Star Wars Light Saber Cupcakes

Hello everyone!! I hope you have all been having a great week! I am continuing on with my Star Wars Party series today with what could arguably be the most important part of the party - THE CAKE!!! {You can find Part 1 - Light Saber Invitations and Part 2 - Star Wars Party Food here and here}

For those of you that don't know me too well, I am about the furthest thing from a baker that you can find.  I don't really enjoy it and I am definitely not very good at it.  BUT, I do always try to make my kids' birthday cakes.  A searched the Internet for some Star Wars cake ideas and boy, oh boy, are there a TON of fabulous cakes out there.  {If you are looking for more ideas, you can check out my Pinterest party board.}

I was planning on{and dreading!} doing an R2-D2 cake similar to this one.

I had it all planned out and then Connor spotted these light saber cupcakes while I was browsing Pinterest and decided that he wanted those.  Hours and hours compared to less than an hour? Um, okay!! 

So here was our final light saber "cake".

It is definitely nothing fancy, but Connor thought that it was cool and, really, that's all that matters.

I had lots of extra candies on hand and the kids had fun decorating their own with as many different candies as possible.

I had sparklers on the cake instead of candles. 

It looked pretty cool all lit up and Connor had lots of opportunities to "blow out" his candles {and we also got to experience the excitement of our smoke alarm going off!}

I must say, I really like cupcakes rather than cake at parties.  They are just so much easier!!  Here are a couple of other cute cupcake ideas.

TIE Fighter Cupcakes from Birthday Cakes Guide.

Chewbacca Cupcakes from Disney Family.

Such cute ideas if you are somewhat talented in the cake decorating category.  Me, not so much.

May the force be with you until next time!

I linked up with Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons, Under the Table and Dreaming, Be Different Act Normal, Too Much Time on My Hands, Chic on a Shoestring, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Delightful Order, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Somewhat Simple, The 36th Avenue, Lil Luna, Not Just a Housewife, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Skip to My Lou, Ask Anna, Craft-O-Maniac, CRAFT, Positively Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Funky Junk Interiors, Lolly Jane, Tatertots and Jello, 30 Days, Sun Scholars and Whipperberry.

The Creative Spark {No. 42}

Happy Tuesday everyone!!   It is time to share all of your fabulous ideas and projects at this week's Creative Spark!  I can't wait to see what you all have been up to!  Feel free to link up anything that you have created - crafts, DIY, scrapbook projects, organization ideas, decorating, recipes - anything goes!

Want to link up?

• Link directly to your specific post {not the homepage}.
• Please add The Creative Spark button to your post or blog {the code is in my sidebar} OR place a text link at the end of your post. I would love for you to help me spread the word!
• Check out some of the other fabulous links. A few nice comments always inspires us to create more!
• Follow along with Facebook to see if you have been featured throughout the week. I will also be back to showcase some of my favorite ideas for my Sunday Sparks.

I will be starting my Organizing Blitz on Friday {can you believe it will be JUNE???} so if you have any great organizing ideas or tips, shoot me a message or leave me a comment below.  I am hoping to compile all of your suggestions into one big Organizing Ideas post.  I am looking for more specific organizing projects for this rather than general organizing tips.

Enjoy the party!

 

I've Got the Green Apples....

Happy Memorial Day to all of my U.S. friends!!   I hope you are all having a fabulous long weekend and will think of me as I go off to work today!  No holiday weekend for us, Canadians...

Okay.  No lets talk kitchens.  I have been dreaming of a white kitchen for a couple of years now.  When we first moved into our house, the kitchen cabinets kind of had a white-washed look.  It was very unique and I really liked it at the time.  10 years later, I am not loving the look so much and the cabinets are really in need of a new paint job.  In January we painted our cabinet in our master bathroom {which happened to have the same finish as our kitchen cabinets} and I realized just how big a job the kitchen will be.  I still plan on doing it, but I think it will be waiting until the fall {or whenever I can convince my hubby that we need to do another project}.

So in the mean time, I will just continue to drool over the beautiful white kitchens on Pinterest. I seem to be drawn to the kitchens with a pop of green.  It's just such a crisp, clean color!

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I also love these green touches by painting the insides of your cabinets or adding some fun tile.

I also seem to notice, that almost every picture I like has a bowl full of green apples.  They just add that perfect touch!

