THIS IS MY MESSAGE TO YOU (OO - OO)

Watch this and feel the stress melt away. Works every time.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

{via harmonie-intérieure workshoP}

HANGING JACK O' LANTERNS

Brilliant use for plastic jack o' lantern pails. Black spray paint, fishing line and you have big impact for little dollars. Love it!

Image from BHG found on bedifferentactnormal (one of my faves!). 

SEPTEMBER

{source: itsprettygood}

BACK TO SCHOOL

Every year since Pumpkin's first day of preschool 7 years ago (7 years! oh my gosh how time passes when you're not looking), I have taken this obligatory backpack photo. Now that I have a collection, I think I'll matte and frame them and hang them down our hallway. Cute, don't you think?

That's much better. Smiling faces! They're happy to be in the same school this year.

"Please don't go!" 

On the other hand, poor little Peanut was not happy this morning.

A new addition to my lunch box surprises: little flags in their sandwiches. I've got to keep them on their toes. They've come to expect sandwich shapes, notes wrapped around snacks, a hidden hershey kiss or two, but the flags are new and wouldn't you know it's the first thing they mentioned about their day. Success!

FALL UPDATE

With all the excitement and anticipation of back to school, I can't help but think about the cozy, warm styles of fall. And while I'd love to update my entire wardrobe the way I did this past spring, sadly, it's just not in the budget. But never fear! I'm confident that I can freshen up my fall outfits for pennies on the dollar with just a few key purchases.

The first item that caught my eye for fall is this tortoise patent-leather belt from J.Crew. At $39.50, it's not a steal, but it's a classic look and a fun accessory that can be worn again and again. Truth be told, I thought for sure I'd save myself some cash by finding a knock-off of this belt at Target, but alas, Target did not come through for me this time. I did, however, find this invisibelt. What the?

My second fall must-have is a fun scarf. You totally knew that was coming, didn't you? These scarves are everywhere. But let's face it, they're fun, they're easy and with just a flip of fabric, they make this mom-of-three feel a teensy fit fashionable. This burnout jersey version is on sale right now at Old Navy for just $10! 

Finally, it just wouldn't be fall without a new sweater or two. I picked up this pretty ruffle-tie cardigan in a beautiful shade of gray for just $12. Online, they only show pink available, but purchase in-store anyway as the sale prices are much better. 

Another in-store bargain at the Gap was this ruffle-front sweater in this unbelievably gorgeous shade of blue. Soooo pretty in person. Again, the sale price in-store much better than online.

Well, that's about it for me. This budget is tapped with a capital T! What about you? Any must-haves for fall?

FIRST TRIP AROUND THE SUN

Adorable time lapse of baby's first year. I couldn't resist. Found via thoughtfulday.

CIRCUS PARTY!

Check out our circus water bottle labels featured as part of this awesome Circus Party thrown by Kara for her two boys. Kara's party is a finalist in the Hostess with the Mostess Summer Entertaining Contest on Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, be sure to go vote!

To see full details on Kara's incredible party, go here. Believe me, you do not want to miss it.

 

To order our Circus Party Package at a special package price, go here.

Water Bottle Label, Cupcake Pick and Thank You Notes

Now don't forget to vote. Good Luck Kara!!!

SHE'S ALWAYS BEEN SWEET...

...NOW SHE'S SIXTEEN!

(more details to come on a totally sah-weet! 16th birthday)

BEACH REPORT

Reporting from the beaches of New England. Air Temp: 88-92 degrees. Humidity: Moderate to High. Water Temp: A balmy 65 degrees - refreshing once your body goes completely numb!

Sand: Perfect texture for castles, just add water.

LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER

Please excuse the intermittent posting while we kick back and enjoy the summer before it slips away...

ALTERNATE PLANS

Just as we were on our way out the door to go berry picking, a thunder storm rolled in. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I think we may make these instead.

JUST THE GIRLS

I've decided that Hugh Forte gets the award for taking the best bridesmaid photos. Of course, he's a beautiful photographer in general, but there's just something about the way he captures a bride with her girls. 

AND THE WINNER IS...

Are you dying to know who won one of our new Personalized Aluminum Water Bottles? I was too! But first, I had to make sure I was completely organized, taking care to add the double entries for all Facebook fans (thank you very much). Because I was unable to account for the double entries using randomizer, I simply wrote all entries on slips of paper and put them in a beach pail, as shown above. Petunia held the pail, and since Peanut cannot read, we thought it was most fair for her to draw the winner. And just to keep it all equal in the family as well...

