Last weekend, for the long weekend, our family joined a bunch of friends for a group camping trip to Sandbanks. My husband is not a camper, so I had to reach way back to my girl guide days, and pull out a few tricks!

Before we went I made these fun fire starters. You begin with an empty egg carton, add old dryer lint, and cover in wax. They worked great.

You just let the wax dry, break them into 12 individual cups, and light the cardboard corner to start your fire.

We went to Sandbanks Provincial park. I had never been there before, and it was beautiful. Despite the cold water, the kids had a great time the first day playing at the very sandy beach.

And the second day we all went to the sand dunes together, they were awesome. There was a hard core bocce ball tournament, and some pretty serious swimming, and playing in the sand too.

All that play made everyone hungry! A highlight of the trip for me was some of the fun outdoor cooking we did. Our friends made tin foil dinners.

They were filled with various versions of potatoes, veg, and meat to make a complete meal. The very first version of t.v. dinners? sans the t.v.

Chicken with tomato, and potatoes, mushrooms and carrots -yum!

One family used a tin pie plate as the base of their dinner, clever!

Over at my site, we were making baked potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob over the fire. Well, actually the potatoes are all wrapped up in foil and in the fire, amongst the coals. They didn’t burn at all and were delicious!

Dinner was delicious, supplemented with a few roasted hotdogs for some of the 11 kids that we had between the 6 families.

The coolest meal -by far was the bacon and eggs in a paper bag. The last time I did this I was about 12 camping with the girl guides, but it was just as much fun at 30 something!

You start out with a regular old brown paper lunch bag. Using thick slice bacon, you rub down your bag a little, and line the bottom of the bag -takes about 3-4 slices. Then you crack your egg on top, add a little s & p, and fold down the top of the bag.

Then you put a stick through the top and hold it over some hot coals for about 10 min. until it’s cooked!

Mine turned out great!

There were a few, shall we say, “mishaps”. Don’t get it near a flame or the top will catch on fire!

But he still ate it! Such a good sport!

Try it on your next camping trip. Hope you had a good long weekend too. Long weekend + great friends + lots of fun + great food = life is a party!

These are one of the sweetest projects I’ve ever made, and I was so excited about doing them. We made one for each of my little girls, and one for me so I won’t turn into the bossy mom who controls the craft project by making very strong suggestions to her kids about colour and placement choices…I’m sure you can’t relate. They were so cute, that I even made one for my own mom and her garden!

I have heard of and even seen fairy gardens in the past and thought they were cute, but didn’t like that they were hard to see in a flower boarder garden, and often became grown over. That problem was amazingly solved when I saw a version at Pink and Green Mama, where they made the garden in a container. Perfect for the deck, where it can be easily played with and admired. (Just don’t touch Mommy’s!)

I decided to use dollar store bird houses for the fairy houses themselves. I wanted them to look more like fairy houses, so I sawed off the bird perch and replaced it with a fairy door, made out of a small sawed off piece of a paint stick.

I nailed the little paint stick door on with a small finishing nail, and left the nail protruding slightly to look like a little door knob. I also removed the eye hook from the top, and I replaced them with small flags made out of a wooden skewer and a piece of ribbon sewn on.

I was inspired by my Christmas Glitter Houses to add a little glitter to the the fairy houses. After they were painted, I glittered the roofs and doors, and then applied several coats of clear Lacquer to make them more weather proof. I love them in all their happy pastel colours.

I used vintage galvanized steel wash basins for the gardens, as well as some enamel ware. The one for my Mom is done in a large Terracotta pot, to fit in with her other pots.

After planting several small plants around the pot, we covered the rest of the “yard” with moss, and created a small pathway to the front door with pebbles.

The clotheslines are made from two wooden skewers, some kitchen string, and mini-clothes pins from the dollar store.

I got so excited about the fairy gardens, that I wanted to include a few more little details, and I thought that a miniatures doll house store would be a great source of mini-garden pieces. At the miniature store I found this pretty little watering can, some baskets, and shovels.

