DIY Birthday Banner and Fun Celebration for Our Little Snow White

I recently posted an entry about my DIY birthday cake decorations for our little girl's 2nd birthday. This one here is the birthday banner I also made with the help of my husband. 

So, the title says that it's for our little Snow White. It's because it was a Halloween themed party and we wore costumes. The birthday girl, our Jordana Kendall, was Snow White. I really think she loved her dress and whenever we asked "Where's Snow White?" she would answer "Here!". So adorable.

I asked my husband to make these letters, he's better than I am when it comes to Photoshop or whatever app is needed to make these. 

I used this circles template to print on the patterned paper for the background. So with this I could make 2 circles from a letter size paper.

These are the patterned paper I used. After printing the template on each page, I cut out the circles.

Then I printed the letters based on the size of the circles template I used earlier, just a few centimeters smaller. I love the border on the Happy Birthday letters, M&M's!

After cutting out the letters, I adhered each one using glue stick on the cut out patterned paper circles.

To form the banner, I taped a ribbon on the back of the circles to connect the letters together. I just eyeballed the distance between each letter.

Here is the finished project. My sister-in-law and my brother-in-law's girlfriend helped to put this up. It was a bit tricky attaching the ribbons to the curtains. I was expecting to have the decorations on the wall but the best place to set up the table was in this area. The venue for the party was in one of the two private villas we're staying in at Holiday Inn, Clark so I didn't know how the place looks exactly until we got there, I only saw a few pictures of the villa online. 

Since we made it into a Halloween themed birthday party, the party favors were small pumpkin pails containing chocolates with a Thank You tag. 

There is my happy Princess together with the other kids, they're just my nieces and nephews since this is just a small family gathering. That's me, the White Lady, haha. 

Jordana calls his Papa's Halloween look Papa's happy face. She was curious at first and tried to touch my husband's makeup a few times but she was not scared at all, I'm so proud. 

The next day was all about swimming, specially for the kids. Jordana enjoyed so much and wanted to stay in the water longer but her hands and feet were already too wrinkly and we had to get her out.

Well, that's our DIY birthday banner and small party for our Snow White. Check out also my DIY birthday cake decorations here.

Thank you for reading. Bye!

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DIY Birthday Cake Decorations for Our Princess

It was my daughter's 2nd birthday last October 30 and we had a last minute preparation for the party as we didn't plan on having one. Our original plan was just to go out of town, stay in a resort, and go swimming with the family, then my husband and I thought, why not hold a nice birthday party since we're preparing food for the vacation anyway. 

We stayed at Holiday Inn Clark, got two private villas as families from my side and Jeff's, my husband, were present, and we wouldn't fit in one. We decorated the place ourselves with DIY banners and balloons. And, since we didn't have enough time, we weren't able to order a customized cake for our princess, Jordana Kendall. We didn't have a theme in mind so I just thought of having a Kitkat and M&M cake and with just a few decorations added. 

Okay, so there wasn't a theme for the party but since it was Halloween, I asked the family if they would want to wear costumes, at least the kids, they all said yes and didn't mind if they have little time to prepare, the kids were all excited to dress up. Anyway, that's for another blog post, I'll just show here how I ended up with this birthday cake for my little girl.

First, I printed out letters to make up the Happy Birthday banner. I tried a few different sizes, chose the best fit, and cut the letters out. I got this alphabet design from MeinLilaPark, she has lots of free printables, from calendars and gift tags to scrapbook paper designs, frames, and more.

I cut out small triangles from a card stock for the banner enough to fit the letters.

Taping the triangles on to a ribbon would do but I just did crochet to connect the triangles together to form the banner.

It's done and ready to be tied onto the sticks.

I used these bamboo skewers wrapped with paper tape to hold the banner.

For my little girl's name, I cut a printout and adhered it to a card stock, cut it out again and taped a skewer on the back so when the skewer is inserted into the cake, the sign would stay up.

