Remember this frame I scored at Salvation Army?
Well I cleaned it up and with a little paint it came out looking like this! 
I had a piece of board cut to fit, and covered it with chalkboard paint. Then I left it on my porch, my gated porch, to dry. I was so excited because it was exactly the perfect width to hang on the column in our kitchen. Oh the things I would chalk on this board! 
And then I went outside to get it in the morning, and it was gone. Somebody stole my frame! I'm so furious to think somebody would steal a DIY project from a stay-at-home mom! And to think that it's probably hanging in somebody's house right now! I hope they get a guilty conscious every time somebody asks where they got the gorgeous frame. It didn't cost much, but making my home look nice (oh and raising my son) is my livelihood! My home is what I have to show all day for what I do (oh and my son too). Ugh. Thankfully though, our Schwinn bikes that were sitting on the porch were not touched. And they now reside in our dining room until I can make room for them to fit in our teeny little utility room that already has one bike and a lot of stuff in it. So now our living area contains an outdoor table with four chairs and two bikes. Lovely.
Well I cleaned it up and with a little paint it came out looking like this! I had a piece of board cut to fit, and covered it with chalkboard paint. Then I left it on my porch, my gated porch, to dry. I was so excited because it was exactly the perfect width to hang on the column in our kitchen. Oh the things I would chalk on this board! And then I went outside to get it in the morning, and it was gone. Somebody stole my frame! I'm so furious to think somebody would steal a DIY project from a stay-at-home mom! And to think that it's probably hanging in somebody's house right now! I hope they get a guilty conscious every time somebody asks where they got the gorgeous frame. It didn't cost much, but making my home look nice (oh and raising my son) is my livelihood! My home is what I have to show all day for what I do (oh and my son too). Ugh. Thankfully though, our Schwinn bikes that were sitting on the porch were not touched. And they now reside in our dining room until I can make room for them to fit in our teeny little utility room that already has one bike and a lot of stuff in it. So now our living area contains an outdoor table with four chairs and two bikes. Lovely.
Add to that all of our construction mess being drug over it, and it was looking pretty grungy.
I spent the early afternoon scrubbing the cement, all the while disguising it as water play time for the baby. Then a can of pre-tinted porch paint and one glorious hour and a half nap later...
It's looking a whole lot better. Hopefully everybody can figure out how to walk around it when they get off work! I had originally left a strip down the middle, but with Hez still asleep I'd be crazy not to just finish it! I'll probably do another coat though. Dirty spider webed walls look like they need some attention too. And the gate could use a fresh coat of black. And the light needs replacing...and...
But I wanted more than just a red curtain, and since nobody seems to sell large circus font letters I decided to make them myself. The actual project was easy, but incredibly time consuming. First I cut out two of each letter and used strips of poster board to make some 3D letters.
Then several layers of paper mache.
Then some spray paint.
Then a little gold paint for details.
And once I set up the tripod and camera I ended up with this! 
Next to our 'photo booth' was a bucket full of props: the barbell from his invitation picture, top hats, big glasses, mustaches and clown noses...most of which was from the dollar store. I did a vintage effect on all the photos too.
Chalk was a hit, and he colored the sidewalk and his mouth.
I think I may try to have Hez decorate a wooden egg every year as he grows, it would be cute to see them all lined up years from now. So since he isn't quite coordinated enough to actually paint an egg, we did a little tie-dye action. One coffee can, some craft paint and a wooden egg.
Little bit of each color...
Drop in the egg.
Shake it up...or roll it.
And that's it! Nothing fancy, but it came out cute and the baby got to be a part of it.
And the colors are nice and springy too!
Cutest 'green' eggs ever...
I almost want to leave them up, they make the light look way cooler.
Static electricity!
This time around, he actually blew out the candle! Insanely adorable.
But still no frosting mess!
All the goodies...cupcakes, licorice (which I've apparently misspelled!), lollipops, a bucket of toys, stick on mustaches, peanuts and lots of balloon-animal balloons (with a little air pump too!).
Elephant Peanuts! I took a sharpie to an old burlap sack I had lying around and filled it with peanuts.
Cupcakes in all sorts of flavors: vanilla, peanut butter-chocolate, red velvet, German chocolate and even gluten-free vegan. And I kept it simple with the decorations by gluing scrapbook paper onto toothpicks for little flags.
Next to the dessert table was another table with two buckets. And a beloved stuffed animal of 
The other bucket was filled with little party favor bags for all the kids, tied with a little "Thanks for coming to my party!" tag.
I stuffed the bags with a box of old school animal cookies, play dough and a little circus animal and then it was up to the kids to fill it with whatever else they wanted from the 
A somewhat last minute thing I thought of (since we're frequently browsing our soon-to-be-closed-
Here's a view of all the tables at the park. It was such a nice day for a park party, although the wind kept blowing away all our balloons!
Unfortunately, I totally forgot to get a picture of the table set-up I did, so here's a lame 'practice run' picture that was set up on my dining table. I'll admit, I'm a little 
Popcorn buckets for the table, decorated with colored duct tape.
And whoever sent back their RSVP tickets got their name thrown in a little raffle to win a 
And the best part of any one year old party has to be the cake...or the mess of cake! But this guy is as clean as they come and most of the mess on him was from us trying to encourage him to dig in. He did get a little into it when I gave him his spoon (he's very into feeding himself right now!).
And after a minute, he just froze. So many friends and family singing and cheering him on just got to him and he didn't cry or anything, he just looked down in a blank stare and wouldn't move or look at anybody. Pretty cute, and a sure sign that there wasn't going to be any cake on the face today!
But it did make for a very simple clean up...guess we didn't have to undress him 
I've still got some more pictures from the party, namely the photobooth! But I think I've reached my picture limit for one post so they will come later! Also, I wont post anybody's pictures without them being cool with it, so if you don't mind that your photobooth picture gets posted I'd love it if you left me a comment! They are insanely cute!