Avo-SPA-do

Whoa! Has it really only been 2 days since my last blog? Haha. Well, since the movers are coming to pack up my entire house in 2 days and I will be without computer, I figured I should post something to hold y'all over until we're all settled in again...or sometime thereafter.

My post on my son's truck birthday seems to be doing pretty well on Pinterest so I figured I would post another birthday-on-a-budget...this time it was my daughter's 6th birthday earlier this year (in April). Well, can you guess the theme (for those who haven't read the previous post anyway)...yep...a spa day. What girl (at any age) doesn't love some pampering? I mean, some gunk and goo on the face, glitter in your hair, and 20 different colors on all 20 nails! I honestly, don't know how much this party cost me, but I can assure you that it wasn't bad at all. In fact, this time I downsized the guest list by only inviting her closer classmates and the nearby relatives.

I think I let Lil Miss invite 6 friends to this little shindig. Most of them showed up, too. I found FREE templates for the invitations which I found on Pinterest. The setup was pretty simple. Paper plates in the girliest of colors (pink and purple), a fancy looking tray from the Dollar Store with nail polishes from my and my daughter's own collections, chargers I already had (and bought at 40% off) to display the snacks and pack of microfiber wash cloths. I also draped multiple robes (in case they didn't bring their own) on the backs of the chairs. I kept everything clean and relaxing. If I had to guess, I would say the decorations came to be give or take $10. It's a huge savings to use things you already have around the house!

The snacks were very cutesy. Like usual, I scheduled the party at an off-peak hour so I was not required to provide a full meal. The menu included pretzels, "spa" water, cookies, and marshmallow polishes. The recipe for the cookies can be found here. It was made from scratch and healthy, although it does contain peanut butter and most ingredients I already had on hand. The marshmallows were sprayed with an edible coloring and I used frosting to stick Tootsie Rolls onto the top. I probably spent less than $20 on snacks.

The activities included avocado facials, manicures, and adding glitter tinsel to their hair. I made the avocado facial because I didn't want to use anything artificial on such young faces. I can't seem to find the website I got the recipe from, but I do recall some avocado, almonds, milk, possibly some oats...I'm not quite sure. You can find tons of natural facials online, though! They all laid around on the living room floor with their hair pulled back in an elastic headband I provided with this green gunk on their faces and slices of cucumbers on their eyes. It was awesome! (Let me also say that a benefit of using natural ingredients is that they are edible as well...yes, these chicas took their cucumber slices and "dipped" it into their faces and ate it!) Once they washed that all off, we started manicures. I had the microfiber towels set on the table with the idea of warming them and wrapping their little fingers in them to soften the cuticles...buuuuut...I totally forgot with all the little girls telling hollering about which color or decal they wanted. While some got their nails did, others got tinsel tied into their hair. I found this at CVS and enlisted the help of a cosmetology student friend. They were all dazzling by the end of the party! And let's just go ahead and say I spent like $15 for these supplies.

Last, but not least are the cupcakes and thank you gifts. I made my own cupcakes at home...therefore they are not the prettiest, but I tried with the same pink spray I used on the marshmallows and purple pearl-like candies. The gifts were just $1.50 nail files and travel lotions from Bath & Body Works. Luckily, they were just coming out with some new fragrances of lotions and had mini lotions on sale for only $1 each before the release. Plus, you can often get free mini lotions with minimum purchases or 20% coupons pretty regularly so if you have a plan ahead of time, you can stock up over time. Add another $15 to my budget.

I think the girls had a great time. They were espeically amused with the facials, but they had tons of fun getting prettied up. I want to know how your spa party goes or other girly themes you come up with.

And if you've been keeping track, my grand (estimated) total for the whole party came to....drumroll please........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................$60! That's not bad...not bad at all even if I didn't have a bounce house or rent out a whole venue or hire a clown. :)

Pallet Love.

That has been quite the hiatus, wouldn't you say? So much has happened since my last post (What was it even about again?). I have shut down my Mary Kay cosmetic business to focus on my true passion of photography. I have been blessed with loyal clients allowing me to photograph their children. However, I am having to say goodbye to these wonderful people as we prepare to move back across the country to Hawai'i, our home in about 2 1/2 weeks. I am not sorry to have come so far and experienced so much. Thank you to the Navy for that. But I am also thankful to be going back home...and timing couldn't be better. My family needs me right now...well, I need them a lot, too.

Well, enough about that. There is so much I have yet to post. I need to catch up on things like my daughter's 6th birthday spa party (which happened in April mind you). But today I am going to post about a project I just finished.

Lately, my husband and I have been obsessed with pallets! Just like you see all over Pinterest, pallet projects have become somewhat of a huge trend in the DIY world. Guess it has to do a lot with free wood and a lot of imagination. So far, my hubby and I have worked together on 3 pallet projects including an outdoor coffee table, a new, huge dining table, and an ottoman for the living room.

