jkwdesigns

It’s been far too long since I’ve been on here, and sadly, this will be my last post. This blog–over the years–has been a lot of fun for me. I enjoyed knitting and crocheting, writing patterns, crafting things for my kids… However, in the past year, I’ve found myself making fewer things for my kids as they’ve gotten older, and focusing more time and energy on making things for myself. It’s been a…

It’s been absolutely ages since I’ve posted anything, and I have no good excuse! I haven’t really been knitting or crocheting lately–maybe that’s why? I do have many, many more free patterns to share with you, and I’m going to be making a RENEWED EFFORT to get those patterns posted! Honestly, feel free to post a comment and send me a message to remind me that jkwdesigns is still alive and readers…

Free Pattern: Little Ladybug Lens Buddy Pattern

It seems like a bit of a milestone for me, though I imagine that it doesn’t really matter to anyone else (haha!)–my jkwdesigns Etsy shop is now officially closed, which means that more free pattern are headed your way! I’m going to be working diligently to get all those patterns posted as quickly as possible, but please be patient with me because 3 kids and motherhood tend to get in the way of me…

Despite trying/wanting/praying to get my life organized and start off 2017 with grace and efficiency, I stumbled into February in a state of panic because Valentine’s Day parties and treats and crafts for 3 kids AND all 3 kids’ birthdays within a 5 day period on the middle of February. 😫 Somehow, I managed to pull it all off without DYING or killing anyone, although once all the madness was over, I did spend an entire day on the couch watching mindless television (AKA Law and Order marathon).

So with 2 boys turning 8 and a little girl turning 5, trying to think of a theme that would appease all 3 kids was my first challenge. The boys are all about Legos and Star Wars and the Avengers, while my daughter is obsessed with My Little Pony and (unfortunately) Shopkins. However, they miraculously agreed on a Goonies themed party because GOOOOONIES!!! That, and my daughter adores Cyndi Lauper (because who doesn’t), and she loves the Good Enough music video at the end of the movie. ;-)

As with all birthday parties, invitations are key! They get (kids and parents) excited for the party, and they set the stage for what’s to come. A couple years ago with the boys’ 6th birthday party, the lightsaber invitations were such a huge hit with the kids. Several of the kids brought their lightsaber invitations to the party with them.

I would have loved to create a rolled up treasure map for the invitation, but that would have been difficult to send out in the mail. Luckily, the design of the treasure map used in the movie is actually meant to be folded, so here’s what I put together:

These fit perfectly in a 5×7 invitation envelope, so it was ideal for mailing. I would have loved to add some music notes to the top of the back of the map, but with irregular shape of the map, I thought it would be too much work to figure out the placement for double sided printing. My handy dandy Silhouette Cameo cut the invitations to shape so I didn’t have to sit and hand-cut each of them like I did back in the day with the lightsaber invitations.

With the invitations sent out, I had several weeks to plan the party, but in the meantime, I also had to make 3 Valentine’s mailboxes, 78 classroom Valentine’s cards/goodies, plus the usual 592 loads of laundry/week and the CONSTANT EATING!!! (It really does feel like meal prep is an endless cycle in this house!)

So pretty much the week before Valentine’s Day and birthday party, I had a panic attack and had to crank out all the decorations, the party favors, and the treats. We kept food and party activity simple by calling it a “movie night” party and popping in the blu-ray to (hopefully) appease the children, and serving up hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. Luckily, my brother-in-law is our resident grill master, and he had no problems with manning the grill during the party.

As a side note, I rewatched Goonies a few weeks ago to get some inspiration for the party, and I was worried that there was too much cursing and general inappropriateness for 5 and 8 year olds, but my husband told me I was overthinking (as per usual). He insisted that pretty much every parent had seen the movie as a kid, and if they didn’t think the movie was appropriate, they wouldn’t let their kid come anyway, so I didn’t need to worry. And (as per usual), he was right. No one said a thing, and parents were so engrossed in the movie themselves that I think they may have forgotten that they had even brought their kids to the party! By the end of the evening as the movie ended, the parents and my boys were pretty much the only people still staring at the TV. Most of the other kids had run off to play, which was fine–as long as everyone had a good time!

Here’s how the party worked out:

I just happened to have a few decorative skulls laying around from an unfinished craft project, so those worked perfectly for decor. I cut an eyepatch out of black felt for One-Eyed Willie and threw on a kid’s pirate costume hat. For other table decor items, I used some copper Moscow Mule mugs that I already had and some silver wine goblets that I picked up at Salvation Army for $2. I also purchased some beads from Oriental Trading Company, but I should have just gone to Dollar Tree because I found better beads for way cheaper ($1). Lesson learned. I also happened to have a copper pot (Chester Copperpot, get it? Get it? Hahaha!) that I put on the table as well.

