A Little Happy Zombie and a Pincushion Swap at PMQG

We had another great meeting last Thursday night at Portland Modern Quilt Guild. The Happy Zombie, Monica Solorio- Snow, talked about her Holiday Happy line of fabric (so cute- must get gnomes), getting started in the fabric designing business, and behind the fabric industry scenes information. Did you know she designed those cute little "Claus Gnomas" in all the colors of the line? Lecien only released the red, and I am going to write to them that I would love to see the other colors released too!  I can just imagine a bunch of gnoma claus' on my couch. I love Monica, she is so funny, down-to-earth, and just lovely to listen to.  She makes me laugh!


We also had a pincushion swap! We put our handmade creations in a plain paper bag, put them all on a table, and then choose one. I made this one, which Katie chose.

That's a Munki-Munki chicken in the middle!

The little dish is from Pier 1.
And little pom poms!  I have a happy place in my heart for pom poms.
I am a  true child of the 70's.

And I got this one, which Amber made!  It couldn't be more perfect for me- aliens, a little Flea Market Fancy (I only have one fat quarter of this fabric line and continue to drool over the bits I see online), and I think she told me she dyed the pieces on the back.  Amazing!

I love those aliens!  Munki Munki again!  The Flea Market Fancy is on the right.
I think the piece above the aliens is dyed too!

And it looks completely different on the back- these are the pieces I believe she dyed.

I am always so happy to go the PMQG meetings.  It's so nice to be around so many lovely women who love fabric and sewing as much as I do!

Confessions a la Clover Lane

I read the funniest post today, and thought about what I would say if I had my own confessions.  So here they are you lucky readers!  (Sarcasm.)


1.  I have a game I play in my head every so often. I don't think anyone else plays this game. At least, that is the sense I had when I told my husband about it the other day. It's only taken 12 years for him to know how weird I am. Anyway. The world has been sucked through a black hole, or something, and doesn't exist anymore.  And each person that used to be on the Earth has to say one thing they wish would be on the new Earth.  And if no one says it, it won't be there.  And you can't say a person, because that doesn't count.  And how could you pick just one person? So I alternate between the choices of green grass, blue sky, clouds, rain, and the ocean. I have a hard time making up my mind. I think it's my way of being thankful for the amazing things that are right out my front door each day.  I always feel a bit surprised and quite thrilled at how pretty our world is each day when I step outside.  We are so very lucky to live here.  (And by here, I mean Earth. Not Vancouver, Washington specifically. Although it is very pretty here too.)


2. Earlier this year I declared in my head (In my head! Ha, that doesn't work! I should have declared it to blogland. That seems to motivate me better.) that this would be the year of unfinished projects. I would take one project each week and finally FINALLY finish it. Then I realized that between nursing, reading stories, laundry, playing with playdough, fixing meals, coloring, changing diapers, fixing snacks, blah blah blah, that it wasn't working. But you know, this still might work. I won't give up on this one yet. Just writing about it makes me excited about the idea again.


3. I tried to cut my own hair about a month ago.  I cut my husbands, I cut my Mom's once in a while (just trimming), I have cut my FIL's, and my Dad's.  I even cut my sister Elizabeth's.  That was a bit of a disaster (sorry Betsy!) but I didn't remember that part until later. So, why not mine?  I even pretended and "practiced" in the mirror before I tried it.  I thought about the way I would do it, and how I would be slow and methodical.  And then I looked like...oh gosh, I don't know- it was just soooo bad.  I stopped at one point and put the scissors down and laughed maniacally at myself.  And then I picked them up again, thinking I could fix it!  What is wrong with me? Then I tried to have my husband fix it, that didn't work.  He's a good hubby for trying. And so for a week or so, I had it up in a loopy ponytail so no one could see what I had done until I could get a proper haircut from someone with training for gosh sakes.  And my stylist?  What a nice lady.  She didn't laugh at me.  At least while I was there.


4. My bum is gone. My front appendages (you know what I am talking about) fell down in my first pregnancy with Molly, and that was sad. They used to be a little (oh who am I kidding, a lot) perkier, and I thought, well, I knew that was coming. Everyone warns you about that. But no one warned me that my bum would flatten out in a pregnancy! It used to have a cute little pop to it, but now, it is quite flat after my pregnancy with Jack.  None of my old pants fit me correctly anymore. Today I was thinking about how I wished I had a "before" picture. Of just my bum. In clothes of course. So I knew what I wanted it to look like again. Like I wouldn't recognize if it was there again? Ha. I have to google how to get it back. I mean google what exercises to do. Maybe it just wanted to join my front appendages by going south too. Sigh.


