Tractor Party

It has been a while since I have shared something crafty (my bad). Eat your heart out…here are a few photos from William's 2nd birthday party. I'd like to mention that we pulled this off one week after moving to the farm. I mean, how could we not have the tractor themed party at the farm? If you like what you see, please visit Memorable Designs' Facebook page or Etsy shop.

I made a banner for our mantle that used the same pattern as the invitations (you can view the invitations on Etsy). I made the cutout shapes resemble wheels with treads in keeping with the theme.

I kept his name separate to use in another area, on our kitchen wall, next to the food table. I printed out about a dozen pictures of him on tractors and hung them up…simple, but cute!

I had these cute mini galvanized buckets and added chalkboard labels with farm-themed words for forks and spoons.

These baggies had rice krispie treats that the birthday boy helped make. Toppers read "Have a Hay Bale for the Ride Home."

For favors I did acrylic cups for each child with all different designs and their name. William got a green one since he was the birthday boy. I did everything from a crab, airplane and dinosaur to a ladybug, chicken and butterflies.

I also used vinyl to customize these little green buckets with the tractor theme. You can also see one style of food tent cards I made. I used a handful of complimentary patterns for the backgrounds.

And a family picture…on the tractor of course!

Bridal Shower: The Decor

The weekend of St. Patrick's Day I hosted a bridal shower in Atlanta for my dear friend Blair with her sister and mother at Blair's house. I wanted to share the personalized decorations with you and in another post later this week I will share her gifts, all of which I made of course :).

Blair's sister Kristin, Blair the bride and me

Originally, Blair's mom thought a Breakfast at Tiffany's theme would be fun…guests in black dresses, hats and pearls with tiffany blue, white and black decor. In the same email she also commented on how Blair would probably like everyone to come dressed out of the movie "The Help," pretty sundresses, etc. So, we ended up combining the two and went with the sundress apparel and used tiffany blue and shades of purple (her wedding is monochromatic purple).

I spent January and February making about 25 invitations by hand. I used my Cameo for all of these projects. I thought the scalloped edge card was feminine and I designed it to fit in square purple envelopes I had ordered from Paper Source. By the way, why do square envelopes cost more to mail? I think USPS is profiting from the wedding industry! To make the plain white wedding dress look better, I added some small adhesive crystals randomly on the skirt and tied a coordinating ribbon around the waist of the dress. I wrote out the invitation text on the back of the flat card by hand because I had not yet ordered the Silhouette sketch pens. Those things are wonderful and I wish I had used them.

Now onto the actual shower…..

Blair's sister Kristin came up with the idea to give out wine as favors to our guests. Once we bought the wine at our favorite stop, Trader Joe's, Kristin removed the labels by soaking the bottles in the kitchen sink and just rubbing off the labels. Blair's dad got in on the fun by cutting out the adhesive labels, designed by Kristin, with a paper cutter before she applied them. I made the purple and tiffany blue wine bottle hangers to add a pop of coordinating color. I am glad I made a few different styles because I used the cutouts from some as dresses on the other which really made use of everything I had cut.

We displayed the wine bottles on a table underneath a window off to the side of the kitchen with some beautiful purple flowers arranged by the mother-of-the-bride. The tablecloths were actually from my baby shower in Connecticut last year and my mom had extra and since they coordinated, we used them!

I made a "Congrats Blair" banner to hang across the fireplace where I assumed the bride would sit to open her gifts. I used the same paper as the invitations and used thick gold sparkle letters since her wedding colors are purple and gold. I used a scalloped edge for the background to coordinate with the invitations once again and because it is feminine and springy. Did you know I make custom banners for clients? Come check out some examples on Facebook and "Like" my page…I'd love to talk with you about a custom order!

For dessert we had ganache filled chocolate cupcakes and one of the bridesmaids decorated them all different. I took one of Blair's cake stands and tied another tablecloth around it with some tulle we had on hand. Don't get me wrong, the cake stand was lovely colors, but it clashed with the look I was going for ;).