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Now since I will not be getting my white kitchen anytime soon, I thought I would create a little vignette on my hutch as a tribute to my {future} white and green apple kitchen.  On a practical note, however, we are kind of partial to the red varieties of apples around here when it comes to actually eating them.  So... I had to make a quick trip down to Home Sense and pick up a few faux apples.

So one day, I will be posting my new, beautiful white kitchen.  But at least for now, I've got the green apples!

Have a great Monday!!!

I linked up with Ask Anna, Craft-O-Maniac, CRAFT, Positvely Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Funky Junk Interiors, Lolly Jane, Tatertots and Jello, 30 Days, Whipperberry, Delightful Order, The 36th Avenue, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Uncommon, Lil Luna, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Today's Creative Blog and Home Stories A to Z.

My Sunday Sparks {No. 41}

So how is your weekend going?  I guess most of you are lucky enough to get a long weekend this weekend {up here in Canada we had our long weekend last weekend for Victoria Day}. I spent about 9 hours yesterday at a scrapbooking fundraiser for Matthew's school yesterday.  I got a few projects {almost!} done so I will finally have a few more posts coming up for Scrapbook Saturday.  Yay!! It has definitely been a while since I have posted one of those. 

I also got to attend the Scout Vintage Market and had a fabulous time checking out all of the amazing vendors.

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I picked up a couple of fun items and would have loved to buy about 100 more!

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After taking a few weeks off, I was thrilled to see so many of you back at The Creative Spark this week.  I have missed looking through all of your amazing ideas and was happy to get {somewhat} caught up with your blogs.  Here are a few of the fabulous link ups from last week:

This boy's bedroom makeover from Woven Home is SO fabulous! From the fabric choices to the amazing owl stenciled wall, I love everything!! You must check it out to see all of the details.

Saltwater Quilts shared her beautiful I Spy Quilt.  What a great way to enjoy the beach!

How sweet is this little mini album from Papervine?  A version of this would be great for Father's Day coming up...

These Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Mini Cheesecakes from Mom on Timeout seriously make my mouth water.  All of my favorite goodies in one treat!!!

And finally, One More Time turned her dead grapevine stump into a creative garden plantar.  Way to think outside the box!!!

So thank-you again to all of you who participated in last week's Creative Spark.  If you haven't had a chance to check out the links, head on over here.  For those of you who were featured here or on my Facebook page, feel free to grab a featured button from my side bar.  I hope to see you all back again on Tuesday night for another party!

Have a happy and safe weekend!

Star Wars Party Food

Hey guys! I hope you have all been having a great week!  Although it has been a short week with the holiday on Monday, I am still ready for the weekend!

So today I am continuing on with Part 2 of my Star Wars Party series {you can catch the first post here} and talking about one of my favorite topics - FOOD!!!

As we all know, little Jedi's tend to be hungry folk.  All of that battling can be hard work.  I tried to keep the food fun while still slipping in a few relatively healthy food choices.  Here is what we served up:

One of Connor's favorite lunch time foods is grilled cheese sandwiches.  With the help of these sandwich cutters from Williams Sonoma, Dave made up these Spaceship Sandwiches while the rest of us were out playing some games.  The kids all gobbled them up and had fun blasting away at the ships.

Since Jedi's love their light sabers, I made up some fruit sabers.  Surprisingly, most of these were quickly gobbled up too!

In keeping with the healthy food, I did have a plate of Vadar Veggies but I must say I did have quite a bit of this left over.  What can I say?  I tried.

We also had a few little treats on the table to tide the Jedis over until birthday cake time.  Their favorite was the TIE fighter cookies.

They are made from the 100 calorie Oreo wafer cookie packs, mini marshamallows, and some white chocolate to stick it all together.  They were a yummy little biteful!

We also had some Death Star donuts {in chocolate since that is Connor's favorite!}

So the big food hit of the party was definitely the Yoda Soda.  I pretty much do a version of this punch at every kids party that I have.  It is quick, easy, and all the kids seem to love it.  Just scoop out some frozen yogurt {in the color of your choice} and add Sprite.  

My favorite is raspberry frozen yogurt but I didn't think my little Jedi's would be too happy with a pink drink.  Since Connor does not like lime flavor, I ended up using vanilla frozen yogurt and some neon food coloring to tint it green.  Yoda would be proud.

