Yoga Birthday Bash

 All the beautiful photos in this post were taken by Memories by Erin Leigh

 

I have a little yogi in my family.  My now 7 year old, absolutely loves going to yoga class and I love the physical benefits and the calm focus it brings her.  She was especially excited to share it with her friends at her yoga birthday party.

 

I designed a set of yoga flashcards for the invitation and the poster above that welcomed guests. 

 

We rented a dance studio at a local community center.  It was the perfect space for all the kiddos to stretch out and the parents got to watch the entertainment class from a bench along the wall.

 

The party started off with a yogurt bar.  The kids scooped yogurt and chose granola, blueberries, strawberries, honey straws, and sprinkle toppings to make their own yogurt parfaits.  

tutorial to come on the string art backdrop I made!

 

Honey straws from Peace Blossom Candles 

 

After everyone had their snack, it was time to bend, stretch, and twist!  The yoga instructor lead them through the yoga poses by telling stories and having the kids act out animal characters.  The kids had so much fun making fish faces, pouncing like cats, sitting like flowers, rocking their foot "babies" to sleep and the parents had just as much fun watching. 

yoga instructor from Kidding Around Yoga 

 

The parents enjoyed a treat of their own during class, Thai flower cookies.

 

We took a little break part way through class for a craft.  They decorated talking sticks with pipe cleaners, feathers, and beads; one of their own and they each contributed something to one they made collectively.  All the children sat in a circle and the birthday girl in the center.  They passed the talking stick around the circle and each took a turn saying something they liked about the birthday girl. 

 

 Elle's lotus top made by Ahpeele

 

The class wrapped up with meditation time and relaxation.  I don't think I've ever seen my 7 year old lay so still for so long unless she was asleep.

 

 

 

It wouldn't be a birthday party without cake... yummy cupcakes with yoga pose fondant toppers to be exact.

 

 Fondant toppers made by Two Suger Babies

 

All the happy yogis went home with their yoga mat, tied up with a ribbon carrying strap (tutorial to come!), and personalized water bottle.

 

It was so much fun for Elle to share the enjoyment she gets out of yoga with her friends and I'm happy to get to share the fun of planning this party with you! Namaste.  

 

Sidewalk Chalkboard Tutorial

For the Shoffice's grand opening, I needed a way to direct guests to the backyard and thought a sidewalk chalkboard would fit the Happy Hour theme perfectly.  I saw one at Home Goods for $80 but knew I could make one for much cheaper. 

Supplies:
Large framed chalkboard - since you'll be drilling into it, the frame needs to be wood
1"x2" board in a 12' length
2 one foot lengths of small link chain
a set of small hinges
4 screws
black paint
drill & drill bit
screwdriver

Cut the 1"x2" into three lengths - 2 pieces that are the same height as your chalkboard, and 1 piece the width of your chalkboard

Paint the boards black

Nail the stand/legs together - Lay the short board on the ground, place the long boards perpendicular to and at either end of the short board. Nail in place.

Attach the stand/legs to the chalkboard frame with the hinges - Pre-drill pilot holes for your screws (if you don't use a large enough bit for your pilot holes you'll strip the screws to your hinges and have to get your husband to muscle the last screw in for you)

Attach the chains - stand the chalkboard up leaning against the legs.  Mark the chalkboard frame at the point where the chalkboard and the legs are approximately 10" apart. Measure the distance from the mark to the bottom of the chalkboard and mark the legs & the other side of the chalkboard frame at the same point.  Pre-drill pilot holes then screw the chains into place.

I have a feeling this chalkboard is going to make an appearance at more of my parties in the future!


 

Happy Hour at The Shoffice - You're Invited!

After all that hard work and the many hours we put into designing and building The Shoffice, a happy hour celebration was in order!

Guests were greeted at the front walkway with this chalkboard sign I made (tutorial here).