Pumpkin posed with the winning name. Congratulations feline13x!!!! You have won one of our super cool Personalized Aluminum Water Bottles!  In your comment, you expressed interest in a robot and princess (samples of each shown below), but feel free to choose any design for your winning bottle.

Please email me with your preferences and personalization and I'll get started on your water bottle right away. I'm looking forward to working with you!

WEEKEND RECIPES

Don't forget to enter our giveaway for a Personalized Aluminum Water Bottle. Comment here to enter no later than midnight EST tonight!

Having a picnic or weekend party? Here are two perfect recipes for a summer party. I made them both for our fireworks viewing party on the fourth and they were both tremendous hits!

The first is a fantastically delicious trifle recipe from Make and Take, complete with a lemon curd recipe that you will die for! Seriously, you may want to make an extra batch of lemon curd just to eat with a spoon while you assemble the trifle. (Not that that is something I would do, of course. It's just a suggestion.)

SUMMER TRIFLE

1 prepared recipe sour cream pound cake, sliced or cubed (recipe follows) 1 prepared recipe lemon curd, chilled (recipe follows) 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, cold 16 oz. fresh strawberries, sliced 2 pints fresh blueberries

To make the cream:

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add the heavy cream and continue beating until thick. Chill until ready to assemble trifle.

Assembly:

Layer in a trifle dish or large bowl–

Half the sliced pound cake–use smaller pieces to fill in the gaps Half the lemon curd One third of the blueberries and strawberries Half the whipped cream mixture

Repeat with the remaining cake, lemon curd, another 1/3 of the berries, and whipped cream. Top with the remaining 1/3 strawberries and blueberries.

Let chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Serves a bunch.

Sour Cream Pound Cake adapted from The Joy of Cooking

3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature 3 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided 6 eggs, separated and at room temperature 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 8″ square baking pans or a 9″ Bundt pan.

Whisk the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add the sugar and continuing beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (Don’t skimp on this step.)

Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating for at least 1 minute between additions. Add the vanilla extract.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, beat just until it disappears into the creamed mixture. Add 1/2 of the sour cream. Beat to combine. Repeat with remaining flour and sour cream, making sure to end with the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Set aside.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar a little at a time. Continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Carefully fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to the batter using a large rubber or silicone spatula. (It’s okay if there are some streaks of egg white. This is to lighten the batter before the remaining egg whites are added.)

Add the remaining egg whites by gently folding, being careful not to deflate the whites.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. If using 8″ square pans, bake for about 35-40 minutes. (Don’t open the oven at all during the first 30 minutes or the cake will fall in the center.) If using the bundt pan, bake for 60-75 minutes. Tent the pans with foil if the top browns too quickly. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.

Let cool for a few minutes in pan before removing the cake to a wire rack to finish cooling. Cake gets better the longer it sits. Be sure to wrap it well in foil or plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out.

Lemon Curd from my husband’s aunt

Juice of 3 lemons Zest of 3 lemons 1 cup granulated sugar 3 whole eggs 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

In a bowl, rub the lemon zest with the sugar until wet and sandy. Whisk in the eggs. Add the juice. Add the melted butter.

Transfer the mixture to a stainless steel (or other non-reactive) pan. Cook over medium heat while whisking constantly until the curd thickens. (It will be about the consistency of thin yogurt.) Quickly remove from heat. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface and chill until ready to use.

 The next recipe is for a simple and refreshing white Sangria courtesy of Eddie Ross. This sangria is soooooooo good and sooooooo refreshing. 'Nuff said.

Check back tomorrow for our lucky giveaway winner!

BY REQUEST

Thank you all so much for your fabulous ideas! Here are some new Aluminum Water Bottle designs based on your requests. 

Yoga

Soccer Girl

Robot and Princess

Horse & Rider

Two Gymnastics Designs (boy gymnast also available).

Irish Step Dancer

Tight Rope Walker (yes, that's right, Tight Rope Walker)

Dancer

Teen Cheer

Don't forget to enter to win a Personalized Aluminum Water Bottle of your very own by leaving a comment on the post below. Become a fan of Pumpkin Petunia on Facebook for double entries! Due to the custom nature of these bottles, it can take up to two weeks for delivery. If you're feeling lucky, but don't want to wait until after the giveaway to place your order, we will gladly refund you the purchase price plus shipping, if you win!

ART CAMP RECAP

For those of you who have expressed interest in hosting an art camp of your own, the following is a quick recap  of my lessons learned along the way. 

