a heart themed first birthday party
it all started with a pair of overalls... emily received, for christmas, THE cutest pair of navy blue overalls with little white hearts all over them. also, it JUST MADE SENSE! she, having been born in the month of love, was bound to have a valentines-esque party at one point in her life. it was "theme at first sight" and i knew that this single article of clothing was going to guide the entirety of my free time for the month of january. yes, i have no shame admitting that i planned and crafted for this party for a whole month. i gave myself a budget of 200$ for all the food and decor. I told myself that was reasonable since first birthday parties have quickly become akin to sweet 16s. Here lay all the details in picture and narrative: | 
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the invitations:
purposefully hand-crafted and scrapped together like a homemade valentine. i paper punched hearts, cut out the printed text, layered, stamped up and drew on this work of the heart. then i scanned it in the computer-cropped-ordered prints and mailed them out. OH and i made sure to add a couple real paper hearts and stamps all over the prints to give them back their hand-made feel before we sent them out. i.am.crazy...
purposefully hand-crafted and scrapped together like a homemade valentine. i paper punched hearts, cut out the printed text, layered, stamped up and drew on this work of the heart. then i scanned it in the computer-cropped-ordered prints and mailed them out. OH and i made sure to add a couple real paper hearts and stamps all over the prints to give them back their hand-made feel before we sent them out. i.am.crazy...
the decorations:
i sketched out and deck-ed out every single corner of our dining room and living room (i may be exaggerating just a little bit here). i really wanted to get the point across i guess.
as per usual, a lot of it was pinterest inspired.
- hanging wax paper hearts for the living room windows(this was really fun to make)
- our favorite instagram pictures in the shape of a one on the wall
- and as is the hot new trend, a chalkboard of stats of the birthday girl
- yarn covered letters in this lovely tri-colored design
- even the cookies were inspired but that never ending idea-machine
i sketched out and deck-ed out every single corner of our dining room and living room (i may be exaggerating just a little bit here). i really wanted to get the point across i guess.
as per usual, a lot of it was pinterest inspired.
- hanging wax paper hearts for the living room windows(this was really fun to make)
- our favorite instagram pictures in the shape of a one on the wall
- and as is the hot new trend, a chalkboard of stats of the birthday girl
- yarn covered letters in this lovely tri-colored design
- even the cookies were inspired but that never ending idea-machine
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the rest of the decor was from my tailor fitted to our usual living room features or the typical things you'd find at any party (aka-birthday banners and streamers) .
this lamp was practically begging to get struck by an arrow
all of emily's 12 month's for pictures neatly hung across with darling little clothes pins that i already had from her baby shower
the favor table complete with a first birthday chalkboard, a giant envelope for cards, cookies, and the yarn covered letters i spent WAY too much time on clearly not getting the display they deserved
hanging walls of heart garland, a giant valentine envelope to hide all of our technology, burlap banners, and a continuous loop of pictures from emily's past year running on our tv
i'd like to think we did streamers real classy with this canopy in the dining room (wish i got a better shot here too)
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i love how you can see the hearts in the window on the reflection of the tv in this picture!
a close-up on the mini wax paper hearts, arrow, and yarn + burlap 1's that made up the hanging mobile
adding the burlap for all of the banners really toned down the pink overload and was a nice change of texture too
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the food:
i was crazy! i made sure everything that COULD be in the shape of a heart WAS. including and not limited to, the mini pizza pockets, the apple slices in the salad, the cookies, and the kiwi in the fruit salad. did people notice? who knows! was it worth it? i think so!
