I started thinking about my son’s first birthday party when he was 6 months old.  Anyone else in my boat?  I think it was my way of coping with the fact that my baby was growing up.

I have read on other blogs that you can look at a 1st birthday party 2 ways.  It was be solely to celebrate the child or to also celebrate the fact that the parents have successfully survived a year of parenthood.  I decided to do it the way I wanted to because this is the only birthday that he won’t have a say in what he wants the theme to be!

I went with a little man theme.  I wanted it to be mostly bow ties but I kind of love the mustaches too so we did both.

Here are the invitations.  I designed them myself on Photoshop and ordered them on Vistaprint (They always have great deals – use this referral link and get $10 off of your first order.  You can upload your design and then order them as postcards which is the cheapest way I have found).  I made the bow ties on my Cricut machine and glued them to popsicle sticks.

I wanted to make sure the invitations were unique so I even glued a picture of him inside the envelope.  I traced the entire inside of the envelope that you can see.  It turned into a diamond shape.  You could use this as a pattern and cut out the pictures individually, I chose to take the measurements from my pattern and draw it out on Photoshop.

Here is an example of the pattern I created on Photoshop.  You can see that it isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t really matter because I had to cut it out for the envelopes anyways.

For centerpieces, I bought vases at the dollar store and filled them with cheerios (what baby doesn’t love cheerios?!).  Using my Cricut machine.  I cut out bow ties, mustaches, hats and some 1 numbers out of cardstock.  I double sided them on a wooden skewer.  I used vinyl sticker paper with my Cricut for the vase number.

I strung the left over faces on fishing line and used them as a banner on the windows in my kitchen.

For food I went with a Taco bar tying in the mustache theme with my display sign. 

I made the napkins into bow ties by folding them lengthwise into quarters and wrapping them in a piece of cardstock (1″ x 3″) and tape.

Let me start out this post by saying, I can’t cut a straight line for the life of me! It is awful when I am trying to be crafty.  So how do people do it?!

Lets rewind to last year, my friend Maureen was making all of these crafty projects and I was amazed by them all (you could even say totally jealous). She kept talking about this Cricut machine she had but I had never heard of such a thing.  One day I went to her house to revel in her level of craftiness and drilled her with 20 questions about the machine.

If you have never seen or heard of one, a Cricut is an at home die cut machine that can cut a wide range of materials.

At this time I learned that all of the designing of the project is done on their website (which you can sign on even if you don’t have a machine to see what you think).  On their design space marketplace there are a lot of graphics and fonts you can buy.  This can get very expensive after you spend quite a bit of money on the machine itself. Stay tuned for my blog post on how to get FREE Cricut images.

Once I researched and figured out I could get free images I decided the one time price for the machine was much more reasonable.

Now let me tell you this machine can die cut LOTS of different materials and any shape in the world you want it to cut.  Here is the list of materials on their website.

The tiny blade is so precise that if you pick a low quality image that looks pixelated (has lots of little squares) it will actually cut out around the individual squares.  So as long as you have a quality image you can make very precise STRAIGHT (which I can not do!) cuts.

The vinyl is by far the most versatile project, it can stick to anything to help personalize it. Cups, walls, toys, containers, gifts, etc.

Stay tuned so I can share my Cricut projects with you.

Never shop online without Ebates.

Do you ever shop online?  Are you using Ebates?  If yes, pat yourself on the back!  You are a genius!  If not, drop everything (well not a cup of hot coffee on your keyboard, but you get the idea) and jump on over there this instance (click the link below)! It is free money, that’s right, I said FREE MONEY!   This Christmas I earned $111 back between Christmas shopping and referrals.

I never buy anything online without clicking through here.  Even if I order pictures online at Walgreens and pay in the store  they still give me cash!

Here is the proof!  (Yes, I shopped at Dollar General,  They had a great deal on Atari flashback for Christmas)

If you are really into saving money (who isn’t)  I recommend looking a a couple different sites to see who is giving the best cash back.  I also use DiscoverDeals (If you have a Discover Card) and Saving Star.

Remember, Don’t EVER buy anything online without checking to see if it is a sponsored site on here.  Even coupon sites like Groupon you can get cash back.

