Harry Potter Party Overview

We do parties big at the Grow Home, especially my niece's birthday bashes. This year, we had a Harry Potter party complete with a multi-course banquet, potion-making and Herbology classes, an egg hunt, pinata, and a game of Quidditch. There were so many details and I took so many pictures that I am going to do a quick overview as well as more detailed posts with the food, decor, and games.

Welcome to Hogworts.

Party attendees were students at Hogwarts. The Birthday Girl was named, "Student of the Month."

There were many potions on display. Some silly, some creepy but the students mostly enjoyed mixing their own potions.

 

 We transformed our living/dining room into a banquet hall.

I'll do another post on just the food but in the meantime, here are pics of the bubbling punch

 chicken legs, mashed potatoes and carrots

 and the cake.

 The kids played a very competitive game of Quidditch.

 The students enjoyed learning about "Herbology."

 

 Of course we did the traditional Pinata and opening of gifts too.

All the students went home with handmade owl goody bags full of treasures. 

 Stay tuned for futute posts on all the food, the decorations, the games, and all the handmade details.  My sister spent months doing research and creating all the handmade details that made the day so special. It really paid off with an amazing event that the niece and all her friends will remember for years to come.

Happy World Card Making Day!!!

Welcome to We Grow By Our Dreams. I hope that you have had the opportunity to see all the other wonderful Christmas creations made by the talented Operation Write Home cardmakers. If not, click here.

Below is my card that I am happy to share with you before it is sent to a hero serving abroad. I hope that the hero will use this card to keep in contact with his/her family and let them know that they are loved and missed.

If you like to make cards, please consider making cards for our heroes. You may also help out by donating money to pay for postage. Every little bit helps and our heroes appreciate it.

I've Been Published Times Two

Long time no blog. Sorry. Hey, but I have some good news. I'm in two publications this Summer. One crafty, one not-so-much.

The first is Just Cards Magazine. They published a baby card that I sent them in a bundle of ten cards over 2 years ago. This is the third card from that bundle that has been published. That reminds me I should send them more cards. :)

Next, totally-nothing-to-do-with-crafting-but-still-cool, I wrote an article about remembering September 11th. It was published in our Police Officers Association publication, Justice for All. I was honored that they wanted to print it, especially since they usually only print articles written by fellow officers. It's on page 4 if you want to read it. And, look, they even printed a picture of me (the officer authors don't have that!)

Thanks for letting me toot my own horn. I'm currently trying to create the best sugar-free coconut cream pie recipe. I'll let you know (by way of a tutorial) when it happens. Let me know if you have any tips on coconut cream pie.

Memorial Weekend Blog Hop-Miss You

Welcome to the We Grow By Our Dreams hop along the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Weekend Bloghop. Hopefully you came here from Ky's Bunny Nest. If not, you can start at the top of the hop by clicking the above graphic.

I'm in love with the yellow/white/gray color combo and the ruffle technique that I learned from Sandy, our fearless OWH leader. So, I made this card for someone serving in our armed forces to send home to a loved one. 

I hope that this card will help someone at home to feel very loved. That is why I make cards for Operation Write Home.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Please leave a comment so I can know that you were here. :)
Next hop: Deborah from Thoughts of a Grasshopper

A Royal Tea

We love any excuse for a party around here. And, like most people we anxiously awaited the nuptials of Kate Middleton and Prince William.

  We wanted to celebrate with the British people. We live in California so that meant watching the wedding live at 3 a.m. We didn't dress up. Hey, I was lucky to get the fam up that early. But, when food is involved, the family can't resist.

Of course we had our herbal tea. Our favorite is chocolate coconut (very non-British but yummy.)

 

Actually, we started our party early by having Fish n' Chips for dinner. Then, woke up to the rest of the goodies. For some reason, we had no problem having another huge meal at 3 a.m.

We bought the scones and some of our other treats at Bristol Farms. In fact, they were ready for us with a whole section dedicated to the Royal wedding. We enjoyed the scones with clotted cream and marmalade.

I made some cucumber and egg salad sandwiches. The cucumber are then niece's favorite.

Welsh cheese with crackers. Not only are we Welsh but this was our little tribute to William's mother, Princess Dianna.

I made an English trifle with blackberries, angel food cake, lemon pudding and whipped cream.

For dessert number two I made chocolate bread pudding.

For dessert number 3 we had a small grooms cake. This was another Bristol Farms purchase. It was a chocolate cake with crushed cookies and dried fruit with a ganache frosting and dusted with gold.

That's the end of the food. Ha ha ha. I decorated the dining room with British nick knacks and I covered a bulletin board with a map of London and other London postcards, photos, brochures and souvenirs.

We loved the wedding. But some of our royal guests could care less. This is Moses (aka the Prince of Egypt)

 And, this is Kinsey, she is a corgi like the Queen's dogs.

I wonder if the Queen's dogs sleep in this position.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. Sorry I didn't get these pics up a couple weeks ago. And, sorry the picture quality is poor. We don't have a lot of natural light at 3 a.m. :) I'll have another post this weekend. For sure.

I made a hat

 I loved seeing all the fabulous hat creations from the Royal Wedding. So, this week when I received the invitation to a Derby Party, I knew that I had to wear a cool hat. I really don't know where I would go to buy a hat so I chose to make one myself. I went with the "fascinator"style which, as described by wikipedia is, "a delicate, slightly-to-very frivolous head decoration worn almost exclusively by women."

 How I made my hat:

1. Covered a headband with pink grograin ribbon.
2. Rolled orange meshy fabric (it's stiffer than tulle and the holes are larger.)
3. Sewed the orange fabric together
4. Sewed the pink flower to the orange fabric
5. Attached big green leaf to headband with florist tape
6. Attached the orange fabric to headband with hot glue (and sewed a little just to be safe)

That's it!

It was fun seeing the other hats at the party. I might be a little obsessed with hats now. Or, shall I say, fascinators?

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. I'm still working on the pictures of our Royal Wedding Feast. 3 o'clock in the morning isn't the best time to take photos. LOL.