A party favor bag to hand to each child is a must in my book. It’s a nice way to say “thanks for coming to celebrate with us”. Plus and this is a BIG plus, most children expect something! haha! We once left a party empty-handed and my daughter was SO confused…never mind they fed us and entertained us, she didn’t understand why she was not given a favor (granted, she was 3 or 4 at the time).
The dilemma is always do I just buy them or do I personalize them by making them? I’ve done both but always have the need to decorate the paper ones still! Sheesh! What’s wrong with me?! So, I decided the week of the party that they would be made! My twins were sweet enough to let me use fabric I had stashed away instead of making another trip to the fabric store.
So this is where it pays off to buy fabric by the bolt 
I measured the widest party treats and added a few inches on the sides for the bag. For the length, take your longest treat and add 5 inches extra to the height of your bag. My bag measured 7 x 9 inches.
MATERIALS:
- Sewing Machine
-
Fabric
- Pinking Shears
- Grosgrain Ribbon to match your fabric
- Marking Pen
HOW TO:
1. Cut 2 pieces of your fabric using your pinking shears, which will minimize the fraying. Mine measured 7.5 x 9.5.
2. Cut a piece of ribbon; ribbon should go around the bag and be long enough to tie into a bow. Mine measured 20.5 inches.
3. Pin the ribbon at the center of the bag, approximately 4 inches from the top. I realized after the kids had packed up their goodies, that the top was too short and slipping out of the ties. This measurement will ensure that you have enough fabric above the ribbon so that it will not slip out.
3. Mark with your disappearing ink where you will stitch up the ribbon. I just eyeballed the center and spaced the stitches 3/4 of an inch apart.
zig zag stitch or
straight stitch
4. Pin wrong sides together and sew the two sides and bottom using 1/4 seam allowance.
5. Clip the corner and turn the bag inside out.
completed bag!
bag filled with party favors!
big sis
for the twins’ 7th birthday is coming along.
I’ve got the dot garlands stitched up and ready to go!
via Instagram (@lilsprinkles)
And I’m almost done sewing up the party favor bags. I contemplated buying some but at a $1 per bag, I could not justify it! I got extra lucky because my twins didn’t mind me using fabric I had on hand. It all makes sense…why I buy bolts of fabric, that is.
Here’s a twist on the traditional drawstring bags that I made here. I’m hoping to get a tutorial up as soon as I finish whipping them up. They are so much quicker than drawstring pouches!
So that’s what I’ve been up to. I am fighting a cold and I’m not sure if it has to do with this crazy weather we are having in SoCal or if it’s all the prepping/planning that’s breaking down my immune system. I’ve got lots to do still and am making a mental note that having parties at home (for me) is not such a good idea. haha! For some reason, I can’t just do a “normal kid’s party”. I feel the need to go above and beyond and for that, my body is paying for it. I’m sure that going to Hawaii (for the 1st time as a family of 5) just 3 days following the bday party is not really helping the stress level, huh? This vaca couldn’t come soon enough. I hope to check in before I check in to paradise Hope you have a happy Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by!
big sis
It’s been a busy few weeks for my fam. Birthday parties, funerals 
, baby showers…the whole gamut of events have been keeping us out and about. The little downtime we’ve had on the weekends, we’ve been spending it on gardening and playing outdoors since the weather has been so nice.
I’ve been wanting to start a veggie garden for the LONGEST time (three years to be exact), and finally I just took both girls by myself one day to Lowe’s and bought a bunch of plants and herbs. They helped me plant them with their handy dandy gardening tools from Daiso and Disney gloves from Lowe’s. We passed the gloves, and I saw my oldest get a quick glimpse of them and she immediately turned around and marched right back to see why there was a princess picture on the box. Marketing tools…we are a sucker for them!
Anyhow, to my surprise, our peppers have already sprouted and I can see small tomato buds starting to form!
