Monday is the last day to enter the giveaway for a set of paper products from the Kendall Collection at Carolina Pad. Go to this post and enter. Good luck!
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Today I have loads of cute pictures from a rubber duckie baby shower thrown by my friend Kelly of Eventology Weddings in Houston. Lots of fun details! Enjoy!
Debbie recently wrote in with beautiful photos from her son's baptism party. I love the soothing colors and how clean and simple it is.
Sarah wrote in to share a recent Sip and See she threw for a good friend. For those unfamiliar, a Sip and See is a gathering held after a baby is born. It's a way to celebrate their birth and for family and friends to get their first glimpse at the new addition. Also, it's a wonderful way to shower the Mom (or parents) with some love, get them out of the house a bit and of course, let them show off as proud parents.
Sarah took her theme inspiration from my friend Kim at TomKat Studios. While Sarah made her own invitations using digital scrapbook kits, Kim was the originator of the design and actually sells the invitations as well as a whole party kit in her store.
Reminder: make sure you click on the pictures to see the detail.
Here are Sarah's invitations.
When I saw Sarah's entry, I laughed. I can't tell you how many of those bubble wands I've purchased!
Inside the pots? Those are bubble wands from the Dollar Store and my son loves them! I love how they really add to a theme and come in bright colors. Sarah inserted them into colorful pots found at the Dollar General.
Sarah found these great drink jars at Walmart for $5.96 each! Added some great labels and colorful drinks!
Cupcakes! The cupcake stand was found at Michaels (don't forget your 50% off coupon!)
And the cupcake toppers again were inspired by TomKat Studio.
If you look closely, Sarah cut paper to fit each level of the cupcake stand. Brought in a bit more color and whimsy to a plain, white stand.
For favors, Sarah created the traditional candy bar except ... guests were asked to fill up a sippy cup to take home! Sippy cups were found at the Dollar Store at the fabulous price of 5 for $1!
Candy was easy to find inexpensively at Walmart.
Thanks for sharing, Sarah! And welcome to the world, Jasper! With Sarah in your life, you're sure to be showered in fun times!
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Don't forget to enter the Carolina Pad giveaway! A cute set of Kendall Collection paper products!
Enter now! Here!
The carnival themed birthday is colorful and kidlike and is just one of those classic themes. And it's one that's always worth revisiting.
Brittany sent in her son's first birthday party and I'm happy to feature it as as one that really shows how you can truly customize an event with labels and signage.
She made these great ticket style signs out of posterboard for the floor entry. The numbers are his birthdate.
Lots of custom labels for carnival type foods.
I love the striped tray with these apples.
Brittany turned this beverage tub upside down and painted it for a cute circus stand/cake stand!
Brittany found cute carnival signage and other pieces at places like Hobby Lobby and Oriental Trading. Some were from the Pottery Barn Kids line that is discontinued now, but may still be floating around ebay.
I love this kissing booth she made with a blown up photo of her son!
Everyone knows I like a wrapped set of utensils. Love how she wrapped them in tickets!
Guests left with the ultimate carnival favor... a goldfish!
Lots and lots more photos of her fabulous carnival party! Including photos of all the fun carnival games and decorations! Stop by Brittany's blog and compliment her on her hard work!
Elmo birthday parties are all the rage now! I've seen several lately and have had a few people write in to ask about Elmo ideas so I thought I'd round some up. :)
These came from Steph who owns the event planning company Couture Parties in Rhode Island. She recently threw an Elmo Tutu party with some adorable details. Here are few:
Invites:
Using paper lanterns to create decorative Elmos:
Arrangements made with Blumeboxes:
hats featuring 3 dimensional characters
cupcakes!
Oreos with Elmos!
Yesterday, my son celebrated a half birthday! 2.5! I can't believe he's 6 months away from THREE! Anyway, I won't bore you with the "where did the time go" thoughts that every mother has at these times.
I love the idea of half birthdays! Let me tell you why. I had a December birthday, as does my son. Growing up, I loved the pool and water and other summer activities and always envyed other children that could have fun, summertime birthday parties. Those just didn't happen in December and especially not in my town where indoor pools were virtually unheard of.
Half birthdays are a perfect way to mark another milestone within a different season.
Now, while I envyed summer birthdays, who knew that some of them were envying ME.
People with summer birthdays are not usually fighting weather conditions, but attendance issues. What are the odds that several of your friends are going to be on vacation on your big day? Or at a camp that they've already signed up for? Children of divorced parents often spend the summers with the other parent and some children spend a considerable amount of time at a grandparent's house.
The grass is always greener, right?
We're celebrating in a small way this year. My son still doesn't understand the concept of birthdays, but like most children, he does understand cake and fun decorations! And he especially understands people gushing over and celebrating him.
And that's what it's about really. Celebrating him and the amazing time he's been in our lives!
