Everyday Celebrating

Everyday Events: Minnie Mouse Birthday!

I've said time and time again that I love hearing from readers!  I love hearing that they've taken even a small bit of inspiration from this blog and ran with it in creating their own spectacular occasion.  

Shay emailed to share her daughter's first birthday party - a Minnie Mouse theme.  This couldn't have come at a more perfect time as I have two friends who are looking for Minnie inspiration for their own toddler parties.  

Here are just a few of the beautiful details!

First, an adorable cake, complete with ears!

 

plus an all pink smash cake

 

Table decorations complete with baby pictures of the birthday girl

 

Glass bowls filled with pink roses and bead filler, embellished with the minnie ears!

 

Simple and cute tables.  Remember, wrapping paper makes great runners!

 

Bath salts as favors for the adults adorned with houndstooth fabric

  
  Cookies for the children

Continuing the Minnie theme 

 

Drinks in individual carafes - lemon water, punch and apple juice

 
How cute was the birthday girl??

Thanks to Shay for sharing some of the adorable details of a very special day.  I encourage others to submit their parties to share.  Inspire others! 

Everyday Events: More inspiration for a Winter ONEderland theme

This time of year, I receive many emails about the Winter ONEderland party I had for my son.  One of the best things about interacting with readers is when they share their finished parties.  

Heidi was kind enough to share her blog post featuring her son's Winter ONEderland party and I was excited that she allowed me to share some of the details with you to serve as inspiration to others interested in this theme.

 

I love these two ideas for food.  A cheese ball shaped into a snowman and stacked olives to resemble penguins.  This next photo shows the penguins up close (click to enlarge).   Also adorable are the chex mix cones and chocolate dipped pretzel rods.  

Beverages included a hot chocolate bar which featured many mixer such as marshmallows, toffee crumblers and chocolate chips not to mention alcoholic mixers for the adults.   Water bottles adorned their own matching labels and beautiful blue Jones Soda.

Favors included hot chocolate mix and these super cute lollipops made from a #1 candy mold.  Also given were snowflake mittens!

Everything was adorable and although her son won't remember the party, he'll have fabulous photographic memories to keep of the very special party his mother threw for him!   See more photos on Heidi's blog here!   

Everyday Events: Girly spa sleepover in zebra and hot pink!

My friend Julie threw a fun spa sleepover for her daughter's 10th birthday last weekend.  Super cute zebra stripes and hot pink were the palette and it turned out adorable!  A few details:

Zebra fabric runner with scattered "diamonds" and beads.  Fabric hot pink bows flanked the cake.

Glasses layered with M&Ms in the color scheme and of course the beautiful cake!

A close up of the cake.

 

Treat cones were draped on the chairs. 

Fun times were had by all and all the work worth it as her daughter told her "thanks, mom! This was the BEST party EVER!"   Can't beat that!   Great job, Jules!

Sidenote:  This theme would also work for a bachelorette party, wedding shower or adult birthday.
Super cute simple invitation that would fit in perfectly:

Ragu does vegetable centerpieces right!

Ragu generously sponsored one of the lunches at BlogHer and that's no small feat considering there were close to 1,400 attendees and this was not a luncheon that required RSVP.

I want to share with you a few of the photos of the set up because it was extremely well done.  The fabulous folks at Larry Abel Designs get all the credit for the event design. Even though the event was branded, it wasn't overdone or in your face.

Lunch entrance.

Tables/chairs were covered in one of my faves - spandex linens.  Sculptware provides a great video on installation if you're wondering how they work.  So easy and striking!

The best part... the edible centerpieces!  Large pasta bowls filled with tomatos, onions and "flowers" made from bell peppers and mushrooms! 

Second best part, this amazing, huge jar of Ragu made entirely out of vegetables! 
Oh and that's my good friend, NakedJen posing clothed.  She would normally pose naked, however, I did remind her that people were eating.  LOL

Go visit NakedJen.  She's fabulous and you should know her.  Everyone else at the conference did. I linked to her post about BlogHer for those interested. :)  However, I must warn you that her blog does contain nudity.  Duh, right?  NakedJen?

Everyday Events: Farm Party

A while back I had posted some fun farm party ideas from Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
As you know, I love seeing what others have come up with for their parties and being able to share them here.  One of my readers, Melissa shared her son's farm party and here are all the fun details!

Invitation!

Tables!

"Growing silver"  tied with raffia

Food!
Lemonade "duck pond"

An old recipe with a new use... haystacks!

Super cute cake and I love how she put the Fisher Price barn next to it.

Up close... love the "grass"

and the "plowed field"

and my favorite... the watermelon pig!

Goody bags!

Back of them had cow tales candy attached!  Cute!

inside:  animals stickers, haystacks and rubber ducky!

They played pin the tail on the cow with much success!

A memorable birthday for Brennan!  Thanks to Melissa for sharing!

Everyday Events: Rubber Duckie Shower!

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! 

Everyday Events: Beautiful Baptism

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.

She created the famous Martha Stewart poms in pure white.  Aren't they beautiful?

Doorways and windows were decorated with these precious cross garlands.

Cupcakes were iced in pretty baby blue.  The crosses were made from Wilton's ready to use fondant.  The fondant is rolled out and cut with a cookie cutter.

It's tradition to decorate a candle with the child's name and baptism date for the mass and then the tradition lives on by lighting each anniversary.

Guests went home with homemade magnets which Debbie created using the cross and dove theme.

Thanks again for sharing, Debbie!  A beautiful celebration of a beautiful occasion!

Everyday Events: Sip and See!

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!

Everyday Events: Carnival Birthday!

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!

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!