The girls love to water the plants every day. I planted basil, and maybe it’s because it’s from “her” garden my oldest wants to pick the leaves and have me cook with it. I’ve used it as a topping on her spaghetti and I even cooked it with some chicken and garlic. She ate it right up! Unfortunately, my youngest isn’t too fond of it. The main reason why I bought basil is because my friend introduced me to eating bagels with cream cheese topped with a slice of tomato and basil. SOOOOO delish! I’ve been eating it for breakfast for about a week straight. Not sick of it yet! Hopefully when the tomatoes and bell peppers grow, they’ll both want to eat those too.
I can’t wait for tomorrow and to post pics from my girlfriend’s baby shower. Along with some other girlfriends, I’m helping with planning a baby shower for one of my oldest friends – we met in 4th grade! I’m excited for her since it’s her first child. I’ll be taking pictures of the shower and posting them after!
Lastly, I made a custom doll for a special little girl, and both me and my oldest are smitten over her. My daughter was begging me to make her one too. Sigh…how can I say no?
Hello Kitty Big Sis Doll + a removable tutu because we all need a ballerina HK doll at one point in our lives! Finished product of the doll to be posted on Instagram this weekend (@lilsprinkles)~
Have a great weekend everyone!
-lil sis
We were so excited when Printic contacted us to check out their app…b/c you know we love Instagram (follow us @lilsprinkles) and esp love being able to order prints right from our phone. Printic is a free app which allows you to choose your pictures, crop them, select who you want to send your pictures to, and the recipient will receive a print that much resembles a polaroid picture! Love! So here’s what we liked/disliked about the app…
The pros:
- Super easy to use b/c the pictures are right on your phone! You can also email yourself pictures off your computer, save them to your camera roll, and use those too.
- The end result is a super cute polaroid looking picture!
- You can also add text to your pictures.
- You can select multiple recipients and they ship the pictures for you.
- They are fast! We received the prints 3 days later.
The cons:
- You must purchase 3 images per order.
- Beware of using characters and emoticons…lil sis used Korean characters and heart emoticons, and they showed up as ? (question marks) and unfortunately, there was no error message to warn her that they were not going to print according to her wishes. See below.
Lil sis likes to send pictures to her in-laws since they live in the mid-west and can’t see their grandchildren. This app would totally save her time because they take care of the processing and shipping for you. Now you know you can’t use special characters or it will turn out like that.
So there’s our review! Definitely worth a try at $0.99 an image/$2.97 for the minimum order.
big sis
***We were not offered compensation for this post and all opinions are our own***
Thank you, Jenny! Happy 1st birthday to your lil one
big sis
Thank you, Tali! Hope your lil one adores her!
big sis
They are so sweet and loving to one another. Baby girl completely adores both her brother and sister but I must admit, she does have a different relationship with her sister. When big sis cries, baby girl will sit on her lap and lean in close (her way of giving hugs). When big sis is not in sight, baby girl can be heard shouting for her. When big sis is doing something on the iPad, baby girl is right beside her. When big sis is reading a book, baby girl finds a book of her own and plops down next to her. Although they are a lil more than 5.5 years apart, I do hope that they will grow up to be besties!
big sis dusting the dirt off of lil sis’ shirt. melts. my. heart.
big sis
I knew immediately when I saw this
from here
that this is how I am going to decorate the twins’ 7th birthday party. Isn’t it so purty?! It’s tough trying to come up with a unisex theme especially when my son is very much a boy and my daughter is such a girlie girl. My only concern is that this decoration is going to be hung on my patio in the backyard and if it took 2 people 4 hours to set this up, how will 1 person do it in 1 hour (the time I allotted for decorations on the day of)?!?! that is the question…sigh…So my next thought is to set it up at night but then I’ll risk the morning dew possible ruining it. The things I ponder…
This is the 2nd birthday party we are having at our house and I’m making it a drop off only party. Yikes! I’m a lil scared but I’m trying to cover all my bases to make sure the kids are not bored and running amuck in my house
So the invites are almost done and then I’ll be ready to go into full-blown party planning mode. It’s gonna be a stressful time indeed…with the party, teacher appreciation week, Mother’s day, and our big vacation coming up…all occurring in a matter of a 10 day span. I see loads of checklists in my near future!
