you know how we’re big on birthday themes over here. first we decided to ask my friend, meredyth hite, the one-woman show behind the amazing vegan bakery in the bay area, bliss bakery, to create nut-free, gluten-free, vegan cupcakes (to accommodate all of the dietary restrictions among N’s friends and ourselves!) after i perused pinterest for ideas, i asked meredyth to create fly agaric mushroom cupcakes, displayed in a rustic wood setting — and WOW! she sooo beautifully and deliciously delivered!

mushrooms are foresty, sure. but now i had to figure out how to incorporate the forest animals into the party, since that’s what N had specifically requested. i asked my talented friend, chris willow, of the mamaroots shop on etsy and of the inspiring mamaroots blog, to create five candle holders for my five year old — each a different woodland creature. i order her sweet candle holders as birthday gifts all the time for friends, so it was time that N got her own.

forest friends enjoying the party

our custom set of cute candle holders by mamaroots

and for some more forest animal action, i decided to make 36 (yes, thirty-six) felt animal masks to give to the children at the party. instead of sewing them all, like my mom and i did for N’s halloween owl costume, i used craft glue to afix the features onto the felt, and just sewed the elastic bands onto each one. muuuch easier for a bulk order like this. (reminder: you can click any of the photos on my blog to see them enlarged.)

the bday girl selected these for momma to make: bear, owl, deer, fox, raccoon, bunny

mask basket at the party

the masks were a hit — what a fun party favor!

in addition to the mask party favor, i decided to create some magical acorn necklaces with allll of these acorn caps N collected at the park one day. i just hot glued felted wool balls (here’s a nice video tutorial on how to make them) into the caps. next, i hot glued baker’s twine to the tip of each cap to make them into necklaces. in hindsight, i should have drilled a hole into each cap before putting the wool ball into it so i could thread the string through, but this worked out just fine and was (i imagine) easier to execute.

they looked so cute pinned to a giant redwood tree for the kids to see and select.

there's even a creek babbling by this woodsy park - perfect setting!

for decor, i wanted to keep it earthy, and decided to sew some fabric scrap garland to string between the trees. i used scraps of fabric i had leftover from my bean bag project, and cut them into circles. then i just fed them through the machine, double-sided (right sides facing out.)

strung between the redwoods

the party was basically a playdate in the park from 2-4pm, so being so brief and in between meals, we just served hot apple cider, water, popcorn, fruit, and of course, those adorable cupcakes. to keep things simple and eco-chic, i used compostable hot beverage cups, cloth napkins from my fav cloth napkin etsy seller – love for earth, and no plates. (who needs plates with this light fare?)

i even used our rustic rock picture holders for display signs around the party.

despite the chilly day and the muddy park, the birthday girl and her friends had a blast! N barely stopped chasing her friends around the playground for a sip of apple cider – but she did brake for cupcakes! also, can you tell i had a good time pulling this one off?

we created such beautiful memories of N’s fifth birthday — and now we get to celebrate again on january 26th, when she actually turns FIVE! i know people always say, “where does the time go?” but i feel lucky (and friggin’ tired!) because it seems like i’ve been there for every minute of it all. happiest of birthdays to the sweetest and most energetic woodland creature i know!

i’ve always been a bit wary of creating birdfeeders with my nut-allergic little one, so safety was key to this project. i found some great nut-free birdseed at the hardware store. it was still processed in a facility that has nuts, so we played it safe and donned dust masks and gloves while exposed to the seed.

the first type of birdfeeder we wanted to make is a cute sleeve feeder to put onto a tree branch a la the mofatt girls blog. all we needed was:

• birdseed
• a cardboard tube (toilet paper, paper towel roll, etc)
• nut/seed butter — we used sunbutter sunflower seed butter

N applied the sunflower seed butter to the outside of our tube.

we spilled some seed out onto a baking tray, and she rolled the sticky buttery tube through the seed to cover it (with gloves on.)

we ventured into the backyard and found a branch to slip the tube over… it’s in the same tree as three of our kid-painted bird houses. love that.

