Dog Birthday!

Our dear friends wanted to celebrate their dog's first birthday.....and who wouldn't? So, we helped out and made some of the party goods. I thought that was the least we could do since we did tag along when they took her home for the first time.  Here is the cake I made using the recipe below.  Super easy and I modified it to work with the stuff I already had in the kitchen cabinet. Easy peasy.

2-½ cups water

½ cup canned pumpkin

1 egg (slightly beaten)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup peanut butter (chunky)

3-½ cups whole wheat flour

½ cup oats

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix water, pumpkin, egg, vanilla, and peanut butter. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix wet and dry ingredients together and stir well. Spoon into a greased 6 inch pan till about 2/3 full. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until firm (but not too brown). Cool completely and store in an open container or paper bag in the refrigerator. I used my daughter's first birthday cake pan (a 6 inch round) and it made two of those.

As always though use common sense and don't let your pup eat the whole thing. Moderation is key. I made this and only let my dog and its guest eat a small amount. I got a cute picture of her eating it for a photo then took it away and gave her only a small chunk. Of course, they would like to eat the whole thing but it "could" upset their stomach. Since, this is different than their normal everyday diet.

I also made a little cake stand.  Guess how much?  Less than two bucks.  The plate is from Walmart less than $1....I think 86¢ to be exact and $1 candle stick from the Dollar Tree.  I spray painted it with some spray paint I already had and hot glued it on the plate. 

Here's the invite. I sell them now in my Etsy shop. She didn't want anything too formal so she just emailed it to the party goers. Personally, I would have printed those dudes out and mailed'em off. With matching envelope liners, of course. Stay tuned for pictures of the actual party.  I loved helping out because this makes it so easy for my own doggies party coming up in April.  Hard work is already done!

Girl Scout Door Hanger - For Cookie Sales

My sweet little girl and her Daddy went to sell Girl Scout cookies.  Did I think that they would come back having sold 106 boxes? Uh no. He travels....a lot.  So, I knew I would be the one having to deliver all 106 boxes.  Great.  With my toddler this would surely be fun.  So I tried to have everything orderly so we could be as proficient as possible. One thing I did make that I thought would help our delivery was make these little "we missed you" door hangers. They were easy and simple enough. Last thing I wanted to do was have to do this outing more than once.  But in the end I was over the moon she was happy that she had sold all the boxes, made the multiple sales, and had the interaction with adults to help her speaking abilities. 

Update 2013: These are now available in my Etsy shop. I sell these here on my site. Contact me: mspaytonjones@yahoo.com and I will start your order.

We also made thank you notes that I thought were adorable.  We saw this version of the idea here. Again, with the same theme of proficiency I added a place for the buyer's name and amount owed. I used a thin tip Sharpie to fill it in. I left space on the left side to hole punch so it could be threaded though the ribbon for the boxes that were together. This did not work out. The cards were too bulky for the tied boxes. Thankfully, the thank you note slipped easily between the ribbon.  Orders that had four or more boxes were put into gift bags. The thank you note did get tied to the ribbon and those looked cute.

Milk and Cookies Party

Here are the invites. 

Here's the invite.  I made these using these graphics.  I usually never buy graphics but instead of me spending hours and hours on the computer and still not getting what I wanted...I decided to buy.  So glad I did.

As you walk in the door I set up the gift table with Cookie Letter "E" for Emmy. I always hate walking into a party and asking, "where do I put this?"  Question solved.

I got the cookie letter "E" idea here.

Since we moved in I haven't found anything permanent to go over the mantle and instead of a blank wall staring at you I saw this here and thought it was perfect. All it required was this free program you download and printer paper.  I took this photo of the birthday girl the day before the party.  It was so simple I even printed it off the morning of the party and my Mom hung it up with some double sided tape.  Easy peasy.  And to add a little character I added a yarn wrapped E.

Here is the table setup. I bought this crate at Joann's and it was raw wood.  I liked it that way because then I could stain it any color I wanted.  So for less than $10 I had a customized vintage milk crate.  I turned it upside down and plopped the cake on top to give some height to the table.

Faux milk bottles (Starbucks recycled frappucinno bottles).  I posted a request online and a lady saved over 40 bottles plus one of my friends saved also.  Free and easy.  I just painted the top of the lids silver for the one's I put in the beverage tub.  I didn't expect everyone to save so many.....thanks friends!

The cookies: we served animal cookies (the birthday girl's faves), snicker doodle, chocolate chip, no bake, and oreos.

I didn't really get a good head on picture of the table but I had tissue pom poms above the table on both sides.

Pink hydrangeas in a vintage milk glass.  By the way you can find those at Joann's.  Well at least at the bigger Joann's.

Chocolate "milk mustaches".  Used later for photo props and of course to eat.

I mustache you a question,"do you like my party?"

Party guests goofing off.

12 Month banner and invitation I put on our cork board in the kitchen.

Here is the only picture that really shows off the birthday girl's outfit.  Isn't it adorable?  I love it.  It has milk, cookies, #1, and her name.  Can it get any cuter?

I found these Ms. One-derful sunglasses at a party store and thought they were cute.  She actually kept them on for a few seconds at the store.  But no such luck on her birthday.

The highchair setup. 

 Here is my attempt at a portrait style photo in our living room the day before the party.  I used this for the tile picture above the mantle.

Guests were encouraged to take cookies home that were left over using these bags.  I made the labels using the graphics I purchased and my Silhouette machine. 

Update: I sell the labels for the cookie mix in my Etsy Shop.

The official take home favors were oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mixes.  I modified this recipe.  I cut it down to 5 servings , which makes 1 dozen cookies.  Perfect size for the recycled Starbucks frappacinno bottles. I omitted the nuts and the baking soda.  Styled labels for the front and back of the bottles. 

The back labels were the directions. The scaled down directions are: 1 T of egg, and 2 3/4 T butter.  I tried it four times before perfecting it.  Tough job, but someone had to do it.

These were the inspiration for the favor.

This party was a lot of work and as usual I couldn't have pulled it off without the help of family.  Thanks family!