{what the hack}

Saying that we, as a family, are IKEA-crazy is the understatement of the century. I can look around your living room and point out the Swedish flat-packed furniture (though maybe you wish I wouldn't). I can probably even give you the unintelligible name for it all, too. POANG, EKTORP, EXPEDIT; growing up as the daughter of an IKEA employee, that was the language of home. 

So, as you might imagine, IKEAHackers.net is the New Yorker of my world. And though they classify it as a 'minor' hack, (which, let's face it, is true: the Vimpel has returned to its life as a duvet cover already) I am absolutely over the moon about seeing our handiwork (and Justin's pajamas) on their site. Check it out here.

And, if you're feeling the excitement, too, why not go ahead and 'like' it, and we'll see if we can be a top hack of the month!

{how to build your own photo booth}

Before I forget, and the whole birthday whirlwind is long past, here's a little tutorial we put together on building your own photo booth in the back garden. I looked and looked and couldn't find any instructions online, so we made it up as we went along. 

It cost us $4.86 -- most of the materials are normal household things that could be repurposed (and then returned to their old uses afterwards). You need absolutely no sewing or woodworking skills to do this, just the ability to hammer a nail and tie a knot. 

Here's what you'll need:

• one twin-size duvet cover or flat sheet (ours is the IKEA Vitaminer Vimpel)
• at least four clothes pegs
• string and scissors
• hammer and nails
• two long thin pieces of wood, at least 7ft tall (ours are from Lowes, 8ft, $2.43 each)
• a fence 

First, make sure you know the dimensions of your duvet cover or sheet. Either check the info, or measure both the width and height. Ours was 65" by 85".

We laid each of the wooden planks on the ground, measured 85" along, and marked that spot.



On both planks, we hammered a small nail into the wood at the 85" mark, in the centre. This nail goes on the backside of the photo booth, and not visible (except to your neighbours and their golden retriever!)



We placed one of our wooden planks where we wanted it along the fence, (remembering to have the nail we'd just hammered in facing away from us) and measured along 65", and marked where the second plank needed to be. We checked we liked the positioning...

...and then nailed both planks to the fence. Mmm... gives a new meaning to biting your nails!

This is what it looked like with both planks in place. (And with Justin checking his wingspan)

We knotted one end of the roll of string around one of the 85" high nails on the back of a plank...

...and wrapped the string around the outside of the plank (we figured this would allow our duvet cover to cover the planks, somewhat, when hung). We pulled the string taut, and knotted it around the second nail.

Then, we hung the duvet cover -- bending the fabric over the top of the string, and pegging it in place. We only had four pegs, and luckily that turned out to be enough!

At this point, we discovered that we'd built a giant sail. Whenever a gust of wind hit it, the whole thing flapped and blew. Perfect, if we'd been wanting to turn our fence into a raft. (Michael, Walt, Jin and Sawyer would have been proud). Not so perfect if we wanted decent photos.

The solution: one more piece of string, stretched across the front between the planks, about 2/3 of the way up. Our white string was barely noticeable in front of a white part of the duvet cover, and kept things neatly in place.

Justin grabbed Bella, and we had a few little test shots the night before the party to test out the lighting. I'd recommend thinking about where the sun will be at the time of your party, and planning where to put your photo booth accordingly. I chose to set ours up so that people wouldn't have to look directly into the setting sun when having their photos taken, which resulted in plenty of smiles, rather than pained squints. For the actual party, I upped the exposure compensation on the camera slightly to account for the extra shadows and make our whites sparkly.

With a little table nearby for the props we made (another member of our IKEA family, covered with a tablecloth), and a sign encouraging people to help themselves, it was all ready to go. Ten minutes work for under $5, and we were very happy with the results!

P.S. A round of applause for Justin, the handyman and physical labour for this project, who was happy to pose in his pajamas after a long day of work! The creative director behind the camera was not quite so brave...

{say cheese: a first birthday party}

Yesterday, we celebrated Tilly's first year with a little party. Our "Say Cheese!" theme let us indulge in Tilly's love of cheddar and our love of cameras... what a fun combination it turned out to be! We had a house full of amazing friends and family, a kitchen full of dairy, and a back garden full of smiles and grins and fake mustaches. 

Guests loaded up plates with all things cheesy (mac and cheese with chicken, spicy sausage queso and chips, brie and crackers, as well as a few fruits and veggies) and signed Tilly's birthday table runner, which was laid out on the dining table.

The signature runner turned out even better than I'd hoped! People signed in all sorts of ways -- with birthday messages, with names grouped together as families, in flowing script and in block capitals, with drawings of flowers and with stick-figure self-portraits. What a lovely way to remember all the people who joined us this year -- how funny it will be to see names reappear next year, and new names be added. I'm looking forward to embroidering over it all in the next few weeks.

Out in the garden, we had tables set up, too, covered with the easiest tablecloths in the world. (Three yards of fabric ripped in half! I'm hoping they'll turn into a dress for Tilly after I wash the cake off...) We had bubbles on one table, and the blank photo props and a pack of crayons on the other table, to entertain the bigger kids. 

The colour-your-own-props worked out really well, and the children came up with some amazing designs, which they then proudly modeled in the photo booth.

The photo booth was so much fun, and we ended up with over 400 photos to pick from! (I'm just sorry I can't show you more of them!) The little ones got the most creative, and were so sweet with each other, lining up and taking turns, and letting each other use the bows they'd decorated. There were plenty of props to go around, and they stood up surprisingly well to baby hands (yes, and mouths -- hold a mustache near a baby, and they want to taste it!)



