Customer Photos: Train Party

Laura shared photos from her son's party.  She used my Printable Train Collection.  There are so many amazing details.  Laura used a few different vendors to pull this adorable party off.  I love the family name sign!  I'm thinking my son would love that in his room.  Enjoy the photos!

Hats and shirts for the boys: http://www.etsy.com/shop/InitialHereGifts

Personalized sign: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thebackporchshoppe

Cake: http://www.sweetcreationsbystephanie.com/

Engineer hats, bandanas, train whistles: Oriental Trading

Printable Valentines

I recently added printable versions of my Valentines.  You can print as many as you need, so if there are 30 kids in your child's class, no problem.  You can also add a heart shaped candy or sucker for a sweet touch.  You can find my printable Valentines in the shop!

Stars: The Hidden Meaning

So with my new name came a new logo.  My designs are fairly clean and simple.  And when I tried to think of something to go with 'nickwilljack' I thought the stars fit perfectly.  Now these may look like simple stars, but there's a lot more to them.  For example, there are three stars to represent my three boys.  Each star is a different size, representing their birth order (Nicholas is my oldest so he's the biggest).  Then there are three stars in each star.  Three is kind of our number (mine and my hubby's).  

• My hubby was the youngest of 3 kids
• My hubby is William Hardie III 
• His favorite hockey player was Patrick Roy, #33
• We have 3 boys
• I have a necklace with 3 blue birthstones for my boys (each a different shade, how awesome is that?!)
• My youngest, Jackson, was born on 3/3/09 (a square root day, we're nerds like that)
• When Jackson was born, I was the big 3-0, my hubby was 33 and we had our 3rd boy on 3/3 (it was meant to be :)
• This year, my 3rd will turn 3 and I will turn 33 (gasp! yes, I just shared my age for all to see)

So you see, 3 is our number.  Three stars within three stars.  So, my little stars are pretty special to me.

Free Printable Valentines

How about I share some love with all of you lovelies.  I've got some free Valentine cards for you.  These are for personal use only. And don't forget you can share the love too!  With every Valentine purchase from my shop, 10% will go to Autism Speaks.

Valentine Chair Pockets

A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon the coolest tutorial for Valentine Chair Pockets/Backers.  They were inspired by Pottery Barn Kids' chair backers.  These are no sew, just some hot glue will do the trick.  I actually made an entire class set for my son's preschool class one year, they were that quick and easy.  You can find the tutorial here.

Dog-Gone Cute Cookies

I love making these heart shaped dog cookies for my boys on Valentine's Day.  They are so cute and so easy.  I think they came from either a Parents or Family Fun magazine from a few years ago.  All you need is a heart shaped cookie cutter, some frosting, M&M's, and mini chocolate chips.  I just used regular sugar cookie dough and used brown food paste in half of the dough.  Cut out hearts from both doughs, but slice the brown hearts in half.  Place next to each side of the regular dough heart and they will bake together (just make sure they're touching).  Push in your mini chocolate chips and bake.  Once their cool, you can use a little bit of frosting to 'glue' on the eyes and nose.  Your wee ones are guaranteed to howl with delight when they see the dog-gone cute cookies ;)

Share the love

You may or may not know that two of my three boys have PDD-NOS which is basically mild autism.  Autism affects 1 in 110 children and 1 in 70 boys.  You likely know someone with autism or you will.  Scientists are still not sure what causes autism.

We've been through some challenging times but things are getting better as the boys are getting older.  Our oldest (Nicholas) has PDD-NOS, ADHD and anxiety.  He's been mainstreamed since kindergarten.  He's in first grade now and in the gifted reading program.  This amazes me since his language is still delayed.  We are so proud of all of his accomplishments.

Our middle son (William) attends a preschool program for children with autism.  He attends five days a week, for about six hours a day.  They do a lot of ABA type teaching and it has worked wonders for him.  Before this program, he banged his head on walls and floors, jumped for hours, constantly threw tantrums and was a pretty grumpy little guy.  At the age of 4 he couldn't put two words together (ex. thank you) and potty training seemed like an impossible dream.  Within a couple of months of starting at his school, he was happy, talking and potty trained.  It turned our world around.  We were finally meeting our son.  He had been locked away in a dark place.  Words cannot express how much that school has changed our lives.

I wish all kids with autism could attend programs like the one my son does.  Early intervention is crucial.  Unfortunately, there's never enough funding for these programs.  So from now until Valentine's Day, I'm sharing the love.  For every Valentine purchase that's made from my shop, I'll be donating 10% to Autism Speaks.  Autism Speaks is dedicated to funding research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a cure for autism; increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders; and advocating for the needs of individuals with autism and their families.  So help spread the love and support a great cause!

