Ohno Vroom Birthday Party

My little guy turned 3 the other day. When I asked him what kind of birhtday he wanted he said "race cars" Hmmm... I had just finished designing the Ohno Vroom line, so I figured it'd be perfect. And it was. Him and his friends loved it!

I took some of the elements from the Ohno Vroom line and designed a custom birthday invite to look like a car race ticket. The wheel illustrations I had done for one of the Ohno Vroom prints turned out perfect for cake toppers. I just printed them on round stickers and stock them onto long toothpicks. (lolipop sticks work even better)

I had T-shirts printed with "Vroom" on them and packaged them in paint cans with Vroom Motor Oil labels. The cans looked great as party decor on the table and made awesome take away gifts. A couple of oil cans were perfect to hold markers and little wooden cars. I placed them on a table for kids to color their own little vroom vroom race cars.

Overall it was a really easy party and everyone had lots of fun. Afterall, all with the exception of one were boys. And, what little boy dosn't love vroom vrooms? 

Ice Cream Birthday

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Owen's 5th birthday. We did an ice cream themed party, and I believe it was the most fun birthday party we have thrown so far.

I started by doing this ice cream birthday invitation inspired by ice cream packaging.

 I found a lot of great ideas for the party on Pinterest. Like the very easy to make cone cupcakes. Owen was even able to help decorate them. I also found some neat details online. I purchased these ice cream cups on Amazon, and these awesome ice cream wooden spoons on Etsy. 

Our friend Adam made the awesome custom screen printed banner for the party. 

As the kids came in, they each got an apron and a label to write down their name and favorite ice cream flavor. I bought some of the aprons here and some at our local Joann. 

Another inspiring thing I saw on Pinterest was a party where they had laid canvases across the fence. So, we got some wood panels from Lowes and used rolled drawing paper sold at Ikea. My husband Will drew ice cream cones on all of them, that the kids got to paint. At the end of the party all of them got to take their artwork and apron home.

I got a lot of compliments on both the invite and the party. I know that everyone had a blast, and, surprisingly the house wasn't as covered in ice cream and paint as everyone thought it would be! 

Christmas Gift Guide - Made in Orlando

1. Henry the Fox - Walnut Animal Society  $98

2. Laptop Tray - Tembo  $65

3. Screen Printed Poster - Lure Design Inc. $30

4. Farm Ruck Sack - MAKR  $160

5. Horizon Three Wallet - MAKR  $90

6. Heirloom Recipe Card Box - Rifle Paper Co.  $135

7. Handcrafted Marshmallows - Wondermade  $7.50

* Wondermere Image via Paste

Happy Halloween!

X-Wing Fighter Pilot Luke and R2D2.

These were such fun costumes! Of course, Owen wanted to have a Star Wars costume. I bought the X-Wing Fighter Pilot one, but I didn't really like the baby R2D2 costume they had available. So, I ended up buying the R2D2 hat on Etsy, and made the onesie myself. I just drew a template in Illustrator, printed it out, glued the paper pieces to the correct color felt using photo spray mount, and cut them out. The paper comes off easily. Then, I just used Elmer's glue to stick it to the onesie and sewed a few points for reenforcement (just because I thought Kellan would try to pull them off and eat them)

Also, these are the first photos I edited after taking the Photo Workflow class through Nicole's Classes. I used Adobe Bridge and Adobe Raw for the first time. I'm not an expert yet, but the process was a lot easier and I got better results than with my old process - iPhoto and Photoshop - which was very time consuming.

If you want to make a baby R2D2 costume yourself here's the template I drew. You can download it and use it yourself.

Star Wars Exhibit at the Science Center

They had a special viewing of the Star Wars Exhibit at the Orlando Science Center the other day for members only. So, instead of the default Star Wars companion – Dad – I got to take Owen. I'm not really into Star Wars, just exposed to it from the fans in my household, but I have to say, I was really impressed with this exhibit. They have a lot of the original models from the movies, among other stuff. The amount of detail was just astonishing to me. We had a lot of fun building and programming a little R2 unit too. Oh, and if you're still looking for some Halloween inspiration, they have a lot of the original costumes also.

Downtown Winter Garden Cars and Dinner

We went to downtown Winter Garden the other night. It happend to be the third Saturday of the month, so they were having the Cruz-N-Car Show. After walking through Plant St. and enjoying the cars and their engines (Owen was particularly interested in the engines) we decided to try The Chef's Table for dinner. We sat in their "Tasting Room" and were the only family with kids. At first, I thought we weren't gonna make it. Owen was kind of going limp and throwing himself on Kellan and myself. There was no kid's menu or colors, so I had to improvise. Telling him all about my first car (a 1969 red VW Bug) did the trick. Then, the cheese plate arrived and completed Owen's happiness. We ended up having a really nice dinner. On our walk back to the car we made a quick stop at Sweet Traditions and got a cookie each. And, we of course stopped to press the button and watch the train go next to the theater — We never leave Downtown Winter Garden without doing that!

A Mustache Baby Shower

 
I'm so excited to finally post about this baby shower my friend Jen and I threw for our friend Lindsay. Jen came up with the idea of making it a "Mustache Theme" since the baby's father, Adam, is somewhat of a mustache enthusiast; and since the expected baby is a boy. Makes total sense of course. I designed the invitations, Adam (aka Hobo Press) printed them, and Jen sewed the mustaches. We used 140 pound Whip Cream paper and the Nighshift Blue envelopes from French Paper Co. The invites and the envelopes were both letter pressed.