Outside the Shoffice was a drink station and a giant platter of wings I baked that afternoon and kept hot in crockpots (you'll have to trust me... the wings & condiments and the beer & wine came out after the party started but I did my picture taking duties ahead of time).

But the real treat was in the Shoffice!  My very fun, but typically very office orriented, storage piece became the bar.  For the transformation, I made a runner for the top from chalkcloth, lined the drawers with leftover wallpaper, and opened 2 drawers for the plates, napkins, and the glasses.  The spread included:

homemade guacamole (I posted my delicious recipe including the secret ingredient here), salsa and chips.

Caprese shooters I made with balsamic glaze in the bottom, fresh milk motzerella balls, a basil leaf and grape tomato speared with a cocktail sword

Mojito jellies served in asian spoons on platters lined in the wallpaper scraps.  I made the jellies from the super fun Jelly Shot Test Kitchen book... sophisticated jello shots who knew?!

Hurricane jellies displayed in these stands I made by gluing the domes to chunky white candlesticks and lining the bottoms with more wallpaper scraps cut into circles and laminated (do you recognize them from the 1 year old in a flash party?).

Spiked Limonata with the recipe written on the runner.  2 oz spirit (I served Belvedere vodka and Malibu Black rum) and 11 oz Limonata (not only is the Pellegrino limonata delicious but the cans with the foil tops are so pretty!).  Oh and the glasses for the spiked limonata had little lemon zest knots in the bottom (thank you Martha!).

Birthdays aren't the only milestones that deserve to be celebrated.  Any excuse will do when there's great friends, delicious food, and fun drinks!

 

DIY Cake Stand

At Liv's last birthday I challenged myself to pull together a party with some creative touches for under $100.  The big hit of the party was the ice cream sandwich "cake" and roll your own toppings bar.  I piled the ice cream sandwiches into a 2 tier cake which of course needed a a cake stand!  I was wandering around Home Depot hoping inspiration would hit and found myself in the tile aisle inspecting the fauxe marble tiles.  A helpful Home Depot guy came by and asked if he could help... I'm not afraid of being the crazy lady with a wacky DIY idea so I told him what I had in mind, he whipped out a sharpie, wrote "sample" on the back of the tile I picked out, and I walked out with the top of my cake stand for free!  Some spray paint, a pillar candle stick I had in my home decor stash, some industrial adhesive, and a papaer and ribbon bunting later I had the perfect and virtually free cake stand!

 

Halloween Inspiration

 

I got to be a part of a really great Halloween party last year!  There were tons of fabulous Halloweeny elements to the party (I posted about them here) my favorite though was this make your own caramel apple bar I designed.  The cupcake stand and some little funkins got a coat of black spray paint, some spooky spider webs, and a sweet TomKat Studios printables set were the perfect stage for the sweets. Nothing draws a crowd at a kids party like a crock pot of gooey caramel sauce & candy toppings to roll your apple in!  

Balloon Wreath

If you like party blogs even half as much as I do you've seen the balloon wreath.  Here's the thing, I hadn't bothered to read an actual tutorial on how to make it until after I bought the stuff I thought I needed to make it and was half way through the project.  Apparently I'm some sort of strange crafting outsider because I just assumed it was made a completely different way than I later found out everyone is making it.  So, if you want to be weird like me, you can make it my way with a wire wreath form & a few bags of balloons:

Yeah, so that's it... just tie the balloons onto the wreath form... the end.  The only interesting things worth even mentioning are that I followed the same pattern (red, yellow, blue, repeat) and I skipped one of the wire rows that was close to the others... which I decided on just because the wreath was full enough without it and it was getting hard to tie the balloons on when they were too close to the other knots.

Oh and of course I should mention the adorable custom birthday hat cutie in the center... my Little Liv!  I'll turn your birthday girl or boy into a party decoration too, check out the listing in my shop here.

Simple Celebration - for under $100!