when we checked on our feeder a few hours later, we saw that we’d entertained some customers! and the next day, the birdseed was totally gone. see photos below:

the second type of feeder we aimed to make was more complex, but promised a little more aesthetic satisfaction. we followed the tutorial on mom ready for these birdfeeder ornaments. our supplies included:

• birdseed
• 2 packets of gelatine (we used knox)
• a jello/chocolate mold and/or cookie cutters
• string

first, N mixed up the gelatin concoction. we used 2 packets of knox gelatine with a half cup of cold water. (*note: this may be the wrong ratio – read on…) we put it in the fridge to wait for it to gel a bit.

after about 10 minutes in the fridge, we slowly stirred 2 cups of birdseed into the gelatine. in hindsight, i would have used less birdseed – maybe 1.5 cups – but when reading the mom ready blog, it seemed important not to have too much extra gelatine in the blend. i just think ours could have benefitted from more “glue” — thus, less seed or more gelatine.

then we used our gloves and masks while pressing the wet birdseed mix into our trusty heart mold tray (the one we usually make upcycled heart crayons in.) apparently you can also spread a layer of seed out on a cookie sheet and use cookie cutters to cut the shapes… but our loose seed blend was of no consistency to survive that.

once they were pressed into the tray, we used a pencil to poke a hole in the center (to allow for less string slippage) of each heart. we put them into the fridge for 3 hours to “gel” and then left them out for 2 days to “harden.”

after they were hard enough to pop out of the mold, we tied some baker’s twine through each hole. the ones that survived this looked pretty cute!

survivors

we trimmed a tree in our yard with these edible ornaments – waiting for a partridge, 2 turtle doves, 3 french hens, 4 calling birds, 6 geese, or 7 swans to swing on by our house. (gosh, there are a lot of birds in that christmas carol!)

check out our “two ingredient tuesday” guest post on kiwi crate all about it!

what sorts of holiday decorations have your little ones been making this season?

remember our trip to a nearby salvage yard? well, we scored this distressed cabinet door for under $5, which made for a perfect backdrop to our driftwood christmas tree. N and i gathered up various sizes of driftwood, and began our work.

driftwood itself is just so lovely.

N was a huge help in organizing the pieces of driftwood by length.

then she set to work lining them up on the board in a tree pattern. after she arranged them how she liked them, i hot glued the wood to the board.

once they were glued down, we sourced more beachy items (starfish for “tree topper” and shells and sea glass for “ornaments”) and N “decorated the christmas tree” with them.

thankfully, she didn’t clump them all in one spot (like she did on our actual christmas tree!)

it’s just so fun to look at!

and it makes for a handsome holiday mantel!

okay, so i keep blogging about projects from pinterest that i want to do (not necessarily child-centered – ack!) but at least N helped a great deal with this one, right…??? and she LOVES it… does that count? [insert sheepish grin here.]

let the holiday season begin!

creating handmade treats for little ones is right up my alley. because i have a bunch of random materials overflowing out of our art cabinet, i decided to donate not only our time, but also the materials to create some prizes.

mostly, we created pom pom/felted wool acorns, painted and wax-sealed wooden toys of all shapes, and some mini-pinecone fairies. we had a great time this weekend, as a family, making all sorts of fun little things together from the mish-mash of stuff that was bursting (avalanche style) out of our art stash.

i wasn’t sure if these little tokens would be “big enough” prizes until N confirmed that she’d LOVE to win a wooden heart and a wooden apple if she played a game. and she LOVED these weird looking gnomes i designed from the wooden shape that’s supposed to be a carrot. whew! kids are easy to please…

N even helped to paint a few gnomes

one of my favorite adaptations of the weekend was how we morphed our pinecone fairies from 2009 — this time instead of garlic peel wings (one of my fav art materials!) we used these wooden mustache shapes from our collection of odd wooden doodads for more durable wings. they turned out to be pretty cute with their acorn hats.

i love how each of us got in on the action and created these teeny treats for the kids at school. i spent much of the weekend creating holiday gifts for friends and family, too. i’m launching into total handmade holiday elf mode over here, and it’s not even thanksgiving!