Backyard Bowl-o-rama Birthday

I can't believe it's been almost a year since Graham's Mappy 3rd Birthday party, but in a couple months, my little guy will be FOUR. I still don't understand how that happened. While Graham still enjoys his maps, he's picked up a few more obsessions in the months since his third birthday--mainly bowling, Legos, and watching Monsters, Inc. over and over until I want to put my fist through a wall. So in preparation for birthday number four, I thought I'd explore the themes of bowling, Legos, and a more generic monster-themed party. First up: bowling!

I'm not sure how this obsession started. Graham received a toy bowling set for Christmas when he was two, and he liked it well enough. Somewhere along the way he rediscovered it, and in the process, he tried to make everything into bowling pins or bowling balls. For example, rolling a marble into crayons standing on end. Or rolling a lemon at Mommy's collection of postpartum medication bottles (saddest. game. EVER). As a potty-training reward recently, my mom and I took Graham to the actual bowling alley, and it seriously BLEW HIS MIND.


Most of the bowling alleys I've called limit groups to six bowlers per lane. That would get pretty pricey for a lot of kids; plus I'm not sure all of Graham's classmates can handle the bowling alley just yet. Instead, we'll be relying on the backyard again for our Backyard Bowl-o-rama.

Activities. I am not about to construct a replica bowling alley on my lumpy, weedy lawn, but I thought this giant inflatable bowling set would be a great game for the kids (and um, the adults too). I'm a little concerned that all of the reviews mention the kids inevitably growing bored of the bowling and using the giant pins to beat each other? Only a little, though.

We'll also hook up the Wii to my dad's giant old big screen (currently living in my basement, where my parents like to store things indefinitely), and play Wii bowling in the shady under-deck area.

Lastly, if the kids are enjoying beating each other with the giant bowling pins, maybe they'll enjoy beating this bowling pin pinata? I don't know. There are only so many things you can do with bowling balls and bowling pins, people.

Food: Graham's Snack Bar. I could go in one of two different directions with this, either copying food you'd normally see at a bowling alley snack bar (pizza, nachos), OR giving into my aforementioned disease and creating themey food just for the sake of its dorky naming opportunities. SUCH AS: ham and cheese PINwheels, SPARE ribs, TURKEY wraps, banana SPLIT bites, peanut GUTTER BALLS . . . Oh, I could go on and on. One thing I know I want to attempt are these bowling cake pops. Amazing!

Invitations and Decor. As I was digging around online for bowling party inspiration, this little gem popped up in my Google Reader. I am a sucker for red and aqua, so I will definitely be considering those invitations, as well as the one in my mood board, both from Just Click Print. I will keep dredging up the red and aqua, relying on my ol' reliable red paper lanterns, which will be reimagined this time as bowling balls. I'm thinking maybe I can tape some little black circle trios (holes!) to them? We shall see.

For favors, I like these mini bowling sets (you're welcome, parents! Enjoy stepping on those little gems!) or these clever bowling-themed crayons. Pin It

Fourth of July Fun

Have I talked before about how much I love my neighborhood? What we lack in grand homes we make up for in awesome neighbors and proximity to all kinds of fun stuff. Our location is the one reason my husband and I can't imagine selling our teeny-tiny house.

My sweet little street has the best traditions: a neighborhood Easter egg hunt, an annual Memorial Day kickball game, and what has to be the cutest of all: a 4th of July bike parade. We got the kiddos all decked out for the parade, and I decided to set up a little "tailgating" station under the giant oak tree in my front yard, for all of our family members who came to watch the parade.

 
I mostly just scrounged up things from around my house that were red, white or blue. I did splurge and buy a blue sheet at the thrift store (don't worry, I washed it!) for a whopping five dollars, and some little metal buckets from the Target dollar zone for my citronella candles. (Honestly? I think five dollars is a bit high for a used flat sheet. I don't know what that says about me.) I hung some red and white lanterns (leftover from other parties) from the tree branches, made a quick bunting out of some leftover scrapbook paper and ribbon, and called it a day. The family appreciated a shady spot to sit and some treats to enjoy in during the parade.

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Yard Sale-ing Away

I enjoy a good yard sale, but my husband is the real yard sale king in our family. He has some sort of weird yard sale mojo, where he sort of decides what he is looking for and comes home with it that day. His best yard sale scores have been of the practical nature (shop vac, weed eater, seed spreader thingy), where mine have been more happenstance-things-I-like.

My favorite yard sale find is not my cheapest, but I must share it here (as part of the linky party over at Nesting Place today) with some poorly-lit photos. YOU'RE WELCOME.

