Presenting Arabelli

I'm excited to present my "Arabelli" blog which is just one big portfolio of my Interior Design projects, Refurnished Furniture, Crafts, Dolls, and Parties. By doing this I hope to find my niche of what to do or sell on Etsy/ Ebay or maybe it will help give you all ideas for your home or gifts. It's named after my daughter, Arabella's nickname. Alot of this is for growth documenting purposes and as you will see, cakes and parties are not my strong point, but talents I hope to develop.

I'm going to add a Jewelry, Quilt and Art portfolio soon so stay tuned.

I also hope to write and illustrate a children's book series called "Ainsley Painsley Pudding and Pie" and make quietbooks to go along with the line, but it's mainly for Ainsley to remember all the crazy and cute things she did, but that probably won't be accomplished til I'm a grandma.

Enjoy looking around my portfolios and viewing my monthly projects.

Friday, November 4, 2011

New Decor Make Over

 So I've been just itching to craft craft craft.  I'm sick of my color booklet project so I took off two weeks to get ready for Halloween and just change up my house with some more color.


This was my inspiration- Agave plant.  Someday I'll get the real big print or paint one my self.

I got these drapes from my neighbor (hung them with a shower curtain rod), saved these chairs from the dump and got the blue fabric from the bishop's wife.

 Couch and side table I got from my neighbor as commission for helping her move and sell her furniture.
It came with 3 pillows which I made covers for (fabric from bishop's wife and scrap fabric I just had) + 2 pillows were chair cushions & one I already had.  I love pinterest.com because I found some great easy pillow tutorials.  Camera made the fabric look brighter.

Someday I'll paint the book cases and desk, just don't know what color.
Maybe just the book cases a green color from my inspiration pic???
Also, need to make some lamp covers and if you do too, again check out pinterest.com for some ideas and turtorials.

 I spray painted alot of old decor items this color for an accent pop of color.









So my next project is painting & covering an old wood toy box/ bench I have.  Stay tuned for finish product.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Birthdays and Babyshowers

Bear and purse I made for a birthday girl.
All made from repurposed material.

Cupcakes and Bear I made for a birthday girl.
All made from repurposed material.





This is the silly snake I made for a birthday boy and I also made a car bag to put all his cars in.
Made from material scraps I had.



Diaper Cakes, invitations & cakes I made for babyshowers.
friend 1

 friend 2

 Invitations

Jungle Cake

Wedding

Alyssa, Lyneah, Danny (brother from Nevada), Lynnea's two friends, and I spent a good 5 hours the morning of Lynnea's wedding decorating. Our hardwork payed off, and it looked pretty professional with a limited budget! We were so impressed and so were the guests--especially our husbands :)

The centerpieces


The reception area.  Most of the lights were off or dimmed and the icicles lights were on during the reception. It looked so pretty.


Guestbook and pen that I decorated (on arabelli.blogspot.com)


I made the cake--made of rice crispies! I coated it with Almond Bark.
(I actually never tasted it...I hope it was good- hard to cut into, but on Alyssa's blog she said it was good)
Alyssa decorated all those cupcakes + more were in the fridge!

You can see the arch we decorated in background for the wedding line.

The homemade garter had a hard time staying in place! haha
Thanks to Josiah's girl friend's mom (who made it from my design) got it done for us on time.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Ainsley's Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party!

(Click on collage to enlarge)


I spent a month putting Ainsley's Strawberry Shortcake 4th Birthday party together in between doing and still doing a big project for a lady in my mom's ward (color booklets that I've talked about before). I think I had more fun doing and attending the party than Ainsley did.  I got too carried away doing crafts, dressing up and baking, but it was fun and here's what I did:







 I was Blueberry Muffin, Arabella was Lemon Merigue (she had to wear that ugly white wig because Ainsley had one- good thing I had another one from my HS spirit days) and Ainsley was of course Strawberry Shortcake! 
I made all with what I had except I bought my blue skirt, Ainsley's tights which was a shirt, and Ainsley's pink shoes from the DI. I had to go to a costume shop for my green striped tights and had to buy Ainsley's wig from Amazon.com and her foam green hat bill from Micheal's. All totaling maybe $25 when a child's size Strawberry Shortcake costume would cost $20-33 + $10-15 for the wig alone.






I made the cake which is the best cake I've ever attempted to make.  I used a Giant Cupcake pan for the bottom which I bought on Amazon.com for $25 a year ago and I used a large cupcake pan for the top.  I bought a $7 Wilton cupcake decorating kit at Walmart, OH! and I bought pink sprinkles of course and a candle.  I used Ainsley's Strawberry Shortcake doll from MacDonald's.

 I made the cupcake stands from items at DI and bought the polka dot cardboard one at Walmart for $2 after Valentine's Day.
I didn't have time to finish the other stands, but I would like them to look like the blue ones below.
Inspirtation craft pic.


I made a "Happy 4th Birthday Ainsley" banner from scrapbook paper I had.



I made this pinata out of cereal boxes, pink streamer $1, scrapbook paper, package tape $3, string, and print outs from www.Strawberryshortcake.com which is where I got invitations, coloring pages, games and other decor. I filled the pinata with gummy treats, skittles and starburts. Beats the $20 castle pinata I saw at Walmart, plus I could customize it Strawberry Shortcake Style!



Silly Snake & Super Cape

I made a cute silly snake and cape as a b-day gift for Ainsley's Joy School friend, Malakai.  I found this cute "silly snake" idea on youtube and made it my own with what I had- go upcycling!  I filled it with lentils and it really feels like a real snake complete with a rattle on the end of it's tail.  Perfect for a 5 yr. old boy!




Monday, May 2, 2011

Dino's Babies for Karma's B-day

Karma is one of the kids I teach Joy School to and Ainsley's friend and her mom is my friend and VT companion. Anyway she had a cute "Tangle" themed b-day and they made the cutest Pascul lizard creatures out of some sticky foam and party favors that worked for a lizard tongue (Ainsley lost her lizard before I got a picture, but you can learn how to make it at www.disneykids.com I think).

Ha I did have a pic of Karma holding the Pascul creature.
Isn't her cake so cute!?

We made Karma a cute basket of Dino babies since she loves dinosauers. She is such a funny random girl. She even had a Dino cake aside from her "Tangled" one her aunt made her.

Some dinos were stuffed and some were bean bags. My inspiration was the dino puzzle behind the dino babies. I also added some jelly beans for dino eggs and each dino on the flower had a letter spelling Karma's name.

75 cent at the DI- brand new!








All the fabric is scraps I collected from my mom as a kid.
All in all I probably spent $5, the most being for the jelly beans.