• Blog
  • About
  • Invitations
  • Chalkboards
  • Gallery
  • Contact

we heart emily's birthday

5/3/2014

2 Comments

 
a heart themed first birthday party
Picture
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:
Picture

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... 
Picture
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
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
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) .
Picture
this lamp was practically begging to get struck by an arrow
Picture
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
Picture
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
Picture
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
Picture
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)
Picture
i love how you can see the hearts in the window on the reflection of the tv in this picture!
Picture
a close-up on the mini wax paper hearts, arrow, and yarn + burlap 1's that made up the hanging mobile
Picture
adding the burlap for all of the banners really toned down the pink overload and was a nice change of texture too
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

Picture
Picture
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. 
Picture
all the mailboxes lined up in a row
Picture
who couldn't resist that joke? huh? huh!? they each had their first initial hot glued in felt on them too.
Picture
the total package here
Picture
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) 
Picture
i did manage to capture one of our stars - dog! hello dog!
Picture
Picture
special thanks to uncle dan, uncle kyle, and daddy for the best puppet show a girl could as for. 
Picture
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
Picture
so to recap on this super long post: it.was.perfect. 
special thanks to grammielee for the overalls that started it all...
2 Comments
darlene link
8/21/2017 06:25:09 pm

CURIOUS BUDDIES

Reply
Sheila
1/5/2018 05:06:13 pm

Hello. Do you have a pattern for your Curious Buddies puppets? I have a friend whose son has Autism and love Curious Buddies. He has asked for the puppets for his birthday and I would love to make them for him.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    30 By 30
    Baby Shower Gift
    Birthday
    Cake Topper
    Ceramics
    Chalkboard
    Christmas
    Commissioned Work
    Crafty
    Design
    Drawing
    Halloween
    House Update
    Life
    Logo
    Mural Painting
    Sewing
    Shower Invitation
    Wedding Design
    Wedding Invitations

    Archives

    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    RSS Feed