Spiderman Baseball Mashup Party!

Ok - let's get this out of the way first, this is  a party that Tulip supplied the products for, but this is not  a party for another lovely customer.  This party was my  boys' party! I will post a picture of the invites soon as soon as I can get a non-washed out photo of them ( I am admittedly a terrible photographer ).

Another disclaimer, my boys are not twins.  They are 11 and a half months apart.  At this point in their life - it hardly seems practical to have two birthday parties 14 calendar days apart.  Since they are 3 and 4, the invite list is virtually identical - neither boy is school aged which might allow for friends of their own.  For now their friend list is, confined to the offspring of our friends and neighbors and we refuse to ask people to show up twice or worse, pick one!

But because my conscience has a booming voice I had to reconcile the fact that the boys each deserved their own party.  After all, it was not their fault that they were born so close together!  So, I decided to each let them have their own party, just on the same day, and at the same time.  I let each boy pick his theme - and tried not to cringe at the idea ... and that is how we ended up with a Spidey/Baseball Mash-Up Birthday Party. So if you are planning a spiderman party, grab ideas - if you're planning a baseball party help yourself.  Until the boys care, or they get their own friends I will have a yearly mash-up to report on! So enjoy!

Let's start with baseball - We decided to make the food table somewhat of a concession stand feel - think ball park! So we threw some ice and soda in one bucket and popcorn in another and fruit, fries, and mac salad stuffed in between! On the counter we had nachos & hot dogs and all the fixins. Grossly unhealthy, delicious fare!!  I bought crummy little foam baseballs and chopped of the bottom with a serrated knife (so they would sit flat).  Then I poked a hole in the top with a letter opener (the old-school kind) And voila, a darling stand for the food labels.

The husband made a darling stand to hang these on!

Tied with twine!

These buckets were from target for $15 and I am know I will get plenty of use out of them!

Bought these bags at Michael's with a coupon!

Green grapes & strawberries - fun, punchy color and most kids love em both!

Good shot of the stands AND this is a fantastic way to serve fries in clear cups, tad bit of ketchup in the bottom! So portable, so delicious!

I am still eating left overs!

These were a total hit!

Bought the hot dog wrappers on amazon for super cheap!

Onto the sweets - I called around to get sugar cookies, cupcakes & cakes made for the boys and GOOD GRAVY, people want a lot for sugar, flour, butter & a little elbow grease.  Couldn't bring myself to do it - so I rolled up my sleeves and managed to eek out a few sufficient sweet treats!

I bought this baseball cake mode 2 years ago, love it! (Michael's) And yes I had to build a nest of Twizzlers around it to hide the mediocrity of the bottom of the baseball!

These are not as gorgeous as the professional ones, but boy were they delicious!!

Oreos + cream cheese + white chocolate coating = tiny heavenly baseball treats!

What kind of baseball party would it be without crackerjacks! We even gave boxes away as favors!

Spiderman took up the left side of the table also was crouching by the door to dress up the entryway a little bit!  I did make a Spiderman cake (did a dry run the Friday before) and actually, it wasn't that hard! Followed the directions and it turned out ok! I had planned to make Spiderman cookies, but by the time I got the baseball cake, cookies, cake balls, candy, crackerjacks, pretzel sticks, and Spiderman cake out there - I thought it might be overkill. 

Streamers were from the 4th of July section at party city! And there are little Spiderman masks, napkins, and plats on the table!

This balloon was $11 but totally boss. And as for the boys' opinion of if? mind. blown.

Pretzel sticks - they had little spiders stuck to them but they fell off! (fail)

The kiddos got to keep these Spiderman toppers! Are they frosted to perfection? Well, no. But is that magically delicious Rainbow Chip vanilla icing on top? You better believe it. These were instantly gone!

Shout out to Rachel - cashier at Michael's who encouraged me to try this! It wasn't too hard and turned out pretty cute! 

Next time you have a mash-up, or any party for that matter, email me - I love to brainstorm and my intellectual property is free!!

Cinderelly Party!

Remember these invitations? I'm not one for tooting my own horn but really - are those not the cutest glass slippers you have ever seen?

 Well, I thought I would update you on how the party turned out!

Here is the table set up - love love love these oversized balloons (all though, these days it costs an arm and a leg to inflate them) - I use them all the time! And the tulle on the table was on sale at Joann's a few weeks ago (the plan is to turn this into some dress-up clothes).  And the weather I ordered (sunny and breezy) was perfect!

Here is the name banner for the birthday girl!

More giant balloons and then we hung tulle poms too - have you seen these? - here is how to make them, they were adorable and way less stressful than the tissue poms that we've been making for years!

 On to the popcorn boxes - couldn't resist tying in those darling shoe embellishments at the party somewhere and I had left over ribbon from the favors and banner! We filled them with fresh, popped popcorn and drizzled with blue tinted white chocolate. A hit with the kiddos since they could grab a box and walk around with it - and the boxes were only 4 or 5 inches tall so they didn't hold too much popcorn (which makes moms and dads happy too!)

