Pepper Design Blog

Friday Guest Interview: The Busy Budgeting Mama

Happy Friday! Oh I love me a good Friday. It’s the close of the work week… a chance to wrap up unfinished projects, cross off items from the ever daunting list, reprioritize tasks that didn’t meet their Friday deadline. I also take an early lunch on Fridays for a story time at our local library with Liv. It’s the best.

Weekends usually mean a new kind of project – one that involves a hammer or paint brush or some mod podge. Weekends also mean par 3 golf courses, BBQs with friends and morning Church on Sunday. Sunday rituals are sacred in our house, it’s a morning to look forward to all week. After Mass we swing by the most delicious bakery for an almond danish and vanilla latte (always the same order. always), that’s followed by our favorite Farmer’s Market where we stock up on goods from farmers we’re beginning to get to know. Oh man those homemade almond danishes… I’m thinking about it already.

But! It’s still Friday, and with that I introduce to you a blog that I think you’ll very much enjoy checking out. The Busy Budgeting Mama was introduced to me by a friend and I was immediately smitten with Natalie’s creativity.

Be it a cardboard castle of all castles for her kiddos, the most wonderful crocheted animal patterns, her awesome dessert tables (because her graphic design skills are through the roof) or a dollhouse complete with wallpaper and DIY designer furniture, this girl is crafty and quite good at it. How cute is this idea? And here’s that awesome castle that cost a whopping $4 to create:

If you enjoy following along with families (and super savvy creative ones, at that) then I think you’ll really enjoy Natalie’s blog. More pictures of her adorable family and crafty style (plus answers to the usual four interview questions) after the jump.

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Customized Valentine’s Day Treat Bags

I have a massive stationary collection (I heart beautifully made cards) and was rifling through my stash the other day to write thank you notes for Liv’s first birthday when I came across a handful of cards that I had purchased for envelope purposes only. I am often short on envelopes and sometimes buy the super cheap cards just for extras!

These cards have a sweet pattern that remind me a little of a playful Valentine’s day note – and an idea was born.

After hunting around the house I was happy to find that I had nearly everything I needed on hand for my Valentine’s Day treat bags. Though I did pick up those two small bags of salt water taffy for $1 at Target.

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Custom Valentine’s Day Treat Bags
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Materials: cellophane treat bags (available at Michaels or on Amazon), note cards, candy, photos, scissors and stapler

To make the treat bags, I filled each plastic sack with salt water taffy and a photo of Liv trimmed to size (I keep a stack of pictures on hand from Costco to send to grandparents and great grandparents when they’re needing a Liv fix). My cellophane bags were just the right size to match up with my 4×6 note cards, but if you’re buying all of your materials from scratch that’s something to keep in mind (you can always trip down your note cards but you don’t want the bag to be wider than the cards).

The notecards have the perfect fold for the top of your treat bags, I simply chopped mine in half length-wise (so that the card was shorter near the fold) and sandwiched the treat bag between each side of the card. Two staples held my finished bag in place.

An alternative to note cards would be scrapbooking paper with a bone folder for a professional looking fold (this tool scores and creases your paper). Or for a cheaper option just fold that sucker in half and press between heavy books so that the fold stays put.

These would be great for family, but for a kid-friendly option I would fill the baggie with animal crackers and include a fun illustration instead of a photo, or perhaps a few crayons and a coloring sheet. Cookies and wrapped candies are probably the way to go since any candy prone to melting would smudge up the photo and transfer ink to the candy. Fun stamps or stickers might make for a neat note at the top of the treat bag, too.

I can see reusing this ideas for party favor bags somewhere down the line… PS I can’t believe it’s already the middle of February!

More Valentine’s Day ideas right here.

Bedtime Stories Baby Shower Part 3: Temporary Cake Stands

I have two more posts to share with you from the Bedtime Stories baby shower (part 1 & part 2) that I threw for our friend Diana back in November (ps, Baby Noah is here! And as adorable as can be).

When putting together the dessert buffet that was sort of the focal point of the dining room, I wanted to create a few tiered cake stands that would add a little height and variety. In the past I’ve covered boxes or stacks of books with fabric so that certain platters would be higher than others, but this time around I came up with a temporary adhesive solution so that I could turn a few of my favorite plates, vases and candle holders into cake stands without any permanent damage (I’ve also gone the super glue route with thrift store finds).

This is a trick I will use time and again! It’s so easy.

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Temporary Cake Stands
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Materials: any sort of glassware, platter, plate, dish or vase, adhesive putty

My trick to getting a fairly good stick with stacking dishware is by using an adhesive putty like this one. It’s available at nearly all craft and home improvement stores and the brand isn’t important, but you want to look for a product that claims a strong but removable stick.

The process of assembling is pretty simple. I applied a layer of the adhesive to the edge of the glassware and plates making sure to cover as much surface space as possible.

Since I was covering an area of the vases/plates that wouldn’t be seen, I applied a thick layer:

Then I turned the vase/candlestick/dish over and pressed it into the center of my plate or platter for at least 30 seconds. You could use a utility knife to clean up any edges if you wanted a cleaner look.

Using this technique a made a few different tiered stands for our selection of desserts.

At the end of the shower I simply pulled off all of the putty and washed each dish. No harm done!

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