Over the Rainbow Event with Daydream Society

When Mary Kevin, owner of Daydream Society partyware line, said she was coming through town, I knew we needed to throw a kid event! What's better for a trip to Kansas than an Over the Rainbow Dorothy party? We used their pretty pastel rainbow collection as our inspiration and ran with it. Basically, rainbows were everywhere! Major shout out to my friend Alison Moore who captured the event with her dreamy photos.

Obviously for the table settings, we used the Over the Rainbow collection. I decided to mix in the Frenchie Stripe napkins to mix it up and we matched it with a mermaid confetti pack. The rainbow cups we ended up using for the craft. I love the colors in this rainbow, plus the sparkly holographic clouds add such a fun touch.

We worked with local dessert wizards Sweet Sugarlicious and Buckingham Cakes to create rainbow sweets. Wendi made rainbows, clouds and spelled out "rainbow" with cookies that matched the tableware perfectly. The cookie pops were a crowd pleaser and Lisa put the cutest rainbows on top with sprinkle clouds. We love when the treats have a dual purpose and are great decor as well as delicious.

Kids painted wooden rainbow block stackers as their craft at the party. We stuck with washable crayola paints just in case they got extra creative. I love that it's a craft and a fun toy for them to take home and use. We now carry the wooden rainbows in the shop, ready to be decorated! Mary Kevin brought coordinating rainbow coloring sheets and setup her adorable tattoo bar. Kids were able to pick out the tattoo of their choosing from the Daydream collection. They are some of our favorite tattoos - vibrant colors and metallic accents. We loved the tattoo bar so much, we are setting up our own in the shop! Coming soon - bring the kids in for a tattoo on the spot, we are starting with the Daydream Society collection and there are great choices for kids and adults!

Photos by Alison Moore Photography

The backdrop was my favorite part. I told the shop girls I wanted to recreate the plates and they created this amazing balloon rainbow! The colors matched perfectly and the pastels made a pretty soft photo backdrop. Thanks to our friends at Kansas Dance Academy, we had the perfect Dorothy for our event. We borrowed a dress from Ballet Wichita and I loved that it had a fun twist like our event. Plus the pale blue matched the backdrop well. My little shop baby dressed as Glenda the Good Witch and rocked her adorable fairy wings and birthday crown from the shop (it's a "one" crown that I turned around). We loved seeing all the party guests in their Wizard of Oz inspired looks!

Want to throw a rainbow party of your own? Shop our Set the Party setup below! It's such a cute theme and you can take it many different directions - rainbow, Wizard of Oz, unicorn, painting/color, My Little Pony and more!

Lots of Love,

Backyard Playhouse

Why work on real house projects when you can do mini ones instead? That was our mindset this summer when we worked on Elizabeth's new playhouse. Back in May I got the urge for a fun project to distract my mind from the million things going on with work (anyone else add more on their plate to distract? Ha - maybe not the best idea). When doing a Target wander, I saw a cute little wooden playhouse back in the spring. Fast forward a few weeks and I decided we needed it. It was on sale and I figured now or never. Plus, it'd be fun to have for the summer instead of waiting until her birthday in October (and we all know she'll get plenty then from family!) Loaded up Elizabeth and off we went on our little adventure. I will link all the items at the end of the post.

KidKraft Coastal Cottage Playhouse

At our Target out West, they had a floor model, which was helpful to make sure it was what we wanted. I knew I wanted to paint it, but liked this one for the style and cute accessories. Plus it was affordable (watch for a sale!) and a good size for her. After loading up the box, we headed to Lowes to pickup our paint. I was on a mission. I picked up the cheapest outdoor white paint option and then grabbed a sample of pink paint for the door (we ended up needing a couple more sample containers because that's what Dustin ended up using on the roof after doing a coat of plastic bond spray paint). First coat went on during nap time and then I had to admit my impulse to Dustin when he got home - luckily, he's more of a sucker for Elizabeth projects than I am. He naturally took over when I went out for a meeting that night.

