Birthday Bonanza

 

While I am still nibbling on left over turkey from the fridge and the after glow of a wonderful Christmas, I have been itching to share some birthday photos with you!

It really is such a divided, hectic holiday season for us with all these birthdays, specially when we take the time to actually separate them (and ourselves) from the holiday season. But it is also a special time of year to surround yourself with friends and family and everyone does seem to be in those fantastic holiday moods... so I'll take the crazy with the good.

Last Saturday was my single best birthday yet. The group was small, 8 in total, and the laughs were plentiful. 

{ a dapper duo }

 

As they say, one thing led to another...

 

It all started when I bought the rabbit mask for Wren. She had so much fun in it that I kind of thought it may be fun to do adult versions for my party. I know my friends well, and while they are straight laced professionals in their day to day life they know how to have some silly fun too and they were the perfect way to set the tone for the whole night.

We glittered up our own moustaches with some black craft paper, glue and glitter, then hot glued them to paper straws. 

 

And I whipped up a quick fox as well for the more adventurous party goers.

 

A tiny, glittered cowboy hat from Party City rounded out the props.

 

Remember all that thrift store tinsel and ribbon I scooped up?

 

Wren and I dedicated an evening to ironing it with some StitchWitchery on to strings and hanging it around the house.

 

But no party is truly complete in our house without balloons. And as my last birthday in my twenties I went big! with some giant 36 inch balloons.

I got these giant balls of goodness from the darling Ramona over at Sweet Social. She has some super fun and cool party supplies, but these balloons were sooooo amazing. 

Her sweet package was even complete with treats. THANKS again Ramona!!

We had the balloons inflated at a party store, then Wren and I got to work jazzing up the ribbons with everything we could think and craft up!

 

We made tissue paper tassels...

Foil tassels....

 

and tied endless ribbons and tinsel strands on. 

 

The more we could add the better!

 

Almost party time!

 

Finally, just before it was time to get ready we set out the treats and while it looked yummy, it didn't really have as much punch as we were looking for so we quickly tossed some food coloring and water into antique bottles around the house.

 

Wren especially loved this!!

 

All dressed, waiting on guests to arrive Sean let me open my first present just in time to light it up.

{ he knows me so well }

My suave gentleman.

 

My bestest, dearest friend for life.

 

Trying to hold a poker face...

 

even my smallest guest got in on the fun (kind of, sort of). 

 

We caught up, laughed and played at the house for some time then made our way all together over to my favorite jazz bar and spent the balance of the evening singing and dancing. 

It was a great reminder to do this more often.

And a VERY happy Birthday to all you other December babies out there. 

I know there are a lot of us!

Kate's Apartment

I have been tight lipped about a project I've been having lots of fun with. Besides the holidays, the birthdays and ParkView (we may just have these things they call walls by the early new year), I have been working together with my Sister in Law, Kate to revamp her condo.

When we do the big unveiling I will show you all the before shots, but here is what we are working towards in her living room and dining room. 

Kate is a really fun, light hearted, mid-twenties girl who lives downtown. We wanted to take advantage of having some small pops of pink around her place since she lives on her own.

Kate wants lots of white, a lot of accessories for a very eclectic, traveled look, and a touch of modern glam. 

The challenge? We are working our tails off to pull off a makeover of her entire place (including her bedroom) for around $1200!! We have a lot of our key pieces already and have thrifted piles and piles of accessories and treasures so our goal is in good shape (so far!). 

Kate is taking of some time from work for the holidays so we can feverishly finish her place by the new year, which is when I am looking forward to sharing it all here!

4 years ago

Kinda hard to believe this was exactly 4 years ago! 

The biggest surprise was that our little bird came just hours later.

She definitely made her entrance 'Wren Style', exactly when and how she wanted. 

And tomorrow she will be a whole 4 years old. 

Birthday trinkets

 

I'm kind of a birthday brat. In our house I designate the whole week leading up to my big day the "birthday week". I know, I know, it is one of the busiest weeks of the year and here I go and make it ALL mine. I think it is a Christmas baby thing.