How cute are these little rubber boots!

This fairy must have left them outside of her door after a long, hard day of work out in the garden.

Another fun detail was to use the stamped spoons I made here, as a welcome sign.

This pot has a fun toadstool mushroom in it. I found these brown ones at the dollar store.

I spray painted it bright pink.

After the mushroom was painted pink, I added glitter dots. When I lacquered it, the finish crackled slightly, but I thought it added a little realistic mushroom texture.

I love how sweet it looks as a shady spot for a garden fairy to rest on this cute little metal chair, also from the miniature store, with her mini shovel propped up against it.

My little girls each made one large garden in the galvanized wash tubs, and I did mine in several other little pots. I love the way the pots look all clustered together, like there is a new fairy sub-division in town. Time to put up the “For Rent” sign and see if any fairies move in!

This post is linked up at Whipperberry, Blue Cricket Design, Beyond the Picket Fence, and Tatertots and Jello.

I’ve joined The Magic Onions Fairy Garden Competition, check out all the other amazing fairy gardens and be inspired!

Cherry blossoms are the perfect theme for a spring party. Yesterday some friends celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, and I helped out with the decor and food for a wonderful party to celebrate. A 40th wedding anniversary is traditionally the ruby anniversary, so we tried to incorporate some red into the party and went with red and pink colour palette, one of my very favourite colour combinations.

We used a church hall for the party, and tried to give it some character with our decor. The round tables had simple white cloths, and beautiful organza pink table runners. We used silk cherry blossoms, and put them in real water to weight the vases, and make them look more authentic. We wanted a grouping of three items on the table so we used a tea light in a simple glass container, and some roses. We originally thought of roses in silver julep cups, but they were a little over budget, so I had the idea of using silver creams and sugars which we were able to rent. I love the eclectic, vintage feel they created.

Another detail, to tie in the ruby anniversary was that we hung some family pictures on the cherry blossoms and decorated them with red gem stickers.

We covered the room’s bulletin boards with some simple white table cloths to create a neutral background. At the front of the room I hung a beautiful banner to mark the occasion, created with red and pink scrapbook papers.

Above the banner we hung a gorgeous bouquet of paper lanterns. This was my favourite detail of the entire day – I love how the Japanese cherry blossom lanterns tied into our theme.

These were the background for the two food tables one was savoury and the other was full of sweets.

We also added some red and pink roses to the washroom, along with Bath and Body Works cherry blossom foaming hand soap and hand cream. Love is in the details!

We used lots of red and pink roses on the food, and drink tables, and various red and pink candles in silver and mercy glass candle holders.

A fun detail on the coffee and tea table, which the couple added and I will definitely use again in the future was to add a tiny amount of coloured sugar to the regular sugar. Isn’t it pretty.

The food for the party turned out really well. For the savoury table we served a variety of tea sandwiches.

We served veggies and dip in a plastic cup, which the guests loved the ease of.

There was also a large cheese tray. I lined up the cheese and crackers in rows, and thought it made for a really pretty presentation.

I made a variety of tea sandwiches.

There were toast cups with chicken salad and onion sprouts, cream cheese pin wheels, ham and Swiss cheese with honey mustard, egg salad on mini croissants, salmon, and cucumber fingers.

I made some cute pics and used them in some of the sandwiches.

There was also a sweet table.

The highlight of the dessert table was the cupcakes, looking so beautiful on their pink and white stands. We re-painted the stands from the yellow dessert table, see them in yellow here. The cupcakes were ordered from Cupcakes Canada, and they were delicious.

I made the cupcake labels, and the pics for the sandwiches with a cherry blossom graphic I found on-line to tie back into our theme.

Along with the cupcakes, I made a large fruit tray. I placed the fruit in rows, like the cheese and crackers, for a pretty presentation. I was lucky enough to find toothpicks for the fruit with tiny hearts on theme. How fitting for a wedding anniversary.

