Mister's Sock Monkey Party

Here is a photobomb of Brother's 1st Birthday.

I have various posts with more details scheduled for later!

Lotte's Advent Calendar

I did a guest post over at GLUESTICKS on Friday.  I was going to wait awhile to post this here, but it is dated material, if you will.  I told you about it in my thankful post, but if you didn't take the jump and see it, here it is....


Lotte is 2 and a half and it is the first Christmas she is able to understand the magic of it all.  So I wanted to give her a calendar of her own to help countdown until the big day!

This cute little guy is in her room above her bookcase.

I didn't want it to be too expensive or too heavy to hang so I made it out of Balsa board.  It is only $3.00 from the craft store, and it can be found in the modeling section.

I used Martha Stewart glitter paint (AMAZING STUFF) on clothespins that I already had in my stash.  Everything is hot-glued together in a sort of random fashion.  The circles where cut from my Cricut and I hand drew the numbers on.

I couldn't find the "perfect ornaments" so I picked up a bag of vase filler from the craft store ($4.99 with a 40% off coupon!).  I made them into ornaments with a straight pin, some glue and ribbon.  If you have ornaments around those would work too, or making them out of felt would add a great touch.

Every day in December she will wake up and put a new ornament on her mini Christmas tree.

This advent calendar is something we will have for years to come and I can't wait for the many Christmases filled with wonder and excitement!

Linking my advent calendar up to these jolly good hostesses!
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
DIY Under $5 @ A Little Tipsy
12 Days of Christmas @ Keeping the Christmas Spirit Alive, 365

Mister's Little Mister Party

Brother was baptized a little while ago and we hosted a Little Man Luncheon in his honor.  I did THIS post awhile back to show some of my inspiration.  So without much further ado, here's the party!

The party was at a local park under a pavilion.   Here is the mini desert table.  I did chocolate cupcakes with blue buttercream icing and chocolate covered pretzels (made by Brother's Godparents).

Thanks so much to Emily from Remarkable Home for the cupcake toppers!

{if you would like the free mustache printable, you can get it from me HERE}

The neck ties on a clothesline to add a little somthin-somthin.

I didn't want to do bottle labels because I wanted the water to be cold, and labels just don't work for that.  So instead I tied some of the torn fabric around the bottles.  It worked great because they weren't ho-hum water bottles, but it didn't matter that it got wet.

One of my best friends {also my aunt} is a PROFESSIONAL themed-food-namer, renowned for her skills in alliteration and clever titles for random things.  She helped me come up with some clever names for the food.

The straws had paper mustaches on them.  I used mason jars filled with chocolate candies (malt balls, raisenettes, and goobers) as "centerpieces".  I ripped strips of fabric and tied them like neckties around the jars.  LOVE THEM!

A Little Man party wouldn't be complete without mustaches on sticks.

And a cute Little Man!

Lotte thought they were funny too!

PERFECT family picture

The fabric was used to tie just about everything together, including the kids' shirts and Lotte's facinator.

Hope you enjoy!

I'm linking up to these fabulously generous lady bloggers!
Get Your Brag On @ Gluesticks
Linky Party @ The Idea Room
What are Little Boys Made Of @ 733
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars
Sundae Scoop @ I heart Nap Time
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Designs

Party Decorations and Food

-{Party Decorations}-

This is an extreme post...stick around there are lots of goodies to see!

Yay for party decorations! 

The party was held both outside and inside.  We set up 4 long tables outside on our driveway (which luckily is in the shade all evening) to accommodate roughly 50 people.  We also had the kitchen set up as a buffet for people to get their food and drinks, and the dining room was desert/cake/gift central!

For the outdoors I made tissue paper poms in dark pink, light pink and white.  My darling husband was kind enough to get the ladder out and hang a long string from one edge of the house, to a tree across the drive way and back to the other edge of the house.

I made mini tissue poms to put on the tables.

 I used an ant punch to make "confetti" and I used glue dots to make a trail across the tables.  It gave it a picnic-y feel.

I made table cloth weights using clips from the dollar store (5 for $1.00), then I hot glued on flowers (also from the dollar store).  They added a perfect touch and served a purpose too.

 These cuties were up here and there.  You can't tell the size but they are 12 inches across.  I love the mega huge ric rac!

 Card Basket

 I used my cake stand/dome to showcase her tutu she wore for pictures.  I sprinkled watermelon seeds around and put a thank you note.  This sat on the gift table.

This was our year of pictures gallery in the kitchen. 

We strung yarn between two doorways.  I mod podged pink scrapbook paper on the clothespins to give it a more finished look.

Formula can center piece. With pictures from her birthday photo shoot.

Beginning of the food buffet.  The watermelon bowl was for fruit salad. 

Magnetic Menu 

Jello using a small hollowed out melon as a mold.

Poor hubby slaving over the hot grill making hamburgers and hotdogs for 50 people.

Cheesy picture of me, but it was the only one I have to show you my favorite food from the evening.  We made regular old lemonade and to theme it up I used the watermelon from the fruit salad bowl to make ice-cubes.  Just 2 watermelon cubes made plain old lemonade AWESOME!

Sorry for the huge post, but I hope it was inspirational! Tomorrow's line-up is FAVORS!