5. I stack up newspapers I haven't had time to read and won't let my husband recycle them until I have read them. This must drive him crazy. But I feel like I will miss some news that I should know about, and so I keep them and read them, and even though it is months later I learn about what is happening in the world. Or rather, what happened in the world.


6. I hoard candy from certain holidays.  If you open my freezer a few months after Easter, you are likely to find Cadbury Mini-Eggs.  And if you open my cupboard a few months after Halloween, you will see candy corn.  It's like I think the world's supply will dry up and someone will decide that we shouldn't make those candies anymore for these specific holidays and I would be so sad and so I must buy extra and hide them in my kitchen just in case. I used to buy extra Cadbury Creme Eggs and freeze those too, but one year I bought like, fifty?  And after that I thought ENOUGH, no more of those.

A Pattern Review and a Birthday Present

My cousin's birthday was in late September and I wanted to try something new.  I had purchased Terry Atkinson's Cash and Carry pattern this summer, and I had the perfect fabric for my cousin- swedish fish!

Yay! A completed project!

The pattern was great. It was easy to follow and I think it turned out almost like the picture. Molly even helped with this one. She was so sad to see it go that we started to make her one too. We still need to finish it!

I tried the top pattern in this picture.

I like the squishiness that the fusible fleece gives the pouch, but it wasn't easy to push through my sewing machine. I am trying Molly's pouch with flannel inside instead, and we will see how that works out.  

It's a little slanted on the sides- next time I won't cut the zipper down so much.

I had everything I needed in my stash for this project!  I love that!

Bee Vintage- August Blocks for Jen

Oh my hexagon. That is my new swear phrase! I didn't think that these would be so hard, but for me, they were.

Jen asked for shabby chic colors and she loves pink. I like this one the best!

I am part of a quilting bee called Bee Vintage.  Each month a new "Queen Bee" is the head of the quilting bee and lets all the others know what quilt block to make for them. When we are finished, we send them through the mail to the Queen Bee.  The Queen Bee makes a quilt from all the blocks we send.  Our bee uses vintage sheets for our quilt blocks. 

Jen was our Queen Bee for August, and she asked for hexagon blocks. The tutorial we all used was this one by Julie of Jaybird Quilts. The cutting instructions were here. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the moving of my ruler (brain cells, come back! I miss you!) but once I got it, it was easy. At one point I had to call in my math-minded hubby and he even cut some of the triangles for me. Sewing on the other hand...I need to figure out the pressing and matching of seams a little better. My seam ripper and I bonded quite a bit during this project.

Here is it's mate.

I couldn't take any cute clothesline pictures this time. It was raining. And dark outside. And I needed to get these in the mail the next day. My pictures are a bit dark as a result, sorry!

It really is quite brilliant how these work- take a look at the tutorial if you haven't already!

And the last one!

Book Review: Sewing in No Time

I have a shelf of very inspirational craft books, and instead of just looking at them for ideas (like normal!) I've been making projects to spruce up my craft room. Today I am reviewing one of them, Sewing in No Time: 50 Step-by-Step Weekend Projects Made Easy. I bought this one from Joann's with my 40% off coupon. Yay coupons!


This book was written by Emma Hardy. She is a contributor to both the british magazine Marie Claire, and the french magazine Marie Claire Idees.The french magazine is a super fun but spendy magazine to get here in the United States. It is full of crafty ideas and just lovely eye candy! I have only ever seen issues online. Someday when I go to France I will haunt newsstands to find one to bring home with me. See the Eiffel Tower? Notre Dame? No thanks, I just want a magazine. Hee hee.

Whimsical print circa a long time ago from Joann's home dec section.

I chose the project "Ironing Board Cover" on pages 114-115. I had thrifted a small tabletop ironing board from Salvation Army for about two dollars. I already had the batting, the home decorator weight cotton, muslin, and the cording in my stash. It's fun when I have almost everything I need to start and finish a project.

Here is the very nice looking back, if I do say so myself.

I thought the directions were very good. Emma Hardy gives approximations on measurements for this particular project, not exact sizes. This is due to the nature of this project- all ironing boards are not the same size. (Other projects do include exact measurements.) The pictures are clear and easy to follow. I would consider myself a beginner sewist, so I think most people could follow the directions for the projects in this book.

