Sass & Cecile

 

A Photo Journal of Cecile’s Monthly Baby Pictures. For the latest posts, follow us on Instagram @sassandcecile

Fresh off the Mayflower, Charlotte is 13 months old! After last year’s turkey picture, the one that started them all, I had to dig deep into the creativity bin for an idea for this year’s Thanksgiving picture.  I knew I wanted to make a cornucopia and have Charlotte look like a pilgrim, so I used a plain black dress and a regular white bonnet and cut a white apron from scrap fabric. The costume was easy- but it was recreating the cornucopia- “horn of plenty” that would be a challenge, because I didn’t want to just buy fake fruits and vegetables, I wanted to make them.  I shaped some burlap into a cornucopia and stuffed it with towels to get the size I wanted.  Then came all the fruits and veggies– I fashioned these out of left over yarn and faric and tissue paper.  They aren’t perfect, but you can totally tell those are ears of corn or pumpkins, right?  😉 I hope you and your families have a happy Thanksgiving!

Charlotte’s Halloween 12 Month Photo:

When witches go riding and black cats are seen, the moon laughs & whispers, ’tis near Halloween!!  It’s my favorite time of year, and  I’ve been looking forward to a Halloween themed photo for quite some time.  I absolutely love Fall and all things Halloween.  For her 12 month picture, the witch costume  I found on Zulily was perfect, and I had in my mind this Hocus-Pocus-themed moon and haunted house silhouette.  I used yellow fabric out of the clearance bin at Wal-Mart, black poster board to cut out a cemetery, tree, and haunted mansion, and I found the bats out of last year’s decoration box in the basement.  It’s a fast favorite for this Halloween-loving Mom.

Charlotte’s first Birthday is coming up and to celebrate we are taking her to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the International Balloon Fiesta!  I made this setting pretty quickly with a green rug for the grass, a swatch of burlap for the “basket” attached to some twine chord, and some fabric for the balloon and clouds.  She’s getting harder to keep still so she’s holding a hair brush purely for distraction purposes.  I love hot air balloons so much, and Charlotte had a GREAT time at the fiesta.

Rawr!  I can’t believe this little dino is ELEVEN MONTHS OLD!  This was a really fun photo to take because I, like most kids, was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was younger.  Thanks, Jurassic Park®.  The scene here took me slightly longer to build because I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around what I wanted it to look like.  I cut out the volcanic mountain range from an old amazon box and sponge painted it, constructed the “river” from dresses and fabric, and the greenery is from the Dollar Tree® of course.  Two Teradactyls and a cute baby later, and BAM!  We have a collosal cute picture!  Her costume was found on Zulily a while back, and it’s slightly big on her, but I just couldn’t resist.  I can’t wait to see all your cute Halloween costumed babies!

Congratulations to the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics team for their Gold Medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio!  I used to love watching the gymnastics routines when I was a little girl, and with this year’s performance, I’m sure there is a whole crop of aspiring future gymnasts fixated to the television just in awe of these amazing girls. I put the Olympic rings together with fabrics I already had, and she’s wearing a red onesie she already had.  You might recognize the flag from the 4th of July picture and the gold medal is made from fabric and an old St. Patrick’s day doubloon.  The “balance beam” is cardboard with 2 black tank tops holding it up, and what would a balance beam be without the peppering of chalk?  That’s baby powder I added for effect.

“Take your flinstone pills and put your diaper on… This is Ground Control to Major Tom”.   When people ask me how I get my ideas for these, the answer is simple-  If they don’t coordinate with a seasonal monthly theme, I simply think about things I imagine being when I was younger.  I think every kid has dreamed of going to outter space.  Couple that with the mourning of David Bowie’s untimely passing, and you have an Out-of-this-World idea for a 10 month picture! I made the planets with construction paper and foil paper from the dollar tree, with some scraps of felt that I had left for Saturn’s rings and the rocket’s flare.  I cut out a half circle, painted in grey, and took a page from the book of contouring with some black paint and  a sponge for the crater effect.  The stars are simply confetti left over from New Year’s eve that I scattered about an her costume, which totally makes this picture is from @Carter’s on amazon. Her “tube” is a shoe string, and I simply printed out the American flag and glued it to a stick– the stick she used for weights in her strong arm man pic, to be exact.  This one was a quick favorite, but I have to say, Cecile was not a huge fan of the helmet!