Here are the little tent cards we used to tell people what they were getting!  Pardon my sad handwriting - I do print these sometimes, but sometimes I love the feel of handwritten touches (until I see them in photos that I am going to add to a blog post)

 And finally if I had to pick one item that I thought was the cutest - it was the favors!  These darling shoes had a little favor tag on them and they were filled with nilla wafers dipped half way in white chocolate - Delish!! Scroll down for close-up!

So, the next time you are planning a Cinderelly party - remember Tulip Invites - we've got everything paper you need and can give you great ideas for pulling it all together!

Texture!

So much about why paper is so lovely is how it feels.  Sorting through your mail, the deluge of bills and advertisements and out of the pile (perhaps onto your floorboard) drops a heavy shiny envelope.  I skip all of the other items and tear open the fun one. Is it a wedding invite? A birth announcement? It doesn't matter, really, its all lovely - layers and colors and now another dimension - texture!! I got a fancy new little machine that is kind of blowing my mind these days!

So, what can you do with texture? - well you can take your average, run-of-the-mill, tiny high heels and church them right up! Is this darling or what?

And this is not the last you've seen of this cute-as-a-bug shoe - I am working on a darling Cinderelly party for a friend and a fun bachelorette party - so stay tuned for matching accessories!

Customers I love: Gaworecki

Meet the Gaworecki family!

I met Leslie in 2005 when I was going on appointments to interview photographers for my wedding. I had met with one other person the day before and I had one more appointment the following day.  I texted my wedding planner when I left her house - cancel tomorrows, no to yesterdays guy - this is the girl for me! To this day I treasure her friendship and I am so grateful to have done some fun things for her all along the years! The first part of the post will be me gushing about her as a person and showcasing some of the projects we have worked on together, and the second part of this post will be me gushing about her as a photographer and pointing you in her direction! 

She ordered things from me - even though she didn't live anywhere near me and she ordered things from me - even though I was new and still figuring out how to do everything. She is friendly and kind, fiercely loyal, she loves her boys (all 4 of them) desperately, and such a good friend. Not a good friend in a cliche kind of way but in the kind of way that she cares what is happening in your life, she makes an effort in between her crazy schedule and when we meet, no matter the number of days between our last meeting we pick up right where we left off - it is comfortable and bubbly conversation that I never want to end! And one day on my birthday she brought me a lunch bag (that I still use to this day) full of candy! What more can I say?! 

Greyson's third birthday

Asher's 1st Birthday

Greyson's 4th Superhero

Boys Combo Party

Besides doing things for her boys, I did a few things for her business and her personal blog

Ok, now onto what a fantastic photographer she is! She took gorgeous pictures of our wedding that we still look back on today - thankful that we have them, thankful that we found her, and thankful that she said yes! She still takes pictures of our family and we will keep asking her to do that as long as she keeps saying yes! Here are a few of the fantastic things she has done for us! Head over to her website and check her out - you won't be sorry.  Love, love, love this talented girl!

(to be fair, Leslie did not take this pic, my neighbor did b/c of scheduling, just didn't want to leave out Andrew!)

She also took some pics of some of my wedding invites and made them look amazing!

Thank you so much for all that you do! xoxo

Customers I love: Austin

Meet sweet sweet Sage!!

How cute is this kid?

It is through a convoluted web off connections that Carey (Sage's hip mom) and I know each other.  She is the sister of, the husband of, my best friend Gin (3 plus, 4 plus, carry the one ....).  At any rate - now we know each other and Carey has been kind enough to use my little company for a shower for my best friend (her sister-in-law) ... 

World-themed shower invite for my world traveling best friend

Multi-lingual thanks note - right up Gin's ally

Cute cupcake toppers

THEN, Gin used me for a shower for Carey!

Peacock Invite - this is along the theme lines of Sage's darling room!

Gotta have a thanks note to match

I'll be honest, I love a short name banner

And topped off with cupcake toppers

Well, you would think Carey Austin had enough of me. Nope. She let me design her birth announcements.  She described what she wanted and sent me a gaggle of dar-ling pictures, and let me go to work. Here are some of the designs I sent her!

And here is the announcement she picked! Side note here, Carey was so fantastic to work with - she knew exactly what she liked and where to put things and had hip, lovely ideas for customizing this announcement to her hearts' delight!  People often apologize "I'm sorry if I'm being picky", "I hope you don't mind, but" - mind? I love it - tell me exactly how to make this perfect.  You have the vision in your head, I have the {marginal} illustrator skills to help that vision come to print - so by all means, pick away!!!

The pic for this announcement was stinkin' cute, which didn't hurt anything either, and I am so glad I got to participate in capturing such a monumental moment in a new family's life.

 So, welcome - Sage - Thank you, Carey - and in a round about way - thank you Gin!