Then, I had this cake prepared, mmm, it looks yummy. It's just a 9-inch chocolate caramel cake we bought from a bakeshop chain here. I arranged the Kit Kats around the cake, pressing them gently onto the side to make sure that they would stick to the frosting. I used up 22 2-finger bars of Kit Kat. Then, I just poured the M&M's on top of the cake, scattered them to make sure they covered the top nicely, and pressed them so they would also stick. I bought two 200-gram bags of M&Ms but I only needed 1 and a half bags. The ribbon is just for decoration, all the Kit Kat bars stuck nicely even without it.

Adding the decorations was easy, I just inserted the skewers in place. I think the sign for the name was too big as it blocks part of the birthday banner but there wasn't a chance to change it as I don't have my printer and the materials with me, we were already in the villa when I prepared the cake. Anyway my husband said it still looks nice. We also added this purple number 2 candle for my daughter to blow, she wasn't able to blow the flame off but she did look cute trying, haha. 

Here's our little Snow White enjoying her cake. We let her pick up a few M&M's to eat, she would pick one, raise it and show it to us, and shout what color it was, so cute. Oh, how time flies, my baby is already a little girl. 

This cake may not look healthy, well it sure isn't, but sweet treats once in a while wouldn't hurt, I guess, haha. Thank you for visiting. Happy Halloween!

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Rosary For Our New Baby

Last month, we got our new ride which I really like. We've been thinking about getting a new one for a while then decided just last month. I was reluctant at first because I love our Civic and it still looked very handsome, well it still does, it's with my father-in-law now, but my husband wanted to get a bigger one so I gave in. We got a Toyota Fortuner which he describes as "handsome and macho". In the battle between Montero and Fortuner, the latter won our hearts, haha. My brother got a Montero a few months ago and we were able to inspect it closely which helped us to finally decide on getting the other one. I guess Everest was also an option. 

Anyway, my husband asked me to make a new rosary to hang on the rear-view mirror because he's leaving the one in the old car where it is. I'm happy everytime my husband asks me to make something for him because I feel that he appreciates what I do. He doesn't really comment about the stuff I make here for our home like the organizers, decors, etc. but I know he supports me for he lets me buy whatever I want for my craft projects. So, since I was glad to be asked to make this rosary, I chose the best materials I have. 

There are now shorter versions of the rosary, the ones worn as bracelets or charms which some prefer so they can take the rosary anywhere with them. To make one, decide on the length you want to end up with, the bigger the beads used the longer the rosary will be. For the full rosary, the following materials are needed:

- String or cord

- 53 beads for the Hail Marys

- 6 beads for the Lord's Prayers (can be the same as the Hail Marys or bigger)

- 1 big bead for the center or one of those embossed metal charms specially made for this purpose

- spacer beads

- Crucifix 

This is a sterling silver pendant I removed from its chain. I used to wear necklaces before, now that I have a baby I don't anymore as she always pulls them. 

I have 6mm dark red rubies for the decades or the Hail Marys, a 12mm purple jade for the center or the Hail Holy Queen, and 8mm garnet stones for the Lord's Prayers.

This sterling silver metallic flex wire is very durable, it says on the package that the test strength is 13 lbs. and when knotted, the knot stays tight and secure.

These gemstones are Tanzanite, very rare, it can only be found in one place, Tanzania, and a bit more expensive than the others in this project. I used these as spacers between the bigger beads.

There's really no need for a tutorial, I think, as it's simply stringing the beads to the wire, just arrange them according to the right sequence. I just looked up an illustration of the rosary's anatomy online to be sure and went to work. It's like making a simple bead necklace except you would have the crucifix section up to the center as the pendant and instead of putting on locks, tie the cord to finish and hide the knot among the beads.

Here it is hanging perfectly on the rear-view mirror. My daughter loves the color of the beads and she always wants to grab it, good thing she listens to her Papa when she's told not to. 

