A Little Ladybug Party

Yesterday, we celebrated my little bug's first birthday. We had a very small gathering to open presents and really smash up a cake. Here are a few pictures of the food, decor, and such. 

You can see some of my inspiration here. I was (obviously) VERY inspired by the beautiful green and red ladybug party at The Party Dress. I made my own imitation toppers and signs, but you can purchase some adorable ladybug party gear from WH Hostess.

I thought the green and red palette was a fresh take on the ladybug theme, although it did read a bit Christmas-y to me occasionally. I'll share more about a few of my favorite projects soon (the highchair... the dress... maybe more!). 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!!

Linking up at Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things, the Weekend Wrap-up Party at Tatertots and Jello, and More the Merrier Monday at The DIY HSHP.

Pinned!

So, from my recent posts (like this one or that one) you may get the idea that I am on pinterest all day long, which is not entirely accurate. Everyday? Yeah. Pretty much. All day? Not quite. I do still manage to feed and dress my children, thank you very much.

Anyway. There are a few pinterest-themed parties I wanted to link up to, so at the risk of completely undermining my claim that I do other things besides pin, let's talk pinterest! Here are a few of my recent faves:

Just found this one this morning. So amazing. Totally inspiring.

Design by Leftovers via dornob.com

Trying to figure out how to use these cute and clever cookie bowls for little bug's birthday bash.

Wilton

This is not a new pin, but it is still one of my favorites. So beautiful!! I have been unable to track down the original source (which is one of the downsides of pinterest). If anyone knows where it originated, let me know. [Update! JLR22 has found the original source for me--and taught me something new about finding image sources! (Thank you, JLR22!!) This beauty came from Milk Magazine.] Also. Can we make this? Please? Let me know when you figure out how to do it.

Milk Magazine via pirouette blog

I'm thinking of making a version of this for the birthday outfit. Jess at Craftiness is not Optional has some great tutorials. This one was part of the pleat weeks at See Kate Sew, which I am totally eating up. Will there be pleats in the birthday party? Totally! Um... I hope so. (What is the crafting equivalent of having eyes bigger than my stomach?)

See Kate Sew

I've got a lot of boy baby showers coming up. This is too cute, right?

B is for Boy

There you have it! What have you been pinning?

Paper Doily Envelopes

I am basically behind on everything in my life right now, so my daughter's birthday party preparations are certainly no exception. BUT I did actually finish the invitations (mailing them is another story entirely... why did I think I should do a real paper invite again?).

I mentioned the paper doily envelope idea before, but I thought I would show off how they turned out. The one I made is very similar to paper.mein's (click for directions!). I used 10 inch round paper doilies that I found at the dollar store. My invitations were 4 inches by 6 inches, and the 10 inch doily worked perfectly for that size. 

I placed my invitation in the middle of the doily and folded the doily around the invitation, and then cut out the corners, which I thought made the envelope prettier and less bulky.

I used a glue stick to stick the sides to the bottom, and then I closed the lacy thing up with a little red sticker. If you are interested in trying out these pretty envelopes, check out the excellent tutorial at we.love.laugh.kiss that uses square doilies. I should have read this before I did mine because she cleverly adds tracing paper to make the envelope sturdier and more functional. Smart!

Linking up to What I Whipped Up Wednesday at Sugar and Dots, Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts, Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design, and the Inspiration Board at Homework.

A Few of My Favorite Pins

My baby girl is turning ONE in a few weeks!!! I cannot believe how quickly her first year has gone by. It makes me very very very sad.

So. I just recently figured out that I better get going on planning the birthday festivities.

Because, you know. She's totally going to remember this birthday party for the rest of her life. And she's going to know exactly what is going on. And she'll be way peeved if there aren't enough cute garlands, party hats, and cupcakes. One-year-olds are notoriously hard to please.

Yeah.

Anyway. We call baby girl "our little bug," so I decided to go with a ladybug theme. So far, my planning has been spending hours perusing blogs and pinterest. This is tough stuff, people.

Here are a few of my favorite pins (Think Sound of Music. You were right there with me, weren't ya?)

I've decided to go with this color scheme rather than the more traditional black and red. I just love the green. It is so bright and fresh and fun and summery.

The Party Dress

(I'm working on my version of those invites... So cute!)

I love the idea of antennae instead of party hats. Or maybe combined with party hats? Now we are getting crazy...

Hostess with the Mostess

Now, cake pops are adorable and yummy and wonderful. We know this. But they are also kind of annoying to make. Am I right? There are just a lot of steps and then they fall off the sticks and four hours later you have like twenty cake pops to show for your work because your sneaky three year old has eaten like twenty and another twelve fell on the floor.

So. I really like how these simple cake pops have the sticks coming out of the top. This may not seem like a big difference, but I know that will make it much, much easier. Plus, when you stick a cute pinwheel on the top, it looks like you were doing the whole thing to be cute and not just cuz you are lazy.

Hostess with the Mostess

I've been wanting to try out growing some wheatgrass for a while, and now I've got a great excuse.

K.I.S.S

Perfect, right?

And how about some delicious, adorable, unexpected ladybug snacks?

cutefoodforkids.com

I probably won't actually make these, but they are very clever.

I bought some paper doilies and I might try these envelopes out for the invitations. Not because they are a perfect fit for the theme, but just because I think they are awesome.

design.mein

And, finally, for good measure. How awesome is this idea (which has nothing to do with my party plans)?

Jilly Leigh on Pinterest

How about sticking some crayons in your glue gun? Why, sure. That would be AWESOME.

So, what do you think of the plans so far? Any suggestions?