Aloha, Beaches!    Though we’ve already done a similar beach theme for the mermaid picture, friends of ours took a trip to Hawaii and brought back this adorable hula girl costume, so yes– we take requests for theme pics!  The sand is a comfy throw blanket, the palm trees are made from rolls of brown wrapping paper and green fabric scraps with some burlap cocounts.  We already had the shells, and the “sun” is made from crepe paper we had left over from last month’s circus pic.  This one was thrown together in under 10 minutes, and she absolutely loved playing in this skirt!

July 10, 2016 Cecile is 9 months old.  Hard to believe that she’s been out as long as she was in.  One of my favorite summer activities when I was a kid was a family trip to a circus or fair.  I used those fond memories to inspire July’s photo- a strong (wo)man walking on a tight rope.  This set design was relatively simple compared to some of the previous ones, and Charlotte’s clothes were from Bailey’s Blossoms.  Check out their instagram for perfect outfits for your little.

Happy 4th of July!  Cecile was a good sport portraying one of our Forefather’s Ben Franklin here.  I made the wig from white hair and a stocking cap and just used a little dress and some white fabric for the scarf for her outfit.

June 10th, Charlotte is 8 months old, and what a cute little mermaid she is!  This photo scene was put together with sheets/fabric, streamers and tissue paper and a wig I had from a previous costume.  The serving fork was the perfect prop to keep her from flopping over like a real mermaid now that she’s so active.

May 10th, April Showers bring May Flowers, and this little busy bee is 7 months old! Theme constructed with an old shower rug, some floral arrangements from the dollar tree, blue sheet and construction paper.

April 10, 2016- Cecile is 6 months old.  April Showers Bring….. an adorable photo idea for this month! Scene constructed with silver tinsel (rain), fabric and poster board (umbrella), netting (salt), and a navy sheet.

March 23, 2016- This isn’t a monthly picture, but I couldn’t resist an Easter photo shoot with Cecile.  For cute graphics and fonts to use in your little one’s photos- download babypicsapp or follow @babypicsapp on instagram. Scene constructed with fabric and sheets, and egg cut outs from Target.

March 10, 2016- I’m feeling so lucky that this little Leprechaun is mine.  Cecile is 5 months old. Scene constructed with shamrocks and deblumes from Dollar Tree, and fabrics to make up the pot of gold and rainbow.

February 10, 2016- Cecile is 4 months old. If this little Cupid doesn’t tug at your heart strings, I don’t know what will. Scene constructed from a bed sheet, heart shaped cutouts from Target, a bow and arrow from the Dollar tree that I spray painted gold and taped some hearts and fletches to for decorative purposes, and wings from amazon.

January 10, 2016-  Happy New Year!!  Cecile is 3 months old and as you can see- ready to party in style!  How adorable are these mini- disco balls?  Scene constructed from construction paper confetti, old christmas ornaments and balloons, a sequin dress I had in my closet (3 months is old enough for Michael Kors, right?!) a birthday crown I altered with construction paper, and the banner is homemade from paper I had.

12.17.15  The Force Awakens… and The Force needs a nap.  This isn’t a monthly picture, but a new Star Wars calls for the perfect Baby pic opportunity.  This was my first effort in creating characters from poster and construction paper. Hot Tip: Dollar Tree has amazing irridescent and foil papers, though their construction paper leaves something to be desired.    I figured the characters didn’t have to be perfect, just close enough so you get the gist.

Merry Christmas!  Our little elf on the shelf is 2 months old on 12.10.15.  Photo scene includes fireplace I created using brown paper and a sponge dipped in red paint, @Carter’s santa jammies, and a Christmas tree I trimmed from a bush outside my house, along with some Dollar Tree finds for stockings and ornaments.  What do you think?

11.10.16- The pic that started it all.  My little Turkey turns one month old.  Photo constructed from a roll of brown paper and I created the turkey by channeling grade school arts & crafts projects. The leaves are deconstructed floral arrangements from– You guessed it, Dollar Tree

Please share this page to all your Mom friends & Mom-to-be’s or anyone who may enjoy these photos! If you have any questions about pics, or if I can help get your creative juices flowing, feel free to reach out. We love feedback!

Hocus Pocus! Our Little Witch is 1 !