Also, with this party, I decided to save some money by not ordering a cake. I was spoiled when we lived in Korea because there were some amazingly talented bakers/cake decorators/military spouses who baked out of their homes and offered beautiful artistic creations for very affordable prices. As I discovered, the same in not the case anymore! A single-layer half sheet cake with some plastic pirate decorations was going to run me at least $45, and quite honestly, I don’t think I would have been happy after the amazing cakes the kids had in Korea. My solution was to bake a billion cupcakes! It worked out for us because each of the kids wanted different flavors, and as a parent, I actually prefer cupcakes because they’re small. Cupcakes are exceedingly easy to bake and decorate, especially if you use cupcake toppers, so that worked out well for me. I baked all the cupcakes the night before the party, then whipped up the icing and decorated them just before the party started.

I recently discovered a recipe for a whipped cream cheese icing, and being a lover of cream cheese icing in general, I had to try it out. It is simply DIVINE. It whipped up beautifully, and despite being a bit concerned that the icing wouldn’t hold its shape if it sat at room temperature for too long, the heavy whipping cream did its job.

Since we didn’t have a cake, I purchased 3 small cake stands from Target so each of the kids could have their own little stand of cupcakes. When it cake time to sing them happy birthday, the kids each had their own stand with the appropriate number of candles to blow out. Also, as party favors, I made each of the kids a One-Eyed Willie t-shirt that they received when they arrived. Most of the party-goers were excited about their pirate shirts. There were a couple of hold-outs, but it was pretty cute to see all the kids running around with the same shirt on.

In addition to the cupcakes, I made Rocky Road treats (just marshmallows dipped in melted chocolate, then dipped in crushed walnuts), and I had some Baby Ruth bars, Hershey’s Gold Nuggets, and chocolate gold coins to round out the treat table.

I had also intended to make pirate ships with food boats filled with popcorn for the movie night portion of the party, but I had some logistical issues with getting the sails to stand upright in the food boat. The night before the party, I figured it would take far more time than I had to make each individual boat, so sadly I had to let go of that one.

And that just about wraps up the decorative elements of the party! Oh wait… I also decorated myself! ;-) HEY YOU GUYS!!!

Various printables are available here to download and print for free for your PERSONAL USE ONLY. Click on the thumbnail to open the high resolution image. Right-click the high-res image to download.

PRINTING TIPS:

Use 110lb card stock for signs, banners, cupcake toppers, and thank you cards.

For the water bottle labels, regular printer paper or everyday quality photo paper will work. However, it’s best to not pre-chill your water bottles or the condensation from the bottles being set at room temperature will ruin the ink and paper.

For the water cup stickers, use sticker paper.

Set your printer to “Letter Borderless” and Best Quality. Images should print at 100% scale.

For best results, use a 2 inch circle punch for the Rocky Road toppers and the Goonies Never Say Die toppers. Use a 2.5 inch circle punch for the It’s Wet Ain’t It stickers. A paper trimmer is recommended for the straight edges of the banner, the quote signs, and the thank you card.

  Disclosure: This post contains links to products on amazon.com. These are products that I purchased and used for my own projects with no compensation. However, if you click on the link and purchase the product, I will receive a small fee from Amazon.com. * * * * * * * * * jkwdesigns.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. * * * * * * * * *

Free Pattern: Magical Mermaid Fingerless Gloves

I’m sure you’ve seen photos of the AMAZING dragon scale fingerless gloves that have been making their rounds on the interwebs. They are absolutely fabulous. And I just had to make a pair. There are a number of patterns that have already been written for these gloves, and I tried out several of them, but found them to either be too confusing or too bulky or not full enough. So I worked on my own…

Free Crochet Headband and Flower Patterns

A couple months ago, I posted one of my most popular patterns, the Winter Crochet Headband. It’s a very classic ribbed headband that has a great deal of stretch to it and is super cozy for the cold winter months. It was one of the first patterns I wrote when I started my pattern store on Etsy, and because of its success, I wrote two other headband patterns that are variations of the classic…

Halloween is fast approaching, and if your child(ren)’s school is anything like my kids’, then you’ve been volun-told/tasked/guilt-tripped into preparing treat bags for your child’s class! A couple years ago, I made some “Ghostly Grub” for my boys’ class, which was a HUGE hit with the children. It’s super easy to make and these treat bag tags will top off your hard work perfectly! Recipe for…

