Thursday, July 23, 2015

Watercolor Painting Party...

With three birthdays to plan this year, (In May, June AND July, two of which were only a week apart)   I was definitely feeling a bit burnt out by the time the third party rolled around.  But I still did my best to give my daughter a fun and special birthday.  She has turned 8, and in my church, that is the age where children are then old enough to decide for themselves if they would like to be baptized.  (Needless to say, I've also been planning a baptism in the mix of all these birthdays!)  My mind was fried, and so, to Pinterest I went...  I found a few darling birthdays and asked my daughter what kind of party she would like.  She chose a Watercolor Painting Party.  Most of my inspiration was from THIS party.  Ashley, from The Handmade Home really outdid herself with that party!  It was truly GORGEOUS.  I didn't have quite the time or talent to put together such a lovely scene, but I did what I could with the time and budget I had to work with.  :)  Luckily my sister was kind enough to lend her talents to me and made my daughters cake.  It turned out SO beautiful!!  Thank you, Laura!!


I had the girls each decorate their own cupcake.  They each had their own little paint plate filled with different sprinkles...

My daughter was pretty excited to finally have the chalkboard decorated just for HER.  Unfortunately though, my "artistic ability" failed her expectations.  LOL.  She got over it though.  ;)

Simple balloons, some reused tassel banners from her sister's first birthday, and a fun watercolor banner made from coffee filters (made by my daughter) decorated the dining area.  I wish I got a better picture of the watercolor banner, but it wrapped over my windows, and the harsh light coming in made it impossible to photograph.  But you can see glimpses of it in the top left corner of the chalkboard photo, and the top right of the photo below:

Each girl took home their own painted masterpiece and paints, along with a little goodie bag of treats.


I had fun making the invitation and thank you tag for the goodie bags in photoshop.  These actually inspired some fun art prints for her bedroom! (That I will share when I get around to it) ;)
It turned out to be a fun little party!
Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Little Birdie First Birthday Party...

My tiny girl's middle name is Wren... so naturally she had to have a little birdie first birthday!!  There's not much to say, because we just had some family over for dinner and cake to celebrate this little lovely of mine, so no games etc.  But I enjoy "party planning" SO much, I had a blast decorating for this little celebration.  I took a whole bunch of pictures for your enjoyment!  ;)
 I pulled the dresser out of her room to display the cake.  (I found the dresser on my local classifieds page, and painted it.)  Mr. B thought I was nuts for bringing it out of her room, but I thought it was the perfect touch.  :)
 Mr. B made me this awesome chalkboard a little while ago.  I was going to share it then, but never got around to it.  But now, here it is!  LOL.  I gave it a light stain and went over it with Miss Mustard Seed's white wax.  I love how it turned out!  And it makes for the perfect birthday "banner" for all my kid's birthdays.
I made the tassel banner from twine and tissue paper.  VERY easy.  There are some great tutorials on Pinterest for them.
 The cake is just a simple strawberry cake box mix, and some easy homemade buttercream.  The bird topper is made from homemade marshmallow fondant, I cut the shape with a cookie cutter.


  I had to display my favorite newborn photo of her, taken by Shanda Photography.  She was 6 days old in that photo.

 The cake was all for my little Wren... (it was just a small smash cake)  So for everyone else I made other desserts... chocolate cake trifle, brownie bites with sweet cream cheese topping and raspberries, and the most ADORABLE birdie sugar cookies made and decorated by my sister Ginger.  Thanks again Ginger!!!
 Glittered mason jars I made with my sister a while back... we continue to reuse them for the many birthdays and baptisms we have this year.  Flowers are from Costco...  I would LOVE to find a floral arrangement class of some sort!  I could use some tips on that.


 More detailed shots of the pretty Cookies.






 I found an old window that I repainted to hang her monthly photos on.  I wish I had a better place to display it, but the thing was too large to fit anywhere else.  I still love this tradition, that I picked up from my sis-in-law Cat over at Catherina's Creative Corner Blog.  It's so fun to see how much these babies change in that first year!

All other decor not mentioned are things I already had around the house, or from my baby's room.
 Not the best picture of us... but I still needed a photo with my baby on her first birthday.  I am so lucky she's mine.  :)  And this picture better shows the true scale of the chalkboard Mr. B made me.  It really is BIG.  I have so much fun with that thing.  LOL.

And I am just head over heals for this little lovely!!

Happy Birthday Little Wren!!


Friday, January 23, 2015

Valentine Decor 2015

     My Valentine decor has definitely changed since last year (view last year's HERE.)

     This year my sister showed me some adorable Valentine decor items from a local boutique, and I instantly fell in love!  Only problem was, I didn't have $120 to spend.  And so, roughly $8 worth of wood, a $7 frame, a little paint, nails and twine we had on hand, and some scrap paper lying around, my sister, Mr. B, and I whipped up this little vignette in just a day.  (we made three whole sets, and had a newborn to tend to, so I felt pretty accomplished.)  Mr. B of course did all the cutting of the wood, and screwed things together for us.  My sis and I did the rest.
 The "sweet" plate is a simple white plate I already had and added the "sweet" by cutting out some gold vinyl using my silhouette.

A closer view of the "Be Mine"  I also used my silhouette to make the stencil for this.
 And just a little touch of valentines in the kitchen:
I still have my other items from last year throughout the house, but as you can see from my lack of posting anything the past 3 months, I was too lazy to photograph them.  LOL.
I'm not very good at keeping up on this blog, but that's ok.  That just means I'm busy with other things... things that have a bit more importance over this blog.  ;)

I have quite a few events I'm planning this upcoming year though, and I'm making it a goal to share all of those and look forward to doing so.  So thanks for checking in every once in a while!  :)