Horse Cake/Ice Cream Cake!

When you have a last minute party and have to use what you have on hand this is what comes up!

My daughter Kaitie was really disappointed that her good friend was not having a birthday party this year with friends.  So she decided to have a surprise party for her at our house.  With less then a 1 day notice we had to make a cake!

So I let Kaitie and another one of her other good friends have the kitchen last night.  They were armed with a simple white cake recipe and I let them go to it.   This is what they made...they added chocolate chips to it as well :)

It seems they decided to disregard the cake directions of using a 9x9 pan.  Oh well, I had a plan!

We still had extra ice cream from the Owl cake I made 2 weeks ago.  So I softened it, and spread it across the cake trying to even things up a bit.  Put in the freezer to "set".

The Birthday girl loves horses...So to decorate I went online to find a horse silhouette.  Printed out the simplest one I could find...and made it into a stencil.  I was going to use chocolate shavings(aka chocolate sawdust) but I happened to have this orange sparkly sugar sprinkles stuff.

Turned out not bad eh!  The kids absolutely loved it.

I LOVE Birthdays!

Thrift Share Monday! - Pretty Dresses for a Pretty Girl!

One of my favorite things to shop for are dresses!  I am very lucky to have a daughter who loves dresses as well, because I can always find amazing dresses for her in her size!  These are 3 we found during March break shopping!  The first was half price!  The picture does not do it justice!  Sparkly purple party dress maybe nice for a wedding.  The red almost looks like a costume...I am thinking fairy wings for an upcoming fairy dress up party we have been invited too!  And the black is a bit "old" for her...but ever girl need a little black dress in her closet.

It is like having a real size Barbie to dress up!  Shhhh...don't tell her though she hates it when anyone references her to Barbie.

$3.99                                     $7.99                                   $7.99

We also found some bottoms!  Capri's for me and Bluenotes jeans for Kaitie!  The capri are brand new!  And the jeans are well "loved" but at that price they will be perfect for "bumming" around!

$3.99                                              $2.99

Some fun blue fabric scraps for crafts!  Perfect for making stuffies!  I think Kaitie is thinking blue Owls!

.59cents

I ❤ Freecycle!

Skates for Andrew!  These will fit Andrew next year!  

FREE!

More Freecycle

We picked up a huge box of books!  This is just half of them.  Kaitie chose all that she liked and we will freecycle or donate the rest.

All FREE!

A few issues of REAL SIMPLE Nov and Dec 2010.  For my magazine addiction!

.99cents each

I am so excited!!!  I just found out that a near by town does have a thrift shop!  I can't wait to give it a visit to see what I can find! 

Getting to know me!

Getting to know YOU is back!   

1. If you won the title of Miss America, what would your platform be?

Health education...Our health depends on it!

2. Outdoorsy or indoorsy?

Indoorsy in the winter...Outdoorsy in the summer.

3. Pajama's out in public..classy or tres tacky?

I personally do not wear PJ's in public...For awhile it was a fad to wear pj pants in public, but I never followed that trend.

4. What's your favorite room in your house?

My Library...see next question.

5. Nook, kindle, or book?

BOOK!  I love books!  I love the feel of them. the texture, sometimes after finishing reading a good book...I embrace it!  If it is an ending I am not happy with...I will give it a toss...or slam it shut.  I even have a room in my house dedicated to books!  I LOVE books!

6. Would you rather wear the same outfit for a week or not brush your teeth for a week?

Wear the same outfit.  The other is really gross.

7. What's your favorite blog at the moment?

I am totally addicted to  Apron Thrift Girl .  Her Monday Thrift Share Party is totally addictive for me.  I love checking out what other people have found and reading all about their thrifting adventures!  And some of the pics of their finds are pure eye candy!

8. lately i've been daydreaming about.........?

Vacationing on the beach!  My favourite place to be!

OK I lied on question 3...this one time while camping at The Bay Fundy it rained the whole weekend and we were tenting...so we were all damp and dirty to begin with...so we played at the beach while the tide was out in our PJ's and got very dirty on out last day there.  BTW we were the only ones at this particular beach...cause all the smart people were not camping in the rain.  It was a blast!

Be sure to go visit Mannland5 to get to know some other fine bloggers!

Knowing me, knowing you!

Knowing me, knowing you - March 2011

Having fun with Tales from the Fairy Blogmother!

1. Do you consider yourself a foodie?

YES!  I am a total Foodie!  I love cooking, baking and creating in my kitchen!  Check out my other blog for recipes!

Ice Cream OWL Cake!

2. Are you a spender or a saver?

I am a thrifty spender...I try to only but groceries on sale and work my meals around what I get.  My fave place to shop is thrift stores.  Check out some of my recent finds!  I love shopping and finding that amazing deal!

3. What was the last movie you saw?

Oh gosh I am a total movie freak!  I love movies!  I am watching Hoot with my kids right now while typing this post...but last grown up movie I saw was The Kings Speech.  

4. What is the closest book to you?

Do you mean physically right near me now?  Enid Blyton's Adventurous 4 book titled Stranded.  A book my son and I are reading together.  Enid Blyton's book are the best!  Alway a great adventure

5. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

St. Patty's Day was yesterday...and we did not celebrate at all :(  It kinda snuck up on us and passed.  In the past we have dressed in green but not much more then that.

Night Owl Party!

My daughter turned 13 this past weekend!  I am now a proud mother of a teenager!
She chose a night Owl theme for her huge annual Birthday sleepover party!