Instructions on Ironing Board Cover in the book.

I was even able to have Molly help me with this project! Normally you would find me saying, "Oooh put the scissors down! No, don't touch the iron! Oh dear, no that fabric can't be your cape, it's the ironing board cover! Come back! AGH!" For a change, we were able to do this together. I won't say it went perfectly, but it wasn't super frustrating. (This means I didn't have to think too hard about the directions- I could pay attention to a 3 year old, a 4 month old, AND we could create and sew something! Not so easy these days for me...and a good thing about this book!)

Judy loves hearts, she was born on Valentine's Day!

I also made a variation on the laundry bag project. This was made for my MIL Judy back in February. I thought she needed something to carry her knitting in, and a roll for her knitting needles. I shrunk the dimensions for this project so she could carry a medium sized knitting project in the bag along with her knitting roll.

Instructions on the Laundry Bag from the book.

I don't know if I can call this an official book review as I have only made two of the projects in this book. There are several other projects that I have looked at and would like to make. That counts, right? Most craft books have a higher ratio of things I won't make versus what I would like to make, this seems to be the opposite. There are a lot of wonderful ideas in here, and I plan on making more from Sewing in No Time. Here are a few more pictures of fun projects from the book!

Cute little toy bags.  I am not a fan of embellishments.  I think I'd leave off the flower. But I love the animals peeking out- so cute! Maybe I would just put googly eyes on each bag. Then they are always looking at you! That is either hilarious or creepy. I can't decide. (Okay, I am siding with hilarious. I love googly eyes!)

I have fantasies about making play tents for Molly and Jack.  Oooh, I revealed his name to the interwebs!
Yep, it's John Henry, nicknamed Jack. He is named for my grandfather.

Ahhh, a peg bag.  I still haven't decided what I want mine to look like on my lovely clothesline.

Bee Vintage- July Blocks for Emily

Crazy blue, pink, and green sheet that I found thrifting turns into a cute Sawtooth Star!

I am a part of a quilting bee called Bee Vintage.  Each month a new "Queen Bee" is the head of the quilting bee and lets all the others know what quilt block to make for them.  When we are finished, we send them through the mail to the Queen Bee.  The Queen Bee makes a quilt from all the blocks that we send.  Our bee uses vintage sheets for our quilt blocks.


I thought I would be on top of the whole bee thing- but here it is the end of July/beginning of August and I just finished the quilt blocks up.  Hmm...having a three year old and a three month old isn't very conducive to crafting!  It took me three days to do three Sawtooth Stars...yikes.  

I love this sweet little blue and green floral print.

Emily asked for Sawtooth Stars.  I think I have made these before, but...well, maybe it's just my imagination.  I love that in the process of making them, you make flying geese blocks.

I couldn't resist adding a little yellow!

In our bee, we use our thrifted sheets we have on hand.  If we want the group to add something specific to our blocks, we send it out ahead of time.  It's a lot of fun to dig through my sheets and fat quarters and find just the right print for each block.  I had a bit of a hard time deciding!  And one of the best parts of being in a bee each month is I get to make a new block I've never made before.  How fun!  


This is my first bee and I am not sure what to send with my bee blocks.  I sent a note and an extra vintage sheet fat quarter with this set for Emily.  Does anyone have any tips for me on bee etiquette?  

Thrifty Thursday Finds- Pyrex!

I am always looking for fun sets of pyrex when I go thrifting.  I found both of these sets at garage sales so far this summer.

Colonial Blue Pyrex

This set, called Colonial Blue, was two dollars at a church sale.  There was a lady digging through a box that hadn't yet been unpacked at this sale, and she found a whole set of this - marked one dollar.  Lucky!

Butterprint Cinderella Pyrex

This set, called Butterprint, was six dollars at a garage sale down the street.  I love this turquoise/aqua color!  It was so fun to find the whole set in one place.  These are called Cinderella bowls.  They have a pouring spout and a handle.

Whenever I go to Goodwill, Value Village, garage sales, and thrift stores I look for pieces of pyrex.  So far I have had the best luck at garage sales.  Jeni's blog is a wealth of information on pyrex.  She has a guide to common patterns, promotional patterns, guide to solids, numbering and sizes, and tips for cleaning pyrex.  Another fun blog is Pyrex Love.