For the party Jen and I made a flag banner using the invite colors. Adam screen printed some mustaches on some of the flags, of course. It looked so awesome I still haven't been able to take it down. We had mustache shaped flat breads, mustache decorated cupcakes, mustache cookies, croissants, a truly delicious French toast casserole that Jen made, and of course, fancy drinks, such as citrus infused water and Bellinis. Oh, and we set Pandora to the Pink Martini station. So it was all very fancy ...but not really, just fun.

We had some laughs playing the "Pin the Mustache on the Baby" game. The Bellinis might have helped, I don't know. We also did the traditional opening of the gifts. I gave Lindsay this awesome mustache from LittleAlouette (thank you so much for the speedy shipping!) And when the party was over everybody got to take home a little mustache decorated pouch filled with mustache cookies. So, all in all I had too much fun with this baby shower, but, I don't ever want to cut anything in the shape of a mustache again!

St. Pete Beach

We took a little trip down to St. Pete Beach for father's day. Originally we were planning on a simple day at Cocoa, but we ended up finding a really nice last minute deal for the Don CeSar Hotel. We left early Saturday morning and came back on Tuesday. The beach was amazing.The water was super clear, shallow, and there was practically no waves — perfect for kids. The sand was really white too. We pretty much spent every minute out on the beach. 

I really enjoyed that hotel too, beach towels, and noodles, and pool toys, and "citrus infused" water was all provided by the pool. The Don CeSar also had umbrellas and chairs for rent on the beach, but, for a hefty price. We just brought our Quick Shade, not a pretty thing, but it works great.

On the way back we stopped at the Florida Aquarium. It was pretty neat. We saw all the fish and funky sea creatures, played in the water area, and headed back home.

BTW, it's a only a 2 hour ride from Orlando to St. Pete Beach. If you ask me, it's well worth it.

* Also, as parents we're always trying our best to protect our children, so, we cover them on sunscreen. However, I recently found this scary research on sunscreen. You can use this website to check out the brand you're using (thanks Sarah!). We realized there's not a lot of options at the regular shops. Whole Foods has some good ones though. And, yes, we still need to cover them in sunscreen, just not one that's full of harmful ingredients.

7 Father's Day Gifts Designed in Orlando

So yes, I've been having a bit of a hard time catching up after our little cruise vacation. But I have lots to share. I'm starting with this Father's Day gift guide since Father's Day is in less than two weeks – June 17th. There's lots of good talent in Orlando, so why not give dad a gift that's not only awesome, but also supports local artists.

1. 'Get It Done' Notepad - I don't enjoy telling my husband of 'to dos' any more than he enjoys hearing them from me. I'm thinking him and this notepad could be good friends, you know, since it has a cute talking zebra on it... also check out the Father's Day cards and other stationary at Rifle Paper Company. Super talented Anna Bond is the artist behind this beautiful brand and works out of her studio in Winter Park. You can visit the very cool shop and see the rest of the line in person.

2. Self-made Tee - You can take something your little artist has drawn that daddy really likes (in this case, the AT-AT with Luke hanging from it with his lightsaber and rebel alliance base on the side) and follow this instructions to transfer it onto a blank T-shirt. I can already see the proud father and son faces! (I found some good Mossimo blank tees in different colors at Target).

3 & 4. Pocket Card Holder and Belt - In my opinion the leather goods at MARK are... what's the word? ...perfect. And, I think any dad would love these. MAKR's Founder and Design Director is Jason Gregory and the studio is located in Winter Park.

5. My Dad, My Hero - I spotted this book last year at the local Barnes & Noble. The cover really got my attention and then I noticed the author's name. Ethan Long is a local Illustrator and friend. This book was a perfect father's day gift. Owen loves reading it with dad. (Ethan also created Disney Junior short series Tasty Time With ZeFronk - pretty cool!)

6. Father's Day Card - lots of cool card options available at the L2 store. Cards are designed and hand screen printed by my friends at Lure Design, here in Orlando.

7. The Nakashuma Mark iPhone Case - Every cool dad should have a cool case to protect his iPhone from the uncool falls that may or may not be caused by his children. This one is designed by Orlando local, Billy Davis - one swell illustrator. There's also other cool designs available in the shop.

Weekend Happenings

1. Star Wars Weekends May 18th through June 10th — on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of each weekend at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Owen has been a Star Wars fan since before he turned three, so we don't really need much more this weekend. I'll just have to mentally prepare myself for the crowds. I know I'll be riding Star Tours with him (I was pregnant and couldn't before) If you want to this, keep in mind the height requirement is 40 inches for this ride and they're pretty strict with that. Tall shoes might help, hats won't (not that we tried to sneak in our kid before... ;) The lines can get long for pictures with characters, having water helps. Having a lightsaber helps even more. Kids can bring in a lightsaber and train in the Jedi Academy, then use it to defeat whatever gets in your way.

Oh, and here's a little behind the scenes video showing Darth Vader hard at work. It seems he had a lot to do with this event. 

Easter Egg Hunts + Art

I can't believe Easter is here already. This year is going really fast. Anyway, Owen has always loved the Easter egg hunts. I know some neighborhoods do their own, but there are some great, and free public ones also. Here's some info:

Winter Garden Lions Club Annual Egg Hunt:
Saturday, April 7 at 1:00pm
Newton Park, 29 West Garden Avenue

Winter Park 58th annual Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday, April 7 at 9:30am
Central Park in downtown Winter Park

Also worth checking out:

Eggs-cellent Easter Adventure at the Orlando Science Center
Saturday, April 7, 10am-2pm

There are a lot of cute Easter egg decorating ideas out there. I personally love these Eggheads on the picture above – via Sweet Paul.

Happy Easter!

Winter Park Art Festival 2012

I'm glad we had a chance to go to the Winter Park Art Festival this year. The Children's Workshop Village was a lot of fun. I would love to have some of those big wooden easels in our backyard...