Today we celebrate our sweet Eliza Jane's 2nd birthday!! I literally can remember her birth like it was yesterday {read her birth story here!} and can barely believe this is her 2nd birthday. Over the weekend we celebrated with friends and family by hosting a little "Oh Two-dles" Minnie party! I borrowed the yard signs from a friend who did the same themed party for her daughter earlier this summer {thanks Nicole!}. The wreath idea is a total Pinterest-find and was super easy to make! I downloaded the "Disney" font and used it for her invitations as well as all the print-outs for the party. Ears and favors are Party-City finds. We have sweet friends who do vinyl, embroidery, etc. and they made this sign for me - just like one I found on Pinterest. I got the fabric for the bow from Hobby Lobby and traced it out, and used Velcro pieces for attachment {see below photo of Eliza Jane pinning the bow!}. A sweet friend who makes cookies on the side let me borrow her mouse cookie cutter so I made the cookies Friday night and then had all kinds of fun sprinkles for the kids to be able to decorate {more pics below!}. My amazing friend Aimee made these delicious "Minnie" cupcakes for us. We set several on a sweet little pink dessert plate I picked up from Anthropologie, stuck two candles in one and that was Eliza Jane's cake for when we sang to her. This is the sign of a really successful cookie decorating party!! Sprinkles everywhere!!! Sweet baby girl!! We love you and hope you've had a fun birthday! A special thanks to all those who celebrated with us on Saturday and today! … [Read more...]
10 Keys To Hosting A Summer Backyard Party In The South
Y'all read the title of this and you immediately thought of 3 things: flies. mosquitoes. heat. Well, we had all three last Friday evening with our annual 'Welcome Summer' party! Although, having had our yard sprayed recently for mosquitoes {I desperately want them all to DIE!! especially since I am pregnant!}, we still had a few. And the flies. THE FLIES. Pesky little varmints they are! Addressing the three "issues" above, first, here are my 10 keys, tidbits, for hosting a great summer backyard party...in the south: Use those collapsible mesh food tents - like these from World Market that I have! They also make useful fly swatters while people are actually fixing their plates! :) Buy bug repellent and tell people you have it. Poor R ended up with three bites on his forehead of all stinking places!!! We purchased a mister fan, but it didn't arrive in time, so Andrew put up a misting hose along one corner of our home. Thankfully, that wild storm that blew through here Friday afternoon {and it was wild!} took care of most of the heat, and left us with mid-80's temps instead of the sweltering 97 we were slated for. I asked a few people if we needed to turn the mister on, and they all said it was fine...so we didn't even have to use it! We also had lots of shade under the massive oak tree in our backyard and had a couple of areas set up for people to sit under said tree. KIDS. We had 21 kids RSVP'd on our guest list...the adults were nearly outnumbered! Kidding...we would never let that happen! But to entertain all these kids, we had a bounce house {with a slide}, and a smaller one that we own set up next to it, for the littles. We also had the two swings in full use {my heart was filled with joy to see kids swirling around on the one Andrew just put up for us!}, a hammock, and of course yard toys like R's grill set. We also had corn hole set up for the big people - and it was in constant use. I think a bag or two … [Read more...]
Party Prepping
I have been a little MIA this week mainly due to the fact that Andrew and I have been party prepping. We have been working really hard to get our yard and home ready for our annual 'Welcome Summer Party' that we are hosting tomorrow night. Every year it seems like we have so much time until it gets here and then WHAM! it's here. And we're looking at each other like, uh.... So the yard is ready, big thanks to our kids who spent several really warm evenings running around outside while we rearranged, cut grass, edged, and planted new flowers. Tomorrow morning {when it's not 98° outside!} I have a few lanterns to hang in various fun places and then minor things to put out tomorrow afternoon before the crowd gets here. The house is nearly there also - I have been picking up toys and magnets {the death of me} for the last hour. I've pulled out all the buckets, the plates, napkins, cups and other fun things like these umbrella straws I found at World Market this afternoon! {in the middle of the picture below ↓} We are nearly there. I'll have a recap for y'all by Monday on all the fun. Because there will be a lot of fun tomorrow night! The key to a great party {in my very humble and inexperienced opinion} is don't overdo it. We catered food this year because last year was so great, so many people came, we literally ran out of food. We also eat off of plastic plates, drink out of plastic cups {or whatever adult beverage container you bring} and use plastic flatware. It's casual here. Kids run around like wild banshees all night long and it's okay. We rent a bounce house, we put out our corn hole game. We set up the hammock and have casual areas for people to gather and fellowship. It's great. Andrew and I wanted our home to be a fun place where people could come, fellowship with one another and not feel like things are fussed over. {Just ignore me at 11 p.m. when I'm vacuuming and moping my floors...} I'm thankful to have a … [Read more...]
On Making Flower Arrangements : Bloom
I have always had a love of flowers. From the time I was a littler girl following my NaMaw around her back yard watering Azaleas and learning about Touch-Me-Nots to seeing my Grandfather's Camellia garden {where this blog gets part of it's name} and massive Gladiolus growing every year. So when the leader of our Moms Blog group messaged me a couple of weeks ago about making flower arrangements for our event, Bloom: An Event for New & Expecting Moms, I told her 'Yes'! I knew it wouldn't be that hard...I just needed a vision. So of course I took to Pinterest. On the way to Shelton Vineyards {that lovely weekend getaway!}, I was pinning flower arrangements that I thought fit the profile of what we wanted. I messaged a few to our leader for her approval. As the event drew near I got a little nervous...wondering how I was going to pull this off I recruited a couple of gal-pals who are much more creative than I am to see if they would be willing to spend a Friday night helping me create these arrangements that I had so willingly committed to. With Dana and Breanna "in" for Friday night I came up with a quick plan of action. Wednesday I squeezed in some time to go to Carolina Pottery to purchase my mercury glass vases. Friday afternoon I had planned on Andrew getting the kids so I could run my flower-picking-up errands without the wild banshees. That didn't happen. They tagged along and were fantastic about it! Their reward for helping mommy pick out flowers? A cookie at Publix {thank you, Publix!!}. We ordered take out salads and pizza and Breanna brought over some home-made Sangria. We ate as three crazy families would on a Friday night - casually and loudly... then we sent the men and children into the den so we could get to work! We brought in our bounty to assess the situation. Breanna said to me..."So...what was your vision?" I think she doubted the vision. I doubted the vision myself, mainly because there were NO GOOD … [Read more...]