Meet Tuni, our new baby, we call her that because well, she's a Fortuner. My husband's car when we we're still dating was named Vic-ci (pronounced as Vixi) because it's a Civic, then the last one we had, also a Civic, was Ivi from i-VTEC. Do you also name your cars? It's actually fun playing with the letters from the model or the make to come up with the name though it can be just anything else.

And this is what's inside, us, haha, with my baby behaved on her car seat. We're gonna have a car blessing this week before our long trip and we'll have the rosary blessed, too. 

Thanks for visiting. Have a blessed day!

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Jordana's First Halloween Event

Last October 17th, we joined Mommy Bloggers Philippines Spooky Circus Halloween at Sky Ranch Tagaytay. We're excited about this event because it's Jordana's first time to join, yay! Halloween for kids means Trick or Treat and, of course, wearing costumes.

Jordana's not new to wearing costumes as we had her monthly photo shoot since her first month until she turned one, and she would wear three different costumes in each photo shoot but it's only for 30 minutes. This time, she would wear her costume longer so we need one that's really comfortable on her. We were thinking of dressing her up as Cruella de Vil or Bride of Chuckie, haha, but it would require make-up and I still don't want to put make-up on her delicate face. So, we just visited SM Store and chose from their available costumes, there were a lot to choose from but most of the ones we really wanted were for bigger kids, the Maleficent costume was really nice but there's no size available for her and she would probably end up removing the headpiece anyway. We tried a few pieces and decided to get the Wonder Woman costume. 

She's so happy trying on her costume at home. The set didn't include the lasso, I just added it to complete the Wonder Woman look. I made my own paper twine and painted it to match the outfit.

We arrived early at Sky Ranch and there were still only a few people in the event area so we just walked around a bit. Jordana enjoyed running around while my husband and her babysitter, Ate Manel, were running after her and I was busy taking pictures.

She was already sleepy when the program started, haha, but luckily, she was still happy to go up on stage to present her costume.

There she is, my little Wonder Woman, together with the other kids. They all look cute and lovely in their costumes. There's Princess Leia who won first place, isn't she cute? Since the contest is over, I guess it's okay to reveal that I voted for Princess Leia as my top one, haha. I'm a big Star Wars fan and Jordana actually had a Princess Leia costume, too, when she was still a baby.

Jordana didn't place but we're so happy that she looked really adorable and enjoyed walking around as Wonder Woman.

The kids had fun with the games, the magic show, and balloon twisting by Mr. Poch, who was also a funny ventriloquist. There was also Trick or Treating but my baby was already asleep at that time so she wasn't able to join. 

It was a fun experience, even with the bad weather. The fun didn't stop even after the program as there were rides for the kids to enjoy.

Here we are just roaming around with my sleeping Wonder Woman. 

When Jordana woke up, she was once again energetic and ready to have fun. It was raining but we're still able to let her ride the carousel. 

Unfortunately, the weather didn't improve so we decided to just go shopping for pasalubong and leave early, and just went for Bulalo which was perfect for the cold weather. 

It was all in all, even with the fog and the rain, a fun day for us.  We went home with these goodies and I even won two tickets for the upcoming Disney On Ice show, how cool is that? 

Mommy Bloggers Philippines Spooky Circus Halloween event was made possible by generous sponsors and a team of mommies who love this blogging community.

Thank you to Sky Ranch Tagaytay who not only provided us with a venue but also made sure we had a great time by providing ride all you can tickets and delicious food from Kenny Rogers!

Special thanks to Mr. Poch Albiso, the Magic Meister who made it the most enjoyable day with his magic show and games. 

Our generous sponsors, Nido 3+, Krispy Kreme , Araneta Center, Summit Media, URC, Yeah! Shoot Photobooth, Lock and Lock, First Vita, Jardine Distribution, and Jollibee for their support, giving us giveaways and prizes.


Thanks to MBP for this event. Hope to see you all again!

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