Party Crashing - Locke's Fireman Birthday!

I love a good first birthday, especially when it involves an adorable theme. My friend, Dani, threw an incredible fireman themed birthday party for her one year old son - such a fun theme for a little boy! With help from her mom and mother-in-law, they put together amazing treats and decorations. Words cannot describe, so I am going to share the story with the pictures...

Notice the boot used as a vase - love! Fun balloons were found at Hobby Lobby.

Hanging fire fighter swirls can be found at Oriental Trading Co.

Favorite idea - Stop, Drop & Roll candy! So creative. Also, love the matches, which are pretzel sticks with red frosting on the ends. The fire hydrant cupcake holder in the corner can be purchased at Oriental Trading Co.

Seriously the cutest party favor I have ever seen! You can find them at Oriental Trading Co.

Treats turned out aMAZing and their cupcake decorating skills are top notch.

Best part of the party - they actually visited a firehouse! How adorable is this picture - framer!

Baby Locke is a great little fireman & looks adorable next to his new fire engine!
Photos via Dani and family

Thank you for sharing Dani! Your little family is adorable and you are extremely creative. This gave moms out there so many character filled ideas and you had every detail covered!

Lots of Love,

Eat with Gold

Obviously if you follow my blog, you know I love the color gold. It is rich and pops! My china has gold detailing on it, but I have been using my platinum color flatware - looks great, but I wondered if there was a gold option out there. I feel in love with the idea of gold flatware when The Plaid Giraffe started carrying the Marchesa gold flatware. I went to check out the fabulous place settings of the many brides setup on their tables and it caught my eye immediately! Um where was this when I registered - of course it came out right after. The price tag is a little steep if you are buying it all at once for yourself, but for a registry it is perfect - lucky for the recent brides! I, however, needed another option. I went on a hunt and slowly started seeing more gold flatware sets pop up. Here are my favorites at all the different price levels (all are under $100!):

1. Marchesa* 2. Anthropologie Doma 3. Anthropologie Vika Sky 4. Sur la table 5. West Elm* 6. Target
* indicates hand wash only

I love them all! It just depends on your style, shade of gold and budget. I personally went with the Target option - I loved the hammered look. I came across the flatware in my current month of HGTV magazine and was so excited I found an affordable, dish washer safe option. I ordered six place settings and I will make sure to snap some pictures of it with my china when it comes in!

Lots of Love,

Weekend Guests!

My wonderful friends Megan and Sammy Jo are here to spend the weekend with me and we are having such a good time! I was excited to have my first official guests in the new guestroom. I had to get it all ready and make sure to follow good hostess protocol. First, I made sure the room was clean - and the hall bathroom for that matter. Then I had to make sure they had towels and bathroom necessities. To brighten up the room, I stopped by the store on my way home and picked up Sam's favorite flowers. Always a nice touch. Lighting a smell good candle gives the room a nice aroma when the guests arrive. It's the simple touches that can make your guests feel special.

I like to set out a razor and a shampoo option in case they forgot!

I love gerbera daisies and this Kate Spade candle smells really good.

Funny story about towels...a couple years ago, my friends came to stay with me for a friend's wedding. I was in Omaha for a family deal when they first got there, so I told them to just make themselves at home and I would be back the next day. I get back and see Teddy's (my dog) towels hanging up in the bathroom. I was really confused as to why they would pick the grungy dog towels. They told me the other ones looked too nice to use...guests are supposed to use pretty towels! Silly girls.

To welcome my guests, we had some yummy Prosecco! Paige came over to join us as well. It was a great girls' night. I pulled out my new champagne glasses and adorable napkins I received as birthday gifts. Love a good cocktail napkin.

Glasses are from The Plaid Giraffe - they tied the fun pink bows on them since they were a birthday present! The fun, girly napkins are from Social Manor - thanks Paige!

It was a great night, and we've had a great day as well. Can't wait to hit the town with the ladies tonight! Love a good girls' weekend.

