The Little Guy's 2nd Birthday Party Part Three

Public Holiday - relaxing day at home, so while the Big Guy was at a friends house and the Little Guy was asleep I had time to prepare the last post for the Little Guy's party details.

As the Little Guy's birthday is in the middle of summer we expect the weather to be warm and sunny - but this year although it was warm it definitely was not sunny! It rained the few days before the party and we had some light showers on the party day - so our plans to have some shade and tables set up on our grass area has to be scraped and instead all the tables and chairs for the children and adults plus the food table had to be set up in our screened sunroom. We were a little pushed for space but it worked out in the end. I hired a child's height trestle table and chairs from a local party hire for a grand total of $15.00! Money well spent as it is the perfect height for all the little guests to enjoy their lunch.

As the Little Guy is only 2 and most of his little guests were under the age of 5 I decided that structured party games was probably not a wise choice so instead we set up a blow up pool on the grass and the kids had a great time splashing about in it:

And the kids helped the Little Guy decorate his Puggy House cardboard cubbyhouse:

At the end of the party each little guest received a thank you gift bag:

On the front of the bag is a football jersey with each child's name and a number for their age - for the babies who have not yet turned one I used a star. I created this online at ImageChef and printed them on label sheets so I could simply peel and stick onto the front of the bag. For an added touch I secured a football brad to the bag once folded over. I bought these from Eyelet Outlet who ship to Australia very cheaply.

Inside the bag each little guest received:

(The baby bags contained the bath toys and rusks). The Moon Pies - which are similar to Wagon Wheels but much sweeter - are from USA Foods, the wooden games are from My Wooden Toys, and *I think* the mini frisbees, blowers and glasses are from Big W.

Well that rounds out my posts for the Little Guy's 2nd Birthday Party. There are of course many more small details of the party which I have not specified so if you would like details of anything please let me know.

The Little Guy's 2nd Birthday Party - Part Two

The food and drinks post!

The food table:

I (and my helpers!) made some sandwiches and wraps to serve as well as other yummy treats including mini iced donuts, chocolate and vanilla meringues, antipasto goodies, potato chips, marshmallows and cookies & cream hard candies. You should be able to spy the printable cupcake topper circles decorating the glass jars.

I iced the cake in a messy but simple icing and my wonderful sister Mrs R made the awesome little footballs to decorate with. Each football was actually a cake pop - yummy cake and icing mixed together and coated in chocolate! Each little guest was served one with their slice of cake and they went down a treat. The cake stands are from Sharnell Dollar Designs.

I decided I wanted a backdrop to the food table that was a little different so I (or should I say the Big Guy!) painted a piece of backing board with chalkboard paint and I drew with the help of the Big Guy a football play (i.e plan for the players where to run to and throw the ball). Also we pegged up a couple of recent photos of the Little Guy and also an end zone 'painted' with the Little Guy's name which I created here.

On the children's table (which will feature later) we served fruit, lamingtons and pretzels plus for lunch I made these little lunchboxes up for each little guest:

Inside was half a chicken sandwich, half a vegemite sandwich cut into the shape of a football, some puffy rice crackers and cheese. And I also used the cupcake topper circles again on drink cups for the children:

If you would like to know any further details about the food table or decorations let me know.

Next post will be all about the little guests - their table, party activities and thank you gift bags.

Lastly here is another gorgeous picture of the birthday boy testing out one of his presents:

The Little Guy's 2nd Birthday Party - Part One

Last Sunday was a cloudy sticky humid summers day and the day of the Little Guy's 2nd birthday party.

I decided to style the Little Guy's party with a football theme - Amercian football (the big guy used to play, the Little Guy's godfather plays and he LOVES playing with balls especially footballs!). I'd seen a few different types of 'event ticket' style invitations on the web and decided to create by own version in photoshop to send out to all the little guests:

The tickets were placed in a little pouch with some 'terms and conditions' on the reverse (i.e request to bring swimmers, sunscreen hat etc for playing in the pool).

For the decorations for the party I ordered customised party printables from The Two Savy Sisters which included amongst other things cupcake toppers (which I used to decorate a few different things), a banner (which I forgot to take a photo of), smalls signs which I placed on the kids table and a door sign:

Blog post Part Two will show the food table and other features of the party but for now here is a sneak peak at the cake:

More party and Christmas ideas

It's a cold rainy long weekend here in Sydney and with nothing urgently requiring my attention I've been thinking about the little guy's birthday party again and playing around with a few food table ideas:

How cute are those little wafers! A favourite of the big guy I purchased them in Woolworths in a box of 6 snack packs.

