Nutcracker Tea Party

I probably should have posted this back in December but things got crazy and now here we are, a little more than a month later. So...here's some inspiration for next Christmas! ;-)

Since we were going to see the Nutcracker with some friends and their little girls, I thought it would be fun to have a little Sugar Plum tea party before the big show. Just something sweet and simple before the ballet to get the girls excited. Not that they really needed to be any more excited than they already were but if you know me, I just really need any kind of excuse to throw a party. 

For the place settings, I used tea and plate sets from Ikea, white doilies and silver snowflakes. Each little ballerina got a handmade snowflake wand with pink and blue ribbon attached. They loved dancing about with their wands pretending to be in the Land of Sweets. 

I loved making this sign of  Clara dancing with the Nutcracker. It was the perfect decoration for the party and it inspired the girls to dance and twirl around with the nutcracker doll we had sitting out. The slat sign can be found at The Wood Connection. 

I found these adorable Nutcracker books at Dollar Tree. I wrapped them in a cellophane bag, attached a candy cane cut out to the bag and set them on the chairs for the girls before they came in. They loved their little take home favors, :)

The girls had an enchanting time and the tea party was a perfect prelude to the magical Nutcracker ballet.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Valentine Slat Sign with The Wood Connection

Hi there!

 I'm so excited to be guest posing for The Wood Connection and today I have a fun Valentine tutorial to share with you. I have always loved decorating for Valentine's Day and Wood Connection makes it so easy to change up your holiday decor from season to season. 

Today I'd like to share a slat sign and candy jar I made using supplies from the Wood Connection. I'm all about projects that are fairly quick and simple so I think you'll have fun making these. 

Supplies:
Horizontal Slat Sign
Candlestick Jar Accessory Kit
Candlestick
Love Vinyl
Mini wood heart, glass jar available at The Wood Connection
Creamcoat acrylic paint in Tomato Spice, Peony and Ivory
Foam brushes
Gold Glitter
Felt
Pink Paper
Doilies
Paper Flowers

Directions for the slat sign:
Paint entire sign ivory and allow to dry completely. Stick "love" vinyl to slat sign. Mix tomato spice and peony paint together to make a dark pink color. Paint the bottom two slats this dark pink color. Next, add a little more peony paint to the mixture so you have a bit lighter pink and paint the next slat the lighter pink color. Keep adding a little more peony to the paint mixture until it becomes lighter and add it to the next slat. For the top and final slat, paint with ivory and allow the entire sign to dry. Once the sign is dry, slowly peel off the "love" vinyl.

 For the felt and paper feathers, I cut two small pink and two large gray feathers out free-hand and glued them onto the sign. Next I added three small doilies and attached five paper flowers on top of the doilies.

Directions for the candy jar:

Paint the bottom of the candlestick and base a mixture of peony and tomato spice. It will be the same pink color as the bottom of the slat sign.

Keep adding a little peony to lighten the mixture and continue painting up towards the top of the candlestick. Paint the top of the lid peony and allow the lid and candlestick to dry.

Meanwhile, place tape around middle of the jar and apply wood glue to the bottom half of the jar. Sprinkle gold glitter until the glue is completely covered. Once the glue is dry, remove the tape so your jar will have an even finish. Apply wood glue around the top of the lid and sprinkle glitter on the lid as well. 

Apply wood glue to mini wood heart and sprinkle gold glitter on top of the heart. Attach heart to the top of the lid using wood glue.

 There you have it! Pretty quick and simple, right? The only thing left you have to do is decide which yummy Valentine candy you're going to put in your candy jar. :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Mermaid Party

Our daughter recently turned 5 and has wanted a mermaid birthday party "her whole life", as she puts it. I loved planning this party because our daughter was such a huge help in decorating and creating for it. I loved being able to work on this party together and hearing her fun ideas for it. 

I thought I'd share some photos of her special day with you. :)

I found these darling invitations from Loralee Lewis. How sweet are they?!

My daughter invited 12 friends to her party and I made each child a fun mermaid party hat. 

These little goodie bags were a huge hit with all the little mermaids that came to the party. I found them on Etsy in the shop josiekatstrunk .

I ordered this matching shirt for the birthday girl to wear. How perfect, right? Mermaids AND birthday cake! 

Our daughter's grandma is an incredible seamstress and has made our girl several costumes and dresses throughout  the years. She made her a mermaid costume for Halloween and I took a few photos of her wearing it. I thought it would be fun to frame one of the photos of her and add a little starfish to it to set on the party table. 

I wanted the kids to come inside our home and feel like they were about to swim under the sea. I had fishing nets, jellyfish, sea shells and sea glass all over the house.

This pretty ocean ombre tassel from Studio Mucci added a perfect touch to the dessert table.

Here are a few of the jellyfish I made to hang over the party table. I used fishing line to hang them up so it really looked as if they were floating.

My cousin Leigh is an insanely talented cookie artisan and she made these gorgeous cookies for the party. They were too pretty to eat! Check out her beautiful creations on Instagram @babygabeycookies. They taste just as incredible as they look.    

 Look at all that amazing detail!

I found a lot of things for the party at my local thrift store. This seashell platter was only 1.00 and was the perfect fit to hold all the fruit. 

I made this dessert tray using tea cups and plates from the thrift store. I spray painted them pink and glued the cups to the plates. Super easy and cute! 

These white chocolate dipped oreos were so fun to make with my daughter before the party. We brushed a little edible gold dust on top of the chocolate seashells and the kids ( and moms!) LOVED them. 

We couldn't have a mermaid party without candy sushi. This was another fun project my daughter, husband and I worked on together. We ate waaayyy too many Swedish fish during the making of these rolls. Ugh.

I made this cake by using raw sugar as the "sand" and chocolate starfish to embellish the top. 

We played a few fun games and one of the favorites was the mermaid race. Each child colored and decorated a mermaid tail. I then had each kid put both feet into a large sock and attach the fin to their feet. The kids then had to hop across the floor like mermaids out of water. It was hilarious and the kids had a blast. 

We completely surprised our daughter with a REAL mermaid! Ariel was amazing with the kids. She sang, told stories and had the kids do some silly sea creature dancing. She made the birthday girl feel extremely special by having a coronation ceremony and presenting her with a lovely crown.

The party was a blast and I know the kids had a wonderful time. It was crazy chaos but we loved every second of it! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!