This is a vintage 1950s floor lamp from a Miami hotel. I bought it from a collector in my neighborhood who was moving. I paid $35 for it--a princely sum in yard sale world, but a major steal by any other standards. It works great, it's in pristine condition, and I'm constantly getting compliments on it.

Not that you can see it that well in the photo above, but it totally fits with the vibe of my living room. Plus it's turquoise, which is always a plus for me.

Cost-wise, our biggest yard sale score was our dryer. We had just been forced to buy a new washing machine because our old one (which came with our house) was twenty-plus years old and finally gave out. We had a feeling the old dryer wasn't far behind, when lo and behold, we saw the dryer that matched our BRAND NEW Whirlpool washing machine at a yard sale. FOR FIVE DOLLARS. The homeowner was buying a new set and just wanted to get rid of it. I will spare you a photo because my washer and dryer are in my basement, and good Lord, nobody needs to see that mess. Just know that Seth and I are still high-fiving over that deal. Well, we would be if we were the high-fiving type. Pin It

Lil' Dee Dubya--Artwork in the Nursery

When I was pregnant with Graham, I tried to think of some fun way to display his name in his room. Then I gave up and went with the ubiquitous wooden letters over the crib solution. I think it's cute but nothing new.

With this new little nugget, I thought I might try initials instead. I had seen a few typography posters here and there and on Etsy, but none offered something I liked in the letters and colors I was looking for. I thought I might as well try my hand at creating something with whatever s(crap) I had lying around--it's free, and if I ended up not liking it, I could still go buy something else.

I had a lot of scrapbook card stock left over from Mimi's baby shower, some of it conveniently in red and turquoise. I searched online for silhouettes of images I liked, a deer (well, a fawn, because baby animals are cute. Except baby scorpions, which I learned last week. Thanks a lot, Zooborns.) and a wagon (being pulled by a little boy! Or a girl with kind of a mullet, whatever), to correspond with D and W. (New baby's name is Dean--have I said that here? Probably not, since my mother is the only one who reads this, and she already knows his name. Anyway, welcome, Dean Eliot!) I printed them out, cut them, traced them onto the white card stock, cut them again, swatted Graham away when he kept trying to take them, cut out some more for him to play with (of course he had lost interest by then). I then did the same thing with the upper- and lowercase letters for D and W (you could do this with a die-cut machine, if you have a font you like, but I just wanted old-school Times New Roman and I didn't want to pay $50 for a Cricut cartridge for four letters).



Card stock tends to come in weird sizes at the craft store. My sheets are all 12x12, which I thought I would need to trim to 8x10 to fit a standard picture frame, but then I remembered that we had some random LP frames lying around the basement that might work!

This is the LP Seth had chosen to frame. Hmm, I can't imagine why this never made it up on to any of our walls.

I spray painted them white. Then, I pieced together some pieces of white cardstock to fill the gaps around the edges--fake matting, if you will.

For the space behind the glider, I commissioned some lithographs from a local underground artist. I'm totally kidding--I found these for 3.49 apiece on clearance at Target. I am so lame. But look, a scooter--we have one of those!

And a bike--we may even have two of those. It's been a while since I've visited that corner of the Hoarder Basement beneath my house. Sorry, bikes. Anyway, I pretty much had to buy these at $3.49 apiece. I couldn't have made anything that cheaply.

The other little piece of artwork currently in the nursery is an adorable painted canvas from my sister Mary Ruth--a cute take on  "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" featuring sock monkeys, hanging over the dresser/changing table. (Better picture of it to  come soon.)

I have a couple other art-y things to put in the nursery, and if I ever get around to finishing them, you'll be the first to know. Pin It

Nursery: As Good As It Gets

Or rather, as good as it's going to get. I am out of time and patience and funds. Here's Baby 2.0's new digs!

Sources.

Crib: Ariel Stages crib, originally from Target 2007, hand-me-down from Graham

Bedding: bumper and skirt made by my mom with Moda Funky Monkey fabric via fabric.com; sheets from Koala baby

Bookshelf: Dolce shelf from Target, circa 1998. Has followed me around since college. Painted white. Red fabric bins are Closetmaid, $6 apiece, available at Target and Lowe's.

Glider/Rocker and ottoman: Dutalier via Craigslist three years ago, $60. Painted white; cushions recovered with red microfiber from JoAnn.

Robot pillow: gift from sister-in-law, handmade by via Old Made Good shop in Nashville.

