Ellie Jane, Age 8 (Colorful Karaoke Party Reveal)

It's that time of year.....my sweet Ellie rings in her birthday at the very start of the Christmas season, which always leaves me feeling nostalgic, a bit chaotic, and like time is moving entirely too fast. This girl never ceases to amaze me. So aware, so alive, and so determined. There is so much I could say, but mostly I am so very proud to call her mine and have the privilege of learning from her and watching her grow.

For the invitation I had the wild idea of hand stitching a design on to each one. I soon realized that was insane, but not before falling in love with it and so I soldiered on and completed 15 of these bad boys. It was totally worth it. I have been so in love with the Japanese stitching technique called sashiko (more on that later), and this design was very much inspired by that!

I offered to do her party at the gymnastics place like the rest of her class, but she told me she still wanted a party at home (high-five!). Not just any party though, a karaoke party with lots of balloons. If you know my family and how much most of us love to hear ourselves sing, you would know how great of an idea this was! I twisted by Dad's arm and convinced him to DJ (he also ended up throwing down a little Hall & Oates and Steely Dan on the mic).

The decor was simple-green garlands with pops of color in the form of balloons and honeycomb balls, and lots of confetti on the tables and lots of balloons on the floor. We made some fun tassel necklaces and covered our bodies in flash tattoos (not pictured!) while the girls took turns singing tunes at the TOP of their lungs. This party was not for the faint of heart (or for those who are easily-over stimulated)!

Dad came through once again with an awesome cake that was WAY better than what I would have made. The treat bags were made by adding a strip of copper tape to small brown bags and I used this tutorial to make a million tassels while Netflix binging the night before the party (I modified it to make the tiny tassels even tinier and added a ring to the top of each one to make it easy to string on a necklace).

I also painted hot pink stripes onto butcher paper for easy table runners for the table and dessert table. My Mom came through with an amazing array of kid food, straight from my childhood-biscuit pizzas, mini hot dogs, sandwiches in fun shapes and cups of veggies and fruits. Seriously, that woman is the best.

Happy Birthday Ellie-we could not love you more!

Almost Six.

My oldest, Ellie, will be six in less than a month. This birthday is bittersweet because it seems as if we're letting go of every trace of baby and toddler that's left and entering a new little girl zone. While this is mostly a happy thing, every now and then I catch a glimpse of the baby-that-used-to-be, and I feel a little tug in my heart. She asked for a craft party this year (atta girl!), so we made these fun invites and passed them out to her friends.

To hint at the party theme, I wanted to add a handmade element to the invite. A hand lettered invite was what I really wanted, but alas, these had to be conceptualized and made in one day.

If real lettering is out of the question, why not use some fake-it lettering? I chose two hand lettered fonts for the invite design, and printed the larger words with faint outlines only. I then filled them in with a metallic gold pen by hand. It was hard to capture the effect in pictures, but I really liked how it turned out.

I had leftover pom-poms from a crafting party, and they decided that they needed to be a part of this too. I attached them to glassine envelopes with mini-glue dots. So fun, right?

Fall Dinner: The Menu

I'm back with a few more details from our dinner! Have you been enjoying it so far?

A few days before the event, we sent a little menu to our guests in the mail. I love being surprised by personal mail when I open my mailbox and wanted to create that same experience for the people attending our dinner. Each menu was wrapped in black string and adorned with a small feather. I dug out my calligraphy pen and a tube of white gouache to address the black envelopes. I think my calligraphy teacher might cry if he saw them (my lettering is not up to snuff!), but I love the effect of white on black.

Curious about the food? If you're interested, here's a quick run down of the menu (still kicking myself over the lack of food pictures-argh!):

Hors d'oeuvres: Brie + pear pizza, Carmelized onion pizza
Appetizers: Pumpkin bisque, roasted chickpea + chevre salad with pickled red onion
Entree: Grilled salmon + arugula pesto with smashed potatoes and grilled zucchini or Grilled lamb chops + port reduction with potato rounds and ratatouille.
Dessert: Apple tart + vanilla ice cream, or Chocolate tart + cinnamon cream, or Fruit tart + whipped pastry cream.

I still can't believe Jeremy made all of that food for all of those people! We still have a lot to figure out , but I'm loving the direction we're heading. Whatever happens, our main goal is to create opportunities for people to spend time together in a festive atmosphere with great food.

