The Stache Party

So last week was my dad's birthday and my sister and I worked up a little party to celebrate his many years of life!

I originally saw this photo collage on pinterest and wanted to do it for dad. I didn't even know it came from MS at the time! Have I mentioned how much I love her?

Anyway, my mom pulled some photos together for me and I took pictures of each one with my phone, converted them all to black and white and added a border, then printed them for the backdrop at our swanky venue.

Looking back on dad's pictures, one thing that popped out was his mustache. He's had one my entire life so I thought I would be fun to incorporate the stache into the party decor. Thus, the theme was born.



My sister and I made treats for the party. Lots of mini cupcakes came out of my oven and a few didn't make it to the party - a girl has to taste-test. I used Bakerella's cookies and cream icing recipe (with butter, not shortening) and added some crushed Oreo's to a little of the chocolate batter (in a box) as well as the vanilla batter (also from a box). Folks, I may never make  a standard cupcake again. Those things were delicious. The cookies even kept their crunch.



Anyway, my sister made a variety of fancy treats like peanut butter bites, rolo pretzels and sugar cookies. They were all so tasty. She also cut out mini mustaches and the number 60 so we could top the treats. I think the party table came out pretty cute if I do say so myself!



My sister probably got tons of cute party pics so while she was doing her thing, I chased her kids around trying to get them to pose with mustaches with me for a little photo booth fun.

Side note - do you have the pocketbooth app?

photo from itunes

No!? Go get it now. If you do, you know how much fun that thing is, especially at parties AND parties that have mustaches on sticks!

Anyway, here are just a few of the photo booth pics - there's a whole lot more.



Oh, and the swanky setting? We had it at none other than Jim's Coney Island. I've mentioned it on this blog before and some know it by "Never on Sunday's" but I basically grew up there. I've even ran into my Dad at Jim's a time or two. It was the perfect setting: laid back, the smell of chili dogs and Greek food and just classy enough to not get stares from the other patrons as we ran around covered in fake mustaches!

I hope dad had as much fun at the party than we did planning it!

P is for... (part two)

Thank you guys for your sweet comments on the decorations yesterday! Now onto part two of "p is for" and it's all about the cake and the rest of the party!



As you know, the birthday girl's nickname is Sweet Pea. Well, she also happens to be our little princess so I thought it would be fun to try to make a "princess and the pea" cake. Hopefully you know the story of the Princess and the Pea because I had to explain it to my husband. Sad.

Anyway, I set out to make a layered cake with each layer representing the mattresses and a little pea at the very bottom. My first thought was to put a jellybean at the bottom but I ended up just saving some of the batter, dying it green and baking a mini cupcake . I rolled it up into a ball, added a little frosting to keep it together and voila, a pea!

I had a little too much fun making this cake! I started with just a box of butter cake mix, mixed it all up and added a few drops of pink food coloring to make a very light pink. I poured it into a small, 6"x2" round cake pan. Once it was done baking, I set it on a rack to cool and started on another layer.

I just added several more drops of pink food coloring to make a darker shade of pink. I poured it into the same pan and baked it, let it cool while I finished up the last layer. I added several more drops of pink food coloring to the remaining batter, baked and cooled it.



Then the fun began!

While the three layers of cake were cooling, I made this frosting. It tasted so good and make plenty for the entire cake, 12 cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes! Plus I had a little left over.

Anyway, next I cut each of the three cake rounds in half so I would have 6 cake layers.

I started to assemble the cake. First I put the "pea" down.



Then topped it with the lightest pink cake layer and some frosting.




Next, I put a darker pink layer on top and frosted it.



Followed by the middle shade of pink and frosting.



Then I started all over with the light, then dark and finished with the last layer and frosted it.



I added a little bunting with her name on it and string it between two pinwheels, and ta-da! Her very own cake!



Now, I realize she totally didn't care what her cake looked like, and I admit, I probably had more fun making it than she did eating it, BUT, I think she'll enjoying looking back at her pictures from her birthday one day and smile. AND, she did enjoy eating it!





Here you can see the pea and a little helping hand from her sister-cousin.



more digging in





Thanks, Ashley, for getting such great pics of her eating her cake!!

We are blessed to have so many close relatives living near and it made for a super fun party for my girl. She was doused with love and attention and tons of gifts. There were a couple of very special gifts I wanted to share with you.

Her auntie had this pillow made by my friend Anna. It's so girly and I love the verse on it. Proverbs 3:24 - perfect.



Anna also sent this amazing little quilt to P to open at her party!



You can't really see it very well in the photo because P thinks she's a matador with it but it has her name and birth stats. Gorgeous. I think Anna might post posted a better picture on her blog soon so check it out.
 