Lots of Love,

Kitchen Island Inspiration

Our open kitchen it is begging for a kitchen island! The storage is much needed (you get a lot of kitchen gadgets and appliances when you get married!) and the eating space is much wanted. I would also be nice to have a place in the kitchen where people can sit and mingle. Plus, the space to put out food would add another party setup option. I'm excited to work on the design and functionality of the island, and of course I pinned some favorite finds for inspiration...

I'm obsessed with this whole space - love the look of the island and love the lights!

I've gone back and forth between a marble like quartz and a wood block island top...love both looks!

Obviously from the inspirations, I want a white island. I love the traditional look of this island! 

I like this clean and crisp look and I love the white counter top.

This kitchen is gorgeous and I love the island look! If I could figure out how to hide my microwave in mine, that would be great.

To go with the island, I definitely want to find some fun bar stools. They are great for adding a touch of character to your kitchen if you find the right ones. At the same time, you want to make sure they are comfortable and people will enjoy sitting in them. I want people to hang out with me in the kitchen!

I dream about these fabulous Serena & Lily Riviera Stools! My Aunt Mary got the black & white bar stools from there and they are so cute in her kitchen.

If you love the look, but need a more affordable option, these bar stools from Bizchair.com (where I found the fab ghost chairs) are a good price. 

I am dying over these bar stools covered in Rifle Paper Co. fabric. That is one of my favorite brands and these colors would look amazing in my kitchen. I need to figure out how I could get some affordable bar stools to recover.

Well I will keep you all posted as I start my island design! If you find any great inspirations I might like, please share and if you know of any great places for fun lights and bar stools please share!

Lots of Love,

Paige's Birthday Dinner!

We celebrated Paige's quarter of a century birthday last night, and had a great time chatting over wine and food! I told you all that Amy and I would be fancying up the table with fun decorations and delicious cake in my Gold Balloons post. Well, Amy (aka Betty Crocker) made a not only gorgeous, but delicious torte. It made for a fabulous centerpiece. Which is good because it was a little (who are we kidding, a lot!) windy outside and the balloons would not cooperate. We had fun anyways and drank the night away at $5 Martini night. Check out all the fun:

Amy's aMAZing chocolate torte! Told you it was pretty.

Table decorations! The treat bags are from Michael's and I scored that fun marble-like paper from Home Goods in KC.

I put together the cute treat bags filled with Hershey's toffee & almond nuggets (they come in gold wrapping, so are cute for favors). I wrote on them myself with a gold paint pen and closed them with some gold sparkle washi tape - touch of fancy!

Like I said earlier, the balloons were a cluster because it ended up being extremely windy! However, they still looked cute blowing in the background!

Fun little dinner group!
Photos via me

Besides the wind blown balloons, my treat bag chocolates melting (seriously in like 10 minutes) and a wine glass getting knocked over (wind hit a menu which hit the wine glass - we hadn't even been drinking for 5 minutes! haha), it was a great evening with great friends to celebrate Miss Paige! Hope you all had a good time filled with laughter, booze and melted chocolate! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAIGE!!!

Lots of Love,

Gold Balloons

Miss Paige has her birthday tomorrow and we are having a fun dinner at one of her fav places to celebrate. I was in charge of decorations, so I decided to try a balloon design I had been wanting to do for a while. While roaming Pinterest, I found an idea to paint the bottom of a balloon with gold paint. It looked so fun and easy, I had to give it a try.

I went to Party City and purchased some white balloons with the high float helium (so they last longer)...

Then I got to work. I learned a lesson today and found a new product:
Lesson - Acrylic gold paint does not look good painted on balloons.
Favorite New Paint - Liquid Gold Leaf
I luckily already purchased the gold leaf paint for another project I am working on. Once I tried the gold paint, I knew it wasn't going to work. I started applying the gold leaf and viola! the look I was going for. It has a great shine to it and looks like a true gold. Seriously, it's my new craft staple!

While doing the project, I seriously thought it would be so fun to open up a balloon decorating business...probably wouldn't be the most profitable, but it would be fun!