Both Ebates and SavingStar you need to accumulate at least $5 in cash back to receive your money.

Do you sometimes forget to click through these pages?  I had that same problem in the beginning.  Both of these sites offer you the option on installing icons on your web browser that will flash green when you are on a site that will give you cash for clicking through their site.

If you do sign up, consider signing up through my link.

I hope you can save as much money as I did!

Happy Shopping!

5 ways I make extra money as a stay at home Mom

Ebates – This is a great app because you really don’t have to do anything to get a little extra money in your pocket if you shop online.  Last Christmas my son was so little that the thought of going out Christmas shopping was too much for me so I did a lot of my shopping online.

If you enter the website through an Ebates link you get cash.  Ebates will actually mail you a check, or you can choose from their gift card selection.  They have the option of putting an icon on your website dashboard that flashes when the site you are on is an ebates site.  Recently they even started including coupons which saves me time researching (I make it my goal to never buy anything online without finding a coupon on the internet).

Coupon Apps – I have a couple of apps on my phone that give you money for groceries you are already buying and you can trade them in for gift cards.

Ibotta – My favorite app I have on my phone is Ibotta.  You can get money back on items you are buying anyways like milk and eggs.  They also have lots of items that you can cash in on.  To receive your money, they pay out in either a Paypal deposit or gift cards from a variety of stores like Amazon.  In 1 year I have made about $150.

They make it a team competition and you can make more money back when your team earns enough.  Join my team!

Local store apps – Target, Meijer, Jo-anns, etc.  all have apps for their store with coupons and some have extra rewards programs on them.  I always check quick when I am at the store to make sure there isn’t any extra money I could be saving.

Half.com – You can sell used books of any kind.  I still haven’t jumped on the e-book bandwagon so I have extra books that just take up room on my book shelf. I also got my husband on board selling some of his old college text books and computer programming books.

When you sell a book you do have to pack it up and take it to the post office, which can sometimes be a pain with kids in tow but it is always nice to have an out of the house adventure.

Direct Sales – I sell Wildtree, which is an organic all natural food product company, and I love the extra income and free product it brings in.  Freezer meal workshops are big in this company where you are given a menu and provided assistance in making the meals.  It helps with meal prep in my house too.

There are lots of direct sale companies out there and it always helps that you get free product and money in your pocket.  With Wildtree, I am actually stocking my cupboard with free food to cut down on my grocery budget.

Sell your trade – Do you make killer cupcakes?  All natural cleaning products?  Have you perfected a Pinterest project?  There are so many things that you can make (even if you are not crafty) that you can sell locally or on sites like Etsy.

For example, my husband studied graphic design in College, he has taught me some of the tricks of his trade and now I design business logos, invitations, and holiday cards for my friends and family.

I have been teaching myself photography and photo editing (with the help of my husband) and I have started a side photography business.  Snaps by Kelly Mackie

When my Aunt had cancer, she came up with an idea to sell cards to help people have a way to communicate with people who are sick.  We now try to keep her memory alive by selling Leslie’s Cancer Cards on Etsy.

I am also in the process of building my sewing inventory to open my own Etsy store, more on that to come.

While these might not be specific trades that you are good at, take a look at what you are good at that is marketable.  There is always something!  Good luck on your journey.

Do you already have a way that you make money?  We would love to hear about it.

When my husband and I first starting dating he gave me Kelly’s Recipes as a present because what else does a programmer give a foodie for a gift?

Since the birth of Kelly’s Recipes I was able to share many family recipes with my family and the world.  I love cooking and sharing recipes and it has been so much fun to work on.

When I tossed around the idea of a blog, I wanted to incorporate them somehow instead of starting from scratch.

Since my son was born,  I have spent a lot more time crafting than I ever have before.  Partly because Pinterest has some adorable things for babies, I now live in a house where I have a lot more space to spread out and do crafts, I have nap time breaks and am looking for ways to exercise my mind.

My creative adventures stretch beyond just the kitchen and my sewing machine, so I wanted to come up with a name that encompasses all of the different aspects of creativity I have in my corner (see what I did there?!)

I hope you enjoy the ride on this crazy and creative adventure.