Pool Party 1st Birthday Party

The day before Charlotte's official birthday, we held her party at my parent's house. I have been planning for quite some time to have a Pool Party Theme. I had been "pinning" things for MONTHS!

I ended up purchasing a party package on Etsy that included the bulk of the decorations I would need for the party. I used ForeverYourPrints and was really pleased with their products and promptness. I had everything printed at Staples and then cut/ assembled everything myself.

I kept everything in the pink/yellow/ blue color scheme. I ordered a bunch of beach balls to hang over the food table.

Speaking of food... I tried to keep things within my theme. Somehow it didn't turn out quite as good as the Pinterest counterparts!

 




Her cake was from Publix. When we took her for her smashcake session, she HATED cake so I wasn't sure how it would go at her party. While she didn't LOVE it, she tolerated it much better than she did during her photoshoot!

For favors, I had beachball cake pops made by Pop Goes the Party. I then added individual bags and tags to each one, thanking everyone for coming to her party.

I also ordered a 1st Birthday Chalkboard print from Lilly La Manch on Etsy. Staples was able to print this in an 11 X 14 for around $5. I got the frame for cheap at Joann's and we have actually been able to use it for several other projects already!

Aside from the party, our gift to her was an "Anywhere chair" from Pottery Barn Kids. She took right to it and continues to use it on a daily basis!  She LOVED opening up gifts :)

It's amazing how fast her first year went by! I feel so blessed to be this little girls momma!! :) 

4th of July Crafts

So this post is LONG overdue! I realized I never shared my 4th of July projects this year. There were a few of them that turned out great so I didn't want to skip over it even though its about 3 months late...

While not technically a project, I picked up some table decorations from Kohls. Not sure if I have ever mentioned it here but I seriously LOVE Kohls. The stackable coupons and the Kohls cash... you really can't do better. I want to say I was able to pick up everything below for under $20.

The next thing I tried my hand at were 4th of July vases. I had some mason jars lying around so I decided to try my hand at painting a mini- flag across three jars.

First I painted one jar blue and the other two white. After they were dry, I used blue painters tape to make my stripes on two of the three jars. I used a star stencil to paint a white star on the blue jar. I had a lot of bleed through on my tape. I think this is because the jar is round and had ridges so there were certain areas where I didn't get the best "seal".

I used a small paint brush to go over the stripes and that made things look much better. I added some cheap $3.95 flowers from the grocery story and displayed them in the bar area of our kitchen.

The last project I completed was a pallet American Flag for the front yard. The company my dad works for is constantly getting rid of pallets so I asked him to keep an eye out  for one that was in decent condition. I didn't realize how large they were, almost too large for where I planned to display it. So Tim and I cut it down to a more appropriate size. I used the same paints I purchase for the jar project above... Chalk paint I purchased on sale at Joann's.

Since its raw wood, I used a primer first knowing it would soak up the paint.

After the primer, I used two coats of each color. When it dried, I stenciled on the white stars.

We placed the pallet in our new Palm Tree that I mentioned here. All the plants are growing so fast I have to trim them constantly!

We also pulled out the pallet flag for Labor Day last month and will likely so the same on Memorial Day.

People I Love Board Book

Charlotte LOVES to look at the pictures we have hung around our house. She points and identifies "dada", "mama" and "lola". So I decided I want to make her a book of her family. I didn't want to go the cheap route of using an old 4X6 slide in photo album. I thought about using Shutterfly since I am always getting great promotional codes from them. But Charlotte is ROUGH on books. She has destroyed many books with "regular" pages so I was pretty adamant about having a board book.

I did a little research on companies that allow you to customize board books. I wanted something good quality but also not super expensive. I ended up going with a company called Pint Size Productions. I went with their "Simple Photo Book 2" design and uploaded each picture file and was able to customize text. They also have themed books if you want the option of less customization or if you were creating a book for a holiday.

The company was very responsive. I was unsure if my order process and they were very prompt in replying to me. They estimated 7-10days for shipping. I placed an order Monday night and had my book in hand by Friday... I was pleasantly surprised about how quickly I received my order!

The book is a great quality and the best part is Charlotte loves it just as much as I thought she would. Of course, her favorite pages are "dada" and "lola".

The cost of the book was $24.95. They have a promotional code listed on their Twitter account for the Fall which did save me a few dollars. I will defiantly be using them again in the future. This would make such a great gift idea as well! Here is a sample of how I set up the inside of the book.

The back allows for an dedication and a photo as well.