Boutique Help!

Hey fellow bloggers and followers...a lot of you probably don't know that other than baking I am totally addicted to ribbon. I have been starting to use them for making bows and other hair accessories. I'm thinking of starting to sell them online, but would like to get some help with giving this "shop" a name... Any suggestions would be getting farther than I have on my own. Thanks.

**More recipes to come over the next couple of days - I'm thinking easy and fun summer meals/snacks.**

Birthday Party Help!!

Ok...let's start out by saying, I do know that I still have about four months before it's my daughter's birthday, but I like to be prepared. As you can tell from my serious lack of posts, working full time, going to school, and being a single mommy doesn't really leave all that much time for little things. Trust me, blogging is great and seriously can be relaxing. Anyway...on to the party stuff.

Her Chosen Theme:
For any of you that are unfamiliar with this book, here is the basis: A girl makes pink cupcakes with her mom one afternoon and keeps eating them and eating them until suddenly she actually TURNS pink! Her hair and everything. Her mom takes her to the doctor and he says that the only way she can return to normal is to avoid eating anything pink and counteracting the effects by eating lots of green stuff. It's a really cute book and has become a serious favorite. I picked it up from a Scholastic book order McKayla's pre-school had. Why not, if I remember right, it was listed for either 99¢ or $1.99. Killer deal if you ask me.

So, for her party...we're looking for any fun ideas to use with a pink/green theme and of course, cupcakes!!
Usually, I can hold my own with the creativity aspect and coming up with fun and festive things for the kids and adults to enjoy. This year...we're struggling. Even my serious adoration for cupcakes isn't bringing out anything. Now you understand why I'm buying things now? With Valentine's Day and Easter, there is pink everywhere! I've been hitting a few clearance aisles and browsing for anything that might spark some hint of "must have".

Here is what we've come up with:

I'm using the above pan to make a GIANT cupcake as the "main" blow-out-the-candles cake. I've decided to cover it using marshmallow fondant, so it will at least taste good. Then, I'll be making a few different types of cupcakes and using cupcake tiers/trees to display them. I'm considering leaving a few unfrosted to frost during the party and let the kids decorate them themselves. If that doesn't work out so well...maybe we'll still have the decorated cupcakes and an ice cream bar? I'm not so sure. Anyway...I NEED ideas. Please Please Please! Let me know if you have any ideas for fun games or activities, decorations, etc. I haven't even decided how to make invites, so even ideas there are helpful! Thanks in advance!! I will post any ideas or crafty things I do make related to her birthday...including pictures since I finally got a new camera!

=Water Colors=

McKayla loves to paint...with any type of paint. The downfall, is that she can use up an entire strip of watercolors in less than a week. This can get pretty costly. I buy a few during "back to school" season, and put a few in her craft bin. We also save a few to give as gifts with some paper and brushes to friends. Since it's starting to get a little cooler and outside time is getting limited, I started coming up with ways for her to play indoors and not drive me crazy. This is quick, easy, and cost effective enough for her to use for hours.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp whiet vinegar

1 Tbsp baking soda

4 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp corn syrup

Food Coloring

Directions:

Mix together the vinegar and baking soda. When it stops foaming, add enough food coloring to make it as dark as you want. Add the corn starch and corn syrup and mix well. Store in small containers.

Pudding Paint

I love doing this, even though it drives my OCD crazy and makes me want to keep washing my child...lol. I found this idea on a pre-school site a while ago. Cleaning out our cupboards, I noticed that we had a few boxes of cook and serve pudding left over from a recipe we made. I HATE this pudding. McKayla is not much of a milk drinker, so we're always scrambling to finish a gallon of milk before it goes bad every week, this helps a little.

Prepare pudding according to package directions.

I'm not sure if instant pudding works as well, I do know that the cook and serve types actually set up a little thicker.

After the pudding has cooled, place into bowls. (Pudding is pretty cheap if you buy a store brand, about 88 cents or less-different flavors give a few different color options.)

Spread out some waxed paper and let the kids go crazy. They love it, and they can even sneak a few bites in! I usually do this after lunch.

**To keep myself a little less stressed, I look for discounts in the party section with the plastic table cloths or even plastic shower curtains or liners. I keep these stocked with the art supplies and spread them out over the floor around and under the table and chairs. This allows for the easiest clean up, I can spray it off or when it's totally trashed, I can just roll it up and throw it away. I'd rather be replacing a shower curtain liner from the dollar store than scrub my floors and carpet.

"Sand" Art

Alright, McKayla really likes being able to do sand art projects. She saw some kids this summer using spoons to funnel layers of colored sand into cute bottles. She wanted to do this soon after we got home. I looked at craft stores and found that buying colored sand can be a little ridiculous. I did a little research and figured out a great way to make "sand".

Ingredients:

Table Salt

Colored Chalk

Directions:

Take a small amount of salt and pour it onto a paper plate. Using your desired color of chalk, "color" over the salt. This will break down the chalk and start adding color into the salt. If you find that you've gotten a little carried away with the chalk, you can mix in a little more salt.

You can adjust the amounts of salt and chalk to your liking, there's no real recipe so much.

After mixing salt to your desired amount, you can store in either squeeze bottles (such as the picnic table mustard or ketchup bottles) or, I use small plastic containers with lids.

Kids can now use their "sand" to fill small plastic or glass jars using a funnel and spooning in the salt (be sure to squeeze in a little hot glue to stabilize and take up some room in the bottle, then super glue the lid on-this will prevent mixing). Using the small containers also allows for the kids to sprinkle the sand over glue for art projects.

Have fun! This has a very long shelf life and can be stored for quite a while.

**Since no one is eating this salt, it is fine to use the cheapest salt in your grocery store. I buy the bigger containers and mix about 1/4 cup of salt for each color.

**Watch your dollar stores, you can frequently get a package of 12 pieces of sidewalk chalk for a dollar. If you're at WalMart - it's 88 cents! I raid our box of sidewalk chalk and use up all the broken and small pieces first.