Music Note Candy Party Favors

Yesterday was Earnee's Motown themed baby shower that I was a co-host for. Everything came together really well and turned out cute. Chavella did a great job with the decorations, Tiffany planned fun party games, Yuko took care of picking up the cake and the catered soul food and I made punch and cornbread as well as party favors.

Since Earnee's favorite color is yellow we decided to use a yellow color scheme with some silver for added glamour.  To keep with the theme I thought it would be neat to mold yellow candy music notes for the favors.

Molding candy is pretty easy. Personally, I like to use squeeze bottles to keep things simple. You can put the candy melts right into the bottle and pop it into the microwave on low heat to melt. It's important to use a bottle that is meant for this purpose so the plastic won't melt. Once the candy was melted I squeezed it into cavity of the mold. After filling it up the back looks a little uneven but a few light taps of the mold on the counter makes the candy distribute evenly in the mold and smoothes everything out. To speed up the candy hardening I put it in the fridge on a level surface. Once the candy cools it is simple to gently pop the candy out of the mold.

To package the candy I slipped them into a clear favor bags. Using a yellow ribbon I tied one knot around the top of the bag, placed a silver pipe cleaner on top of the knot and then tied a second knot with the yellow ribbon. I trimmed the ends of the ribbon on a slant and created curls with the pipe cleaner by twisting it around a marker.

The favors were simple and inexpensive to make and reflected the glitzy Motown theme. I like how they turned out and was happy that they were a hit with all the ladies at the party.

Maize & Blue Michigan Ribbon Shoes

Frank and I are leaving today for a New Year's road trip to New Orleans. Why? To see the Michigan Wolverines play in the Sugar Bowl, of course! In honor of heading to one of the BCS bowl games I thought I'd share a shoe mod that I did for wearing to the Michigan games.

At the end of the summer I found a pair of navy flats with light blue ribbons on the discount rack at DSW and thought they would be perfect to convert into Michigan shoes. 

To modify the shoes I cut the light blue ribbon and pulled it out. It was glued down so in some sections I had to use tweezers to reach through the grommets and pull the ribbon away from the glue.

To add the yellow ribbons, I threaded ribbon onto a large tapestry needle and then wove it in and out though the shoe's grommets. I left long tails on the ribbon so that I could finish off the shoes by tying the ribbon into a bow. The shoe on the left is one after I modified it and the one on the right is before.

The shoes turned out cute and only took about 15 minutes to mod. I wore them for the beginning of football season (until it got too cold!) and I am hoping it is warm enough in New Orleans on January 3 that I can wear them again for the Sugar Bowl. Go Blue!