WORDLESS WEDNESDAY~ECS 2009-2010...a year at a glance!

Mermaid Tail Towel

I LOVE BIRTHDAY PARTIES!
Some might call me a bit of a fanatic when it comes to planning birthday parties for my younger Princesses. Their birthdays are almost exactly 6 months apart. This translates into a half a year of planning and preparation (obsession) for the next party! The first thing I do is have the Future Birthday Princess decide on a theme. This is the most challenging part of party planning as their tastes can be so fickle.
The present Future Birthday Princess has changed her theme 3 times this year. First she was adamant that her theme be  "Rock Star" since she announced to us that she was only into what is "COOL" and not "CUTE"! This phase actually included a complete wardrobe overhaul as I was chastised every evening  for my "CUTE STYLE" when I laid out her school clothes for the following day! She insisted she was no longer interested in pink and pretty! Much to my delight that phase was short lived. (Now what to do with all the BLACK shirts with skulls motives?)
The next request was a CHEERLEADER party theme. She is an ALL Star Cheerleader on a Tiny Tot team and it seemed appropriate. I was on-board for this and began some mental preparation and planning when The Future Birthday Princess attended a Barbie themed birthday party hosted by a friend. Their theme was based on a Barbie movie as I explained in a previous post.
So her FINAL (because I said so!) selection was a Barbie themed party based on the newest Barbie movie. BARBIE in a MERMAID TAIL.
I am not a fan of character specific themes but to make The Future Birthday Princess Happy I will incorporate elements of the movie to create her party. This is a similar concept to the last party we held where we combined the 3 Faves of our Little Princess, (TuTus, CuppyCakes & Ponies).
In case you do not have Barbie obsessed members of your family let me share the premise of the movie.
Malibu surfing champion who discovers she is really a mermaid. Done.
The birthday bash will be held at the clubhouse and pool of our community development. I vision the party decor to be a beach/surfing theme with hints of mermaid...I'm literally LOL right now at the silliness of it all!

I really enjoy creating favors that party guests can take home and use for dress-up fun, like these Ribbon TuTus I made for our last birthday bash.

I scoured the internet for ideas for favors and decorations and stumbled on these cute "Mermaid Towels" in the Chasing Fireflies catalog. 

I really liked the idea just NOT the price. I decided to try to design and create my own version of a MERMID TAIL TOWEL.

This Little Mermaid Princess LOVES her Mermaid Tail Towel!

Did I mention it can really be used as a towel?!?

Now with luck, patience and commitment I will make enough of MERMAID TOWEL TAILS for the little girls coming to the party. 

P.S. This is top of the gift list for The Future Birthday Princess...

MERMAID FIN

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY~April 24, 2009

Barbie and The Three Musketeers Costume

I'M BACK!
NO! I didn't fall off the face of the earth...and NO! I didn't give up on THE HOBBY MOMMY BLOG!

Our lives however, have been quite the WHIRLWIND since I previously posted. The last 3 1/2 months have been what I (lovingly) refer to as "CHEER MADNESS".
With 2 Princesses in (traveling) All-Star Cheer, our weekends have been  a blur of road-trips, hotels, over-priced concession food, glitter make-up and more boom-boom music than the average heart can take! (you can view the competition videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHobbyMommy)
Throw into the mix that we are approximately 60 days out from our pending move, (compliments of the USAF) that required a house hunting trip AND add an amazing spring break vacation....well I'm barely coming up for air as I type this.
Let me break it down: Washington DC (cheer) * Indianapolis, IN (cheer) * Richmond, VA (cheer) * Norfolk, VA  (cheer) * Washington, DC (cheer again) * Kansas City, KS (house hunting) * Orlando, FL (cheer/spring break) * Tampa, FL (spring break)* Myrtle Beach, SC (spring break)
We celebrate this cheer season at a semi-formal banquet this Friday night. It will be bittersweet as we will bid farewell to new friends. (Yes, I meant to type "new friends") I created a tribute slideshow/video to our TINY TOT team. I will be copying High Resolution DVD gifts for all the coaches and Tiny Tot parents.You can click to view the video to the right of this page. I created it using an extremely clever, and user-friendly site called animoto.com 

I have found the time to work some creativity into my schedule in spite of our travels and somewhat nomadic lifestyle!
In February one of my little Princesses was invited to attend a birthday party. The recent release of the Barbie and the Three Musketeers DVD had  inspired the mother of one of my Princesses friends to create a party theme based on the movie. Well, this led my Princess to practically beg that I sew her a special costume for the party. I should mention here that she "begs" for everything...
We went for a visit (treasure hunt) to JoAnnes to shop for fabric. We only had 1 rule: The birthday girl was going as the main Barbie Character, "Corinne" so she would be the only girl wearing PINK! After MUCH discussion, my little princess selected from the 3 remaining characters the Teal Barbie Character, "Aramina". We quickly found fabric in the clearance section that was suitable. (treasure FOUND!)
Still using the Teal "Aramina" Character Barbie Doll as a model, we got to work!

I think my Barbie Musketeer Princess was HAPPY with the finished costume!

I submitted the above photo in the 2010 Parents Magazine Cover Model Contest.
You can VOTE here for her photo to be a FAN FAVE

A view from the back wearing the gold-lined cape.

 Of course, Princess wanted her hair to match the movie.

I covered some scuffed and almost too small boots boots with matching Duct Tape.

Just about ANYTHING Barbie is a winner in our house. This Princess has decided that she wants her upcoming birthday party theme to be based on the newest Barbie movie, BARBIE in a MERMAID TAIL. Stay tuned for details on how I plan to pull off a cross between surfing and mermaids theme...YIKES!