I love planning elaborate celebrations centered around unique themes and pouring over every tiny detail.  But for Liv's 2nd birthday I decided to go a different direction and see what I could pull off with relatively minimal planning, keeping it simple, and under $100.  Yep, that's right... I did it all for just $94.66 to be exact!

I started with a primary color pallet and committed to traditional birthday party fair like balloons, curling ribbon, party hats, bunting, and crepe paper streamers. 

I designed the party invitation to be post card size, so I saved on postage, envelopes, and printing.

Guests were greeted at the front door with a balloon wreath and the birthday cutie's face.  I thought this iteration of the custom cupcake picks I sell in my shop was so fun, I'm selling it in my Etsy shop now!

The highlight of the party was the ice cream sandwich bar! I set the stage with precisely hung crepe paper streamers on the wall and front of the table. Eight boxes of ice cream sandwiches I got on BOGO at my Publix were more than enough to make the two layer "cake" I stacked on the cake stand I made myself (have you ever purchased a birthday cake to feed 20+ for $19.56?!).  A DIY "2" cake topper finished it off perfectly! 

Also on the table were four plates of toppings to roll the ice cream sandwiches in.  We had mini M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, multicolor sprinkles, and coconut flakes. 

Last but not least, were the milk shots rimmed with chocolate syrup and multicolor nonpareills.  All the details and "how to" for the backdrop, cake stand, and cake topper coming soon!

Party hats are an easy project to make that really personalize the party.  I made these from scrapbook paper, rick rack, and crepe paper pom-poms.  The birthday girl got a special glittery 2 on hers of course!  I also decorated a little stool for the birthday girl to sit on to open presents.

Even though this party was a really traditional birthday theme, I always like to incorporate little touches that make the party unique to the guest of honor, this Birthday Girl photo stand showcasing pictures throughout the year did just that.

So there you have it... a simple celebration that was creative, fun, and didn't break the bank!

Vintage Label Can Centerpieces

 

Thanks so much for all the positive feedback on the U-Pick party.  It's always so fun when other people appreciate your vision and are inspired by it!  Speaking of... this isn't the reason for this post, but a good time to mention that Baby Lifestyles contacted me to tell me that one of their readers was inspired by the One Year Old in a Flash party I planned for my Liv last year.  Check out Jess' take on it on the Baby Lifestyles blog here.  If you've done any of the projects I've posted on my blog, I would LOVE to hear from you!

 

Now back to my regularly scheduled post, the first of many about some the details of the U-Pick party.  Today I have a free printable for you and an easy project that makes for really sweet centerpieces, cans with vintage labels.

 

I took some pictures of vintage can labels, resized them to fit standard cans of tomato soup (print some for yourself here), used the soup, cleaned the cans, and glued the labels on with hot glue.  I was originally planning on filling them with baby's breath, but one afternoon as we were walking around the U-Pick farm I noticed a tree on the neighbors property with Queen Anne's Lace growing on it, so we picked some the morning of the party and waa laa a really inexpensive, pretty, and easy to make centerpiece! 

Coming Soon!

The party I've been neglecting you... errr planning... for the last few months was last weekend.  I'm super excited to show it to you all!  My lovely photographer has lots of work to do to get all the pictures ready, so you'll have to wait just a bit longer, but I thought I'd at least show you the invite and give you a little teaser of what's to come.

As I mentioned earlier, we've been picking produce at a local hydroponic farm nearly every weekend for the last few months.  Elle always has a great time and thought her friends would like to pick too, so we hosted an end-of-school-year party at the farm.  I found these invitations in Rethink Ink's Etsy shop early in the planning process.  I love the natural look of them, the seed catalog liners for the envelopes, and the hand drawn feel! They were the inspiration for the design of the rest of the party.

I was super busy with projects for this party!  There were 4 party favors, 2 activities, a food table, a sit down breakfast for the kids, a photo taking spot, and party decor so I'll have lots of how to posts for you as soon as the photos are ready, stay tuned!