Penguin Party Continued

Picture Heavy Post!


As I mentioned, finding penguin themed birthday decor was painfully impossible, so I had to custom make everything. Following the colors set by the invitation meant pulling together a party in orange, black and white. Not traditionally very girlie colors, but I tried to use them in a way that was obviously meant for a girl. 

(Click to enlarge.) 

orange and white polka dots, black and white houndstooth and stripes along with a geometric print and plenty of solids. 

the cupcake tower

penguin face, penguin silhouette 5's, orange silhouettes and monogrammed toppers designed by my hub. He also designed the tented cards that display the food names. The cake topper on top was found at Hobby Lobby, I added a coordinated bow to match the invitations. The houndstooth cupcake wrappers came from etsy. 

other food

goldfish crackers just happened to match the theme and colors. Houndstooth cones in the background, made from scrapbook paper, hold white cheddar popcorn.

pimento cheese penguins and polka dot cookies

yummy vanilla ice cream snowballs


So, whatcha think? Did I Tim Gunn it (make it work)? She has already put in a request for next years party...:)

Linking up with Whipperberry, Just a Girl

This project was featured on Just a Girl!

A Tiny Little Tea Party

a post also known as- those are the words I used to convince my husband to let me have this party

Over the summer I came across Melissa Lester's blog "A Little Loveliness"  Her blog is a such an inspiring read, but what stood out to me a few months ago were the perfectly lovely tea parties she hosts. One of which was an afternoon tea party she had for her children to celebrate their return to school. Since my one and only was starting school this year, finding this seemed so well timed and appropriate. A back to school tea party was the perfect way to celebrate this milestone. Putting my own spin on her ideas, an early afternoon tea party was created using lots of pink, lots of flowers, and lots of sweets.

Guests received this tea pot invitation announcing the events details(which have now been blurred for privacy). I feel so fortunate to have a wonderful husband who works as a graphic designer, he was able to take my rough sketch and ideas and turn them into the most wonderful invitations.

The littlest ladies found this table waiting for them in the kitchen. 

The table cover was a scrap of fabric leftover from the bunting hung in the dining room window. The center of the table held a plastic tea set from my daughter's playroom, brought down to encourage imaginative play during the party. 

The girls place cards were held in antique rose holders handed down from my great aunt. 

To dress up our kitchen chairs, which are badly in need of a fresh coat of paint, I tied a strip of tulle embellished with a crepe paper rose bud. 

The center of our bay window held a crepe paper rose wreath. 

Our "mommies" table was set in the dining room. 

This table was set using a simple white table cloth and another scrap of fabric leftover from the bunting, shown here hung in the dining room window.

The dining room chairs also received a tulle and crepe paper rose bud embellishment, to help tie the two party areas together.

 Slightly different place card holders, still with the same rose theme, held the name cards for this room.

The center of the table held a silver tea set, another antique treasure passed down through my family. I filled the creamer with perfectly pink roses, found at Wal-Mart of all places. 

The table also held heart shaped sugar cookies with cream cheese icing, a newly found favorite cookie of mine. 

One final detail and the table was complete- petite pink rose hair clips for each little girl to take home after the party.  The tops of each card did have the girl's names on them, now removed for privacy.

 Our dining room, set for the party

The buffet in our kitchen made a pretty good tea cart. Three types of hot tea, along with the traditional cream and sugar were served; as well as a cranberry lemon iced tea. The buffet also held strawberry and cream cheese, and pimento cheese tea sandwiches. In addition to the heart shaped sugar cookies, guests were also encouraged to satisfy their sweet tooth with mini cupcakes, candy kisses and fresh fruit. 

Thank you for the inspiration Melissa! We all enjoyed a wonderful afternoon together, which made going back to school just a little easier to manage.

Linking up to Whipperberry

A Vintage Inspired Halloween Party

A post also known as- Finally. I will stop talking about it after this.

Last weekend we had a rather large Halloween party. The guest list didn't start out so large, but we kept adding and you know how that goes. So we were thankful that Saturday had the most lovely weather,  making our almost 50 guests feel perfectly comfortable outside. 50 people inside my house= massive claustrophobia.

In preparing for the party I made invitations using Skip To My Lou

(note- not mine, this is the example from their website, though I am sure the Hopper's party was lovely)

Using this to set the tone for the party meant the muted gray, black, cream, and pumpkin colors I already incorporated in the Spider Wreath and Urns would work  perfectly.  Going forward it was simple to continue using these colors to coordinate the rest of the decorations.

Front Door

 spray painted sticks, Spanish Moss and two pumpkins greeted guests.

Beverage Buffet

The buckets came from the dollar spot at Target and were filled with spray painted branches and Spanish Moss and foam left over from the Urn project mentioned above. I think everyone in blog land spray painted some branches this year. Spray paint sales must have been off the charts.

The sign from the beverage tub, also purchased at Target, came from the Internet. If you look closely you can see the pictures above the buffet received Halloween masks from leftover scrapbook paper. And the mice silhouettes above were a snap to make using the template off Martha Stewart's site.

Kitchen Display

The Hallo-weenies roasted on the grill were served in our kitchen.

I made the pumpkin, owl, and cat hanging in the windows using the templates off Martha Stewart's site. I also found the template for the creepy curtains there as well. Martha made hers out of plywood, I used black poster board. Clearly Martha has no problem making extra holes in her walls but I would rather not spend my November 1st taking down plywood curtains and patching large holes.

Living Room Mantle

I never did find the mirror I talked about here. After tweaking what I had to work with I settled on this design. The candle holders were made from items from Dollar Tree. The rest of the mantle didn't change much from this post, if you are interested in reading about the other components.

Dessert Table

My favorite part of the party had to be creating this table. Hobby Lobby had the table cover and runner.

We served candy corn cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing, mini caramel apples and sweet sugar cookies with cream cheese icing. Traditional favorites of mellow creme pumpkins and candy corn also decorated the table.  

More Creepy Curtains frame the Wal-Mart(yes, that's what I said) banner.Please forgive the picture quality our walls are a very dark blue so there wasn't enough contrast or light to properly photograph.

A Dollar Tree crow perched on top of the cupcake stand watches you grab a cupcake. The spiders were also Dollar Tree finds.

Chandelier

Since changing light fixtures isn't a difficult task I decided to switch our normal dining room chandelier out for one that had been properly dressed for the occasion. A little gray spray primer and leftover scrapbook paper turned an old 80's throw away into this

Games

Pumpkin Patch Pass

Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin

(Obviously little fingers played here before I took the picture)

Pumpkin Boccie

Pumpkin Bowling

we also had a Pinata, ring toss, and see-saw for the kids to use. Hopefully our guests had as much fun at the party as I did planning it.