A couple pics of the simple setup:
The HALF cake. All you need is one round cake pan. Cut it in half and stack! I will probably only have five people eating this cake so it's perfect! If you have a larger crowd, since you have leftover cake mix, make another half.
On icing the half cake:
I've seen a lot of half birthday cakes where 1/2 was piped on with a pastry bag. I decided to use the traditional numbers and add a decimal for a modern touch.
The decimal is made of one piece of dot candy "glued" onto the flat side of a white chocolate melt with icing.
Up close. Kinda hard to see since it's white on white, (click on it to see it larger) but the melt sticks into the icing like the numbers.
Farm friends! These came from a Martha Stewart kit. They were at a local Super Walmart on clearance for $3. The kit contains everything, even the balloons and stands. Super easy! All the pieces already have adhesive.
These farm animal balloons would be precious at Easter or you could make them smaller and use for a baby shower.
Happy 2.5 birthday, Keaton!
Don't you love coming to a blog and seeing real photos of real events? Me too. Plus, it's Tuesday and I personally dislike Tuesdays. Why? Well, it's not the beginning of the week (Monday) and it's not the middle of the week (Wednesday) and we're not close to the weekend.... my friends laugh because, for some reason, I dislike Tuesdays.
Anyway... moving on.... since I don't like Tuesdays.... let's see fun pictures instead!
Remember that wonderful carnival birthday I showed you about a year ago? That birthday was created and thrown by my friend Kelly of Eventology Weddings (Houston, TX) for her very own daughter Kendall. Well, another year has passed and it's time for another birthday and this year's theme was the Mad Hatter!
Held outdoors at a local park, this whimsical birthday included these fun details:
Table centerpieces - floral arrangements in tea cups with one single feather
of course, the traditional topsy turvy cake
with adorable matching cookies
and Ben and Jerry's sundae station! yum!
Guests spent the afternoon painting their own take home teacups
took rides on the Mad Hatter Express
and participated in the "tea cup toss"
Guests took home personalized M&Ms
with Kendall's precious face!
as well as multicolor glazed popcorn balls
Another fabulous birthday! If you're looking for some help in the Houston area, give Kelly a call!
She's the Knot's Best of Weddings for 2008 and 2009!
Photos courtesy of Sharon Nicole Photography
Also, a reminder that if you've recently thrown a party you're particularly proud of, send it my way!
I love seeing the creativity of others and showcasing here on Everyday Celebrating!
As I said in a previous post, I love it when readers share with me how they took a theme I posted, made it their own and went above and beyond even!
Remember my son's airplane party. Here and here?
Jennifer of Nounces Design threw an airplane party for her son recently and the details just have to be shared! Some great stuff here!
First off, her invitations. She is a graphic designer and created some amazing invitations. She went the same route I did with the boarding pass and also the map envelopes. Click on the photo to see it larger.
These invitations are absolutely adorable! MUCH better than mine!
And guess what? She sells them! So all of you folks that aren't crafty with a computer can still have amazing invites. Buy them at her etsy store here.
Now on to the things we love... details! Make sure to click on the image so you can get an up close view.
In Jennifer's words:
"For the goodies bags, I painted a Cheerios box brown, I then cut two
pieces of brown paper into the shape of a suitcase and attached one to
either side. To dress it up a bit, I used two stripes of yellow
cardstock and travel stickers. I think they turned out pretty good.
The adults were also sent home with a goodie bag, chocolate chip
cookies….YUM!"
Don't you love the goody bags????
Moving onto the food. She served individual lunches in keeping with the airplane theme. She continued the logo throughout, which really is the key to creating a cohesive event and bringing the theme to life. Look at the lunch up close. The banner that the airplane is pulling says what the lunch is "ham, turkey.. etc." Very creative!
Now for the cake!
From Jennifer:
"I went back and forth about the cake. I didn’t know if I wanted to go
with cake or cupcakes. I couldn’t decide…so I went with both! Dan and I
made the cake topper airplane out of Crayola Model Magic. Derek loved
seeing the airplane on everything. He would get so excited every time
he saw it. For the cupcakes, I added flags. Some with the airplane
graphic and the others with his age, 2."
How cute is the airplane on that cake? and I love the clouds!
Another fabulous airplane party!
Thanks Jennifer, for sharing with us. This will serve as inspiration for many visitors.
Don't forget! Jennifer has done all the hard work of the invites! She also creates custom invitations and announcements of any nature. Over 105 items for sale in her store right now! Visit her etsy store!
There are STILL people that haven't seen (or read) Twilight!
I know, shocking, right?
With the DVD out in stores, it's the perfect time to plan a viewing party!
Hostess with the Mostess sets the stage for a vampirific evening of fun.
All the details are on her site and she's done most of the work! She provides downloadable quotes and drink labels as seen in this photo.
Sidenote: I REALLY wish the DVD would have been out for Valentine's Day. Wouldn't this decor be perfect for a fun girl's night surrounding that holiday? Filmakers, listen up! New Moon... Valentine's Day 2010!
