Asphalt of FIRE!

For the 4th of July, our neighborhood gets together and puts on the Asphalt of Fire fireworks show!  I look forward to it every year!  We just pool our fireworks and treats together then have a fantastic time!  I created an invite that I emailed to everyone as our event gets bigger and bigger every year!

You can access a blank copy of this document HERE.

The font I used for the body Batang.

*If you are interested in a customized invitation, please contact me using the form on the right.

Then, I also compiled a songlist using iTunes for the event that we blasted as the fireworks were going off:

• The Star Spangled Banner by Madison Rising
• America by Neil Diamond
• American Saturday Night by Brad Paisley
• God Bless the U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood
• America the Beautiful by Ray Charles
• Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue by Toby Keith
• God Bless America by Celine Dion
• Stars and Stripes Forever by John Phillip Sousa

With little kids around, this event sure beats huge crowds and crazy traffic in the middle of the night!  And those menfolk love lighting their own fireworks ;).

EASY Garage Door Birthday Banner

My kids LOVE finding this on the garage door on their birthdays!

It's SO simple - no cutting even required!!

This way the whole neighborhood knows someone at our house has a birthday!  I do it to my husband just for kicks too :).  I printed the docuements HERE on various neon colored card stock I bought at Wal-Mart and placed them in sheet protectors so I can reuse them.  I tape them on with packaging tape and remove them promptly that night so the tape doesn't remove the paint on the garage door!  Then I file them away until the next birthday child!

"My Special Day" Chair Cover

This has become my favorite tradition in which we celebrate "special days" at our house...

It's just a simple chair cover that I slip on a family member's chair (yes, we have assigned seating at out kitchen table!) for the day when it's a special day for them.  It's mostly pulled out for birthdays but I love that's it's generic enough to use for any other special days like anniversaries, school celebrations, milestones, etc.

I'm no seamstress and this was pretty easy to put together.  For the "special day" lettering, I just found a font I liked, printed it off using a size that would work, pinned the paper to the fabric, and started cutting.  I don't have any fancy equipment, or this really could have been a cinch.

For the "My" I took blue grosgrain ribbon and "gathered it so it would bunch up.  Then I pinned it as best I could to the cover and sewed a strait stitch through the middle of it.  It was a little tricky and it didn't end up perfect but close enough in my opinion.

I do like that the sides tie because that way it will fit over any sized chair, big or small.