Also found this caddy which will be perfect for holding cutlery and napkins (not sure which printable to use):

This is a photo of the inside of the caddy:

And filled:

Sorry about all the white! I have zero photography skills and not many suitable places to take photographs inside (and its pouring with rain outside). These are the best shots I could take with my little point and shoot.

The caddy is actually an undersink storage caddy I recently bought at Target (found in the laundry section with the pegs, coathangers etc) - a bargain at only $10.00. I'm a big believer in re-using, re-purposing and finding alternative uses for items. The glass jar shown above is one of two I also purchased recently from a homewares outlet and they were filled with scented tealight candles.

I've also been thinking about Christmas again and have been browsing Hostess With The Mostess. Love this simple and beautiful place setting:

And one day I might be game enough to try and make some cakepops. How gorgeous are these from Bakerella:

Handmade Gifts and Planning Ahead

Wow - over a month since I last posted. My days seem to be filled up very quickly with work, looking after a 20 month old, cleaning, washing, cleaning, washing etc.

The little spare time I've had I've been using to complete some projects (while catching up on Mc Dreamy and Mc Steamy on dvd) including designing two lots of invites - one handmade and the other with photoshop. Plus:

The Wedding Keepsake box is a gift for my gorgeous friend Ms E who is shortly going to become Mrs A! She is getting it a little early so she can start to store all those keepsake little bits and pieces she has already collected.

The Shadow Box frame is another 'Day You Were Born' gift for our neice Miss C whose dedication/naming day is in a few weeks. I went with a rustic horse theme for her horse mad parents! The certificates can be purchased from here .

The party printables is me planning for the little guy's birthday. I know it's not until January but with Christmas and a busy few months ahead I need to start getting organised now as the 2 weeks following Christmas I want to be all ready and not running around trying to organise a party! I had Nicole from The Two Saavy Sisters custom design me a gridiron (American football) theme party pack (modeled on her Vintage Baseball Party Pack) in the colours of white/light blue/brown. I am so pleased with the way all the pieces turned out and can't wait to put it all together.

A few busy weeks ahead with a Kitchen Tea, Hen's Night, Miss C's dedication/naming day, Ms E's wedding and then it's November and Christmas is just around the corner!

Ready, Steady, Party

I was so happy to receive this wonderful book: Ready, Steady, Party - cooking for kids and with kids by Lucy Broadhurst; for my birthday from my gorgeous sister Mrs R.

This fantastic book indulges my love of party styling - it is divided into party themes, and features menu suggestions including recipes and great presentation/packaging.

'Shipwrecked' Party:

'Farm' Party:

I am rather besotted with the 'Animal Feed' as shown above. The book also includes some helpful tips for holding a party and a section dedicated to Party Games. Other themes include 'off to the circus', 'teddy bears picnic' and 'camp out'.

Some of the recipes look so yummy I can't wait to try them out. It's also makes me keen to start planning the Little Guy's 2nd birthday - although that's 6 months away! Christmas comes first though - will be my first time hosting for my family (parents, brothers, sisters, neices, nephews etc) and I'm looking forward to doing some craft projects for the holidays.

Off to pour over the pages of this fantastic book yet again!

Polka Dot Party and My New Love

One of the things I love about the internet world is finding new and interesting blogs to read. Amanda from The Homely One is a woman after my own heart. Her fantastic blog details the craft and home projects she undertakes - her kitchen renovation I can only dream about.

Recently she threw a polka dot themed party for her daughter Grace's First Birthday:

I especially love the bunting and the party bags. The birthday girl also wore a gorgeous green polka dot dress to complete the theme.


Now onto my new love:

The armchair was picked up today with the help of my generous sister and has prime position in our (almost) empty dining room. Slowly but surely we are getting there. Next step I think will be new curtain rods for the lounge and dining rooms. I already have curtains for the dining room ready to hang but need to organise some for the lounge and have found the perfect fabric at Lincraft.

Off to a 30th birthday party tomorrow and hopefully a nice dinner out on Monday with my boys.

Happy weekend everyone.

Elephants & Polka Dots

Here's a sneak peek look at the theme for my sister in law's baby shower in a few weeks (sorry about the poor quality pics - a decent camera is high on my wishlist):

Still have a few more things to organise but I'm getting there!

Wishing For Crate & Barrel ....

Oh how I ♥ these Crate & Barrel items:









They do ship to Australia but I'm sure the shipping charges will far exceed the cost of the goods. Wonder if I can find something similar here?

The Beginning .......

Day One of blogging. I decided to start blogging to keep a record of all the creative, crafty projects I'm getting stuck into plus all those wonderful, pretty and sometimes completely useless items I find courtesy of my friend Mr Google (internet junkie I am).

Here is my inspiration for the theme for my sister in law's baby shower in a few weeks (look out for my post soon)more at this blog: