This Party Brought To You By The Letter A

Are you guys obsessed with fonts?  I am addicted to gorgeous fonts, I have about 493 zillion on my computer and every time I see another great one I just can't resist.  This party is perfect for the typography obsessed, there's so many ways to personalize a monogram!

1. Alphabet Balloons from Aliexpress.com // 2. Letter A Candles from here, here, here and here and Polka Dot Cake by Betty Crocker // 3. Monogram Magnetic Portraits from Pinhole Press // 4. Clipart for Monogram Invitation from Martha Stewart // 5. Orange Leather Sandals from Mini Boden // 6. Fizzy Sequin Skirt from Mini Boden // 7. Aa Letter T-shirt for Kids by American Apparel // 8. Letter Cookie Cutters by Martha Stewart

A huge load of letter balloons is easy and sweet decoration, if you don't want to order online I would think your local party store should have something like these.  The polka dot cake would be a snap frosted white and dotted with Necco Candy Wafers, topped with a variety of letter A candles - cute!  I love the idea of a custom favor for your tiny and tall guests, these monogrammed portrait magnets would be easy, and at about $2, each pretty cost effective too.  An easy wrapping job in little brown bags with your monogram printed on them and some colorful baker's twine.  

Those alphabet invitations from Martha Stewart are free and totally sweet!  I'm always thinking of a special outfit for your tiny guest of honor, American Apparel Helvetica Alphabet T-shirts also for adults here.  I love the custom sugar cookies, but you could save time with these Earth's Best Letter of the Day Cookies too (so sweet!)

More typography inspiration for your party here and here.  It could also be a fun way to do a subtle Sesame Street birthday party, and it's so gender neutral (maybe sub the pink, peach and yellow for emerald, navy, and seagreen?  Just a thought...have fun!

Melly Turns Two: Babar the Elephant and Balloons!

Last weekend we attended the most adorable birthday party for the most adorable little girl.  Her mom is a close friend, and has wonderful style!  

The idea for the party started with this sweet drawing by Laurent de Brunhoff (the successor author and illustrator of the Babar the Elephant books, started by his father.)  I helped her redraw the image, which we had printed on cotton fabric at Spoonflower.  I used this super simple tutorial to sew the fabric into a cute little party skirt for Mel.

The food was ordered from Slow G's Eatery in Danville and it was sooooo good!  Tasty sandwiches, quinoa and potato salad, and even a gluten free peanut butter and apple butter sammie for little Rosie.

Bunches and bunches of balloons left loose on the ceiling were delightful for kids and adults alike, Amanda made the cute happy birthday banner herself, and I arranged a few ranunculus from the farmer's market for the tables.

Those playful napkins are from Ikea, the adorable milk bottles and bags for the kids lunches are from pinklemonadeparty on Etsy, and that AMAZING Babar cake was made by Amanda's stepsister, Amanda Benguerel.  Her company name is Cake Plate Confections, and I think she is brilliant and terrifically talented.  The cake flavors were chocolate peanut butter and lemon raspberry, made dairy free for Phil (Melly's dad) and tasted UHHHHHMAZING.

Oh and speaking of Phil.  He designed and built this crazy huge Babar for the party using the Lego Digital Designer tool on the Lego website!  It was really cool, I have to admit.  Who doesn't want to build a giant Lego anything?  I miss Legos.

The party was so sweet and fun, thanks Amanda, Phil and Melly for having us!  Oh, just one more shot, here they are:

Too cute.  Seriously.

(all pictures by me)

Emma Turns Three: A Turquoise Princess Party, Part 2

As promised, here are a few pics from Emma's party on Saturday.  The party decor revolved around turquoise and some complementary shades of blue, with Cinderella themed touches thrown in to delight our little Miss Emma.  You can see where we started with inspiration on the mood board here.

The flowers were arranged by me, with two shades of wax flower, chamomile and little spray roses tucked in with some gorgeous blue hydrangea.  I loved the cupcake toppers, it's just how I like to do themed birthdays - an outline or suggestion of Cinderella's dress is simpler and more palatable than a direct image I think and just as delightful to the kiddos.

The family had just moved into their new house a few months ago, I love love love the color choices they made for the walls.  Insider info: many of those were made when they couldn't be there in person to test swatch the paint choices.  Impressive, yes?

I made the birthday banner in shades of blue and turquoise floral print, it's hard to see from the dark picture (ergh limited camera skills!) but it was perfect for a little girl!  I also hung turquoise, royal blue, and white crepe paper streamers and doily garlands over the fireplace and archways in the house.

The family did all the food, which was simple and easy (the only way to really enjoy your own party, don't you think?)  Mimosas were served to the adult guests, I just love the champagne bucket and that footed fruit bowl - gorgeous!  The picture frame is from Ikea and a total steal at $4.99.

And here's the adorable birthday girl with her family (dressed in party coordinating colors - love them!)  We did giant round balloons with garlands and rosettes, the kids got such a kick out of them.

We also set up a table with paper gold crowns, glitter pens, and jewel stickers for the kids to make their own royal headgear.  Favors included a sweet coloring pack featuring the Disney princesses and a swirly turquoise lollipop for a fun treat, wrapped in white bakery envelopes and baker's twine it was a present fit for royalty.  The party was such a pleasure to design and decorate, I'm such a sucker for great kids parties!  A very happy birthday to sweet Emma, thanks for letting me in on the good times!