What more could you want?

A festive dinner in the Fall:

A few weeks ago we hosted a dinner for 25 people at Barnard Griffin, a winery in my hometown. It was so fun to test out our event planning/chef skills on a group of people we already knew!

Everyone met up in the evening for a four course dinner at tables that were simply decorated. We made boxwood garlands and placed them on cedar planks in the center of each table. Pine cone place cards adorned each plate and everyone walked away with a little jar of pumpkin butter to celebrate the season.

I'm sorry to say things got a little hectic (like me in the kitchen, nursing a baby while Jeremy plates 25 entrees kind of hectic) and I didn't get any pictures of the food! So terrible, right? Hopefully the festive spirit of the event was captured in the photos above, we had such a good time!

Stay tuned for a few more details...

In the studio: A vineyard celebration for the Willow girls

I recently wrapped up work on some 60th birthday party invitations for a fun-loving group of ladies who call themselves the "Willow girls."  The middle and back of the tri-fold invitation features some great old and new pictures of the friends and their memories.  Wishing them the best as they celebrate with spirits among their lifelong friends!

A Wedding Suite for Mindy & Pat

I wrapped up work on a very special invitation last week.  My dear friend Mindy is marrying another friend, Pat, in March.  I met Mindy back in the carefree days of early high school and the friendship stuck.  We stayed in touch through college and after, and ended up living in the same neighborhood in Seattle a few years ago.

Have I ever told you my husband used to be in a band?  Ahh, yeah.  Around the time we met he was traveling and performing with Foolish Souls.  Scroll to the bottom of this post for a fun little picture that could get me killed...

Anyway, Pat was also a member of this fabulous band.   He and Jeremy are still good friends (he was even in our wedding).  Long story short, Mindy and Pat met one time at our house and then ended up meeting by chance again last year.  They hit it off and now two of our good friends are marrying each other.  So fun!

Mindy loves all things pink and Pat is a kind man, so we went all out.  The handmade sleeve features a floral pattern.  We kept the invite clean and simple to complement all the floral details.

The front of the RSVP post card has an over sized flower and diagonal stripes.  The back of the postcard (pictured above) matches the invite.  The portion to the right is perforated so guests can keep the additional information when they send back their post cards.

I LOVED making these invites for you Mindy and Pat!  I can't wait to go home in March and be in this wedding.  Stay tuned next week for a peek at the save the dates we sent out back in January (out of order I know).

Without further ado, I give you Foolish Souls (sorry Jeremy & Pat!):

Yes, those pants are leather...

A Fourth Birthday for Ellie

We had a fun little party for Ellie this past weekend.  She's technically not four until this Saturday, but we had to celebrate while her Nana & Papa were in town.  I know everyone says this, but I can't believe how big my baby is!

The party was bare bones simple (good thing kids don't care!).  Every time I pick Ellie up from school her pictures are full of brown and purple drawings.  Like, only brown and purple.  Planning her party was easy: brown + purple +bows!

 
Every time I plan a party with these big balloons Ellie plays with them afterwards.  Her eyes lit up when she found out they were just for her this time!

We served Mac & Cheese (her fave) and chocolate cake.  We also had hot chocolate with huge vanilla bean marshmallows-YUM!

As an activity the kids made their own snow globes.  Well, I would actually call them glitter globes because there wasn't water in them.

They showed me where they wanted their fawn and trees placed and I hot-glued them to the lid of half-pint mason jar.  The kids poured white glitter into their jars and I helped them put the lid on.  They were all excited to turn their jar over and see the "snow" fall.  It was the perfect short and sweet craft for ages 1-4!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

A First Birthday for Cooper

Recently, I had the privilege of making invitations for the cutest little boy, Cooper.  

His Mom, Crystal, decided on an "Up" theme for his first birthday.  I love the idea of using a movie for party inspiration, especially one with so many possibilities!  

This is what guests will see when they open their invitations.

When they pull the tab...

So fun, right?

We decided to add a 12x12 sign in sheet that can be kept as a keepsake in Cooper's scrapbook.  Using colored ink pads, guests will stamp their thumbprints to make up the balloons in the picture (I didn't have the right ink pads so I used watercolors in my example)

Happy first Birthday Cooper!  I hope you have a blast at your party!