60 Sweet Years

A couple of months ago our friend Katie asked us to create a custom illustration for her mom's 60th birthday...do you remember our post on it here. Well Katie recently sent us the photos from her mom's absolutely gorgeous party! Not only is Katie on of the sweetest people we know she is also amazingly talented! Just to recap, the custom illustration we did was a woman in an Anthropologie inspired outfit painting a "60" on to her 6 tiered flowery birthday cake! We made 5x8note cards with the hand-glittered illustration that read "60 Sweet Years! As we celebrate Judi's 60th year, these are the memories I hold most dear!" Katie used these to send to all of her mom's closest friends and family, so that they could write their fondest memories. She created a beautiful book for mom with all of the cards so that she could treasure them forever! We also made cupcake flags using the illustration, a printed illustration to frame and a hand-glittered letter garland that read, "60 Sweet Years"! Katie made French macarons, beautiful cookies and the mini ruffle cakes! She also made the gorgeous ruffle garland (adapted from the DIY project of the amazing Jenny of Hank and Hunt!) that hung from the ceiling over the dessert table. Katie's sister, Becky, of Becky Hill Photography, beautifully photographed the special event. We were just blown away with what an amazing job Katie and her sister did with their mom’s party and are thrilled to share it! And a huge thank you to Jenny from Hank and Hunt for sharing it as well!

Confetti System

The partnership between Julie Ho and Nicholas Andersen that forms Confetti System is pure genius! Both amazing artists, Julie and Nicholas make everything themselves! They create anything from gorgeous garlands to beautiful to smash party pinatas. There are so many ways to use and display these beautiful confetti decorations...what would you use them for!?!

For Japan With Love

With so much devastation and so many lives affected by the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan our hearts are heavy with sadness. My brother is a marine stationed in Japan, although he is in Okinawa away from the mainland, he is on standby to depart for Tokyo to help in cleanup efforts. We are participating in "For Japan With Love Blogger Day of Silence" (organized by Utterly Engaged + Ever Ours) to help raise money for relief aid. Please visit "For Japan With Love" site to make whatever contribution you can and to see where and how your donations will be used.

Annabella's "Party Owl Night Long" Golden Birthday

Last Friday we had so much fun celebrating Annabella’s (Kellie’s oldest daughter) golden birthday! She turned 10...double digits, so hard to believe...where does the time go!?! Annabella loves owls and cupcakes and she is has such a sweet old soul. So we created our “owl love you forever” invitation with her in mind. It is a sassy, glamorous owl sitting ontop of a 3 tiered cake...perfect for any tween! A blush pink, chocolate brown and champagne color palette set the tone for the invites and the party.

We created a fanciful dessert table that featured our DIY owl in a cupcake tree . We hung pink rock candy in the tree to add some extra sparkle! Terri from Terri’s Party Treasures created the most amazing owl cake pops that perfectly resembled our illustration! They were also delicious! We also made cookie dough pops, smores pops (recipe adapted from Pizzazzerie's smore bites) and mini owl cookies that we put in mini clear boxes for the girls to take home. Instead of a traditional birthday cake, we made a tiered chocolate chip cookie cake filled with pink buttercream and topped it with an oversized cupcake flag. We draped pink lace behind and over the table to create a soft, pretty feel with a touch of whimsy, and hung a “whoo-ray” letter garland across the front of the table. We made gift tags that we tied around the goodie bags for all the girls to take home, which were also used as part of the games they played throughout the night. We placed them under Annabella’s golden birthday letter garland. Kellie hung poms and twirled crepe paper out from the ceiling fan and it looked amazing!

Now this wasn’t just any party, this was a “slumber party" and the girls did nothing short of “party owl night long”! After the girls arrived and got settled they were treated to their favorite kind of pizza and delicious sherbet punch! They crafted mini cork boards covered in owl fabric and a few embellishments and glittered cloths pins! Onto the desserts...the girls were giddy with excitement when they got to take one of each treat from the table, including the rock candy hanging from the tree! After Annabella opened her birthday gifts, the girls got to take the flashlights out of their goodie bags for a candy scavenger hunt! We turned out all the lights and hid the candy so the girls had hunt for their candy in the dark and collect it in their goodie bags. The girls wanted us to re-hide the candy, but it was time for the next game! The girls had a blast playing “sleepy owl”...one of the girls would lay in the middle of the room and pretend they were sleeping while the other girls had to “wake” her up by making her laugh! They could only make her laugh by telling a funny story, joke, or making a funny noise...no tickling! Once all the girls got a turn being the "sleepy owl" it was on to spin the nail polish. We placed a nail polish in the middle of the circle, spun it and whoever the nail polish pointed to they had to paint one nail. We alternated the nail polish color so the girls got different colored nails. All the girls loved getting their nails done with this fun
In the morning Kellie made the girls three different kinds of pancakes, chocolate chip, blueberry, and vanilla with sprinkles. While she was cooking the girls got to write on mugs that Kellie painted with pink chalkboard paint! The girls had such a great time and Annabella’s birthday was surely a HOOT!