I've Got the Fever!

Having an eleven year old in your life can really get the creative juices flowing.  It seems there is always some event or project coming up that requires hot glue, duct tape, spray paint, and - if you're lucky - dry ice.  I got my dry ice fix when hosting Willow's (my boyfriend's daughter's) eleventh birthday party this year. 

I've never hosted a kid's birthday party before, and I wanted to pull out all the stops.  We opted for a pool party at our house, so naturally a luau theme was quickly adopted.  Last year, my duty for the bday beach party was the cake, and Adam and I, along with his friend Barbara, made the most amazing cupcakes, each of which was decorated like a mini-beach with graham cracker sand, creamy blue water and candy flip flops.  I had to one up myself this year.  So I decided on a volcano cake.

After much internet research, I came up with a plan.  I made two bundt cakes -one chocolate and one vanilla tinted with orange coloring.  Then I stacked them and shaped them into something vaguely resembling a volcano.

I then frosted it with chocolate frosting, leaving the shaved off parts of the cake crumbled up at the base to look like rocks.  I used some orange glaze drizzled on top for lava, and fitted the hole inside the cakes with a small metal glass filled with dry ice so it looked like it was smoking.  Topped it all off with some candles and tiki heads, and voila!  Volcano cake perfect for any respectable luau.  The eleven year olds loved it.  I even overheard one of her friends remark "What a cool cake, Willow is such a lucky butt!"  Fine praise indeed.

Riding on the heels of this success, I was asked by Willow if I could make her Halloween costume this year.  She has decided to go retro and dress up as Ms. Pac Man.  How could I possibly say no?  I was definitely up for the challenge.

Again, after much internet research, I decided my best bet was to use a couple of leftover moving boxes, a roll of duct tape, some staples, a little garden shade cloth and a whole lotta spray paint.  I started by cutting out my pac man shape:

I really didn't have any clever ideas about how to engineer this, and knowing that it only needed to survive a couple of wearings, the whole thing is pretty much held together with duct tape.  A LOT of duct tape.    I cut some armholes and covered the mouth area with shade cloth so she could see out without anyone seeing in.  Then we got some tights, a shirt and a skirt at the thrift store (I love any excuse to go to the thrift store) and again - voila! - we had our Ms. Pac Man.

Willow and I are so happy with how it turned out I'm scoping out all the local Halloween parties so we can pimp this costume out and win some contests!  Might as well capitalize on my creation, no?

Go Happy!
Amy