Another simple thing I did was fill the chine cabinet with framed photos. On the morning of the shower I asked Blair to go around the house and collect photos of her and Joe for me to put on display. Since guests sat in the kitchen, dining, and living rooms, I thought it would be a nice subtle touch to display more photos of them in the dining room.

William's 1st Birthday Party!

Last Saturday we had a ONE-DERFUL birthday party for my sweet baby toddler boy. I have alot of fun and easy projects to share with you since I had been planning this fete for some time, but for now, here are a few fun photos.

If you want to see more, especially of this cutie and her sisters, read my friend Holly's post about the party

FABULOUS times

I spent last weekend in Tampa for my bachelorette party at Stevie's house!!! When I got off the plane, my friends were at the airport with a sign to pick me up - it was as if I had a driver :) And then when we got to Stevie's house, the mailbox was decorated too!

I couldn't believe that friends had come down from Connecticut (Brittany), Virginia (Meghan), South Carolina (Megan and Wendy), Georgia (Blair) and my Florida babies (Stevie and Vickie). I was excited to see the renovations that Stevie and Eric have done to their home over the past three years too! She wasted no time and brought out her fabulous vegetable dip, drinks, etc and I was surprised with a bouquet of flowers Brad had delivered for me...then suddenly it was time for gifts!

They organized a lingerie shower for me and I think Brad now has some new best friends ;). My friends also created a beautiful recipe scrapbook for me that I carried home on the plane in my lap. There are pages from nearly everyone who was invited, whether they could make it or not. It is a real treasure!!!

*I'm having a problem arranging the pictures - again - so they are all over the place (obviously)*And make note that the majority of weekend photos are only for the party girls and Brad to see...especially those from our pre-party on Saturday night!**

We went to a country bar called Round Up on Saturday night and it was Brittany's first bar experience. Before leaving the house Stevie brought out dozens of colorful leis with tags that said "I got LEI'd at Shannon's Bachelorette Party August 1-3, 2008." We all took three leis and had to lei guys throughout the night, that is, when we weren't awestruck by Ryan Weaver playing on stage!

Saturday we spent at St. Pete/Clearwater beach and got to relax and chat all afternoon. While in the GUlf, Meghan, Wendy, Stevie, brittany and I got a horoscope reading by a sketchy guy in the water..yeah I don't know either. Vickie met us at the beach before we had a yummy lunch. Luckily no pigeons ate our food. Once back at Stevie's we were in the pool and all started getting ready for Saturday night and I had no clue what I was getting myself into!

A few weeks ago Stevie, Blair and Brittany e-mailed me a list of things to bring and it included random stuff like: aviators, a Clemson shirt, argyle socks, something camo, etc. So I brought all of it with me, but as it turns out I only needed the argyle (see below picture). And people were still asking us all night why we had the socks on??!! C'mon, really?! But before leaving for Channelside there was a visitor, no nothing that involved nudity, not at Stevie's house that night at least. I'll leave it at that. Let's just say that the picture of me laughing hysterically, was from the party :).

At Channelside we went to three different bars where I got on stage at the Paino Bar and the 80s bar to sing Jessie's Girl and a variety of toher songs with the band. It was fun times had by all. Oh, except when the waitress tripped and fell into me and Vickie - drenching the back of her shirt early in the night. We tried to clean it up in the Sit2P room! The night was fabulous and ended at 3:30am with me making my sister feed me before I went to bed. Good news - no one had a hangover on Sunday! So, we got to enjoy the pool and gradually everyone started to leave and yes, I cried. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!!! I hope to see these girls in a few short months at our wedding!!

On the wedding front: 85 days to go TheKnot told me this morning. I have gotten all the bridesmaid gifts completed, their dresses were delivered to them last week (and look great!), I purchased my veil, scheduled my first fitting and made arrangements for brunch on November 2nd at the Hampton Inn in a separate room. If only I was quicker at addressing envelopes......