In addition to the Yoda Soda, I also had some Galatic Water on the table {and outside where the little Jedi's were playing}

I just took the regular water labels off the water, wrapped them with some glitter paper {that was left over from the light saber invitations} and added the Storm Trooper tag.

{Download Here}

I purchased a Star Wars digital kit from Natalie's Little Corner of the World and used it for the above water labels and food label tags.  You can also find some links to some free kits here.  Due to a lack of time, I didn't get as much done with the digital kit as I had hoped, but I am sure there will be many more Star Wars uses in the future!

Here are the food labels that I printed up {you can download them here}

I just trimmed them with a paper cutter, attached them to some of the blue glitter paper with double sided tape and then added that to some folded white cardstock.  We also had some of Connor's Star Wars men out on  the table guarding the food.

Now I am sure you are asking "Where is the cake?"
There are so many fun Star Wars cake and cupcake ideas that I will be saving that for the next post.  Don't worry, I didn't forget about the best part!!!

If you are looking for other Star Wars party food ideas, here are some of my favorite inspiration posts:

Just Jenn Recipes

Iced Jems

Hello My Sweet

And if you really want to get creative, check out these amazing cookies from The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.  

There just also happens to be a link party of oodles and oodles of Star Wars goodies on this post as well.  It came too late for our party but hopefully it will help you out.

Now if that does not put you into Star Wars food overload, I don't know what will!  Stay tuned for Part 3 of the Star Wars Party series - The Birthday Cake!

May the Force be with you until next time!

I linked up with 30 Handmade Days, Sun Scholars, Whipperberry, Delightful Order, The 36th Avenue, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Uncommon, Lil Luna, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Today's Creative Blog, Home Stories A to Z, Craft-O-Maniac, Under the Table and Dreaming, Ask Anna, CRAFT, Positively Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello and 30 Handmade Days.

Master Bedroom Makeover

Well, after many months of complaining about my master bedroom, I am finally done! I have been showing you pictures along the way but I thought that I would put it all together for you.

We started off by painting the walls a soft gray. We get a lot of light in this room and I especially love the gray as the sunshine is coming through.

I spent a lot of time going back and forth with what color I should paint the furniture and finally decided to go to the Dark Side {I guess Connor's Star Wars obsession has rubbed off a bit on me!}.  The bed and the side tables got a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint {in graphite} and made a big impact on the room.

Although I loved the dark furniture, I still wanted a little white in the room.  I used some DIY chalk paint on our dresser to provide some contrast.

On of my favorite projects in the room was the photo canvas above the dresser.  I love the pop of blue {which is Annie Sloan Provence} and it was definitely the easiest project by far!

I carried some of the blue to the other side of the room as well with this painted stool.

We removed the wall sconces from beside the bed and added a new ceiling light instead.  After mulitple lights, I finally found one that I liked.  Unfortunately, we were unable to remove the electrical boxes from the wall {unless we wanted to take the whole wall down} so I was unable to do the wall treatment that I wanted.  I still think I will add something to the wall behind the bed at some point but I will live with it for now.

On the other side of the room I have my Edlund dresser turned desk {from Ikea} and a couple of favorite photos.  I love having a computer up in our room now since our main computer is two floors down in the basement.  My gigantic clock also found a new home just above the desk.

I also found some fun finds for my bare little corner.  You can never have too many places to hang your purses!

So do you remember the Before pictures {and my original plans}?

  It was a lot of work, but I am very happy with our new bedroom {well, except for that darn wall...}

Now to just relax and enjoy!!!

Thanks so much to all of you that linked up to The Creative Spark last night.  If you haven't had a chance to check things out {and link up your ideas!}, head on over here. 

 Have a fabulous day!!

I linked up with Inspired by Charm, Not Just a Housewife, Thrifty Decor Chick, Skip to My Lou, The 36th Avenue, Uncommon, Lil Luna, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  A Bowl Full of Lemons, Today's Creative Blog, Home Stories A to Z, Craft-O-Maniac, Under the Table and Dreaming, Ask Anna, CRAFT, The DIY Showoff, Positively Splendid, I Heart Naptime, Lolly Jane Boutique, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, 30 Handmade Days, Whipperberry, Tidy Mom, The Shabby Nest, Delightful Order, Crafty Scrappy Happy, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Somewhat Simple and Gluesticks.