Hopefully the balloons can add a pop of gold and character to our table tomorrow night! I was going for the fancy look ("I'm so fancy!") and the birthday girl better be feeling fancy. I made other cute things for the table and I can't wait to post pictures after the party to show  you all - if it turns out that is! Amy is baking a fancy torte, so you know that's going to be good! Can't wait to celebrate Paige turning another year older :)

Lots of Love,

Love Me Some Kate Spade

Today my mom and I went to Von Maur to look around at their Kate Spade accessories and were thrilled to find such fun pieces. Kate Spade is now making your parties and office spaces full of character! The items are classic, colorful and quirky all at the same time. Her little phrases on the pieces add a touch of humor and make a statement. Here are some of my favorites:

How fun are those treat bags! I want to have a party just to use those. I have also given the acrylic straws as a birthday gift because they are so fun and colorful. She has great items to set up quite the party! I'm thinking I might need to have a Kate Spade party soon...

Today, my mom had to purchase the stapler - it was so pretty for her desk! She already has an acrylic tape dispenser (which looks really cute with washi tape) and the acrylic ghost chair I got for her. For my birthday, she got me the adorable binder clips. I use them at work to make me smile (makes PowerPoints look more cheerful!) and I also use some at home as chip clips. The nesting boxes, my Aunt Mary got me and I used them on my guestroom shelves. Mine are the black, white and pink patterned boxes. I also have a 2014 planner that I have loved. I like that they have a smaller option for 2015 and I'm obsessed with that green!

All of the items in the photos were found at Lifeguard Press. Locally, we have purchased these items at Dandurand Drugs and Von Maur, plus The Plaid Giraffe has other fun home pieces and dishes. These items also make great gifts. They are perfect because they make people smile and can be things they don't want to buy for themselves. I also think the "Tickled Pink" cards would be great for baby girl thank yous or notes. I'm thinking I want a Kate Spade filled stocking this year!

PS: Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Lots of Love,

Family Fiesta!

My little brother, Mikey, has been in town this week, and we wanted to have a family dinner to celebrate! I invited everyone over to my house, so they could see the updates (and so Mikey could see the house not as the frat house he made it!). We decided on Mexican food because who doesn't love enchiladas and guac (seriously, my mom and Steve's guacamole is to die for!). I of course, had to have fun serving pieces and glasses ready for the get together. In college, my friend Dana and I threw a Cinco de Mayo party and I had found these fab Margarita glasses that looked like the ones at our favorite Mexican restaurants - you know, the kind with the green cactus stems. Those were perfect for this shindig because we made our fam favorite Margaritas. We had bartender Mikey make them for us and somehow they are now called Mike-aritas! We use tequila, triple sec, Corona Lights and frozen limeade mix - so tasty! My cousin Kelly made delicious enchiladas and we of course munched on chips all night. Overall, the night was a fabulous success and the weather was gorgeous!

Love Spider Mums for an outdoor table. The fun citronella candles came from TJ Maxx (recently, so they might have more!) and I love my pink lighter from the Target Dollar Section! 

Teddy loves a good party!

Chair cushions were also scores from TJ Maxx and Ross.

Pulled out my Oh Joy! for Target barware for the party & I love the pink flamingo sticks I found at Target in the Dollar Section. They recently changed up the Oh Joy! collection and I'm loving it!

Grandma's pies are seriously gorgeous and make for great party decoration! We had Key Lime and Chocolate - yes I had a piece of each!

Used my MacKenzie Child's and Annie Glass cake plates to hold the fabulous pies. 

Used all of my wonderful and bright MacKenzie Child's Flower Market serving pieces!

Here are my fun Marg glasses I scored at the Dollar Tree - I think they have them every once and a while.

Table turned out fun and bright - perfect for a Family Fiesta! Placemats and paper plates are from Target.

Yes you are seeing a different pitcher - we had a lot of Margaritas going on :) This pitcher is Juliska and goes with my pottery - perfect for margs!

All of the Annie Glass, Juliska and MacKenzie Child's was purchased locally at my favorite store, The Plaid Giraffe. They are having their aMAZing birthday sale next Thursday - Friday, so make sure to go check it out!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Lots of Love,