How to make a rustic rope serving tray, just like the ones you see at Pottery Barn.

How to make a hair bow using this easy technique to make a no sew fabric bow.

Classic nautical style in a fabulous girl's headband in this tutorial for making a sailor's knot hair accessory.

Plain deli containers are such useful, inexpensive things.  For lunches, for favor packaging, for making quick and easy maracas for an impromptu preschooler's marching band--and probably thousands of things I haven't thought of yet.  One thing I know for certain:  they're completely awesome for picnics and parties, doing the thing they were designed to do, hold food.

I mentioned in an earlier post how much I love doing boxed lunches for birthday parties.  They're made ahead of time, and the kids feel like they're getting a present when they get to open it up, and they tend to eat more of the healthy food that way.  I decided to take it a step further, and have fun with the food inside the box this time, too, and turn the turkey and cheese sandwiches into nautical life preserver rings.

Looking for a tasty, EASY treat for a nautical/mermaid/ocean type party?  The kids at the Rain Gutter Regatta birthday party loved these Nilla Wafer oysters.

For the Rain Gutter Regatta party, I'd already decided that I wanted to make homemade goldfish crackers. 

How to make a homemade version of that classic snack, Goldfish Crackers.  These are buttery, rich, and packed with real cheese flavor.

All the games, activities, and FUN from the Rain Gutter Regatta, including decorating sailboats, sailboat races, and playing with semaphore flags.

Nautical themed desserts and sweets from the Rain Gutter Regatta birthday party, including morse code candy dots, oyster cookies, nautical sugar cookies, a sandcastle cake, sea salt caramels, and cinnamon sand dollar cookies.