(all pictures by me)

Emma Turns Three: A Turquoise Princess Party

I can't wait to share the photos from what I was up to this weekend...another birthday party!  This one for sweet little (now) 3-year-old Emma.  She had asked for a turquoise Cinderella princess party (adorable!) and I think we delivered on that while keeping the saccharine levels moderate for the adults.   Here's a sneak peek at the mood board, pictures from the party to come tomorrow!

1. Large round balloons with tassels or garlands (picture from here)  // 2. Doily Garlands (from here) // 3. Flowers (pic from here) // 4. Crepe paper garlands // 5. Striped Paper Straws // 6. Cinderella's Dress Cupcake Toppers // 7. Fairy Godmother Wands (pic from here) // 8. Custom Invitations by me! // 9. Custom Birthday Garland by me!

Airmail Valentines

Inspired by the charming Rifle Paper Co. Postman valentines (1), and all the airmail bakers twine (2) and washi tape (3) I've been lusting after, I whipped together a few last minute valentines for the pint sized amor in your life.

The first one is so simple, just a tiny mailbox from the $1 section at Target, filled with red and blue Jolly Ranchers (a personal favorite!) I adore these kiddo sized mailboxes, I was thrilled when I spotted them at Target last weekend.  The second one was assembled with my niece in mind, she's three years old and loves art!  I included some blue and red markers, some Melissa & Doug colored pencils (fat and triangular, so they don't roll away) and what little girl doesn't love glitter pens?  The Crayola finger paint is so fun and washes out of clothes (I can attest, thank goodness!)  Last we have a navy Cal Bears t-shirt, a little nod to my husbands other love and alma mater.

All of these cost $10 or less, and took just a few minutes to put together.  It's not a traditional Valentines Day gift (or fancy), but this red, white and blue confection is right up my alley.  Happy V-Day!

Moonrise Kingdom Birthday Party

I confessed the other day that I was already planning Rosie's second birthday party (yes, only 11 months in advance!) and here it is!  My husband and I watched Moonrise Kingdom the other night and it was SO DARLING!  I instantly related to the adorable characters, and aesthetically I was in love with the 60's based sets.  Wes Anderson can do no wrong!  

The story is about a young boy and girl, Sam and Suzy, who are in love and run away.  Sam is a savvy khaki scout attending summer camp at Camp Ivanhoe on New England island New Penzance, and Suzy (who loves fantasy books) lives on the island with her family (in a house called Summer's End - swoon!)  I myself was a scout, a bookworm, and a "troubled child" who ran away from home.  It's really so sweet, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.  This is what I'm thinking for the party:

1. DIY Pup Tent \\ 2. Aster in Jars (photo from here) \\ 3. DIY Branch Banner (mock up by me) \\ 4. Sweet Paul Mag Camping Cake \\ 5. Yellow Paisley Bandana \\ 6. Me And My Polar Bear DIY Moonrise Kingdom: Raccoon Patch \\ 7. Urban Outfitters Record Player \\ 8. Mini Boden Dress (no longer available) \\ 9. Etsy Vintage Fishing Basket

The invites will be based on the khaki scout uniform, using number 5 and 6 above.  For favors maybe these, so we can all be like Sam?  Off to find some "Sunday school shoes" for Rosie's outfit!

(Moonrise Kingdom movie poster from Jessica Hirsche's website, the designer of the lettering for all the movie credits, amazing!)

Rosie Posey Is 1!

My tiny little Rosebud turned one yesterday, it's so hard to believe a year has passed since this little babe was placed in our arms.  We threw Rosie a party to celebrate the amazing moments we've had this past year, and to thank our dear friends and family for all they've done to support us.

Rosie looks so pretty in greens and blues, I let that be the inspiration for her first birthday party.  Our love for vintage floral fabric and, of course, Rose's name brought about the tiny flower prints on anything I could find.  I'm thrilled with how things turned out, but it wouldn't have come together at all without my dear friends Natalie, Amanda and Sara who helped put up the decorations and even cooked and cleaned at the eleventh hour to help us out.  What would we do without the very best of friends like them?

You can find resources on my mood board here.  The rosettes were made by me several years ago for my wedding using this tutorial, and the garlands on the balloons were made by me and my friend Sara using this picture found on Pinterest.  I arranged the flowers, the mason jar jugs were purchased from World Market a couple years ago (similar here), the large lacy cake stand is Martha Stewart Collection from Macy's, the smaller cake stand is vintage, and the napkins are Marimekko from Crate and Barrel (seriously obsessed.)  Oh, and my dress is from Anthropologie (on sale!)

(all pictures by me, except the top one taken by my dear friend Amanda and the last one by my dear husband Edwin.)

A Vintage Floral Party For Rosie

Sorry for the long silence but we've been frantically preparing for Rosie's very first birthday party! I can't wait to share all the details tomorrow, but here's a sneak peek!

1. BHLDN paper lanterns (no longer available) // 2. Paper doily garlands // 3. Mini Boden Pretty Jersey Dress in Multi Summer Floral // 4. Amazon Navy and pink streamers // 5. Etsy JazzyAppleGal Paper Straws // 6. Ikea paper plates and cups (no longer available) // 7. Pretty rose arrangement (pic from here) // 8. Amazon Rifle Paper Co Botanicals Garland

I've been collecting a lot of this stuff over the past year, knowing I wanted loads of pretty blue and green florals for Rosie's first birthday. Pale minty seafoam green is kind of "my color" and my obsession with all things vintage and girly made it easy to pull things from our home and party supply stash to bring it all together on the cheap. More photos and details tomorrow, so excited!