We had cowboys and wolves, circus ringmasters and cats. There were sweet family shots, hilarious poses, and some very funny photos of little ones who didn't quite understand the messages they were holding (i.e. one shot of a little friend with a giant scowl, holding the word "Cheese!" makes us laugh until we cry every time!)

The paddling pool was nice for the little ones to cool off in. Tilly fancied her own private pool, though, and got comfy in a big red bucket.

She had the time of her life, stealing people's cups of lemonade, watching her older friends blowing bubbles for her, and running off with the photo props! Say "Cheese!" Tilly.



When it came time for cake, she loved the candle (which remained at a safe distance until I blew it out... all she wanted to do was touch the flame!) on the little smash cake I'd made her, a.k.a. The Cream Bomb -- sponge cake with a hollow centre, filled with cream and strawberries, coated with cream and strawberries. Served up on a piggy plate. My dream cake.



It turns out, Tilly just wanted the strawberries, and once they were picked off, she wasn't all that interested in it anymore. She'd been really keen on the broccoli earlier on, and had filled up on that, I think.

I think I might be the first mother ever to say "my child ate so much broccoli that she didn't want any cake!"



Tilly got her arms in the cake, though, and had a little cream beard, so we were quite happy that she was messy enough, and had a little dunk in the paddling pool to clean off.

I made her a little banner the night before, to add a little touch of fancy to a basic IKEA high-chair. A little ironic, it turns out, as I was trying to MAKE her eat cake. Tilly loved the pompoms -- I think it's safe to say she would have eaten one of them if I'd let her.

Tilly opened her presents outside, with the help of some very eager friends. A new talking teapot and talking purse seem destined to become favourites, and Tilly got some lovely dresses and her own apron and rolling pin! 

As a little party favour, we gave out miniature paper Polaroid cameras, (which you might remember me mentioning here). Justin's parents kindly dug up their beautiful old Polaroid and brought it along for me to play with decoration, so it was nice to see the little paper ones next to the real thing.

I made tiny little Polaroid photos to come out of the slots, and Tilly wrote a little message for each of our guests, thanking them for coming.

A simply amazing day, with so many wonderful people to help us celebrate, and a lively little Tilly who couldn't have been happier. Thanks for all your love! 

{props}

Yes, more fun little props for Tilly's birthday photo booth. These, I printed off from Oh, Happy Day (which I wrote about here) for free. Can't get better than that.

Then, grab a few wooden dowels and a dollop of hot glue, and you've whipped them up in no time. Seriously, I made them right after I put Tilly down for a nap, and I swear they were done before she even fell asleep. 

(Note: Oh, Happy Day suggests adhering each prop to black foam. I suggest printing them directly onto cardstock and saving yourself a giant headache. If you do the foam, it'll take longer.)

I'm loving this combo -- didn't you always want to be a Cowboy Rabbit? (Yes, I knew it)

Also whipped up were a few plain white bows. We have some older children coming to the party, too, and I thought that a bit of colouring would be a nice back-up in case shape-sorters and musical turtles (and our other one-year-old appropriate toys) aren't quite as exciting as Tilly thinks.

Grab a coloured pencil, and style yourself a striped hair bow, or a polka-dotted bow tie...

The bows, I found in red as clip art online, and then simply put them in Photoshop and dyed the centres white with the paint bucket. Again, just hot glue and a dowel, and they're ready to go.



A bucket o' props, ready for some fun. Bring on Saturday! (Well, except I haven't planned what eating yet. Or made the tablecloths. So let's hold off on Saturday, actually...)

{diy: soft speech bubbles}

Prepare yourselves -- it's going to be a pretty photo-heavy week here at RedRed. Two new cameras (mine and Tilly's), plus a camera-themed birthday party coming up on Saturday. Phew. We'll need our shutters cleaned at the end of this week.

Today, I was making some of the props for the party. I love the idea of little speech bubbles for guests to hold, and set about making some myself out of poster board.

Have you ever tried cutting poster board? It's tough! You hack through one layer, find the tricky board in the middle, and by the time you're through to the other side, you've run out of blade. I tried scissors, a box cutter, an extra sharp fancy paper knife. What worked best, in the end, was Justin's pocket knife and it's seven inch serrated blade. I was very scared for my cutting mat (and my fingers, too), but luckily both survived unharmed.

The edges, though, looked a little rough. Okay, very rough. Like I'd cut them blindfolded. At night. One-handed. With a blunt chainsaw.

Enter half-a-yard o' cream fleece. I simply lay the poster board bubble on top of the fleece, and drew around it, leaving about an inch of extra fleece all the way around.

Ah, the scent of a hot glue gun hard at work. I put a thin layer of glue all around the edge, and pressed the fleece up (being careful not to put my fingers directly over the hot glue -- it burns even through the fleece).

Then, with a quick trim of the excess fleece from the back, the boards were covered. The fleece did a lovely job of softening the hacked-up edges of the poster board.



A few snips in a bit of felt, and we had our messages. Obviously, 'Cheese!' was needed...



... and when I looked through my stash of rejected letters I'd cut for our 'Stars at Night' hanging, the letters spelled out 'Hooray'! Perfect.

To attach the letters, I simply turned them all upside down and gave them a hearty spray with Krylon adhesive. There's a another nice smell for you. Not.

So, there you go. How to make speech bubbles for your photo booth that don't look like something Edward Scissorhands could have made. I can't wait to put them to use...