I know I have enough collections going on (fabric, beads, fabric) so I am trying to be selective and only pick the pieces that have a pattern or color I love, or a shape I will use.  I am hoping to come across the Friendship bowls at some point.  My sister Elizabeth likes these a lot too.  So maybe we need two.  In nesting sets, please!

I Love Sesame Street

Molly on one of her favorite "rocas" (rocks)

We were taking a walk in our lovely neighborhood the other day.  There are three little rocks along the way that Molly loves to sit on, or jump from, or count on the walk.  As we came up to her "favorite rocks" this is what happened.

Molly: (pointing to first rock) Uno!

Angie: (turning to Marshall) Did she just say uno?

Marshall:  If she says dos I am going to freak out.

Molly: (pointing to second rock) Dos!

Angie and Marshall laugh uncontrollably.

Molly: (pointing to third rock) Place! (translation = tres)

Angie:  Molly, where did you learn that?

Molly: Sessa Street!  It's spanish!

Molly jumping off roca numero tres (rock number three)
(Did I say that right?  I don't know, I googled it.  So much for two years of high school spanish...)

I Love a Good Clothesline

I went a little crazy with the clothespins.  Stay duvet cover, stay!

I love the way these things smell:

My hubby cooking dinner (any dinner ha ha)

Freshly mown grass

My children's heads after they have had a bath (that sounds funny)

My Mom's roast beef cooking in the oven (a v. v. good childhood memory)

And clothes fresh from the clothesline.

Last year when we moved down to Washington (it's been a year now!) I asked my hubby Marshall for a clothesline.  I always wanted one when we lived in Anchorage, but it wasn't very practical- there is only a very short window of months you can use one.  And I always had this picture in my head of snagging moose (and their antlers) in a clothesline in the backyard.  Really.  But now, we live down in the Lower 48, and there is clothesline weather a great deal of the time!  And I haven't seen any moose.

I found a couple of tutorials online, and my handy hubby Marshall was able to put it together for under $25!

A few recommendations:

*Make sure your poles are a little less than 25 feet apart or you will end up buying two packages of nylon clothesline.  Not that we had to do this or anything.

*Pick a place where they ground is even.  Our backyard (we rent) is not even and is also slightly sloped.  When I am hanging out clothes I look up more than down and find myself stumbling about.  I probably picked the most uneven spot in the yard.  But it gets great sun!

*Look at where the sun is all day long, or at least most of the day, to find a good spot.

*Drill the holes for the clothesline before you put up the poles.

*Let the concrete cure for a few days before you hang up your first load of laundry.  If you don't, your poles might move or lean a bit.  Don't ask how I know this.

Now I am just looking for the perfect place to keep my clothespins.  I love this Etsy seller, her bags are gorgeous!  And she uses vintage sheets?  Sounds like a match made in clothesline heaven.

Real Japanese Craft Books (in a Real Japanese Book Store)

I used to order Japanese craft books from Etsy sellers when I lived in Alaska. I would examine the pages up close on the Etsy sites, just those four or five little pictures Etsy allowed for each book, and make a decision on whether or not those pages would be worth the price. Most of the books I bought always made me happy, but I longed for a time I could page through them myself and decide based on the whole book.

I had heard that there was a bookstore in the Portland/Beaverton area that carried the same books. My sister Johanna lives in the Portland/Beaverton area. I didn't investigate further. I already felt guilty about spending time in Target (Alaska didn't get a Target until fall of 2008) when I visited my family, how could I then spend hours in a Japanese bookstore looking at craft books?

So now that I live down in the Lower 48, I finally googled Kinokuniya.

It is 1.8 miles from my sister's house. ONE POINT EIGHT. Ugh.

So I went!  The following pictures are officially titled...

Japanese Book Store Eye Candy

For your enjoyment.

And I bought two adorable books.

I love them.

Here they are!  The big red one is here.  The small one is here.  The small book's projects are pretty much what you see on the cover.  Small bags for toting your lunch or your shoes.  Or paper.  But the big red book!  Variety!  Behold!

I love all the different bags in the big red book.  So many choices...

And more choices...

And more choices!

I especially liked how clear the directions seemed in this book.  More clear than usual anyway.  It's still Japanese.

How cute are these illustrations?!  These are the designs for embroidery.

