A Day To Remember

Back to Pinterest! I mentioned in my 'Pin-Up Girl' post that I would write one about birthdays/parties. When I throw a party, any party, I try to make it memorable to the recipient. Growing up, my birthdays and holidays were all so special, so I want to provide those experiences and feelings with those closest to me. make it a day for them to remember. For me, it is a way to communicate to them how much I love them. I'll start with Harper's birthday parties. I'm am crazy. Absolutely crazy (according to some). I personally think I am just thorough. : ) I start planning a birthday party 6 or more months early. As pretty much everything else in my life, sometimes I am pleased with the result and sometimes I am not. I always start with a theme. Once I decide on the theme, it is easy to go from there. Chris says I go overboard. Good thing the parties we have are not up to him. lol I will provide some of the photos that show what I used to work in the theme of the party. I will also let you know where you can find many of the things.

Okay. I just started uploading photos for the first birthday party. I am definitely going to have to break these down into four posts over four days. Wow. Now that I am looking at these, maybe I am a little crazy...We will start with the first birthday.

I try to re-use as much as I can from one party to the next as you will notice when you see each year's party. I also saved by coordinating her Halloween costume with the theme on her third and fourth birthdays. That way she gets a couple more wears out of the costume, and I don't have to buy another themed outfit for the party.

This party was done pre-Pinterest days.

Harper's 1st Birthday

Theme: Poodles in Paris

Colors: Pink, Black, & White

Pre-Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INVITATIONS, PLATES, & NAPKINS

 

 

Invitation: I get all of my invitations from Etsy. They are very inexpensive, but always give the look of the expensive boutique invites.

 

Plates & Napkins: I do NOT like to do matchy-matchy. That is simply way too generic for me. I don't want my parties to look like every other party with the same theme. I got the napkins online for cheap. all I did was google poodle paper napkins. I always pull up the 'Images' tab to make it easier. The plates are from Party City. You can get fun napkins and then do coordinating plates in the same color scheme. Party City plates are also very inexpensive.

 

TABLESCAPES

 

I always do something on the kitchen table and the dining room table.

Kitchen: The cake and/or cupcakes are always on the kitchen table. The layout of our house is when you walk in the door you go straight back to the kitchen. The kitchen table is after you walk in over on the left, and the den is connected to the kitchen. So when everyone is congregating in the den, they have something to look at when walking by.

Dining Room: The kitchen table is small and cannot house all of the food. Thus, I have to do something on the dining room table as well.

 

 

Cake, flowers, damask tablecloth, dog bone shaped sugar cookies with pink sprinkles. The pink vase I used was my grandmother's. She passed away several years ago, and this is what I chose to keep of hers. I like to try and incorporate meaningful things in the parties. For the tablecloth, I went to JoAnn's clearance section and looked for something black and white. I was pretty excited to find this fabric. The sparkle wired balls hanging from the light fixture were from TJ Maxx. Combined they were $14. They came with the pink ribbon bows already on them. Across the top of the window is a wide pink and white striped grosgrain ribbon with dog houses, dog bones (I repeat, dog bones), and paws. I made those out of scrapbook papers in the party colors. I bought the papers at JoAnn's for less than $1 each. I printed off the dog paw and dog bone, cut them out, and traced them on the papers. The anchors are just simple black and white polka dot ribbon bows.

 

 

The poodles on the wall were drawn and painted by my awesome brother-in-law Hutch. We used that white teacher board paper from Michaels. It only took him about 20 minutes from start to finish. The magenta fabric was also on clearance at Joann's. They didn't have enough to cover the entire table, so I just put it in the middle with the same amount of table showing on each end. It ended up looking like I did it on purpose. I wanted to buy as little of fabric as possible of the damask, so I got just enough to do a caddy-cornered square. The 'finished' edges were not sewn. We used that tape at WalMart that you iron on. Easy and cheap. Simple glass containers with various pink ornaments from TJ Maxx. They were in large packs and very cheap. Obviously HA's birthday is in November, so I get the opportunity to do things like cheap ornaments and just turn the top on the bottom. People don't even know they are ornaments.

 

A FEW TABLE DETAILS UP CLOSE

 

 

 

These are actual mini dog bones from WalMart. Paw ribbon - WalMart.

 

 

"Puppy Chow" snack served in a dog bowl. No, I did not use my dog's bowl! TJ Maxx once again. I bought this one and another smaller white with black polka dot ones. $8 for both. The label cards are made from white card stock and stamped with Paris stamps I already had. Card stock - JoAnn's and less than $1.

 

OTHER HOUSE DETAILS

 

 

Kitchen dishtowel draped over oven handle. TJ Maxx $5.

 

 

From the front door to the kitchen, we put a "white carpet." I used that white teacher's board paper again for this. All I did was roll it out, tape it, and stamp mini paw prints on it.

 

 

The pink fire hydrant was on the bathroom door. Template found online. A friend of mine who is a teacher blew up the image on her projector and traced it.

 

 

Dog house made out of 4 squares of the scrapbook paper from JoAnn's. For the roof, I cut one of the black squares diagonally down the middle and fit them side by side. The Eiffel Tower is actually a wall decal that was already on my wall as part of the room's decor.

 

 

The mantle in the den. Below this is where her gifts were, so I had to do something small there too. Small glass containers I now use for candy or nuts, etc. at parties. WalMart. Cheap, but I don't remember the price. The containers are filled with pink ornaments and dog bones. Birdie's Big Girl Shoes was a book to HA from me. The colors matched, and I thought it looked cute up there. The garland is made of white card stock and pink construction paper cut to size. The girl is a stamp I had. I punched holes on the ends to run the ribbon through. Regular black satin WalMart ribbon.

 

 

Close-up. The garland was anchored with small bows.

 

CAKES

 

As you know, when a baby turns one you have a regular cake for the guests and a smash cake for the baby to dig into.

 

 

I am a cake aficionado! I a.d.o.r.e. cake!! I am very picky about cake. About icing. About moist cake. About fun designs. I found the design by looking up 'pink poodle cakes' on www.Flickr.com. We had a lot of people, so I needed the two layers. The cake is covered in smooth buttercream icing with fondant accents. I like fondant, but most people don't. That is why I did the smooth buttercream.

 

 

HA's smash cake

 

 

 

I think she takes after her Mommy in her love of cake. : )

 

 

HA's Birthday Outfit

 

 

Party Favors - Poodle sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles. The lady who made the cake made these for me, too.

 

 

The end for birthday 1. I am searching on the computer for the 2nd birthday photos. No luck so far which is very strange. Tomorrow's post will be another HA birthday. Let me know if you have any questions about any of these projects. I'm happy to help!

 

~Nattie B