Free Pattern: Winter Crochet Headband

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, then you know that I’m well into the process of closing up my jkwdesigns pattern shop on Etsy (and also Ravelry and Craftsy). All of my original patterns will eventually be available on my blog for free. As I’ve (very slowly) been working on getting those patterns online, this particular pattern–the Winter Crochet Headband–is the most exciting because for…

The best part of her visit is that it was an absolute surprise. She and my husband took it upon themselves to plan this trip without my knowledge, so I had no time to prepare for her visit. I didn’t care that my house was a mess and that we hadn’t even finished unpacking all our crap, that the guest bedroom was still in shambles, or that I had no childcare plans for while she was in town. However, the big downside was that I had NO TIME to plan and style a photoshoot for my kids!!! The fabulous Zayda of Zayda Barros Photography and I had talked about so many different styled photo shoots we wanted to do with my children, and here she was… And I didn’t have a thing prepared.

Thankfully, we had 2 weeks to put something easy together–thanks to my beautiful, wooded backyard–and my daughter wanted nothing more than to become a fairy princess for a day so it was perfect. And Zayda made it happen!

There was a mad dash to order things from Amazon and visits to Michaels and Joann Fabrics. Thanks to the genius of Pinterest, I was able to put together a very easy tulle dress very similar to this one. I just loop tied long strips of tulle to a crochet chain “thread” and belted it with another piece of tulle. Easy peasy! I spray painted a cheap black lantern with metallic gold spray paint, and we ordered a beautiful pair of wings, a flower crown, paper butterflies, and a bottle of glitter from Amazon. Then through the magic of photography, Zayda transformed my little girl into a fairy princess!

And because sometimes, Mommy wants to be a fairy princess too… 😝

To see more from Penny’s Fairy Princess Photo Shoot, visit Zayda’s website: Zayda Barros Photography

Pattern: Picture Perfect Ladybug Photo Prop

Sometimes, you just want to dress up a newborn baby like a ladybug and take a photo of her all curled up, looking ADORABLE. Back in 2012 when my daughter was born, the newborn photography craze was just starting to take off, so I took it upon myself to crochet ridiculous costumes for her while I was pregnant and miserable. And photos like these were my reward. 😆 Now that the newborn photography…

Free Crochet Pattern - Choco Hugs and Kisses Hat

It has been far too long since I’ve been able to post/update the blog! Since the kids got out of school for summer vacation, my life has been a whirlwind of activity. Our family of 5 traveled to Florida for my nephew’s high school graduation/family reunion, which was absolutely wonderful because we’ve been out of the country for 3 years and unfortunately missed out on lots of family gatherings…

Free Crochet Hat Pattern! This pattern was previously available for purchase--now it's FREE!

I wrote this pattern several years ago, and it’s been available for purchase, but I’ve decided to post it for free! It’s a simple, pretty little hat, but the best part is that the sizing is adjustable. When my kids were younger, I absolutely loved making hats for them (and I still do!), but most hats only allow for one season’s worth of wear for kids ages 1-4 before the kiddos outgrow the hats!…

My 4 year old daughter is absolutely obsessed with My Little Pony, and before we moved into the new house, she told me that she wanted a My Little Pony bedroom. When we were living in Korea, I didn’t do much to her room. She was only about 10 months old when we moved in, and she rarely slept or spent time in her room anyway, so I just didn’t put in the time and effort. However, in our new…

It’s been about a month since we moved into the new house, and there are still piles of boxes everywhere. Unpacking is slow-going, especially since the daily mommy grind of waking up- getting kids ready for school-packing lunch for the kids and the husband-taking kids to school-doing mountains of laundry-ironing shirts-cleaning kitchen-picking kids up-overseeing homework-reading with kids-cooking…

It’s not necessarily because I love making cute lunches more than any of my other crafting endeavors, but making the boys’ lunches is something that I do on a near-daily basis. Although I brought their bento boxes with us because I knew I would need to pack lunches for a few weeks before our household goods arrived, I didn’t pack all the cute accessories I’ve collected over the past year and a half of lunch-packing, so I’ve been missing out on dressing up their lunch boxes.

Since I don’t have any fun lunches to share lately (somehow, sandwiches packed in ziplock bags just don’t have the same appeal), here’s a round-up of the lunches I packed for my boys during the fall semester before we left Korea!

Can’t wait to get all my lunch-making supplies as well as move into our new house where I will have more than 12 square inches of counter space! :-)

Free Printable: Star Wars Chocolate Treat Bag Tags

I’ve recently received several messages from people asking about the chocolate favor tags that were used during my boys’ Star Wars birthday party. I don’t know why I didn’t include that as a free download in my original post, so here it is! I’ve removed the names of the chocolate truffles that I made for the party so the tags are more generic and can be used for any type of chocolate. Just click…