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 here.  {What are the chances of finding this?!!?!?}  And since I have a few chalk boards around the house, I also have chalk!

Next is her birthday board.

Last year our friend Dana did Reynolds’ birthday board while I ran around the house like a crazy person the week before his first birthday.  This year, her hands are a little more full with her sweet little baby girl so I kind of had it in my head that I would be doing Eliza Jane’s board.  I have several pins on my “1st Birthday” board in Pinterest, so I took some ideas from those, and from Reynolds’ board to do Eliza Jane’s.

For both, I used a roll of contact-paper-like chalk paper and cut it out to fit the frame I would be using.

I’ve told y’all before that I am not an artist so don’t make fun of my sad drawing skillz.

I had a major issue in that I didn’t have a white chalk marker with a small or medium tip.  No, the only white marker I had was that enormous jumbo marker you see in that pic above ↑ and it was a primary color being used in this art project!  I made due with what I had.

By the time I was done with my project that night, it was similar to R’s, but with a look of it’s own.

The funny thing was, I was showing the board to my friend Sheri, at the party, and said, “Oh no!  We keep forgetting to measure how tall she is!” – literally, we kept forgetting.

See?  This is a pic taken at the party by our friend Dana…no height there in the bottom left corner.
We would remind each other that we needed to do it, but neither of us actually DID it!  Sheri said to me “Oh, is that why Andrew came outside to the bounce house with a tape measure?”

“Did he?!?!” I exclaimed!

“Yes!” she replied.

About that very moment Andrew came in, while we were laughing about it and he said: “29. ISH!”

“ISH!!!” we laughed.

Her board says “I am 29ish inches”.  If you look closely, you can see it.

{I just adore her!!}

Ok, so the last thing.  My strange, yet unique talent.

I can write backwards.  It’s something I used to do {practice?} when I was bored in school…and it’s what I do when we have parties at our home…mainly so people know they are “Welcome!!” and to “COME ON IN!”

I write it on the inside so that in case of rain or whatever on the outside, it doesn’t get messed up.

Friends said, “oh, good, you wrote it high enough this year that the kids faces won’t get in it…..”  Yep, last year I think Reynolds ate the part that said 1st Birthday! haha

So that’s it!  Happy 1st Birthday again to our sweet Eliza Jane!

I’ll be posting the official 1st birthday pics taken by our friend Jennifer, hopefully in the next week or so.  I absolutely cannot wait to see them all!