We had to be very thrifty with party decorations...but I think it turned out beautifully!  And Kaitie also did all of the work...Which she was very excited about!  She sewed the owl in the middle out of felt, and made the paper owls at each place setting.

Check out these Owl paper lanterns!  I bought the paper lanterns from the $1 store!  Don't they look so cute!


The cake turned out great.  My daughter hates cake and icing with a passion!  (ever since she turned 1, I know crazy huh?)
This years cake was made out of ice cream!  Check this post out for what was my inspiration!

I had so much "fun" figuring out how to mold the shape of the owl.  

1. I used my roasting pan.  I lined it with card from cereal boxes and a ton of wax paper.  
2. I remembered to put a long strip of card underneath it all for easy removal from the pan.
3. I then put a layer of butterscotch ice cream on the bottom.  And put the whole thing in the freezer to "harden" up a little.  
4. Then using a piece of card wrapped in wax paper I made a wall to separate colors when I added chocolate ice cream for wings and ears, and vanilla for the rest!
5. After returning to the freezer to "set" I carefully took it out of its "mold" to decorate.

Decorating was the fun part!

I used soft cookies for the eyes...but I really wanted to use dried pineapple slices!  Which I couldn't find anywhere!  

And the slivered almonds would of stood out more if I found some with the skins still on.  

I did try to make chocolate shavings to look like feathers for the wings...but It turned out to be more of chocolate saw dust.  

For the "nest" I used multigrain honey pretzel twists.  

The beak turned out so cute!  I wasn't sure on what I was going to use???  But I ended up using 2 pieces of a walnut!  I love how it turned out!

MMMM  Yummy This is a pic of what the layers looked like!


The Loot bags were very thrifty.


The little red bags themselves I had already...we printed off the thank yous.
Inside I put one full size candy bar...Smarties was the fave!
a .04cent pencil, a .49cent sticky notebook, and a .20cent bouncy ball.










The invitation we made were simple...if we had more time we were going to use scrapbook paper owls fro each invite and write the details on the owl belly.  We printed the invite on yellow paper and rolled it up and tied it up with piece of red string.

We played some traditional party games, and made some owl crafts.  Mostly the girls wanted to just "chill".  A group would be playing the Wii, another group would be making jewelery, and the rest were listening to music and having a great time!  

Update to this post.

 OWL PIZZA - Perfect for party food!

Thrift Share Monday! Family Game Night FUN!

Happy Monday!  Check out my thrift finds from this past week!  More games for family fun!

This 1981 game - Trust Me 

Trust me is a property investment game in which your and your opponents try to make money by being good investors. Some of the properties are valuable. Some aren't worth anything at all. It's up to you to learn the value of as many properties as you can – and then invest wisely.

Picked up this Nancy Drew Mystery Party Game for Kaitie and her friends.  It is totally complete with invitations, envelopes and loot bags!  It seemed that for .99 cents this would be a steal!  

But after purchasing this I read online this comment from a mom who found this for her daughter..."800 number is now disconnected (much trickier- you do need this clue.) Game might still be playable if you are a creative type."

I guess I will have to be creative!  Does anyone know this clue?  Maybe more research will help find it!

How cute is this!  A huge ceramic Popcorn Bowl!  I have been wanting one of these!  So I was so happy to find this for just $1.99!  Just in time for Kaitie's Birthday slumber party!

A little VW Bus for Jay!  Perfect condition for $1.99!

Recycled gift wrap .49cents.  Very thick wrap perfect for crafts as well as gift wrapping!

To see more Thrifty finds go visit Apron Thrift Girl!

A song with significance.

Lost Together

Blue Rodeo

Our song!
I met the man I was going to marry in the summer of 1995.  He introduced me to this song, and it quickly became our song.  
We broke up a month into our relationship... wasn't the right time...
9 months after the break up, I turn on my tv to MuchMusic and this song was playing, I turn the car on and this song is playing, later that day I hear this song again!  My friend convinced me to go to his place of work...she believes in signs. We do, and he is there!  We say hi.
Late that night I realize that today is his Birthday!!!  So I call him...he is not home...And leave a message.

Been together, happily ever after, ever since.

I do believe in signs.

Thrift Share Monday! We LOVE Books!

Our local thrift store recently had a 50% off day.  We made it late...But since my daughter is sooo tall and skinny, we were able to find so many awesome clothes for her!  I haven't had a chance to photograph all of them yet, but I will soon!

Books!

Can you believe we found these hardcover Cornelia Funke Novels of 50% day!  $1.50 each was a steal for these awesome books!

Another Cornelia Funke novel...this time a paper back, $1.99 well worth the $$$.

We found this set of 3...$1.99 each for brand new looking paperbacks.  I do not know this author, but it says if you like Harry potter you will like these???  

Another 50% off find.  50cents each for some secret unicorns!  My daughter is a bit old for these but she still enjoys them.

Some Magazines for me...$1 each

A beautiful Unicorn Picture for Kaitie!  .99cents.

And a Speedracer car for Andrew .49cents.

What did you find this week?  Post a link if you have a thrift you would like to share, and I will come visit!

Owl Cake LOVE!

My daughter is having an Owl themed Birthday!  I am on hunt for inspiration for cake ideas.  She wants an ice cream cake, she hates icing...so I will have to put on my creativity hat!

Here is what I found that I love!

Love the sliced almonds!  And Dried Pineapple eyes!

OOOhh, I love the pretzel branches! 

Chocolate wings!

Cone beak.  Isn't he so cute!

I dont think I am talented enough to try a sitting up ice cream cake...but I think I have the inspiration I need now!

Does anyone have any helpful tips on how to make an ice cream cake?

HELP!