The rest of the delicious sweets were made by the family and friends, and included lemon tarts, shortbread and chocolate spritz cookies. We also included mini chocolate éclairs, and some pink meringue kisses.

It was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple. I loved all the cherry blossom and red and pink details, and think they’d be a beautiful theme for a shower, birthday, wedding or any spring party.

Congratulations Ian and Lois, 40 years married and still very much in love, sometimes life is a party!

This post is linked up at Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime, Tatertots and Jello, and Between Naps on the Porch.

This weekend our Women’s ministry group at church hosted a Chocolate Spa night. It was a great night and I’d highly recommend this theme for a shower, girls night out, or birthday party idea -it was just a lot of fun.

Every chocolate party needs first of all chocolate and lots of it! We had chocolate decor, chocolate scented candles, and of course lots of actual chocolate too! The decor was simple brown and white, and turned out really well. We used white table cloths and layered brown tulle on top. We also had lots of chocolate candles, which made the room smell wonderful when you walked in.

We always have to do these events on a very limited budget, but it’s great what you can find at the dollar store these days! We have neutral pieces, like these clear glass candle holders that we can dress for any theme with a little ribbon and different coloured candles, and our plain white table cloths dressed up with the inexpensive brown tulle.

I also used some pussy willows, I love their natural brown and white colour, in a milk glass vase.

I used my milk glass collection for the chocolate buffet also, along with lots of chocolate treats, to create a fun candy buffet.

To add a fun detail we created a simple banner and hung it over the food table that said “A day without chocolate is like a day without sunshine.

We also created some really fun pics to put in the food with some other funny chocolate says on them, and embellished them with a few brown sequins.

We served up lots of chocolate desserts. There was a delicious chocolate cake.

The highlight might have been the chocolate fountain, a must for any chocolate party.

There were also chocolate chip cookies, brownies and home made fudge!

I made my chocolate trifle, get the recipe here, and there was also this amazing chocolate tart.

Along with lots of eating, there were some chocolate spa activities. We started out with giving a partner a hand massage with chocolate scented hand lotion. Then we did each others nails with chocolate inspired nail polish.

The final chocolate activity was making a take-home chocolate sugar scrub. I set up all the ingredients, and everyone made their own.

I found the recipe here, and reduced the amounts to fit in these sweet little jars.

We started out mixing together:

• 1/4 cup of Demerara Sugar
• 1 tbsp. of Cocoa Powder
• 1 tbsp. of Oatmeal Powder (which is oatmeal ground into a powder in your food processor)
• 1 tabs. of Honey
• 1 tabs. of Olive Oil

Mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight jar. To use, wet skin, use scrub to exfoliate, and rinse with warm water.

It was a wonderful, chocolate filled night. At a chocolate spa, life truly is a party!

This post is linked up at Blue Cricket Designs, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, and Beyond the Picket Fence.

Remember the little wire nest napkin rings I made for my Easter table here.

Well, they were just too cute to put into a drawer and wait for next spring to come out again, so I made one into a pin.

I started out with some tulle (left over from my wedding years ago, oh the happy memories), the nest and ribbon (see how I made them here), and some pins.

I cut out a long strip of tulle and folded it over to create two layers. Then I gathered it on one side to make a rosette shape, I think it’s a called a yo-yo.

I ran the satin ribbon through the pin and tied it, and sewed that to the yo-yo. Next, I sewed the pin closure onto the back.

Then, like all good bloggers, I walked around the garden for a nest pin photo shoot!

Here it is in the rocks.

In the grass.

And my fav. in the flowers.

Let just hope it looks this good on a sweater!

And…Happy Mother’s Day weekend, I hope your loved ones are making life a party for you, at least this weekend!

I’m sharing this post at Whipperberry, Tatertots and Jello, and Shanty 2 Chic, Under the Table and Dreaming.