The one really good thing about holiday birthdays is that there are a lot of glitzy items floating around the thrift stores! So I decided to use some of them as birthday decor instead. Tinsel garlands are particularly cheap (25 to 50 cents a bagful)  and so I've got some ideas for those. As well as gold ribbon and a lovely pile of vintage pink floral ribbons. I'll show you what I did with it all later this week.

Amid my preparations I also dyed my hair a dark chestnut brown. I am feeling extra dramatic and glamorous with these new dark tresses.

 

And when I was supposed to be finishing my holiday shopping I scooped up a perfectly pink birthday skirt from Urban Outfitters. Don't worry, I got my holiday shopping done too~

And finally I want to congratulate my friend Angelica on the birthday of her brand new baby boy, Corbin this past weekend!!! Welcome to the holiday birthday baby club Corbin.

Gift wrapping with Yarn

 

They say it is better to give than to receive, but you know what is better than giving? Getting crafty! I have nearly as much fun wrapping gifts as I do giving them, usually personalizing it somehow to the recipient. But that can be a little too much of a time drain this time of year so Wrennie and I set up a production line to get the first of our gifts wrapped up and ready to give.

 

It all started with two standard rolls of yarn, but if you want to customize your gifts to any specific color scheme it doesn't come easier than using wool. The sky is the limit with color choices!

 

My only investment in our gift giving this year was a set of pom pom makers. 

Where have these been all my life? They are little rainbows of pure happiness! The whole set was around $5 and it allows you to make different sizes of pompoms. I won't go through the specifics because I am sure there are different techniques and ways to use different makers, but once you do one you are a pro.

 

I made some big, some small, some a little fuller, some a little thinned out, and even a couple multicolored. It is addicting! The only thing you want to make sure and do to save yourself some trouble is to leave the ends of the piece you use to tie it together instead of trimming them off. This is what we will use tie them to our gifts.

 

For the wrapping paper I just used standard Kraft paper. I pick up a giant roll every so often and that usually lasts me a few years. But to add some extra umphf  I 'wove' more yarn around the gifts. This is just one piece I wrapped around the present 5 or 6 times, then I wrapped it the other direction the same number of times, weaving it as I did the second go round.

 

All tied up! I like to think of it as extra protection from little fingers getting into them early.  Wren's favorite part after making the pompoms was showing me where she wanted me to tie them on the parcels.

 

For smaller gifts (or for the gifts you wrap after your third glass of wine) I just wound the yard around. I actually like this look a little more!

 

Different shapes, sizes and color combos.

 

Now I just need to round up some more boxes so I can get the rest of my wrapping done! 

(when did stores stop giving these? I miss those days!!)

Pink and Gold Glam

It is so mentally crazy at times here. We just get into the swing of things with the Holidays and all that decorating and basically as soon as it's up my mind turns to parties and themes and decorating for those. We made the executive decision to move Wren's birthday this year. We are doing a little family movie outting on her actual birthday next Wednesday, but her big birthday blow out is being moved to the second week of January. Now that she is in school and has so many friends I think it will be best for everyone involved if we move it so that there is no risk of Christmas trees getting bumped, wrong presents being opened (happened last year. Once they start ripping things open it's hard to stop them!) and most importantly, this way all her friends will be around to celebrate with her.

BUT, it is also my birthday next week. The 23rd, to be exact. And I've never thrown myself a party before. Can you believe it? The girl who loves parties, decor and balloons has never thrown her own party? But for my big 2-9 I think I'll go glam and have a tiny little soiree. Nothing big or major, just our very closest friends. And it really will be low key because we plan on heading to a Jazz bar later in the evening. But for the first few hours I have decided to do a pink and gold theme at the house in honor of my last year in my twenties.

{ gold sequined strands for some cheap and easy decor }

I don't think it will be nearly as cool as any of these events but I am totally crushing on the pink/gold combo so here is more eye candy for all us glamazons.

via 

via

via

via

via

via

unknown

unknown

unknown