The First Birthday DIY: Eliza Jane Turns 1 – Part 2
Yesterday I posted part 1 of Eliza Jane's 1st birthday party - the DIY decor. Today is part 2 and sadly {!?} the last part. But have no fear, like yesterday's post, this one is chock full of fun things. Today's focus is on the mantle in our den, Eliza Jane's birthday board and another sort of weird talent that I have {keep reading!} First, the mantle. Y'all know how excited I was to make those crazy birthday poms several weeks ago! It was a most exciting day when I discovered how easy they were! I will probably never buy them ever again!!! So I hung the poms by a pink and white polka dotted ribbon, with the center one a bit more forward and lower than the two on the ends. A twist on the disco ball if you will. The garland...oh, the garland. This is a fun story! I posted a picture on Instagram whenever it was during the decor-making craze of me making Eliza Jane's birthday tutu. I went to work the following Monday and my sweet friend, Breanna, came over with this adorable wrapping of pink and white tulle. And she said to me, laughingly, "I made this for my 'Tutus for 22' - my 22nd birthday party and I thought it would be great for Eliza Jane's party!!!" She's pretty fabulous - I wish you all could meet her. So after we laughed about her 'Tutus for 22' affair, I told her that the garland would be perfect and I came home that afternoon and strung it along the mantle. The seahorse is a mainstay, it has a little hidden meaning for Andrew and me. The photo is from Eliza Jane's newborn photo shoot {pictures from that can be found here}. I found those little silver cans at Target a couple of weeks ago on clearance. Here's an upclose photo...and how they looked with the mini pink roses that were in them the day-of. The little pink mini sidewalk sign was a random find at Michael's a couple of weeks ago. Seriously, this was the strangest find. It's a dry erase board on one side and a pink chalk board on the side you see … [Read more...]
The First Birthday DIY: Eliza Jane Turns 1 – Part 1
We had an AMAZING weekend with Eliza Jane's first birthday party on Saturday; we had a slew of folks show up and love on her and it was so wonderful! Today and tomorrow I am planning to share with y'all some of the decorations I did for her first birthday party - the DIY decor! Disclaimer once again: I am not an artist, I am not a decorating professional, I am merely a momma trying to make our baby girl's first birthday party a memorable one! I'm going to start in the dining room. I only decorated the one area where the cake and cupcakes would be on display. I put up a little crepe paper curtain on either side of the mirror and added that enormous silver "1" balloon that some of y'all saw me blowing up Friday night on Instagram and FaceBook! The "E" came from Michael's, it's one of the Heidi Swapp Marquee Letter Kits you can purchase and I found it to be loads of fun to create, though I wasn't super creative... With the letters or symbols, you basically buy this white shell and create your own "look" with whatever you want. Paint, tape, paper, whatever your fancy!! I bought the coordinating book of glitter papers for the inside of the E...unsure of whether or not I would use silver or pink. I sent both of these pics to a friend who has an eye for things like this and she urged me to go pink :) So with my little template {included in your kit!}, I traced and cut out my E. Then I used a hole punch {!!} to punch the holes out, this is where your lights come into play...and the hole punch made it so much easier! The next step I did was to take a striped washi tape - I purchased a silver/gray diagonal striped tape, to go along the outside of the letter. This was not very easy...the E has a few crevices that were difficult to maneuver with the tape... I got frustrated a time or two and had to keep telling myself to be patient and slow down... For those of you that know me, you may find humor in that. :-D And then … [Read more...]
Birthday Banner: Eliza Jane Turns 1
Y'all know that hosting a birthday party takes serious time and planning. I started putting stuff together for Eliza Jane's big ONE party over a month ago. Mid-July I made my big purchase at Michael's {using a 20% off entire purchase coupon!} and came home with all this "loot"! I had planned out everything I wanted to do, somewhat based on pins I'd added to my "1st Birthday" board on Pinterest. First thing was first, the Birthday Banner! I had purchased these banner paper pads from the Recollections, um, collection at Michael's. After sorting through the various designs, I figured out the banner design and pattern. I laid everything out, counting my number of pennants for the "Happy" and "Birthday". I had to play with it a few times to figure out which patterns I liked best, where. Then I got out my silver glitter letters. I just realized I've not told y'all the "theme"! Well, there's no real theme...just pink and silver/silver glitter with white. So here are my glitter letters. I mean, after all, every little girl needs glitter on her first birthday, right?! Right! And I placed the letters accordingly. Y'all know it was harder than it looks. There's all this placement consideration, especially where stripes are concerned... So then I stacked both banners, in order of pennant, and stuck them in the birthday decor drawer in the dining room and it sat there until about two weekends ago. I've decided over the last couple of years that any party or event we have at our home, where lots of decor things are needed, I dedicate a drawer in the buffet in our dining room to said decor. It's made my life MUCH easier in being able to find everything for that event in one spot. I've done that for birthdays, Dana's baby shower and our Welcome Summer party. Here's the drawer as it looks tonight! Anyway, now that I've shown you some of the birthday decor secrets {shhh!!!}, back to the Birthday … [Read more...]