I'll save the whole "It's been a while bit". I have something worth pinning sharing and I want credit to share it with everyone. My son turned one recently, and thanks to an unhealthy addiction to Pinterest I had to make it way too fabulous. We have a great park not far from our house so I staked out a perfect location right by the playground. One thing our family has loved to do before we were a family and just a couple of D.I.N.K.S.(Double Income No Kids) was going on a picnic. So the theme was set. I bought gingham fabric and ribbon in red, orange, yellow, bright green and teal (Hobby Lobby) paper goods at Dollar Tree, and borrowed mason jar glassware from a friend. I used cut fabric for the table cloth (scrap white fabric underneath and plastic on top so I can reuse it later). I also made some banners using my good friend hot glue (mamma never taught me to sew...and I didn't pay enough attention when public school tried to teach me). I made my Pinterest board proud and made painted mason jars and filled them with faux geraniums. Birthday Boy with his party hat My party hats were also in line with the theme and very easy to make. First I bought Dollar Tree party hats, fattened them out, painted them with Gesso. This step was needed for me because I wanted the white in the fabric to not show the design underneath and it also gave it a matte finish which made gluing a breeze. I used Modge Podge to glue the fabric on just the front first (overlapping the edge of the "template"). I allowed it to dry then I took the fabric that hung over the hat template and glued it to the back. I'm really wishing I took photos of this now. Then I folded them back together, hot glued it in place, more hot glue for the string (I had to adjust the string for the walking candy apples that make up my family) and viola! custom party hats. My cake was also amazing, original and very crafty...but what's a girl without her secrets?