for the "cake" we did simple cupcakes arranged in the shape of a heart with (you guessed it) heart-shaped sprinkles on top. i've been told they were absolutely delicious! my cousin, who is a baker, gave me a recipe for homemade frosting that i think was the key to my success. that, and that i baked them the day before and froze them. this meant that pretty much 10 minutes before everyone came i was able to frost them all and they were a nice combination of cool and moist when we ate them. for that batter, i went for a couple of boxes of duncan hines white cake mix and added some color blast? sprinkle things? too. so basically i felt like i had "from scratch" cupcakes with only having to do half the work. make sense? here is the recipe for the icing:
- 2 sticks softened room temp. butter
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
+ cocoa if you want them to be chocolate (we didn't)
i would double this if i were you-i just barely made it frosting about 24 cupcakes
i was crazy! i made sure everything that COULD be in the shape of a heart WAS. including and not limited to, the mini pizza pockets, the apple slices in the salad, the cookies, and the kiwi in the fruit salad. did people notice? who knows! was it worth it? i think so!
for the "cake" we did simple cupcakes arranged in the shape of a heart with (you guessed it) heart-shaped sprinkles on top. i've been told they were absolutely delicious! my cousin, who is a baker, gave me a recipe for homemade frosting that i think was the key to my success. that, and that i baked them the day before and froze them. this meant that pretty much 10 minutes before everyone came i was able to frost them all and they were a nice combination of cool and moist when we ate them. for that batter, i went for a couple of boxes of duncan hines white cake mix and added some color blast? sprinkle things? too. so basically i felt like i had "from scratch" cupcakes with only having to do half the work. make sense? here is the recipe for the icing:
- 2 sticks softened room temp. butter
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
+ cocoa if you want them to be chocolate (we didn't)
i would double this if i were you-i just barely made it frosting about 24 cupcakes
p.s. there was no "cake smashing" for this girl. she couldn't stand the feeling of the icing on her fingers and barely had a bite of her cupcake... maybe next year em...
the favors:
now i know its so completely unnecessary to have little goodie bags for all of emily's friends but I WANTED TO OK!?! plus, i thought these little tissue holders were really cute and there just had to be mini mailboxes somewhere in the mix.
now i know its so completely unnecessary to have little goodie bags for all of emily's friends but I WANTED TO OK!?! plus, i thought these little tissue holders were really cute and there just had to be mini mailboxes somewhere in the mix.
all the mailboxes lined up in a row
who couldn't resist that joke? huh? huh!? they each had their first initial hot glued in felt on them too.
the total package here
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the entertainment:
yes, this was a major key of the day. emily is IN LOVE with the curious buddies. so we paid the big bucks and had them perform at her party. and by "big bucks" i mean i spent 20 dollars and made the dang sock puppets myself! we threw a black cloth over our baby gate to set the stage and played the theme song and PUT.ON.A.SHOW! emily LOVED IT to peices (after we finally got past some technical difficulties). of course, i'm dumb and didn't bother to document any of this to my satisfaction. i was busy enjoying it though. here are some pictures my god-send of a mother-in-law took.
(there also should be a video floating around somewhere lost in the abyss of things i wish i captured myself)
yes, this was a major key of the day. emily is IN LOVE with the curious buddies. so we paid the big bucks and had them perform at her party. and by "big bucks" i mean i spent 20 dollars and made the dang sock puppets myself! we threw a black cloth over our baby gate to set the stage and played the theme song and PUT.ON.A.SHOW! emily LOVED IT to peices (after we finally got past some technical difficulties). of course, i'm dumb and didn't bother to document any of this to my satisfaction. i was busy enjoying it though. here are some pictures my god-send of a mother-in-law took.
(there also should be a video floating around somewhere lost in the abyss of things i wish i captured myself)
i did manage to capture one of our stars - dog! hello dog!
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special thanks to uncle dan, uncle kyle, and daddy for the best puppet show a girl could as for.
at the end of the "show" they sang happy birthday and we threw a TON (ok maybe 10) balloons out into the crowd. seriously, this was a hit and should be incorporated in any one-year-olds party
so to recap on this super long post: it.was.perfect.
special thanks to grammielee for the overalls that started it all...
special thanks to grammielee for the overalls that started it all...
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