(Please excuse the terrible phone photos)

The one I'm going to post about today is the ottoman. Of course I followed a pin because I'm totally obsessed with DIY thanks to this ever-consuming go-to social media site. However, as with everything, I tried to do things just slightly different and in my own way...kind of.

I'll start with the supplies you need (the amount and cost of supplies greatly depends on how big your pallet is going to be):
 1 pallet (size of your choice) - free
 egg crate foam - $21 for a twin sized piece on sale (Joann Fabric)
 batting - $4.19/yd on sale (Joann Fabric)
 upholstery fabric - $8/yd on sale (Joann Fabric)
 fiberboard/plywood - $9 for 4' x 8' (Home Depot)
 buttons - $8.99/12 (Etsy)
 legs/top plates - $20 for 4 of each (Home Depot)
-------------------------------------------------------
My total: approximately $85.00

The first step I did was to sand down the pallet. Some thought it was kind of pointless, but my particular pallet had been sitting in some dirt in all kinds of summer rains and had some mud and splinters sticking out from everywhere. Just because it was ugly, yes, I took my hubby's sander to it and cleaned it up. The wood itself looked great once I was done. Then I measured and cut 2 pieces of fiberboard to the size of the pallet (1 for the top and 1 for the bottom). Once cut, I nailed the bottom piece on with little nails I had on hand for hanging pictures. Note: the boards are to give you a flatter surface to work with so you have something to tuft to and nail the upholstery too. You'll see what I mean as you continue. The pallet is really just a base to start your work with.

Next, I measured where my buttons would go for tufting and drilled 2 tiny holes at each spot in order for me to sew them in place.

After all of that, I took my top piece of fiberboard and and layered it on top of (in order from the bottom) the fabric, batting, and foam. I used Tacky glue (instead of spray adhesive because I had it on hand and wanted to save a little money) to glue the foam to the fiberboard. Now, keep in mind that the foam was cut to the same size as the fiberboard. The batting and fabric were both cut large enough to go down and around to the bottom of the pallet once the top is attached. The amount you need will depend on how thick your pallet and boards are.

Now, this is the hard part. The tufting. I have never tufted before and the pin that I linked to above also provides links on tufting tutorials, but I just used what I knew about sewing buttons to do the tufting. I did not purchase upholstery needles (again trying to cut costs), but they would have been really helpful as my needles didn't necessarily go through all of the materials unless squished...yes squished. It is also difficult trying to find the holes through all that material. Everything I have done up until this point was fast and fairly easy. I think it took all of an hour to do it all...but this took the rest of the night. And I called it a night once I finally got all 11 buttons on. I just sewed the buttons on as you normally would...only I pulled it tight in order to create the bulges. You definitely want to use a thick upholstery-like thread for this process. And even then you want to double it up as you sew. I had some thread on hand for sewing my husbands uniforms. It is fairly thick and did the job.

After some sleep, I got back on the horse and finished up what I started. I added more foam to each of the sides of the pallet (though I had to undo my upholstering later on once I realized that I should have added board to the open sides because you could feel it through the fabric and also add even more foam to the corners). This wasn't difficult just a pain since it was all trial and error and I didn't notice how much could actually be felt until all the fabric was already staple on. Once I had the foam surrounding all the sides, I took the tufted top and nailed it onto the pallet. From there, I turned the whole thing upside down and went to town with the staple gun. Wa-la...the top is all done.

But wait, we're not done! I took the top plates and screwed them into the bottom...OK...this is where my hubby helped me because for whatever the reason, the self started screws it came with didn't want to start for me! Anyway, I shoved them as far into the corner as I could measuring each to make sure it was equal...inside of the stapled fabric. Note: You want to trim away as much of the fabric on the bottom as you can without possibility of the fabric tearing and coming apart.

Once those were secured, I took a plain white piece of fabric I already had, nothing special and covered the entire bottom, even covering the plates I had screwed on. This hides all the ugliness and also reinforces the other materials as you are adding that many more staples and also covering up anything little children or pets can get to.

Wondering how I'm going to get the legs on? Well, I'm going to cut holes right where the legs are going to screw into the plates of course! That's what I did and they went in just fine. Get them as tight as you possibly can and you're all done!!! *Patting my shoulder now.*

Only took 2 days and I've got a new piece of furniture that is now my children's favorite place to sit and watch tv...even take naps. Haha. It's a custom piece without the custom price and the pride that you did it all yourself. As you can see we went for kind of a modern look with a vintage feel (buttons). That is what we hope to accomplish with the new house we are looking to buy when we get back to Hawai'i. I'll post more about how we decorate and other DIY projects we do to make it our own.