Cecile’s Birthday is October 10th, and what better way to celebrate than with a Halloween Party.  At 1 year old, a pumpkin painting party would have been a little premature, so I decided to pull influence from my favorite Halloween movies- Hocus Pocus and Beetlejuice for a spooky sparkly tablescape, some delicious snacks, and cute costume play date for her and her friends.

At the ripe age of 1, Cecile has already done so much- In her monthly milestone pictures she’s been an astronaut, an olympic gold medalist, a soccer star, Ben Franklin, a circus performer, etc., and  I wanted to display her first year in a big way!    I spray painted some branches to place in vases and tied twine strings to them to clothespin her monthly first pictures.  They made the perfect center piece against the back drop of Dollar store table cloths.. ( You didn’t think I was going to decorate for a whole party without using the Dollar Tree did you?!)

Next item of business for Hostess 101 is of course, the food! I’m from the South and we usually go big on food.. I tried to reel it in for this event because it was a small gathering.

We went hard in the Pinterest for the snacks:

This Harvest Hash trail mix kept guests coming back to graze for more.. I also tied them a couple scoops of it up in several Halloween treat bags as Party favors for the adults there!

We had a veggie tray like so, except i carved an Orange Bell Pepper to look like a jack-o-lantern instead of using the pumpkin.

For a sweet appetizer, I also whipped this delicious pumpkin spice appetizer up with Cool Whip and Fall spices to serve with apples and nilla wafers.  It is a MUST TRY for your next Fall Party:

For one more appetizer I did a crowd favorite, cream cheese with pepper jelly.  You can get creative here with shapes for your cream cheese, but I went with the simplest- a bone:

What is a Fall party with out apple treats?   The kids were a little young to bob for apples so I whipped up some mini caramel apples with a melon baller and caramel dip.

If you plan on making these caramel apples, remember to heat up the caramel and stir stir stir like you’re making a roux.  And if you don’t know what a roux is, that’s a post for another day. Some other quick tips are to make sure you pat dry the apples before dipping them in caramel, and dip them in an ice bath immediately after you dip them in caramel to set the coating.

Lastly, What is a birthday party without cakes and sweet treats?

My neighbor Jess has an amazing baking company called Jealous Bunny Cakes.  She specializes in high-end gluten-free baked goods.  I was never a gluten-free fan before I had her sweets, and I’m a total convert now.  She’s amazing with carrot cakes, red velvet, cake pops, and specialty chocolates, but for Cecile’s party, we went with a reese’s pieces/Elvis inspired Peanut Butter Banana combo.

How perfect do these look?!  And they taste even better if you can believe it!

Follow her on facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/JealousBunnyCakes/  and if you are in the Denver area, give her a call for your next catered event!

My neighborhood is just teaming with talent.  I also have a neighbor who makes specialty holiday cards.  We used her digital paper cutter and some paper straws to take these delicious treats to the next level with some adorable toppers: 

The guests all loved them, and as far as witchy decor goes- It doesn’t get any cuter.

For more of Claudia’s awesome paper creations and cards, please follow her on instagram@

https://www.instagram.com/cshadler1/

As if I didn’t have enough sweet treats by now, I got a little carried away and also ordered a cake– which turned out sooo cute and worked as a statement piece for the Halloween tablescape:

While it looked amazing and I’m sure was delicious with all its chocolatey layers, we ended up not cutting the cake until the next day because everyone was stuffed with other sweet treats!

We carried over the Halloween theme to Cecile’s throne… I mean high chair.  Claudia also used her digital paper cutter for the witch hat that says “1” and I made the highchair skirt by cutting strands of cute fabric and tying them on some twine.

Such an easy DIY with a cute effect and for easy cake smashing clean up, I covered the back of the high chair in another plastic table cloth.

For another DIY, I made this witchy grim reaper thing out of cheese cloth and fabric draped around a tomato cage.  It’s a fun game in my house for my husband and I to take turns placing her in new spots so that she scares the bejesus out of the unsuspecting victim.

I took a tomato cage and draped black fabric instead of white and added cheese cloth to get a grim reaper look.

I added a coat hanger to mimic the shoulder silhouette and tied on some skeleton hands (salad tossers from the dollar tree) as hands.  She’s holding a cauldron filled with party favors for all of Cecile’s guests too and a broom. 

I also accented the table scape with fabrics of purple, black and white for a great color combo.  I used some sparkly pumpkin props for a girly accent and got my little witch and I dressed in matching costumes.

Over all it was a spooky, smashing success:

Thanks for visiting!