January 27, 2011

Party Time - Part Deux

I'm sorry for the lack of posts this week...I'm still recovering from last week's party planning!  Every. Single. Thing. was homemade.  Invite.  Decor.  Food.  Onesie.  Baby.  All made by yours truly.  I think I spent at least 40 collective hours, after work and over the weekend prepping everything.  Was it worth it?  Yes.  Am I going to do it again?  No.  Ok, probably.  What can I say, I'm a party planner and I just can't help myself.

The theme was "Over the River and Through the Woods to a Birthday Party We Go!"  (We chose a "forest" theme as an excuse to leave the Christmas tree up a little longer.  I'm thinking of leaving it up all year and just hanging the different holiday decor on them.  Valentines, shamrocks, American flags...it will be a year-round tree.  I think I'm on to something here.)  Now...on to the party...

Birthday invite, emailed to guests. 
(It was just family and a couple friends so no need for formalities!)

I wanted to carry on the theme in the living room, so in addition to the 7' tree and multiple mini trees scattered throughout the house, I taped felt trees to the wall with a tissue paper "river".  The (homemade!) happy birthday banner is about 18' long and with a couple extra blank flags, the perfect fit across our wall.  That was just dumb luck on my part.
 

The table is almost set and the "Happy Birthday" canvas board 
is still resting in the corner.
 

FYI - you can make about 21 tissue puffs of all sizes when on a 2 hour conference call.

I've used this recipe for farm stand lemonade several times and it's always a hit.  People are initially wary of the cream with lemonade, but one sip and they're hooked.  Even better with citrus vodka.  I made a few bottles of this and they were all gone. (Side note: those are gift wrap rolls that I cut and covered with burlap, not toilet paper rolls.  My husband asked if I was putting something we're using to eat in something we used in the bathroom.  Um, no.)
 

 I finally made use of all of the baby food jars!
 

These looked like toadstool mushrooms at one point, but the
little tops fell over by the time they were photographed.
 

Very realistic, mushroom-like cookies.  Making them required a bottle of wine.  
So I made two batches.
 

And my favorite - OWL cupcakes!  Oreos are NOT as easy to twist apart as I remember the commercials showing when I was little.  It's false advertising, I tell you!  If the two sides twisted off at all without crumbling, the icing would be broken.  So I ended up just using the (homemade!) buttermilk icing 
on the cupcakes and the Oreos.  
Thanks for nothing, Nabisco.

Note to self: when making an image for an iron-on, you must make the image backwards.  Otherwise, you when you iron it on, you will only be able to read it correctly in the mirror.  Genius.

See the Happy Birthday sign on the wall?  That took 2 hours.  Not because it was difficult, but because the OCD in me had to measure the size and spacing of each letter perfectly and it bothers me to no end that there are a couple letters 1/16th of an inch off.  I used wooden animal and tree cut outs, cut letters out of heavy cardstock and taped it all on a large canvas.  Voila.

So what do you think?  Cutest 1st birthday party ever?  I know.  athankuverymuch.

photography courtesy of paul go images.

6 comments:

jane maynard said...

the owls are adorable! great job on the party! :)

Beth Dotolo said...

OMG!! So great!! I love it!! Such a super cute little man...

Karrisa_T said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

I'm loving yours! I'm also somewhat of a foodie and in my dreams, a home decorator, so I totally dig your blog! The mushroom-like food look delicious. What a cool party!

dee said...

You did a GREAT job...love the Oreos for eyes!

PearlsAndGreenTea said...

THis is amazing!! I can't believe you did everything by yourself! Seriously impressive!

Lindsay @ Delighted Momma said...

OHH my gosh this is just so cute!! Love the idea of a forest theme..not sure I have ever heard of that being done! You are so detailed..the mushroom cookies are great!

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