Life's a Beach

I just wanted to share a few candid shots of my 4 year old Olivia, with her sweet little friend Maddie.  A picture says 1000 words, and I think this is the case with these pictures below.  They were so sweet together...

There's just something about this last picture ~ Olivia's smile, Maddie still holding her hand, almost oblivious to the wave that just smacked her in the face.  So Sweet....

Fun in the Sun ~ A Beach Baby Birthday Party

I recently had the honor of collaborating with the incredibly talented Paula of Frog Prince Paperie on one of the most adorable Beach Baby Birthday designs!  While many were still feeling the effects of an incredibly cool spring in many areas, it was nothing less than the perfect beach day here in Florida on this April day.  The only obstacle we faced was the wind, but lucky for us, when the breeze kicked up, it only added a magical touch to our party as the yellow and pink ribbon backdrop blew in the backround.

Paula wrote about she constructed this amazing backdrop herself:  "One of my favorite details of this shoot was the ribbon garland. It helped to create a sense of intimacy on a very public beach, and looked magical with the breeze caught the streamers. The construction was simple; pvc pipe, some cut up strips of fabric, and a few lengths of ribbon added a lot of atmosphere to our day!"

 The food table was filled with the perfect beach snacks for the children to nibble on...from the starfish cheese sandwiches to the bucket of goldfish.  The gorgeous sea themed cookies were provided by Bees Knees Creative and were as tasty as they were beautiful!  Our little guests couldn't wait to dig into the Sandcastle Cake by Susan of Sweet Designs Kitchen in Orlando.  Everything was almost to pretty to eat...almost!

Another one of Paula's own personal touches can be seen in this unique kids table design.  With the wind in mind, we had to come up with a way to keep the tablecloth from blowing down the beach.  How do you acheive that AND keep the elegance of the theme at the same time?  Paula talked about this creative way of weighting down the table:  "A big part about having a party at the beach is making sure everything you bring doesn’t fly away in the ocean breeze. Our table cloth was weighted down with these ties at each corner. I simply gathered the material, wrapped the corner in jute and glued two shells to another string of jute and tied it on. Pretty AND functional!"

  Pinwheels were prominent throughout the theme, and probably one of my favorite touches to the party.

When the children finally stopped splashing in the chilly water and digging in the sand, they sat down at the adorable kids table adorned with glittery birthday hats and napkins.  Each guest also had their own personalized shell shaped place card at their setting.   The adorable hair bows were provided by Titi's Tutu's, and the birthday girl modeled one of their pink tutu's.

The day was fabulous. I probably had as much fun as the children, and I was honored to be a part of this amazing party.  If you would like to create your own Beach Baby Birthday party, the entire printable collection is available for purchase at the Frog Prince Paperie Etsy Shop.   And a huge thank you to everyone who helped out with this sweet party!

Jennifer Staples of Party Dreamz | Party Styling

Frog Prince Paperie | Paperie, Party Styling & Photography

Jill Luecht of Luecht Photography | Photo Editing

Sweet Designs Kitchen | Sandcastle Cake

Bees Knees Creative | Sea-themed Sugar Cookies

Titi’s Tutus | Tutu and Hair Accessories

Bunny Hoppin'

It's been a while since I updated but life is just flying by a hundred miles an hour these days and I'm struggling to keep up.  Its all fun though and I wouldn't change a thing!  Easter is just around the corner and I have really enjoyed seeing all the spring DIY projects and decor out there this season.  I will miss it!  I wanted to share a couple fun little projects I did this week. 
First is the cutest little bunny banner I made for my table at the spring festival this past weekend.  I used a template I found on Made for their PEEP Bunny Bunting.  I added my own twist...I used cardstock as opposed to the felt (mainly because its all I had in the house!).  Check this out...

I was so happy with how this too cute bunny banner turned out!

Next up was this fun DIY activity for the kids!  I found this Easter Bunny Bottle on Happy Clippings.  Too cute, right?  Again I used what was laying around my house, only this time, I wish I had made the trip to Target to get the pastel colored jellybeans used in their tutorial instead. The faces look just a bit to dark using original color jellybeans.  But the kids loved it, and it kept them busy for 30 minutes (which is a HUGE accomplishment in my house) and they never noticed the difference in the color of the jellybeans.

I'm not done yet.  Stop by next week for Easter Cupcakes.  I'm thinking there are some cute carrot top cupcakes I'd like to try this weekend!  Happy Easter!

The beginnings of our Garden Fairy Party

Where there is Joy, Laughter, and Color, Fairies will be found!

Introducing our new Garden Fairy Party! I'm making a few products for an upcoming party and I'm so excited to share them with you!  The pixie dust will be a craft station which mixes sugar, pink lemonade mix and star confetti.  I love it!  I also made the favor bags which will hold a little wand and some hair accessories.  This is the first time I tried my hand at the lollipop holders, and I was thrilled with how darn cute they turned out too!  I have a few other things I'll be making as well for this party, including napkin and cup rings, cupcake toppers and a table centerpiece.

The adorable model is my own daughter, Olivia, who was estatic that I asked her to put on a tutu and wings and dance around! 

I'm very excited for this upcoming party!  Thanks for letting me share!



A Trashy Party

Two posts in two days?!  Somebody stop me!  But this is a party I've wanted to share for a few weeks and I'm finally getting around to posting it. Check out this Garbage Truck Birthday Party, the perfect theme for a little boy turning 3.  The mother did a fabulous job combining Garbage Trucks with Oscar the Grouch with Recycling! 

These creative banners were made from newspaper and magazines that are probably sitting in your recycle bins too!

Baking doesn't get much easier than this! This cake was so simple yet so creative!  Crumpled up chocolate cake with a chocolate graham cracker path through the middle.  The fondant trucks were bought on etsy.

Think the cake would be hard to serve?  Not at all when you serve it in a trashcan and mix it with chocolate syrup! (Is that even legal?!)  YUMMY!!

The kids were fascinated by the garbage truck they got to see in action!  They each even got to put a piece of cardboard in the dumpster and watch the truck pick it up and load it overhead!  Everyone cheered!

When all the kids were tuckered out...(LOVE the sticker!)

Everyone collected their trash and hit the road! 

A Pink and Purple Cupcake Party

A Cupcake Party is easily a kid favorite!  I think children (and most adults too) love the hands on experience of decorating their own cupcakes, topping each cupcake with icing, candy, sprinkles, more icing, more candy...well, you get the idea!  This party was a little girl's 7th birthday party, and all 11 girls had the time of their life! 

It doesn't get much girlier than this party.  The house was filled with pink and purple!

I used paper products at the request of the mother, but still wanted to style a "fancy" table setting (at the request of the birthday girl).

The cupcake decorating table, where all the creativity took place!  Each girl loved that they could put their masterpiece on a pedestal while decorating. 

Check out this adorable cupcake pedestal by Jessica of Pen 'n Paperflowers .  Its a perfect touch to a cupcake party and if I had 10 more, I'd probably think if 10 different ways to use it!

This was my first attempt at a cupcake garland.  I loved how it turned out and will probably add it to every

cupcake party I host from now on!  So easy to make and coordinate with the party decor and colors.

The girls kicked things off by decorating their own apron using fabric markers and stickers.

Let the fun begin!

The girls didn't just decorate the edible kind of cupcake.  They also painted their own ceramic cupcake bank to take home. 

Not pictured were the games, Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake and a Candy Taste Test game.  Once everyone was all sugared up on cupcakes and candy, it was time to go.  So much fun was had, its easy to see why this theme is a kid favorite!