1. Start small. If you think you would like to have ten attendees, invite five! For your first time hosting, keep the number of participants to a minimum so that you will not feel overwhelmed. Petunia only invited two friends, and there is really no need to be that conservative, but we took into consideration that Peanut would be participating and she is only 2. Had Peanut not been with us, I think 5 would have been the perfect number.

2. Be realistic about time. I originally told the mothers of the girls that the camp would be from 10-12 each day. I'm not sure if I was afraid of committing to a stretch of time and then not having enough activities for the girls, but 2 hours was not even close to enough time. If you will be working on sewing projects or projects with many steps like the bound journals, you will need at least 4 hour sessions to not feel rushed. Between breaks and end of the day swimming, the girls were with me for a good 6 hours each day. Similarly, we only planned this camp for three days, but in the future, we will definitely plan for four days. 

3. Let paint dry overnight. If there is painting involved in a multi-step project, like the journals, schedule the painting for the end of one day and the next step in the painted project for the beginning of the next day so you can be sure the paint is completely dry. I thought that lunch break would be enough paint-drying time and had a moment of panic with my hairdryer to speed the process. Luckily, the girls were none the wiser. ; )

4. Don't be afraid to go for it. For the most part, the projects we worked on were very involved: sewing a purse when none of the girls had ever sewn before, combining print making and book binding into one project, but with a big effort, you get a big result. That is what will set your camp apart from arts and crafts that your participants may do at school or at home.

5. Make it special. Think about how the participants will bring home their beautiful creations. Package them up nicely at the end of the day so that when they present them to their families it will be an event. 

6. Have fun! If your campers make an adorable purse, you make one too! If not, you'll wish you had.

I am thrilled that so many of you have been inspired to host an art camp of your own. As always, I am happy to answer any additional questions that you may have. Just ask in the comments or drop me a line. Also, if you have any tips, tricks or great projects for me, let me know about them!

For details on each day of camp, follow the links below.

Art Camp Day One

Art Camp Day Two

Art Camp Day Three

ART CAMP - DAY THREE

Today was the final day of art camp and I can honestly say that I'm sad that it's over. I'd like to take a day or two off, but I would definitely be ready to pick right up again on Monday! Sadly, that is not the plan, but this is absolutely something we will do again in the future.

The theme for today was wearable art and I decided to reward the girls' hard work these past two days with some fun projects that can be completed rather quickly. I had planned to start out with some fabric scrap necklaces to use up some of the scraps from the purses we made on day one, but when Petunia saw the Martha Stewart paper bead necklace kit that I picked up just in case I needed an extra activity, she fell in love with the idea and wanted to make that first. So that's what we did! Here are the girls rolling the paper beads.

Now to string the beads on to the elastic, making a pattern of colors and sizes.

This was a great activity for Peanut because she finally felt like she could keep up with the big girls and truly make her own necklace with very little help.

Like most of Martha's kits, this really was well put together and the colors and patterns are beautiful. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that this is the project that Petunia chose, but once we got started, I realized it was a perfect choice.

Here is Peanut showing off her creation.

And here is a completed necklace. I love how the little girl that made this one planned it so she can wear it with one side showing pink, orange and green or flip it to the other side to show the blues, depending on what she was wearing. Very clever!

Once the necklaces were made, we quickly moved on to the next project. I was determined to use some of the beautiful scraps leftover from the purses we made, so we decided to make some fabric pins. 

The first step was to position the template on the fabric to find the most beautiful spot to cut, then the template was traced and the circle was carefully cut out of the fabric. I then helped the girls personalize their buttons by adding a painted monogram.

Next, the buttons were assembled with the Badge-a-minit and we used our muscles to squeeze really hard and secure the pins. Anytime I can use my Badge-a-minit, I'm happy.

Here is our adorable group modeling their pins and necklaces after a great couple of days of camp. I did have a few more projects up my sleeve, but the girls decided to save them for next time and spend the rest of this very warm day swimming. That's fine with me, as that means there will be a next time! Although I'm taking bets that the next spare moment Petunia has she will want me to work on the remaining projects with her.

Well that's it for Summer Art Camp 2009! I really learned a lot from this experience and will definitely be planning future sessions. I know that the girls had tons of fun, are thrilled with their new treasures and learned some new skills in the process - so I'd call that a great success!

So many of you have contacted me asking for advice on how to host your own art camp, and I am just thrilled that so many people are inspired to take this on themselves. To help you along, I will be recapping the entire three days and including some tips and tricks and lessons learned along the way in my next post. Check back for that no later than Monday.