Dresser: vintage Bassett via Craigslist, $30. Painted with high gloss Candy Apple Red from Glidden.

Rug: Ikea Sveje, no longer available, $12. (If anyone spots another one, please tell me! I want one more because just one is really too small for the space.)

Window valances: Target, $11 apiece.

Roller shades: KMart, $10 apiece. I hate these, by the way.

Lamp: Adesso Millennium Wood Spindle lamp, originally in our living room. Shades replaced (after Graham shattered the original ones) with JC Penney drum shades.

Corner table: Lowe's (?), circa ten years ago. We used it in the kitchen of our first apartment after we were married. I think it may have been $18 back then. It has lots of random paint splatters on it that I try to hide with books or lamps.

Light Fixture: Lowe's, $42.

Artwork (more on this later): various--made by my sister, made by me, purchased from the Target. Pin It

Lulu's Rainbow Party

Rainbow parties have been making the rounds in the ol' blogosphere for a while now, and it's a charming theme I really love. When my friend Marianne, co-writer of the hilarious and adorable Looks Good from the Back, decided to go with a rainbow theme for her daughter Lulu's second birthday party, she did what she always does with her clothes: takes a trend and makes it look effortless, chic, and better than most people do it.

I love this giant "2" balloon:

What a clever and easy (though I'm betting time-consuming) way to dress up some plain wood columns:

 Marianne made the cake herself and painstakingly placed every M&M to make the cool rainbow stripes.


 
Taste the rainbow! (Sorry, I just wanted to say that. In fact, I probably would have said it multiple times if I had been at the party. I guess this is why I don't get invited to things?)

Food included M&Ms, rainbow goldfish, multicolored tortilla chips with salsa, and this awesome fruit rainbow.

Activities for younger guests included bubbles and finger painting (activities for older guests likely involved that box of wine I spy in the background above. That's what I'm talkin' about). The kids also enjoyed feeding the fish in Marianne's parents' koi pond, and taking "fairy walks" in the woods. Favors were fun rainbow crayons individually wrapped in wax paper.

Rainbow tutu?! Stripey babylegs? Sponge painting? PIGTAILS? I think I just died from cute overload.

Happy Birthday, Lu! And great job, Marianne!

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"How Does Your Garden Grow?" First Birthday Party

Camilla Drew, you darling you,

How does your garden grow?

With sunny skies and butterflies

And cupcakes all in a row!

Hi it’s me. I have been lax about updating, but it’s not for lack of stuff to write about. Plus, I was sort of busy having a baby (more on that later)! Speaking of that baby, three days before he arrived, my niece Camilla turned one.  I was so excited when my sister-in-law Kara asked for a little help with her daughter’s first birthday party. As the mom of two boys (wow, that will take some getting used to), I really don’t miss girly things that often, except when it comes to sweet girly parties. Okay, and I might have a twinge of longing when friends post their daughters’ ballet pictures on Facebook. I mean, come ON. And I never even took ballet as a kid! But I digress.

Kara wanted the party to be relaxed and garden-themed, with an eclectic, flea-market feel. I think she did a great job!

Kara and I made the banner with a patchwork quilt in mind. She cut out different squares of patterned scrapbook paper with scalloped-edge scissors, and I matched them up with solid background pieces, put letters on them, and sewed the pieces together. We kept all of the words as separate banners, in case she wanted to put the "Camilla" banner in the nursery later.

 

We did so much with a couple packs of scrapbook paper! Kara made these adorable paper chains--definitely one of the easiest, least expensive ways to add some color to a party. 

 

The centerpieces of the party were two gorgeous dogwood trees in full bloom in the backyard. Kara took advantage of this by using them as a place to display Camilla's monthly photos from her first year of life. She made little paper "frames" for each photo with cardstock backing and, you guessed it, scrapbook paper, and hung each photo with a simple ribbon. So cute!

Kara set-up a "photo booth" in one corner of the yard by simply hanging up a pretty vintage quilt and providing flower- and bug-themed masks and props she found in the Target dollar zone. She made a few signs for guests to hold.

The entire party was adorable, and the food was no exception. Kara displayed little tags for all the food in miniature flower pots. We made collars for the cupcakes out of--what else?--scrapbook paper, using a template we found online.

Kara made these little dessert stands out of vintage china from the thrift store and "crystal" candlesticks from the dollar store.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are so much cuter in flower shapes!

Sources

Cupcakes, cake pops, meringues: The Almond Tree

Banner, invitation, paper decorations: all handmade

Photography:  Stella Dolce photography

Coming soon: the nursery, a work in progress. Pin It