If you don't live close to a Kinokuniya, but know which Japanese craft book you want to order, Alicia of Posy Gets Cosy has a post here that talks about the Beaverton store (the one I went to) and how to order your books through them.


And, if you want to purchase them through Etsy anyway, I loved getting them from this shop or this shop.


So, now I have lots of lovely Japanese craft books.  Have I sewn something from them? Uh...not yet.  I am dreaming of taking this class here to teach me how someday soon!


Do you have a favorite Japanese craft book?  Have you sewn something from one?

I'm in love with vinegar.

I have been wanting to reduce the amount of very handy, but questionable cleaning products that are in our house. I have seen a lot of wonderful blog posts with different recipes. Lately, I have been cleaning everything (EVERYTHING) with vinegar and baking soda. I was inspired by Libby's post on creating cleaning baskets for her friends for the holidays. Here is what is in my cleaning basket:

Vinegar spray. This is simply 1/2 vinegar, 1/2 water. Vinegar smells when it's wet, but when it dries, you don't smell anything!

Baking soda. This is in a Dollar Store cheese-for-your-pizza shaker. I wanted a plastic one (this one is glass) but I was too impatient and got this.  I use the baking soda from the refrigerator for absorbing yucky smells- when it's outlived it's usefulness there, it goes in my cheese shakers for cleaning!

Microfiber cloth. These were from Ross (Dress for Less).  I love the primary colors.  They SCREAM 'Clean with me!'  (At least in my head.  It's fun when inanimate objects talk to me.)


Scrubbrush.  This one is from the Dollar Store and it is lovely.


Rubber gloves.  Always nice to wear when you don't want skin on toilet contact.

Not pictured:

"Magic Eraser". I love LOVE the official Magic Eraser from Mr. Clean. I found an off-brand at the Dollar Store. I think they work about 1/2 as well as the official brand. Next time I will pay more for the real thing. Do you know how fast it will clean your tub and tile? SO FAST. So nice!

Rags. Marshall picked some up years ago at Home Depot and I use them all over the house. It's much better than paper towels! I recently found some flat fold diapers on Etsy that gave me an idea for functional and sweet (and much better looking) rags. So I went out and bought some of the same fabric from Joann's with my 40% off coupon. Now I just need to hem them up and dye them all those pretty shades of green!  (Translation = 10 years from now when I find this fabric in a pile in my craft room I might get around to this...)

Toothbrushes (old), and a dust pan and broom. Handy tools for all those cleaning tasks.

I currently keep one of these baskets of cleaning products on each floor of the house. It really saves me going up and down the stairs when I need to clean something or mop up a quick mess.

One of the most brilliant ideas I have seen is this one, again from Libby. It's a vinegar laundry softener. The Downy ball was only $1.63 at my local Fred Meyer! There are times I add vinegar to my wash load just to get my whites whiter, and to take smells or stains out of clothing. The 1/2 and 1/2 vinegar water spray seems to take out most mild stains out of clothing.

I can't wait to try this great laundry soap! I even have all of the ingredients. My sister Elizabeth (no blog *yet* but super talented- with lovely Etsy shops!) has made this one and she likes it.

And here is a link to all the wonderful things vinegar (and other household ingredients) can do in your home! I look at this page all the time for ideas.

Some things I can't live without (when I am cleaning anyway):

My Shark Steam Mop. Kind of spendy, totally worth it. I use it every few days to clean all the hardwood floors and tile in the house. All it uses is electricity, steam, and distilled water. I love that there are no chemicals. And it really goes quickly. Believe me, I was washing the floors by hand before and well, that wasn't going to last long.


And, my one holdout in the cleaning department that doesn't qualify as a "green" cleaning solution- OxiClean Laundry Spray and OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover Powder.  I use the powder to pre-soak stained clothing.  I dissolve the powder with a kettle full of boiling water in a large bowl, then place stained items in the bowl.  Usually, most stains disappear!  If it doesn't work the first time, I do it again.  I use the OxiClean Spray on light stains and it is also super effective.


What are your favorite cleaning solutions or cleaning tips?

We're a symmetrical family!

Our little boy arrived three days early on April 28th at 2:40pm. He was 8 pounds, 11 ounces. I was so happy with his birth- a VBAC, and completely natural too! We are so happy he is here. Molly is a doting big sister. Now we have two girls and two boys in our family (including Mom and Dad).

Recycling Vintage Sheets on Earth Day

The sheets are ready for the vintage sheet fat quarter swap!