Enjoy making your ottoman!!! I'd love to see what you can accomplish with pallets in other ways as well!!!

FREE solar powered toy!

Head on over to Moolala today for a free solar-powered toy! This is a daily sale event site so products are not available for very long. How can you go wrong with free?! Solar power is a great resource that we should celebrate this Earth week and every day!!!

Xoxo,
Stephanie

So Minty

As Spring fights to make its appearance, many colors are blooming in stores everywhere - my very favorite one being MINT! A close second is coral. In the past, I've been very comfortable with neutrals, but it's easy to introduce a tiny bit of color to brighten any look and make moms feel hot and confident chasing after kids and/or taking on all of the household chores and errands. Here are some of my top picks for incorporating the seasons hottest color in a classy way into your look now!

1. I love dainty jewelry pieces, though they are not always kid-friendly as they tug on every part of you. This adorable bracelet found at ShopDal's Etsy shop is only $14 making it reasonable to stack with several other pieces also found in the same collection. Arm candy is huge right now!

2. This is a not-so-great picture of 2 trends I'm loving. The most obvious being the mint colored watch. It is Anthropologie-inspired from Moolala (a daily sale event website). The cost was $19.99, but you can find a similar look at anthropologie.com.
    The second item is the textured nail applique on my accent nail. These are tiny little pearl-like balls that will stick to wet nail polish. (I painted a clear top coat over them to keep them a little better). I found these while taking my daughter shopping on her birthday at Claire's for about $9.00.

3. The textured nail thing can get messy, so an easier option is the nail sheets that don't require painting or drying time. These are ideal for busy moms who don't have the option to sit around waiting for your nails to dry. Sally Hansen makes these, but I found an awesome mint colored design from a Jamberry consultant. I love mint and gold together!!! You can get about 3 manicures out of one set for $15 if you use them on all 10 fingers, but I'll likely use them just as an accent once I get them. I was pretty weary of that trend at first, but it's a more subtle way of doing fun nail art without going overboard.

4. Colored pants are huge right now! I have a pair of pink ones that I love and I also love the mint! These work best when you tone down everything else. Keep the top, shoes and accessories all muted tones and you'll look fab! A white t-shirt or blazer is sophisticated with gold jewelry. This pair is from Express for $79.90, but the store usually mails out great coupons to use!

5. Here I chose an envelope clutch from Gap for $39.95. I usually sport a larger handbag where everything I need (ie. keys, credit cards, etc.) gets lost in the abyss. My husband calls my purses suitcases. But I also love clutches on those occasions I'm not trucking around 3 children like those far and few between date nights. This option is simple and sleek.

6. Last, but certainly not least, we have shoes!!! I chose a high heeled, gold accented pair because after all, my blog is called High Chairs/HIGH HEELS. :) Like the colored pants, these should be worn with neutral everywhere else. They should be the center of your look. I especially love that they are platform because they tend to be kinder to your arches. Zappos is an awesome site to find your most wanted fashion needs. These were $44.99 on sale. On the other hand, flats work perfectly well, too. The neutral rule doesn't apply as harshly here so go ahead and play with a little bit of color elsewhere. Just be sure not to cross the overboard line.

Keep in mind that the colors of Spring and Summer are very similar and range from pastels to neon. Mint can fall into either color category and transition effortlessly from season to season. Have fun with it!!!

Birthdays. Boys. Budgets.

Many of us out there are not swimming in the moola. And with multiple children, it can be very easy to get out of control with your budget...especially on birthday parties. But it doesn't have to. Now, I didn't throw a whole big bash for my one-year-old or anything, but I don't think he's going to know the difference. You don't have a huge blowout to show your children you love them. Just saying. With that said, I still feel like birthdays are a big deal and the birthday person should feel special and loved. Now, being a military family, we have had to slowly build our friend circle and it isn't huge, but this can be a blessing in disguise...I mean who wants to deal with the drama of inviting everyone you know or hurting people's feelings when they are not included because you don't have the budget to. We don't have a lot of friends who have children the same age as our youngest...he is kind of in between with the families we know. In fact, there is only one child who was within months of turning one as well. The rest of the children in attendance happened to be related to friends we wanted to spend time with.

Anyway, we invited 5-7 other families/couples/individuals and ended up with 6 children celebrating Little B's 1st birthday. And all in all, I believe I spent less than $100 for the whole party. Here's how I did it.

