A Baby Shower!

Like I've said before, I LOVE party planning (even if the actual PARTY might stress me out a bit).

I got to join five other friends in planning a shower for our sweet friend, Jessie.  Mindy and I were in charge of decorations.   I think we all agreed that it kept the stress to a minimum to have so many people contributing.  We each had a small assignment.  

The colors of the nursery are yellow and gray, so we made a few decorations that coordinate.  We made this fabric banner out of yellow and white fabric (tied to twine) and a couple dot garlands, hanging from the chandeliers.  I made one in yellow and white and one with white and silver (just use scrap paper and a 2 inch dot punch, and sew together.  A big impact for cheap.  And it comes together fast and easy).  Then we added some milk glass, and a few prints in our color scheme.

I made some little shoes for the baby:

I used a pattern I bought from Two Girl Patterns, on Etsy.

Remember my chalkboard?  We used it to write a 'Please Take One' sign for the favors (another friend made the most delicious cake pops, EVER!).  And I had Hubba make a 'T' for the baby's name, out of wood (because I couldn't find the right size in stores, and this was cheaper anyway), and I wrapped it in yarn and made some yellow felt flowers for embellishment.

I thought everyone did an amazing job and it turned out great!  So good to have such sweet, thoughtful friends.

Us, with the guest of honor (who you can hardly even tell is pregnant).  It was such a fun night!

Art Party: Part I

We celebrated Griff's 5th birthday last Saturday. I can't tell you how excited I was! He hasn't really ever had a BIG celebration. Our poor little middle child always gets the short end of the stick, so I REALLY wanted to do something to show him he's loved and to celebrate him, because he's a very special addition to our family.

When I think about Griffin, I think. . . CANDY, SUGAR, COLOR, ART. . . .so I decided on an 'art party', with lots and lots of color. It's a regular thing for me to be asked by Griff, if we can PLEASE paint the walls in the house with rainbow colors, so I worked hard to make the house a big rainbow.

Like I mentioned before, playing hostess stresses me out, so I decided to keep it small. We invited Sarah and her family! Sarah's son, Jack, is just one month older than Griff and he's one of Griff's favorite people in the whole world.

Friday night, after the boys went to sleep, I put twenty colorful balloons in their little room. I also put a note and some candy in their mailboxes.

this is after he woke up in the morning:

I worked all night long after they went to bed (Brad was on a camping trip with the scouts that night and was away at work the two days before that, so this was pretty much all up to me to get it done). We bought a big pack of colorful paper at the party store and I went to town making decorations with it- party hats, dot garlands, zig zag streamers, and paper strip garlands. There was SO. MUCH. MORE I had in store, but obviously I didn't have much time so a lot went undone, and I was fine with that. My main goal (aside from making the birthday boy happy) was to keep myself from stressing out. The day couldn't have turned out more perfectly.

thanks to eric, for sending me some of the pics from his phone

From the moment he woke up, Griffy was in such a good mood. He's not used to getting so much attention. : )

Wish I could say the same for his sis.

Another thing Griffy likes, is to help mama do some baking (see this post). In the morning I had him help me make these mini chocolate cakes. He had fun pouring everything in and licking the spoons afterwards.

After our guests arrived, we went out for pizza, then came home and each kid got to decorate their own mini cake and scoop of ice cream.

It seriously took him a good 4 minutes to blow the candles out. This boy cracks me up.

I used these little paper bowls left over from some Valentine's treats, to hold mini m&ms and regular-sized m&ms for decorating their desserts. We also had big and small gum balls and sprinkles in every color of the rainbow. I found the tiny colorful spoons at Zurchers.

Total sugar overload, but I didn't hear anyone complaining! I had the kids watch as I poured 7up into the cups and they changed different colors.

We took some time decorating and eating and then headed outside for some art! This is far too long already, so I'll tell you about the rest in another post.

credits:

balloons in the room- crafty moods

party hats- oh, happy day

zig zag accordian streamers- oh! party

chocolate cakes- a little bit of everything

strawberry cream cheese frosting- glorious treats

paper strip garland- minieco

magic color-changing drinks- petitchef

Art Party: Part II

Continued from Art Party: Part I

After we filled ourselves with sugar, we headed outside with a big drop cloth, some paint, chalk, paper, and canvases, and set out to make our own works of art.

Our first project was bubble art.

They had fun with it, but the color is very subtle, so I think they were in need of something more vibrant. Luckily, our next project took care of that.

We made DRIP ART (at least that's what I'm calling it). Pretty sure this was the favorite of the day. We started with a layer of white paint on our canvas. Then dripped a few new colors on, and tilted the canvas to spread the color. We continued the process of dripping and tilting, until there were no more white spots.

The end result was a beautiful swirl of color.

We brought our masterpieces inside, hung the bubble art on a clothesline in the kitchen and laid the drip art on some wax paper to dry.

Each kid got a goodie bag with a mini etch-a-sketch, watercolor paint palette, and box of crayons, so they can continue to make their own art at home.

Credits:

bubble painting: Housing a Forest

drip art: Housing a Forest

goodie bags and contents: ZURCHERS (greatest party store EVAH!)

more art party ideas on my pinterest board. wish i could've done them all.

Birthday girl

As I mentioned before, we just celebrated our teeny little girl's one year birthday. I love this girly so much and we had fun celebrating with her. Some details:

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1. The 'party' table. We don't do big parties for our kids, with all of OUR friends. Just don't see the point. So it was just the five of us, but I always love to make it special, with some decorations and a cake. (Balloons, tapered candles, polka dot napkins, and small paper plates from Zurchers! Who knew they had such cute party supplies there? I also got some stripey straws there.)

2. Flower Garland. I just bought a bunch of artificial flowers from Wal-Mart. I formed the flowers into a garland and connected them to each other using flower wire (don't know if that's the correct term. I got it in the flower section at Hobby Lobby). Then I cut off any long stems that were sticking out and, voila! A simple way to add some color to the party decor.

3. Chocolate cake with Salted Caramel Frosting. My frosting was too runny but the cake was still delicious. (Note: We don't drink coffee so I replaced that with an equal amount of water and a teaspoon or so of cardamom.) Remember my cake stand?

4. I made Penelope a chevron blanket, from this pattern. There's a similar one for FREE, here.

5. Presents.

6. Our antique store find. Remember this post? Also, tissue paper and tulle flower tutorial here.

7. & 8. Birthday girl, enjoying her cake.

Le Case de Cousin Paul

I love these light strands from Le Case de Cousin Paul (found via Oh Happy Day). Would they not be perfect for virtually ANY holiday/party? Green, red, pink, white for Christmas (or even blues)- black, greys, and white for Halloween- browns, orange, cream for Fall. So pretty! Sadly, they're only in Europe but I still like to look at pictures like these, just for inspiration. Maybe you could make something similar with a strand of lights and a tutorial like THIS ONE, from Reese Dixon.