Celebrating 30 years: 30 Below Birthday Party

For my husband's 30th birthday birthday (and my 29th birthday- hence the "below" party of the party) we had a combo birthday gathering in the theme of "30 Below." We got the idea when we went to Vegas in September- we went to an Ice Bar with our friend Mike, and when sitting in the ice bar, we thought- hey, why don't we have a 30 below party- all icy and frozen?! And this party was born.

Now, the decor was a lot more simply than our New Year's party, since we just didn't have the time, but it was a fun time.

We had snowflakes and ice all over the place (both outside and inside)- luckily the weather was warm enough to not be unbearable outside, but cold enough to have snow still on the outside.

We had a hot chocolate bar (where you could spike it if you wanted to).

We had S'mores outside by the firepit, among other food we had inside.

I made blue-velvet cake pops- which were a big hit for the night.

The other big hit of the night was what we now refer to as- "the blue juice," as well as the ice shot glasses we had outside.

And we also had, of course, ice cream birthday cake.

I also put up banners to finish off the party decor. 

We asked friends to bring food instead of gifts, so the above food is just a small fraction of the food we ended up having. It was a great night, and I thought a fun way to celebrate the hubs and I's birthdays.

I used Printables from a "Baby It's cold outside" set was designed by Belinda from  Giggles & Grace Designs and I made the celebrate banner from a Stampin Up! banner kit.

Party on everyone!

-M

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It's circle time!

For some reason I was in a circle cutting type mood- My new Cricut cuts so many variations of circles I felt I needed to put them all to good use. :) So I made 2 circle cards and 2 circle-type holiday banners.
I'll start with showing you the circle cards. Since I was photographing the banners in my living room, I decided to photograph my circle cards in there too...and I might actually shoot them more often in there- good lighting! I found they didn't stand up good on their own, being circle and all, so I just leaned them against my cool end table lamp. (the actual end table/mini coffee table I made all by myself in a wood furniture class in college, but you probably can't see much of it in the picture. hehe)
Anyways, one card is all blinged-out, as my mom likes to say. The other card I tried to make look like an ornament. I wouldn't have used blue on it at all, but I was trying to use the blue cardstock I had already cut out on my Cricut in that shape for the card base, so I tried to tie it all together. I still think it probably would look better without any blue, but I think I'll just leave it be for now.

 (Bling! I am loving how this card sparkles!)

 (It's a card, it's an ornament...it multi-tasks!)

 (Like I said...I'm still torn on the blue...but I'll let it be for now. )

Today I also decided I would make a banner for our mantel in our living room for the Christmas season and one for above our stockings. I have been seeing a LOT of cool banners made by other crafty bloggers out there and decided to try my hand at making some. Ok, so it didn't turn out nearly how I wanted it to be because: 1) I don't have all the nifty supplies that some people have, 2) surprisingly enough I didn't have very many Large chipboard letters....I know,  Me, Mrs. Chipboard letter herself doesn't have large chipboard letters!? I had one large set, that was blue, and "Winter" was all I could spell with what I had left of the letters. 3) Halfways through making my other smaller banner, I ran out of adhesive...TOTALLY ran out!! I ended up trying to put it together with doublesided tape, since all the craft stores were closed by that time (a few hours ago)...sadly it already is falling apart (like right after I photographed it)....I think the only letters still up there  from what I can see right now that haven't fallen off of it is the "M," "R" in merry and the "H" "T" and "A" in Christmas. lol *sigh* tomorrow I hope to make a trip up to get me some adhesive. I guess we used a LOT of adhesive at the crop...Like more than I go through in making cards in a few months! Wow....
Anyways, These are the best pictures I could take of the banners. The "winter" banner luckily I had adhesive when I made that one, so it is still sticking together strong and I think it turned out cute. Since I was going for the "ornament" look, the strips holding the banner are not nearly as cool as some people out there. But I started getting WAY tired of making the darn banner by the end of it- mostly all cutouts from my new Cricut. That is the one thing I hate about the Cricut- I can only do one thing at a time. Is there a way to fit more than one shape on my cutting mat and have it cut it all out for me in one run? Just wondering...

 (our cluttered mantel...and lack of fireplace- the previous owners or our landlord...somebody, blocked it off. 

Sorry for the washed out picture...my camera hates me)

 (it's hard to photograph a banner that is very light colored...my camera wouldn't photograph it with a flash properly at all! So I tried to manually take it, but if I do that on my camera, it has no focus...ugh...this was the best I do to photograph it)

Anyways, The "Merry Christmas" mini banner is above our stockings...Mine, our cat- C.J., and my Hubby's stockings are shown below with the banner. The "winter' banner is hanging off of our mantel in the living room. Banners everywhere!

 (this is before it all started to fall apart. *tears*)

 (For all the letters with a white main color, I made a scallop border- 

by punching a bunch of mini circles and adhering them to the back of the main circle)

I already have who the cards are going to figured out, and all the Christmas decor is up...now I just need to make more Christmas cards- I believe I have 12 left needed def. and possible 4 more additionally if I have time to, not to mention the rest of the Christmas presents to get/make. *sigh* I have a love/hate relationship with this holiday!
Before I leave you all, here is a photo of our fake Christmas tree I put up a few days ago. I wish we could have a real one, but for the time being- us being tight on money and living in an apartment with not a whole lot of room, I'll settle for the uber-skinny tree. haha!

It doesn't have any presents under it yet...I'm working on it people...that's what the rest of this weekend is all about. lol. So have a good weekend everyone and happy holiday fun!
-M

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