Favor Bags

I have added some new favor bags to the shop.  You can now find train favor bags that coordinate with my Printable Train Collection and robot favor bags.  My middle son LOVES robots and purple, so that's why you'll see a purple robot bag with the name William.  I'll have to share some of his robot illustrations one day on the blog, he's our little artist :)  I'll be adding more favor bags that coordinate with my other parties soon.

We have a winner!

I used Rafflecopter for this first giveaway of 2012.  I must say, I love it!  It tracks all the different entries and then it will even randomly select the winner.  So without further ado, the winner of the Valentine Card Kit is...

You Are My Sunshine Party

I think we could all probably use a little sunshine during these long winter months.  I know I could, I'm not much of a snow/cold weather kinda gal.  Anyhow, Heather shared photos from her daughter's first birthday party using my Printable Sunshine Collection.  She incorporated some pink which I LOVE!  I also love the rainbow cupcakes.  Those are so cool, I need to try them someday.  Enjoy the photos!

Don't forget today is the last day to enter in the giveaway to win one of my new Valentine Card Kits!

Groundhog's Day

I know I've been talking a lot about Valentine's Day, but we can't forget Groundhog's Day.  Groundhog's Day is always Feb. 2nd.  Whichever groundhog you rally around whether it's Punxsutawney Phil (PA), General Beauregard Lee (GA), Staten Island Chuck (NY), Buckeye Chuck (OH) (there are several more) but whichever groundhog you support, be sure to honor this momentous day with groundhog cupcakes.  My kids loved these and so did Mommy.  I don't care for coconut all that much, but I'll make an exception for an Almond Joy :)  I saw the idea for these a couple of year ago on the Family Fun website.  You can find the directions here.  They're so cute and fun to make and I bet your kiddiwinks would love them.

Valentine Kit Giveaway

The rest of my Valentine kits are now in the shop.  There are the basic Valentine Kits with the card, envelope, sticker and bag.  I also added the crayon Valentine Kits.  These include 8 cards, 8 heart shaped crayons, glue dots and a coordinating drawstring bag.  I'm so excited to be offering these in my shop.  To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to do a giveaway.  I'll be giving one lucky winner their choice of one of my Valentine Kits.  There are four ways you can enter for a chance to win, that's four possible entries.

'Mini Me' Valentines

I thought I'd leave you with a little peak at some of the new Valentines I've been working on.  I hope to have them in the shop next week!  Have a great weekend.

Over the Hill

A certain relative of mine, I won't name any names, recently turned 40.  I whipped up a birthday card for her to mark the significant occasion.  And yes, I know, a Walmart gift card.  This is what happens when I send my husband to pick up a gift card.

Please pay no attention to the fact that I misspelled you're.

Super Nickwilljack!

Well, Christmas is officially over.  We took down our tree and decorations on Monday.  It's always sad to see the holidays come to an end, but it's nice to get back into our routine.  My boys thrive on routine, they don't do well when things are out of the ordinary.  Even though Christmas is over, I thought I'd share a few photos.  This year I decided to make one of their gifts.  My boys love to dress up.  Every year after Halloween, I head to Target and buy some costumes half off for their dress-up bucket.  I think we have every super hero costume known to man, but I thought it was time for them to be their own heroes.  So I whipped up some super hero capes and masks personalized with their own initial.  I made some for my nephews too who are the same age as my middle fry. They turned out so cute and the boys loved them!  You can find a great pattern for the cape and masks here on Living Locurto (another great party site).

Valentine's Kits

I've added some of my new Valentine's kits to the shop.  I'll be adding more designs later this week and I'll also be offering a printable version of my Valentine cards.  Each kit includes 10 Valentine cards, 10 envelopes, 10 stickers and 1 bag to hold everything in.  You can read more about them here!

Sneak Peek!

Welcome to the new blog!  Well, sorta new.  Same blog but different name and address.  If you typed in partiesbyhardie.com you were redirected to nickwilljack.com.  So update those bookmarks!  My etsy shop name has been changed to www.nickwilljack.etsy.com.  I've also created a new facebook page.

To kick things off on the first day of the new year, I thought I'd share a sneak peek at what's coming to the shop this week!  Until then, I hope everyone's 2012 is your best year yet.  Happy New Year!

Customer Photos: Sock Monkey Party

Stephanie shared photos from her daughter's 1st birthday.  She used my Printable Sock Monkey Collection.  I just love the picture of Kimber with her cake, and how stinkin' cute is her outfit!  I think I now need a giant sock monkey, my average sized sock monkey just won't do.  Enjoy the photos!