It was a bit daunting to think about cutting all the sheets, so when I saw the advice from My Tiny Robot Heart, I knew ripping was the way to go. That, and my Mom told me it would be a lot faster.

It was a lot easier to rip up all the pretty sheets once I got started. I measured first, found the best way to divide it into a "chubby" fat quarter (usually around 20 x 23 inches, some were smaller though), and made my cuts. I ripped them outside. There are a lot of particles that float around when you do it inside. My mom rips sheets for her rag rugs (seriously cute) and she mentioned that this would be best. Once they were ripped into large strips, I made the second cuts where the fat quarter would be, and ripped those. I ironed each one and folded them the way that our swap master Katie requested.

Blue sheets.

Pink sheets.

Yellow, green, and orange sheets.

I am so excited to participate in my first swap- I can't wait to see what I will get back!

Molly's Golden Birthday

Molly turned three on the third. I can't believe she is three already! A few years ago when I was still teaching I learned about golden birthdays. When you turn the age of the day of the month you were born on (for example 3 on the 3rd, 23 on the 23rd) it is called your "golden" birthday. When my students had a golden birthday, their parents made it a very special day. I couldn't let Molly's golden birthday pass by without having a big party! We decided to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar party. She probably would have loved a princess party, but I didn't give her that option...bad mommy.

It was a lot of fun to create these large tissue pom-poms from Martha. They really added a punch of color to the dining and living rooms where we had the party. I am imagining them at EVERY party we have from now on- they are that easy.

Marshall covered our two Little Tykes tables with a large plastic green tablecloth (cut in half). I have grand plans for the future to cover these tables with fabric with an elastic hem so they won't slide off easily. I think oilcloth would be best, but I need to find a print that goes with pink and purple chairs.

When the little and big guests arrived, they colored Hungry Caterpillar pictures and bookmarks. while I read them the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I wanted to make these, but I didn't have the pom-poms glued to the clothespins. Two and three year olds around hot glue guns...probably not a good idea.

Marshall moved the pom-poms almost a week after the party. They were so happy and colorful we didn't want to take them down. He hung them in our basement- where Molly's giant play room is. It looks super festive down there now!

I googled a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, and I found this beautiful cake from Lyndsay at Coco Cakes. Wow! I didn't use fondant (it scares me a little) for the caterpillar's head, and I made a smaller trial cake on Molly's true birthday (a week earlier) to make sure I could do it. When I told her I would be making another one for her birthday party she told me, "I already did that Mom!" Yeah, me too...

I used my Michael's coupon to get a large star tip to make the frosting swirls on the cupcakes, and I also bought the gel food coloring there. Many cupcake and cake blogs say it is easier and faster to achieve the colors of frosting you want with gel food coloring. They are right! I used this recipe for the buttercream frosting, and it turned out pretty yummy! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be too.

This was one of the things I really wanted to get done for her party. So much so, I stayed up until 2 am sewing the buttons on them so I wouldn't worry about them on the day of the party. Ack. I wanted the kids to go home with something special, something Hungry Caterpillar, and something that wouldn't be thrown away. I made crayon rolls with Hungry Caterpillar fabric from here. Tiffany sent this fabric so fast, I was very thankful I could get an early start on them. (Of course, I procrastinated on actually finishing them up...) I love buying hard to find fabric (or well, any fabric) from her!

Here are a few pictures of what they looked like, inside and out.

Nareerath made both these adorable stickers we used on the outside of the goody bags (they say, "Thanks for coming to my party! Love, Molly") and the invitation for Molly's party.

For the invitation we emailed SillySeiraDesign (Nareerath's Etsy shop) a picture of Molly, and she emailed us a PDF to have printed locally. Perfect! Everything Nareerath created was adorable and received rave reviews from family and friends, not to mention Molly - she loves looking at her "catapiwere" party invitation. We also purchased the cupcake toppers, but then I decided to make the caterpillar cake...so now I'm looking for something to stick them in, they are so sweet.

The party turned out much like I had pictured. BUT there are always ideas I see after everything is done that makes me wish I had a little more time...

A few days ago, I saw this, and wow, if I had the time before the party, I would have loved to dress Molly in a Hungry Caterpillar shirt. And this pull-string pinata? Or this one? How creative! We bought a pull string butterfly from Party City, but had we had enough time to order the butterfly one from Etsy, I would have!