I have finally got all the dollies up in the shop and will be pulling down the custom doll listings until about June-July. Thanks for stopping by!
big sis
Ok, so now what? That’s what I was thinking Saturday night after Bottle #6 of my last day of the Nekter Juice cleanse.
I did the two day Nekter cleanse and on Sunday, I felt a couple pounds lighter and felt a lil more energetic than normal. However I do have to point out I felt pretty light-headed the first day. It went away the next day, and I felt rejuvenated on the second day of my cleanse.
It usually takes me half an hour to pull myself together to get up in the mornings on the weekends. The hubs will take the girls downstairs to get breakfast ready and will give me that time to snooze about 4 or 5 times. But I didn’t have to this time around. Was it the detox cleanse? Does the combination of the Nekter juices miraculously change the way your body feels? Who knows? I only did a two day cleanse (they have up to a 5 day cleanse), but I have to say I felt better about myself this past weekend – mind, body, and soul. Just giving me that renewed focus to start eating healthier and continue with running is what I really needed.
I weighed myself this morning at work, and I still am three pounds lighter. Woot woot! I could definitely tell because my pants are not as tight. Let’s face it; a big reason why I wanted to do this was to get a kick start in losing some weight. I was so nervous about introducing foods post-detox. I could just see myself chowing down Sunday morning. I was good though! I kept reminding my hubs to REMIND me that I couldn’t eat like my normal self. Both big sis and I are foodies and can pig out!
I read up a lot on what foods to eat post detox because I wanted to end it the right way and gradually introduce foods. My Sunday diet consisted of:
- Breakfast: 1 egg, Half of an avocado, a few slices of apple
- Lunch: Spinach salad, cup of tomato soup
- Dinner: Sushi/Sashimi (haha, I caved?) I was good though and didn’t eat my normal portion of sushi. I stayed away from soy sauce too. A lot of websites don’t recommend introducing fish because of the mercury but instead eat organic poultry if you’re going to eat meat.
I didn’t snack in between. I guess I didn’t have to or have the urge to. I did drink a lot of water in between which is a difficult thing for me to do. I’m not much of a water drinker, but it was hard not to. I got used to drinking from the cleanse that it was just natural for me to want to drink water on Sunday.
I spent the night washing my lettuce and broccoli and cutting up carrots and putting them in freezer bags, so I can eat that for my dinner this week. I bought some cashews and sunflower seeds to incorporate into my diet for my protein. Guess I’m going part-raw for dinner. I mixed my own salad dressing – some Sesame oil and Rice Wine Vinegar to make a Korean Salad Dressing. I opted for no Soy Sauce and no extra sugar since the Rice Wine Vinegar has sugar added.
I don’t know how long this new diet will last, but if this has changed my husband’s perspective on eating healthier than I will continue this for as long as possible! He actually cooked last night a fairly healthy lunch to take to work today – wild grain rice with shrimp. Packed it with a Diet Coke. I still have to work on that with him. I do have to say my craving for a soda disappeared after the cleanse, which I credit the detox for. They say one of the benefits of detoxing is that it curbs your desire for sweets. I’m a once a day Diet Coke drinker, and I’m hoping to kill that bad habit now along with my daily dose of caffeine. I don’t know about eliminating my morning coffee, but as I’m writing this I’m happily drinking green tea. Let’s see how the afternoon goes.
Anyhow, the hubs has agreed to eat my fruit that I cut up for him for breakfast and hopefully he’ll sign up for his work gym by the end of this month. I think my nagging of living healthier and constant stories about how high cholesterol can really be a big problem later in life has finally paid off. Haha.
Guess that’s what happens when you get older? No more thinking about partying but instead thinking about how to live a healthy lifestyle! Well there you have it…my post detox living is going better than expected. No crazy stomach issues, no head aches. Happy Monday!
P.S. Check out the shop later – new dolls will be added!!!!
-lil sis
Shop update will finally happen Monday, April 15. It took me awhile but I’ll have some new girls, including big sisters, in the shop. Here’s a sneak preview…
The Big Sisters
The Lil Sisters
And a few more…
See you Monday! Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!
big sis
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