Naturally, summer schedules took over and we got a little behind on finishing up the playhouse, but this past weekend we finally got it out and put together. It comes as folded walls, so you screw together two sides and then add the roof and door - actually pretty simple. The balloon garland was me being over the top for photos, but when balloons are your thing, why not!

I struggled a little bit on what to put inside the little house. She already has a play kitchen in her playroom, so I decided against that (if I would have done one, Ikea has this great small one). Since it has a cute shop/stand aspect to it, I decided to play off that. I originally thought I would do a table with chairs and a side table to hold the accessories. Apparently I'm not good a dimensions in my head because obviously that was too much! Luckily, the Ikea side table I purchased was perfect by itself. I got cute glasses to make it like a little lemonade stand (Parker Palm Springs inspired of course) and then my mom ended up getting her this fun ice cream set. The lemon stools are my favorite! Perfect size and my bossy child likes to move them inside vs. the outside lemonade bar situation I was going for. To finish off the space and add a little cushion on the concrete, I found this cute striped outdoor rug from Ikea. It is longer than the house, so I folded it in half (thicker that way too). Dustin of course added his tech-y touch by adding a strip of LED color changing lights along the inside of the room - ice cream shop by day, club by night.

The big reveal was better than we hoped and little miss is officially obsessed. She would live in there if she could, and if we aren't outside she's staring out the backdoor asking to go outside. Her favorite part? Ringing the way too loud doorbell - my one complaint of this beauty - I'm sure our neighbors feel the same. We (I) wrote cute letters for her mailbox and it came with a fake phone, so naturally she has been making lots of calls. First play date was today with her little neighbor friend, and I think this early birthday present is one of the best we'll do!

Cost Breakdown:
House $299 (on sale)
Paint ~ $50 (white & samples of the pink)
Accessories ~$60

Shop this post:
Playhouse | Lemon Stools | White Plastic Table | Colorful Glassware | Metal Pots | Striped Rug | Ice Cream Set | Doormat | Lemon Napkins | Daisy Sunglasses & Hair Bow - Shop In Store at LOC | Balloon Garland - Order Here

If you come visit, we now have a guesthouse for you! You might need to bring something to sleep on though.

Lots of Love,

Oh Christmas Tree!

Decked our house with balloons and garlands! With a one year old and needing a new tree, I decided to have fun this year. In the past, we have gotten real trees, but we realized last year having to keep the house warmer for Elizabeth, the tree died rather quickly. I was researching good fake trees and found some flocked options that I liked, but after thinking about it decided to hold off for a year. EM is at the age where she gets into, pulls on and messes with everything. I figured flocked snow would be eaten, ornaments broken and messes all over. After seeing an adorable balloon tree on Instagram, I decided what a fun way to still have a tree, and try out a new concept for the shop!

After playing with some colors, we decided to mix pastels and pearly dark colors for the tree. I love the mix against my light bluish grey walls. Plus the settle pink added a fun girly touch for my little miss. We maybe like pink in this house! I think there are so many fun color possibilities with these trees. Pink Santa ended up being the perfect tree topper!

After finishing off the balloon monstrosity, I decided to keep going with our decorations. I pulled out some of my favorites from the past, and mixed in some new from the shop this year - I've been crushing our bottle brush trees since we got them in! Grabbed a few pink and love them with my paintings. Still a few of those left in the shop! Last year, I snagged some pretty faux greenery garland (since the live died quicker than the tree did) and they work great on my dresser and mantel. Stockings, I use traditional velvet stockings from my childhood - love the bell! Reminds me of Christmas Eve night hearing them get stuffed by Santa. Elizabeth got in the holiday spirit with me today for photos and rocked her adorable new Christmas bow by Avery & Grey - one of these beauties left in the shop! The red glitter candle is my favorite Volcano scent and is also available in the shop, as well as other holiday scents and containers. If you aren't quirky and crazy like me, and actually put up a real tree, make sure to check out our fun ornaments before they're all gone. We got in so many fun ones this year! Thinking I still need to do a cute tree for EM's room using some of these.

Hope your decorating is going well! What's your favorite item to get out every year?

Lots of Love,