The whole party was based around all things wheels - cars, trucks, trains, etc. My boys love everything that goes! So, I started by gathering all of the trucks and cars I had intended on using as props, decor, etc. These were free. :)

I also made my own road signs from scrap paper I had lying around. They said things like "Dead End," "Party Ahead," "Dig In," and various arrows. I also used the same yellow paper to create road markings that I taped to a black table cover I bought at the Dollar Tree bringing my total to..............$1.00

I also made my own little orange cones from construction paper. I didn't have any orange paper so I did indeed have to buy some from Michael's, but I used a 40% coupon making it maybe $2.00 or so. But I'm not going to count this toward my party budget mostly because I only used a handful of sheets from this multi-pack that will be used for scrapbooking and other crafts. These were used to decorate the main table and were stuffed with the favors I handed out at the end of the party. The favors included cheese/cracker snacks ($2.00), tattoos ($2.00), puzzles ($4.00), and mini cars ($2.00). This brings my total to about $11.00.

At the age of 1, there isn't a whole lot of party activities that they can take part in. That made things easy. I gathered a bunch of car-themed items I found around the house - wooden puzzles, books, matchbox cars, etc. I layed them out on a mini table (excuse the sticker-covered Dora set I borrowed from my daughter) with seats. I also bought several wooden cars/trucks from AC Moore craft store and provided crayons for them to decorate. These were a $1 each totaling $8.00. Now, my budget comes to $19.00 and we're more than half way ready for the party!!

The food is where parties can get expensive. That's why I plan my birthday parties at off-prime meal times like 2pm. That way, guests should have already eaten lunch, but will not yet be ready for dinner by the end of the party. I only have to provide some refreshments/finger foods. On this day, the menu included a case of water ($3.00), soda (less than $3.00), pretzels ($3.00), a cheese bread bake with fruits ($12.00), veggie straws ($3.00), and cake ($0.00)! A friend offered to make some cake pops in traffic light colors decorated with some of the boys' car and truck toys! We also had a few adult drinks that cost somewhere between ($15-20.00). That brings us to a total of about $63.00. I have to note that I found a super cute snack idea on Pinterest using apple slices and grapes. Basically, I cut the grapes in half and using a toothpick, I attached 2 halves on either side of the apple slice to make it look like cars! Check out the picture below.

The only items I have left out so far are balloons (which I hung from the ceiling instead of having them blown up with helium) and other very minor decorative items that cost about $3.00 and the invitations which were maybe $10. Final cost = $76.00. How amazing is that?!!! It was a relaxing time where I could focus on my guests and the birthday boy and it seemed like we all had a great time. Here is the final set up of the heart of the party. :)

P.S. Stay tuned for a budget-friendly spa party for my daughter taking place in just a couple short weeks.

New Year, New You

(Please note that this post was written 2 weeks ago, but I went on a trip and brought back a really, really bad cold that I am still recovering from)

Holy guacamole! It has been a really long time since I wrote a post, but I have been on a really crazy ride called life. I have been working really hard on my photography business and getting it off the ground which is taking quite a bit of my time up. There was also all that family time during the holidays and we're leaving on another trip in a few days so I'm packing, packing, packing for the 5 of us. But there is so much that I want to share with you all. I want to share the Christmas gifts I put together for my daughter's many teachers, I want to tell you all about our Christmas, I want to talk about resolutions. And I hope to get to all of that. But before I do, in celebration of my first post of the new year, I would like to talk about a few products I have recently become acquainted with that are reasonably priced and have made a difference in my life. :) I cannot stress enough how OK it is to take care of yourself as well as your families and work. Do not feel guilty...and at these prices, there is no reason to feel guilty.

The first item is Josie Maran's Bear Naked Nail Wipes. I have a tendency to linger near the checkout counter at Sephora where they keep all of the travel/trial sized products and look for new things to try at low(er) costs. These go for $9.00 for 20 pads and 1 wipe is supposed to remove the nail polish off of all 10 fingers (thought it took me 2 since I had those stubborn nail polish colors on) and treat your cuticles and nails. I was quite surprised how great my fingers felt and I was more than prepared to use the whole container of pads for my digits. And how can it get any better than proceeds going to help the polar bears. :) Oh, and I have to mention that they smell pretty good, too!! I rather enjoyed doing my own nails on a 2 hour drive to New York.

Another product I found from Sephora is Bumble and Bumble's Grooming Creme. This hair creme is meant for the women who does not have the patience or time to make fiddle with her hair every morning. That is totally me! I just ran my fingers through my hair with the product on and it kept from frizzing and acted as a very light gel/hairspray. I really liked it and it didn't make my hair feel oily or anything like what normal frizz-free serums tend to feel like.

Last, but not least is the new Botanical Effects line of face care from Mary Kay. All my time as a consultant, I used the TimeWise line, but once my last facial bar was gone, I switched it up to this line, the newest of the face care thus far. My face didn't feel dry at all after cleansing, but felt very clean. And once I applied the moisturizer, my skin just felt amazing. I am winding down my business with Mary Kay, but this is a great product I have come to love at the last minute. And I can't fail to mention that it is made from natural ingredients.

Are there any new things you've tried recently that I should know about?