And last up, to finish up the party fun, is P's very own, custom doll house. My sister decorated each little room with fabric from her nursery!!



How cute is that!? Sweet P has already found her picture in one of the rooms and points a talks to it. She also really likes the little rocking chair and putting her play food in the rooms! This is one of those gifts that I might be found playing with and decorating without her.

So there you have it, Sweet P's first birthday party. It's hard to believe she's been here an entire year but I have loved every minute of it! Here's to another fun, kiss, laughter and hug-filled year!

P is For... (part one)

Today is Sweet P's actual birthday but we had her party over the weekend. The house was full of friends and family and she loved every minute of it!

The theme for her party was "p is for..." Her nickname is Sweet P and we just call her P a lot of the time so I wanted to play off that.

Everything was centered around things that started with the letter "p," from decorations to food. Today's post will cover the decorations, everything from pom poms to pinwheels and a whole lot of pink.

Here's the invitation I designed (front)



(back)



And on to the decorations! My mom bought me a 12"x12" paper pad in Martha Stewart's Vintage Girl line and I made just about every single decoration for the party out of the one packet.

 

It came with 3-4 shades of pink glittery paper, pink and white plaid, pink vellum and tons more.

Remember these


and this


Well, I combined the two and strung them together with some twine to make a little banner to hang on the table.



and remember these



They were the little labels for all the food on the table. Since the theme was "p is for" all the food started with the letter p:
   pizza balls (both the pepperoni and buffalo chicken)
   pitas and cheese (artichoke cheese dip)
   pretzels dipped in chocolate and white chocolate
   popcorn
   peanuts
   pineapple kabobs
   pringles
   sweet pea cupcakes with this frosting
   pixy stix
   pink lemonade
   and P's very own "princess and the pea" cake





And I saw this idea and wanted to do it for P. I asked everyone at the party to write one reason they loved her on the card before they left and Eric and I filled out the rest.



I made a label for the front that matches her invitation. I put it in a little nook with a couple of pink pom poms and one of the photos of her from the day she was born. I love that she'll have sweet notes from people that love her to look back on as she grows up!

And last but not least, one of my favorite projects I did for the party, P's paper quilt. I'm not sure if these exist, but I saw this photo originally on pinterest where the girl used fabric scraps and glued them to a canvas to make a mosaic. Since I don't have a lot of fabric lying around and since I had an awesome paper pad full of cute quilt-like paper, I decided to make a paper quilt.

I made a hexagon template with clear vellum and cut out the shapes from six different sets of paper. Then I arranged them on a huge canvas and glued them down with decoupage.



I went through P's monthly photos, most of which were taken by her fabulous Aunt Ashley, and had them printed on 5"x4" photo paper. I used my vellum template and cut each photo out and glued each into the center of the hexagon "circles."



I still have to have her 11 and 12 month photos printed, but you can see the near-finished quilt in the background in the photos but here's kind of a close-up.


The center has a hexagon with her birth date and stats on it that I just printed out on a sheet of white paper and cut out the shape.

So that pretty much wraps up all the decorations and ends my craft streak for the rest of the year!

Tomorrow is part two of the celebration!

Blush and Bashful

To steal a line from Steel Magnolias, areas in my house are starting to "look like it's been hosed down by Pepto-Bismol."

Why so much pink?

 

My sweet p's 1st birthday is coming up!




So here are some crafty things I've been working on.




glittery pink pinwheels!


And this will probably be combined with some other things I've made:


No doubt a girlie party in the makings!

Happenings

There's a whole lot of busy going on in this house. I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but, guess who learned to walk. Sweet P is on the move all the time and has gained SO much confidence and independence. It's crazy how fast little ones learn things. Just crazy!



She was showing off her skills at the lake this weekend and sniffed out my sandwich and decided to help herself.







Oh, and to answer some questions about The Roadhouse, it's the same restaurant that used to be at Monkey Island - just new owners and new management. As far as I know the menu is similar but there are some changes and I wouldn't know what those are. The chef is the same and I believe the bartender is the same. If you go you'll probably see some familiar faces and some new ones too.

And how about a little more randomness to finish this off? Sweet P's birthday is coming up fast! I can't believe she's already 11 months old. Where did the time go? Someone please tell me. Anyway, I'm typically not too crafty but every now and then I decide to do a little project. This month's project is Sweet P's birthday party. I don't have much to say about it yet, but, I'm really excited.



More to come as my crafty streak continues.

Say What!?

I was recently asked by BabyLifestyles.com to have my nursery featured on their website!!!

Say What?

I was shocked when they asked me to be included. I don't decorate and don't really DIY but I did a little of both for P's room. What can I say, she inspires me. Do you know who else inspires me?

Find out in the feature here!

Happy Friday!