a lacrosse game at a school down the road and my daughter was completely intrigued.  I think it's such a sweet "father daughter" picture, even though you can't see my husband's face.  The natural light made my daughter's skin look smooth as ever - I did not use any skin smoothening filter on this photo.  As always, comments are appreciated.

I Heart Faces - Anything but a Face

This is a picture of my daughter on my parents' dock this past summer.  It is quite a meaningful picture of her childhood, as she has always loved pouring water from cups, bottles, cans, or anything.  I debated on whether to enter this photo or a closeup photo of she or her sister.  I opted for this one, as it has a very personal meaning to me.  As always, comments are greatly appreciated.  

I Heart Faces - RED

I love this photo because my daughter is looking directly at the camera via the oven glass. I thought it was fitting for this week's challenge of "RED."  

Thank you for visiting.  Comments (positive OR negative) are greatly appreciated. 

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Best Face Photo in January

Here goes...my first entry into the weekly I Heart Faces photo challenge!  

Above is a photo I recently shot of my daughter eating cotton candy for the first time (taken with my Canon T1i).  While I have a lot of beautiful photographs showing her entire face, I thought this one was unique, as the cotton candy "cone" acts as a leading line to her face. 

Being an amateur photographer, I have no clue how professional photographers even begin to select a photo to enter any contest!  Thank you for visiting.  Comments (positive OR negative) are greatly appreciated. 

FREEBIE: Monthly Onesie Stickers (Boys)

One reader requested a boy version of the stickers.  Below are the links!  

Boy Stickers (Months 1-6)

To download the PDF file, click here.

To download the PNG file, click here.   

Boy Stickers (Months 7-12)

To download the PDF file, click here.

To download the PNG file, click here.   

If you want to make these for a gift, feel free to download the 'directions.'  Click on the picture to be taken to the PDF version.

FREEBIE: Monthly Onesie Stickers (Girls)

When my second daughter was born, I decided to be diligent about taking "monthly" pictures of her (something I wasn't so great about doing with my first daughter).  These are basically knock-off Picky Sticky stickers.  While some of the ones on Etsy have cute art, I wanted something very simple.  Below is a sample of what I made for my daughter. 

I decided to upload two formats of the file.  The first is a PDF - you can print it on an 8.5"x11" sticker sheet and cut out the stickers or just print them onto plain paper and tape the "sticker" onto the onesie.  The second is a PNG file.  With this, you could also just print the stickers, or you could put your Photoshop skills to work (which is what I have started to resort to).  I 'select' the sticker that I want to use, take my daughter's picture in a plain onesie, and Photoshop the sticker on after I pick a photo I like.  (This oftentimes requires me to also Photoshop out wrinkles, but I think it comes out a little better this way).  

Girl Stickers (Months 1-6)

To download the PDF file, click here.

To download the PNG file, click here.   

Girl Stickers (Months 7-12)

To download the PDF file, click here.

To download the PNG file, click here.   

If you want to make these for a gift, feel free to download the 'directions.'  Click on the picture to be taken to the PDF version.

Interested in monthly stickers for a boy?  Let me know!

Hope this helps you track your baby's first year of precious life! 

FREEBIE: Valentine's Day Card

It is time to start planning for Valentine's Day!  I was going to make something crafty for all of the kids in my daughter's (2 year old) class, but I opted for the typical box of candy hearts.  I figured they wouldn't really appreciate something crafty as much as candy!  I have an idea for the girls' teachers (and maybe my coworkers as well), so I will post it once I put the idea into action.  

Until then, I figured I'd post a 4x6 card template I'm going to make for the girls' friends.  Click on the photo to download the .PSD file - just add a picture and your name(s)!  Enjoy.

FREEBIE: Weekly Menu Planner

As a working mom, I should probably be more organized with my menu planning.  I don't do a weekly menu, but have realized that's really the only way to force myself to plan.  I have been wanting to do this for a while, but didn't realize until this past week when we had some sort of Italian food just about everyday for dinner., that this is now necessary.  Boy do I love Italian, but I am so tired of it now!  The only way for me really to be diligent about planning is to use this weekly menu planner I created. Feel free to download for your personal use.  I made two versions - one that lists the days Sunday through Saturday and another that lists the days Monday through Sunday.  Happy planning!

Birthday Tree - Part II

One of my previous posts discussed the Birthday Tree, which was a tradition I started for my daughter, whom was born around the holidays.  Her second birthday took place January 2, so on New Year's Day night I took down all of the Christmas decorations and decorated her tree.  When my daughter woke up in the morning, we went and looked at all of the pictures on her tree.  She had more appreciation for it than I thought a two year old would, which was very rewarding.  I kept all of the pictures from last year's Birthday Tree, so it was interesting that she thought those pictures were of her little sister!  

My husband and I have discussed what we are going to do for our second daughter, whose birthday is in July, to make her birthday just as special.  My husband came up with the idea of just making the Birthday Tree a New Year's Tree.  Perhaps we could make it a tradition to decorate it on New Year's Eve Day as a way to say farewell to the year and reminisce about all of the memories that went along with it.